My alarm went off at 4 AM. For a few brief moments I had no idea where I was or what city I was in. I hate that feeling but it's pretty common among my airline pilot colleagues. It's especially bad when you have that same feeling after being awake for several hours.....I haven't quite reached that stage in my life yet!!
My FO and I met up in the lobby and we loaded up with two other full crews into a crew shuttle van. As is often the case, one of the flight attendants was late for pick up. We all waited for about five minutes and just as I was about to get out of the van and go call the flight attendant's room, he showed up. He acted as if nothing was wrong and just climbed in the van and took a seat without a word. It was inconsiderate of him but surprisingly it happens with flight attendants almost every trip. Why can't they be on time?? Who knows.
So I have learned to put my frustrations aside and just accept these things. There's nothing gained in getting upset about it. Turns out that he was our number one FA for our first leg from Nashville to DFW. He never even introduced himself to us. I hope that the first class passengers were treated a little better than we were.
Anyhow, today was scheduled for three legs. Nashville to DFW, then up to Dayton, Ohio and back to DFW. We'd be done by 2:30 PM.
All three went smoothly including another ILS approach downs to minimums at Dayton. It's that time of year when we get to hone our instrument flying skills. One last leg to DFW and a good look at the airport from the downwind leg at 11,000 ft.
That is one huge airport!....We taxied in among a bunch of other MD-80's, parked the brakes, ran the checklists, said goodbye and headed home.
Not long after getting home I got a call from crew scheduling advising me that I had been removed from my next trip (without pay) due to my being projected to have over 100 flying hours this month. She also said that I am getting close to having 1000 hours of flying for the year....another FAA maximum that cannot be exceeded.
I've been working way too much. I definitely need a vacation!
For a look at some more of my photos, please aviate over to Plane & Simple
Sunday, December 30, 2007
I Need a Vacation
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4 comments:
If you've maxed out your monthly and yearly flying hours at the end of December, your crew scheduling folks must have it down to a science.
Get some rest. I enjoy your blog!
You got that right JP. It also tells me that I haven't been using my sick time judiciously. I'll have to work on that next year. Thanks for reading....Len
sounds like a vacation is due indeed! How was the weather at BNA? My fiance lives there so I'm down there a lot in the time being.
We cant go over 125 hours per month without a waiver..I hope I never hit that number..heck 100hrs is a very full month indeed! Enjoy new years!
Otto,
BNA weather was OK....just some overcast stuff and temps in the 40's.
Don't party too hard tomorrow night....Happy New Year
Len
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