Take Your Kids to Work Day...Airline Style

 This is why pilots rarely take their kids to work....

As the son of an airline pilot, some of my favorite childhood memories are of the times I got to tag along with my dad at work.   Often these were simple trips to check his mail box at the airport, but when I was 12, he started taking me along on trips when he was piloting the airplane.

Portland, Oregon, Las Vegas, Nevada and San Francisco, California stand out as a few of my favorites.   In Portland, we rented car and drove up the Columbia River gorge and wandered around Mt. Hood before returning to the city. In Vegas...well, I was 12, so it probably wasn't the usual Las Vegas experience, but still a wonderful memory. In San Francisco we rode cable cars, got locked in a prison cell at Alcatraz and ate at Scoma's, our family's favorite restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf. Travel, airplanes and time alone with my dad...what a great combination.

I have two daughters, ages 12 and 15.  Both girls want to accompany me on one of my trips.  I've been dragging my feet, wondering how my dad found the courage to let me go at such a young age. I can't imagine having to leave one of my girls behind. 

As an airline employee, I'm able to travel for free anywhere my airline flies. The catch is that I only get a seat if there is one available when he flight leaves. If the plane fills up, I don't go. It's that simple. These days, the airplanes are so full that non-rev travel isn't much of a benefit. To make matters worse, the internet has created a mechanism for airlines to fill seats at the last minute, which makes planning a trip very difficult.

On a family vacation, if we don't get seats, we're still together as a family.  We consider it an adventure in travel! But if I'm working the trip and the plane fills up...I have to go and my kid has to stay behind. It's the stress of that possibility that led me to wait much longer than my dad did with me.

This week, my oldest daughter was having a rough week. The homecoming dance was quickly approaching and she didn't get invited. After a few teary nights waiting for the phone to ring, I decided it was time to invite my daughter to go with me on a long layover.  I thought I could provide her with a much more pleasant memory if I could get her out of town and away from all her friend's facebook updates.  She was excited that I had finally relented...she's been telling me she was old and mature enough for a long time.  So I got on the computer and tried to find something fun.

My favorite layovers are on the west coast. New York would be good too.  Maybe something on the beach! But nothing was open that appealed to me on any significant level.  I settled on a 32 hour layover in Columbus, Ohio. I know, it doesn't sound all that exciting, but this was more about time together than anything else. Most importantly, the flights were wide open both ways. What could possibly go wrong?

The trip up went fine. I got my daughter a first class seat and the cabin crew did a wonderful job of making my girl feel like a part of the crew. It was my leg, and I managed a smooth landing.  Not that it mattered, but I wanted my daughter to think I knew what I was doing and as far as I can tell, the landing is all anyone ever remembers. So far so good.

Simon or Pumba? I can never remember.

The next day we woke early and headed for the gym. After a good workout we went for a swim then got cleaned up and fed ourselves before hailing a cab and heading out for the zoo. (As a side note, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is wonderful and totally worth your time.) After the zoo, we rested up in the hotel then ate a nice dinner before catching a late movie.  We were in bed at a decent hour and had a fantastic time together.  Good memories!  

The next day, I got up early and reached for my iPad. I wanted to check on our flight and make sure everything was still in order. We were the second flight out of town that morning and the first flight was listed as cancelled. This is exactly why I had waited so long to take this trip. My flight was going to leave on time and completely full.  Actually, there wouldn't be enough seats for the paying passengers much less a non-rev.  My daughter was going to get left behind.

Once at the airport, I got a bunch of cash out of an ATM machine and left my daughter with the card...something I've never done before and hope to never do again.  I sat her down and told her what to do and what to expect.  I told her where to sit, who to talk to and more importantly who to avoid.  I gave her a list of all the flights home that day and showed her where to eat. She had a full charge on her phone and computer and there was a free wifi signal in the terminal. Don't talk to strangers!  I didn't want her to see it in my eyes, but I was concerned. She didn't want me to see it either, but she was too.

The gate agents were great. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from them, but they were all tremendously helpful and understanding. I would like to specifically thank Natalie, who promised to stay with my daughter all day and even offered to take her home that night if she wasn't able to get on a flight. Natalie gave me her phone number and promised to stay in touch.  She really put me at ease. 

I was on and off the phone with my wife...who wasn't exactly happy either. While I was preparing my daughter for her solo trip home, my wife searched the Internet for options. In the end, we elected to purchase a full fare ticket on another airline. She would still have to travel on her own and would have to make a stop-over in Charlotte, but she would be a positive space passenger and would for sure get home.  I walked my daughter over to the U.S. Airways gate, which was just a short walk from mine.  I was still on the phone with my wife, who was in the process of paying for the airline ticket online, when my daughter and I reached the gate.  Before I left, my daughter had tickets in hand and was in the care of yet another wonderfully helpful gate agent.

I'm writing this from the lounge area at U.S. Airways gate E36 at the Dallas, Ft. Worth International Airport.  I left Columbus, Ohio this morning at 9am, flew to DFW, then to Salt Lake City and back. Needless to say, I'm exhausted. I think my subconscious must have known what was coming, because I woke up at 2am and again at 4 during the night and was awakened at 6:30 by my alarm. That's when all the fun started.  I sit here now with heavy eyes.

Like my memories of Portland, Las Vegas and San Francisco, I think my daughter made life-long memories today.  I also think she'll remember this day much longer than she would have remembered her date to the homecoming dance. I left her this morning with $100 cash and my ATM card.  Apparently, the cash wasn't near enough and she's already drained a little more out of my account. "I was hungry daddy."  I’ll let her new collection of t-shirts and books go without comment. 

I know she's on that plane...but I'll feel much better when I see her smiling face.

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Ice, Sleet and Snow...oh my!

Sitting in line for takeoff in Atlanta this morning

I started a three day trip yesterday with a five leg day passing through Dallas, Ft. Worth, Memphis and Austin before finishing the day in Atlanta where we spent the night. All five leg days are long, but this one went quite smoothly, which was a good thing since we were all expecting significant weather related challenges on day two of our trip. I’ll get to the weather in a minute.

We landed in Atlanta last night after dark with ceilings reported at 200 feet and visibility expressed in feet, not miles. The approach to Atlanta was an interesting one, the ILS/PRM (Simultaneous Close Parallel) approach to runway 10. The procedure is a standard ILS approach with localizer and glideslope indications except that it is too close to a parallel runway (9R in this case) to be flown using normal procedures. The pilot’s must be specially trained to fly such an approach and there is a page long explanation that must be read and reviewed before executing the approach. The procedures call for the pilots to monitor a second tower frequency during the approach to guard against blocked transmissions and the pilots must be alert and ready to immediately follow break out instructions from the tower controller in case another aircraft “blunders” into your airspace. You might find some humor in the word blunder, I know I did, but that is the actual word used in the FAA explanation for this approach. Here’s the actual wording…

“pilots, when directed by ATC to break off an approach, must assume that an aircraft is blundering toward their course and a breakout must be initiated immediately”

I do think it’s important to have a good laugh every now and then and I laughed out loud when I read that line approaching Atlanta last night.

Ice forming on a heated window

 

As I mentioned before, the weather forecast for DFW predicted a crippling combination of ice, sleet and snow. I woke up early this morning to give myself time to look at the weather and check the status of my flight before heading downstairs to catch the hotel van. Overnight, the DFW area was hit by a thin layer of clear ice, followed by something less than an inch of sleet and ice pellets followed by a shallow layer of snow. Those of you in colder climates may feel free to poke fun at southern US residents and their inability to drive in snow, but I think you would agree that the combination of ice, sleet and snow can be a deadly combination. When I first checked the DFW weather, the wind was blowing from 320 degrees at 29 gusting to 44 knots (KDFW 32029G44KT 2SM TSSNPL BR BKN009 OVC013CB M03/M06) and all the runways were closed. The airport authority at DFW had planned to treat the runways overnight in preparation for today’s weather event, but due to heavy rain, the runways went untreated. As a result the ice, sleet and snow stuck to the runways and it took hours to get even one runway in a condition safe enough for use.

By 9am, DFW had one of it’s seven runways open and that runway was only being used for arrivals. It was another two hours before a second runway was open for use by departing aircraft. The airlines, which had preemptively cancelled hundreds of flights continued to cancel even more as the day went on. In contrast, Dallas Love Field, just miles away was unable to open all day forcing Southwest, Delta and Continental Airlines to cancel every flight out of the airport all day.

Back at the gate in Atlanta and ready to depart, our flight was held on the ground while we waited for word on the condition of the runway. At the time the gate agent finished boarding, the runways at DFW were still closed, but were expected to be open by the time we landed. An hour after our scheduled departure time, we elected to takeoff in hopes that the runways would in fact be open when we arrived. Of course, we had an alternate airport planned in case the runways were still closed when we arrived, but we certainly hoped we wouldn’t need it.

We departed Atlanta where the visibility was still hovering around CATII minimums and headed toward DFW. Just as we leveled off at FL340, we received word that one runway was open at DFW and we would be able to land. The runway was covered in ice and snow, but a short time later we were informed that several company jets had landed and reported braking action good.

Our flight plans have a column indicating forecast ride conditions. The ride forecast comes from a combination of actual reports from other aircraft and the professional opinion of a meteorologist. The forecast is expressed as a number between 0 and 5...0 being a perfectly smooth ride and 5 being something like the inside of an F5 tornado. Our ride prediction for today’s flight was a 3...not good. The ride in was terrible with moderate chop and turbulence for most of the flight. We tried various altitudes, high and low, to find a smooth ride, but it just didn’t happen. The flight attendants stayed in their seats and I kept the cabin as cool as possible without freezing people out in an effort to prevent a chain reaction of air sickness.

The landing at DFW was actually a little anti-climactic. By the time we arrived, the precipitation had ended and the airport had successfully opened two runways. We landed on runway 31R while 31L was being utilized for takeoff operations only. The runway was completely covered in ice and snow, but the braking action reports were all good and although the wind, still peaking at 40+ knots was strong, it also meant that when we touched down, we were just that much closer to taxi speed which of course just shortens our landing distance.

The biggest problem I had was getting home. My car was literally frozen to the pavement in the employee lot and the drive home that usually takes 20 minutes on a good day and 25 minutes in the heat of rush hour traffic took an hour and a half. The rest of my trip was canceled and scheduling put me on reserve beginning at 3am in the morning. I really hope they don’t call…not sure if I could get to the airport anyway. We’ll see.

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Medical Emergency

I was responding to our instructions to “Descend now, cross MOOSE at FL 240” when I heard the cabin emergency signal. I turned up the volume on the intercom in time to hear one of the flight attendants in the back alerting the others that we had a passenger in distress near the last row. A man in his 40’s had lost consciousness after standing near his seat and hit his head on the way to the floor. One of the flight attendants tried to break his fall, but was injured in the process. The captain instructed me to declare a medical emergency and handle the flying and ATC communications while he took over coordination with the flight attendants and our company dispatch.

As we learned later from exiting passengers, the flight attendants were doing an excellent job with their patient and were both calm and collected as they performed life saving duties. They are trained for this sort of thing, but situations like this are uncommon. Normally, the flight attendants are seen passing out drinks and trying to make everyone’s flight a little more comfortable, but they are trained for much more. Even on a routine flight, they perform many safety related duties that are not recognized by the average traveler, but when called upon in an emergency, they are invaluable.

In the cockpit, it seemed like the interphone chime sounded a hundred times in the 15 minutes it took us to get on the ground. Every time there was a change in the passenger’s condition, we were notified. The Captain was in constant contact with the flight attendants, company dispatch, and the “on-call physician” available to us via phone patch. Passenger condition, medical history, medications…everything was important. You never know how these things are going to turn out and I've seen them go both ways…but you have to assume and prepare for the worst. Sometimes you do everything in your power to get what you think is a dying passenger on the ground only to have them walk off the jet in seemingly perfect health. Other times, it’s the real deal and a life is in the balance.

Once I uttered the word “emergency” to ATC, we were immediately cleared direct to our destination and others in our path were given vectors to clear the way. I increased our speed to Mach .80 and transitioned to 330 knots. As far as the flying was concerned, everything we were doing felt out of the norm, so I had to be very careful to plan my descent and speed reduction to avoid any mistakes. I wanted to fly as fast as possible and delay my speed reduction as late as I could, but had to plan carefully, and when it came to the approach, flew normal speeds and utilized standard procedures in order to insure the safety of all those on board. We had our choice of runways and were cleared direct to the outer marker from about 80 miles out. As we broke out of the clouds at about 1000 ft, we could see that there was a line of planes awaiting our arrival. All departures were suspended as we approached the airport to insure there would be no delays for our flight.

After landing, the tower cleared us directly to our gate where paramedics, passenger service personnel and a ground crew were ready and waiting. As we approached the gate, I asked our passengers to remain seated until the paramedics had entered the aircraft and assessed the situation. Thankfully for all involved, this situation ended well. The ill passenger was removed from the aircraft and taken to the hospital where he was treated and released. The injured flight attendant had a bruised hand and will recover fully. To be honest, the whole thing was a little anti-climactic. After we arrived at the gate, my job was essentially over. It seemed like there should be more for me to do, but there wasn’t. I thanked everyone involved, packed up my bags and headed for home.

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