Journal from a typical 4-day trip

[SkyWest JJ]

I started this a long time ago--but finally am getting around to posting it:

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I thought I would give everyone an idea of what a 4-day trip is like.

Day 1--
Super Bowl Sunday---report time 2:20pm
I show up at the crew room at about 2pm. I check my mail box and I find a new revision to our SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) which I will have to file and keep with me while flying. I run into a couple friends from my new hire class and we talk about meeting up in March for some surfing in Costa Rica. I check the flight computers and print out a release for Leg 1 and check the weather. The computer also shows that our aircraft is arriving into ORD about 40 minutes late from Cleveland. Normally we would immediately head to the aircraft after our report time to prepare the aircraft--but because it won't be there we can relax for another 25 minutes in the crew room. I find both of our flight attendants and introduce myself--it's my first time flying with them. At 2:20pm our captain is not around--but we're not worried yet because we have some extra time with the delay. About 2:40pm our captain comes into the crew room--he commutes from DFW and his flight was a few minutes late. No worries, though--because he arrives in perfect time to head out to meet our aircraft.

Leg 1: ORD to Calgary--scheduled 3:05pm departure--arrives Calgary 5:55pm, 3:50 block time
This is one of the longest legs on a CRJ. Fighting 120 knot headwinds the whole way, our release requires 12,000 lbs. of fuel. As soon as we arrive at the aircraft, while passengers are still deplaning from the previous flight I do my walk-around. I'm checking for anything out of the ordinary, any pools of fluid, any dings or missing antennas. By the time I complete this, all of the passengers are off the plane. The captain has already performed the originating checks and the flight attendants are crossing seat belts to get ready to board. I use ACARS (sort of like text messaging) to print out the ORD ATIS information. The captain begins initializing the FMS (Flight Management System--the navigation and performance computer) while I call up O'Hare clearance to receive our clearance. Next, I begin to fill out the manifest which includes the weight and balance for the aircraft. We are transitioning to doing this all on the FMS--but for now we must back up with a paper copy also. The Load Master lets us know that he has about 3000 lbs. of bags and is it OK to load them all. The flight is completely full and because of all the fuel for this flight we will be weight restricted----very unusual for the CRJ700. We tell him to keep 25 bags off so that we can accomodate all the passengers. A few minutes later United Operations calls us and lets us know they want all the bags to travel on the plane and instead the gate agent should find 4 volunteers to deplane. With an offer of a free RT ticket and a guaranteed seat on the 5:30pm departure she finds 4 volunteers immediately. I learned today that the reason United chose to leave the bags on the plane and take passengers off instead is because it is cheaper for them to give a free ticket than to pay for the baggage delivery fees! Finally we are ready to go, we depart at 3:50pm---40 minutes late due to late arriving aircraft. We are glad we are not flying in and out of Chicago today--because we can tell the rampers have the football game on their mind!

This is the captains leg. He does the flying and I do the radios. We cruise at 36,000 ft and the flight is uneventful. We land at 6:49pm--about an hour late.

Leg 2: Calgary to San Francisco--scheduled 7:32pm departure--arrives SFO 9:15pm, 2:43 block time
We would have had an hour and 37 minutes in Calgary except that we arrived late. But we have plenty of time to turn the airplane. After we land, I do another walk around of the airplane. I come back and this time I set up the FMS, get our clearance and prepare the manifest. We have another completely full flight--but because we only load 9,000 lbs. of fuel we have no weight issues.

We push off the gate 3 minutes early at 7:29pm. Because we had no time to grab food in Calgary--we start talking about getting clam chowder when we get to San Francisco. The captain flys this leg again and we cruise at 38,000 feet. The weather is perfect in SFO and we get to the gate at 8:57pm--18 minutes early. We had an awesome view of the entire Bay Area peninsula at night arriving from the North. We flew over or next to the Golden Gate (all lit up), Alcatraz, and all of San Francisco as we flew our downwind leg for SFO. I do my post-flight walk around and then we shut down the plane so the whole crew can go inside and grab a bite. The clam chowder is excellent.

Leg 3: San Francisco to Eugene--scheduled 10:10pm departure---arrive EUG 11:32pm, 1:22 block time
The visibility in Eugene is excellent at our time of departure--but the temp and dewpoint are nearly the same and the Terminal Forecast calls for a possibility of 1/2 mile visibility when we arrive. Our release shows Portland as an alternate and we brief how that might work. Eugene does have a Category II ILS which actually allows us to land with only 600 feet of visibility so we also brief that procedure. This flight has 55 (of 66) passengers.

We push from the gate 7 minutes early. This is my leg. After 2 aircraft land on the crossing runways and are clear, we are cleared for takeoff. Visibility is excellent in the Bay Area and we again fly next to and get a great view of San Francisco. As we get closer to Eugene the weather is still reporting good visibility. 40 miles out we can pick up the runway lights. We are flying to the north. The wind is out of the south at 6 knots. EUG runways run north-south. Normally we would land into the wind to the south--which are the active runways. I discuss with the captain that I would like to land to the north--it will save about 5 minutes of flight time because we will be able to land straight in instead of flying a downwind, base and final. The captain checks the performance and with an 8000' runway and our current weight we will have no problem landing with a 6 knot tailwind. The captain asks approach, who clears this with the tower and we are cleared for a visual approach to Runway 34. Our FMS can creat a glideslope 30 miles out to the runway touchdown zone--so I fly that all the way down which also makes the approach very smooth for the passengers with no level offs or major power changes.

We arrive at the gate at 11:19pm---13 minutes early. After a post-flight walk around we shut off the airplane for the night and head to our hotel. Our van leaves at 3pm the next day. We are staying in a nice part of Eugene with jogging tracks and across from a giant mall. The Flight Attendants are excited because there is no sales tax in Oregon!

Day 2:
Today we have 2 legs. As a crew we spend the day enjoying Eugene. In the morning I borrow a bike from the hotel and bike for miles on the trails through Eugene. We all meet for lunch at a seafood restaurant right next to the hotel. Then we head back to our rooms to shower and meet at 3pm for our van.

Leg 1: Eugene to San Francisco--scheduled 4:00pm departure, 5:26pm arrival--1:26 of block
The Eugene ground staff is great and they have our 54 passengers checked in and in the boarding are ahead of schedule. We load up and are able to push back from the gate 10 minutes early. Due to terrain in Eugene, the captain and I brief a special departure procedure--basically what we would do if we lose an engine right at takeoff.

This is my leg again--it is my favorite approach in the system. There are some high clouds near San Franscisco that we need to descend through--but we pop out in plenty of time to be cleared for a visual approach over the San Mateo Bridge and right over the San Francisco Bay into the airport.

We arrive at 5:13pm which makes are passengers happy but also gives us enough time to grab another bowl of clam chowder.

Leg 2: San Francisco to Calgary--scheduled 6:10pm departure, 9:42pm arrival--2:32 of block
This leg will be the captain's leg. We leave early at 6:05pm. The flight is uneventful--but the ceilings in Calgary are a bit low. As the non-flying pilot I brief the ILS approach into Calgary. We end up breaking out of the clouds on the approach at about 2000 ft. We arrive at 9:29pm, 12 minutes early.

Most of the restaurants are closed by the time we clear immigration and customs and get to our hotel. We decide that we will all hang out in the lobby and order a pizza. After we polish that off, we all head to bed. The next morning I work out in the exercise room and grab some Vietnameese food from across the street.

Day 3:
We have another 2 legs today and although we saw the Pacific Ocean yesterday--by tonight we will be looking at the Atlantic Ocean.

Leg 1: Calgary to Chicago--scheduled 12:57pm departure, 5:15pm arrival--3:18 of block
Our incoming aircraft is arriving from Chicago but it left Chicago a bit late because air traffic control flow programs are in effect at Chicago. The aircraft finally arrives at 12:45pm. We must wait for all of the passenger and crew of the incoming flight to leave the aircraft before we can begin our preflight preparations due to customs law. We have a 'minimum service turn' to get the airplane ready. United considers the turn a successful turn if we only take 29 minutes from the time it blocks in until the time it blocks out ready to return to Chicago. This is a further challenge because we are swapping crews.

We are lucky because we are not subject to flow back into Chicago because we are coming from an international destination. If we had been leaving from an airport in the US, we would have had a wheels up time approximately one hour forward from our original departure time.

We load up and push back at 1:10pm for a successful MST turn. However, snow is falling and we will have to deice before we can takeoff. Turns out one of the deicing trucks is not working! We end up waiting one hour to be deiced! We are finally airborne about 1 hour and 15 minutes after we first pushed from the gate. This is the captain's leg. We try to get any shortcuts (such as more direct routing) we can to get our passengers to Chicago a little earlier. However, there is still heavy volumes of traffic headed into Chicago so not only our direct routings not available--about 250 miles out we are slowed down to sequence us. We end up arriving almost 2 hours late at 7:03pm.

Leg 2: Chicago to Charleston, SC--scheduled 6:10pm departure, 9:15pm arrival---2:05 of block
We try to turn the plane as fast as we can, as we are already a bit late due to our deicing in Calgary. We do not achieve the 29-minute Minimum Service Time turn because we have three people that need to board with wheelchairs.

We depart at 7:44pm. The tailwinds are not as strong as normal. This is my leg. We arrive at 10:53pm--a little over one and half hours late.

We won't have much time in Charleston to do anything but sleep. In fact, because we are so late arriving tonight we will have to push back the departure time for our last leg back to Chicago the next morning. We require at least 8 hours rest to be legal.


Day 4:
Leg 1: Charleston, SC to Chicago--7:15am departure, 8:40am arrival--2:25 of block
The departure time has been moved back to 7:44am. We leave right on time for our revised departure time. This is my leg and we arrive into Chicago after 2:24 of flight time at 9:08am.

After my last post-flight walk around of the 4-day, each member of the crew heads in a different direction to try and catch a flight home.

[DarbyB-FL-807]

Hi JJ,

Do you keep a pilot diary?

Darby

[SkyWest JJ]

Hi Darby--

I don't keep a diary, per se--I just did this so you guys could check it out. I of course do keep a logbook with my flight time and the captain I flew with--and sometimes I will keep a note or two in the comment section to jog my memory of anything significant that happened.

[JoseM-AE-1208]

That is what I love about the job, travel and exciting work. You make it sound so good!
Joe

[JoseM-AE-1208]

I see that you fly mostly in the afternoons. Do you prefer that? If so why?

[SkyWest JJ]

I prefer the afternoons--mostly because I am not a morning person! But there are plenty of people who feel the exact opposite of me! The mornings tend to run a little more on time--some people like that. Me, I like to sleep in, eat the hotel breakfast, go for a jog, and then head to the airport.

[WilliamW-FL-109]

jj thanks for telling the 4 day leg im just trying to see if its a rushed at all times and i got my answer ..its sounds clam and easy going on this 4 day out look ... thanks billy so know im trying to send this,all i get is a quick reply i dont need a quick reply..here goes have fun....

[KernT-FL-509]

JJ I have a question about this that relates to your comment about the captain commuting in from DFW. I guess until pretty recently I had always assumed that with the exception of longhaul widebody drivers (who seem to work about 5-6 days a month!), pilots need to live near their base. I've seen plenty of pilots sat in F while I was travelling around in my previous career but I never really thoought about it much ... then along came "Sully" who commutes from the west coast, and more recently it emerged that the unfortunate Colgan Q400 crew commuted in to EWR from TPA and SEA(!!) respectively because living costs in "BosWash" corridor are horrendous.

I'm curious to know how this works on a number of levels:

(i) are the commuters flying for free?
(ii) are revenue pax 'bumped' to make way for cockpit crew, and if not, how can you guarantee to get a seat? - and what IS the process for getting a seat like this in the first place ... I'm assuming its not Expedia or Orbitz
(iii) is there an interline agreement to bump revenue pax for cockpit crew? - what if neither Skywest or UA mainline (I'm assuming your flying is done on behalf of UA by your comments) fly between your hometown airport and your crew base ... I know this is not a problem DFW-ORD but what if he had to fly AA? ... i.e. do you need to be able to get from A to B on your own carrier?
(iv) what happens if your scheduled flight is really late or cancelled and you miss your "on duty" time? - do the airlines regard that as "your problem ... move nearer the base" or will they work around it with you and swap crew around at short notice.

Thanks

Kern

[SkyWest JJ]

Thanks, those are some good questions, Kern.

The decision to live in base or commute is entirely up to you. The airline does not care either way. They do care that you show up on time and ready to fly--that is your responsibility. If you miss a showtime then you will have to have a very good explanation for your chief pilot--if it happens more than once that would be a very big problem.

To answer your questions:

(i) The commuters may or may not be paying. Each airline has a different agreement worked out when employees travel as non-revenue passengers. These agreements change periodically. I can travel domestically on Delta, but I have to pay an annual fee for the privilege. On United, economy is free but I have to pay a fee for first class (between $20 and $50 depending on the length of the flight).

(ii) Sometimes the company deadheads a flight crew to another city. In this case--the crew is considered must ride and would bump revenue passengers if that is required. This might happen in the situation where another crew is no longer able to continue flying in another city (maybe they exceeded their maximum duty time allowable in a day). So--the company must rides a crew from another city so that the other flight would not have to cancel.

Other times, employees are traveling on their own. In this case they have the very last priority for a seat. Any revenue passenger will always get a seat before any non-revenue employee is given a seat. If anyone sitting in coach wanted to upgrade to first class and had the status to do so--then the employee would not get the first class seat. We have access to online tools to list ourselves and to check how full a flight is.

(iii) We do have access to interline agreements for non-revenue purposes. However, as a pilot you would typically get around by jumpseating. Jumpseating is a reciprocal agreement between different airline's pilot groups. At SkyWest we have agreements with American, USAir, Southwest, FedEx, Hawaiian, Virgin America, ExpressJet, etc, etc, etc (I think we have 160 airlines on our list). So--we agree to take their pilots when we can and they will do the same. The process is very simple and mostly involves walking up to the gate of the flight you are interested and requesting the jumpseat. The captain always has the final say. If the flight is not full--you will be given a seat in the back. If the flight is full, then you sit in the cockpit. There is no charge for this privilege.

(iv) Some airlines have commuter clauses. An example might be that you must give yourself at least two options to get to work that will get you in on time and that have available seats. If after that you cannot make it, you will not be disciplined. We do not have that at SkyWest--however the company wants us to be honest with them if something happens and let them know. Often they can swap crews around and minimize disruption. However, as I discussed above--if this happens more than once to the same pilot that would be bad.

Many pilots commute. It is one really nice thing about this job that you don't necessarily have to live in the same base where you fly. However--anyone who commutes will tell you they are very jealous of the people who live in base. Pilots living in base don't have the stress of worrying about what flights will get them to work on time and can pick up trips at the last minute with a lot less to worry about logistically.