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Friends frequently tell me they don't think I actually work. Quite the
contrary—I often slave
over hot throttles for days at a time. Days. OK, usually only 3 days at a time.
And now I've got proof: during a trip from San Diego to Oakland we had a
jumpseater riding in the cockpit and I put him to work with my camera. Hey, he's getting a free ride.
I'm one of the lucky humans—I still essentially enjoy my job. Yes,
about 5% of the time I'd like to be elsewhere and about the 5th flight
through Cleveland gets old, but those percentages aren't bad. Not
everybody likes this job. During the 2007 Florida convention I talked
with a fellow aviator who hates it. He hates flying the jet, he
hates the overnights and hates the schedule (week on followed by a week
off). So my good fortune is not just in having the job but, more
importantly, the fact that it suits me so well.
When the picture at right was snapped, I was pointing at the flap
gauge in response to the Before Landing Checklist. I applaud our flight
ops management who have made verbiage mercifully
brief. It catches the most important 3 items: Speedbrake "armed, green
light", landing gear "down 3 green," and flaps "30, green light".
Simple but critical.
The cockpit series below depict our arrival into
Oakland's runway 29 ending with a pull of the thrust reversers. It was another bright sunny day in the bay although San
Francisco, only 15 miles west, was enshrouded in cloud. The next two
pictures were taken during climb out of San Diego.
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Final
approach OAK |
Final
approach OAK |
Final
approach OAK |
Final
approach OAK |
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Final
approach OAK |
Pulling up
reverse |
Departing
San Diego |
Torrey Pines
to N |
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East of Las
Vegas |
Chicago
Downtown |
Biz Jet SAN |
Must PPG
Here! |
The above photos also include a departure from Chicago a few days
later. The "Must PPG Here" was a place east of Las Vegas that I plan on
flying at some point in the future. I've got the distance and direction
from one of the navigation stations (BCE VOR, 222° @ 41nm) we used to use. The list
grows. And just think of all the terrain I never fly over, let alone the
foreign destinations. For example, I'll bet Canada has some beautiful
countryside. Can't wait! |
1. Yours truly actually working. You can see that I'm
hand flying because the autopilot is in "FD" (flight director) mode and
that the airplane is fully configured for landing. At this point we're
high and the engines are at idle. We plan each approach so as to be
"spooled up" (main fan spinning about 55%) by 1000 feet above ground
level (AGL).
2. Departing San Diego and looking north towards
Torrey Pines.
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