Eeeew that smell!

Four leg day today. Seven hours of flying.

The day started with a 6AM van. We actually pulled away from the hotel at 5:55AM as we were all down early.

First two legs were mine.

Some stations we have to clear TSA, some we don't. All up to the local TSA. This airport we didn't have to...but we didn't know we didn't have to. Turned out to be an issue.

We were all at the gate at 6:20AM...no agent. Departure was 6:55AM. We waited.

An off duty agent was there dropping off her mom to nonrev. She let us through the security door leading to the jet bridge after verifying we were indeed the crew at 6:30AM.

Agents don't realize the Flight Attendants have a preflight just like the pilots. The agent arrived at 6:35AM ready to board. Umm no....not ready.

If we had bypassed security and gone through our airline ticket counter we would have gone straight to the plane and been on board at 6:20AM. Oh well..we departed on time anyway.

The flight was blocked for an hour and twenty minutes. Minor MEL with one of the engine driven generators off line. We just had to run the APU the entire flight. No biggie.

About 20 minutes to landing one of the EICAS screens went blank. My Captain and I were chit chatting when he said, "Umm that's not good."

I adjusted the reo-stat and it came back up. Then a moment later it went out again.

"Hey you smell something?" I asked.

"No...wait...yep...electrical burning smell." replied my Captain.

On went the oxygen mask and I ran a few checklist.

We were certain it was just the CRT for the EICAS failing, but no chances were taken. No smoke, just fumes.

They cleared in about 10 minutes.

The checklist required the Pilot Monitoring, in this case the Captain, to switch his MFD to EICAS so we would have the normal EICAS screen to read.

No biggie except I am used to looking slightly left during the approach to check the screen for power settings, flaps and such. I just had to look further left.

Normal landing. We were happy to switch planes for the next flight.

Normal takeoff for the next leg. We had an alternate due to weather. Two hours later were were cleeared to the FAF. I was a bit high as I was avoiding some weather. Visual approach.

I could tell I was going to be high approaching the FAF...also doing about 220 knots.

Out went the first setting of flaps and the flight spoilers. Off went the autopilot.

About a mile from the FAF I called for the gear. I crossed the FAF and turned final about 500 feet high and 180 knots.

Spoilers stowed, engines idled I called for the remaining flaps.

By 500 feet AGL I was right on approach speed. Decent landing.

Hungry. Scoured the airport for food. Nothing looked good. I reverted to my Go Picnic meal.

Two hours later we were back in base....twenty minutes early.

Departed 9 minutes early.

When I called VR my Captain rotated the nose but the plane seemed to struggle a bit. Hot weather in effect. A moment later we were airborne.

More weather to navigate.

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In cruise we discussed the takeoff issue. We suspected the bags were heavier than estimated.

I fly an RJ...the overhead bins aren't full size. Carry on bags are assumed to be an average weight. Bags checked at the ticket counter are actually weighed.

Normal landing at the overnight. Seven hours of flying done. Tired.

My last overnight on the beach for the month. Tomorrow is just 3 legs. Done by noon.

I like having time to blog on the road... definitely more information filled blogs as I remember more. Will try to do it more in the future.