|
TheEatingMachine
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Jeff
Birthday: 2/14/1982
Gender: Male
Interests: Aviation, travel, film, literature, photography, tennis, baseball, football, basketball, spanish food, italian food, chinese food, korean food, thai food, filipino food, vietnamese food, McDonald's hot n spicy chicken sandwiches, and much much more.
Expertise: Not letting good food go to waste.
Message: message me
Member Since:
6/20/2002
|
|
| Still based at Dulles International Airport (Near D.C.) and waiting for a base change to La Guardia. Last I checked though, I was number 7 in line waiting to get LGA, so it looks unlikely, at least for the next couple months or so. I'm enjoying the flying, the people I fly with are great and I've been learning a lot from them. My days off this month are actually pretty good (except when the do last minute changes, but that's the airlines for ya). Currently, I'm relatively happy with the way things are moving in my professional and personal life. Aside from studying for the ATP and Captain exam (yeah, it's early, but never too early) I plan to start writing again. Perhaps my father has a good idea. Asians in our community are typically told to pursue careers in business, law, or medicine. You don't see many asian pilots - except in Asia (and aviation over there, with the exception of HK, is a bit behind). My father has a friend who is a chief editor for a chinese magazine and would like me to start a column about my journey through my pursuit of a career in aviation. A lot has been written out on this xanga site already, so I have some reference to jog my memory. I hope that my writing ability isn't too terrible at this point, but that's what editors are for, right? Hopefully I can encourage more interest in aviation within the asian community here and maybe even overseas in China.
| | |
| Been some time since my last update. I'm done with IOE and all that. They've based me near Washington D.C.
I'm currently staying out of a crashpad that's about 15 minutes from Dulles International Airport. Although I didn't get my first choice of La Guardia Airport, it isn't too bad, as commuting is easy with the jumpseat privileges. A direct flight from Dulles to La Guardia is typically less than an hour. For most of January I sat reserve - which sucks, because I typically had 5 days reserve and 2 days off. I actually have a pretty set schedule for the month of February that looks pretty good - no reserve days, all overnight trips, and a total of 13 days off in the month. I've already been able to utilize the perks of being an airline pilot - such as the free travel (for myself and my girlfriend). And of course we get discounts on all types of different things. My last post focused on a negative aspect of the job. I still stand by my previous statements about commitment to aspects of my life that are more important to me than work. But airplanes need to be flown nomatter what is going on in my personal life - so that can make things tough. Overall I'm happy that right now I get to do something I love and call it work.
| | |
| Welcome to the glamorous life of an airline pilot! I made my bed and now I must lie in it. Today, I had a 5am showtime, as I've had the past week. The flight was delayed for weather...originally a 6am departure became a 9:30am departure. The fog at Dulles had finally cleared up. Upon takeoff, the aircraft had some serious instrumentation issues, at least on the right side (my side) so when we got to Dulles, the plane was grounded for another 2 hours. Lots of sitting around and no flying. Finally, our middle round trip was canceled and we flew back to Charleston. Because of that, I did not get all the time I needed for IOE. Scheduling said they tried to send me on a flight back home for this afternoon, but the flights were full, so I'll have to spend New Year's Eve in good ol' podunk Charleston. Add insult to injury. I'm "pumpkinned" for tomorrow, because I started my duty week upon my departure from New York, last week on Wednesday morning. Rules say that pilots must have 24 consecutive hours of duty free time within a 7 day period. So I'm a pumpkin and cannot fly on company travel until Wednesday morning. So New Years Day will be spent here as well. Great. On Thursday, I'm good to go, ready to work again, and rack up some more hours for IOE, so that's what they have me doing, back to work (still in Charleston) for Wednesday and Thursday. They claim that they'll send me home on Friday. I'm going to hold my breath the second I land from my final trip on Thursday. So there you have it.
I love flying. I'm to understand that the first year is going to suck really really bad, and even after, I should be mentally prepared for circumstances like this. This one feels really bad. I really wanted to be home. I really needed to be back in NYC for this holiday to see someone. I know in ten years, I'll have lived through all this, and I'll have the actual glamorous life of that airline pilot who works whenever he wants with all the travel benefits. I just hope that when the time comes I won't be celebrating the pieces remaining of the sacrifices I made to get there. I can and will sacrifice many things for this career. I do know that some things I absolutely won't. I just hope I won't have to make that choice.
Granted. A lot of this came about because it happened on New Year's Eve, and all other timing elements of factor. I'm not some naive brat who thinks that I should start at the top with this career with everything giftwrapped for me. I know everybody who has the great pilot life paid their dues and made their sacrifices and went through their fair share of similar situations as mine. Some people may be willing to sacrifice everything. There's at least one everything that I cannot.
| | |
| Tomorrow is my last day of IOE. I'll be flying the same trips, starting at 5a.m. with my day ending around 2p.m. I actually still don't know yet what is supposed to happen after I get done with my last trip. I'm checking out of the hotel tomorrow (Thank God, I don't like Charleston, WV very much, it's just a bunch of factories near where I'm staying). I'm assuming that they'll be deadheading me back to New York later in the afternoon (at least I hope) so that I can get home before the big ball drops. This week has taught me a lot, flying the plane is surprisingly not that much different from the Simulator, except for the mentality of it all. It's different knowing that there are 34 paying passengers in back, so jerky maneuvers will not cut it, and neither would hard landings. Another thing is the radio communications. In the Sim, the instructor acts as ATC to enhance the illusion of real commercial aviation. In real life, at larger, busier airports such as Dulles International, the airport layouts and frequencies are a lot more complex. The first three days, I definitely felt like I was thrown into the deep end. I'm starting to get more comfortable, but I'm still slightly nervous and not fully confident. To think that in 980 more hours, I should be the Pilot in Command of this airplane just blows my mind. Right now, I'm so thankful that the Captain is next to me, guiding me, and backing me up. I hope that by the time I get the call, I'll be as confident and comfortable as he is, sitting in that left seat.
| | |
| Today I flew the Saab 340 as a First Officer with passengers. I flew the legs from Washington-Dulles to Allentown, then back to Washington-Dulles. It was about an hour each leg. Surprisingly the real Saab is actually quite easy to land, I think it might actually be easier to land than anything else I've flown so far - so needless to say, both my landings were greasers. So far I've logged just under 6 hours in the Saab. I need 994 more to upgrade to a Captain. Haha. The view up front at 14000 ft is quite beautiful. I'll have to get a hold of a camera and get some pictures.
| | |
|
