When I upgraded to Captain at Comair, I had a hunch that my great life as a senior F/O would be ruined. Indeed, I was right. But all’s well that ends well, I wound up with this job and that’s good. What I didn’t expect was for the job itself to become more challenging. Seems as though after I upgraded, more stuff went wrong. Or maybe I just noticed it more because the buck stopped with me.
So here I am again. This time, I knew both my great schedules and easy life would be over. Before I upgraded, I made a habit of enjoying my two favorite lines. “I’ll sleep ’til you call me,” and “What do ya want to do now?” And now, the buck stops with me again.
Yesterday, we flew from Leipzig to an airport in Qatar, then to Bahrain. The first leg was uneventful. Things went so well on the ground in Qatar that we were able to block out an hour early to come to Bahrain. Then, on the takeoff roll, we had a caution light which resulted in me deciding to reject (abort, stop, discontinue) the takeoff. Fortunately, it wasn’t an extremely critical situation. We were very light (ferrying an empty freighter on a short flight) and the runway was very long (over 12,000 ft.). We were only at about 100 knots when it happened, though that makes it the highest speed rejected takeoff I can remember doing (in any airplane).
That cost us about a half an hour. The caution light turned out to be a minor item which resolved itself (and wouldn’t have been super critical had we continued the takeoff anyway). The second attempt was successful and we still made it to Bahrain early. Of course, as a little bonus for me, I had to do a bunch of paperwork when I got here.
That event, though, got me to thinking about how few rejected takeoffs I’ve actually had. I can only recall one other here at World, though I have a hard time believing that’s possible. And it wasn’t at a real high speed. I had a couple in the Brasilia, and a couple in the RJ. I did have several other things happen during my short tenure as an RJ Capain that caused me extra work (diversions, improper ground handling, a tug-driver-induced ground contact incident, and some F/O’s flying in … non-preferred ways).
I’m hoping things will get easier, but it seems already there’s plenty of challenges here. I’ve set all-time records for hotel changes on a single layover. I believe I set a new personal record for most (maintenance) writeups on a single leg (11). The other day, I had ATC give me multiple successive impossible clearances and nearly cause me a diversion (fortunately it didn’t get that far). And then, there’s the rejected takeoff. All that in less than 100 hours of line flying…
And then, there’s the schedule issue. As I mentioned previously, this bidline has totally fallen apart. They added a trip to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan day after tomorrow (will be my first time there). I just put in my bid for next month and, well, I’m not sure it was even worth bidding. The lines are awful and who knows if they’ll even turn out to be worth the electrons they’re transmitted with. But I don’t have a whole lot going on next month, so maybe that’s okay…
V-
Schedule questions
From the list of places you fly it sounds like your time schedule is pretty crazy. How much does the time, from your internal clock point of view, when you have time to sleep vary? I have not done a lot of international travel but from what I have done it takes me some time to be able to sleep normally again. Going from the East to West coast of the US is not bad and I have done quite a bit of that but traveling to Europe or Australia took some adjustment.
Are you usually able to get a good nights sleep? Have you found any tricks to help? I would think that could be a problem, especially given the job you have to do.
Tony
Re: Schedule questions
It’s tough sometimes. The sleep schedule does vary, and sometimes a lot over a short period of time. For example, yesterday I started a very long duty day for a 6pm departure. Tonight’s is a 3am departure. That’s a 9 hour (not quite half) shift in cycle. What saved me was the fact that yesterday (errr last night) was a very long day. We deadheaded the second half and, consequently, didn’t have a duty time restriction. That made our rest shorter (~14 hours) which enabled me to be really tired and sleep almost a full night’s worth despite the fact it was the middle of the day (both literally and according to my body clock).
As far as tricks, I sometimes try to plan, sleep ahead, etc. Sometimes that backfires though (with schedule changes). The easiest thing to do is make a day longer. I also frequently nap during the day. That seems to help. Wish I had something more substantial for ya tho… 🙂
V-
Rejected Takeoff
I have only experienced one rejected takeoff as a passenger but it was fairly exciting. It was some years ago and if I remember correctly it was a Boeing 727. My perception was we were just about at the speed where I would expect the front wheels to lift when the breaks and thrust reversers come on hard. At first none of the crew said anything. we turned onto a taxi way. The engines were run up to what seemed like full power for a short time with the plane stationary. The plane then went back to the beginning of the runway. The pilot or copilot came on just before we started back down the runway and said that one of the engine gauges did not look right and they stopped to check it. Off we went and completed the flight OK.
While I am certainly glad that they did check, I will say that the experience did not make the passengers around me confident about continuing the flight but by then we were on the move. 🙂
Re: Rejected Takeoff
Generally speaking, it’s better to check than to have a problem. Having said that, though, the physics of a high speed reject make them pretty undesirable, especially in heavy jets. For minor issues, we’ll generally go at higher speeds. Just prior to V1 (the decision speed), about the only thing you’d want to reject for would be an engine failure or fire. Otherwise, the airplane will fly and it’s safer to fly it around and land it than to perform a high speed reject. In this case, though, we had plenty of extra performance so it wasn’t a big deal.
V-
Proud
You seem a little down about this trip. To me it all sounds pretty exciting. I know, I’m the odd one of the bunch. I’ve already asked you a bunch of questions about your rejected take-off and I still believe you made the right decision. You’ve had lots of experiences with your adventures throughout the world. All of that time was spent grooming you for the position you have now. I’m not saying it is going to get any easier but I am very confident that you will be able to handle anything that comes your way. I’d be a passenger on a plane you were piloting any day. Heck, I’d even trust you with my daughter, my first born, on the plane…
Re: Proud
Yah, but work isn’t supposed to be exciting. The exciting part is supposed to be the layover 😉
V-