“Please forgive me. I am assuming you have a loved one’s remains in your carry-on?” “Yes, sir. I am taking my late wife with me to finish the trip we started after her diagnosis.” This is how our conversation started. Well, it started when he asked our A flight attendant to speak with the Captain. […]
I wrote the following years ago as a character study on a Captain I was flying with. I was hesitant to post it then as I genuinely enjoyed working with him and wouldn’t want him to think I was poking fun at him. Had he read it, I’d hate for a future trip with him
Airline crews are easy to identify at the hotel bar. Especially if it’s closing time when the lights are bright, and the staff is attempting to clean for the morning. We’re a group of middle-aged folks from various genders and races eating and drinking and carrying on like it was a reasonable hour. “Too late
There was a time when being a Regional Pilot meant you never left the very small region your employer flew in. Often this was no larger than a thumbprint on a map. In the early days of my airline career, when my hair was significantly less grey and my ears could hear things without a
I’ve been an airline Captain since 2001. With a recent airline change I’m a First Officer again. The copilot. Just like Kareem Abdul-Jabar… and the guy who sat next to Sully. I’m one step up from Otto the autopilot in Airplane. I should have made business cards that said “Cool Jet Captain” while I could. (Mental note
It’s the season for gift giving. That means it’s also the season for scrambling to pay off your guilt by dishing out gifts to those who serve you and make your life easier… The trash collector, your postal worker, the Starbucks barista and of course, your flight crew.While there are many great and appropriate gifts
I was on vacation during the month of July. I ceased all work related activities. I also didn’t… It was a blissful month away from the airport. I return to the cockpit tomorrow. I just hope they didn’t move any of the buttons around.
In many ways… Hollywood’s depiction of airline life is completely wrong. In some ways it’s spot on and I claim those scenes as just another day at the office. My ownership to what scene I sell as truth depends on the audience I’m with. If I’m sitting with guys and it’s a pilot surrounded by
My work life and home life collided yesterday when my son complained that his toy Hess helicopter wasn’t working as it was supposed to. “My helicopter won’t fly anymore!” It never flew. The blades spun. It lit up. It made lots noise. But it never flew. In his world, it did though. And now it
Do not read this if you are in a hotel bed. If you are in a hotel bed please tell me you removed the bedspread. Please tell me you didn’t eat something with your bare hands after touching the remote control, alarm clock or light switch. You aren’t walking around barefoot, are you? You’re using
Sometimes people ask me what it’s like to be a pilot. “Wow, that must be so cool! I bet you’re really smart. You must have been good at math in school. Are all pilots as handsome as you?”I’ve never gotten that last one. I made that up. When asked about how thrilling it must be
Filed away years ago as, “Well, that sure was stupid.” Once, I met Southwest founder and former CEO, Herb Kelleher in the airport. We talked at length and I got the impression he liked me. He suggested as much. And then he asked for my card. To which I replied, “I don’t have a card.
Since the beginning, there have always been two pilots up on the flight deck. Had it not been for the Wright Brothers, maybe we’d only have one seat up there. It’s a common misconception that the First Officer (commonly referred to as the copilot in the movies or ‘gear monkey’ in real life) isn’t really
We obviously spend lots of time around the humans. We are in the service industry after all. Day in and day out we spend our time carrying you, your loved ones, your bags and your ‘service animals’ from here to there with ease. We do this with a smile on our face. Not because we
I spend about ten nights a month in hotels. I’ve been doing this job for fourteen years. I’ve slept (or attempted to sleep) in a hotel bed roughly 1700 times since then. I’ve learned a few things about survival along the way. I’ve not caught any nasty infections, have maintained a relatively healthy immune system,
When I was a young airline pilot and new to ‘the road’ I ranked hotels by their proximity to good food and entertainment. Now, I judge hotels on two things: internet speed and shower pressure. Oh, and free breakfast. I’m not even a breakfast guy. But when it’s free – I’m a kid in a
This article was floating around Facebook today explaining why it is imperative you land a pilot. 6 reasons to be exact. Since I am a pilot, I figured I’d explain my reasoning why scoring a Jet Captain should be on your to-do list. While you may find a man irresistible who gets paid to strap
It was a bright and sunny day on the island of Sodor, and all the trains were running on time except for one. Thomas the Tank Engine sat with his big engine idling and burning fuel at Sodor Station, waiting for a return call from crew scheduling. “What is it this time?” asked the gate
As the new year approaches it’s time to evaluate accomplishments from the past year and set goals for the next. While I succeed each year with many of my Xbox-related achievements, I think 2013 will be more about work and what I bring to the cockpit. Across the aviation industry, morale is low and tempers
Some days, I actually do work. But it’s not the work you would assume. It’s not fighting nasty storms or battling wind shear down the final approach to an icy runway. It’s interacting with the passengers and assuring them that at some point, we will arrive at our destination. I like that part of the
The boy has the aviation bug. He has already begun chasing planes around. I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember. Specifically, it may have started when I was in single digits, sitting in my father’s office, watching people fly RC airplanes in a field across the street. The obsession culminated during
The boy is almost nine months old, and since I’ve been back to work after paternity leave, I’ve been flying weekends. Although airport Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday, it is nice to work weekends and steal the Sunday NY Times from sleepers in the airport. I play a game of whack-a-mole where I rotate newspapers.
A friend once told me that every day he wakes up in a hotel, it feels like waking up with a hangover. “I’m not sure where I am or how I got here, but at least I have my pants on.” Add in the fact that we stay in a variety of hotels with countless
I returned to work yesterday from a three-week vacation with the family. While at work and living on the road, I have lots of downtime that I fill with ‘entertainment’ that I would never make time for at home: bad movies on cable, aimless walks around Wal-Mart, and celebrity gossip magazines. US, Star, People, and
In the cockpit, when an alarm sounds, the first response is to “Identify and Cancel” the warning. This means acknowledging the source of the alarm, silencing the warning, and then determining a course of action. If there are several warnings, you prioritize them—often based on the color of the alarm. Yes, our planes are color-coded.
My job as a pilot is made much easier by checklists and routines. I do the same thing – the same way – every time. Checklists are written in a way that is intended to flow logically as we set up the cockpit for each phase of flight. It’s the times when something upsets that
On days when the air is still and fog forms over a river, it looks like the Great Wall of China is snaking its way across the Earth. Since many state lines overlay rivers, each state is safely protected from their neighbor—unless you’re driving a VW, which can safely pass through. When I was driving
I showed up in DC at an hour usually reserved for raccoons and regret—5:30 a.m.—for a flight to Kansas City, which was only the beginning of this majestic loop-de-loop across the middle bits of America. From Kansas City, I hopped a flight to Milwaukee where a 3.5-hour layover waited for me like a bored TSA
This was our third leg for the day. We began in Omaha around 2 PM, flew from Omaha to Milwaukee, and then off to Boston. On the return from Boston to Milwaukee, we ended up holding over Grand Rapids for 30 minutes before we made the decision to divert to Indianapolis for more fuel. Holding
With her off for the summer, I ‘bid’ to have some weeks off with her. I was awarded six weeks from the end of June through early August. Eager to kick the summer off, I asked for—and was granted—a drop of a trip at the end of June that leads up to my vacation. Now,
I often watch in amazement as gate agents in airports can so blatantly blow off our passengers in their time of need. I know there are plenty of times when there is nothing they can do to rectify the situation, but I’m sure a little compassion would make the hard news easier to swallow. Often,
A four-day trip the week of Thanksgiving took me to Columbus, Ohio. Since I was to spend the holiday alone in the hotel, S. decided to drive up from visiting her grandparents in Pittsburgh. She had our cousin Troy with her, so we figured we’d play in Ohio for the night and let him see
As I made my way down the aisle yesterday for my flight back from Tampa, I saw two kids sitting in the row I was to take. They had the aisle and middle seats, and I was to sit by the window where a bald baby doll was strapped in. The mom was in the
I took a walk to the back of the plane in flight today to pee. This is something I try not to do too often, and it’s called the “Walk of Shame” for good reason. First of all, it requires getting up. After sitting for so long strapped to an airplane seat, that’s pretty tough
