As soon as I signed in for airport standby my phone rang. Not wanting to waste my cell phone minutes for work, I didn't answer. I knew what they wanted. I had a flight.
Crew scheduling tried calling me 2 hours prior while I was at home and OFF DUTY. I had no obligation to answer the phone...and didn't. Any voicemail left while off duty doesn't constitute official contact, so I ignored it. I did check the uncovered flights and saw a 4 day trip open. I'm only good for 3 days.
I called back from a gate telephone and confirmed my assignment. A flight leaving at 2:25PM. Hmmm okay. I have 45 minutes minimum to get ready for a flight. The reason they called earlier while I was off duty was to let me know about the flight. If I knew about the flight and it left late they could point at me. No thanks. I told the agent I would do my best to get the flight out within 45 minutes. Done.
Next to me at the gate was my favorite flight attendant. She is the nicest flight attendant at my airline. She is just an awesome person in general, very motherly like.
I went down to the plane and chatted with the Captain. He was flipping through the MEL book. Not good. Thankfully just a burned out bulb for the lavatory occupied sign. I then stowed my bags I went out to do my pre-flight.
As I walked toward the right wing something didn't look right. There was paint missing on the flap fairing. A lot of paint. Like something hit the wing.
I finished the preflight and told the Captain.We both then went out and inspected the damage. Something hit it. Likely on the ground. Another call the maintenance.
No way we were leaving at 2:25....or 2:45. At 3PM we were told the mechanic estimated a 4:15PM repair time....maybe. With that news I grabbed my laptop bag and went up to the terminal....where I am now.
Once I get back on Saturday I plan on leaving with my wife that night to go to Oregon to visit my mother in law and help her get a new computer. Should be fun.
I really hope my airline starts hiring again and brings back the furloughed pilots. It's not a good thing to have zero reserves available during a normal week. There was no bad weather this week to cause delays and thus staffing issues. Normal operations. For now.....I have an hour until the next update time.
It's crazy to think that your airline is that short on pilots, with pilots laid off at the same time. Just doesn't make sense. You would think they could come up with a better means of cutting costs than laying off pilots. Like that movie you posted, the Nazi/Airline Management one, pilots are more or less the most important part of the airline, yet they're always some of the first to go. Planes don't go anywhere if there are no pilots to fly them. I don't get it...
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