A Trip in the Life... Part 1: Before the First Push

[ExpressJet Jeremy]

Inspired by one of our aspiring pilots, I am writing about a single trip that I flew October 23-24. It was a two day trip, atypical for me, but perfect for an in-depth article about what I do at work. So far it's 3 pages in Microsoft Word, so I'm breaking it down into several distinct sections.

This is the first article in the series.

Before the First Push
While I typically do four day trips, my schedule this month included a two day. Unfortunately, this particular two day wasn’t commutable on the front end (an 8:40am show time), meaning that I wouldn’t be able to wake up at home on day one of the trip and get to work in time--there just aren’t any flights that early (the earliest show that I can make is noon). I live in Dallas and am based in Ontario, California (ONT). So, I had to go to work the day before and stay in a hotel the night before the trip began the next day.

The Commute
I knew that I had most of the day at home so I didn’t even look at flight times (or start to pack) until late morning. There were several non-stop flights that afternoon on American that I could take. I chose to take the 7:45pm flight. This enabled me to stay at home until 6:00pm. That would leave me with a 9:45pm flight as a backup, just in case I couldn’t get on the first one. Additionally, I looked up the UPS flight schedule and there was a 3:30am flight from DFW that I could use as a last resort, if neither AA flight worked out.

I made the 7:45 fight, but I had to ride in the cockpit jumpseat for the 3 hour flight to ONT. That was ok with me. I almost prefer the jumpseat to a tight middle seat. Plus, the conversation with the pilots, who are usually interested in what’s going on at my airline, and being able to monitor the flight’s progress make it feel like a shorter ride. This particular night was the second night of the big SoCal fires and the view from up front was tremendous with so many hills glowing orange. There was a stiff wind at the runway and strong gust just before we touched down made the MD-88 float almost halfway down the runway.

After we landed, at about 9:15p local, I called ExpressJet to see if I could get a hotel room. Every night, they reserve block of rooms at a local hotel for crews in case there are unscheduled layovers and since that tends to be a rarity, they will usually give them away to commuters at the end of the day. In the past, I've always stayed at a different hotel, on my own nickel (well, my own $63.81), but this evening I put all my eggs into the company basket. I was fortunate to get one this night… it turns out that because of the fires, all of the hotels were sold out. Had I not gotten a room from the company, I would have been sleeping in the terminal.

I was up early the next morning. I try to stay on Central time when I’m on a trip. It makes those early California departures a piece of cake and when we are on the east coast with 5am wake up calls, it’s not nearly as bad for me as it is for those west coasters. I thought about going to work out, but couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead I laid in bed and watched the fire coverage.

The hotel van took me to the airport, and I got there at about 8:35am. My badge and uniform mean that I am exempt from the latest security rules about liquids, and I can leave my shoes on, but I still have to go through the metal detectors. I can usually get through security very quickly.

The Crewroom
With only an hour until we push from the gate, I didn’t have much time to dilly-dally in the crew room. The crew room in ONT is really just a few offices underneath the passenger terminal. It serves as the nerve center for the operation where they coordinate with the gate, airplanes, maintenance, catering, fuel, ground crews, etc. It has offices for the chief pilot, the base administrator, the flight attendant supervisor and the operations manager. There is a break room that has vending machines, restrooms, lockers for the ground crew and a computer with internet access. The actual crew room is a small office, about 10x10 with 4 recliners and two more computers. There is also a bag room (more like a closet) where pilots can leave their flight cases.

When I arrived at the airport, I went down to the crew room to get my flight bag. My first officer for this trip was already there and introduced himself (I found out later that he was also an ATP alum from the Chicago training center and had been at ExpressJet for just over a year). The flight attendant found me as well. I had never flown with either of them before.

The Paperwork
I got the flight paperwork from the operations people and reviewed it. As the captain, I am responsible for the safe and legal operation of the flight. When I review the paperwork, among other things, I am concerned primarily with three basic things… fuel, weather and maintenance. Do we have enough fuel to get to the destination, plus any alternates, plus reserves? Is the weather at the destination a concern? How about the weather enroute? Are there any deferred maintenance issues with the aircraft that need to be considered? Any one of these things can affect the other and must be considered before we takeoff. On this flight, from ONT to SAT, the only concern was that there is a takeoff alternate of Las Vegas. This was added by dispatch because of the fires. Apparently, there was a concern that air traffic control (ATC) facilities might be affected by the fires and if radar service was interrupted, we could go there in an emergency.

The Briefing
About 35 minutes before go time, we all headed out to the airplane. Once our bags are stowed, we got to work. I turned on the airplane and started initializing the aircraft systems. Meanwhile, the first officer did a pre-flight walk-around and the flight attendant did her thing. When the first officer got back, I led a crew briefing. We discussed the weather and a planned bumpy ride as we climbed out of the LA area, the time enroute, security issues when opening the cockpit door in flight, and what we might do if we have an emergency. The first officer and I further discussed my expectations of him and any little peccadilloes that I have—such as using good checklist etiquette, when to run flows, and to keep an eye outside during taxiing. We also discussed who would fly which legs. This trip, we chose to fly every other leg.

PreFlight
There are a number of checks that each pilot is responsible for when you get to a new airplane. Typically, the captain will enter the flight plan and performance data (planned altitudes, speeds, winds, etc.) into the FMS. The first officer will work on the weight and balance to determine our maximum takeoff weight given the runway we’ll be taking off on, the winds and the temperatures. We both are responsible for separate aircraft systems. The captain typically checks the electrical, fuel, fire detection, powerplant, pressurization, and stall protection systems. The first officer typically checks the ice protection and hydraulics systems. We both check the autopilot and trim systems.

About 15 minutes before go time, our set up and systems checks were complete so I called for the “Receiving Checklist”. The first officer reads the checklist and whichever one of us actually checked that item will announce its status (e.g., On, Auto, Off, Checked, etc.). Once that was done, the first officer was busy double checking my work on the flight plan while I reviewed the paperwork, the fuel on board, the aircraft logbook, the local weather and our clearance. I then gave the first officer a takeoff briefing that typically includes our taxi route to the runway, how we’ll handle an emergency before and after we get airborne, and a review of the published departure procedure that we’ll be flying to exit the LA area.

At 5 minutes to go, most passengers were on board and the bags were loaded. I made my first passenger announcement to introduce myself and my crew to the customers, to tell them about the flight time and path and the weather we would expect to find when we got there. By this time, the first officer was entering the passenger and baggage loads into the computer to ensure we are below maximum takeoff weight and that we are balanced properly. I gave the flight attendant the ok to shut the main cabin door and we ran the “Before Start Checklist”. We called Ontario Ground for pushback clearance, and off we went, 4 minutes early.

Read the next installment, The First Leg

[GarrettR-CO-1109]

Alot of things to go wrong thanks for the insertion of the judgement call it gives us a real life problem that has to be dealt with regardless of personal feeling and our desires to have everything running smoothly and go "our " way. Safety rules are safety rules and they are put there for a reason. just like a pre configured driving route for w arriving at a drop off in truck a !0% variatuion of off route can lead to repair vehicle not finding you on a an open hiway. if the truck breaks down in a tiny little town and the repair vehicle cant find you, You are in trouble.keeping a simple little bracket protocol for the oxygen mask demo is the same principle.