Mid-life Career Change to Airline Pilot. It's Doable.

Larry in TN said:
Channel 9 is still there and being added to more and more airplanes. The new AVOD screens on the 737s and Airbus support it. It's on the Spotify menu as, "Flight Deck".
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I haven't flown United in a long time, but I had heard that most flight crews disable Channel 9 these days thanks to a bunch of Karens complaining about things being done "wrong" that they didn't understand?
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
But we seem to always have "the 2 most amazing flight attendants" but how can that be true?

I've never flown with the same ones twice and they are always the 2 most amazing.
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"Ladies and gentlemen, our company is known for having some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight."
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I haven't flown United in a long time, but I had heard that most flight crews disable Channel 9 these days thanks to a bunch of Karens complaining about things being done "wrong" that they didn't understand?
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At least on the 737 fleet, the Ch.9 awareness is pretty low because the fleet hasn't had it since the 737-500s were retired almost 15 years ago. Most of the current 737 pilots have never flown a United airplane with Ch.9. Most 737s are still without it activated yet as you need both the new AVOD screens and a modification completed to hardwire the Ch.9 feed to the No.1 VHF radio.

If you are on an airplane with the AVOD screens, ask the Captain if Ch.9 is available. Passengers asking will raise awareness and show that there is significant interest.

AV8R_87 said:
"Ladies and gentlemen, our company is known for having some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight."
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Well, not gonna eat the crew meal on that leg!
 
AV8R_87 said:
"Ladies and gentlemen, our company is known for having some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight."
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...followed by the FA keying up the PA and announcing, “I’m afraid we don’t rate the best pilots, either, folks. Sorry. Enjoy the flight, and we’ll let you know if it looks like those two might find the correct airport this time.”
 
I used to fly a CEO who wouldn’t interrupt my safety briefing unless we had guests on the airplane. When we had guests, I’d close the door and turn to brief the passengers, and he say, “David’s going to tell you a bunch of stuff. Bottom line, we crash, we die. Ok, David, go ahead.”
 
MauleSkinner said:
I used to fly a CEO who wouldn’t interrupt my safety briefing unless we had guests on the airplane. When we had guests, I’d close the door and turn to brief the passengers, and he say, “David’s going to tell you a bunch of stuff. Bottom line, we crash, we die. Ok, David, go ahead.”
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That’s brutal. I like that CEO.
 
Half Fast said:
...followed by the FA keying up the PA and announcing, “I’m afraid we don’t rate the best pilots, either, folks. Sorry. Enjoy the flight, and we’ll let you know if it looks like those two might find the correct airport this time.”
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FAs listen to announcements now? When did that start?
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
That’s brutal. I like that CEO.
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He’s also the guy who, after a nasty crash of a similar airplane not far from our home base, made sure to tell me that “we never NEED to be anywhere.” I pulled a card from my wallet that said, “this card certifies that your pilot is a card-carrying coward.” On the back it had a wide yellow stripe. ;)

The good news is that the day of that crash we had a rental car snafu at our destination, so I got on the phone with the airplane scheduler to let her know. When I talked to later that afternoon, she said, “I am so glad you had that rental car problem this morning. Our phone has been ringing off the hook with shareholders wondering if it was our airplane that crashed, and I’ve been able to tell them I talked to you this morning, and you’re safe on the ground.”
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I haven't flown United in a long time, but I had heard that most flight crews disable Channel 9 these days thanks to a bunch of Karens complaining about things being done "wrong" that they didn't understand?
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The fleet I'm on has channel 9, but I've only seen it turned on twice. Too many "experts" listening to it and trying to get something to go viral.
 
Half Fast said:
I just wish the airlines would stop waking me up from my peaceful nap with some @#%$ announcement about their oh-so-special &%^#%**!!! company credit card and their @$&^*$! rewards program and whatever other bull$&^+ they're trying to sell me.
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I missed half of a movie because of an endless credit card offer. I forget the airline. But I'm still ****ed at whoever it was.
 
MauleSkinner said:
I used to fly a CEO who wouldn’t interrupt my safety briefing unless we had guests on the airplane. When we had guests, I’d close the door and turn to brief the passengers, and he say, “David’s going to tell you a bunch of stuff. Bottom line, we crash, we die. Ok, David, go ahead.”
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I’ve said it here before, but my pax brief is simple. “My job is to fly the plane and not crash; your job is to tell me if we’re on fire.”
 
MauleSkinner said:
He’s also the guy who, after a nasty crash of a similar airplane not far from our home base, made sure to tell me that “we never NEED to be anywhere.”
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Reminds me of a time my CEO walked into our hangar as I hung up the phone with Flight Service and told him I was canceling the trip due to fog. It was a really low RVR morning and the forecast wasn't expected to get better. As he got in his car to go back to the plant he saw and heard the next-door King Air fire up and taxi out. When I stopped at the plant to check my mail box he summoned me into his office to tell me he called the tower and learned the King Air departed and that he thought I was too "conservative". I felt like Ralph Kramden going "Humma, humma, humma" as I sheepishly backed out the door. Well, later that day, an itinerant King Air left its nose gear in a pile of what used to be the top of a ham radio antenna not far from the middle marker and according to the news the local fire department was looking in vain for the non-existent wreckage. I guess the lucky pilot was able to make a missed approach and eventually land somewhere else without the nose gear. The upshot was a day or so later, at 5:00 AM, I got a call from the same CEO telling me to pay him no mind. "Just do what is right," he said, "Don't let me influence your decision." The reason he called? I was scheduled to fly to Florida that day and rescue his daughter and her family from an approaching hurricane. That was a trip I could and did make, but he had seen the error of his ways.
 
dtuuri said:
Reminds me of a time my CEO walked into our hangar as I hung up the phone with Flight Service and told him I was canceling the trip due to fog. It was a really low RVR morning and the forecast wasn't expected to get better. As he got in his car to go back to the plant he saw and heard the next-door King Air fire up and taxi out. When I stopped at the plant to check my mail box he summoned me into his office to tell me he called the tower and learned the King Air departed and that he thought I was too "conservative". I felt like Ralph Kramden going "Humma, humma, humma" as I sheepishly backed out the door. Well, later that day, an itinerant King Air left its nose gear in a pile of what used to be the top of a ham radio antenna not far from the middle marker and according to the news the local fire department was looking in vain for the non-existent wreckage. I guess the lucky pilot was able to make a missed approach and eventually land somewhere else without the nose gear. The upshot was a day or so later, at 5:00 AM, I got a call from the same CEO telling me to pay him no mind. "Just do what is right," he said, "Don't let me influence your decision." The reason he called? I was scheduled to fly to Florida that day and rescue his daughter and her family from an approaching hurricane. That was a trip I could and did make, but he had seen the error of his ways.
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That didn't happen to have been the NASCAR team King Air in NH was it?
 
Groundpounder said:
That didn't happen to have been the NASCAR team King Air in NH was it?
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Heh, no, I don't think I'm familiar with that one. This would have been in the 1980s. I'm pretty sure I was single pilot in a 690B Commander in those days, so 1981 to 1984 timeframe. The King Air went to Dayton from Mansfield, missed there too, then landed at Port Columbus. That's all I know.
 
dtuuri said:
Heh, no I'm not familiar with that one. This would have been in the 1980s. I'm pretty sure I was single pilot in a 690B Commander in those days, so 1981 to 1984 timeframe.
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There was a king air flying a race team to MHT for a race in the late 90's, and screwed up the approach royally, hit a light pole in a parking lot, somehow kept it flying and diverted to BTV. I'll try to find the ntsb report when I have better internet access.
 
Groundpounder said:
There was a king air flying a race team to MHT for a race in the late 90's, and screwed up the approach royally, hit a light pole in a parking lot, somehow kept it flying and diverted to BTV. I'll try to find the ntsb report when I have better internet access.
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See my edit above.
 
One time sitting at the airport, Wx was actually 0/0. We could watch a person walk into the fog and disappear in 3 feet. Forecast called for the same all day. Called the Director of Operations in Barrow and he Ok'ed shutting down for the day, so we did and went off duty. By 11am we were in no shape to drive.

Noon.

We heard a plane fly over. I pulled open the curtains to discover BRIGHT. BLUE. SKIES. The station manager called 5 minutes later to see if we were in any shape to fly. Nope. So we sat there and listened to the competition fly in and out all afternoon...
 
Zeldman said:
One time sitting at the airport, Wx was actually 0/0. We could watch a person walk into the fog and disappear in 3 feet. Forecast called for the same all day. Called the Director of Operations in Barrow and he Ok'ed shutting down for the day, so we did and went off duty. By 11am we were in no shape to drive.

Noon.

We heard a plane fly over. I pulled open the curtains to discover BRIGHT. BLUE. SKIES. The station manager called 5 minutes later to see if we were in any shape to fly. Nope. So we sat there and listened to the competition fly in and out all afternoon...
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"It may not be 0/0 outside, but here in the pub it definitely is!"
 
Not my favorite OT pickup this month. -7 in North Dakota is far more painful than anything I would refer to as a wintry mix in Texas.
De-Ice + Anti Ice = Delays and missed connections. This was a hard day.

Captain of the plane in front of our gate asked for both then decided they didn't do a good enough job so they had to do it again (30 min a pop each time)
Then decided he still wasn't satisfied with their de-icing progress and somehow.... oops , timed out. Added a 2 hour delay to our time just so he could go to the hotel.
Just listening to the guy on freq, pointing out "under wing icicles" that he could not possibly see was odd AF. We managed to get cleaned up and flew back to a more normal environment.

573844813_18328339087246023_55939918699442447_n.jpg
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Not my favorite OT pickup this month. -7 in North Dakota is far more painful than anything I would refer to as a wintry mix in Texas.
De-Ice + Anti Ice = Delays and missed connections. This was a hard day.

Captain of the plane in front of our gate asked for both then decided they didn't do a good enough job so they had to do it again (30 min a pop each time)
Then decided he still wasn't satisfied with their de-icing progress and somehow.... oops , timed out. Added a 2 hour delay to our time just so he could go to the hotel.
Just listening to the guy on freq, pointing out "under wing icicles" that he could not possibly see was odd AF. We managed to get cleaned up and flew back to a more normal environment.

View attachment 147941
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This was my business trip to South Dakota last year. That part of the country is not for the faint of heart.

Screenshot_20250219_065229_Weather.jpg
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Not my favorite OT pickup this month. -7 in North Dakota is far more painful than anything I would refer to as a wintry mix in Texas.
De-Ice + Anti Ice = Delays and missed connections. This was a hard day.

Captain of the plane in front of our gate asked for both then decided they didn't do a good enough job so they had to do it again (30 min a pop each time)
Then decided he still wasn't satisfied with their de-icing progress and somehow.... oops , timed out. Added a 2 hour delay to our time just so he could go to the hotel.
Just listening to the guy on freq, pointing out "under wing icicles" that he could not possibly see was odd AF. We managed to get cleaned up and flew back to a more normal environment.
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That sucks; bush league garbage. Just call in fatigued or something instead of wasting everyone's time. Sorry you had to watch that.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Captain of the plane in front of our gate asked for both then decided they didn't do a good enough job so they had to do it again (30 min a pop each time)
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Wait till you find out what it costs...

It was usually somewhat north of $1000 to do the wings and tail on a TBM, which is a total area of maybe 270 square feet. Your bird would be more like 1080 square feet, so probably more like $4,000-$5,000 per deice... And that's if you only do the wings and tail.

SixPapaCharlie said:
Then decided he still wasn't satisfied with their de-icing progress and somehow.... oops , timed out. Added a 2 hour delay to our time just so he could go to the hotel.
Just listening to the guy on freq, pointing out "under wing icicles" that he could not possibly see was odd AF.
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Lame.

BTW, is that pic you guys, or were you there for an overnight and got a pic of other traffic?

NealRomeoGolf said:
This was my business trip to South Dakota last year. That part of the country is not for the faint of heart.

View attachment 147942
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Well, it sucks to be that cold. On the other hand, no hurricanes, no earthquakes, no tsunamis, no alligators, no scorpions, no venomous snakes, no giant spiders, or any of the other stuff that sucks in warmer places either. If it's not furry, it dies once a year so it can't ever get too big and mean.

Of course, you don't have to get quite THAT cold for those benefits. :hairraise:
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
That part of the country is not for the faint of heart.
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-28F? That's nothing. I've been to Thule AB, Greenland seven times and have seen -35C on the ATIS. You know it's cold when the ocean is frozen solid.

Now I bid vacation during the winter months to minimize my exposure. My only trip this month is St. Thomas.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Not my favorite OT pickup this month. -7 in North Dakota is far more painful than anything I would refer to as a wintry mix in Texas.
De-Ice + Anti Ice = Delays and missed connections. This was a hard day.
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Damn. I literally flew that exact flight from the warmer oil state to the colder oil state the day before you did. Luckily when I got home it was only M14 so I didn't dig my jacket out of my flight bag until I got to my truck and had to remove the evidence of winter.

Maybe you can answer this if you flew on Saturday as well... I was on N311VE and we flew at FL200 the whole way other than a quick jaunt up to 260 for 20 minutes. MEL?
 
Larry in TN said:
-28F? That's nothing. I've been to Thule AB, Greenland seven times and have seen -35C on the ATIS. You know it's cold when the ocean is frozen solid.

Now I bid vacation during the winter months to minimize my exposure. My only trip this month is St. Thomas.
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-35C is "only" -31F...which was a temperature I've experienced multiple times getting up before the sun rose to go to work. Even with the heater blowing full-blast, the car was always still cold enough to frost your breath even after a 25-minute commute at 60mph.

Sometimes I miss the early-morning hush of an overnight snow, but I never miss that kind of cold. Just thinking about it is enough to make my feet feel cold. :tongue:
 
KaiGywer said:
Maybe you can answer this if you flew on Saturday as well... I was on N311VE and we flew at FL200 the whole way other than a quick jaunt up to 260 for 20 minutes. MEL?
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Likely winds or turbulence.

Pneumatics or pressurization MELs wouldn't allow the 20 minutes at FL260.

Could have been an icing MEL and you climbed when the sky was clear at the higher altitudes.
 
SkyChaser said:
-35C is "only" -31F...which was a temperature I've experienced multiple times getting up before the sun rose to go to work. Even with the heater blowing full-blast, the car was always still cold enough to frost your breath even after a 25-minute commute at 60mph.
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It was miserable. With the wind, it was painful after a minute or two.

This was the weather channel on a warm day.

IMAG0546.jpg
 
Larry in TN said:
Likely winds or turbulence.

Pneumatics or pressurization MELs wouldn't allow the 20 minutes at FL260.

Could have been an icing MEL and you climbed when the sky was clear at the higher altitudes.
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It was snowing hard when we landed in BIS, so I don't think it was icing related (looked similar to the pic he posted, just warmer). I was just curious since at least in what I fly, going at FL200 is a huge fuel penalty even if winds are better than up top.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
BTW, is that pic you guys, or were you there for an overnight and got a pic of other traffic?
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Pic a deadheader took out the right side of our plane. We were stuck behind an 737 with a captain that wuz sweepy.

That 175 there was already 3 hours delayed from ORD and sat there long enough for it to become an issue with keeping pax on the plane much longer.
What gets me about the other plane is he taxied out to the taxi way and they gave us the gate and as we were pulling in, (AND I had notified the pax we were finally headed to the jetbridge) they told us to stop, do a 180 and go back so 737 could have the gate and deplane. This lead to a game of Rock Paper Scissors to determine who was going to tell the Pax we lied and it is going to be awhile again.

They only have a few gates and no de-ice pad so it clogs up the ramp.
 
Larry in TN said:
-28F? That's nothing. I've been to Thule AB, Greenland seven times and have seen -35C on the ATIS. You know it's cold when the ocean is frozen solid.

Now I bid vacation during the winter months to minimize my exposure. My only trip this month is St. Thomas.
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-35C is -31F. Pretty much the same. :dunno:
 
Coldest I’ve experienced was -30F air temperature at Killington VT. We would ski one run, sit in the lodge for an hour, rinse, repeat. Hey, it was up to -10 by the end of the day. Heatwave!
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Pic a deadheader took out the right side of our plane. We were stuck behind an 737 with a captain that wuz sweepy.
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Well, given the time they departed that morning I can't say I blame him... And if their fatigue policy is such that he needs to pull stunts like this to stay safe, I'm not sure I want to fly in the front or back of their airplanes.

I mean, they shouldn't have even needed to deice, right? Isn't that why they have the sun on their tail, to melt the ice?

SixPapaCharlie said:
What gets me about the other plane is he taxied out to the taxi way and they gave us the gate and as we were pulling in, (AND I had notified the pax we were finally headed to the jetbridge) they told us to stop, do a 180 and go back so 737 could have the gate and deplane. This lead to a game of Rock Paper Scissors to determine who was going to tell the Pax we lied and it is going to be awhile again.

They only have a few gates and no de-ice pad so it clogs up the ramp.
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Ew, that sucks.
 
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