I didn't mess up

This time. I have some pictures that I thought I'd share with everyone.

Nose up - Nose Down. I could easily make this into a rap song.



The CRJ



Might be tough to see thanks to the absolute blurriness, but KFDW in the upper left side of the map display was were I earned my private pilot certificate.



21st Century - Regional Pilot Crew Meal. Better than nothing, and I prefer the red box. Salami, Peppercorn Cheese spread, Crackers, Kettle Cooked Potato Chips with an apple sauce cup and some Milano cookies. But of course - no pictures of those because well, I ate them already.



Flying through the various layers of Tropical Storm Fay



The rear-end of an E-170.



Good timing, but the blurriness sucks.



One day perhaps?



On our way to Ft. Smith Arkansas, coming up on the Mississippi River and the Memphis TN area.



The Mighty Mississippi



Building storm - frontside



Building Storm - backside



Coming out of Ft. Smith in the morning. The colors were absolutely amazing. Notice the orange-red between the bright orange/yellow and the dark blue/black of the early morning sky.



No more orange-red, but the beauty continues.



My favorite of the morning shots. The contrast is just amazing.



Popping out of the bottom of the clouds on our way into Roanoke, VA.



Looking over to the right. Looks like the hillsides in Hawaii perhaps?



And the last one - managed to see Senator Obama's plane in Moline, IL. We were stuck there due to the horrible weather in Atlanta. But at least seeing him and his plane made up for it just a little bit.



Hope you enjoyed.

More than Minimum Monthly Guarantee

August has been a pretty good month. Our collective bargaining agreement provides reserve and regular pilots with a minimum 75 hours of pay, even if we are only scheduled to fly say 30 or 40 hours of block flying a month. Throw in the odd deadhead, minimum daily credit, trip and duty rigs, block or better, and even those 30-40 hour block trips can yield a pilot with more than 75 hours of credit towards pay.

This month happens to be one of those months with me. Except that right now if I only flew the rest of my scheduled assignments, I would have 76 hours of block with 83 hours of pay credit (for deadheads, block or better). Now considering I'm a reserve pilot we have a nice stipulation in our countract that benefits us reserve pilots greatly.

In the event that a reserve pilots flies more than 75 hours of block they are then entitled to the minimum daily guarantee for any reserve days that the reserve pilot did not have an assignment. In essence, it's a plus for the reserve pilot as they've been working their ass off and the company failed to build a line to provide to a regular pilot considering that the reserve pilot has essentially flown a line the whole month without really being rewarded one.

In the event my company does not provide me any further flying beyond what is scheduled for the rest of the month that leaves me with 7 days of reserve availability that I did not fly. That is 7 days of 3.75 hours of pay for being available for an assignment. That is then 26.25 hours of additional pay that I'll receive for this month. Add that 26.25 hours of additional pay to my credit for the month of flying and that takes me to close to 112 hours of pay for this month.

Impressive - and I'll gladly take it.

Well that sucks

Just finished up a three day trip where we went from one extreme of the country to another. First day was a round trip up to Appleton, WI, back through Atlanta, then down to Tallahassee, FL, then further south down to Miami, FL to spend the evening.

On day two we flew up from Miami to Tallahassee, then deadheaded out of there to Atlanta to get our plane to fly to Norfolk, VA - 25 minute turn later - we're on our way back to Atlanta. Get into Atlanta, and have a nice 2 hour experience flying west towards Texas for Killeen, Ft. Hood TX.

We had expected a little bit of a challenge due to Tropical Storm Edcurdo, but it really wasn't much of anything. Was a bit disappointed to be honest. The meteorologist in me was expecting to see a lot of cool stuff.

Day three was pretty simple, come back through Atlanta from Ft. Hood, then jump up to Charleston, WV and back - and call it a day.

So you're probably wondering - well - what sucks about all of that?

Not much really, except for the fact that I managed to take about 50 pictures or so during the three days. Somehow I managed to delete the images while I was freeing up space on the camera's memory stick.

So - with that said - no pictures.

Have a four day coming up, with an opportunity to run into some old friends / colleagues. Just have to notify them, if I feel like it. . .some of them I do, one in particular I really don't know about.

Here's to August

Started the new month at work today.

Was notified yesterday of an assignment for today - Ready Reserve.

Made it into the lounge this morning at 9:30, checked-in and noticed they didn't have anything for me. Fine by me. I opened up the laptop and surfed the web for a little while. Eventually turned the machine off and started to take a little nap at about 10:15. Set the alarm for 10:45 so that if they did call me and I just so happened to fall asleep - well at lest I'd wake up hopefully within our contractually obligated time and not get written up for such a ridiculous thing.

Just as I'm dosing off the phone rings the distinctive Crew Scheduling ringer. The time as 10:30. They had an assignment - a trip up to KPIA (Peoria, IL), that leaves at 10:43am. Spectacular - 13 minutes to get to the plan, set my self up, do any necessary paperwork, and shut the door. Surprisingly we managed to close the door only 1 minute behind schedule, and would have had it shut if ti wasn't for a maintenance mechanic who decided to give us a little visit with 1 minute to door close and who also decided to linger for a few moments; hence our inability to get out on time.

Flew up to Peoria, did a 25 minute turn, and am now back in Atlanta. Once we got back in I called Crew Scheduling back, I still had 2 and a half hours of my initial ready reserve period to go so I knew they weren't going to send me home but I had to notify them that I was back in the airport.

Anyway - I'm on my way to grab some lunch, not even 10 minutes after talking to a scheduler - and they call me. Ends up they have me going to KXNA (Northwest Arkansas Regional) but not until 6:45pm. Spectacular . . .

So here I am, enjoying another 2 hours and some change before I'm out of here and on my way to XNA. Have a 10 hour overnight there, and then back in again in the morning. Get to call them in the morning and hopefully they'll either have something for me right then - or they'll send me home for the day, only to still have to babysit the phone until my reserve period tomorrow ends.

They can keep me for another hour tomorrow once I make it in though if they don't necessarily have something for me by the time I get back into Atlanta. Only time will tell - and I wouldn't necessarily be too disappointed.