New skills

It's been a while since I've posted. Been really busy lately.

On days that I'm not working I've been home preparing to sell my house. Lots of little things to do. It's amazing the skills I've learned by being a homeowner. For example this weekend I learned how to dig up, cut and replace a section of PVC pipe in our sprinkler system. For whatever reason after 9 years a section cracked. Not hard...but not something I thought I would be doing.

Needless to say, not a whole lot of time to blog. Until now.

On day 3 of 4. Day one was rough as it was 3 legs to a reduced rest (8 hours 30 minutes!!!!) overnight in a different time zone.

I don't like reduced rest overnights. I've stood on this soap box a few times...but for those who are new to this term. Here's how it went down.

We arrived on time at 9:25PM. By 9:40PM we were outside waiting on the hotel van. Our "rest" started at 9:40PM.

We arrived at the hotel at 9:55PM. Hotel room by 10:02PM. I went to bed right away but fell asleep around 11:10PM. Crew members aren't robots, we can't just fall asleep right away. This is hard to adjust to especially when dealing with time zones.

My alarm went off at 5:10AM. Downstairs for a quick breakfast at 5:45AM and in the van at 6AM. All that was "rest".

We pushed out of the gate at 6:55 AM. Four hours of flying later I was at my next overnight.

I was due for compensatory rest since I was cut short the night before. The second overnight was 18 hours long at a Double Tree.

Normally Double Trees are nice. This one was nice, but REALLY OLD. The walls were very thin. There was a young woman staying next to me. I could hear every word she said and she was talking in a normal voice.

Day 3 started interestingly enough. About 10 minutes into the flight my Flight Attendant called up stating she wasn't feeling well. She was okay at the moment but was certain she would be calling in sick when we arrived.

I only had one Flight Attendant on board. There have been times when the Flight Attendant has had a medical problem and a passenger has called the Flight Deck to report it.

We checked on her a few times through the flight by calling back. She made it fine.

Quick turn was delayed as we waited for a reserve Flight Attendant.

While boarding for leg three I felt a tap on my shoulder and then heard, "Hey I was hoping you'd be my pilot today."

It was a friend of mine. Pretty low odds of him being on my flight as he bought his ticket last minute and had no idea I was flying. I happened to trade into this trip last week. Pretty neat though.

Once back in base my Captain left. He has vacation tomorrow. I also got a new reserve Flight Attendant. Musical crew members in effect.

Quick flight to the overnight.

I went out with my crew for dinner. It was the first time for me to go out with my crew in a while. Nice change. The Flight Attendant is a new hire. It's fun and refreshing to hear the stories and questions from someone new to the career.

Tomorrow is a 3 legger with a two hour sit after the first.

Next month I got 4 day trips again. I still can't hold 3 days like I used to. It's not a bad month as I have the same trip all month.

Monday thru Thursdays with a 5:40PM report time and I finish at 2PM. It's almost like a 3 day trip as I have Mondays mostly off.

I do have a week of vacation next month as well. Should be fun.

As far as my seniority. I have 1/3 of the pilot group "under me" and 2/3rds above me. I hope to get awarded Captain late this year, but likely won't sit in the seat until early next year.

Updates might be spotty for a while as I move out of one house and into a new one.

Here's a photo of the new house. It's a two story that looks like a one story...we like the understated look.