Food Werx, Vol 2 - butter

So, I have been reading a great deal on nutrition, exercise, endocrinology, plate tectonics, physiology, etc, over the past year or so...

As evidenced by Vol 1, I am trying to make some things at home. We are digging around the back yard, so we can have a good selection of veggies from now on. We're going to plant peppers, zucchini, asparagus, basically, anything that tastes good.

But I am also having fun at home making things from scratch.

Nicole and I both love to cook, so why not?

There will be a blog post coming soon about the health value in milk, both the pros and cons. But in the meantime, we have a good supplier nearby of raw milk, and it is utterly delicious! (like I could resist that!) Nicole thought it tasted a little strange, but it is milk even more the way that I remember it.

So, with that, I decided to have some fun, hence this post. :)

So, I tried my hand at making butter. It is ridiculously easy. I skimmed the heavy cream off the top of our milk (Who here is old enough to remember milk being delivered in bottles to your house, raise your hands!)

Here is a good picture of the milk separated.

This is the way to actually make SKIM milk. It was called that because all the milk fat was 'skimmed' off of the top of the milk once the cream had settled to the top. It is really 'skimmed milk.'

an aside--A problem that I will discuss in my post on milk, is that modern skim milk is mostly made from powdered milk, especially with the big manufacturers. Powdered milk has oxidized cholesterol in it, and oxidization is something we really need to prevent in our bodies.

I set it aside so it could get closer to room temperature; some websites say to do that, others say to simply start with cold cream, you just need to agitate it longer.

So I poured the top cream into a jar with a lid, and then started shaking it. Pretty vigorously, too, at least at the start.

After about 8-10 minutes, I had non-sweetened whipped cream. I could feel the difference in the jar in the way it was no longer sloshing about. I continued shaking the jar, occasionally hitting it against my opposite hand, to loosen the more solider mass inside.

After another 10 minutes or so of this, I had a ball forming inside, and I could feel in the shaking that the liquid had separated, so now I just needed to finish it off, almost there.

20 minutes from when I started, I had it. Butter. Sweet cream butter. The leftover milk is buttermilk, perfect for pancakes, etc... mmmmmm.....

Is it better? It is very light and smooth, and it has all the milk fat that it should. We'll see how it goes.

The real judges will be Thomas and Nicole. It was quick and simple. There is no real reason to do it yourself, except just simply to do it yourself.

Enjoy!!

MMmmmm... Food Werx Vol. 1

Hi all! (all both of you!)

So, I had been thinking about nutritional profiles (see, it's not all about flying anymore!) and peanuts.

Peanuts, properly, are legumes, like beans, etc. Somewhere in here I am sure is part of the source for peanut allergies that are not nut allergies in general, but since I am behind in my reading and have not yet got to that chapter, I will leave off that for now.

So, I rather like the nutrition of cashews versus peanuts, especially the Vitamin K in cashews. So, since I love peanut butter, why not try to make my own cashew butter? I happened to buy some cashews for munching, and I was not out of them yet!

So, I read up a little bit, and found that a good first step is to 'dry roast' the cashews. This can be accomplished a couple of different ways at home, but the simplest is to toss them into a pan and heat them

up, so that they release their oils more freely. Easy way to tell, is the rom starts smelling like roasted nuts. Simple, eh? On the right is a photo of the action--

I did not have a large bunch of nuts to start with, though. Most of what I had read said that they will reduce in volume by about 75%, so you need to start with a fairly large amount. The

problem that you would run into is that there is not enough oil for them to start sticking together once they are blended, so mostly you would

have powdered nuts. I am sure there is a critical point for that, and I am also sure I was below it in volume!

So, with the smell of roasted cashews

filling the kitchen, I popped them into my trusty (and almost 20 year old) blender. They did not take up a great deal of room, and I was pretty sure that was a bad sign.

So I blended... and blended... and finally, I had a fine cashew-y powder. Ok, that was not great, but maybe I could still make it into something. That is when I remembered about there not being enough oil for them to coagulate into 'butter.' Well, what better to use, then butter? I spooned about 1/4 Tablespoon of butter in, and it all came together nicely. Not the best, but still, it was better than trying to spread cashew powder into a sandwich!

Results--

This was the cashew butter right as it came out of the blender. A little grainy, but I think if I used a real food processor, I could get rid of most of the grainy-ness, and I certainly want to incorporate more 'chunks' of cashews, so I will reserve some crushed pieces to add in after the pureeing.

Here is the final result from volume. The jar at the left was about 3/4 full of cashews, and that tiny amount is what they made. I knew it would reduce, but come on!!

So, I've already eaten all of it, and I will just have to try again!

Next up-- Make my own yogurt! (most likely from our raw milk source, the people at Golden Guernsey Dairy. Mmmmmm.... raw milk is good!)

oh, expect a longish rant on our fine state not allowing raw milk producers to advertise (see, I told you it wouldn't be all about flying!)

Cheers!

Scott

Thoughts

Hi All!

So, I am thinking of expanding the blog beyond aviation, etc. I have spent quite a bit of time reading some health blogs, and then going to the sources and reading the original materiel. A few people have asked me questions about some of this, and I am thinking of taking this well beyond aviation, into other areas I am interested in.

I'd include links that I thought were interesting, video, etc....

I guess I am interested in too many things, so I need to expand! (everything but my waistline!)

Cheerio!

Scott

Vacancy/Displacement

To answer some questions,

A friend of mine needed a laymen's explanation for what this 'bid' thing is.

We 'bid' for our positions as pilots based on our seniority, from date of hire. Generally, in order of preference, you want;

Seat (Captain or First Officer)

Domicile (City your flying is based out of)

Equipment (Which airplane you fly. Only 1 at a time (i.e. 737, DC-10))

Your Domicile can govern which equipment you fly. Chicago (ORD) for Eagle has 2 'types' of aircraft, one made by Bombardier, the CRJ-700, and the one that I fly, made by Embraer, Of which there are 3 variations, that one has the prettiest picture. (The variations are mostly # of seats. They all fly the same (bwaahahahahha.... kof kof... sorry... pilot joke.)

It takes a good two months of training to get checked out on another place, so usually, once you are in a specific aircraft, you do not trade around too often. They even make sure there is little incentive to do that, placing limits on how often we can change, making it 'non-reversible' (such as pilots who have transitioned to the CRJ cannot (with a few exceptions) go to the EMB,) and in the case of First Officers (FOs,) not increasing their pay with a different, larger aircraft.

Domicile does get tricky. They have shifted the CRJs around the system a few times, but generally they have been at DFW or ORD. Now we have them on the East Coast, too. But, if you want to fly it, there is no domicile (or base) in LAX, so anyone there would have to commute.

Seat, of course, is the big thing. Captain is where it is at. Pay is quite a bit more (there is an old saw about FOs getting paid for what they do, CAs getting paid for what they know.) The CA sets the tone of the trip, from start to finish. As an FO, you are constantly wondering "Who is the asshole that I am stuck flying with?" As a CA, you're the asshole! If you are outside aviation, it is really difficult to stress how the 'vibe' that a CA has on the flight deck effects simple things, like just the pleasure of our job. We have an awesome (full of awe) job (every seat is a window seat, Miami in winter, Ottawa in June, etc) and simply flying with a decent CA makes life nice. Flying with a real tool of a CA can make your life miserable, and we have a number of pilots that FOs simply refuse to fly with, mostly because they are not personable (I'm being charitable) in the cockpit.

There are trade-offs in here. In my own instance, I could have taken the upgrade to CA a few months earlier, but I would have had to commute to be based out of LaGuardia, because that was the only place open at the time for lowest seniority CAs. I traded the wild increase in $$ for better scheduling (based on my seniority as an FO,) and not having to fly to f-ing LGA every time I had to go to work. Not what I wanted to be doing with a new son.

Of course, some people commute nearly their entire careers. This is the airline/aviation world that we live in. I have friends who, for instance, 'commute' from all over California to ORD to fly. ORD is a lower seniority base, the scheduling makes life easier on them. It can actually be easier (I know people who do this, too,) to commute from Orlando to Chicago, rather than Miami. The schedules might be really bad for commuting in another city that is closer, so you fly further to make your life easier.

At any rate, there are surely dozens of ins and outs with regards to scheduling/domicile/equip, what the heck is a Vac/Disp bid?

Vacancy (open positions in Seat/Domicile/Equip)/Displacement (reducing other positions)

Vacancy

Every month or so, the company offers up a vacancy bid, saying "X number of seats are open for bid in position/base." So it would read something like "25 OCE START/XFR 12MAY12," Which you would read as 25 Chicago (ORD) Captain Embraer positions open, start training or transfer from current domicile date of 12 May 2012. There are a few ways they can make it look, but that is the basics.

Displacement

This is when they are reducing flying or even eliminating positions. Sometimes they enter a market and then decide it was not a good fit, so they change the pilot requirements for that base, etc. This comes in the same format, really. The only problem, is that this is a union job, and you are entitled to displace someone junior to you on the seniority list out of their equipment OR base OR seat, if you are senior to that person and they are the bottom of their list. That's just how it goes. Every system has it's +s and -s...

Eagle is reducing flying, actually, eliminating and entire aircraft from the fleet. The venerable ATR, which has been the workhorse of the Caribbean, Miami, and lately Dallas, is being retired as step #1 of our reductions because of the Nov 30th Chapter 11 filing.

So, the pilots (and F/As are going through the same thing, but they are cross-trained on equipment, so they lose the 'equipment' part of the above part of the post, but not the rest) who fly the ATR are getting dropped into the system, so to speak. They are allowed to basically 're-bid' their positions based upon the fact that what they are now flying is being eliminated. So, some people will elect to go to same seat/different base, different airplane; some will pick going back to FO but staying at the same base (if they have more than 1 airplane type there, which Miami and Dallas do have, but San Juan does not,) and a few other combinations. Because they are shutting down an entire fleet, it is a bit like trying to shove all 18 ozs of a porterhouse steak into your mouth and chew. It is a BIG movement. Lots of people going lots of places, and it will take quite a bit of time to get it all 'digested.'

In addition to that, there are quite a few pilots who have recently upgraded to CA, but will now be knocked back to FO, because more senior CAs will be 'bumping in' above them on their domicile/equipment list. For instance, a CA flying the ATR in San Juan is going to lose that position (no more San Juan base,) so elects to come to ORD as a CA on the EMB. If there is 'no room' (no openings) for him, that does not mean that he cannot bump in, that just means that he will be slotted in based on his seniority and the bottom guy on the list will be bumped back to FO, or to another base.

Eventually, we run out of positions and bases, and that is when furloughs start. After 9/11, if I remember right, I think we layed off 600+ pilots. I know it got very uncomfortably close to me. I was probably within 10 people of 'the street,' as we were laying off in blocks of 100 or so. I know people who were furloughed, then recalled, then furloughed again! (Hi Kim!) Then recalled again, eventually, too.

For the senior FOs, it means their time to Captain is increased (lower pay for longer, but better schedules, for now... plus, they don't get to log PIC (Pilot In Command, or Captain) time. This makes you quite a bit more 'marketable' in the airline world. Captain, after all is God and Goat, and PIC time is the most important flying time as a hiring quantity. 1000 hours of PIC time is the magic number. Doors open for you a little bit easier. OF course, it helps if airlines are hiring, which they are not really doing in any great numbers right now.

For the middle FOs on the list, it means their schedules may get marginally crappier, might lose partial 'Gregorian Calendar' weekends off (airline lingo-- 'weekend' is whatever days your days off fall on. We work in an industry that runs 24/7/365. My 'weekend' has been Tues/Wed sometimes,) or maybe even displaced.

For the bottom FOs, it could mean furlough, being layed off. It most likely will mean that, although not yet. Time will tell.

The Vac/Disp bid (now you know what that means!) was 'run' yesterday and today, and published tonight (well, last night, since it is 0122.) According to an email that I got yesterday, this is the second largest bid Eagle has ever run, second only to the displacement bid after 9/11. You could say this is a Big Deal. It is very disruptive for and to our lives. For 2 years after 9/11, I was displaced first out of ORD and the EMB to BOS and the Saab. Then to New York. Then to Dallas. I transferred to LAX, but that lasted exactly a week (commuting thousands of miles to be #3 from the bottom is a crap sandwich,) back to DFW, and then finally back to ORD.

The whole thing sucks. We have pilots who are perfectly qualified who are losing their positions at the company, positions they have waited on and trained for. Yes, I know it's a bitch all over, but ya see, when we go to another airline (first, they have to be hiring,) you start all over at day #1. Joe the New Guy. Even if you are Direct Entry Captain (hired right into being an asshole,) you are bottom of that respective pay list, and FOs who upgrade who were hired before you get slotted in ahead of you until your seniority catches up. Scheduling will suck for the forseable future. Pay will, too, unless you are very lucky.

As a Captain, the pay is substantially greater. They have not mentioned pay cuts, yet. So, imagine this... Getting moved from CA to FO (only 2 feet, but wow!) will probably (if there are pay cuts,) be about a 65% pay cut (when you factor in OT, etc..) Ouch.

That is the gist of it.

Seniority-wise, for right now, It looks like things are ok for me, but the have not yet announced the plan for aircraft allocation post-Chapter 11 yet. Things could get interesting, and not in the 'I just found that wine is a great hangover cure' way.

So far, I'm still the asshole I'm flying with.

Cheers!

Scott

Not Redacted Yet

Hi gang!

Well, I am not anonymous redacted yet. Still more to come in that department.

But here are some interesting things.

I got stuck in London on my way back from Brussels, and had to stay the night.

These seem to be things that might happen all over the world, but really seem to concentrate in London.

I came through immigration with a Gambain woman and her friend (also from Gambia) who were returning to London for their last year of medical school. I've never been to Gambia. I never thought about going to Gambia. These 2 were a hoot! Suddenly vaulted the country onto the map of places I want to visit (my map looks like a globe. I think it is only missing N Korea and Perth Amboy.)

At baggage claim I met a Finn and his Egyptian girlfriend. They met in London a few years ago, and were coming back from visiting his family over the New Year.

At the hotel bar, I helped the Brit bartender and her Indian coworker defend British Ale against a small group of Italians drinking Peroni (British beer v. Italian beer.)

Now, this all might happen at random times, but for this all in the space of a few hours on a single evening, it sounds like London to me!

So the whole reason I went to Brussels, was to go to an "open interview" roadshow type meeting for Qatar Airways. I was to find that they no longer take applications directly at roadshows, but I got some great face time with the HR bunch, and learned a lot about where they have been and where they want to go as a company. I also learned that I fit the profile of who they want to hire into the 777 and 787. They don't get a high percentage of high time applicants, most are in the 1000 hour range (I have just shy of 10K, 1200 is PIC Jet.) I would be the guy they want in the big 'uns. Of course, they make fleet assignments based upon need, and I could just as easily end up in the A320... or the A330, for that matter.

But as my friend George (who is already flying there) told me :"Brother, you're going to be trading Detroit, Peoria, Omaha, and Buffalo, for Shanghai, Moscow, Dar Es Salaam, and Nairobi."

Most of you know that AMR (parent company for AA and AE) declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the end of November. Mostly, we are pretty sure, they have made it plain that the reason they have done so is to get out from under their pension obligations. That is a story for another post.

But that leaves those of us who are employees with many many questions.

Did the time I have given to this company go to waste? (5 years, 40 years, whatever.)

What if we are weakened as an employee group by this? ("What doesn't kill me makes me stronger." -- Right. Tell me that after losing 3 limbs. Let's face it... physically, you are not as strong as you were before. OF course, mentally, you might be 100 times stronger, but we're talking about paychecks here.) We could all have our jobs, but take a 25% pay cut? Close a few bases, displace a few people... It has all happened before, this is nothing new.

Delta went into BK 11, and emerged as an international powerhouse. United went in, and we still don't know where they are going to end up. Could go either way.

So what about the red-headed stepchild that is my end of the airline?

Well, we don't know.

The fleet allocation for the near future has to be presented to the Court in a week or so. I don't know the date, and it doesn't matter for this.

If they are cutting back, Eagle will most likely have to cut back.

If they cut back as far as some consulting agencies say they need to, it'll be mass pandemonium. I have heard everything up to parking all the ATRs (in progress right now,) then park the 135s (smallest RJ,) 140s (2nd smallest,) 1/2 the 145s (my plane,) and put the CRJs onto AAs payroll. This would make 9/11 look like a picnic, Eagle-wise. I think we furloughed about 700 pilots after 9/11. Might be closer to 500.. something like that. If they do the above 'worst case' scenario, our 3100 pilots would shrink to 1100, maybe less.

I guess you could call it a bloodbath, as long as you are speaking figuratively. Either way, it would be a nightmare, career-wise.

So, why not opt out for a bit?

Qatar Airways is hiring directly into the Boeing 777. Also, the A320 and A330. They are planning classes for the A350 and B787. Starting pay is very (very) nice compared to what we make as new hires anywhere in the USA. Actually, it is nice compared to anything that is made here.

Of course, it is a different world over there. Qatar is another country, they have their own laws, and ways of life.

Could be quite the adventure.

There are many more things to think about, but we've already taken the first step. Let's see where it leads.

Cheers.

Posting again...

Hey All!

So I have been trying to find ways to post about what is going on at our company. To be honest, I can't find a way to write what I want to say without exposing myself to legal work! (Seriously... we get company emails about this all the time.)

Suffice it to say, that no matter how bad my job gets, I want to keep my job. And my job is not that bad!

Interesting things are a-foot. Many changes are coming.

So, I will be posting from another blog anonymously, and heavily edited. I may call the new blog "Redacted."

Cheers!

Scott

Whoops... long delay...

Hi All!

So I was planning on posting a number of messages, "A day in the life of a pilot," things, like that, and I kind of got sidetracked by life. Can't believe it is already the end of February!

Lots of cool things happening, and possibly some uncool ones (such as divesting the company, or selling or spinning us off,) not to mention sailing season is right around the corner.

More updates coming soon, especially since I'll be on vacation and I can sit and type for a bit.

Cheers!

Scott

"Interesting Encounters" v. 2

So, I am on a break between flights, and I walk 'briskly' from our gate (roughly G18, or the end of the known universe) down to the Bagel joint at the base of the concourse. As I am walking, I notice a man whose dress (this is at 0630, in the spring,) could best be described as "Mid season Huggy Bear." (See image at right.)

Except, with a fur coat. (??)

So I continue on my merry way. As I am walking back to the flight, I am somewhat behind a gal walking through the concourse. I am maybe 15 steps behind her. She is in a college grey sweatshirt and jeans. She has curves. She's not fat... she just has curves.

Mr Huggy Bear is walking towards us. As he passes the girl in front of me, he raises his right hand to the brim of his hat, and says "Lady..." as he walks by, and bends the brim a smidge.

Then as he continues past her, he turns his entire upper body to watch her derriere go past. He slows his walk a bit to admire her walk, and then as he straightens up to walk forward again, he sees me, just a few steps away. He says, in his best Isaac Hayes voice;

"That.... was fiiiine."

I love the airport....

File this under "Interesting Encounters."

One of the great things about my job, is the people that you meet, the friendships that you make, and what we get to see on a daily basis.

Aaahhh... the people that we meet. Not just coworkers... So I have a few stories here.

This is 2 stories in 1, but they dovetail together nicely...

So I am in Cleveland. We have landed a little bit early, since the weather is nice, and I went to the gate to check for trip trades, etc. (This is really common... if your schedule is at the mercy of someone else, you will really find ways to make your life better, even if it means swapping all of your flying around, so that it works better for you, your family, it is worth more for the same amount of time of being gone, etc...) As I was coming back down the jetbridge, There was a little back-up getting on the plane. There were 2 young ladies getting on the flight; big backpacks, etc. I chatted them up (hard to imagine me doing that!) As it turns out, they are college girls, but they are on their way to Lebanon (if I remember right,) to do some charity work there as missionaries. They work using art with handicapped children. How cool is that? They get physically and mentally handicapped children to express what they are thinking through painting and sculpture, and they use that as part of their therapy. This is just cool stuff all around.

So they were talking about the airplane, and how smallll it is, etc, and I invited them to come up and visit before we left, in the flight deck. (Ours is small, after all. Not really a flight deck, per se... more like a flight step.

So they came up, and got a kick out of how complicated everything is, and all the pretty colors, etc, but it was a fun visit.

When we got into Chicago, they were in the terminal as we exited the airplane, so we started chatting again. They had decided, when they were going to travel, that they wanted to make more of an adventure of the trip, so they had read some travel books together, and they did find one thing that they wanted to do.

Here we go to part 2---

I had to fly through DFW a few weeks later. I was "Deadheading," which means I was just being moved from DFW to ORD so that I could get back after being stuck somewhere. I stopped at Mickey D's on my way down, and on the jetbridge, the lady in front of me also had stopped at the same place (most likely... highly unlikely she was carrying her french fries all the way from off the airport...)

We exchanged pleasantries, and then we were boarding. As I got to my row, and my seat, the gal from the jetbridge was sitting in the window seat, and I had the aisle seat.

• Just so you know, that has NEVER happened, in 22 years of airline work. I've gone down hundreds of jetbridges, taken hundreds (literally, no joke) of flights as a passenger, and I have never ended up next to the person I was chatting with on the jetbridge.

So, I sat down, and we continued chatting about McDonald's, etc. I asked her if she wanted to have a little fun, and she said "sure!," so I raised my voice to 'slightly obnoxious' level, and stated "Oh, I see you also ordered your McDonald's through American Airline's website. Isn't that great! What great service, and a great idea." We had a good 20 or so people looking at us, and I kind of wonder how many tried to find that link.

We had a good flight to ORD. Believe it or not, I don't talk the ears off of the person next to me when we fly. Many many of our fellow passengers are on business, and the last thing they want when they need a nap is someone blabbing on and on and on. She wanted to chat, so I am usually up for that (also hard to believe!)

So, come to find out--- We grew up about 6 blocks from each other. She was on the other side of Hometown, in Oak Lawn. I went to Catholic school, she went to public schools. We knew a bunch of the same people, and, of course, all the same locations, etc.. etc...

She had an amazing story. She had been hit by a car at an intersection, flown through the air, and landed on her head. She had extensive brain trauma, some of which she was/is still coping with. She was in Northwestern Memorial at the same time that I was there for my little problem 3 years ago. She was flying home from Dallas, where a company had finally taken a chance on her, and she was loving being back at work (you don't know what you've got till it's gone...) She was down there for training, and was headed home. She still suffered some problems, but she was coping well. The rest of her life was not, though.

She had finally realized that she was not living her dreams... nearly dying can focus that for you pretty well. We talked about that, and I tried to encourage her to seek some of those out; Not totally throw her life into the trash heap and start over, but find the things that motivated her the most, the she loved doing the most, and find ways to bring those closer into her life. Because... I am lucky enough to be living my dream.

Here is where they come together...

So I am talking with these 2 girls in the airport in Chicago, and they tell me that they wanted me to be the first for something for them. So they tell me that in one of the books that they had read, this man who was traveling the world, had a pouch of dominoes, that he had written sayings upon, and he was randomly giving them out to people that he met, but had impacted his travels. So these 2 wanted me to be the first person who got a domino.

I was floored... How very cool!

So they opened up the pouch, and I pulled out a domino. On it, it said "Live Your Dreams." I remember thinking how great that was, because I am living my dreams! So, we parted ways, and they went to the Middle East, and hopefully they had a great adventure....

So I am sitting next to this girl on this flight from DFW... and she is talking about how she has wanted to try to live her dreams, and maybe now she finally can, and I realize----

I still have the domino in my jacket pocket.

... And I realize something else....

I tell her (her name is Andrea,) that I have some thing for her. I tell her the story of meeting these 2 girls on the jetbridge, etc, and everything else. When I get to the part of taking the domino out, I pull the domino out of my jacket, and show it to her. She reads it out loud "Live Your Dreams." She smiles at me, and I said "Andrea, this was not for me. I am living my dreams... there are no coincidences. I picked this domino, because I am supposed to give it to you. I am just the currier. This was meant for you." And I handed her the domino. When we got off the airplane, she said that is probably one of the nicest things anyone had ever given her. I told her I hope she gets many more and nicer things, but she has a little reminder that maybe she should be living her dreams, at least a little bit.

I hope she is living her dreams... even just a little.

New Hires, and new flying

This is interesting....

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.

The Mechanics had ordered some pizzas, so that was good. They shared with us (like I said, it is a good station.) The funny part, was Keith asking if it was always like 'this.' How do you explain that? The food? the deadheading to pick up airplanes? The fun agents? Maintenance? Scheduling? Yes, it is always like that, and sometimes it is never like that. What the heck else to say? lol.

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

Second half of IOE, and more!

So I continue on my journey...

(btw, sorry for the long breaks here...)

My second round of IOE was with Tom Tanzola. Tom was probably the 2nd person I met when I was a newhire FO, in "Indoc." He was transitioning to Captain, from the BizEx buyout. So it was good to be flying with him, too. (Aside from the fact that I have a few thousand hours more in the airplane than he does.. ;) )

After what happened with Conn, the first thing he said to me was that he had "all his hockey gear with him, ready to go." I was not sure if he was kidding or not. I still do not know.

We had a great time flying, but the end of his sequence did not line up with when I could fly with a Fed observer, so they had to break me off the sequence, and I flew with another CA for that. Then, I was still short of my 25 hours of IOE, so I got paired up with Tom again for a quick blast off to Montreal, and voila, I was a Captain... on my 10 year anniversary as a pilot for Eagle.

It was pretty amazing. It is pretty amazing. The first time, as a new Captain, you finish the push-back, have the engines started, and then you get to do something you never get to do as an FO. You engage the tiller. You see, only the Captain "drives" the airplane on the ground. Yes, if you know what you are doing, you can 'drive' from the right seat, but really, you are not supposed to.

And something changes. Suddenly, if anything happens, it's all you. The FO looks to his/her left, whenever they have a question... the FA looks to you to answer things. You set the tone, and you are the final arbitrator of anything that happens in the aircraft. The Buck Stops Here.

I flew with a friend who used to say something as a joke. "O.k., you see this invisible line (and draws an invisible line with his hand down the middle of the cockpit.) Everything on my side of this line is mine, and everything on THAT side of the line is mine, too, because I am the Captain." And it sounds silly, but in a way, you have to train your mind to think that way, just a little bit. The Buck really does stop here. Your ticket is on the line every time you fly. Once the door is closed, it's all you.

It really does change the way you think. The way you act. It should.

Hopefully you walk a little taller, too. It's a big thing, like it or not.

We get to do something very special, with our jobs. I had forgotten I used to say this, but it is true-----

"I have the best job in the world. I get to bring people to and from their dreams."

All of their dreams. I've flown soldiers home to their families; Newlyweds on their first journey as a married couple; long lost relatives to their family reunions.

I've also flown a young father (late 20s) of 2 pretty little girls on part of his journey to bury his wife, who had died far too young... Yes, when our FA told me, both of us in the cockpit teared up. Nightmares are dreams too, after all. Part of what we do is just try to make the journey comfortable.

I'm blessed to get to do what I do. How many people really do love their jobs? How many people get to work with the great people that I get to work with, a number of whom have become friends for life. And just about every time I get to work, I get to meet someone new, see something new, hear a new story, and have fun. They also pay me! (dig that!)

Sweet, by any measure.

Cheers,

Scott

Starting IOE

So, I started my IOE flying.

IOE or "Initial Operating Experience," for me is 25 hours (or more) of flying, acting as the Captain, including flying from the left seat, and wearing all 4 stripes, with a qualified line Check Airman. There is no way to shorten the 25 hours, you just have to go fly it.

For my first sequence, I was paired up with Conn McCarthy, a guy I have known for years. He's really good, laid back, great pilot. For me, a great pilot is someone who knows their stuff and has good judgement. That is by far the most important quality any Captain can have. Most of us can fly the airplane just fine; it takes a real pilot to make good judgement calls.

So we get everything ready, and the airplane is ready to fly. Day #1 will be this-- ORD RST ORD PIT ORD DBQ. Chicago - Rochester, MN, - Chicago - Pittsburgh - Chicago - Dubuque, Iowa. So we taxi out from our gate, and I'm driving.

For those of you non-aviation types, only the Captain 'drives' the aircraft on the ground. There is a 'tiller' on the Captain's side, and that controls the full range of nose-wheel steering you need to move the plane safely on the ground.

So here I am, driving. It drives quite a bit differently than the Sim. There is no doubt that you are moving a real airplane, though. At takeoff weights around 42,000 lbs, you can feel the weight in the tiller in your hand, even though it runs through hydraulic lines, etc.

We head out to the runway, line up, and I make my first take-off from the left seat.

It is funny, because I do have so much time in the right seat in the airplane; When I fly from the right seat, really, the airplane has just become an extension of my body, at least, that is how I view it. I know exactly what is going to happen physically with the airplane, and then it just happens. Kind of like breathing; you really just do it, except for those short spots where you have to stop something, like swimming underwater, etc. I've reached that point, so, when I start flying from the left seat, something kind of funny happens.

I remember what it feels like to fly.

You have to have a certain appreciation for the tactile sensations that go with flying. Yes, every take off roll goes (hopefully) the same way. Accelerate down the runway, reach certain pre-determined speeds, let the nose come up off the ground, and then let the plane fly herself away from the Earth.

I have been so connected to what I have been flying the past number of years, that I had forgotten then sensations of flying.

WOW... did it feel good!

Not to mention, I realized that I don't know what anything looks like out the left side of the airplane! New houses to look down on! New roads! New views! Not to mention, just looking left and not seeing another person! lol....

Simple flight to KRST. We're descending into the area, and ATC tells us to level off at 12,000', since he has traffic at 11,600. That is kind of an unusual altitude for traffic (we're usually at whole thousands, and Visual Rules traffic flies at thousands + 500.) So we get an alert from our Traffic Collision and Avoidance System "Monitor Vertical Speed," then-- "Climb.. .Climb"

Compliance is mandatory, unless it would put you in a more precarious situation. So, I climb till the box shuts up, or about 500 feet. Here is what is going through my mind- This is a mandatory report to the company and to ATC. ON MY FIRST FLIGHT IN THE LEFT SEAT!

Fer cryin' out loud.

But, we managed to survive, somehow. We had our flights, and everything worked out. We had a fairly short overnight in Dubuque, and we got there on time, and went to the hotel.

On Day #2, we were the first flight out of DBQ, an "Originating" flight, on the First flight of the day, there are a number of checks that have to be done; system status checks, etc, so the aircraft is ready to go for the day. I started setting up the cockpit, and Conn went to start the walkaround. The plane was pretty cold, so fired up the APU, and signalled the ramp agent to go ahead and disconnect the ground power unit.

I was looking down after that, and reading the Aircraft Maintenance Log, when I felt the nose of the airplane lurch to the right. It felt like we got hit in the tail from the right side, which would push the nose to the right. My first thought?

"Are you F-ing kidding me? We just got hit on my SECOND day of IOE?!?!?"

I looked out the window, and I could see the ramp agent with the GPU towed behind her tug. The GPU cable was stretched out to the airplane, so I realized that we had not been hit, but she had pulled away from the airplane with the cable still hooked up.

Still, are you kidding me?!!??!

Then I realized that I could not see Conn outside, and the ramper was running back towards the airplane.

I jumped out of my seat and ran down, and saw Conn rolling around in pain on the ground. He had been standing over the cable, checking one of the panels, when the cable snapped taut. it lifted him up, kind of throwing him about 5 feet into the air, and then he came down, hard, on his back when the cable snapped out of the aircraft.

We got a nurse who happened to be in the terminal, and she checked out Conn while we waited for the ambulance to get to us. The EMTs checked out Conn, and then took him away to the hospital to get an MRI, and scanned to see if they had ruptured his spleen, or anything bad internally.

So now, I need a Check Airman to get me out of there, and we find out they are sending Logan, one of the guy I was a new hire with, who just upgraded 2 months before me. Great! I can't fly the left seat with him! So when he got there, I had to fly as an FO all over again; at least I was still current!

One adventure after another....