A Day In The Life Of A Pilot

[DeltaRomeo]

Contract trip side gig today to aid with , & . Four legs filed - 7 hours in the cockpit minimum. Happy for the occasional SIC side work.

Woke up 0330 for an hour drive to the plane and scheduled 0600 departure.

At 0430 I pulled into Whataburger’s drive thru to get a taquito. “Could I also have one packet of salt?” Sure thing! “Have a nice day!” Made eye contact with the cheerful lady. We established two way communication and fulfilled the challenge and response requirement.

When I got to the plane this was what was in the bottom of the bag.

14 peppers. 0 salt.



Ice, papers, coffee, ATIS, clearance, ground, radar, storms off the end of the runway, departure change, takeoff. Let’s go to work. Ended up returning to the point of origin after being in cruise for 1.5 hours due to a issue that would require us to avoid all icing. Non-emergency but couldn’t land where we wanted due to increased runway requirements and forecast weather. Texts between the captain and home base resulted in the decision to return (we were empty and they found another plane to go get the client). At least the storms were still hanging around DFW, so yay!

Back home seven hours after I left.

Neither Embraer or Whataburger could pull it off today with the equipment at hand.

Pilot life, baby. ;^)

Let’s hear your stories…




Addendum:

The whole point of this post, I guess, is to let those thinking that his work is glamorous realize that a LOT of the time it’s pretty much 180* the opposite <grin>. If you’re low time and it’s your goal, it’s absolutely doable, but I’m guessing it won’t end up being what you think.

The saving grace of the day? For a few glorious minutes, westbound before sunrise, this was the view over my right shoulder. We were carrying the mail 500mph over the ground trying to outrun a sunrise terminator coming at us at 1,000mph. For a bit it was the best office view on earth.

It made up for the lack of salt, and reminded me again that I worked pretty much that same Whataburger job as a teenager, with thoughts of the sky. It took nearly four decades, but here we are. Seven miles above the surface and grateful.

The bright star on the left is Vega, in the constellation Lyra. Sulafat and Sheliak are also visible if you click on the image (the Ring Nebula M57 is in between those two stars).

The goal next week is to put another hour on the RV.

 

[Majorpayne317641]

I once waited for 6 hours for a jet to be repaired that needed to be evacuated from the path of a hurricane (or stored in a hangar, but they said there wasn’t enough room). We found out in the 6th hour of said wait that they found space for this jet in that very same hangar that had no room and they didn’t need us to fly it anymore.

I’m sure others have had crazy MX wait stories too.

 

[ronrapp]

I could write a book.

Whoever coined the phrase "some days you're the hammer, other days you're the nail" HAD to have been a pilot.

--Ron

 

[crabandy]

How’s flying into Aspen over Christmas Break…….

 

[Jonnyb]

I could write a book.

Whoever coined the phrase "some days you're the hammer, other days you're the nail" HAD to have been a pilot.

--Ron

I’ve been feeling more like the nail than the hammer since covid.
Don’t know what it’s like your side of the pond, but over here it feels like anyone with any experience has retired. And the lunatics are well and truly in charge of the asylum!

 

[DeltaRomeo]

I could write a book.

I'd read that book! Post it here in installments <grin>.

 

[Ironflight]

Can’t tell you how many times I structured my schedule around a launch date, spent all night on console supporting the pre-launch shift…then we scrubbed and we had to do it all over again….and again….and again…..

After a scrub, I usually went to the airport and went flying!!

 

[jjb]

The vicissitudes of a professional life in aviation notwithstanding, for those with a true passion for their craft, aviation is the absolute best job in the world.

I do recall one time as a First Officer holding short in a conga line behind the latest and greatest bizjet, when the Captain remarked to me that he would love to fly one of those.

My thought was that I would love to be the guy sitting in the back of the bizjet with the financial horsepower to own it and pay the Captain to fly me.

At the time, there was financial turbulence and a lot of uncertainty in the airline industry. I was starting all over at the bottom of the seniority list as a refugee from a defunct but once proud airline whose renowned logo was the big blue ball painted on the tail.

But looking back, I (and most I know) would not trade the life for anything, even those long days with early wakeups, mechanical issues, and fast food with no salt.

Your sunrise photo from the flight levels sums it up. Good memories.

 

[ronrapp]

I’ve been feeling more like the nail than the hammer since covid.
Don’t know what it’s like your side of the pond, but over here it feels like anyone with any experience has retired. And the lunatics are well and truly in charge of the asylum!

I'm sorry to hear that. I'm in the 91 world here in the U.S., which as far as I can tell contains the very best and worst work environments in aviation. The difference is the employer. I'm lucky to work for what I consider to be the best of the best. I have never felt anything but gratitude for where I'm at, what I do, and who I get to fly with.

Even so, there are days when weather, air traffic, duty day, circadian and mechanical factors conspire to make what was a highly challenging work day even more so. It's just the nature of the business.

Doug's story reminded me that I used to see Kobe Bryant frequently at what was then Atlantic Aviation SNA. He'd take a helicopter from Orange County to Staples Center to save wear and tear on his body from the drive. Anyway, as much as he loved the game, you could tell by watching him that the guy was going to WORK. So I think this sort of thing applies to all of us in one way and time or another.

--Ron

 

[ronrapp]

I'd read that book! Post it here in installments <grin>.

Oh, it would be a barn burner.

Career-burner, too...

 

[rocketman1988]

Oh, it would be a barn burner.

Career-burner, too...

Yep, have to wait until after retirement…

 

[2theskyy]

 

[John RV8]

Way back when… I was a new Capt. based at Chicago O’hare, flying a Saab 340, on reserve and not being used much. It’s July and Oshkosh is in full swing. I’m on a 90 minute call out, this is pre cell phones, but hey, I’ve got a pager. So I decided to borrow a buddies ‘airport car’ and go to Oshkosh! Spent the morning looking at RV’s especially the brand new RV-8 prototype. Early afternoon I figured I need to head south, somewhere near Milwaukee my pager goes off, pull off find a pay phone, crew scheduling says they need me to fly.
I tell them, I might be more than 90 minutes… they say hey the plane is at the hangar, which is right next to the employee lot. Call us from the hangar. I get there, call them, then go to the plane (F/O already there) I can see O’hare is a mess (construction) call ground before even starting engines, they say call us back in 45 minutes and we might be able to get you out of hangar alley. I call company ops give them the delay news, they say never mind, flight has canceled, go home. Just another fun day at work.

BTW- My RV-8 lives very close to VAF headquarters

 

[Driving '67]

A early morning sunrise .... one of the joys of juniority at the airlines. I remember it well (fondly!)

 

[auburnaviator]

After 30 years of military/commercial flying I’ve come to the conclusion that flying is broken in to two different types of days: 99% of those days I’d go fly for free, the other 1%, there’s not a paycheck big enough to make me want to do them again…

Zach