20 Years Later

I am sitting here typing this from around 34,000ft, somewhere over the top of Tropical Storm/Depression Ida.  No, I have not taken a job with Northwest Airlines, I am riding in the back of a Delta Airlines MD-88.  The aircraft is equipped with GoGo Inflight Internet.  Thankfully, it is free to try.  Let me tell you though, it is difficult to juggle a laptop, peanuts, and a glass of water on the seatback table. Also, I had better type fast, because the length of my post may be limited to the space remaining on my battery.

When I was on the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the terminal, I glanced over the front page of the USA Today.  It had a story on the front page talking about this being the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  I remember that day very clearly in 1989.  I also remember the great Ronald Regan telling Russian President Gorbachev to "Tear Down This Wall!"  That will forever be embedded in my head, as most of my formative years took place during the cold war.

The story in the USA Today also reminded me of a training event I went through back in 2001, right before the Twin Towers were brought down by terrorists intent on toppling the United States.  It was August and I was in the middle of training.  I was upgrading from Captain on the Jetstream 41 to Captain on the Canadair Regional Jet.  At that time, the economy was still going strong and people were flying in record numbers.  I was fortunate to benefit from this through rapid upgrades from First Officer to Captain.  Life was looking very good!  Due to the this rapid growth, the airlines, mine included, did not have the simulator resources to train all the pilots it needed to.  Therefore, we did the ground school training in-house and then bought simulator slots wherever we could find them.  At my airline, Atlantic Coast Airlines, we bought CRJ sim slots in Delaware, Montreal, and Berlin, Germany.  I really wasn't interested in doing my sim training in our Washington DC base, because I would then have to stay at home where there would be far too many distractions.  Instead of studying and preparing for my sim sessions, I might be tempted to watch the latest episodes of my favorite tv shows on cable.  When it came time for me to decide where I wanted to go, I chose Berlin.

I had been to Germany a few times on Vacation and loved the area and the people.  And if the food wasn't good enough, the beer was amazing!!!  I had heard a rumor that there are over 5,000 varieties of beer in Germany, each of them tested by the government for purity.  WHERE DO I GET THAT JOB?  I was thinking I might be in the wrong line of work!  At least my travel benefits allowed me to go over there a few times and enjoy some of my favorites. 

I was scheduled to deadhead on Lufthansa directly to Berlin.  It was a Capital-to-Capital shuttle that was being heavily promoted.  I introduced myself to the lead flight attendant and asked if I could do the same to the Captain.  She took my ID up to the Captain, who then invited me up to the cockpit.  After chatting for a few minutes, he invited me to ride the cockpit jumpseat of his Airbus A340 for the takeoff and climbout.  Remember my friends, at the beginning of this post, I told you this was a month prior to 9/11.  That would never happen today.  I was very thankful for his hospitality.   I stayed there until we were over New York City, when he invited me to get my co-pilot in coach class, and bring him up to Business Class where we were being upgraded.  Did I already say that I loved the Germans?  Another thing about the Germans, is that they are very efficient.  I'm sure you've heard that you can set your watch by the train schedule, and they're not lying.  You wouldn't believe how efficient they were when we arrived in Berlin. When I walked out the front door of the airplane, I literally walked 20 feet to the customs and immigration official.  He stamped my passport and I walked through a sliding door. Right in front of we was the baggage carousel. My bag came within 5 minutes and I walked about 30 feet to another sliding door.  When it opened, I was deposited at the curb where our transportation to the hotel was waiting. If only we could do it like that here in the USA.

A short time later, we arrived at the hotel I would be spending the next 17 days.  It was in East Berlin and 2 blocks from Check Point Charlie.  This is the famous border crossing between the East and West parts of Berlin.  On either side would be the Berlin Wall.  There isn't much left of the wall.  The only remaining section of the wall is an 1,800 foot section that is a now a memorial.  It contains graffiti all along it's length.  Instead of it degrading the wall, they have artists come and decorate the wall with artistic graffiti.  I have heard that it changes every few years.  It is difficult to walk into a tourist shop, and not find pieces of the wall that you can buy and take home with you as souvenirs.

Well, we have started our descent into my destination of Pittsburgh.  Thankfully, my battery has lasted the flight, and I just need to finish up before the Flight Attendants force me to turn off my computer.

As I read the article about the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, I couldn't help but remember the time I spent in Berlin.  I have looked through the history books at what life was like prior to the fall of the wall.  I came home to the worst terrorist attack in the US history.  It is proof that evil, pain and suffering is never far away, but peace will always prevail.

"Flight Attendants, Please Prepare for Arrival!"

Video of the Day!

Video of the day! This is a special from the BBC on Airline Pilots during a long-haul international flight. It's from quite a few years ago. The pilots talk about many of the things we still deal with today, including fatigue, numerous time zone shifts, sleep, and boredom on long flights. I love when the Captain walks through the cabin in flight, greeting the passengers. PS-Did you notice the spectacles on him? He must be the British Equivalent of Harry Carey! ;-D

Great article about Northwest Flight 188

I read an article from Ask the Pilot on salon.com and wanted to re-post it. It is written by Patrick Smith and accurately talks about the overreaction by congress to the overflight of Minneapolis by Northwest 188. 99.9% of the pilot population are serious about being professional and being safe. There is nothing we want more that to get our passengers to their destination safely and comfortably, in that order! Besides, if we get there in one piece, so do you! These two pilots did nothing but degrade the public opinion of my chosen profession. I wanted to post Mr. Smith's article, because I couldn't have said it better myself.

Here it is:

Air Travel

Thursday, Nov 5, 2009 17:05 PST

Ask The Pilot

The real distractions for pilots

The scolds in Congress pushing for legislation banning nonessential gadgets from the cockpit are on the wrong track

By Patrick Smith

AP Photo/FlightAware.com

The flight path of Northwest Flight 188 on Oct. 21, 2009.

For those of you who live in a cave and didn't catch it, back on Oct. 21, both pilots of Northwest Flight 188, an Airbus A320 bound from San Diego to Minneapolis, went mentally AWOL somewhere over Minnesota -- distracted by their laptop computers, so they say -- missing a series of air traffic control calls and straying off course. The incident sparked a media frenzy that lasted nearly two weeks.

Now, as I feared might happen, the witch hunt is on: Politicians are weighing in, pushing for federal legislation that would prohibit pilots from using laptop computers and other devices while flying.

First on this square-wheeled bandwagon is Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who wants to ban all nonessential gadgets from the cockpit.

"With dozens or sometimes hundreds of lives in their hands," said Sen. Menendez, "we need to ensure that pilots are focused on one thing only: getting their aircraft from point A to point B safely and efficiently."

"What's true in a car is generally true in an airplane," he added, demonstrating an exquisite knowledge of how jetliners are operated, "and we need to address distracted flying, just as we are addressing distracted driving. The fact that there isn't already a prohibition on 'texting while flying' for airplanes seems reckless."

Well, except that such rules do in fact exist. Almost all airlines prohibit the personal use of computers in the cockpit, and the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) restrict a pilot's use of certain other devices just as they do for passengers. Is a federal law going to make any difference?

And if Menendez is truly that concerned about "distraction," why is he not weighing in on the improvement of flight and duty time regulations, which, believe me, are a much bigger threat to safety than a pilot's laptop or iPhone.

• Continue Reading

Chiming in with Menendez is his colleague Al Franken of Minnesota. Now, I was a fan of Franken going back to his early days on "Saturday Night Live" in the 1970s (Franken & Davis, not Stuart Smalley), but I wish he'd butt out of this.

"As passengers, we open our laptops on airplanes for one reason," wrote the senator in a statement. "To distract ourselves from the fact that we're flying. But airline pilots can't be distracted from constant monitoring of their aircraft and traffic."

Constant monitoring? What does that mean, Al? I can't argue with the gist of your concern -- like anybody else you want pilots to be, as we say in the biz, situationally aware. But how much do you know, honestly, about what goes on in a cockpit at 35,000 feet during cruise flight -- about which things pilots need to monitor, and how?

"We all pay a lot for air travel," added Franken. "I think an attentive pilot should be included in that ticket price."

Now he's being cute, and so I can't resist: This is ripe for argument, Senator, but I'll submit that we don't pay a lot for air travel, comparatively speaking. Airfares have been in decline for each of the past 10 months, and on average we're paying the same to fly today that we were paying in the 1980s. And, of course, an attentive pilot (two of them to be more accurate, and sometimes a third or fourth) is included in that ticket price -- though one of the reasons they are earning 20-40 percent less than in years past is because that ticket price is so low.

I'm just saying.

Although what occurred over Minneapolis was an obvious dereliction of duty on the part of the crew, the media's fixation on the event was and remains vastly disproportionate to any danger the passengers faced. To have members of the U.S. Senate joining the fray ratchets up the hysteria even more. Of all the things government can and should be doing to improve commercial air safety -- from overhauling the lunacy of the Transportation Security Administration to dealing with the very real dangers of lithium-ion batteries carried as cargo -- for any lawmaker to spend even five minutes on a proposal like this is shameful. Alas issues involving batteries aren't very sexy, lacking the more scandalous aspects of our wayward pilots and their PCs.

And what exactly constitutes a distraction? Are Franken and Menendez suggesting that, for example, a pilot on a nine-hour flight be banned from snapping a photograph while traversing the grandeur of Greenland, or shooting a few seconds of video? I try not to overuse the word "preposterous," but in this case it's perfect. Such rules would do nothing -- nothing -- to enhance safety. Should pilots be banned from eating meals or carrying on conversations? Is everything under suspicion save for staring straight ahead?

Ultimately, I think there are two underlying factors at work here.

First, despite my best efforts over the past seven years, the truth remains that a vast majority of people have no real idea what the environment of a cockpit is like. They have little understanding of what an airline pilot actually does up there, and what the repercussions of certain mistakes are -- or aren't.

Pilots are at times extremely busy; at other times there are long stretches of low workload. Duties come and go, ebb and flow, and an aircraft will not suddenly flip upside down or come screaming out of the sky if a pilot's attention is temporarily diverted. Indeed it often needs to be diverted. If you want to guarantee more tired and brain-fried pilots, the best way to do it would be through some of that "constant monitoring" that Sen. Franken seems to be hinting at.

Meanwhile, nervous passengers hear the term "pilot error" and it frightens them. Occasionally it should, but I don't always like that term because it fosters the ridiculous idea that any error is a potentially fatal one, and that for a flight to be safe its pilots cannot in some way err. In practice pilots make minor, inconsequential mistakes all the time -- just as any professional does in any line of work. There is no such thing as a perfect flight, and we will not, ever, engineer, automate or legislate this reality away. Considering the rarity of crashes, people should be more comfortable with that.

I also sense that this is yet another manifestation of people's distrust and dislike for airlines. Pilots, more so than most airline employees, usually escape the traveling public's wrath, but we're not immune (especially when people have this crazy, ill-formed idea that pilots are bringing in huge salaries in exchange for little or no actual work). Politicians smell blood, and this is an easy way for them to look good. Really, what's to lose in any legislation that in some way takes airlines to task?

Am I absolving the Northwest pilots of blame? Am I advocating that crews should be allowed to break out their laptops to play computer games or surf the Internet while flying? No. But here again we are witnessing one of this country's most wasteful and self-defeating tendencies: that of coming up with unrealistic, zero-tolerance solutions to problems that are either greatly exaggerated, badly misunderstood, or that don't exist in the first place.

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Lastly, a quick thanks to the many readers who sent condolences and other kind words after the death of my mother. I received more than 150 e-mails during the past several days, in addition to the dozens of posts left in the letters section of last week's column. I could not respond to everybody with a personal thank-you, but all of your letters were appreciated.

I was going through some of my mother's things a few days ago, and among the items I found were her American Airlines stewardess wings, an "AA" eagle lapel pin, and a "Stewardess Corps" pendant, all from 1965. They are rendered in sterling silver -- tarnished but beautifully engraved.

It should go without saying that airlines no longer give out sterling silver wings.

The first airplane I was ever on, big or small, was an American Airlines Boeing 727, in April of 1974. We flew from Boston to Washington, D.C., and they served sandwiches and cheesecake -- yes, in economy class on an 80-minute trip. I remember the stewardess asking if I wanted seconds.

The photo you see here, taken by my mother, shows me and my sister walking up the stairs to that airplane.

There are some definite date markers in that shot -- the haircuts, the clothes, the old-timey air-stairs in lieu of the modern jet bridge.

Astute viewers will notice one thing that hasn't changed, though: the American Airlines livery. I know of no major carrier that has stuck with the same color scheme and logo for so long. The bare polished aluminum, the gothic tail bird and tricolor cheat; there's nothing particularly beautiful about it, but I hope they keep it going -- if for no other reason than it bucks the annoying "in motion" livery theme that is now so common among airlines. Take a look at the tarmac palette these days -- there are enough streaks, swishes, swirls and curls out there to make anybody dizzy, most of them indistinguishable from each other. Carriers want to appear slick, sleek and modern, but they've jettisoned their identities in the process.

I am really fond of those drive-up stairs. There's something dramatic about stepping onto a plane this way: the ground-level approach along the tarmac followed by the slow ascent. The effect is similar to watching the opening credits of a film -- a brief, formal introduction to the journey. By contrast, the jet bridge (Jetway if you prefer) makes the plane itself feel almost irrelevant; you're merely in transit from one annoying interior space (terminal) to another (airplane cabin). Many of the overseas routes I fly find me at airports that still employ stairs, and I always get a thrill from them.

All right, except for those times when it's 95 degrees and I've got 90 pounds of luggage.

What's the Coolest Thing You've Seen From the Cockpit

This is a question that most pilots have been asked numerous times by passengers, friends, and family. It is a question that we pilots have certainly debated during those many hours of boredom during cruise. Cruise is the middle portion of the flight that begins at the top of climb and ends with the beginning of the descent into the arrival city. While short flights between New York and DC don't leave much time for boredom, I have certainly had plenty of time in the middle of the ocean on a transatlantic crossing to think about some of the amazing things I have seen in my career.

I have been treated to some amazing sights during my aviation career. Many of them happened prior to my time in the cockpit of an airliner. Some happened very early on in my flying, including during the time I was earning my pilot's certificates.

The first that I remember happened when I was studying for my Commercial Pilot certificate. I was doing a cross country flight from rapid City, south Dakota to Grand Forks, North Dakota. This lesson required that I do a flight with my instructor that included 4 hours of day flying and 2 hours of night flying. We planed the flight down from Grand Forks (GFK) to Aberdeen, SD, Pierre, SD and on to Rapid City. We arrived in Rapid City just as the sun was starting to set. We had hope to fly a couple circles around Mt. Rushmore, so the controller was kind enough to give us vectors to the monument. We couldn't see a thing out the front window with the sun right in our eyes. After passing the monument, Air Traffic Control (ATC) turned us around and got us headed in the right direction. As soon as we rolled out of the turn we could see it...it helps not having the sun burning holes in our retinas. There in front of us was Mt. Rushmore. As amazing as it looks on TV or in history books, nothing could prepare us for what it looked like at eye level as we circled it a few times. We then landed in Rapid city, had dinner, and prepared to leave for the flight back to GFK. We departed Rapid City after dark and climbed out to the Northwest toward Bismark, ND. About 15 minutes after takeoff, we were treated to one of the most amazing natural sights I have ever seen. the Northern Lights appeared right in front of us from as far left to as far right as we could see. If you've never seen them before, I hope you one day get the chance. They are associated with the solar winds, a flow of ions flowing outward from the sun. the earth's magnetic fields trap these particles, where they react with atmospheric atoms, causing energy releases that we see as the Northern Lights. They are only seen in the Northern Hemisphere and usually during the winter months. The picture to the left is courtesy of the Internet. I did not have a camera with me at the time, which is one of the reasons I now have one with me whenever I fly. Many times, they are only visible for a few minutes, I watched them during this flight for over two hours.

The next experience I usually tell people about is the time I saw the comet Hale-Bopp. I was flying from Chicago to Leesburg, Virginia. I had just departed the Ohio State University airport in Columbus, OH, where I had stopped for fuel. I had just leveled off at my cruise altitude when I remembered that Hale-Bopp should be visible to the Northwest. I looked over my left shoulder, and there it was. The benefit of seeing it while airborne, is that you are above most of the pollution that is nearer to the ground. It looked much bigger and brighter than it appeared when you looked at it from the ground. Hale-Bopp was discovered in July of 1995 and was visible for a record 18 months. The discovery was shared by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp. Hale was tracking known comets from his driveway in New Mexico, while Bopp didn't even own a telescope. Bopp was in Arizona, looking through a friend's telescope while out with friends observing star clusters and galaxies. They both checked for known comets, and when not finding any in that area, notified the Central Bureau of Astronomical Telegrams. The CBAT verified the comet the next day and named it after the two men.

Just a year ago, I was flying across the Atlantic on a trip to England. It was near sunrise as we approached the Irish coast, when the Captain thought he saw a satellite moving across the sky. Most of the time, we have the cockpit light on full to help stave off the effects of flying through the night. If it is a clear night, we sometimes turn off the lights to take a look at the stars. The Captain noticed movement in the sky and told me where to look for it. I found the object he was talking about and was amazed at the speed of it's movement across the sky. Even though we are flying at over 500 mph, we see very little relative movement due to our altitude of around 7 miles above the ground. This object was obviously in space and moving at thousands of miles per hour. After about a minute, this object flew over the horizon and out of sight. It looked larger than your average satellite and was more orange in color. After discussing it, we realized that we had been looking at the International Space Station.

These are just a few of the amazing things I have been fortunate enough to see during my flying career. While these are the most memorable, I am always amazed at the view out my office window. Even if it is raining or snowing on the ground, I am almost always guaranteed to see blue skies or bright stars. I only wish that I could leave the cockpit door open, so that you could come up and see what I get to see every day.

My First Blog!

This should be an interesting experience...for you the reader, and me! I should probably start with the disclaimers. My views, and the views I decide to share on this blog, are my own and my own only! Most importantly, I am not the best or the funniest writer in the world, but I will try to make it interesting. If you're lucky, it might even be funny!

I am a pilot with a major US airline. I currently fly the Boeing 757 & 767. As much as I love flying the 757, I will be making a change after the new year. I have decided to take a break from the international flying I have been doing for the past 5 years, and will focus on more domestic flying, i.e. less time zone changes. It is true that airlines doing more with less during the last ten years. That includes the pilots. We are doing more and making less. I'm not going to turn this post into a debate over what I deserve to be paid, I will just say that I have been working more hours than I ever have in my life. It has taken it's toll on my body, so I have decided to give it a break and enjoy what my country, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and our brethren to the North have to offer. Therefore, I will be going to 737 training in January. I figured it has been 3 years since I've added a type rating to my certificate, so I decided to do something about it.

Speaking of type ratings, back to my credentials. I am just barely on the shy side of 40 years old. (very shy side)... I have just around 10,000 hours, give or take, and am type rated in the Jetstream 4100, Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ-200), Airbus A320, Boeing 757 & Boeing 767. I also have Second-in-Command (read-not PIC) type ratings in the DC-10 and Boeing 717, errr...DC-9. In other words, my pilot certificate might need Lypo Suction if I get any more type ratings. I figure there aren't too many more I can get. My company has 777's and will soon be getting 787's. (soon, being before the turn of the century). Are any of you trying to figure out who I work for yet? I know my friends and family already know, but I'm sure it would eventually become obvious anyway.

Like I said earlier, I really hope this will be an interesting way for me to be creative, share some ideas, and be a place for me to tell stories and post pictures from my travels. If you are not in the aviation industry, I hope you get an idea through some of my stories of just what life is like in front of the cockpit door. As I know that most airline pilots tell you not to congregate around the cockpit door, but my door will always be open, so gather 'round and enjoy the view! Just be mindful of the bathroom door that is right next to the cockpit door. You never can tell what that odor is!