Blytheville

                Hey everyone, I just commuted into MIA and im sleeping in the crew room since I have to be on ready reserve duty at 6AM. I normally do this when I commute in to start a period on because I actually get more sleep this way. The flight I normally take lands in MIA at 10:45PM. If I went to my crashpad I would have to wait for the hotel van then walk to the crashpad, probably wouldn’t get there till around midnight. My wake up time would be 4:20AM to get dressed and catch the shuttle back to the airport, so I think it makes more sense to stay here the first night. It’s not all that bad; we have a quiet room we can go in that has a couple of recliners. I can go to sleep when I want and all I have to do is get up at 5:30 and sign in on the computer and come right back and go back to sleep and wait for any phone calls.

                Before I get some sleep tonight I figured it would be a good chance to catch everyone up a little bit on a recent trip I had last week. I was on my normal S1 reserve duty and got the call about 7AM that I would be taking an empty plane to our heavy maintenance base in Blytheville Arkansas, about 70 miles north of Memphis. In our slow turboprop this is about a 3 and a half hour flight. We were then supposed to get driven to Memphis to catch a flight back to Miami that afternoon. Well as usual things don’t go as planned. The Captain and I left the gate pretty much on time but as we were taxing to the runway we got a fault on one of our anti-icing systems. After failing to get it to reset the Captain and I decided we didn’t want to take it until it got looked at since there were forecasted icing conditions along our route of flight. We notify maintenance and taxi back to where we started. 4 hours later we headed out, maintenance said they may or may not have fixed it, they changed a part they thought would fix it but not 100 percent sure. Even if it did fault again we had new routing that would allow us to avoid the icing conditions. Also in a worst case scenario we could just fly lower then we normally do and be in temperatures warm enough. Well sure enough same problem occurs as we taxi out but with our new routing and the option of flying lower we go with it.

                Turns out to be a non eventful flight however because we left so late we were going to miss out flight home and have to spend the night in Blytheville then take the flight to Miami the next day. This was my first trip to Blytheville, the airport is nearly abandoned, there was grassing growing out of the taxiways and pretty much the only group of buildings on the field is where they do our maintenance. Growing up in Oklahoma im pretty used to smallish towns, however I found myself in a bit of culture shock in this small northeast Arkansas town. It was everything you picture a small hick town to be, luckily though our hotel was nice. The next morning met the captain for breakfast at the Perkins in the hotel (didn’t see Tiger Woods) then we headed to Memphis. Our driver was one of the mechanics from Blytheville and needless to say it was an entertaining ride. Also that morning I found out that as soon as I got back to Miami I was going to be flying to Nassau and back.

                Got back to Miami and had just enough time to run into the terminal and grab a bite to eat then headed out to the plane to start my pre flight duties for the Nassau Turn. As soon as we landed in Nassau an extremely heavy rain shower came over the airport but thankfully it let up in time for me to do my post/pre flight walk around. I’ve made it 2 months in Miami without an umbrella or a raincoat. Felt I was pushing my luck to much so today I purchased a raincoat since im sure were going to get a good bit of rain from the passing Hurricane this week. That’s it for now, stay tuned.  

S1 Nassau

                Hey everyone, sorry I’ve been slacking this past week on posting. Had the weekend off so didn’t really have any motivation to post. All this month I have the S1 shift, which if you recall from my post about schedules that means I have ready reserve at the airport from 6AM-2PM. It sounds terrible but really im sort of adjusting to it well. I normally still stay up pretty late about 12-1AM just because that’s what im used to and I work best that way. I’ll basically take a nap at the crash pad from the time I go to bed to 4:20AM when my alarm goes off. I take the 5AM shuttle to the airport and usually sign in by 5:30AM. Once I get signed in and to the crew room I go right to our “quiet” room where we have a couple of recliners, I’ll get comfy in those and finish off the night of my sleep, sometimes I’ll sleep all the way till 11-12 if im not called, so in the end I still get an easy 8-10 hours of sleep. It’s also nice because more often than not I get to sleep through about 6 of my 8 hours on duty.  All of this works great until your phone rings at 6:20AM.

                Yup that’s what happened to me last week. Just as I was getting comfy to finish off my night of sleep my phone rang at 6:20AM and it was crew scheduling. Apparently the plane that stayed overnight in Nassau was broken and I was assigned to ferry a new plane out to Nassau to rescue the passengers. Captain and I blasted off with an empty airplane and no flight attendants to Nassau at 7AM. After we were shutdown I learned I was being marooned in Nassau until the broken plane was fixed and they would fly a new Captain out later that day to take the fixed plane home. Not really sure why they just didn’t have the captain I flew out with also fly back with me but whatever, crew scheduling often times has a mind of their own. After getting things sorted out I learned I would be sitting in Nassau for about 4 hours. Took the time to get some breakfast do a little shopping around the airport and got some reading in. 

                The new Captain finally showed up 2 flights later and we quickly got on our way back to Miami. Flight went pretty smoothly, again a completely empty plane with no flight attendants. It was my leg flying home and was met with a nice 15kt crosswind, doesn’t sound like much but the ATR has a relatively narrow wheelbase and a high wing which causes it to become a handful in even a small amount of cross wind. We flew through a good downpour on final which quickly became a stout little cell with a lot of lightning which caused us to have to sit in the plane for an extra 15-20min due to the ramp closing once we parked.

                That was pretty much the excitement from last week. I’ve been keeping a photo album on facebook, here is the public link which should allow anyone to view this one album even if you’re not a member of facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150208132207880.318424.507817879&l=49a1206d98&type=1

Land of the Seminole

                Hey everyone, happy Tuesday. Hope all of my friends and family back in Oklahoma are staying cool, looks like the heat wave has somehow been turned up a notch this week. Im on day 4 of 7 of being away, my last day is Friday then I will be flying up to New Jersey to spend my weekend off with my grandparents and fiancé. Today Im going to write about an interesting flight I had a couple of nights ago.

                I was sitting S3 reserve and got the phone call around 3PM that I would be flying up to Tallahassee and back leaving at 5:50PM. This is normally a route served by the jet but they cancelled today for some unknown reason and they decided to send an ATR in its place. Got to the plane about 45 minutes before departure, I like to give myself plenty of time to get everything situated up in the cockpit and get all my pre flight duties accomplished without having to rush. In a later post I’ll give a detailed description of everything I do during a typical flight.

                We left the gate pretty much on time. I was going to fly us up to Tallahassee and the Captain was going to fly us back. This is how its normally done at the airlines, the Captain and First Officer switch off between the “Pilot Flying” and “Pilot Monitoring” roles. The pilot flying is obviously the one controlling the aircraft and the pilot monitoring is working the radios and running the checklists. Took off on 8R out of Miami and made our left turn to head NW towards the land of the Seminoles. Everything was going smoothly until passing about 10,000ft we got an alert that we had a bleed air over hear. This wasn’t a huge problem but it needed to be addressed. The Captain gave me the radios and control of the plane, which I all ready had, while he ran the appropriate checklists. After talking to maintenance operation control they wanted us to return to MIA since we don’t have any maintenance available in Tallahassee. Making an enroute return takes a fair amount of work to accomplish. There’s a handful of different people that need to be notified of what’s going on, flight plans have to be changed, and the Captain has to make the dreaded PA to the all ready unhappy passengers. Reason they were all ready unhappy is that the problem we had affected the air condition system in the plane so they were pretty warm in the back and all ready getting cranky. I landed us back in Miami without any issues and the passengers were sent back to the terminal for now.

                Next issue we had was finding a new plane to continue the flight. Turn out we all ready had 3 ATR’s broke in Miami, because of that it took them another 45 min to an hour before we were assigned a new plane. We ended up launching again for Tallahassee with the same passengers at about 9:20PM, about the time we were supposed to be getting back from Tallahassee. This time things went a lot smoother, our routing took us up over Tampa Bay then out over the gulf a short ways to Tallahassee. While we were over Tampa I looked out my side window and saw the fireworks from the Orlando theme parks which were neat to see from about 100 miles away. I luckily made a nice smooth landing in Tallahassee for our very unhappy passengers. One thing that is often beneficial about the ATR is that there is a cargo compartment between the cockpit and the cabin, because of this we rarely actually see our passengers. On nights like that it’s a good thing however I felt sorry for our flight attendants in the back.

                After having to wait for our last paperwork for a good 15 min we finally took off back to Miami. Some weather had built up to the NE of Tampa that provided us a very nice light show for about half the flight. So far that’s one of my favorite things is watching a big towering cumulonimbus cloud light up like a firework from the air. Also this time as we were flying of the Tampa area I had a great overhead view of the area where I will be getting married next summer, was neat to see it all from the air at night. Finally got to the gate in Miami at 1:23AM, we had both been on duty since 2PM so it turned into a very long day. It was worth it for the sites I got to see though.  

Niner Six Quebec

     For today's post i've decided to share an essay i wrote during my Freshman year of college for my English comp class. The assignment was something like describe how communication plays a role in your career field or something like that. That's why you'll see that topic talked about in the essay. However for the most part though the essay talks a lot about my flight training days and even before that. I know its a little over the top probably in places but i had to make it good and juicy for the professor. Anyway hope you enjoy the read, its long but oh well.

Niner Six Quebec

“Oh I have slipped the surely bonds of earth
and danced the skies on laughter silvered wings.
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun split clouds
and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of,
wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.”

“High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee

“Cessna niner six quebec enter a right base for runway 35 Right your number 2 following a Cherokee on 1 mile final cleared to land.” Those were the instructions I received from Wiley Post tower.

            I responded “Roger well enter a right base for 35 Right number 2 behind the traffic.”

            It was a magnificently beautiful evening. The sun was beginning to set in the western sky.  As we flew over downtown Oklahoma City my dad, who was in the right seat, pointed out the sun reflecting off the sky scrapers. Earlier that day I had taken my private pilot check ride. It had been an intense morning of demonstrating my flying skills to a FAA designated flight examiner. That afternoon my dad and I decided to take a celebration flight. We departed from our hometown in Ardmore Oklahoma, to go see my mom who was at a school conference in Oklahoma City.  As I listened to the busy chatter of the air traffic controllers in the busy airspace, I thought to myself how I found it easy to understand this language. It was not always easy for me. Although English is the worldwide language for all air traffic control, it is in many ways different than just speaking normal English to one another.

            Years before I started my real life flight training I became intrigued by a computer flight simulator. The game was played online with hundreds of other aviation enthusiasts. Since the game is focused on real world detail, even air traffic control is simulated. I remember the very first time I flew using voice air traffic control. I had listened to people talk on the game and even found myself listening to recordings of real pilots talking on the radio. Even though I had a pretty good idea of what to say, I was scared to press the button that would transmit my voice over the internet to the virtual air traffic controller.  After sitting there for what had to have been 5 to 10 minutes I finally gathered the courage to speak into the microphone.

I said “Delta 1129 request IFR clearance to Dallas Forth Worth.”

After a short pause the controller responded “Delta 1129 cleared to Dallas Forth Worth via the Atlanta 5 departure WESTWO transition, climb and maintain one two thousand feet. Departure on 126.9 squawk 4435.”

It all came so fast I couldn’t believe it.  I had to repeat almost everything he just rattled off to me. Most of the time I have a good memory, but the nervousness must have gotten to me. I was afraid I would say something wrong but I tried anyway. I soon was corrected on my mistakes. I only got a few of the directions and numbers right. I felt embarrassed but luckily the controller was nice about it. After a lot of practice and mistakes, I finally started to catch on to the flow of air traffic control language.

A couple of years later, I found myself sitting in the cockpit of a Cessna 172. I was about to take my very first real life flight lesson. I was incredibly excited. I was embarking on a journey to fulfill my lifelong dream and begin progressing towards my career. The aircraft I was flying was a 1971 model. I know this sounds very old, which it is, but airplanes age very well. Looking at it from the outside one could easily tell it was from the 70’s. The original white paint with puke yellow stripes showed signs of wear and tear. The interior consisted of brown and yellow seats. Even though she wasn’t the newest or shiniest plane out there, nothing could take away from my excitement and adrenalin. As I buckled myself into the pilot’s seat, my mind began to wonder if my experience on my computer game would help me with the air traffic control language of real life. After working my way through all the preflight checks, it was finally time to start the engine for the first time. After cranking a few times our engine sprang to life. The spin of the propeller and engine vibrated the entire plane. As we taxied out towards the runway I began thinking about what I would say over the radio. I felt like I knew what to say, but again just like on the computer that nervousness came over me. I turned and asked my instructor what to say just for reassurance.

Aviation uses a lot of abnormal words compared to the normal English language. One of the most noticeable differences one might hear, is the use of the phonetic alphabet. Instead of using letters such as A, B, or C, both pilots and air traffic controllers will say Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. This helps to avoid confusion with letters that sound alike. For example, M and N are commonly confused and sound alike. In the phonetic alphabet M and N are referred to as “Mike” and “November.” The steepest learning curve does not come from the language itself; instead it comes from the speed at which the words are presented. Often times in a busy airspace, air traffic controllers will rattle off an entire sentence, sometimes multiple sentences, in just a split second. A pilot must be able to hear, interpret, and reply within a matter of seconds. It takes a great deal of concentration and understanding to accomplish this.

As I progressed in my training, I found myself becoming more and more confident with my communications with air traffic controllers. Once my flight instructor saw that I had become comfortable with the air traffic control language in our local area, he decided to take me on a flight into the Dallas/Forth Worth airspace. This particular airspace is ranked in the top 5 of the busiest airspaces in the world. I was excited about the opportunity to test my newly acquired confidence. We took off and headed south towards Dallas. The closer we got to our destination in Dallas, the more air traffic control chatter I could hear. Even for the experienced pilot, this airspace can be challenging and confusing. Soon before I knew it, we were in the thick of things. The controllers in Dallas began shooting instructions and commands at us left and right. However I found myself staying calm, understanding the instructions, and responding in a timely manner. Although the common little mistakes were still made, overall I performed excellent. This trip completely assured my confidence that I truly knew and understood the aviation language.   As with nearly everything, practice makes perfect. The more opportunities I received to talk to air traffic controllers, the more confident and fluid I became with the language. After nearly a year of training, my flight instructor said I was ready to take the test for my private pilot’s license. I had spent hours upon hours on practicing the flight maneuvers and techniques that I would be required to demonstrate.

It was a steamy morning in June. I was scheduled to meet with the FAA flight examiner at 9:30AM. I woke up and took a shower to help wash the drowsiness away. I left the house early so that I would have time to stop by sonic and get some food in my stomach. I felt nervous, but I knew I was ready for the task at hand. Once I arrived at the airport, I was wished luck by all of the local “airport coffee drinkers.” Once the examiner showed up we began the test. It started out with an oral portion that took roughly an hour and a half. He asked me all different questions pertaining to aviation. Some of them included information about the different kinds of aviation language used. Once we completed the oral section, I did a preflight on the airplane. The flying portion of the review only took about 45 minutes. He instructed me to perform several different maneuvers I had learned. Once we made our last landing and began taxing back to the hanger, I felt relieved it was over, but now I was nervous to hear if I passed or not. As I parked the aircraft and shut the engine down, he opened his door and stepped out.

He leaned back in and said “congratulations you’re a private pilot son.”

As we turned onto final approach for the runway at the Wiley Post airport, I felt a sense of pride

greater than anything else I had experienced in my young life. I had learned the skill of flying an airplane and was now on my way to fulfilling my dream of becoming an airline pilot. Language played a large role during my training. Not only in the sense of communication with air traffic control, but also being able to understand and communicate efficiently with my flight instructor.

Line and Sequence Examples

This is an example of a "line" The next picture we will take a look at what sequence 131 actually looks like when broken down

sequence 131 broken down by day