Long time no post.
Well I know it's been quite a while since I've posted, but I've been busy. A lot has happened in the last few weeks and I haven't really had the time or resources to post. First things first, Erin and I finally tied the knot. The wedding was awesome, Erin was beautiful, Jack wearing a Kilt was the hit of the wedding and everything went off with out a hitch. I couldn't have asked for a better day. A special thanks go out to "The Mom's" for putting together such a great day and to "The Dad's" for letting the Mom's spend so much money. Another thanks goes out to everyone who made the journey to the Midwest for the wedding. It was good to see everyone and I hope you had as good a time as Erin and I did.
Now back to some flying stories. At my last posting I was just about to start my O.E flying. In the few weeks since then, I've finished up with that and started flying as a regular line pilot. In the few short weeks that I've been flying the CRJ, I've decided that my personal nickname for it is going to be Princess. Long gone are the days of jumping in, lighting the fires and blasting off at 6,000+ f.p.m climb rates. The CRJ needs a lot of attention and tender loving care before it'll do something you want and I can forget about any kind of a decent climb rate above 20,000ft, because Princess just doesn't have the muscle. For the first time ever I had to ask ATC for a "slow climb" because the plane wouldn't maintain a 500f.p.m rate up to our cruise altitude of FL320. Around FL270 she started really dropping off in performance and by the time we hit FL300, we couldn't maintain 500f.p.m so we either had to level off till we burned some gas or ask for a slow climb. Thankfully we didn't have much traffic around us and the controller let us crawl our way up there. Granted we were heavy with lots of gas and a full compliment of 50 pax, but the lack of performance really caught my attention. I think that's about the only gripe I have about the plane. Cant argue with that.
So now that we have the one glaring issue of the aircraft out of the way, I can move on to things I like. First things first, I love the glass and the flight director. Much to my surprise I am still able to handfly the plane as much as I want. Typically I'll hand fly it to FL180 then let "Otto" have his chance. Then on the way back down, I'll take over again at 10,000 ft. I was a good stick and rudder guy before, but the glass has brought it to a whole new level. I've gone from being pretty smooth in the freighters to very smooth with the CRJ. Its all thanks to those little pink bars right there in front of me on my PFD (primary flight display). As long as I keep snug with the FD, things are gunna work out just fine.
The second thing I like about the Princess is the seat. Its fully adjustable, reclinable, has lumbar support and is a dramatic improvement over any of my previous aircraft. I can sit in the cockpit all day and not get as uncomfortable as I'd get after 15min in a Lear. The third thing I like is the fact that the cockpit is quiet. In cruise I can take my headset off and kick back and relax with the speaker on and not have to shout across the cockpit at the captain. We can have a normal conversation with out straining our vocal chords. The fourth thing is the fact that all our planes have identical avionics and components. There are a few minor differences such as whether it is a Flaps 8 or 20 bird or has Mach transducer selector valves (I have no idea what the are, so don't bother asking), but that's about it. No more spending 5 min looking around the cockpit trying to find switches and gauges. There is plenty more to write about, but its late and I'm getting hungry.
Now back to some flying stories. At my last posting I was just about to start my O.E flying. In the few weeks since then, I've finished up with that and started flying as a regular line pilot. In the few short weeks that I've been flying the CRJ, I've decided that my personal nickname for it is going to be Princess. Long gone are the days of jumping in, lighting the fires and blasting off at 6,000+ f.p.m climb rates. The CRJ needs a lot of attention and tender loving care before it'll do something you want and I can forget about any kind of a decent climb rate above 20,000ft, because Princess just doesn't have the muscle. For the first time ever I had to ask ATC for a "slow climb" because the plane wouldn't maintain a 500f.p.m rate up to our cruise altitude of FL320. Around FL270 she started really dropping off in performance and by the time we hit FL300, we couldn't maintain 500f.p.m so we either had to level off till we burned some gas or ask for a slow climb. Thankfully we didn't have much traffic around us and the controller let us crawl our way up there. Granted we were heavy with lots of gas and a full compliment of 50 pax, but the lack of performance really caught my attention. I think that's about the only gripe I have about the plane. Cant argue with that.
So now that we have the one glaring issue of the aircraft out of the way, I can move on to things I like. First things first, I love the glass and the flight director. Much to my surprise I am still able to handfly the plane as much as I want. Typically I'll hand fly it to FL180 then let "Otto" have his chance. Then on the way back down, I'll take over again at 10,000 ft. I was a good stick and rudder guy before, but the glass has brought it to a whole new level. I've gone from being pretty smooth in the freighters to very smooth with the CRJ. Its all thanks to those little pink bars right there in front of me on my PFD (primary flight display). As long as I keep snug with the FD, things are gunna work out just fine.
The second thing I like about the Princess is the seat. Its fully adjustable, reclinable, has lumbar support and is a dramatic improvement over any of my previous aircraft. I can sit in the cockpit all day and not get as uncomfortable as I'd get after 15min in a Lear. The third thing I like is the fact that the cockpit is quiet. In cruise I can take my headset off and kick back and relax with the speaker on and not have to shout across the cockpit at the captain. We can have a normal conversation with out straining our vocal chords. The fourth thing is the fact that all our planes have identical avionics and components. There are a few minor differences such as whether it is a Flaps 8 or 20 bird or has Mach transducer selector valves (I have no idea what the are, so don't bother asking), but that's about it. No more spending 5 min looking around the cockpit trying to find switches and gauges. There is plenty more to write about, but its late and I'm getting hungry.
posted by Windsor at 4:51 PM
1 Comments:
Congratulations on the wedding. I wish you and Erin a long and happy marriage.
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