Captain Journey

jordane93 said:
I’ll let my airline know to play Journey for the pre boarding music. It will be my entrance song!
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Don't forget your cape!

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Completed the one and only FTD requirement today. The FTD is a series of touch screens that make up the cockpit. It’s always frustrating because the software is programmed where you can only press one button at a time so it’s not too realistic. It’s great for learning procedures and running checklists though. We started off with a cold dark cockpit. I (CA) was the first person on the “plane” and was told to do the PM flow because the instructor wanted to see the overhead panel flow and cockpit set up as well as our first flight of the day systems checks. The only thing I forgot that is new to me is to test the cockpit voice recorder. The flight was planned from DTW-ROC with a takeoff alternate of CLE and destination alternate of MDT. Weather was cold and snowy all around so we had to deice. We had a series of start malfunctions and ran the QRH. We had another issue where we had to “pull” several circuit breakers and do a fault reset procedure which is limited on what EICAS messages we are allowed to do the reset procedure. Finally got airborne and we were given a crossing restriction of 13000ft XX amount of miles from a fix. Normally we accelerate to 290KIAS above 10K but since we had the anti ice on, I knew we weren’t going to make the crossing restriction so I elected to stay at 250kts. Weather in ROC was 1/4mi with snow RVR1200 so that meant a CATII approach. We briefed the approach and just when we were about to descend we get a L MAIN EJECTOR master caution. We run the checklist and we are good to land. The only thing I forgot to do was check if that piece of equipment was required for the CATII approach. Shot the approach and went missed then came back around and weather magically improved. Off until Sunday then start maneuvers training in the full motion sim.
 
Feel lucky. Those trainers were made of cardboard and plywood with a couple of lights and switches in the 90s. LOL Yours Sound much more interesting these days. LOL.
 
CA at my place does every test and aircraft set up. The only thing I do is the FMS and ACARS. I've done more CAT IIs in the last month then CAT Is all winter. It's very strange.

Congrats on the upgrade.

I hardly fly so I won't hit my time till this summer. I'm averaging only 35 hours a month if not less. I'll wait around till next year to upgrade so I can hold a line and skip reserve. Unless they force me first. Reserve sucks so badly here the company has resorted to forcing the FOs to upgrade or be fired.
 
jordane93 said:
Completed the one and only FTD requirement today. The FTD is a series of touch screens that make up the cockpit. It’s always frustrating because the software is programmed where you can only press one button at a time so it’s not too realistic. It’s great for learning procedures and running checklists though. We started off with a cold dark cockpit. I (CA) was the first person on the “plane” and was told to do the PM flow because the instructor wanted to see the overhead panel flow and cockpit set up as well as our first flight of the day systems checks. The only thing I forgot that is new to me is to test the cockpit voice recorder. The flight was planned from DTW-ROC with a takeoff alternate of CLE and destination alternate of MDT. Weather was cold and snowy all around so we had to deice. We had a series of start malfunctions and ran the QRH. We had another issue where we had to “pull” several circuit breakers and do a fault reset procedure which is limited on what EICAS messages we are allowed to do the reset procedure. Finally got airborne and we were given a crossing restriction of 13000ft XX amount of miles from a fix. Normally we accelerate to 290KIAS above 10K but since we had the anti ice on, I knew we weren’t going to make the crossing restriction so I elected to stay at 250kts. Weather in ROC was 1/4mi with snow RVR1200 so that meant a CATII approach. We briefed the approach and just when we were about to descend we get a L MAIN EJECTOR master caution. We run the checklist and we are good to land. The only thing I forgot to do was check if that piece of equipment was required for the CATII approach. Shot the approach and went missed then came back around and weather magically improved. Off until Sunday then start maneuvers training in the full motion sim.
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totally unrealistic.... the captain is NEVER The first one to get to the plane. the FO should have everything done, including the captains coffee ready when the captain gets there!

bob
 
ARFlyer said:
CA at my place does every test and aircraft set up. The only thing I do is the FMS and ACARS. I've done more CAT IIs in the last month then CAT Is all winter. It's very strange.

Congrats on the upgrade.

I hardly fly so I won't hit my time till this summer. I'm averaging only 35 hours a month if not less. I'll wait around till next year to upgrade so I can hold a line and skip reserve. Unless they force me first. Reserve sucks so badly here the company has resorted to forcing the FOs to upgrade or be fired.
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Yea I’ve heard about the mandatory upgrades. How are they able to do that? We’re not at the point yet. We’re thin on captains but the solution has been to award new hire FOs to CA. Not street captains because they still have to finish FO training and FO OE but then they go right back to the schoolhouse for upgrade. Basically street captains but they aren’t hired as captains.
 
ARFlyer said:
CA at my place does every test and aircraft set up. The only thing I do is the FMS and ACARS. I've done more CAT IIs in the last month then CAT Is all winter. It's very strange.

Congrats on the upgrade.

I hardly fly so I won't hit my time till this summer. I'm averaging only 35 hours a month if not less. I'll wait around till next year to upgrade so I can hold a line and skip reserve. Unless they force me first. Reserve sucks so badly here the company has resorted to forcing the FOs to upgrade or be fired.
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Which airline?
Pm me a response if you prefer. I’m at a crossroads in my career and I could benefit from your answer.
 
jordane93 said:
Yea I’ve heard about the mandatory upgrades. How are they able to do that? We’re not at the point yet. We’re thin on captains but the solution has been to award new hire FOs to CA. Not street captains because they still have to finish FO training and FO OE but then they go right back to the schoolhouse for upgrade. Basically street captains but they aren’t hired as captains.
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We have a forced upgrade clause in our contract. So if the company can't find enough volunteers they'll force FOs to upgrade. We have about 200 FOs bypassing because of the reserve rules. So every upgrade class we were short about half the required number. The company said screw this and told the union they were invoking that clause.

So those 200 senior guys who choose to bypass are now being forced to upgrade into what ever base the company decides to place them in. Basically, seniority means nothing anymore as an FO. If the company says jump you must jump.
 
unsafervguy said:
totally unrealistic.... the captain is NEVER The first one to get to the plane. the FO should have everything done, including the captains coffee ready when the captain gets there!

bob
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No, not really. I'd say 80% of the time I was there first. Hell if I were there real early I'd even do the walk around. Fun surprising FOs that way. But I know you're saying that in jest too.
 
ARFlyer said:
We have a forced upgrade clause in our contract. So if the company can't find enough volunteers they'll force FOs to upgrade. We have about 200 FOs bypassing because of the reserve rules. So every upgrade class we were short about half the required number. The company said screw this and told the union they were invoking that clause.

So those 200 senior guys who choose to bypass are now being forced to upgrade into what ever base the company decides to place them in. Basically, seniority means nothing anymore as an FO. If the company says jump you must jump.
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Why not just hire street captains if so many are bypassing the upgrade? Is there something in the contract that doesn’t allow that?
 
jordane93 said:
Why not just hire street captains if so many are bypassing the upgrade? Is there something in the contract that doesn’t allow that?
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They choose not to this time around. They did hire DEC last time this was an issue a few years ago.
 
mscard88 said:
No, not really. I'd say 80% of the time I was there first. Hell if I were there real early I'd even do the walk around. Fun surprising FOs that way. But I know you're saying that in jest too.
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Since I’m still a newbie CA I’m ALWAYS the first on the plane! I want to make sure I’ve got my stuff together before the FO arrives.

Good luck, Jordan. You’ll do great.
 
LDJones said:
Since I’m still a newbie CA I’m ALWAYS the first on the plane! I want to make sure I’ve got my stuff together before the FO arrives.
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You will get over that soon. LOL

We usually get to the plane at the same time. Meet in OPS to flight plan then walk to the plane together. Usually. Walk around is typically done by the FO at my place but I like to do the walk on the first flight because the FO has a lot to do anyway.
 
Passed maneuvers validation today. It was a very busy session. We did everything out of JFK. My sim partner was PF first. He did everything pretty well. Just needed some prompting on some things but overall a very nice job. After he was done with everything, we swapped seats and it was my turn. We started off lined up with 13L engines running, did a quick brief, ran some checklists, and did a low vis takeoff. RVR was 1000 so it wasn’t too bad. We were repositioned to 35K feet and ATC asked us to slow down to our minimum drag speed. This was followed by a stall and recovery. Next was the CATII approach and RVR was reporting 1200 so right down to minimums. At my airline, the FO flies the approach and the CA monitors. Right before the minimums call, the FOs PFD and MFD go black. We transferred controls and I executed a missed approach. Next was the hand flown VOR 22L. I configured a little later than I wanted to so I was momentarily behind the aircraft which gave the PM a little more work to do but was still within standards. After that we were respostioned to 13L and did a rejected takeoff due to a right engine flameout. After, we did the V1 cut followed by a hand flown single engine ILS. Our last maneuver was a rejected takeoff due to wind shear. The CRJ windshear detection system is only active from 10-1500 radio altitude. During the takeoff roll you’ll have to use other cues like fluctuating airspeed to determine whether it’s windshear or not. We did a high speed abort (above 80 knots) and ran the appropriate checklists. That concluded the parts we were being tested on and finished with a reduced flap landing which wasn’t being graded. It is just an item that we cover at the end if we have extra time. I made some mistakes mostly just small, minor ones but overall the instructor was very satisfied wth our performance. I’ve got Friday off then have 2 line oriented flight sessions then the final checkride is on Monday!
 
After 22 days of training, I finally completed the checkride last night and passed! For upgrade LOE (line operational experience), they pair us with a new hire FO. The LOE is basically simulating a line flight. So we start at a gate and end at gate and it’s all done in real time. Luckily my FO was an 8 year ExpressJet FO and was very sharp. I met up with him a few days before the checkride just to meet him and go over expectations. We get to the sim building and wait for our examiner. The examiner was awesome. Very fair, made us feel relaxed but also laid out clear expectations. After about 20 minutes of sorting out paperwork, we began the oral. We went back and forth with answering systems questions. We both answered about 20 and got 1 wrong each, which was to standards. Next was the pre flight pictorial, which consisted of pictures of a walk around that were either good or had an issue. The stuff that had a problem was obvious like fluid leaks, Gear pins left in, bent probes, etc. The whole oral lasted about 45 minutes which is pretty normal under AQP (advanced qualification program). Before AQP, you may have been expected to “build the airplane” and orals were long and grueling. The AQP program is a lot friendlier. After the oral, we took a break and the examiner set up the sim. We get our paperwork and we have one of our ignitions MEL’d. Read the MEL and it was documented properly. Operationally, we just had to turn on continuous ignition before each engine start. As I’m checking the circuit breaker panel, I notice some loose screws. I wasn’t sure if this was part of the sim or checkride so I opted to “call” dispatch and get a patch over to maintenance. Mx came and screwed the loose screws in. They didn’t go all the way in but the examiner said he will call it fixed. We get settled in and it’s my flying leg first. The flight was from ATL-XNA. We taxi out and do a normal takeoff. At about 6K feet, we get an IDG1 caution. We run the QRH, get in contact with dispatch and we both decide we can continue to XNA. As soon we get done with that, we get an emergency call from the FA and some guy is having chest pains and possible cardiac arrest. Good news is there’s a cardiologist back there and he is diagnosing the problem. They call back in a few minutes and say it it’s cardiac arrest. I brief the FAs, tell them we still need to contact some people and take care of administrative stuff so she has about 15-20 minutes. We declare an emergency and I ask for a vector back towards ATL. I hand the controls and radios over to the FO and tell him to handle the plane and radios, get us set up for the approach and get our landing numbers. While he doing that I coordinate with dispatch and both decide it’s angpod idea to head back tp ATL. I let the FAs know and make an announcement to the passengers. My FO gets the weather and it severely dropped to a 1/4 mile so we had to shoot a CATII approach. Knowing that we had to shut down a generator before, I carefully looked at the required equipment and we were able to do the approach because all we need is two generators, which can be two main generators or 1 main generator and the APU generator. We break out at minimums, land and get to the gate. I leave the seat belt sign on and make a PA to remain seated until medical personnel has cleared the aircraft. Last I wrote up the IDG caution and called dispatch and mx. “Scheduling” called and said we have to do another flight to MEM. Mx fixed our plane so we are taking the same one. We take a 10 minute then come back. Now it’s my FOs leg. Same MEL, same taxi out. While climbing ATC is reporting ice and moderate turbulence. I call back to the FAs and inform to remain seated, buckle down the carts, and I would call them again when it’s smooth and safe to get up. I also inform the pax about this. After passing through the turbulence, I call back to the FA and tell him it’s good to get up. There was only like 40 minutes left in the Flight so I said it’s their discretion if they want to do a beverage and snack service. I made a PA and turned off the seatbelt sign for a few minutes. As we descended on the STAR, we had a trim issue. I thought it was a runaway stab trim and the FO agreed. We ended up misdiagnosing the problem and went with the wrong QRH. We had to repeat the failure and the second we got it right. FO had to shoot a hand flown LOC to 18R down to minimums. Flew it perfectly, we land, I write up the discrepancy, and that concluded the checkride. The examiner informed us we both passed and we did a de brief. I’ll have about a week off until OE because they are pretty backed up. Looking forward to racking up PIC time!
 
Walboy said:
Congrats.

That sounds so stressful. Makes me appreciate the training air crews go through.
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It’s a lot of work but the training is top notch. I really wasn’t worried about the actual flying. Pretty much all of our upgrade failures were due to soft skills like communication, leadership, decision making, time management, etc. I’m a pretty soft spoken person and laid back so that’s something I knew I had to work on.
 
jordane93 said:
It’s a lot of work but the training is top notch. I really wasn’t worried about the actual flying. Pretty much all of our upgrade failures were due to soft skills like communication, leadership, decision making, time management, etc. I’m a pretty soft spoken person and laid back so that’s something I knew I had to work on.
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Congrats! Kind of stressful just reading your post about it. lol.

I guess it's like anything else though. Most of us are sitting here reading it without you and the FO's experience. I assume it's a lot easier when that's all you've already been doing for several years.
 
BrianNC said:
Congrats! Kind of stressful just reading your post about it. lol.

I guess it's like anything else though. Most of us are sitting here reading it without you and the FO's experience. I assume it's a lot easier when that's all you've already been doing for several years.
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The FO had a ton more experience than I did but there was still a clear boundary that I was the Captain and he was the FO. He wasn’t overstepping any rules and I was setting the tempo. I also asked for his input a lot because I respected his experience and his opinion. 2 years ago I was flying 172s. Now I’m the captain of a 76 passenger jet. It’s hard to believe!
 
jordane93 said:
The FO had a ton more experience than I did but there was still a clear boundary that I was the Captain and he was the FO. He wasn’t overstepping any rules and I was setting the tempo. I also asked for his input a lot because I respected his experience and his opinion. 2 years ago I was flying 172s. Now I’m the captain of a 76 passenger jet. It’s hard to believe!
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Don’t include the bit about 172’s two years ago in the pax PA :)
 
jordane93 said:
Everyday I hear, “wow this is a small plane.” I just say, “this is the biggest plane I’ve flown!”
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"I'm sorry. That's my fault. I was late to work this morning and, by the time I got in, all the 747's were taken!"

For when someone compliments your landing, "Thanks! I've been practicing all week!"
 
jordane93 said:
Everyday I hear, “wow this is a small plane.” I just say, “this is the biggest plane I’ve flown!”
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I had a woman lean in the cockpit once during boarding and say "oh good the Capt has grey hair"....
 
Larry in TN said:
"I'm sorry. That's my fault. I was late to work this morning and, by the time I got in, all the 747's were taken!"

For when someone compliments your landing, "Thanks! I've been practicing all week!"
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“I’ve played a lot of Microsoft flight sim. I hear this is like the same thing.”

Sorry lady they don’t bring 747s into Grand Forks
 
mscard88 said:
I had a woman lean in the cockpit once during boarding and say "oh good the Capt has grey hair"....
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LOL. I could have done that at 35.

The beard is all white now in my 40s. Sides of my head are white. Mustache hasn’t completely run out of toner yet for unknown reasons but has all white singles that stick out.

Probably time to shave it all off again. I let it grow out on vacation and the following three weeks recovering from illness.

I’m back to “wintertime shrubbery” face. It’ll feel cold if I take the weedwhacker to it.
 
Finally got OE scheduled! I start a 5 day trip on Monday. I’ll be overnighting in Boston, Cincinnati for two nights, and Detroit. The trip is about 27 hours of flying so if all goes well with the Fed ride and line check I’ll be signed off.
 
jordane93 said:
Finally got OE scheduled! I start a 5 day trip on Monday. I’ll be overnighting in Boston, Cincinnati for two nights, and Detroit. The trip is about 27 hours of flying so if all goes well with the Fed ride and line check I’ll be signed off.
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Congrats.

Captain Journey, to the rescue!

LOL... I still can’t get it out of my head...
 
Dave Theisen said:
I literally hear that song in my head every time this thread pops up. :). Hope your IOE goes smoothly.
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If my Photoshop skills weren’t nonexistent, a photo of him with a super hero costume and a Journey album cover on his chest would accompany the head tunes. LOL.
 
I probably missed it, but where are you based. I know at least 3 FO's with your company.
 
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