Week #2 of ground school is now behind me, and I'm having the pleasure of writing this post from home. Not hotel room home, but REAL home, home with Cathy, Nikki, a real kitchen, and real toilet paper instead of 100 grit sandpaper on a roll. There's no place like home! Going home is not recommended during ground school (for risk of not returning on time and being washed out of class), but since very few of us will be able to be home for Christmas, many of us are taking advantage of our "non-rev" flying privileges and are going home this weekend. Daredevils all. Speaking of flying privileges, I had my first experience with non-reving on this trip, and I have to admit that I felt like an impostor. I've seen it a thousand times...a flight crew member flashes a badge instead of a boarding pass to get through security, then up to the gate podium to kindly ask if there is a seat available. That was me yesterday, and I was nervous for being afraid of violating some protocol that I was not aware of. I asked my classmates a thousand questions beforehand, and the system worked just as advertised. I was even offered a First Class upgrade by the lead flight attendant once aboard, which I declined. I was safely sitting in a free seat, heading home to see Cathy, and I was afraid that should I get up to head up to First Class, the magic would evaporate and I would wake up from the dream. Best to stay put and enjoy the ride from seat 7D.
As mentioned in last week's post, this week our class was combined with some seasoned Captains who are all Saab 340 Captains, now upgrading to the CRJ-900. Their presence has added some new dynamics to the class, some good and some not so good. Don't get me wrong, all of us Newbies are glad to have them, but we can tell that a few of the Captains are not taking the material as seriously as we are, and tend to be somewhat disruptive in class. I guess it is natural for us to feel more pressure in class and want to absorb every morsel of information presented, since we are literally at the bottom of the airline pilot food chain. Most of the Captains don't seem to feel this pressure, and seem to be more interested in having some fun in class and afterwards. Fun has not been on menu for me and my fellow Fledgling Fliers, hence the fun meter. Having the "fun meter pegged" is a phrase that goes way back to my Navy days; when you are not having much fun, we sarcastically say the fun meter is pegged, though not necessarily pegged on the fun side!
This week we covered some material that we were first introduced to last week, but now in more detail. We also saw a lot of new material such as security, transportation of dangerous goods, and Cat 2 approaches. For those of you not familiar with the magic lingo of airline approaches, normal Category 1 or Cat 1 approaches allow an aircraft to fly toward a runway for landing, completely in the clouds/fog, down to an altitude of 200 feet above the ground. At 200 feet of altitude the pilot must decide whether or not he or she sees the runway environment which allows them to continue the approach and land. If they can't clearly see the runway environment they must execute the go-around, which means that they abort the landing attempt and either try again or more likely, divert to someplace where they are more likely to make a successful approach. Well, since Cat 1 approaches are for mere mortal pilots, and we are destined to be super duper airline pilots, we must be trained to fly Cat 2 approaches, meaning that we get ease our aircraft down to 100 feet before making that go/no-go decision. As you can probably imagine, it requires a lot of coordination and precision from the flight crew, and has very little margin for error. I'm looking forward to honing my skills to this level.
We were also introduced to pre-departure paper work. You've seen it before...the flight crew all arrives at the gate, and the gate agent hands the pilot or first officer this long roll of paper, which they then commence to tearing into individual sheets on the edge of the counter. Interesting analogy that pre-departure paperwork and toilet paper both come in a roll. Seriously, we can build CRJ aircraft that are marvels of technology, but the paperwork that the flight crew relies on comes off a dot-matrix printer out of the 70's. Oh well. In any case, this paperwork includes weather, aircraft information, departure and destination information, etc., but as with most everything else in the airline pilot's world, the information is presented in a not so easy to understand code. "43" Means "143" (drop the 1), "73,74" means "73,740" (drop the last zero), and "84,400" meaning "84,400" (don't drop anything, since being consistent would make ground school must less interesting!).
We also spent all day Friday discussing Crew Resource Management, or CRM. Most folks laugh when I try to explain that CRM involves concepts like the First Officer taking control of the aircraft should the Captain become incapacitated in some manner, or worse, willfully decide to do something unsafe. That concept sounds so unbelievably common sense that it is hard to understand why you would have to train on it. Well, we train on it because it was not too long ago that the airlines were full of mostly ex-military pilots who believed that they did not need, nor did they want, any help from any other crew members of the aircraft. These "gear up, flaps up, shut up" Captains established such a frightful, hostile working environment that many First and Second Officers, along with the unsuspecting passengers and Flight Attendants strapped in behind them, died in horrible crashes because no one was willing to speak up and tell the Captain that he was doing something wrong, or that the airplane was about to run out of fuel. Airline crews today are trained and retrained on the necessity of working together as a team, being alert to subtle signs that another crew member may have some issue that makes them less than effective, and on safe decision making. Although I enjoyed the training, I was given vibes from my more experiences classmates that there are still plenty of Captains out there who have zero respect for First Officers. Call me naive, but I'm from the old school where I believe that only a small portion of respect is given due to positional authority, and that the majority of respect must be earned through your actions. I don't expect any Captain to instantly respect me simply because I am a First Officer, but if they think they're going to fly into some cumulo-granite or through a thunderstorm without me stepping in, they are wrong.
Well, I'd better wrap this up and get ready for my return flight to MSP. I enjoyed my very short visit with Cathy, and we both enjoyed attending two Christmas parties last evening with some friends (thanks Tom/Sue and Jill/Mark), and it was really nice to see our neighbors again, even if it was for a very short time. I would like to stay a little longer today, but the weather back in Minnie is going to turn crappy later this afternoon, making it harder to get in. Current weather back in Minneapolis is 08011KT 1 1/2 SM -RA BR OVC005 03/01, which means that the winds are from the east, visibility is a mile and a half, there is light rain and mist at the airport, the clouds are at 500 feet (Cat 1 approaches!), and that it is cold. It looks must more impressive written in code on a long sheet of toilet paper!
Until next time, safe flying and God Speed. Do something nice for a stranger today.
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