Cockpit Chronicles: Paris – A trip to satisfy the taste buds

by Kent Wien on

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

I’d like to welcome Gadling’s latest blogger, Heather Poole and her feature, Galley Gossip. Gadling had been looking for a flight attendant’s perspective of this industry and I’m glad they found it in Heather. If you haven’t read any of her posts, I highly recommend “Sandvich Girl,” which details a little of her past before she gave it all up to join the nomadic existence of a crew member. I’ve passed along her posts to my sister, who’s a flight attendant for an airline that sports an Eskimo on its tail and to my wife, who worked for 6 years as a flight attendant and they could both relate to her immediately.

I think bloggers often get inspiration and motivation when reading the comments to posts. Heather’s post called “Answer Please” made it around the world a few times and, judging from the comments, she was a bit misunderstood. She pointed out one annoyance with her job, an issue I’ve heard from many flight attendants; with iPods and movie earphones plugged in, it’s often hard to get a passenger’s attention to offer them a drink.

Many of the readers thought she was being ungrateful for her job or just complaining too much, but that’s part of why she writes. She’s trying to give an insight into the good and the bad of her job. And she cracks me up.
One thing I’ve noticed from the comments on posts relating to airline crews here on Gadling was that some people are under a bit of a misconception about layovers and the nature of our jobs. We’re not usually out partying with the flight attendants after we get somewhere. We’re often exhausted and particularly on domestic trips, we have to get up early the next day for what could be a full day. So there’s little time for much more than a bite to eat and that may or may not be with another pilot or flight attendant.

I’m fortunate to have a wife who understands the realities of my job. And I suspect readers of the Cockpit Chronicles have a good idea as well. Pilots and flight attendants are often more interested in a good meal and a quiet hotel room than anything else.

But every now and then, there can be some great layovers, and the latest Paris trip was one of the best I’ve had in a long time. Sometimes a crew just clicks, and that was certainly the case on this trip. While I knew most of the flight attendants from previous flights over the years, I had never flown with the Captain or the FB (relief pilot).

Captain Doug and the FB, Clay, have been flying to Paris together on their last five trips. They had done their research on the restaurants they wanted to try and they had this trip planned out well in advance. One of the flight attendants made reservations for the entire crew at a small restaurant called Les Papilles (review) near the Luxembourg Gardens.

I’m always up for a new restaurant, especially when someone else makes the plans.

Another flight attendant, Stephanie, was celebrating her birthday so that was as good an excuse as any to make it a fun evening. Eight of us met up at 5 p.m. in the hotel lobby before walking to Rue Mouffetard, an area that’s quickly becoming my favorite in Paris. The narrow street is lined with shops, creperies and restaurants. The prices seem a bit less than the Latin Quarter where we ate on the last trip, which makes sense, because Mouffetard is a mile or so south of the Seine and isn’t as centrally located.

We walked a good thirty minutes before arriving at Doug’s favorite pub, the Mayflower. Since the weather was a perfect 75 degrees F, we enjoyed a table outside on the sidewalk. I was thrilled to see Guinness available during the happy hour for a somewhat reasonable $7.

It was easy to see that this group enjoyed working together. Even though I hadn’t flown with the captain, we’ve known each other for years, and Clay the FB was the kind of guy I could enjoy flying an entire month with. And the flight attendants were some of my favorites from past trips. There was only one that I hadn’t flown with before.

Before leaving the Mayflower, I thought it would be fun for everyone to answer a simple question. “Where were you born?”

This turned into a fascinating way to learn more about some of the people who we’ve flown with so many times, but were unable to really get to know. After almost an hour of laughter and stories, we discovered not only where everyone was from, but interesting anecdotes about their family histories.

We would have to continue these stories at the restaurant if we were to make our dinner reservation. After just a few minutes we arrived at Les Papilles, which means The Taste Buds in French. I was shocked to find that we were given an entire private room downstairs lined with bottles of wine that was stacked all the way up the stair and on one entire side of the wall.

Beth, the flight attendant who made the reservations, met us at the end of the table.

Three other flight attendants joined us and the birthplace questioning continued until the appetizer arrived. I sipped on some sort of red wine during dinner. I’m a complete novice when it comes to wine. Red, white–heck, I might even be able to identify a Rosé, but that’s about the extent of my wine knowledge. Since wine is far more common in France than even water, every dinner includes a bottle that’s usually split among two to four people.

Les Papilles was, in fact, a restaurant that also included a retail wine store along its walls. The meal choice is limited to one entree choice each night. So for our visit on a Saturday night, we were served a shoulder of lamb and vegetables after the cold soup starter.

The vegetables were simply amazing, with an intense flavor that caught me a little off guard. The Lamb crumbled like cake and tasted equally as good. This wasn’t the usual prix fixe menu restaurant.

I think Steph had a good time celebrating her birthday with the rest of the crew. The eleven of us enjoyed the atmosphere and the ability to laugh and tell stories in the private room without worrying about intruding on a romantic dinner for a couple that might have otherwise been sitting nearby.

The only quiet moment came near the end of the evening when we were presented with the bill. The silence was deafening when Chris said it was 770 Euros or $1200. I suppose we’re just not used to getting a bill for eleven meals. We divided it all up and decided while it was well worth it, the dinner wasn’t something we could afford to do on every Paris trip.

We had a chance to meet the chef later in the evening and when someone asked him how long the Lamb is cooked, he responded in his limited English, “Six Days.”

I think he meant six hours?

Occasionally we heard some faint bursts of laughter upstairs as well. When we went upstairs there were just three gentlemen left up there. Their group had the entire upstairs of the restaurant, for a dinner party for what may have been the entire Grand Marnier company.

We began to chat with the three executives at the company who then offered us a taste of the most exclusive cognac they make. A 50-year-old cognac called the Cuvée Speciale Cent Cinquantenaire. This Grand Marnier was previously marketed under the slogan “Hard to find, impossible to pronounce, and prohibitively expensive.”

We had no idea how exclusive this drink was while we each sipped a complimentary glass. Everyone who tried it thought it was absolutely delicious. One look at the hand painted flowers on the bottle and I knew this wouldn’t be available at the Monoprix. What a nice way to finish off our evening. Special thanks to the family run company, Grand Marnier, for their generosity.

We walked back to the hotel as a group, and watched the lights sparkle on the Eiffel Tower. This light show was originally designed for the millennium and now it’s possible to see this spectacular display every night for the first five minutes of each hour until midnight. I consider it rather lucky to catch this every now and then.

We passed by a window of some sort and I couldn’t help take a picture. A bit messy, no? I loved the ten year old iMac sitting opposite the new iMac. But do you really think they’re using them to stay organized?

Back at the hotel, I did my best to stay awake a few more hours to be sure I’d be able to sleep all the way through the night. There’s a period at about 11 p.m. where I’m just ready to sleep, but since that’s only 5 p.m. at home, there’s no way I’d be able to sleep all the way through. If I can make it to about 1 or 2 a.m. Paris time, I’ll be able to sleep for nine hours straight before pickup. Sure enough, I managed a good night’s sleep. That and an especially great dinner, what more could we ask for?

The next afternoon, during the captain’s briefing with the crew, we all joined in a chorus of Happy Birthday for Steph. Clay took the opportunity after the singing to thank everyone for making it such an enjoyable trip. It was even a trip worthy of a group photo.

About an hour out of Paris, we flew over Ireland. It’s probably more rare to see Ireland on a clear day than it is to catch the lights sparkle on the Eiffel Tower, but this time we had a nice view of County Donegal and the Donegal airport. See if you can pick out the runway below.

Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on each of Kent’s trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston. For the months of May and June, he’s been focusing on Paris almost exclusively. If you have any good suggestions for Parisian activities, feel free to leave the details in the comments.

Cockpit Chronicles: Paris with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew

by Kent Wien on

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

As I mentioned in the last post, I was given this two-day CCS trip instead of a three-day Paris. While I enjoyed the extra day off, it was hard to give up a Paris layover. Not much happened during the flight down and the deadhead home from Miami was uneventful. So we’ll skip ahead to the next Paris trip.

Fortunately I’ve managed to hold an entire line of Paris trips for June, so I’ll be trying to catch up on all the great recommendations for things to do in the city of light.

Since I was the relief pilot for this 6 P.M. departure, it was up to me to do the exterior preflight. The rain was starting to come down in sheets, just in time for my venture outside to look over the airplane.

At least the wet ramp made for a few nice photos…

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We taxied out on time, only to discover a lineup of fifteen airplanes in front of us waiting to takeoff from runway 33L in Boston. It was easy to see the cause. A large dark line of clouds and rain north of the airport was disrupting the normal departure paths of the jets, which meant that ATC had to work with the pilots to get headings that would keep them far away from the storm.

We listened as pilots asked for a different heading after they lined up on the runway and saw the green and yellow blobs that depicted the heavy showers and convective activity on their radar. Finally it was our turn to enter into position and hold on the runway. ATC gave us a left turn to a 250 degree heading, toward the city of Boston. This heading might have worked a few minutes earlier, but the weather looked to us to be far better to the northeast. Some ATC facilities are getting more advanced weather radar capabilities, but it’s always up to the pilot to decide if they’re comfortable with what’s in front of them. Captain Al asked for a turn to 020 degrees instead. ATC took a minute to check with the departure controllers to see if this would work for them.

With our brakes parked, I was able to take a picture of the weather ahead from my view in the observer’s seat, and also the view of the radar on the map display.

Our 020 degree heading was approved and the climb out was perfectly smooth. We passed along the ride report–an indication to the controller to let the airplanes behind us know that this direction may be their best choice.

Since we had a relief pilot aboard, we each had an hour and fifty minutes for our break in one of the new business class seats. I think all three of us managed to sleep during our breaks, a rarity for me. Usually the relief pilot gets the first break, which is during the meal service when the lights are turned all the way up as bright as a tanning bed.

Forty-five minutes before landing, all three of us were back in the cockpit. Jim, the co-pilot, pointed out the beaches of Normandy. Since it was the Friday before Memorial Day in the U.S., I thought it was a pretty good time to finally catch a glimpse of this part of the world, where WWII came to a close. Unfortunately, with the sun coming up in our eyes, the view wasn’t ideal. But I’ll keep an eye out next time for this historic area since I’ll have an idea what to look for.

Approach control told us to expect the north runway, 9 Left, which meant a good mile more to taxi to our gate. Al turned to Jim and said, let’s ask for 8 Right. Now, this is completely normal in Miami, Chicago or even Dallas. But for some reason, in Paris we just never seem to get a different runway from what they have in mind for us, no matter how nice we say Bonjour when we contact them. So we’ve long since given up asking for a change in runways. Captain Al doesn’t normally fly Paris trips as he’s always preferred the Caribbean. But he’s not shy. And sure enough, his request was met with a “roger, expect runway zero eight right.” Amazing. I’m glad Al has opened my eyes to this whole ‘ask and they just might say yes technique.’

I’ve heard stories of the bus ride into Paris taking as much as two and even three hours during the weekday morning traffic. I’ve mostly had weekend trips to Paris, so I haven’t had a chance to see this gridlock very often. This time we were lucky to have just an hour and forty minute ride into the city via our full-sized bus. I usually plug in my iPhone and listen to the latest This American Life podcast.

While waiting in the lobby for our room keys, everyone discussed their plans for the day. After the requisite four-hour nap, I would meet up with Captain Al and Lisa, one of the flight attendants who gave me a cake for my birthday over the Atlantic in January. I’ve always enjoyed flying with Lisa, but hadn’t had a chance to visit with her much on our previous trips.

The eight other flight attendants and the co-pilot scattered to do their own things. Shopping, museums and working out were in their plans.

The three of us met up in the hotel’s crew lounge before going down the street to the Monoprix grocery store. We picked up some baguette, cheese, wine and salami before walking to the Tuileries Garden next to the Louvre to have a picnic. Fortunately, Lisa’s a bit of a wine expert, so we had her pick out a bottle.

Lisa at the Monoprix, or as I like to call it, “Mono-Lisa.”

This picnic routine has become a favorite with crews for lunch. While technically it’s forbidden to have an open bottle of alcohol in a public park, the police seem more concerned with people who are clearly drunk. As this article on Picnicking in Paris mentions, as long as you’re discreet, you’ll be treated discreetly by the police, who have been known to say, “Please hide the wine bottle,” followed by a polite “bon appetit” as they move on.

We sat down in the Tuileries Gardens, which is right next to the Louvre.

This spot gave us a clear view of the museum where we could take in the sights and visit for a while. While we spread camembert over a baguette, I found out that Lisa is an English Literature and creative writing teacher at a Rhode Island college. She grabbed a magazine and wrote out two lines that showed how punctuat
ion can change everything:

I’d argue that in addition to the punctuation, the picture to the right of the quote added to the impact.

After finishing an entire baguette, half the cheese and a bit of wine, we packed up to continue our walk. We passed this spider, which was formerly on display in London and now resides in Paris. It’s 30 feet high and it was built in 2005 for a staggering $3.2 million.

We approached a wall at the edge of the Tuileries garden that had some round air vents cut out. For some reason, curious Al decided he needed to look into one of these holes.

“Check this out!” He yelled at us. “It looks like a sun dial.”

Now I was trying to figure what a sun dial would be doing in a sewer grate. Isn’t it a little dark down there for a sun dial? But sure enough, there was the face of a clock or perhaps a sun dial on the floor of this long storage room.

“It looks like where the Louvre stores their artifacts!” Lisa gasped.

We looked into most of the holes in the wall and found them packed with stuff. Mostly clay pots, the sun dial and maybe some of the equipment that originally came with the palace that is now the Louvre. We were all surprised that this stuff was slightly exposed to the elements.

Lisa said, “We’re just like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew!” We agreed I’d have to be Parker Stevenson while Al took the Shawn Cassidy role. But I really think Al’s more like Sean Connery.

Upon researching further, it may be parts recovered from the Tuileries Palace that burned down in 1871. The Louvre is now a u-shaped palace, but at one time the open end was actually the Tuileries Palace. It’s been proposed that the building be rebuilt someday for an estimated $400 million. As we walked out of the Tuileries, we noticed a gate blocking the entrance to the area where we made our discovery. Maybe we weren’t meant to be back there.

We decided to stroll through the Louvre and maybe take a few pictures. A couple stopped us and asked if we’d take their picture. They were from St. Petersburg, Florida and they looked like models. Of course I couldn’t pass up the chance to take a few good pictures for them. I’d like to apologize to them if I ran their batteries dead trying to get just the right shot.

We then went down to Pont Neuf to jump on a boat tour of the Seine. It’s only 11 Euros for an hour trip and we still had some of our picnic to eat. We weren’t leaving until the next afternoon, so we enjoyed another romantic plastic cup of wine. Our tour guide informed us that she wasn’t yet certified, and she hoped we didn’t mind. She did a great job and sat right front of us while explaining the history of Paris.

The lighting was perfect and I took advantage of it to snap pictures of the oldest bridge in town, Pont Neuf.

We also saw an Amphibious car called the Amphicar parked on the back of someone’s river boat.

After deciding that the river boat was well worth the 11 Euros, we walked to the Latin Quarter to find something to eat. Sharlee, a commenter on the last Paris trip, mentioned that the creperie at 27 Rue Andre des Arts was where she had the best crepes ever. Since that’s one of my favorite streets in Paris, I was almost sure I had eaten there. It turns out I hadn’t, so we all waited about a thirty minutes to get a seat.

After our light picnic in the late afternoon, a creperie was just what we needed, since we weren’t looking for a very large meal. The dinner crepes or gallete as they’re called, were perfectly cooked and we all enjoyed the nautical theme of the restaurant. A cat made a surprise visit to say hello after we finished our ham and cheese galletes. It moved on quickly to see if the people next to us had anything better that they were willing to give up.

Without Al on this trip, I wouldn’t have seen how surprisingly flexible the French controllers are nor would we have discovered the Louve’s secret storage area. I guess it pays to be inquisitive. I’m glad to have experienced these two Paris trips with Al and to learn more about Lisa’s second job as an English professor.

Here’s a gallery of many more pictures from this Paris trip:

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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: Our easiest trip: the two-day San Juan

by Kent Wien on

I finished the last Paris trip four hours before my wife Linda and the kids would arrive in Boston on a Lufthansa flight from Germany. I debated waiting for them at the airport, but I knew Linda would be especially thrilled if she didn’t have to go to the store on the way home to pick up some milk for her morning tea. So I drove up to New Hampshire, picked up some milk and fresh fruit, dropped off the groceries and my work gear at home and raced back down to Boston.

While the family was away in Germany, I had arranged to have the interior of the house painted as a Mother’s Day surprise for Linda. Part of me wanted to paint it myself, but the entryway has some high walls and pilots just shouldn’t be on ladders. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of aviators falling off a roof while putting up christmas lights, sliding down a ladder while painting the trim or falling out of a tree while cleaning out dead branches. The fact that pilots are dangerous around ladders makes it much easier for me to get out of some of the ugliest projects.

After picking up everyone at the airport, I couldn’t wait to get them home to see the freshly-painted house. My six-year old ran straight up the stairs to her room while Linda walked in the door. She looked right into the living room, and mentioned just how clean the house looked.I couldn’t believe she didn’t notice the new color. I tried not to smirk while she set down our two-year old girl. It wasn’t until Linda actually walked into the living room that she realized just why the house looked so clean.

“Oh, my gosh!” She gasped, with nearly the same enthusiasm as a participant on one of those home improvement reality TV shows. We lived in this house for eight years before finally getting some color on those walls.

The next morning I mowed the lawn and helped with the kids while Linda unpacked and did load after load of laundry. After four days in a row of flying, I wasn’t looking forward to going back to work after just a day off. But I knew it was the price I had to pay to get the first week of the month off.

Fortunately the two-day San Juan was about the easiest trip I’ve ever flown. Just one leg down to Puerto Rico, layover for 24 hours followed by one leg back. I could catch up on some writing and mess around with my new favorite gadget (more on that later).

The 9:30 a.m. departure time was a welcome change from the 5:45 a.m. Caribbean trips. I’m tempted to bid a month of these trips, but the only drawback is the two-day on and two-day off schedule. Most pilots prefer to fly more hours while they’re on the job, so they can have more days off in between trips.

I flew with Captain Hank who, like me, flew up in Alaska before coming to work here. We last flew together on the 737 in 2001, so it was nice to catch up and talk about some of the people from Alaska that we both know. We tried to outdo each other with wild and exciting tales of our Alaska-flying days, which made the flight go by very quickly. Pilots refer to conversations like this as ‘hangar flying’ but is it really hangar flying if we’re telling the stories in-flight?

The conversation stopped when we came upon a thunderstorm that required a deviation from our planned route of flight. This can be challenging, since we have to first call New York radio, who then relays the information to the Western Atlantic controllers (who I like to imagine are pushing little airplanes around on a table with long pool sticks.)

After getting a hold of N.Y. Radio via the very low-tech HF radio, we waited for a few minutes for them to co-ordinate our 20 nautical mile deviation to the left of course. Because we called more than a hundred miles before the weather ahead, they got back to us in time.

This was how the thunderstorm looked out the window (note the round ball-shaped cloud on the right):

Six minutes later, that round ball reached it’s maximum height and flattened off:

And this was how the radar depicted it. The dashed line is a 20NM offset from our current route. As you can see, we’re moving left toward that line:

There weren’t any bumps from the thunderstorm, since we were 20 miles downwind of it.

We landed just before 1 p.m., a whole 30 minutes ahead of schedule due to some favorable winds. We wasted no time in the cockpit packing up our headsets and approach before heading to the hotel. I had about four days worth of sleep to catch up on. After a much needed nap I thought I’d lay next to the pool and get some reading in with my new favorite gadget, an Amazon Kindle book reader. This lightweight device reads like a book, without the harsh backlighting a computer uses. Books can be downloaded directly into it–usually at a significant discount. All best sellers from the Amazon Kindle store are $9.95. I also subscribe to Time and Newsweek and the latest Reuters news updates for just $1.50 each per month. This a great way to travel lighter–and best of all there’s no charge for the wireless Sprint network connection used for downloading this material.

I found Hank reading outside as well, and it wasn’t long before we started to compare notes on various airlines and the pilots who flew for them out of Anchorage and Fairbanks.

We decided to make our way from the hotel pool to the Mexican restaurant down the road. I always enjoy this restaurant, since the tables are right next to the open ocean where you can watch the surf come crashing in. This time there was a kid out fishing right along the shore in front of our window.

Hank flew the leg home the next day. We passed just by Bermuda and slid right into Boston without any delay. While riding on the employee bus to the parking garage, my cell phone rang.

“Hello First Officer Wien.” Camille, the crew scheduler said, using the sweetest inflection of her British accent. “You’re going to REALLY hate me-it’s ugly!”

“What do you have, Camille?” I asked, holding out hope that her idea of an ugly trip just MIGHT be my idea of the perfect trip.

“I need to take you off of your Paris trip the day after tomorrow and give you a Caracas two-day that leaves tomorrow at 5:30 a.m.” she explained.

Compared to a Paris layover, it was ugly all right. But when they get a hold of you on the phone, the company can pretty much send you anywhere to do anything. At least I’d get paid the extra two hours for the Paris trip, and I’d be flying one day less, but I was really looking forward to having a day and a half off and flying with one of my favorite captains. At least Camille owes me one. Hear that, Camille?

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: Bombed in Paris

by Kent Wien on

I managed to move my schedule around so I’d have the first 9 days of May off. My wife and kids had already left to visit my mother-in-law in Germany, so once I was finished working in April, I hopped on a Lufthansa flight to join up with them. Most pilots would rather have dental reconstruction than have to get on an airplane for their vacation, but, I really do like my mother-in-law, and we were all due for a visit to see her.

By working my schedule to give me so much time off in the beginning of the month, I knew I’d be working without many days off for the rest of May. Sure enough, I managed to cram in a month’s worth of flying into three weeks.

The day after arriving home from Germany, I went out on an early morning Miami turn with Captain Keith. I like to think I’m caught up on the happenings in the airline world, but that all goes out the window when I fly with Keith. He’s the perfect source for the latest happenings in this business and I always feel up to date after flying with him. Unfortunately, I would only be flying the leg down to Miami and then deadheading home. Keith would continue on to Barbados with a Miami co-pilot. It seems the company is running a bit short of pilots and the only way to cover that first leg was to break up the trip–having a Boston co-pilot fly the first part with the remainder flown by the someone from the Miami base.

The next day I had a weekend Paris trip. Everyone is excited to fly to Paris once again. Years ago we flew this trip year-round, but now it’s seasonal-from May until October-and it’s become a very desirable destination for most of the crews. Occasionally the trip will become available to pick up or trade for, so there’s hope, even for those of us at the bottom of the list. My goal was to trade into as many Paris trips as I could hold for the month of May. For a better idea how the seniority system works see this post.
We have one captain and two co-pilots on the flight to Paris. One of the co-pilots works as a ‘relief pilot’ or “FB,” just like the Aruba turns. It’s this pilot’s job to allow the captain and later the co-pilot to take a 2 hour nap back in the business class cabin during the flight. When I can hold Paris trips, it’s usually as an FB as that tends to be the more junior position.

But this time I lucked into the co-pilot position, which meant I’d at least get a landing in the 767, which we hardly ever see on our Caribbean trips out of Boston. Since I was the non-flying pilot (radio operator) for the flight over, I took the third break, which meant I’d come back to the cockpit about 40 minutes before landing and re-familiarize myself with the approach just before we’d start our descent. The flying pilot will typically take the second break in the middle of the flight so they have more time to set up for the arrival.

The air was rather clear and we enjoyed the view of the bright yellow rapeseed mixed in with the lush green patches of land all around France. It’s not until you’re just a few minutes from landing that you see any evidence of a city in the area. Like much of Europe, France has done a great job of avoiding the urban sprawl. The wind was from the east, so the captain, Al, was looking right into the sun for his landing on runway 08 right.

Al mostly flies Caribbean trips. We have a few pilots who would rather stay away from Europe trips all-together, perhaps because of the time zone changes or the terrible exchange rate between the dollar and the euro. Al had been avoiding the Paris flying, but he decided this time he’d give a full month of it a try to see if it would grow on him.

The relief pilot, Dave, brought his wife and 15 year-old son on the trip. It’s a great opportunity for the family to see the sights, and I’m sure pilots and flight attendants relish the chance to show their family that these trips are actually rather tiring. Since my wife was previously a flight attendant for five years with another airline, she already has a good idea. After just one London trip from Boston, she was so exhausted from the time zone changes that she vowed to never again fly internationally.

After just a few of these trips, you develop a system to mitigate some of the fatigue. It’s important to take a nap after arriving. It can be tempting to hit the streets right after checking into the hotel at 9 a.m.–especially when the weather is nice–but that leads to an early evening bedtime, after which you’ll be awake to stare at the clock at midnight finally getting back to sleep just a few hours before the 11 a.m. pickup.

Because of this, almost everyone sleeps for 4 to 5 hours after getting to the hotel. That was the case this time, since Al and I planned to meet up in the lobby at 2 in the afternoon. It helps to have something planned out in advance. This works as a great motivator to drag me out of bed, and it keeps me from falling into the same routine that I tend to do on many of the Paris trips.

I recreated that routine perfectly for Al on this trip. It might start with a visit to the cash machine and/or a visit to the Monoprix grocery store down the street. Al exchanged $20, which gave him only 10.50 Euros. That’s about enough for a few bottles of water, which we set out to find.

We walked north through the Luxembourg Gardens which can be quite amazing. Unfortunately the flowers were only recently planted for the season. But it’s fun to see the kids sailing their rented toy sailboats across the pond. This time I noticed that a few of them had managed to score boats painted up as pirate ships. We stuck around to watch for a while, but there wasn’t enough pillaging from these pirate boats to hold our interest.

There were Italian ice-cream stands all around, but I was especially impressed with the choices this one offered:

We picked up two bottles of water which, even at $4 each, felt great in the 75F/24C degree temperature.

Just north of the Luxembourg Gardens, is the Latin quarter. It’s so named because of the Latin spoken by the students of the Sorbonne University hundreds of years ago. I suspect these students have given up on their conversational Latin though when ordering from a local Starbuck
s.

The narrow, easily walkable streets of this part of the city have made it my favorite hang out. I usually pick up a Crepe Nutella (chocolate crepe) from an outdoor vendor and either stop for a $12.50 pint of Guinness at The Mazet pub, or continue on to the river.

I grabbed a crepe, but I couldn’t interest Al in one, and we elected to skip the pint of Guinness. We walked to Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris. At the middle of the bridge is the tip of an island where there’s a grass park. It’s a nice place to hang out, and many couples enjoy the view while having a picnic of wine, bread and cheese there. Al commented on how much nicer it would be to have someone along to share it with (and no, a fellow pilot just doesn’t count). Oh, well. At least the other pilot, Dave, was probably having a good time with his family somewhere in the city.

We strolled around the island, walking past couples sharing their wine and kissing under the warm sun. Families were laughing with their cute French-speaking kids, completely oblivious to our presence. An artist was finishing a charcoal drawing of a couple across the river who were staring into each other’s eyes. Just then, BAM, a pigeon flew over Al and crapped on his leg and his water bottle.

Fortunately I knew of a free bathroom just a few hundred feet away. Al dropped his half full water bottle into the trash and he went into the bathroom to wash the lower part of his left pant leg off. He tried to dry it off with toilet paper before giving up and sitting out in the sun to let it air dry. I felt rather lucky to avoid the pigeon’s bomb run.

It was time to continue our walk, so we went east away from Pont Neuf to Île Saint-Louis, which has some really nice restaurants and a wonderful place to grab an Italian ice-cream. It also has some of the most expensive real estate in Paris.

We worked our way back to the Latin quarter where we planned to meet up with some of the flight attendants at 5 p.m. We had intended to have dinner together at a nice restaurant, but unfortunately, they were across the city and couldn’t make it in time. Stood up AND crapped on–what more could Paris offer? We decided to go to a cafe nearby.

After picking a great table next to the sidewalk, I ordered something I’ve never had in Paris before. A cheeseburger and fries–for just $23. If you can stop choking about the price, the cheeseburger was surprisingly good. It was cooked perfectly-not overdone at all-and the seasoning was ideal.

It was still rather early when we started to walk back towards the hotel. We passed the Paris Observatory on the way and I took a few pictures of it as the sun went down. They give tours just a few times a year, but the price is a steep 120 Euros.

I showed Al the bike owned by one of our captains that’s locked up near the hotel. He brought it over a few pieces at a time and assembled it. Not a bad way to get around the city. A note to the owner, Captain John: I checked the tires, they’re holding air well.

We stopped in at the crew lounge in the hotel, where pilots and flight attendants from different airlines often get together, eating cheese and sampling Monoprix wine. We could have had a few drinks there, since our flight left almost 18 hours later, but I was just too tired to visit much and since it was mother’s day, I wanted to try to call my wife and mom with Skype to wish them a happy mother’s day. Unfortunately the call quality was really bad, no doubt because of the slow connection at the hotel.

It’s best if you can stay awake until at least 1 a.m. Any earlier and there’s no way you’ll be able to sleep all the way through. I just couldn’t keep awake for another 4 hours, so I broke the night’s sleep into two parts–a 2 hour nap and another longer doze that lasted 6 hours. 8 hours is about the most sleep you can get out of these trips, if you’re lucky.

The next morning we visited with the rest of the crew before getting on the bus that takes us to the airport. Everyone had pretty much scattered to do their own thing the day before. And even Dave and his wife had dropped their exhausted son back at the hotel room before going out to Sacré Cœur and seeing the sights.

I thought it might be a nice thing for Dave to fly my leg back to Boston, since his family was on board. I’ve had another pilot do this for me (when my family was on board), so I figured it was time to spread the favor to someone else. Naturally the pressure was on Dave to make a great landing back in Boston and of course he did a wonderful job.

I have three more Paris trips this month. If you have any recommendations for things I must see or do, feel free to leave them in the comments. I might do a Versailles bike tour on one of the trips, but I’m open to suggestions for something new. Maybe you can help me break from my typical routine. (Update: I just got my schedule for next month. 6 more Paris trips! Is it possible to run out of things to do there? We’ll soon find out!)

To see more pictures from the trip, take a look at the gallery below. Thanks for coming along!

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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: The airline industry’s newest business model: Desperate Housewives.

by Kent Wien on

There are some advantages to flying a reserve schedule every now and then. I prefer the variety and the thought that just maybe I’ll get called out to cover a New York trip to Zurich or Brussels. It’s rare, but it has happened before.

For April, I didn’t fly anywhere I hadn’t flown before, and they managed to use me on almost every one of my available days. Having just arrived home from the Miami and San Francisco trip, crew scheduling already needed me for another early morning departure. This time they had me fly down to Miami and deadhead home on the same day.

It was hardly worthy of a full Cockpit Chronicles. I rode home in the coach cabin and slept most of the way. Fortunately, we’re required to have at least one day off every 7 days, and crew scheduling decided I could use one.

This meant that I’d have a small stretch of three days in a row before my month would be over. There’s always the chance that a three-day trip could pop up if someone called in sick, but I was pretty sure I’d have the last few days off.

My wife gets nervous when I tell her that there’s little chance they could use me. Don’t worry, I’ll be home to take you and the kids to the airport for your trip to Germany, I’m sure! I figured I’d flown too many hours to be legal for another three-day trip. I should have listened to my wife. She knew I’d get the call.

%Gallery-22103%This time it was for yet another 5:45 a.m. departure. But at least I’d be flying with my photography mentor, Captain Jim P., who you might remember from this Panama City and Caracas trip.

For this three-day trip we both left our good cameras at home. But I always bring my little Canon SD800 camera and I took a few more pictures while we were waiting to takeoff from Boston’s runway 4R. This time Spirit airlines was the airplane holding in position just in front of the sunrise.

Jim flew the airplane down to Miami while I talked with ATC. The air was smooth at this time of the morning. While still above 10,000 feet I snapped a few more pictures of Miami beach and the city looking south.

We kept our same Boston flight attendants for the next uneventful leg to Barbados. I realize it must sound like a dream to fly down to Barbados, and while it is nice to get a blast of the warm air, most everyone on the crew was too tired to enjoy the beach. Jim and I planned to meet up at 6 p.m. after a good nap.

We walked across the street from the hotel to eat with two of our flight attendants. The restaurant sat in the parking lot of a small strip mall. While it doesn’t look like much, this fish shack had some great Mahi Mahi sandwiches. I was thrilled to use the last of my Barbados dollars.

When we arrived at the airplane the next morning, the sun was just coming up behind another 757 parked next door. I took my camera with me during the walk-around inspection and snapped pictures of the silhouette. Who says you can’t shoot into the sun!?

For day two, we had just one leg from Barbados to Miami. We laid over at the same crew hotel where I stayed a few days earlier on the domestic trip with Captain Roland.

Jim and I met up in the lobby of the hotel and there was Roland waiting for his co-pilot to arrive for dinner. We all decided to go to a really good Mexican restaurant north of the hotel. I was using my iPhone to find the restaurant. It wasn’t the one I had in mind, but it turned out to have a really attentive waiter and great food.

The four of us talked about every possible rumor running around the airline industry. The major U.S. airlines are doing their best impression of an episode of Desperate Housewives right now. Delta and Northwest are getting married. In a jealous rage, United drops by Continental’s place. Little does United know, but USAirways just slipped out the back door. Continental smiles toward United, but gives a little nod to American who’s out trimming the hedges. Continental finally tells United, “It’s not you, it’s me. I’m just not ready for a relationship right now.”

What’s going to happen next week? After being snubbed by Continental, will United knock on the door of USAirways, saying “We were always meant for each other. It was true eight years ago and it’s true today.”

And will Continental commit to being best friends forever with American and British Airways, the wealthy exchange student who just arrived and who’s trying to figure out who she needs to marry to get a green card?

Stay tuned. We’re in for a wild finale.

The next morning Jim and I ran into a former Boston based co-pilot, Jack, who was traveling with us to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for a vacation.

Jack’s now flying as a co-pilot on the 767 out of New York. He rode along with us in the cockpit and told me how wonderful it was to finally have some seniority in New York. This has allowed him to fly to some great destinations such as Buenos Aires, Brussels, and the occasional trip to Rome.

I have to say, he had me thinking for a while. I could bid to fly from JFK, but there’s no guarantee I’d get back to Boston if I didn’t like the commute. In the end, I decided that I’d stick with the limited flying in Boston so I could be home a day or two more per month.

We pushed back and started up both engines. As the power transferred from the airplane’s APU (auxiliary power unit) to the engine driven generators a light warning us of a problem with our spoilers illuminated on the overhead panel. This meant we’d need to go back to the gate and have our mechanics take a look at the problem.

Spoilers are the panels at the top of the wings that we occasionally use as ‘speedbrakes’ to allow us to descend at a faster rate without picking up any extra speed. They’re also used after touchdown to eliminate some of the lift in the wings which helps put more weight on the wheels for braking.

One of three things could happen at this point. The mechanics could find a fault with the unit that senses the spoiler position. Or they could find a problem with the spoilers themselves that they would need to be fixed. Finally, they could defer the problem by using a large book called the minimum equipment list (MEL) approved by the FAA to see if the airplane is allowed to fly a few days (often just three days) until parts can be found and the problem can be fixed at a major maintenance base.

Fortunately for us (and Jack’s vacation plans) the problem was a fault in the sensor unit that was easily cleared. This is what we suspected, since it happened at the very moment we switched the electrical power. The mechanics then had to go back and verify that this hadn’t occurred in the past month before they could sign it off. After they reviewed the aircraft’s history, we were good to g
o.

It was my leg from Miami to Punta Cana. As we approached the island, we were advised by air traffic control to slow way up. There were two or three flights ahead of us trying to get in. We heard one of them fly a missed approach because they didn’t have the runway in sight, and of course, Punta Cana doesn’t have a Cat III approach that would allow for an autolanding as I discussed in the last Plane Answers post.

After working our way around some small build-ups, we timed our arrival just perfectly. The weather had moved inland and we were able to make a visual approach to the airport. The airplane was equipped with winglets which, in addition to providing nearly 4% in fuel savings, make for a very nice touchdown. Since half of our 757 fleet now have these wingtip extensions, it’s rather noticeable when going back and forth between the converted and not yet converted airplanes. And since we also had a freshly moistened runway, the odds for a smooth landing were well in my favor. As we expected, the spoilers activated properly after touchdown.

My favorite thing about Punta Cana is the airport terminal. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The airplane pulls up just a few feet from a thatched roof terminal. I’ve taken pictures of it in the past, even using it in a ‘where on earth’ post. This time, however, our airplane was parked right in front of a roof that was in the process of being re-thatched. It was rather entertaining to watch this process, both for the passengers walking by and for us in the cockpit. I felt I just had to get some video of this:

The dark clouds that were giving way to a bright sunny sky made for some good photo opportunities on the ground.

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One thing Jim and I noticed on the ramp was an Eos 757 that was parked behind us. I knew one of the premium New York to London carriers had gone bankrupt (which turned out to be MaxJet) but I couldn’t remember which one at the time. The picture of this airplane sitting on the Punta Cana ramp may have been the first clue that Eos was shutting down the next day.

After landing back in Miami, we were told that our gate was occupied. This meant we would have to h old on taxiway JJ which was a perfect perch to watch airplanes land in front of us. With the brakes parked and one engine shut down, I took a few pictures of some of the activity. Most interesting was this 757 which belonged to Honeywell. They are the manufacturers of the FMS, a navigation computer that feeds much of the information to our instruments and helps us navigate. I imagine every time they make a software change they have to demonstrate to the FAA that the are no issues with the upgrade using this 757.

Since this trip would have me exceeding the maximum 30 hours in a seven day period, a fresh Miami based co-pilot was assigned to fly the last leg home. Once again I rode in the back for my deadheading leg. In fact, after I wrote about deadheading in the first class cabin, I’ve had a seat in the back ever since. Maybe that post jinxed me.

I have a vacation week at the beginning of May that I’m using to meet up with my wife and kids who are visiting my mother-in-law in Germany. So I’ll get some more time in the back of an airplane before writing the next Cockpit Chronicles. Until then…

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