Sometimes crews buddy-bid together so they can fly the same trip. For them, it’s like a road trip with a friend. For the rest of us, it’s like tagging along on their vacation. And sometimes they let you in on their little inside jokes. “She’s the one who was locked out of her hotel room
From above, towns and cities and villages and parishes all look different. All tiny, but they share the same structures. The churches with their steeples glistening in the sun, and the schools with ballfields, tiny dots of players running like swarms of European starlings moving as one. Jails have geometric buildings that hold plenty of
Let me get this out of the way. The other day I logged one of my greatest flying accomplishments in thirty-three years of flying. Twenty-five years as an airline pilot. Twenty thousand hours. And while I hope I never have to interview for another flying job, if I do, this is the story I’m leading
The locals were fantastic and welcomed me with open arms. According to our body clocks, we landed in Columbus somewhere between hungry and sleepy. As is my custom before eating or sleeping, I got out to stretch my legs and get the blood flowing. A wise move after being strapped into a seat all day.
Recently I was asked to find a journal I kept when we met twenty-three years ago. In it, I found a passage in which I wrote about a dream I had awoken from. Twenty-three years ago! We had been dating for less than a month. The Key to a Happy Marriage In my dream, I
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.
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
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
In order to get into the Mumbai airport, you need a boarding pass. You must present this to the bearded man with the gun and the second gun in the holster around his waist. Several signs around this large man warn passengers not to approach him more than 2 hours before their departure time. “Passengers
With the luxury of non-revenue travel also comes the joy of spontaneous adventure. Our trip to India would begin with either a flight from Newark into Delhi or Mumbai. We had tentatively prepared an itinerary around Delhi being our entry point, but when that flight was full and we were able to score the last
On Woensdag (Wednesday), we left Amsterdam for Reno. Well, we attempted to leave Amsterdam for Reno. The daily Usairways flight from AMS to PHL was full and rather than roll the dice on one flight we figured a safer bet would be to roll the dice on two relatively full flights out of Frankfurt. And
With not much on my plate yesterday I made the short trek out to Crabtown to see what it was all about. I figured if it was listed on the internet on a website devoted to classic arcade game rooms and was ranked high on the most games list… I should check it out. Especially
