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....