It is Sunday morning and my bags are packed… again. In fact I begin to wonder if I should even unpack from now on. I should just keep a luggage with all my necessary travel items. It would save me some time and more importantly minimize my frustration feeling that I am leaving my family behind for another extended period of time. Unlike my usual week long trip between the Midwest and DHL’s cin-tucky hub, this time around I get to fly our Brasilia on a nuclear medicine run all the way to the headquarter in Burbank, CA. We will stop in Dallas and phoenix. This brings a nice change of pace as it almost feels like flying for a passenger airline. Mostly because instead of watching the sun rise after another grueling 12 hours of night shift, I will get to see it set over the southern part of Grand Canyon National park with the lighted sky of Los Angeles in the far background. It sure beats my monotonous Nebraska run. Unfortunately this quick 10 hour trip to the west coast does not end in warm socal. I get to airline back tomorrow to Dallas where I will be spending the next ten days or so flying back and forth to Amarillo. I say 10 or so because by experience it sometime turns out to be longer… a lot longer. Suddenly memories from my long temporary duty assignment in Midland, TX are rushing back. Although I am being told that the northern panhandle is vastly different scenery wise, as a TDY pilot on a budget, I am more concerned about avoiding eating at restaurants all the time, having enough quarters to be able to do laundry and hope the hotel has free wireless internet. In that thrifty spirit, if I am lucky enough, every morning I might even make it back to the hotel on time to grab a free breakfast !
The 10 days to get ready for the interview were not too much. In fact the only reason I had all the required documents ready for D-Day is because I had been planning for this moment for the last couple of years. Every candidate is asked to bring, among other things, driving records from all states listed as a residence in the application and all the college transcripts. Now imagine trying to gather this information during the end of year holiday season and it easily becomes a tedious and complicated task. Surprisingly enough, I think my biggest challenge was to update my paper logbook and making sure the numbers match the application and also my electronic logbook. I only had been procrastinating for about a year and a half… but considering I flew about 1500 hours in that period, this meant I had a lot of catching up to do, between writing the numbers in the right column, adding everything up and cross checking. About 15 hours later, I of course realized that there was 0.1 hour missing somewhere, or I thought. After sleeping on it, It became obvious that I just didn’t know how to add using a calculator. I had everything packed, organized, labeled, highlighted, filled out and more at least 5 days prior to the interview, but sure enough, the evening before leaving for Dallas, I noticed something missing in my choice of outfit. Shoes ! Good thing in this country you can buy pretty much anything 24/7. On my way to DFW, the following afternoon, I actually got to meet a check airman for Eagle who was on the same flight, and I got to pick his brain about life at eagle. He was very honest and open about the good and bad things and reinforced my decision to consider AE as a future employer. After a short night, I was ready to give it all and hopefully interest the panel enough to get an offer. I must say, I was very impressed by their organization. Everybody was very welcoming and professional. The process, which included an H.R and technical interview as well as a simulator check, was very smooth and efficient. I felt it was very straight forward and having reviewed all the necessary materials, It seemed fairly easy and I was confident that I could meet their standards. By early afternoon, I was done with the various stages and was given a meal voucher to be used in their cafeteria. Then after what seemed like a long time, I was asked to go to another room where, one of the interviewer, told me that American Eagle was giving me a pre-offer. I felt extremely relieved and excited and even though I could not really show it in an over obnoxious way like Tom Cruise jumping on a sofa on a talk show, I definitely quickly told the representative that I was very appreciative. With step one completed, I now have to wait for step 2 which includes a review of my information and interview grades by a board and step 3, which is the company medical examination. I am being told it can be more than a month before being done with step 2. The wait is going to be long, but on the late flight back to my home, I am already dreaming about flying the jet out of Chicago or Dallas and wonder if this Texan based company requires uniform to include shiny big belt buckle and boots
For the past few months, like most pilots in the country, I have been keeping an eye on the industry and especially about the hiring trend. It looks like there might actually be a light at the end of the tunnel as almost every regional airline is gearing up for another round of hiring. Hopefully the economy including the fuel prices, will stabilize enough to allow each pilot to get an opportunity to move forward in their career. As of right now, thousands of skilled professionals are standing on the sidelines, waiting to get back in a cockpit ; and for a pilot, not flying is almost like saying goodbye to a dream. That is mainly because in order to be marketable and competitive for an airline, pilots usually have to be current in their skills. The longer you are grounded, the smaller your chance of being hired gets. I have been contemplating the possibility to jump ship too but because I have worked hard to get to where I am, I do not want to make a random move, as you always know what you leave but never know what you will get. I have targeted a specific company called American Eagle, an entity of the AMR group, which also owns the industry giant American Airlines. I had previously applied in 2008 with 300 hours of experience, but was caught in the fall of the industry and just like other airlines, AE had stopped hiring suddenly. Three years later, I decided to resend an application thinking that my extensive cargo experience across the country would be a good fit. Plus, I really would like to fly passengers and not be always working on the back side of the clock… just a personal preference. And it seems like my perseverance paid off because today Eagle invited me to attend an interview session in Dallas, scheduled for January 6th. I am thrilled. This is definitely a step forward.
Being an airline pilot has its perks, like discount travel passes, but definitely has some less enjoyable sides, but are abviously a full part of the career. When everybody is looking forward to the end of the year because of the chance to have a bit of time off and gather with family for a great dinner watching 24 hours of Christmas story, most of us are working to make sure that everyone has a good time. While passenger airlines are trying to make sure they safely bring people to their winter destination, I with my fellow freight dogs are doing our best to get every packages under their dedicated christmas tree. I am really just trying to make it sound more glamorous than what it is. Maybe if we had some reindeer painted on the side of the plane and were allow to wear red outfits I would feel better about it. Truthfully, It is not always with a smile that I look at the situation. I haven’t been able to spend Christmas with my relatives in France for a few years and I do miss it. But I am lucky enough that my girlfriend understands and deals well with my schedule. I am at least able to be home at 2 in the morning on Christmas day for 24 hours and same thing for new year day. It is not much, but I have to admit that it is better than spending it completely alone, during a layover in an hotel room. With my one day off a week, I also face the complicated organization of getting the presents on time, and as always I have waited the last minute and spent more time waiting in line to pay than to find what I was looking for. Even after all the stress, I am still in a Christmas spirit, enjoying as best as I can my holiday season.
After spending my usual Monday lolly gagging at the layover without internet or TV, I finally gathered enough motivation to get suited in my freshly cleaned uniform and head to the airport where I could begin another week long of Midwest airport hoping in cold and windy weather… or so I thought. Shortly after getting airborne from Omaha, as we were climbing through clouds, the ice condition light in the cockpit illuminated, indicating that the plane what getting coated with a sheet of ice. Icing is one of the most dangerous phenomenon for airplanes because not only it adds weight and therefore requires more power to maintain altitude or airspeed ; but most importantly, it can disrupt the air from flowing smoothly around the wings. Ultimately, if not properly dealt with, the airplane loses enough lift and stalls. To reduce the build ups on the most important parts of the airplane, our turboprop uses what we call deice boots. Basically, when turned on, they inflated thanks to extracted air from the engines and shatter the ice at regular intervals. Unfortunately, one of our boots malfunctioned, forcing us to make alternate plans once we got on the ground, at our first stop, in Cedar Rapids. Why can’t I be stuck in Honolulu ? … ok I don’t fly anywhere near Hawaii but can’t a guy dream ? Anyway, so after going back and forth between maintenance and dispatch, my captain and I are being told that we will be staying in town for a couple of days until the plane is ready to go. After realizing that we are in the business district where the opportunities to entertain myself are pretty limited, I went online to see if there was a museum in proximity but the major flood of 2008 did some important damages and they are supposedly still closed. I was left with streaming show online to do some catching up with some of my favorite shows, thanks to the very useful website Netflix. Luckily, this unscheduled vacation was not too long and within 36 hours, we were on our way to Cincinnati for a quick turn before heading back to Nebraska early morning. During my time in Iowa, I did learn two interesting things. The city is nicknamed “the city of five seasons” because of the changing seasons in the Midwestern landscape where supposedly taking the time to appreciate everyday beauty extends life which is almost like an extra season is added to every year. Well I will say that for having been in Iowa at different time of the year, it always seems to be cold and windy, so I think it would make more sense calling it the city of one season. The other thing I have learned by the local them self, is definitely more in line with reality. Because of all the factories surrounding the city, there is a constant smell of grain and processed food lingering above the area like smog above Los Angeles. After decades of such wide range of interesting but sometime unpleasant smells, they nicknamed their town, the city of five smells.
After roughly three years of effort, hard labor and lack of sleep. I have finally reached my 2ooo hours total time milestone. In that time frame, I have obtained my private and commercial certificates with instrument and multi-engine ratings. I have Flown a 3000 lbs single piston four seats airplane and a 25000 lbs transport category turboprop. From above, I have seen the frozen great lakes surrounding western New York and the burning desert of Death Valley, in California. I have been lucky to see from the air, the space shuttle taking off and over fly the lighted strip of Las Vegas at midnight. I have landed in the busiest airport in the world but also in a disaffected world war two military base in central Nevada where coyotes and tumbleweed are the only habitants. I have flown in smooth sunny clear blue skies and been violently rocked during powerful thunderstorms crossing tornado alley. I have had passengers on board and I have had packages. I have read more book during training then in my entire childhood at school. I have done more tests to pass my credentials then I did in my college career. It has been an incredible ride so far and I am eager to see what more is coming my way and ready to sign for 2000 more.
It is that time of the year. I can’t say again though as it is my first time. I’m talking about my annual recurrent checkride. First I had to deal with the necessary paperwork asked by TSA. Basically, as a foreigner, every time I need to do some kind of training on the ground, in a simulator or in an airplane, I have to submit a request to the government. It must stipulate the place, date and type of training among other things. The most frustrating part about this is that I have to pay a fee for every application. At least this time around, because it is a recurrent, the fee is kindly paid by the company I am working for. After a wasted month due to this legal matter, I finally got the ok to proceed. You would think that since I am a pilot actively working for an airline, I would not have to prove that I am safe enough to be left unsupervised near a plane… just saying. Because of my schedule, I was told to plan on doing my check ride once I got in Cincinnati between my inbound and outbound part of the trip. That means roughly between 1am and 4am. I was proactive enough to take a few days off prior to be able to review some basic information about the airplanes systems and the maneuvers. It was a bit tricky to study though because with my significant other, we had planned a quick trip to Buffalo to visit my parents, but as usual, she was very supportive and during our 8 hours drive back home she kept on quizzing me as I was driving. Talk about multitasking. We made it back in time for me to take a quick nap and hop in my uniform ready to tackle this somewhat challenge. After meeting with the check airman, we went thru the oral in a quick but efficient manner. It was nothing complicated as I have a good grasp of our procedures, the federal regulations and the airplane’s systems. Next was the flight portion and I was at ease. I enjoy flying it and I was very confident in my ability to demonstrate the necessary skills of a type rated pilot. I was really straight forward. I flew the Cincinnati two departure out of runway18C, then while enroute toward Dayton, we got cleared for a block altitude to do some air work. I executed some stalls and steep turns, did some emergency procedures related to engine failure than it was time for a couple instrument approaches. I started with an ILS, which is a precision approach where the pilot guides the airplane to the runway with the help of both a vertical and horizontal signal. While on glideslope, my check airman failed my left engine making this a single engine approach. As I reached 200 ft above the ground, I was told to execute a missed approach and therefore had to aboard it and climb away from the field with my only engine. This was made interesting thanks to the strong crosswind. I could see us drifting as we were painfully getting altitude. I finally reached my holding altitude and was vectored for my non precision approach. An NDB nonetheless. An NDB is an archaic system that is not used very often anymore and requires a lot more work than the modern systems now in place across the country. I shot this one with both engines and made it a circle to land as it is a required item for the checkride. When everything was done, we aimed the airplane back toward CVG and finally parked the airplane at DHL, just in time to get loaded and fly back to Cedar Rapids and Omaha. It is going to be a long morning but at least I get to keep my job for one more year.
Well, after four months of dancing around and about 11 weeks away from home, bouncing around the system including my wonderful experience down in Texas, I decided to take back my run out of Cincinnati. It is the best option for me for two main reasons. First, I am looking to build my time to move forward with my career. Whether it is to upgrade here or to move on within a few months to a regional airline. And lets face it ; sitting on this run allows me to build 900 hours a year flying a transport category turboprop in some of the worst weather in the country. Second, the schedule consisting of 3 weeks on and one week off is great for my family situation. With part of my family living here in the US and the other part living in France, I can actually be off long enough to make any trips without using my vacation time and perhaps avoid missing some important occasions like weddings. I know I made the right decision, but I am sure that after a few shifts of 14 hours at night with minimal rest, I will start questioning my choice. That is until my week off comes around and I will enjoy my time surrounded with friends or family. I am not sure I missed Cincinnati though, but regardless I am back in town !
It has been a couple month since I got the news that I will have to relocate but still no final decision. I had been flying our Omaha run last month but since the beginning of August, I am covering a line for UPS out of Midland in Texas. I am not quite sure when I will be going back home as I have been here for two weeks already and there is no end in sight. People around here seem to believe that it might be permanent but I have not been told anything yet and to be honest I am seriously considering using my seniority and taking my run out of Cincinnati back. It as been somewhat challenging down here… almost depressing. The run is not bad. Late afternoon departure from the panhandle with an overnight in Dallas and an early inbound flight back to Midland. It operates from Monday afternoon to Saturday morning. The less enjoyable part has to do with Midland itself. Not to be judgmental, but it is a rat hole. The hotel where I am staying is what I refer to as a dump. I can deal with a lot but the insects in the room and the dead rodents floating in the pool are not making this assignment easy. On top of that, the hotel is located between two cities, there is barely any food available within walking distance and the little restaurant in the hotel is not open during the weekend. I’m lucky though because Domino’s pizza is willing to make the 10 miles drive to the airport. After two weeks, I did manage to get my company to rent me a car during the weekend. It was becoming necessary. I have been exploring this part of Texas and let me tell you that there is not much as Midland / Odessa are pretty much located 300 miles away from anything… well except oil drilling structure. Midland is one the cities in the nation with the most millionaires and it is understandable as everybody seem to be drilling in their backyard. As for me, I did not find any. The only things I will be leaving with are sunburns. No wonder… it's not even noon yet and already 113 degrees.
After only a couple years based in Wilmington, Ohio ; DHL is completing the move back to its original hub, in Cincinnati Airport, located in Kentucky and therefore nicknamed Cin-tucky. After a trial run only during two Sundays, the entire operation is now scheduled to fully function this week. It is a good thing for us Ameriflight pilots flying on their behalf out of CVG, because from now on we won’t have to reposition every Sunday afternoon and Saturday morning to Wilmington. It will save us a couple of hours each week. Unfortunately, this will also come at a price. Because we will be flying back to Cincinnati every night for a 3 hour turn, we won’t be paid per diem from Tuesday to Saturday. Without going into financial details, it will definitely make a difference in my wallet at the end of the month. I probably should not complain too much considering a lot of local employees will be losing their jobs because of this move. In fact about 3000 people from the city of Wilmington alone will be laid off. It is definitely going to be a complicated move.