Hours of Boredom.

There is a frequently used saying is "that the most hazardous part of a pilot's trip is the drive to and from the airport." The other is "hours of boredom, punctuated by moments of stark terror."

Today was my first trip of the month. A 0805 sign in, to fly one leg to the west coast. A little over 2000 nautical miles. Well less than 2 miles from the house, one of Bambi's kin took my mind off the need to stop for gas. Aahh, adrenalin rush at 0530. Not a sign, I believe in making your own karma. Usual am traffic, only 30 miles to the employee lot, but then the 25 mph bus ride with a driver that drives by feel. Felt that curb, and several potholes going to the terminal. This airport has a special area for screening employees. Nice to get expedited by TSA, but the airlines route some urgent connections from international flights or passengers requiring extra screening. So the one lane bogs down, and it takes longer to get through. Brilliant! 2 hours after I locked the front door, I am in Ops.

The TSA folks want to keep any one from gaining access to the cockpit and taking control of the airplane. Isn't that my job? This is one area that I can't discuss even to point out things that scream to be spotlighted. Oh well, maybe after I retire.

Walk out to the Operations area. Sign in is one hour prior to departure. Today I will have to post a revision to my airport manuals. Every 14 days, I get an envelope containing any changes that been made to any of the airports we serve. So I have to switch out the revised pages before I head out to the plane. Captain P. was already working on his. Should be a good trip, P is a very laid back pilot, lives in the same county and has two boys in their teens. This was a small revision, took about 35 minutes. The airport provided a nice extra by having a false fire alarm that screeched for 15 minutes.

Head on up to the airplane. P gets most of the interior preflight, I get my side and then head outside. Routine can be boring, but in this job it allows you to do complex tasks without missing and steps. I follow my path and look for anything, and I mean ANYTHING that is amiss. This is a nice shiny new Boeing 737-800. Everything is set inside and out. Today we have 6 crew members, 160 passengers, one dog, and 32K pounds of fuel. We get finish our checklist and call for push back. When P releases the brakes something very important happens, we generate an "out" time that gets transmitted so we can start getting paid. That's right, P and I have been working for free for the last 90 minutes. So have the cabin crew. We will get back to that later. We fire up the engines, set the flaps, finish another checklist and call for taxi. Head out to the runway, the data link computer spits out our final weights and balance. We load the data into the FMC (flight management computer), readjust for the 3 knot tailwind, taxi into position and hold.

Flying is a magical, exhilarating experience. Today P is going to fly us out to the weird coast. We usually alternate legs, with the captain retaining the right to chose who flies which leg. At this point, I should give props to the company's Flight and Training depts. There are a huge number of variables, but the training has defined our roles precisely. Normal takeoff all by itself has a large number of variables. Runway length, weather, winds, climb out instructions, all impact each takeoff. And that is if everything goes normally. Prior to 80 knots, (about 92 mph) and we will discontinue for anything that does not look, sound, or feel right. P's takeoff or mine, the captain makes the decision to discontinue the takeoff, and makes the abort. The other "bad thing" that can happen is to have an engine fail just as we rotate the nose to go fly. Continuing the takeoff with just one engine is not just the loss of thrust, Now the remaining 26000 lbs of thrust is being applied about 20 feet off the airplanes centerline. This requires a fair amount of skill. These are choreographed procedures that we rehearse over and over in the simulator. The high degree of standardization gives us the confidence to risk having to do this with someone we have only met an hour before. After 80 knots, we will only stop for any fire, engine failure, windshear, or controllabilty problem. At 152 knots even an engine failure won't stop us, and at 157 kts or 174 mph, I call rotate, the captain raises the nose and ... SPLAT. A very large bug has died, the last thing to go through his mind was my windshield. I now have a 3 inch diameter shmear to stare at for the next 5 hours.

This would be one of many good times to talk about ego. This like many other professions requires women and men who are not perfectly normal. We are close to the center of the MMPI bullseye, but we are different. We have to be able to compartmentalize and focus on the critical aspects of the job. Even if death is one of the outcomes, our egos keep us flying and fighting. I am an average pilot at best, I have flown with many who exceed my abilities and many that haven't impressed me. But when I shove up the power levers, I am 100% focused and by the grace of God and with the skills imparted to me from numerous instructors and the confidence of 26 years and thousands of hours of flying, I AM THE BEST PILOT IN THE WORLD! This is no sim, there is no do over, and no reset or crash over ride button. This isn't a walk in the park, a drive in the country. On the ground, it is basically a huge over powered tricycle. Shot the rudder isn't even effective until we get over 60 knots. I have 155000 pounds of Boeing being shoved by up to 54000 lbs of thrust, with 166 souls on board. Yeah s.o.b's, all of them with lives, loved ones, and futures that could all end if I screw up or if I don't catch the captain or the controllers mistake. Difference between pilots and doctors? Doctors kill one at a time and have to learn to live with their mistakes. Yeah, I have an ego. It isn't brass cajones, but it is a focused determination that I will be able handle...anything. And if I don't, I won't be alive to defend myself, and non-pilots, lawyers, and politicians will spend months if not years examining what we have done over the last hour, and what has sometimes happened in a split second. Everyone focuses on what is said on cockpit voice recorders, when sometimes it is what is not said.

Hours of boredom later and we are at the hotel. Time for dinner and some shuteye. One leg back east tomorrow. And I get to fly!