Saturday, June 27, 2009

Should have stayed asleep

Good ol' morning airport standby. I woke up at 4:45AM...just like I did yesterday. Somehow I was pulling out of the garage at 5:01AM....14 minutes earlier than yesterday. By 5:17AM I was walking toward the employee bus stop. For whatever reason the bus driver waited a long time to leave my stop. Normally it's a 10 minute affair. Today it was 20 minutes. No time saved. Didn't matter... early either way.

After signing in I went straight to the quiet room. As soon as I opened the door I heard my name. A buddy of mine who went to ATP with me and got hired at my airline just after me, was sitting airport standby as well. He just had his first baby and likes morning airport standby as he can get some sleep. Nice. A few minutes later another pilot entered the quiet room as well.

I slipped on my headphones, placed my cell phone between the buttons on my chest and fired up my Zune to a new podcast series I like (all from www.twit.tv) and went to sleep. Around 6:30AM I heard a cell phone go off...not mine. It was my buddy. He was being called out. About 30 seconds after he hung up....another cell phone rang. Apparently the second guy who entered the room was a Captain....they would be flying together. Once they were gone I slept for a good three hours.

I woke up around 9:15AM. I figured I would grab a coffee and spend the next 5 hours meandering around the net. I took a seat in the crewroom next to a Captain I know. She was sitting morning airport standby as well. No Internet access. The crewroom is located in the bowels of the airport. The wireless signal from the terminal is very weak and hard to get. There is always an open "Linksys" router in the crewroom. The only time it is connected to the Internet is when the Chief Pilot's office is open. They were not in today.

While packing up the Captain I knew let me in on a rumor I heard last night via a crew message board. The rumor I heard was more displacements were coming from MY base. The rumor I heard this morning was more displacements are coming indeed...but from a different....more senior base. Ugh. I was hoping good times were ahead, but I noticed several instructors from the training center are being sent back to the line next month. With instructors flying the planes...there will be none available for teaching. So much for a turn around anytime soon.

After hearing all the "good news", I headed over to a coffee shop that offers free refills. I will guzzle a cup or three and then head over to an underused portion of the airport to waste away the remaining airport standby sit.

Don't think I am flying anywhere today. Maybe tomorrow.

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