An hour in the life of a Commuter Pilot

[Greg Bockelman]

Back in the late 1980's I was working for a commuter airline based in Dayton, Ohio. We flew 19 seat turboprops. We served 11 cities from Dayton, most about 45 minutes flying time away. The farthermost station was Evansville, IN at about 1:15. A typical work week was 4 days on, three days off. The first and last day consisted of 5 legs and the middle two consisted of 6 legs. Needless to say, one became very familiar, very quickly, with the routes and airports.

One of my co-workers wrote a poem that pretty much sums up life as it was then. Here it is, for your enjoyment.

Revision #1
Standard Calls

It's time to play Pilot and be Joe Cool
We got sunglasses on and speeders full (1)

Now off the locks with Cap Panel clean (2)
Gimme Standard calls if the gauges leave the green

As the speed increases, ain't it a thriller
Captain calls out, "bubba, I'm comin' off the tiller." (3)

At 70 knots I'm drivin the Bird (4)
We got Vmc, ain't this obserd

V1 V2 change the angle of attack
Cause after V1 there's no turning back

You got a positive rate as you suck up the wheels,
Captain says, "Where'd you seat the blonde with da 4 inch heels?"

Just clearin' the trees as we shrug our toes
at 400 feet call for flaps and flows (5)

Now call in times and set the power
Cause we'll do it again in another hour.

(c) Ron Hazuda

(1) Speeders are similar to the prop control on a recip.
(2) CAP panel is an annunciator panel that gives the pilot Cautions and Warnings on various systems on the plane.
(3) Tiller is how the plane is steered on the ground.
(4) Below 70 knots, the rudder is not effective for steering. The Captain steers with the tiller until 70 knots, then the First Officer can steer with the rudders.
(5) Flows are just a systematic way of accomplishing checklist items.

 

[Everskyward]

I didn't know pilots could be that creative.

 

[Teller1900]

That's pretty good! Sounds an awful lot like the last five years of my life.

 

[denverpilot]

Nice!