A Trip in the Life... Part 2: The First Flight

[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 8 pages, single spaced, in Microsoft Word with the second day still to go, so I'm breaking it down into several distinct sections.

This is the 2nd article in the series. In case you missed it, you can read the entire series from the beginning

Engine Start and Taxi
The first officer (FO) started engine number two during the pushback. We then ran an After Start Checklist and got permission to taxi to the runway. We then started engine number one after we started taxiing towards the runway. This wasn’t the first flight of the day for the aircraft so the engines only needed 2 minutes of warm up before takeoff. As we taxied, we had two more checklists to run, the “Taxi Checklist” and the “Before Takeoff Checklist”. The FO ran those while I concentrated on taxiing. As we got to the end of the runway, we were cleared for takeoff.

Takeoff
We accelerated down the runway. There was a strong crosswind from the left and I turned the yoke into the wind. As I did this, my hand grip wasn’t good so I repositioned my hand. Unfortunately, as I reset my fingers, I accidentally caught the edge of the steering disengagement trigger. Ding! A steering inop message appeared on the EICAS. I could see out of the corner of my eye that my FO looked at me. “Continue,” I said, knowing full well why the message came up and that it didn’t matter at this point anyway. “80 knots,” he said. We continued down the runway. “V-One. Rotate,” he said. I pulled back and we were airborne.

As we climb, a number of things happen. When we have a positive rate of climb, we can raise the landing gear. Then we pass an altitude, “acceleration height,” that, if an engine had failed, is the safe altitude to momentarily level off and accelerate before climbing again. After this altitude, we can start retracting flaps and back the thrust off slightly to climb the calculated thrust setting. The non-flying pilot also must configure the air conditioning system and ensure that the aircraft is pressurizing properly. Then he runs the “After Takeoff Checklist”. During all of this, the Ontario tower tells us to contact the regional ATC facility. We had initially been cleared to 7,000 feet and we were soon cleared to 11,000 and told to contact Los Angeles Center, who sent us on course and climbed us up to our cruising altitude. We were barely past Palm Springs when we were cleared direct to El Paso (a point on our planned route of flight).

I was flying and did not turn on the autopilot until we were near 11,000 feet. Sometimes I’ll fly more, sometimes, less. It mostly just depends on my mood, but can also vary depending on my workload. If my first officer is getting overloaded as we navigate, talk to ATC, look for other traffic, and run checklists, I’ll usually go ahead and turn on the autopilot so I can reduce my workload to help out the first officer and monitor the flight. My first officer was very good and well ahead of the airplane (what can I say, he was an ATP guy) so I felt comfortable hand-flying for a while.

The fires created a lot of smoke around the LA basin, but didn’t really make the ride that rough. The first officer and I were both amazed at one of the fires south of ONT. The flames were huge and the smoke glowed orange—even in the morning light. I soon called the flight attendant and told her it was safe to get up since during our briefing I told her to stay seated until I called her.

Enroute
The rest of the flight to SAT was uneventful. We flew at 37,000 in relatively clear, smooth air. During the flight, since I was the flying pilot, I was responsible to control and monitor the autopilot. The first officer, as the non-flying pilot, was responsible for talking to ATC and to back me up in monitoring the autopilot. As the captain, I am also concerned with our fuel usage and our arrival time. On this flight, the Flight Management System (FMS) showed us arriving a few minutes early with close the planned amount of fuel.

While we were at cruise, the FO and I mostly made small talk. Family? Kids? Where are you from? Where’d you do your flight training? It was here that I discovered that the first officer too was a former ATP instructor. We chatted about ATP, both agreed that it is THE best place for flight training, and talked about some experiences we had when we instructed there. An hour into the flight, the flight attendant brought me some coffee and a bagel. I don’t remember what the FO had. We continued our conversations.

I made a few PA’s during the flight. Most pilots at my airline don’t seem to like talking to the passengers. Usually, the non-flying pilot will talk to the passengers once or twice during a flight. Personally, I prefer doing the talking, and I’ll usually give updates when we get to cruise altitude and then every 45-60 minutes after that until we get close, then one last goodbye with the latest weather. I’ll also pop in real quick if we’re flying over something interesting. Some of my favorites to point out are the Grand Canyon (duh), Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, Glen Canyon National Recreational Area and Lake Powell, Monument Valley in Arizona, the Very Large Array near Socorro New Mexico (look it up), and my house (just kidding). I think some pilots forget that they do this every day, but a large number of their passengers don’t. I’m reminded of this when I commute and sit next to a first time flier! It’s actually happened twice. And no, they weren’t 3 years old.

Arrival and Landing
As we descended toward SAT, we began to set up for the arrival. I gave a briefing of the approach. This time it was a visual to runway 30L. The winds were gusty and it got quite turbulent as we came through about 6000 feet into SAT. We were following a Southwest jet and we picked him up as he was turning final. We called him in sight and we were told to follow him to the runway.

It’s personal preference when you turn off the autopilot. I don’t hand fly very much as we come in to an airport. Some pilots will turn off the autopilot as they descend from 18,000. Others will do it at 10,000. As for me, if we’re straight in, I’ll wait until we’re a few miles outside of the outer marker (which is about 5 miles away). If we’re on a downwind, I’ll usually turn it off as we enter the downwind. Trying to tell the autopilot how to fly a pattern is just too much work. It’s much easier to just hand-fly it. I did the same in SAT. As soon as we saw the Southwest jet, I flew the plane to the ground.

I seem to be having a good landings month. They’ve all been very smooth and squeaky recently. I remember August for me was a different story. I couldn’t do a smooth landing all month long. Just like baseball; you get on these streaks.

Read the third article in the series... Close Out Day One