8/26/2011 - Day Four

Well, spent another day hanging around the hotel. Ran into one of our Check Airman, Michael J. He was preparing to receive a Line Check from Cpt. Z Fri morning on the LAS-HNL flight. Then he was commercial traveling on ANA over to Hiroshima, Japan to fly and airplane up to Anchorage, AK. Would have loved to have done that flight.

We decided to meet for dinner around 7pm. As I was walking down to meet him at 7pm, we ran into another Check Airman/Ground Instructor Mr. T. We stood around and chewed the fat for a while. Guess he and I are babysitting N638AX, while his student would probably be heading home. Michael and I then proceed over to Gordan Busch for a lit dinner consisting of a house salad and a dark Ale. Pretty uneventful day.

I'm hoping the weather here in Vegas will cool off enough so I can go out and take some photos of the strip. 113 degrees is a bit much, even if it is low humidity.

Saw scheduling had placed back on my schedule to VH trip on Wednesday next week. Will get me 2 call out days for Sept. We'll see if that really happens...

Photos are of the hotel halls. Talk about bored... They are undergoing a major renovation later this year.

The final picture shows the test results of two test I was required to pass: ILS PRM Approaches and HazMat/DG. 100% on both...

8/24/2011 - Day Three

Well, today was pretty much the same as yesterday. Had left over pizza and just messed around on the computer most of the day. Did a little bit of studying for my PC next month. Found out that one of our Captains, David, has returned to American Airlines. Was really happy to hear of his return to a "real airline" and a normal life.

August 23, 2011

Day 2 - Sitting Hotel Reserve KLAS

Just added an extension to Google Chrome that now allows me to blog straight from my web browser. I'm hoping to find something that works as equally well on my iPhone.

Pretty much spent the entire day at the Fairfield Hotel since I'm on 24 hour Reserve. Which means I have to be ready to leave at the drop of the hat. No Long Call, No Short Call, No Duty Rig, Not Trip Rig and NO PER DIEM!!!

August 22, 2011

Aug 21, 2011 (Monday) - Well, back on the road again after a nice week and a half at home. Got to enjoy my daughter's 7th birthday party and her actual birthday. Got to sit home reserve yesterday and got the lawn mowed. Sitting here at the Columbia Regional Airport since I got approval from our Chief Pilot that if I'm pulled from my LAS trips, travel will MOEX me from STL back to COU. So, 4am the alarm goes off and now I am in the process of jump seating from COU to MEM then on to Vegas. Lots of seats open on this flight, but I may have to sit in the cockpit if the Airbus leaving MEM. It shows overbooked by 4 seats, so there's still a chance I could get a cabin seat. Best to grab either the first flight of the day or the last.
The reason for the change in departing airports was the hotel I was parking at in STL decided to start charging us for parking. I think it was $ 45 a month. That, along with 4 hours of driving gas became too expensive. I now can JS out of COU, free parking and only 30 min drive. Not to mention security is much easier.
On the aircraft now here in Columbia, MO (KCOU). Pinnacle Airlines, CRJ200. Looks like we are going to get out of here. Notice a line of thunderstorms moving in from the North.

MEM-After a smooth one hour flight, arrived here in MEM. Now to catch my LAS connection.

LAS- The flight out of Memphis to Las Vegas. I wasn't able to get a passenger seat in the back because the Delta flight was completely full. I was then given the jump seat. Both pilots were cool. Jay was the Captain and Jon the FO. Both are based in MEM on the Airbus 330. Flight to Vegas was aprox 3.5 hours long. We mostly just read the newspapers. For breakfast we had cereal and yogurt. Upon landing on 25L in Vegas, I checked my voice mail and it was the company wanting me to Tvl out of STL to Oman! Good thing I wasn't available for that call. They had decided to pull Jason T (another Omni FO) out of the hotel to cover the trip. So, here I now sit in my Fairfield hotel room on hotel Reserve.

Aug 6, 2011 - Weekend in Hawaii

Very uneventful flight from Vegas to Honolulu yesterday. The winds were a bit gusty on the approach into the island, but once we were on the ground it felt really nice with the trade-winds whipping around. Most of the mainland has been experiencing drought and aweful heat. I hope to get out on Saturday and enjoy the weather.
After we got into our hotel, we all walked over to the YardHouse. It's a really nice resturant most airline crews hang out at. The name comes from "yard of beer". A yard is a long, tall flask that is used to serve beer. Since it was happy hour, we all got the appitizers for 1/2 off. I got the Crab Cakes and Chicken Lettece Wrap.
Well, I fly back on Sunday night and hope to jumpseat on SouthWest back home on Monday. Looking forward to spending some quality time home with the kids before they go back to school on the 19th. Ashlyn's Birthday is the 18th. She'll be turning 7. Where does time go?

8/5/2011 - Economy

Well, the international stock market tanked today. Don't even want to know what happened with my retirement funds. Best to just leave it alone for the next 18 years. At least gas prices should come down in the next couple of weeks. I'm more concerned with job opportunities than anything else. If things don't start picking up soon, the Majors may put off hiring for God knows how long.

Did get some good news from the Teamster's today. Suppose to have a TA finalized here in a couple of weeks:

" I am pleased to say that we believe we are close to a deal with the company. On August 10, 2011 your negotiation team will be going to Tulsa to work out the very small differences left, and to finish up the definitions, after which we will print a summary of the contract and go to LAS for the first of the road shows starting (time still open) Aug 17-19, 2011 at the Fairfield Inn where the crews are currently staying. Other road shows will be in DFW, ATL, and finishing up in SNN. "

It's been a long 4 years of negotiations. I'm hoping we get close to industry standard pay and I get my base returned. Then I might consider staying, especially if I can hold LAS CA.

Sat down with a couple of Omni guys while in HNL and heard a couple of guys got in trouble for calling in sick before a trip; one got suspended.

Well, Brian and I are doing another VH trip over to HNL here in a few hours. Looking forward to just sitting on the beach early Sat morning and watching the sunrise. If my calf lets me, I might go up to Diamond Head and watch the sun rise. Just wish I had brought my camera's battery charger.... gggggrrrrr.....

The icon attached to this post is the new Adobe Photoshop CS5. Trying to learn all the different things you can do with it. I even have a 10 DVD Training program that I'm going through. It's amazing all the stuff that program has in it.

8/4/2011 - Laundry Day

Took a break here in Vegas to do laundry. Folks over here at the Mariott let us use their laundry facilities since the Fairfield doesn't have laundry. Little bit of a walk in 100 plus weather. But better than the alternative.

July-August work travels

Well, it's been a whirlwind the last couple of weeks. After commercial travel began on July 17th, it has been go-go-go. Brian and I travled on United out of LAS on Tues to IAH and then waited for 4 hours for our 14 hour flight from Houston to Dubai (DBX). Flew on Emirates, so we didn't get an upgrade to Business class on the Boeing 777. But, we did get a row to ourselves. If I can travel without having someone sitting by me, I'm just fine with travel. It's when you get a completly full plane that it gets uncomfortable.

After finally getting to Dubai, we then proceed to travel on a very full 777 up to Kuwait City. There was this Arab lady who was seated between Brian and I and she had the look of terror on her face. We were able to get her to another seat. Guess in their culture, sitting between to very large American men can be a bit intimidating.

After finally getting to KWI and a 26 hour duty day, we finally get to our hotel to relax. Left KWI Thursday night for SNN. Did this route for the following week 3 times and then on Saturday, July 30th, we flew the 767 from Ireland to Dallas. By this time, we are both exhausted. But, once in Dallas, we have to commercial to LAS on Delta. We get Sunday off and on Monday fly from LAS to HNL. I normally do a lot once I'm in Honolulu, but this time my body still hadn't caught up. Went and ate across the street at Fat Greek. Wonderful food. Got to see Greg Cantrel and Kenny Rogers at iHop the next morning. But, we had to fly out at 11am back to Vegas. Nice, quite flight with a less than perfect landing in Vegas. Since things were so quite on our arrival, they gave us an early visual approach. Well, I turned inside the FAF 3,000 feet high. Needless to say, called for gear down, speed brakes out, flaps 30.... along with a bit of slipping LOL No problem at 1,000 agl. Fully stablized on VASI and speed. The auto extend on the speed brake was DMI'ed, so that was on my mind since it would have to be extened manually. I briefed Brian to cover me if I didn't reach over there and extend it myself. I was at F30 ref at 30 feet when I reduced power to idle. The aircraft slowly descended to about 10' on the RA, and started a mini float. I should of goosed her a bit, but just held her up and she lost lift at about ref -10 and did a mini clunk. It'll be Brian's legs out and back this coming week and then home on Monday. I need a vacation....