Roll the trucks

One of the nice things about airline flying is that for the most part, there is no "pucker factor". What I mean by that is, there are not a lot of tense moments where you really have to start excercizing your pilot abilities. Flying freight, you have your fair share, part 121 is a lot more tame. Having said that, I can only think of once or twice where there has been some pucker factor at my airline. The other day was one of them.

So there we were about a half hour into our flight from IND to LGA, we had been level in cruise for about 5 minutes, diligently studying our manuals when we get a single chime master caution and the overspeed clacker starts going off. "The manual's" get tossed to the side while we look to see what the problem is. It was a Flaps Fail Caution message. Crap.

The CRJ-200 has been having flap issues for years. This plane is just an overgrown Challenger corporate jet and is actually not very well designed for airline use. One of the glaring issues is with the flaps and flap actuators, they have the tendency to fail quite a bit. Today was my day to have a flaps fail problem. Luckily for us, we got the easiest of the flap failures to have. We were in cruise flight, flaps at zero degrees, had lots of gas and plenty of options available. It could have been much, much worse. Take an Air Canada Jazz flight for example, they had the worst scenerio possible. On approach to an airport in northern Canada, the weather was so bad at the destination airport that they had to go missed. The pilots went to raise the flaps and the flaps failed at 45 degrees down. Now they are in trouble. What they did, caused even more trouble and came very close to crashing. Instead of declaring an emergency and landing back at the original destination, they decided to divert to their alternate airport. The big problem with that is with flaps at 45 degrees down, you are limited to 170kts and your fuel burns are going to be astronomical. Long story short, they landed at their alternate with 500lbs of fuel on board. They absolutly had to land because they did not have enough fuel to go around. They had about 2 minutes of fuel left when they landed. Since this incident, Bombaridier and the FAA have thrown several band aid's at the fix in the form of AD's, but have yet to come up with a working fix.

So back to the flight at hand, we ran the QRH for the flaps fail and between the two of us in the cockpit, we decided the best course of action would be to divert to DTW. We were a little past Cleveland when the caution message went off, so DTW was the best fit for us in terms of distance and suitability. We clued in dispatch as to what was going on and informed him that we were going to divert. We told ATC we had a problem and were going to head to DTW. They asked if we were going to declare and emergency. Had it been clear and a million, we probably would not have, but seeing as how there were storms in the area of DTW and the ceilings were around 800agl, we decided the priority handleing would be beneficial. We made a big u-turn and headed back west to DTW. We descended down early to burn off as much fuel as practical before coming in for a landing. It was the first time I'd ever declared the full emergency. We got cleared direct to the airport as soon as we made the turn. Thats the first time ever that we headed to the field without doing an arrival. After every flight we usually debrief the flight and ask ourselves what we we did right, could have done better, ect. After making the turn to DTW, it was at this point in the flight where I could have done something better. I was the one to make the passenger brief to the pax, I tried to be as clear and concise as possible, but when you are making stuff up on the fly, there are bound to be a few ahhh's and um's in there. I made sure I hit the high points that we were diverting to DTW, the plane was safe, it was a precautionary landing and after landing they will see the fire trucks on the side of the runway, but not to worry because they were there just as a precaution. On the descent in, we had to dodge a few TS cells, but the ride was still good. We got vectored in for a 10 mile final and flew the ILS to 22L into the airport. It was interesting because our ref speed at flaps zero was 165kts, I hadnt done an approach that fast in a long time. The approach and landing were nice and smooth. We used a lot more runway than we normally do, but that was to be expected. The fire trucks followed us down the runway just to be safe in case we smoked our brakes. The plane was fine after landing so we taxied to the gate.

Overall the pucker factor was pretty low, it was basiclly a non-event, but was definatly out of the norm. After a few hours on the ground, we swapped planes, loaded up the passengers and headed back on our trip.

Dealer had an Ace up his sleeve

Well its official, the dealer had the Ace in the hole. The house wins. I lose. No more left seat for me at this airline. I didnt quite get to the magical 1000 hours, but managed to knock about a third of it out. I am a lot closer to that goal than I was a year ago, so that has to count for something. But due to having such low seniority and having my re-call rights to my seat expire, unless I wanted to be come a regional lifer, the left seat is gone here. So, now what?
1. I can stay at my airline and go bankrupt on FO wages
2. I can leave this career and go find a real job
3. I can try and find another Captain gig somewhere....ha
4. I can put my degree and expierence to work in an industry related field.

OK....here's some of the thoughts about my choices running through my tiny little pilot brain.

1. My schedule right now is about as good as its ever going to get. Since "the screwing" (my displacement) I average 16-18 days off a month with commutable schedules. If I were to be pay protected right now, I'd be the happiest pilot on the planet. My sked is exactly what I got into this job in the first place for. The downside, I cannot afford to pay my bills. I bring home less than $1,200 a month, I shit you not. As great as my sked is, I cannot afford to stay here. Besides, if I dont want to be a regional lifer, I need to get that 1000 jet pic, not gunna happen for a very, very long time at this airline. I know that I'm not going to get hired at the next level as soon as I get those hours, but at least it makes me eligible.
2. Gettin out of the industry gets more appealing by the paycheck. But I have to be honest with myself, a) Who is going to hire a lazy throttle jockey with no real world expierence besides working in a bar b) I know I could never, ever sit behind a desk for 40 hours a week. What the hell could I do? and c) Even after all the B.S, I still love to fly
3. There are a few jobs out there, but the only possibilities so far are not in the United States. I'd have to travel half way around the world just to fly a plane. The money would be good, but if there is one thing I have realized over the few years I've been a Dad, the kids grow up fast and you cant get that time back. While I'm not ruling any possible jobs out, they'd have to be the right one for me to leave.
4. So this brings me to my last possibility and to date, the most promising. Just about a year ago after I had finished upgrade, I was doing a little internet surfing and came across the FAA's hiring website. For shits and giggles I filled out an application to become an air traffic controller. I filled out the app, clicked submit and then completely forgot about it. It wasnt until 6 months later that I was checking my email and noticed a strange email address in the "from" column. I nearly marked it as spam and deleted it, but curiosity got the best of me and I opened the email. Come to find out it was the FAA asking me to come take some sort of entrance exam for ATC down in Chicago. After talking with the wise one (Erin), she convinced me to go take the test just for fun to see how I would do. On a cold wintery sunday night I drove down to our friends house in Chicago so that I could spend the night there and not have to drive all the way from WI on a monday morning. My friend and I managed to have a good time that night drinking beers, eating Mexican and playing Tiger Woods on the playstation till about 2am. When my evil cell phone alarm clock went off at 630am, I was none too pleased. I seriously thought about rolling over and going back to sleep, but decided that since I'd already driven all the way down there, I might as well go take the test. So, I hopped in the car and headed to the hotel where they were adminstering the test. Needless to say I was not in the best of mental states. Even some greasy goodness from McDonalds couldnt shake off the cobwebs from the previous nights fun. I was tired, prolly smelled like stale beer and rotten salsa and had some nasty gut rot that slowly eeked its way out my tail during the course of the day. I felt bad for the girl sitting next to me taking the test, I can only imagine how foul I must have stunk. So after 4.5 tortuous hours of taking this very long test, much to the relief of everyone around me, completed the exam and bolted out the door. A few weeks later after having convinced myself I failed the test, got my results, 93.7, not too shabby for being hung over and having the runs like I had just drank a gallon of Mexican tap water ;)

So that brings me up to where I am now. After having passed the test, submitted where I'd like to work and played the waiting game for the last 6 months, I finally have an interview with the FAA for an ATC position. The only gotcha at this point is that I do not know where I've been selected to work. I will find out at the interview. All I know is that its for a specific state, not a specific facility. I am really only shooting for one specific facitlity. If they happen to want to send me to a po-dunk little tower in the middle of cowchipville, I'm going to pass on the job. I'll know more in a few weeks.