So, my very first trip off of IOE; I have been "signed off," so I have checked all the boxes to be a Captain.
1 Completed Captain training (duh)
2 Competed 25 hours of Initial Operating Experience
3 Flew a "Line Check" (AE policy)
4 Flew a FAA Observation Ride
So, being based in Chicago-ORD, my very first trip would, of course, have me being sent to Dallas to fly some trip out of there. Sheesh... lol.
That went well. Had a decent FO, who has quite a bit of experience. Nothing eventful, either. Nice to be flying.
Second trip off of IOE--- I get to fly with an FO who is doing his first trip off of IOE. Talk about new guys! To top it off, we were flying to Atlanta, an airport I have only been to once, and that was about a year ago. Needless to say, my FO has not been there. OK, this might be interesting.
Went smooooth as silk. This kid (he's 23) reallly has his crap together. Yikes, I can only hope I was somewhere this competent when I was hired.. I hope I was. He was ahead of the game, had his head in the right place, and he flared a little high on touchdown, but that is ok... he only had 50 hours in the airplane, for Pete's Sake.
MY next trip was a Newark trip (we're flying a LOT of CRJ trips, because the airplane, for some reason, seems to be rather unreliable. Great.)
This time it was my FOs second trip off of IOE. I'm getting them not just new, but REALLY new. But again, I was floored; these guys can fly, and they know their stuff (I know, you would hope, but really, you're just hoping.. ;) ) Talk about a great time flying.
I think I am going to enjoy this Captain stuff.
My 3rd or 4th trip (they are starting to blend together,) I got to fly with my sim partner from training! Keith! We had to go up to Rochester, MN to pick up an airplane that someone had hit. MNTC was up there, they had already repaired the bird (so scheduling said.. HA HA HA,) and we were just ferrying it back. Piece o'cake.
So we get up there, and of course it is not fixed.
- Short note about RST. I love this station. My last trip as an FO went through RST, and my first trip as a CA went through there. The people there are great, and when Mary, one of the agents there, saw that it was me in the "Driver's seat," she bounced into the airplane and gave me a big hug to say congrats. The station is like a big family, and she even shared her birthday cake with me and my crew, because they were happy to see me in the Left Seat. That is a good station to fly into.
So I flew a trip a few days ago. Dig this-- I've been in my seat longer than anyone else that was in the airplane. Yup. I was signed off on Halloween, October 31st. I 'became' a Captain on November 1st. My FO was signed off of IOE on November 7th. My F/A was signed off of her IOE on November 12th. Yup... all of us finished training within the last 3 weeks.
There has to be something not quite legal about that. They were a really good crew, though. We had a great time, and I finally got to buy my crew a beer at the overnight. And then it was happy hour, so we had a free one after that (I treated that... lol.)
I also flew some overtime out of DFW. We can pick up OT out of base, as long as we get ourselves too and from the trip. First trip - Monroe, Louisiana. The weather was decent when we left, but there was bad weather moving in that we didn't know about. So we got stuck in MLU for a couple of hours. The restaurant has shrimp etouffee on special, but of course, I had eaten earlier, and could not take advantage of it... grrrr... in Loosana, and a full tummy so can't eat the good grub... :( Boo me.
So this extended our flight till late late. I still had to get to Cincinatti and back to Dallas before I could head home. Well, I was not even close to making my trip home, so I got to spend the night in a non-reclining recliner in the crew lounge. Oh, the joys... lol.
But it was worth it for the $$. Seriously....
So back to flying for now, and the Reserve lifestyle.
Cheers!
Scott
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