emb170

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 agent. There, I stretched out beneath the warm glow of a flickering CNN Airport News Network screen, reporting with great irony on how regional pilots are overworked and underpaid. Sully got name-dropped—as always—while experts explained how the industry is propped up by “commuter pilots,” which I’ve been for over a decade. I stayed with the regionals while others chased shiny jets and got furloughed when the majors tossed their routes back to us like hot potatoes. When I got hired in 1999, my “region” was Pennsylvania. Now it’s the lower 48. Eventually, it was time to board the leg back to DC. Thunderstorms were playing red rover with the East Coast, so we loaded up extra fuel and took the long way around—swinging south, eyeing […]