Never make plans....

I had plans to go out with my wife tonight. This morning it was looking like I wasn't going to make it. Then it looked like I would. Then it looked bad again.

I signed in for my flight at 10:45AM. I met the Captain in the crew room. The last time I flew with him was almost a year ago. Really nice guy.

Deciding who flies the first leg of a trip is up to the Captain. Most don't care. This Captain had an interesting way of deciding. On the PFD in the CRJ there is a little arrow the points to the pilot flying. This arrow is more than just an arrow, but for this discussion...just points to who is flying. The arrow is controlled via a XFR button on the Flight Control Panel. He pushed the button on and off and told me to tell him when to stop. When I did it was pointing my way. My leg. Cool.

The climb out was normal for the first part. Somewhere around FL280 our conversation about Craps was disturbed by a single chime and a flashing yellow light....Master Caution. The ED1 screen had a yellow PROX SYS CHAN caution. Before I could even reach for my checklist, ED2 filled up with 5 status messages covering left and right FADEC computers, left thrust reverser and a calibrated airspeed system problem. Yowzers.

I handed the plane over to the Captain and started with the  PROX SYS CHAN caution checklist. After that checklist I ran the others. Thankfully all of the other checklist were "no action required". With all of these issues I might mis-connect to my overnight and make the party with my wife.

The rest of the flight went normally. We discussed the left thrust reversers system and I would use extra caution during landing. Thankfully they both worked normally.

Once in the gate it started. It being miscommunication. After an hour a contract mechanic (my airline doesn't have a maintenance base here) showed up. The crew scattered for food. After another hour things were looking okay. During the 3rd hour we were told it would be another 4 hours. My contract states any delays over 5 hours at an outstation means the crew gets a hotel. Off we went.

An hour after arriving at the hotel we were called back to go move the plane. Someone called me earlier and told me they needed the plane moved. When we left the plane we told the mechanic we were leaving. He said he would work on the plane at the hangar. One would think he would tell us he needed the plane moved. He just told us bye and we left. Nice. So the Captain and went back to the airport and taxied the plane to the contract hangar. Once we parked, the personnel who are authorized to move the plane arrived. Nice timing.

As is we are staying overnight and will ferry the plane back in the morning. Once we get back there is nothing else yet assigned to me. Hopefully I will be released. Crazy day.