Cockpit Chronicles: Haiti after Hanna

by Kent Wien on

Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on some of Kent’s trips as an international co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 based in Boston.

New on the schedule for us this month is a two-day trip to Miami. The first day is rather easy with just one leg from Boston to Miami. The second day involves a trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, then back to Miami and up to Boston.

We’re required to sign in for our trip in the pilot operations room at least one hour before departure time. That give us enough time to check the weather, pull up paperwork and check our mailbox. Even though we ‘sign in’ an hour before, we don’t get paid until we’re pushing back from the gate.

Our pilot operations is a place where you’ll regularly run into captains and co-pilots who you may have flown with on a different airplane and hadn’t seen in years. I ran into my longtime friend Russ on this morning’s trip. Russ and I worked in a hobby shop together in Seattle when we were both in high school, so it’s always nice to visit with him. He’s currently an MD-80 first officer (co-pilot).
While walking to the gate later, I saw Russ checking over his Super 80 at the gate with the sun coming up behind our airplane. I just had to take a moment to capture this shot.

A few minutes later I was inspecting the tires of the 757 we would be flying to Miami. Russ’s flight began to taxi past the tail of our airplane so I pulled the camera from my pocket and snapped him going by. It’s a pain to get up at 2:30 in the morning to go to work but I always enjoy the sunrise at Logan and sights like this:

The morning departure to Miami was uneventful. The original captain was sick, so they called out a reserve captain to cover the trip. He would fly down to Miami with me before getting on an airplane to deadhead back to Boston.

So I was on my own for the layover, but fortunately my friend Dave from Ohio would also be staying at the hotel by the beach. We decided to meet up with the rest of his crew for dinner.

One of the pilots knew a great Cuban seafood place up the street. He didn’t steer us wrong, as the food was fantastic. We sampled appetizers that were rather good before eating the main course of sole, which we were able to inspect before ordering.

It was great to catch up with Dave and meet the other co-pilot on his trip, Joe, who plans to begin commuting from Anchorage, my home town, to Chicago soon. That’s a commute I wouldn’t wish on anyone, but I can understand the draw for some to live up in Alaska. For Joe, it allows him to be closer to his sport fishing business outside of Anchorage.

That’s one of the advantages this job provides; the ability to live just about anywhere and commute to and from your base free of charge. The only cost is the extra time you’ll spend on an airplane each month.

Dinner was great and I hope to go back there on the next layover.

I met the next captain at the gate the next morning for our flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was a Miami-based pilot who was called out on reserve to continue the trip with me. Occasionally, when one pilot calls in sick, the trip is covered by more than one pilot from different bases.

The weather was nice as we were descending over Haiti, and I was interested to see if the effects of Hurricane Hanna could be seen from the air.

The town of Genaives was the hardest hit and it’s easy to see from these pictures. This is just north of Port-au-Prince as we were coming through 20,000 feet.

What looks like a river flowing out to sea below…

…well, there’s a town in the middle of that river.

Just past Genaives, we were cleared to 10,000 feet, which takes you right by some ‘naked’ mountains which are a big part of the reason for the flooding that occurs in Haiti.

No country in the western hemisphere has had worse fortune than Haiti. They just can’t seem to get a break, and their plight hasn’t adequately captured the attention of the rest of the world.

I’m constantly amazed at how friendly the Haitian passengers and ground crew are. And you won’t find a cabin of nicer dressed people than the Port-au-Prince passengers.

On approach we flew over a U.S. Navy ship which was full of supplies that were being delivered to Genaives. Two of the helicopters based on the ship were idling on the ramp when we parked, and a third one landed by the time we were loaded again for our return back to Miami.

I’ve been flying to Port-Au-Prince for years now and I don’t really feel like I’ve actually been to the country. Arriving at the airport, doing a walk-around inspection and then departing an hour later doesn’t really count, does it?

I even arrived on the day Port-au-Prince was under a coup, but it was impossible to tell from the activities at the airport. Here’s a gallery I made up from that trip:

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As I flew back to Miami and then Boston, I couldn’t help think of the challenges for those living in Haiti. If they’re not trying to survive a political uprising, then they’re likely dealing with the aftermath of a major hurricane.

While I can’t say I’ve really been to the city of Port-au-Prince, flying international trips like this has given me a perspective that wasn’t possible when I was working the transcon flight from Boston to Seattle years ago.

We may not get a chance to fly to Haiti for some time, since the airline has canceled the PAP trip that has been flown lately by Boston crews, and I’m not sure if we’ll see the trip come back anytime soon.

Here’s hoping things look a little better for Haiti if and when we go back.

Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on some of Kent’s trips as an international co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 based in Bosto
n.

Cockpit Chronicles: Flying around Hanna and Ike

by Kent Wien on

I couldn’t believe my timing. A four-day trip to the Caribbean with Hurricanes Hanna and Ike scheduled to be right in our way for almost every leg.

Would some of the flights get canceled? And if not, how far out of the way would we be flight planned to stay away from these storms?

This job tends to stay interesting if only because no two trips are alike, even if they take you to the same destinations. Some might think there’s a lot of monotony in flying a plane, but even if the destinations remain the same, there are always new challenges such as adverse weather, different ATC requests, or small mechanical issues to contend with. Not to mention the variety of pilots and flight attendants you might be working with.

I pulled up the satellite weather before leaving for the airport, knowing that it would be impossible to see the big picture of this storm once we’re inflight. While our airborne radar can keep us away from the bumps, it can’t give us an idea of the actual conditions until we’re within a few hundred miles or less of the storm.

The first leg, from Boston to Miami wouldn’t be a problem at all. It was the second leg, from Miami to Caracas that might be interesting. Before departing, my guess was that we’d be flight planned south over Cuba and then Jamaica before turning toward Venezuela.

Sure enough, as you can see from this satellite view below, we were sent around the west side of Hanna. The ride from Miami to Caracas turned out to be rather smooth, with almost all of the clouds associated with the outer edge of the storm well below us.


After our layover of 14 hours in Caracas, Hanna was sure to move west, but would it now impact our route of flight to Philadelphia?

I looked at the weather online while watching a little of Hugo Chavez on the T.V. in my room. If I could only speak Spanish, I’m sure it would have been far more interesting. I’m very thankful for the free internet, though, even if it isn’t much faster than a dial up connection at home.

The next morning the leg from Caracas to San Juan had little in the way of weather. We deviated around a few puffy build-ups over Puerto Rico, but the ride was smooth all the way there.

But the San Juan to PHL leg looked more interesting. Was Hanna breaking up? I couldn’t imagine a great ride, even if it looked like the storm was taking a rest off the east coast.

We had the seatbelt sign on for most of our second leg to PHL, but the ride wasn’t too bad. Looking at the satellite picture above, it seemed we managed to find a nice gap between the scattered storm. Four out of six legs finished and we still hadn’t been affected too much by Hanna. But what would Ike look like when we flew south in 36 hours?

We’d be staying downtown in Philadelphia for two nights–a rare long layover–before leaving on the 4th day of the trip early in the morning. Philadelphia has plenty of great things to do, I’m sure, but I couldn’t get past the Reading Terminal, a converted train terminal that has been made into a market in the heart of the city.

If you’ve ever been to Seattle’s Pike Place Market, well, this is all that except larger. Flowers, fresh fish, chocolate, books, spices, vegetables are all for sale, mixed in with a few restaurants selling crepes, gyros and my personal favorite, a turkey sandwich shop. I even had breakfast at a diner run by the Amish. Unfortunately, the diner is only open 4 days of the week.

This market has everything. Even chocolate covered potato chips:

I passed on those.

Hanna was approaching Philadelphia on the morning of our departure, but it wouldn’t arrive until a few hours after we left. It was Ike that was now directly in our way for our leg from PHL to San Juan.

As I was doing the walk-around inspection, one of the rampers asked me how we were going to get to San Juan with Ike right on top of the island.

I told him I was wondering the same thing earlier that morning, but the latest latest satellite view that showed Ike a few hundred miles north of the island. If it were covering the area where we were landing, there’s no way we would have been flying that trip.

I grabbed my iPhone and showed him the current weather. (wasn’t there a commercial about this?)

Essentially, we’d be flying from Hanna to Ike, landing in San Juan, before flying north around Ike again to Boston. Our eventual route of flight to San Juan and then up to Boston looked like this:

We were originally flight planned to pass to the east of Ike before working our way into San Juan. Just 30 minutes north of the storm, ATC gave us the option of passing to the west of the storm. Captain Mark and I saw far more blue sky to the west, so we turned right and worked our way around it, sending messages regularly en-route to our dispatcher to let him know that we were getting a very smooth ride this way.

His perspective is similar to the photo you see above, so he sent us a message which prints out in the cockpit.

“Your view of Ike must be spectacular.” His message said.

But it really wasn’t that impressive. I snapped a few pictures at that moment, which shows how the view from a satellite picture versus actually being there can be very different. In a sense, the dispatcher had a better view of the intensity of the storm, but we had a more detailed understanding of how we could stay out of the rough air with our weather radar and simply avoiding any of the clouds associated with the storm.

Here’s the view from our radar:

And this was the view out the window as we approached Ike. Not really that impressive, is it?

Amazingly, I came across this picture which shows Ike from the International Space Station taken around the same time we were flying around it. It’s hard to imagine a tiny little airplane passing on the left of the storm as seen from that space shot. Note the less clear route to the right in that NASA photo.

Staying to the west of the storm turned out to be a great move. We heard a Continental flight complain about moderate turbulence east of Ike on the air-to-air frequency, but we were in the clear with a smooth ride to the west.

Unfortunately for the flight back to Boston, we would have to go around Ike to the east, since the storm had moved further to the west, closing off our earlier route.

We spent the fi
rst hour in and out of some high clouds, and while the ride was worse, it wasn’t anything more than annoying. I’ve learned from some of the questions submitted to the Plane Answers feature that many passengers are extremely nervous while flying in any kind of bumps. So we really do our best to find a better altitude or different route for a smoother ride, even if it means using more fuel for that leg.

In all, I learned that maybe it’s better to be flying around Ike and Hanna than sitting on the ground in your non-moveable home praying that the storm misses you. I really feel for those people from Haiti to Houston that were affected by these two monster hurricanes.

In the next Cockpit Chronicles, we’ll go to Port-au-Prince Haiti, which may have seen the worst of Hurricane Hanna just a few days earlier.

I’m thankful to live in New Hampshire, a state that rarely sees any significant weather other than the occasional ‘noreaster’ that dumps a few feet of snow. And while Hanna did make it through our area, it only managed to give us a few inches of rain before finally breaking up over the Atlantic.

Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on some of Kent’s trips as an international co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 based in Boston.

Cockpit Chronicles: Stunning clouds, a blue tower and a few meetups.

by Kent Wien on

As a pilot, every now and then you’ll have a chance to catch a sight that just burns into your memory. The spire of the Empire State Building piercing a setting sun while approaching New York’s JFK airport, or watching a satellite pass overhead while holding above a thick cloud layer of fog over Anchorage.

But nothing can top the scene witnessed by every airplane crossing the North Atlantic on July 22nd, at around 3 a.m. in whatever time zone we were crossing.

At first, we thought we noticed a faint glow of the northern lights. Pretty soon, the colors became so spectacular that we began calling the flight attendants up to the cockpit to check out the light show.

But these aurora borealis weren’t moving or changing colors. And the colors that were starting to appear, didn’t match the usual green glow I was used to.

It didn’t take long for pilots on 123.45, a VHF channel that’s normally used to report ride conditions and any weather deviations, to start a discussion about what we were seeing.

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A British Airways pilot mentioned that these were high altitude noctilucent clouds. After spelling it a number of times, he explained that they were possibly caused by methane gas in the upper atmosphere.

While Captain Mark called in a position report and I captured the glow over the horizon with my Canon Digital Rebel’s wide-angle lens-the only lens I managed to bring along.

These clouds live around 300,000 feet high. From what I’ve read online, scientists aren’t completely sure what causes them. One thing is known, the only time to see them is just before the sun starts to rise, since the clouds aren’t visible unless illuminated from below in the early morning.

I was so thankful I brought my camera. I no longer go to work without it. There were just far too many times where I saw a once–in–a–lifetime scene with no way to capture it.

There’s speculation that these clouds are stronger with every space shuttle flight, which may be causing some of the clouds. A satellite was launched last year by NASA to study the exact reasons behind the formation of these clouds. USA Today is reporting that these same clouds were visible from the international space station this summer.

The month of July was rather busy again, with another six Paris trips. In between all this flying, I had to pack up everything stored in our basement to get ready for our my family’s August 15th house move.

So that’s why you may have noticed a lack of posts to the Cockpit Chronicles lately.

I just can’t let an entire month’s worth of flying pass without mention, so I’d like to cover a few of the more exciting things that went on in Paris.

At the beginning of the month, I met up with Gadling’s senior editor, Grant Martin, who showed me one of his favorite Parisian restaurants along the Champs-Élysées. It’s at the Renault automobile showroom, in fact.

Above the Formula 1 car displays and overlooking Renault’s current line of cars, is a unique and surprisingly inexpensive restaurant. We talked about Gadling over a few beers and a pasta dish that was simply excellent.

After dinner, we decided to work our way to the Latin quarter using the Velib bikes. Grant had a card that would work-for Americans, only an American Express card will work in the Velib kiosks-so we picked up a couple of bikes, and managed to work our way east, stopping before 30 minutes had passed to check in and then check out the bikes, to prevent the excess charges from kicking in. If we were successful in finding kiosks within the 1/2 hour limit, the total Velib charge would only cost 1€.

We stopped at Trocedero to snap a bunch of pictures of the Eiffel Tower that was bathed in blue light. The scene from up there was spectacular and we both managed a few great pictures of this event that was to last only a few more weeks.

We had to work our way around thousands of roller bladers participating in the Pari Roller, a night ride through Paris of over 20km. Here’s a quick video taken that night:

The next trip was with my good friend Captain Dave, who brought his wife and daughter. I knew Nicole, their daughter, would love the evening Fat Tire Bike Tour, so we grabbed a quick sandwich before jumping on bikes again to cover the city.

Three days later, I was back in Paris with Captain Mark. We met up with many of the flight attendants for a picnic in the park, a common and rather inexpensive way to enjoy the great weather over bottle of wine, some cheese, bread and whatever else someone thinks to bring. We still managed to maintain enough of an appetite to eat at La Fresque restaurant in the Marais district.

Once again Mark and I returned to Paris, it was on this trip that we saw the noctilucent clouds on the way over. After the requisite nap, we met up with one of the frequent commenters on Gadling, Thaddeus, who was studying at the Cité University which isn’t far from where we stay.

Thaddeus has used the misguided adventures me
ntioned here as a basis for touring much of the city, and for that, I figured I should probably meet him for a drink while he was still in town. Mark and I joined up with him and learned that when he isn’t traveling, he is an intern at Bloomberg living in New York.

Mark wanted to show us some of the underground that’s been preserved in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. I hadn’t realized that these Roman ruins had been preserved and available for anyone to check out.

By the time we came above ground, we were a bit parched, so we stopped at a cafe for a drink before deciding to eat dinner at Le Hide, my new favorite restaurant in Paris.

Thaddeus hadn’t been to the Arc de Triumph yet, so it was a good opportunity to cover some ground he hadn’t seen. Even so, Thaddeus proved to be the best guide for us, as he had been covering quite a lot of Paris and he was very familiar with the Metro and many of the important destinations in the city.

As we worked our way to the restaurant, we ran into 4 or 5 of the flight attendants. Thaddeus actually recognized at least one of them from reading this blog.

Le Hide turned out to be excellent as usual. Thaddeus went for the Entrecôte, (rib steak), but everyone agreed the escargot appetizer and the sea bass entree were the tastiest. This restaurant is still an amazing value at 22 and 29€ for the two or three course meal.

We passed on the desert, instead hoping to catch something over at the Latin Quarter. As we walked to the metro, we traveled for a while down the Champs-Élysées and I insisted Mark and Thaddeus take a look at the Renault showroom.

We were distracted for a while with a reaction testing machine, which turned out to be a humbling experience for us. This machine was a spider of lights on a wall which would light up one at a time. The object was to press the light after it lit up and to try to get as many in a minute as possible.

We watched someone who no doubt worked at the showroom set a high score. After both Thaddeus and I gave it a try, we were beaten by a girl who happened to walk by. Wisely, Mark elected to skip this test.

Without a doubt, Thaddeus made this a great experience for Mark and me. After a trip to China, Thaddeus has become addicted to travel, but he’s still focused on finishing his senior year of college in New York and landing a good job. Ultimately he wants to be a teacher. Needless to say, Mark and I were really impressed.

Those are some of the highlights of my final full month of Paris trips for the year. For August, I started out with a line of Caracas and Laguardia trips, but I managed to take some time off to move. I finished August with what may be my last Paris trip, which turned out to be memorable. Stay tuned for some even more embarrassing video clips in the next post.

For more pictures from July, including Kelly the co-pilot inside a 767 engine, take a look at the gallery below.

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Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on each of Kent’s trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.

Cockpit Chronicles: Picture Perfect Paris

by Kent Wien on

During the sterile-cockpit period we don’t get into non-essential conversations; we’re required to limit it to only what’s required for the safe operation of the airplane. This keeps all of our attention focused on flying and reduces the chance that a distraction could lead to a potentially serious mistake. This sterile period is defined as anytime the airplane is moving under its own power and below 10,000 feet.

That said, whenever we have a chance to set the parking brake while we’re on the ground during a delay, or when we’re above 10,000 feet, it’s a great opportunity to get a picture, especially when I’m a relief pilot sitting in the jumpseat.

I’ve been struggling to properly expose both the inside and the outside of the cockpit, which can be challenging. I managed the nice shot below because the sun was reflecting off the instrument panel from the left side and behind us slightly.

But what about the times when the sun isn’t helping you out? In the past I’ve used a flash to ‘fill’ in the cockpit areas while exposing for the outside of the airplane as seen in this picture:

But I’ve found a great way to get just the right exposure using HDR (high dynamic range) software.

I picked up Photomatix Pro, which is available for the Mac or a PC for $99. It works by taking a picture at three (or more) different exposures, and then letting the HDR software merge the images to form a stunningly detailed picture, even in some of the most challenging light conditions.

Here are a few of my attempts, showing the difference between a non-HDR adjusted shot and the HDR version.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:


I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm for this method so I shared the technique with Mark as we each ate a business-class chicken dinner.

The menu changes almost every month it seems on the European trips. I was rather impressed with a new dish offered which is chicken covered in a white chocolate sauce.

I had no idea there was chocolate in this until I complimented the purser on such a great dinner. The white chocolate sauce makes for a surprisingly tasty combination.

While we’re on the subject of meals, I have to share this next picture.

Have you ever wondered where the flight attendants find extra silverware if you drop or misplace one? I was surprised to find out that there’s an entire drawer of cutlery on this particular Trans-Atlantic flight. I doubt they’ll run out.

The Velibs are becoming our favorite way to get around in the city. Fortunately Mark had his trusty American Express (the only credit card that we’ve found to work in them–unless you have a Visa or Mastercard with a chip in it) and we all rented bikes to go from our dining restaurant back to the Latin Quarter for dessert.

Mark found Amorino, an Italian ice-cream place that’s quite popular, with more than ten locations in Paris.

I’ve since been back to Amorino a few times and I’ve found the line to get in has exceeded my patience. So I guess the word is getting out.

I’ll leave you with two other interesting photos. Here’s something I don’t think I’ve ever seen. I’m glad I had the camera handy to capture it. Looks kind of like some sort of vortex, no?

Finally, on the way home, we noticed a few Coast Guard helicopters hovering over the water. They’re easy to spot from altitude from the donut shaped imprint they leave on the water.

As we approached Boston, there were thunderstorms reported in the area. As Captain Mark descended below 300 feet on approach, we had a rather large increase in airspeed of more than 20 knots. As we went slightly high on the glidepath as a result of the increasing wind, Mark elected to go-around.

By the time we landed and were taxiing in, the rain began to fall and lightning shut down the ramp, which meant that our ground crew was unable to park us. So we sat and waited for the weather to pass through.

Sorry I’ve been away for the past few weeks. We’ve recently moved and the process has taken almost all of my time and effort. It’s been a challenge getting settled in the new place. I don’t have a defined place to keep things which led to my leaving this morning with my wife’s car keys, preventing her from getting anywhere while I’m gone. As we get settled, I hope to do a single catch-up post to bring you up to date with the past month’s worth of flying.

I’m just too far behind to write about each of the Paris trips for July. But I do want to share some of the highlights in the next post.

I’ll leave you with a gallery of the shots taken on this very photo worthy trip. See if you can pick out the HDR photos:

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Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on each of Kent’s trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.

Cockpit Chronicles: A slam click layover

by Kent Wien on

The biggest choice I get to make each month when picking a schedule isn’t generally where I’ll fly or what days off I’ll get. Since I’m much closer to the bottom of the seniority list than the top among 767 international co-pilots in Boston, my choice is generally between flying a set schedule (known as a line) or ‘sitting’ on reserve.

If I choose reserve, I’m on call for more days a month, but on many of those days the company doesn’t need me to fly at all. In return, the pay is 10-15% less than flying a full schedule. This difference in pay is enough to cause most pilots to choose to bid a line.

When I’m able to hold a line, I tend to pick up trips and trade around so a normal schedule of, say, three-days on and three-days off might be a complete mess after I add a trip and bunch a few others together.

But nothing has compared to this past week. This is the first time I’ve worked at this company with just one day off in the past 15 days.
This marathon, caused by the cancellation in Paris on the last trip, is legal even though the FAA requires a day off every 7 days. Since the Paris trip has a layover of nearly 30 hours, which qualifies as your day off, it’s possible to schedule these trips back to back as often as you’d like, as long as you don’t exceed any other flight and duty time regulations, such as the maximum hours allowed per day, week and month.

The extra time in Paris was fun, and it’s really hard to complain about yet another day over there, but I was craving a day off, especially after I noticed my wife and kids were starting to forget my name.

“Mommy, there’s someone in the house!” I half expected my youngest daughter to say when I walked through the door.

I was tired and feeling less sociable on this final trip, so for the first time during my “summer of Paris,” I decided that I’d be a ‘slam clicker.’

A slam clicker is someone who, instead of going out with the rest of the crew, decides to slam their hotel door and click over the deadbolt. And since I was running weeks behind on the Cockpit Chronicles, I thought I’d get some sleeping and writing done and take a pass on going out to dinner in the city.

But there was one task I needed to do. I had to find a toy store in the city to pick up something for my two girls, ages 6 and 2. So after the usual nap, I searched online to find a good toy store. I was sure a good gift might help them remember me.

Viola! La Grande Récré, which is a chain of toy stores in Paris was just a 20 minute walk from the hotel. I plotted my course on a map, and headed out the door on a mission.

On the way there, I stopped to watch a scene of road rage between a lady driving a Smart car who rear-ended a gentleman in a Renault at an intersection. A bit of an argument ensued, but it was diffused quickly. The French are rather entertaining when they have these ‘discussions.’ So of course, I had to stay to see if I could understand the dialogue.

The toy store was packed full of brands that I hadn’t heard of, just as I had hoped. I was thrilled to find the perfect present–something that would make me a hero for sure.

Since my oldest daughter loves to dress up, and she loves cats, the Princess Chat (cat) outfit was just the ticket. It was even pink, her favorite color. And it had little cat ears to go with it.

And for the 2-year-old, I bought a type of play-dough that I hadn’t seen before along with some bunny-shaped balloons and a package of colored pencils.

On the way back to the hotel, I picked up a sandwich and a drink at a small cafe near the hotel. Nothing fancy, but the quick meal meant more time to catch up with the blog and still get a good night’s sleep.

The next day, I was the co-pilot flying back to Boston with Captain Doug and the relief pilot, Mark. As is the case on most of Doug’s flights home, we had a complete picnic in the cockpit, forgoing the usual business class meal. The spread included some baguette, cheese, salami and ham. If I don’t stop flying Paris soon, the company is going to have to account for my increased ‘contribution’ to the aircraft’s weight and balance.

Back in Boston, I had an ego-strokingly smooth landing, which I’ve come to learn is invariably followed by a complete ‘thumper’ on the next trip. Occasionally though I’ll get a streak of these nice landings, right up to the point where I’m convinced I’ve got the airplane mastered, only to start a run of mediocre landings that last weeks at a time.

I’m not a golfer, but I would imagine there are similar frustrations between landing a jet and shooting a round of golf.

Finally arriving home just before dinner, I immediately presented the girls with their surprises. Enya was thrilled with the Princess Chat outfit and Meryl had a great time kicking the bunny balloons above her head.

It’s nice to fly to Paris, but by far the best part of the trip is coming home.

So what does a pilot do on their days off? The next morning I took the girls on a day-trip up north to a friend’s fly-in party.

Kelly is a co-pilot on the 767 out of Boston. She and her husband, also a 767 pilot, but for another airline, live on a residential airpark. An airpark is essentially a grass runway surrounded by homes with hangars instead of garages. Inside these hangars the residents keep small planes, often experimental home-built aircraft.

Kelly’s annual party is a great place for me to introduce the girls to flying, and it was a good opportunity for me to give my wife a break from watching the kids.

Enya had a chance to try out the controls in my friend’s Piper Cherokee.

Meryl enjoyed sitting in a friend’s home-built airplane. In fact, it was tough to get her to come out.

Many airline pilots have little interest in hanging out around small planes on their days off. I can’t fault them for wanting to do something else, but I’ve never considered personal flying similar in any way to the flying we do at work.

In fact, the two types of flying are so different that this just might be why more pilots don’t fly small airplanes. It comes down to the lack of familiarity. That, and the fact that it’s becoming more expensive every year.

Maybe it’s important to remember where you came from. For me, it was small airplanes like those at Kelly’s fly-in. It reminds me of a time when I would have killed to fly every day for two weeks straight.

Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on each of Kent’s trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.