Cockpit Chronicles: How pilots stay proficient

by Kent Wien on

Last week I accomplished something every pilot dreads. Every nine months we have to go down to Dallas for recurrent training. The FAA lays out its mandates for airline recurrent training and the specific airlines design their courses around these requirements. It seems like every year they’re adding more and more subjects that need to be covered. Whether it’s in the classroom or in the simulator, there’s a lot of information packed into the four days.

Fortunately I was scheduled to fly down the day before which makes it easier to get a good nights sleep. This extra sleep helps me stay awake during some of the required classroom training which isn’t that exhilarating. There’s just no way to jazz up a course on hazardous materials paperwork or the proper use of a halon fire extinguisher.

The hotel was very basic and included a view of the roller coasters from the Six Flags over Texas amusement park. I think they’re shut down during the winter, though. The free continental breakfast and WiFi made it easy to overlook any other shortcomings of the hotel.

The training lasts four days and includes two days of ground school and two days of simulator training.

Day 1 – International School

There were only six of us in a classroom that seats 30 people on the first day, in which we covered international flying for 4 1/2 hours. The instructor reviewed the procedural differences in flying across the Atlantic versus the Pacific and touched on some of the requirements for flying over the North Pole, even though it’s unlikely the airplane I fly will ever go in that direction. The class also covered flying in South America which we’ll hopefully see more of from our Boston base. After class it was time to go back to the hotel and study some more for the next day.
Day 2 – Ground School

The next day there were eight of us in a different classroom listening to an instructor go over some of the 757 and 767 specifics. It was a good review that included a look into the hydraulic system, electrical system, flight instruments, air conditioning and pressurization, among other topics. Our cockpits are being retrofitted with large LCD type screens that will include a number of advancements. As you can imagine, I love gadgets, so I’m looking forward to flying an airplane with these displays installed in them.

While walking back from the cabin simulators where we operated the main cabin and emergency exit doors, I saw a group of flight attendants getting ready to go down the emergency exit slides. Pilots have to go down these slides as well when they’re first hired. When our new-hire class made the leap, our instructor wasn’t as versed in the operation of this ‘slide simulator’ and we all went sailing down the chutes. It wasn’t until the last person finished that a flight attendant instructor, who happened to be walking by, told us that the slide needed to be inflated. No wonder it felt like we were falling straight to the ground!

After lunch we went to a class on security that both pilots and flight attendants attend, and then we finished the day off with human factors training. This is an interesting class where we look at some of the mistakes other pilots have made based on their safety debriefs. These reports help us find better procedures and training to avoid getting into a similar situation. The situations are often recreated and filmed in a simulator to highlight the message. The goal is to recognize the mistakes that happen and to learn how to stay out of that kind of situation in the first place. It’s a serious class and the messages aren’t soon forgotten.

Day 3 – Simulator Training

When I was 15, my dad was an instructor pilot for another airline. Thanks to him, I had the rare opportunity to fly a full motion 737 simulator two different times. Both events were the highlight of my life to that point. When there’s absolutely no pressure to perform, these things can be great fun.

A Sim-P, or simulator pilot, who’s usually a retired military or other airline pilot, conducts the simulator training. We have a number of former Braniff pilots in this position and they’re absolutely fantastic instructors. These instructors run you through some maneuvers, approaches and any new procedures in preparation for your checkride the next day.

After a two hour briefing on some of the maneuvers we’d be doing, including low visibility landings, engine failures and fires, single engine approaches and go-arounds, we finally went into the simulator.

You need to be a bit of an actor in a simulator. There are lines to memorize and actions to perform, and you need to know these seldom used litanies without fail. Combine this with a look at your aircraft systems and procedures knowledge and it’s easy to see why it’s not exactly a video game for airline pilots.

The most common maneuver we practice is called the “V1 Cut.” It’s an engine failure at the worst possible moment, just as the airplane is ready to lift off from the runway. After liftoff, the jet tends to pull toward the failed engine which requires a significant–40 pounds maybe–amount of foot pressure on the rudder toward the side of the good engine. While you’re trying to keep the airplane straight and level, the non flying pilot needs to contact ATC to declare an emergency and let them know where you want to go. The airplane climbs nicely to about 600 feet before we accelerate and bring the flaps up. The flying pilot then makes their callouts (the acting part) which are “continuous power, flight level change, set speed, let’s have the engine fire, severe damage, separation emergency checklist,” and then climbs to a safe altitude.

The non-flying pilot accomplishes the checklist which takes at least five minutes to get through. The flying pilot talks to air traffic control and works their way back to the runway. A fantastic video of a 757 in this situation was taken last year in Manchester, England.

For both the training and the simulator checkride, I was paired up with a Captain from L.A. named Mike who really knew his stuff. He was relaxed, yet professional and he was never in a hurry. This is the perfect kind of guy to fly with when everything falls apart (as often happens in a simulator). Apparently Mike and I put on a good enough show during the 4-hour training session to be signed off for our ‘checkride’ the next day.

Day 4 – The Checkride

The
checkride also starts out with a 2-hour briefing followed by 4 hours in the simulator. After questions about some of the limitations and immediate action items we’re required to know, we talked about some new procedures. The check-airman spent a good portion of this time discussing a new GPS based approach we’re flying into Quito, Ecuador.

After a short break we went into the simulator and got everything ready as if it were a normal flight. The sounds and feel inside are very similar to the actual airplane. We wear our seat belts, not only to get the full effect, but because the box tends to move around quite a bit in a realistic way during these maneuvers.

Mike flew first, accomplishing an automatic landing, aborted takeoff, engine failure on takeoff followed by an engine out approach. I went next with a flaps up landing, an engine failure on takeoff and one on landing, a couple of different types of approaches to landings and a ground evacuation. I’m sure I’m leaving some things out, but they all tend to blend together after a few hours.

We took turns flying a recovery from a microburst and also a very aggressive terrain avoidance maneuver. Two skills you hope to never find yourself needing. We then flew two GPS approaches–one in each direction–into Quito.

At the end of the session we usually get a few maneuvers that are as close to having fun as we’ll ever get in the simulator. Often the instructor will fail both engines (almost always, for some reason, in Salt Lake City) and expect us to make it to the runway. There are bonus points given if you can coast to the gate. Or we might get to land in a 30-knot crosswind with the runway reported as having nil braking action. Something we’d never attempt in a real airplane. It’s often a sign that things went well during the checkride when the check-airman gives you some of these scenarios.

It’s a great feeling to ride home, even in the back of an MD-80, knowing that you’re good to go for another nine months.

I’m on reserve this month, so I’m not sure when and where I’ll be flying next. Stay tuned to the Cockpit Chronicles to find out.

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: Taken for a ride in Panama City

by Kent Wien on

I called my friend Captain Dave the day before our trip.

“Dave, we’re going to hit the ground running in Panama City so we can check out the canal. I’ve got it all figured out. Just get to bed early,” I said.

Dave was up for this. He actually traded one of his Barbados layovers to fly this trip with me. Sometimes it’s worth it to fly an ugly trip with a good friend. We’ve been flying together for about five years and we always have a good time discussing current events and hanging out on layovers.

I studied up on the Wikitravel Panama City entry and figured we could get a taxi over to the Miraflores Locks where there was supposed to be a decent restaurant overlooking the canal.

When I met up with Dave in operations, he had quite the story to tell. He went to bed the night before at 7 p.m. and, you guessed it, woke up at about 10 p.m. After tossing and turning a while longer, he figured he might as well come into work a few minutes earlier than normal for what he thought was a 5:30 a.m. departure. It wasn’t until he arrived at the Boston airport that he realized the flight departed at 6:45 a.m. He was almost three hours early. He tried to nap on a recliner in the crew lounge, but I imagine it’s hard to get much sleep when you’re kicking yourself all the time.

%Gallery-17310%I showed up on time and relatively well rested. I have to give credit to Dave. He was as determined to see the canal as I was, even after what would be a long day of flying. We left on time from Boston to Miami and continued on to Panama City just an hour later. Flying south to Panama took us directly over Cuba, which has excellent controllers, then through Jamaica’s airspace before finally talking to Panama control.

We landed in Panama City at 2 p.m. and made it to the hotel an hour later. Surprisingly, Dave was still willing to take the trip to the canal. We changed clothes and checked with the concierge about getting a cab to the locks. The Wikitravel entry mentioned a flat rate of $25 if you want to hire the cab for the entire day. The concierge spent a few minutes talking to a cab driver before deciding that we’d be better off with a private taxi since the cabby couldn’t speak much English.

Louis was probably close to eighty years old and he looked harmless enough. We hopped in the car and he drove about 50 feet before he turned to us and said, “No drugs!”

“What’s that?” I said, while sitting in the front seat.

“No drugs. I can take you anywhere you’d like, show you anything, just nooo drugs.” He said.

I know we’d been awake for close to 14 hours at this point, but how bad did we look?

“We’d just like to go to the Miraflores Locks for dinner.” I told Louis.

Louis said he’d be willing to do that, but he could also take us to Casco Viejo and some other interesting locations as well. And for all that, the total would be $80 for the day.

Now here’s a tip. Don’t get INTO a taxi until you have the price negotiated. Since we were already in the cab, our negotiating leverage was pretty much nil.

“$40 a person, OK, fine, I suppose.” This better be one heck of a tour, I thought.

Louis drove us toward the locks and explained that it was a great way to see the canal. Had we gone to the observation deck, it would cost $16. But if we went to the restaurant, we could eat at a buffet for $21. That worked for us. I was happy to save some money after agreeing to pay for Louis’s car payment for the month.
The traffic northbound out of the city was really slow going. It was the Friday before Mardi Gras and the celebrations were just starting, which meant a main road was closed in the city. Our drive took about 45 minutes, but Louis did his best to give us some of the details of his city. But it was hard to hear all the stories over the snoring that Dave was doing in the back seat.

Dave hasn’t stopped nagging me about the time I took him on a packed subway so we could find my favorite bathroom in Paris, so I knew I’d be hearing about this extravagant cab ride for many months to come.

We made it to the Miraflores Locks, which are the last locks before the Pacific Ocean. After climbing a few flights of stairs, we picked up some free passes that would get us past the guards to the restaurant. It was 5:30 p.m. when we sat down for dinner by ourselves on the balcony overlooking the locks. The view was spectacular and we soon realized that we needed to stay there for a full dinner, even if we had to miss out on touring any other parts of Panama City.

In order to see how the canal works, take a look at this 30 second animation showing the entire canal, and then this one that illustrates the way a lock operates.

Any visit to the canal wouldn’t be complete without a few mind-blowing facts about what some call the eighth wonder of the world:

  • 27,000 workers died during the construction.
  • On a New York to San Francisco trip, the canal saves 7800 miles.

  • Each canal door needs to be replaced every ten years and weighs 750 tons (the same as 12 Boeing 757’s).
  • Ships are prioritized by a bidding system. The more you’re willing to pay, the sooner you can enter the canal.
  • The canal averages 40 ships per day or 14,000 a year.
  • A typical passage by a cargo ship takes 9 hours to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
  • Crossings cost as little as $650 for a sailboat to $141,000 for a cruise ship.

Dave and I watched three or four huge ships pass through during our two-hour dinner there. I’ve included a gallery showing the view from the restaurant as well as some aerial shots of the canal I took when we passed overhead earlier in the day.

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The buffet dinner couldn’t have been better and we enjoyed the local Balboa beer as well. Every country we fly to in the Caribbean and Central America seems to have their own beer and surprisingly they all taste exactly the same. I’m not complaining as I do like them all, but I can’t tell the difference.

Louis came up twice to check on us; probably to be sure we weren’t skipping out on his taxi bill, but also to let us know that we were going to miss seeing the other parts of town. We knew we’d be back, and we had found the perfect place to eat and enjoy the monumental view.

The drive back to the hotel took an hour because of the traffic. I marveled at all the construction and found a few open wi-fi spots with my iPhone as we crept through the city. Dave slept in the backseat. Fortunately we didn’t have to leave for another eighteen hours, so he could catch up on a lot of sleep back at the hotel.

The next day we flew to Miami and then on to Caracas, Venezuela where we laid over for sixteen hours. The rest of the trip was uneventful, but I did manage to get some nice shots of the sun going down on the way from Caracas to Miami.

One of the benefits of this job has been the ability to travel to some interesting places that I might have otherwise missed. If you don’t think you’ll ever make it to Panama, at least you can check out this webcam from the top of the building where we had dinner. It’s the next best thing. If that’s too slow for you, take a look at this almost hypnotic video below of a week’s worth of traffic through the Miraflores Locks compressed down to a few minutes.


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: How pilots choose their schedules

by Kent Wien on

Today’s flight was a turn (out and back in the same day) from Boston to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. The airplane was a 767, which is always nice to fly. We’re able to fly either the 757 or the 767 using the same procedures and training. I think most pilots prefer flying the 767 versus the 757. It’s something we don’t see as often and it handles differently — a little like going from a Honda’s power steering (the 757) to a Cadillac (the 767).

We had some snow pass through Boston a few hours before departure but the airplane was already de-iced and ready to go by the time we arrived. Since the flight time was over 8 hours for the day, we had a relief co-pilot (FB) on board. Tom was the FB, which meant he would typically do the walk around inspection while I did the interior preflight. I stayed nice and warm while loading the FMS (flight computer that stored our flight plan and works similar to a GPS) and checking the equipment.

The flight down to Santo Domingo went without a hitch. We talked a bit about what trips everyone would be flying in March. For most pilots, there are two dates around the middle of the month that are almost like Christmas. The first is the day our bid sheets come out and the second is the day we get our schedule for the next month. A bid sheet is a print out of every possible schedule we can fly. It shows the trips and the days you’ll be flying them. You simply arrange your preferences in the order you want to fly them and hope someone more senior doesn’t pick the schedule that you’re hoping for.

For those pilots flying the 757 and the 767 internationally from Boston, there are 27 different schedules we can choose that fly four different kinds of trips:

  • Turns (one-day trips) – to Saint Thomas, Santo Domingo or Aruba. These high time trips give you the most days off.
  • A three-day Barbados – not much flight time, which means you’ll fly more days in a month, but the full day on the beach on the second day makes up for that.
  • The two-day London – a high time trip that most pilots prefer.
  • The three-day Panama City and Caracas – that departs very early the first day and gets back after midnight on the third day.

These trips change every couple of months, which is why the bid sheet is eagerly awaited every month. Even though there aren’t many different destinations to choose from, I can’t remember a time when we’ve had so many quality trips. I’d be thrilled to hold any of the first three trips above. The Panama City and Caracas layovers tend to go junior, meaning the pilots with the least amount of seniority usually fly there. Even after 15 years at the company, I’m relatively ‘junior’ on the list, with 4/5ths of the other co-pilots above me. The first six pilots usually choose the London flights, and the Caribbean turns where you’re home every night are usually the next most popular.

If you’re at the bottom 20%, you’re likely to find yourself on reserve, which is like being ‘on call.’ If someone calls in sick, the company will call you to fly. Usually you find out what you’ll be doing the day before. Reserve pilots usually fly less often than a scheduled pilot would and they get paid a flat 90% of a full schedule.

I’ve been lucky enough to hold a line for the last six months straight, but I was awarded a reserve schedule for next month. Hopefully I’ll get called out for a NY or Miami based trip (they often run short of pilots there) to someplace we don’t fly to from Boston.

We go to training every nine months, and I’m scheduled to go down for five days of training next month. Of course I’ll be writing about that.

As we approached Santo Domingo today, we had our usual challenge in understanding the controllers there. The tower controller was especially difficult to understand. Since the runway is closed for repairs, we’re landing on what was formerly the taxiway. Because of this, we had to turn around on the runway to taxi back to the gate. After our runway “U-turn” we were looking straight at a Cessna Caravan a few hundred feet off the ground heading toward us. The Caravan pilot obviously saw us, and I’m sure he just continued his approach until it became completely obvious that the controller’s plan wasn’t going to work. He went around and lined up again for landing a few minutes later.

Maybe I’ll bid around flying to Santo Domingo for a while. With just a little more seniority I should be able to reliably hold the Panama City/Caracas trips. And once you get a schedule, you are free to trade around, which is how I’ve been able to fly to London and Barbados on occasion.

With your seniority number deciding what trips you fly, what base you fly from, when your vacation occurs and, most importantly, when you will upgrade to captain, you can imagine just how important this number is to pilots. It’s so important, in fact, that it can even hold up an airline’s merger plans.

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 – Riots in Panama

by Kent Wien on

I’ve flown with Captain Jim on the MD-80, the 737 and the 757/767. It’s always a pleasure to work with him and we often discuss everything from politics to aviation — but lately he’s also become my mentor in photography. Jim has been trying to expand my interest in shooting in the manual mode on my Canon DSLR. I tend to spend more time with the angles and composition than the exposure and white balance of my photos. But whenever I’m on a trip with Jim, he brings along his gear and shows me how it should really be done.

I’ve run into him a few times this month and we’ve talked about trying to get a Panama City, Panama and Caracas, Venezuela trip together so we could visit Casca Viejo in Panama. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site, and perfect for a day of photography. Through some trip trading, I was able to get on one of these three-day trips with him.

As you’ll see after the jump, it didn’t go exactly as we’d hoped.

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Day 1 BOS-MIA-PTY

The first day we left at 6 a.m. for a flight to Miami and then on to Panama City, Panama. It’s strange to head due south out of Miami and eventually get to the Pacific Ocean side of Panama.

The ride to Miami had some moderate turbulence that caused one of our breakfast trays to fall from it’s perch on the jumpseat and land on the floor, breaking the glass bowl and plate. These bumps are certainly annoying, but as we explain to nervous passengers, as long as you keep your seatbelt fastened when instructed and anytime you’re seated you’ll be fine.

Jim lugged his camera and three lenses and I brought my still cameras and the HD video camera. You would have thought we were headed out on an African safari.

I told him about the protests that were happening this week in Panama City. On the 14th of February, a riot involving construction workers upset with the working conditions broke out right next to the hotel where we are staying. Panama City is going through an amazing construction boom; It seems like half of the city’s skyscrapers are under construction. There are cranes everywhere and it seems the workers are being pushed to their limits.

One worker was shot and killed during this demonstration which resulted in yet another riot the next day — again at our hotel. Unfortunately, I wasn’t flying one of those trips or I would certainly have video for you to see. But I did find this video that someone took from our hotel.

I figured that we might get some pictures of the demonstration’s aftermath, but if we didn’t see anything there, we had planned on going to another area that was in the news this week: Casca Viejo.

The newest James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, is being filmed in Casca Viejo, near the presidential palace. In fact, my co-pilot friend Rich had Judy Dench on board from Panama City to Miami just a few days ago.

According to the British tabloid, Daily Mail, they’ve been having a terrible time with items being stolen from the production team during the making of this movie. So apparently the producers hired a gang for security while filming. The rival gang in town didn’t appreciate this, so things got pretty ugly this past week. There was even talk about the production leaving town and rewriting the script to shoot in another country. But according to the comments on the article at our sister-site Cinimatical.com, the Daily Mail has blown the story out of proportion, since they’re confusing the construction worker shooting with this filming which is located a few miles away.

***

Our approach into Panama took us right over the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal. It’s amazing to see all the ships lined up to enter the canal. It’s easy to see why this is considered one of the man-made wonders of the world.

The best laid plans…

After our arrival in Panama City, we talked to the outbound crew (also from Boston) at the gate. They tell us that because of the unrest near our hotel, we were now staying near the airport: a good 45-minute drive from the city. Our big photo opportunity was lost. I thought for a moment about getting a cab to go into the city, but I figured that would be kind of reckless considering that our company had gone out of its way to keep us out of the area. (It wouldn’t have stopped me! You gotta bite the bullet – sometimes literally – for interesting photo opportunities)

We met up at a bar similar to something you might see at a Denny’s restaurant back home. After I ordered, Mark, a British guy next to us asked me if I had just ordered the fajitas. He was disappointed that he hadn’t seen the fajitas before he ordered a few minutes earlier.

We struck up a conversation with Mark, who had just sailed a Catamaran across the Atlantic, stopping in St. Lucia, Aruba and some other places before coming through the Panama Canal the day before. He’s been writing about the trip (his fourth or fifth time across the Atlantic) in a great blog that he’s able to update using an Iridium satellite phone. Mark’s semi-retired, even though he’s in his early forties. It turns out he’s a Mac user as well. He started www.vtc.com, a training video service where you can learn anything from Photoshop CS to web and flash design for a flat fee of $30 a month. As a way to give something back, his company has created a huge library of free video content for teenage students wanting to improve their math or science skills called www.tutorom.com. They’ve even got courses on photography as well.

The best part about traveling is the people you come across along the way, and while Jim and I are still bummed that we hauled all of our gear on this trip without getting a chance to use it, we had such a great time chatting with Mark that I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Day 2 PTY-MIA-CCS

The next day we flew from Panama City back to Miami, and then Caracas, Venezuela. Interestingly, many people are doing just the opposite this month: fleeing Caracas to Panama City. Caracas hasn’t been a very safe place for some time according to the State Department’s travel safety site. Here’s my favorite part of the warnings:

Violent crime in Venezuela is pervasive, both in the capital, Caracas, and in the interior. The country has one of the highest per-capita murder rates in the world. Armed robberies take place in broad daylight throughout the city, including areas generally presumed safe and frequented by tourists. A common technique is to choke the victim into unconsciousness and then rob them of all they are carrying. Well-armed criminal gangs operate with impunity, often setting up fake police checkpoints. Kidnapping is a particularly serious problem, with more than 1,000 reported during the past year alone. According to press reports at least 45 foreigners have been kidnapped in the first eight months of 2007. Investigation of all crime is haphazard and ineffective. In the case of high-profile killings, the authorities quickly round up suspects, but rarely produce evidence linking these individuals to the crime. Only a very small percentage of criminals are tried and convicted.

So I just stayed at the hotel. I did manage, however, to get out to the pool.

Landing Slump

I’ve been on a bit of a landing slump lately. These usually happen after a streak of great landings where you think you’ve got it all figured out. There’s no stopping you. And then you hit a slump. Instructors like to say that a good approach will lead to a good landing, but that’s just not so. There’s so much going on in the flare and I’m convinced that what you did in the approach has very little to do with how you’ll touch down as long as you’re at least on speed and on the glide path when you cross over the runway. Is there a crosswind? Maybe a slight tailwind? Is the runway sloping down? How’s your speed? Your sink rate? Did you start the flare too early or too late? Are you on the centerline? Are you trying to make a turn-off to the terminal that effectively shortens your runway? Does the airplane have winglets?

My landing last night in Caracas wasn’t that great. You see, runway 10 slopes upwards for the fist 1200 feet or so and then starts to angle back down. The key to a nice landing is to touchdown before the runway starts to head away from you. If you miss the ‘bump’, it’s far less likely that you’ll get a smooth touchdown. Manchester, England is the same way.

After three landings only a mother could love, I’m declaring this an official landing slump. I’ll let you know when I have it figured out again. It doesn’t help that I’ve been flying with a few captains lately who must be on their own good landing streaks.

Jim let me use his wide-angle lens again so I took a few cockpit shots. It’s always nice to find creative angles and this lens gives me a few more chances at a good shot. Here’s what I came up with:

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Day 3 CCS-MIA-BOS

The icing on the cake of this trip was saved for the last leg, our sixth in three days. The lunar eclipse was starting just as I did the walkaround inspection in Miami and it finished just as we started the approach into Boston. I managed to get a bit of video and some pictures of it, but there’s no way to capture the feeling of breaking out of the clouds and seeing the eclipse right in front of you. A few pilots commented to the air traffic controllers just how amazing the view was. It seemed a bit cruel to the controllers since Miami was under mostly cloudy skies. I managed to shoot a little video clip of the day’s flying:


Next month I will be going down for recurrent training in the simulator and classroom and I hope to bring you along for the ride.

Cockpit Chronicles: Travel Tip: Don’t leave home without pants!

by Kent Wien on

The third and final London trip of the month was the most memorable. I doubt if I’ll be able to see London again before it goes back to the 777, which normally operates the route, in March. Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.

European trips generally allow just enough time for a half day of sightseeing. As a result, traveling outside of the city is nearly impossible. So for years I had vowed to make the trip to London on my days off and see the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, England.

This museum, located near Cambridge, was on my list for a very personal reason. In 1983, my dad (who is also a pilot) bought a B-25D WWII bomber for $15,000 and spent a good portion of his savings restoring it. Unfortunately, he was left with no choice but to sell the completed airplane when the company he was flying for went out of business. It was picked up by Stephen Gray and displayed at the museum in Duxford. The aircraft regularly participated in the airshows there. The closest I ever came to seeing the finished bomber was in the form of a magazine article that featured Duxford. In 2005, the airplane was sold to a collector in Seattle which, ironically, is where my dad kept it 23 years ago.

With a forty-four hour layover in London, would it be worth visiting the Imperial War Museum, even if our old airplane was no longer there? I knew my aviation geek friend, Ruthann, had checked out Duxford, so I asked her if it was worth it. Not only was it worth it, she said, but she would show me herself. Since her mom and brother had been dying to get out of Western Ireland for a break from the rain, this was as good of an excuse as any. You know the weather is bad when you book a trip to London during the winter in the hope of escaping the rain!

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Captain Mark and I took off from Boston just after the sun came up and chatted all the way across the Atlantic. Conversation is a big part of this job at times and since Mark has five kids, he’s able to give me an idea of what may be in store for me when my two daughters are older. Once on the North Atlantic portion of our flight, this conversation was interrupted by the requirement to give a position report to the Gander and Shanwick ATC facilities.

Occasionally I’d snap a picture or video clip of the sunset. I’ve gathered a few clips together and put them to music. Sometimes it’s easier to share a video to give you an idea of the view from the front. After a while you tend to take these sights for granted.


Since there’s no radar for these controllers to see our position, we have to line up on one of about seven or eight parallel ‘tracks.’ The airplanes are separated by 1000 feet and spaced at least 10 minutes apart along each track. We call in our position through a High Frequency (HF) radio that’s like talking into a Geiger counter because of all the static. To get an idea how painful it is, there’s a great website, liveATC.net, that allows you to listen to airline traffic all over the world and they have a good North Atlantic feed where you can hear some of these position reports. Think World War II technology and you’ll get the idea. We talk to Gander on the west side of the Atlantic (based in Newfoundland, Canada) and Shanwick (based in Shannon, Ireland) on the east side.

After a few hours of chatting, the sun had set and it was time to get ready for the approach into London. After three London trips this month, I’ve figured out that holding over the Ockham VOR south of London is commonplace for this time of day. After two race track patterns lasting 15 minutes each, London control turned us loose for the approach and landing.

The plan was for Mark and I to meet up on Saturday with Ruthann and her family at King’s Cross station in London before jumping on a train to Cambridge. I figured we’d get a few hours in Cambridge before or after the museum visit as long as we got a good sleep and an early start. Unfortunately I came to a horrifying realization after checking into the hotel.

After checking in on Friday night, Mark and I planned to get some dinner at a Chinese restaurant across the street. When I went to unpack my suitcase, however, I discovered that I had left my pants at home. Horrifying might be a bit of an over reaction, but I can’t think of much worse than having a long layover and sightseeing in airline uniform pants. I was insistent that there’s no way that would happen.

I met up with Mark and explained my situation. Someone mentioned that Tesco might sell clothing, and that there was a 24-hour Tesco near the hotel. I had always assumed that Tesco was just a grocery store. I texted Ruthann and asked her if she knew anything about this. She assured me that I could probably find a really cheap pair of pants there. So Mark and I set out close to midnight and after nearly an hour of walking around we finally talked to a local lady who assured us that the Tesco we were looking for wouldn’t be the place for us. Apparently Tescos in the city just sold groceries.

So the quest for a pair of pants would have to wait until the morning, which would cut into our already packed day. I rolled out of bed at 8 a.m. even though I craved another 5 hours of sleep. The walk to the ritzy High Street in Kensington took a half hour, but at least I was quickly awoken by the price tag of $80 for a suitable pair of pants. I was in a hurry and didn’t have much time to comparison shop.

Mark and I picked up a couple of Oyster passes, which are like prepaid cards for the Tube in London. These cards require a £3.00 deposit, but they save you more than 50% in Tube fees and therefore pay for themselves in the first ride.

Ruthann, her mom Joan and her brother Gary met us at the Kings Cross tube station where we bought tickets for the train to Cambridge. The one-hour train ride for them was the same price, $25, as their round trip Ryanair flight from Western Ireland to London.

As we were lined up for the train I snapped this picture of platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross. Crazy Brits, I figured. Who would have a 3/4 platform number? Then Ruthann pointed out that this was the platform used in the filming of Harry Potter and everything made sense. Notice the cart left behind. Seems the Muggles don’t allow the carts to continue to the platform.

We got off at the Cambridge stop and then waited for a while for the bus to take us to Duxford. Because of the time I wasted looking for pants, it looked like we wouldn’t be seeing much of Cambridge. But the conversation with Ruthann’s mom a
nd brother made the time fly while we were waiting at the bus stop. They got some mileage out of my pants that caused such a delay, but by now, I was justifying my purchase. I showed them how the lower part of the legs could unzip, leaving me with shorts. This was the perfect solution for a New York trip that happens to cancel in the Caribbean. Hey, it could happen!

I’ve been to a number of aviation museums in England and the U.S., but Duxford was one of the best I’d ever visited. I’m a bit partial to British airplanes, and two of the sexiest, the Spitfire and the Concorde, were there. They also had a very expansive American Air Museum complete with its own quonset-hut style hangar. If you ever find yourself near Cambridge, I highly recommend a visit the the Imperial War Museum – Duxford. I’ve included my pictures in the gallery above and I would be remiss if I didn’t add a link to Ruthann’s wonderful shots from the same trip. She’s quite the photographer who practically lives on Flickr.

I was thrilled to find that the museum would take my old Northern Ireland bank notes that Ruthann told me had been cancelled a few years earlier due to a huge bank robbery thought to have been carried out by the IRA.

We raced back to London with the intention of catching a play, but since it was a Saturday night, we didn’t find anything of interest that wasn’t already sold out. It pays to plan ahead on weekends.

We elected to walk to the Apple store that’s becoming a landmark in London. Well, it is for me, at least. Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Apple Store. You could easily travel around the world to Apple stores everywhere and then start a blog about it, but it appears someone has already done that.

We decided to eat at an Italian restaurant. Ruthann and Joan insisted that they pay for my dinner since my birthday was the next day. When the bill came, neither one had a credit card that would work. So I put it on my card and they paid me back with a combination of US dollars, Euros and I think they slipped in some of those darn cancelled Northern Irish bank notes.

By the time Mark and I took off the next day, Ruthann and her family were back in Ireland and I couldn’t help but say hello over the radio as we passed by. I’m sure I’ll be talking to Ruthann someday when she lands a job at the Shannon ATC facility. I know she’d be great at it, if she doesn’t decide to learn to fly instead.

To make sure my birthday would be memorable, the flight attendants chipped in and bought me a cake and even managed to sing Happy Birthday half-way across the Atlantic. I can’t think of a better way to thank them than to share with the world their singing talents (along with Captain Mark). So thanks Patricia and Lisa!


For the next trip we’ll go to Panama City, Panama and Caracas, Venezuela. It will be my first trip there and I’ve always wanted to see the canal. So stay tuned!

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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.