Pictures!!

Enroute to Houston at FL340. Moments earlier it was pitch black outside of the windows, as we were in a cloud layer diverting around a large thunderstorm. We broke out of the clouds and turned back on course, finding the sky still illuminated with towering cumulonimbus clouds in the distance.

Taken just after takeoff from Charlotte, minutes before the picture above was taken.

Ditto above!

Charlotte! Right downwind on arrival for runway 18R. The fresh dirt for the 3rd parallel runway can be seen as well.

Indy to Charlotte.

Indy to Charlotte, a few minutes later. It's actually rather difficult to see the wing on a -900, since the wings are so far back from the 'flight deck'. The camera was pressed all the way up against the glass.

Chasing the sun

Time: Approx. 10:00pm
Position: 105nm east of Nashville
Altitude: FL320

Even though it's 10:00pm, the horizon remains illuminated as we chase the sun towards the west, enroute to Memphis. The air is flowing over our wings at nearly 550mph, but we're only making progress over the ground at 450mph. The wind is against us, almost 100 knots directly on our nose. The sky would remain the same shades of black, blue, and orange until we slowed and began our approach into Memphis, letting the sun outrun us. We're rewarded with calm winds and smooth air, bringing 84 passengers (including a FedEx MD11 pilot, and retired US Airways Captain with over 31,000 hours) to a smooth touchdown, almost an hour behind schedule.

The day didn't start quite as smoothly, with thunderstorms, ice, and windshear as we departed Detroit at 1:00pm. Five minutes early into the gate in Charlotte, but the skies were turning dark; the line of thunderstorms we had crossed on our descent were creeping towards the airport. Full boat, 86 passengers going to Nashville, a race against the storms. On the taxi out, ATC put a ground stop on all departures to the north, luckily we were heading west. But the weather was making things difficult for ATC, and it took us 45 minutes to get off the ground.

The 'Airways A330 not as lucky, it's departure towards Europe delayed due to the weather seen in the background. The billowing cumulonimbus clouds outclimbed us in the unstable air; forcing us to deviate left and right, weaving around cells painted on our radar.

Ten minutes late into Nashville- a quick turn, and we were off the gate ten minutes late with 86 more people, most trying to make connections back in the hub of Charlotte. Nearing the runway I started our left engine (single engine taxi = save gas!) and started running the before takeoff checklist. Midway through the checklist we're greeted with a *DING* and two flashing caution lights in the cockpit. The message: L AFT EMER DOOR. The airplane thinks our aft overwing exit door on the left side of the plane has been opened. The message goes away, but comes back again seconds later. I call the flight attendant, and have her visually check the door: appears normal. We know it's just the sensor, but we can't legally takeoff without taking any action. The Captain calls Maintenance Control, and I call Operations at the airport. Our plan: return to the gate and have the door visually inspected from the outside. At this point we are allowed to continue with the message still on, in accordance with maintenance procedures.

Back to the runway, now 50 minutes late. Another line of storms lie between us and Charlotte, with tops in the 35,000-40,000' range. We're cruising at 29,000 feet, dodging storms again. ATC keeps us high, then requests that we cross a 'fix' into Charlotte at 11,000' and 250 knots. My leg, thrust levers to idle, flight spoilers out, and down we go. *DING* with two more flashing caution lights... the messages: IB Spoiler, OB Spoileron. Two of our spoilers aren't coming up into the airstream as I commanded them too. The Captain consults the manual and gives me more bad news- it says I can't use the remaining spoilers either. Flight spoilers stowed, and a call to ATC telling them we won't be making the crossing restriction.

No problem, a couple of vectors later and we're on final approach to runway 18R. The nose isn't pointed at the runway, but 20 degrees to the right to compensate for the 46 knot crosswind that we have all the way down to 1,000', where it shears to a 20 knot crosswind at ground level. 45 minutes late to the gate, passengers scramble off to make their connections.

Captain calls maintenance, and we reset the flight spoiler system.. ops checked normal. Board 'em up, push us back, and off to Memphis we go..

Climbing through the broken layer, just out of Charlotte enroute to Charleston, SC the night before.

On the descent into Charleston, SC.

I've been slacking..

I've been pretty lazy lately.. nothing really extraordinary to write about, but I've snapped a few decent pictures over the last few weeks, and here they are:

A Cathay Pacific 747 crossing our path, heading towards the West coast.

Departing Portland, Maine. I'm guessing they make snow... haha. Weird sight, seeing the ski runs covered in snow, but nothing else around them. There were 3-4 of these ski parks, as well as a bunch of lakes. I could live here.

Looking out my window (thankfully not straight ahead) at the towering thunderstorms, easily reaching FL450-FL500.

Plane crash? Nahh.. I think it was a fire fighting exercise using an old aircraft. This was in JFK.

-900 land! Ok, those are actually -700's. I'm really enjoying the all -900 flying out of Charlotte. Except during rush hour! We were number 15 for takeoff when I snapped that picture.. after the turn where the 737 is, there were 11 more lined up and waiting. Took 45 minutes to get off the ground...

Lightning strikes

Green is good, yellow is ok, red is not as ok, and magenta isn't good. Pretty simple, eh?

Snapped the picture on descent/arrival into Washington Dulles from Detroit. Enroute, we had to hold for about 30 minutes while a thunderstorm rolled over the field. Turns out, a 50 seat United Express ERJ was struck by lightning shortly after takeoff, and returned to the field. Must have been a slow news day, because the story was all over the internet and on TV. I'm willing to bet at least 75% of our fleet has been struck at least once by this point... if not more.

A pretty uneventful arrival for us, with just some patches of moderate turbulence and some moderate precipitation. Rain sure is loud hitting the windscreen at over 250 mph, though!

Life is funny...

Trying to get the jumpseat on a full flight with other pilots also trying to get on typically comes down to one thing: seniority. However, pilots who work for the airline that operates that flight have priority over other airline pilots. Example: Mesa operated flight, United 777 Captain and myself trying to get the jumpseat... I win. When there are 2 or more pilots from the same airline attempting to get on a flight, it comes down to seniority, like most everything in this industry.

But for some reason Mesa has a paragraph in our General Operations Manual that states that jumpseat priority will be given "first come, first served" beginning one hour prior to departure, if more than one pilot from the same airline are attempting to get on. Mesa pilots take priority over other airline pilots.

I'm not sure why we're different than the rest of the airlines out there, and quite frankly, I think it should go by seniority. But it doesn't.

At the end of my last trip I was attempting to commute home from Dulles to Charlotte. There was only one flight left to get me home, a Mesa operated CRJ-700. The flight was listed as overbooked, so I figured it would come down to the jumpseat. I went to the gate an hour before departure and listed for the jumpseat. No more than 30 seconds after I got to the gate to list, a Mesa Captain stepped up to the gate, and hearing that I was requesting the jumpseat says "We're doing this by seniority. I've been in this industry for 20 years, and we're doing this by seniority," in a grumpy voice.

Now, if he had just been nice about it and said he was trying to get on the jumpseat too, I probably would have just let him take it since he was obviously more senior than I. But I didn't like his approach to the situation, so I said "Actually, our GOM says first come, first served."

Well, luckily for us, there ended up being two open seats in the back, and a mainline United pilot was able to take the jumpseat.

Fast forward a couple days to the next trip... Printing my schedule in the crew room in Dulles, and in walks the same Captain. He sees me and says "Hey, it's Seniority. I'm gonna call you Seniority from now on." to which I replied, "Ok, I'll call you GOM."

Fast forward another two days.. I'm in Detroit on a layover and receive a call from crew tracking. I've been junior assigned to two extra legs on the last day of the trip. That's fine, I think, at least I get double pay for those two legs.

I check my schedule online to see who the captain is, and what do you know... none other than the grumpy captain himself. Ahhh.. the irony. Turns out he's a decent guy; just a bit grumpy after spending so many years in the industry, being furloughed from US Airways, and ending up at Mesa.

Life sure can be funny...

Thunderstorms...

Well, it looks like winter is finally coming to an end. Well, at least in some parts of the country. I say that because of the building cumulonimbus that we're trying to out climb enroute to Dulles from Nashville. Unfortunately our underpowered CRJ-200 struggles to reach 34,000', barely at the tops of the storms, so we encounter continuous 'light chop' with some moderate turbulence much of the way.

Luckily, the line of severe thunderstorms had already moved east of Nashville when we got there, but hadn't moved east enough to affect our approach and landing in Dulles. But we did see some lightning as we approached Dulles from the east.

The lightning flashes were becoming more frequent and appearing to move closer, so we hurried to got the people on board and off the gate. 5 Minutes before push, it started to rain, getting heavier as the storm got closer. We hoped to get off the ground before the cell reached the airport, but didn't quite make it. As we taxied out a huge wall of blowing rain enveloped the airport, with lightning strikes in all directions. We missed getting off the ground by a couple of minutes. Ground control had us park in a 'run up block', which is just a huge, open piece of concrete off of the taxiway at the end of the runway, next to a couple of other planes.

It's hard to see, but thats a view of 6-8 'heavy' aircraft that were departing for international destinations, parked on a taxiway as they were too large to fit in the run up block with the rest of us small and medium sized jets. All in all, we waited an hour with the engines shut down, along with about 20 other planes before we were allowed to depart.

Today is day two of a three day trip, with flying between only Dulles, Nashville, and Charleston, SC. Unfortunately, a good chance of severe weather is predicted for this afternoon and evening in Charleston, where we hope to end up again tonight.

Bridge - tunnel - bridge.. huh?

Approaching Norfolk, Va from the northwest, my Captain said there was a pretty cool bridge that we'd be flying over. I was thinking it would be a cool looking suspension bridge like you see in many cities, but that certainly wasn't the case. The bridge turns into a tunnel in a couple of places, allowing ships to enter and exit the harbor- sort of the opposite of a draw bridge! Crazy.

And those clouds in the background turned out to be some pretty decent thunderstorms; our radar painting numerous red cells, fortunately they were just to the south of the field and we made an uneventful approach and landing.

I just finished another 8 straight days of work, and I haven't posted in a while because... well, I'm lazy.

Another shot of crossing traffic; a Southwest 'Guppy', AKA 737, 1,000' feet above from the east to west. Another unkown plane trails the Southwest 73.

A decent shot of Chicago! To make up for my 'crappy' picture of a chicago a couple of posts ago..

This is the new Dash 8 'Q'-400. Looks kinda funny huh? It's basically a stretched version of the Dash 8-100/200 that we fly from Phoenix to Flag, and other places out west. It does have one pretty cool feature though: Active Noise Canceling. Kind of like those expensive Bose headphones you can buy, the plane has a system that 'listens' to the noise created by the engines and props and then generates sound waves that cancel out the noise produced by the plane. I've never ridden in one, but supposedly it is pretty quiet inside.

It's funny to me how airplane manufacturers will keep stretching a plane to make it more efficient and better suited for certain operations and markets. In fact, the CRJ is just a super stretched business jet from the late 70's.


Look pretty similar huh? If you don't think so, that's probably because the Challenger biz jet is just over 60' long, while the CRJ-900 is nearly 120' long! Of course there are quite a few differences between the planes, but Bombardier essentially just took the Challenger and started stretching it into the CRJ-100/200, -700, and eventually the -900.

Well, that's all for now. Back to work tomorrow to start a 3 day trip. I'll be doing Dulles-Nashville-Charleston, SC turns all day long for three days!