This article follows me through a trip I am flying. I am tracking with a journal over the four days. I hope you can get a taste of flying the line.

The schedule for this trip is odd, kind of. Prior to the economic malaise and the subsequent schedule draw down I would be spending more time from home in a typical four day trip. But, with our reduced schedules things have changed. This trip has become a normal representation of late.

Day 1 – Thursday 11/12/09

I don’t start work until late. My show time in Seattle is 21:25. My only leg departs at 22:25 and it is a short flight.

I am a commuter. I bum a ride on the airlines to work. To be covered by my employer’s commuter policy I have to make an attempt on two flights that will get me in base prior to my show time.

The flight schedule doesn’t work for me tonight. The flight I would like to use as a backup gets me in base 10 minutes after my show time. I have tested this once. That one time my first flight cancelled. I still made it for the scheduled departure, but I no longer push it.

My wife drops me off at the Spokane airport at 17:30 for an 18:30 departure. I take advantage of the line cuts afforded to me in uniform and show up later than most passengers. I go through TSA’s song and dance and let them peak at my underwear.

My first flight to work is wide open. I get a row to myself in the back of the airplane. I prefer the back of Q400s, it is quieter and smoother. Passengers are oddly subdued back here. Other than having to de-ice prior to takeoff the flight is pleasant and uneventful.

Getting in base, the first thing I do is check in for my trip on the computer. Our system lets me check in within three hours of my scheduled show time. Crew schedulers often like to screw with our trips. If they do so before I check in they can mess with my pay. As soon as able, I take this ability away.

While in the computer room I print out the trip schedule and read the crew read files. The read files contain pertinent information lobed at us by managers. The read file usually goes something like this (managers talking down to make it understandable).

- “You pilots bad!!!”

-“Us managers smart. Here new rule making you good.”

-“Blue bulletin in box with new rule.”

After the computer room I check the most distasteful part of my job, paperwork. I dig through my box for manual and navigation chart updates. If the managers have need to yell at me specifically, I will usually be warned with a “come to my office” letter. It’s only happened once so far, and it was for a scheduled performance review.

Because the schedule didn’t work I end up here earlier than usual. To kill time I brave the passenger terminal for caffeine. I begin the delicate balance that is sleeping/alertness for this trip. My son has decided I am to be a morning person, but tonight I am working late. I down my caffeine early to stay awake for my one leg, but then to fall asleep at a reasonable time.

In time killing mode I drift around the crew room. Our base is small compared to most airline crew bases. We have 150 pilots and close an equal amount of flight attendants. I know many of the people here so I catch up and listen to scuttlebutt. I don’t usually spread rumors. But I have found that of the vast amounts of rumors circling around about 10 percent are kind of close. So it is worth listening when I am bored.

I meet one of the flight attendants well before show time. Her daughter is flying somewhere so she will be in the food court and will meet me at the airplane. I accidently get involved in a good ,mostly non-aviation, discussion with three other pilots. I pry myself away at show time and find the other flight attendant. Turns out our airplane is leaving from the opposite end of the airport and the captain has already gotten a head start. We take three trains to the south satellite and catch our other two crew members.

I have flown with each person in this crew and like each of them. The captain is nice, is laid back, and is one of the sharpest pilots I have flown with. I had a fun trip with one of the flight attendants a few years ago. I managed to get lost on a long walk with the other flight attendant about a year ago.

Pre-flighting and prepping the plane is uneventful. I find copious amounts of fluid dripping from the side of the engine cowling. But the captain and I agreed it is de-ice fluid. It is easy to tell it is type 4 fluid left over from the last leg. But I always get captains involved when I find something as it is ultimately their responsibility and their call.

We have a long taxi, having to cross the complete length of the airport. As we pass our main parking area I see all of our parking spots occupied. I wish I could make an announcement for a passenger that was loudly complaining about having to walk to the south satellite as he boarded our flight.

I am flying this leg. The captain leaves the leg order decision in my hands; and I don’t care either. We both decide since I have had more caffeine it is my turn.

Our flight to Pasco, WA is quick. We have a 15 knot tailwind and get direct routing to the airport. We fly over military airspace. It is sometimes an issue when controllers can’t allow us to descend until clear. We end up very high, screwing up a controlled descent. But tonight we are allowed down in ample time. After all the time savings we are only 5 minutes early. The schedule gurus are keeping the schedule tight on this one.

We deplane and put the airplane to bed for the night. We get to the curb and find the hotel van waiting. It is all too common that we end up waiting a long time for the van, so it is nice seeing the van on time.

We get to the hotel and enter through a side-door shortcut. The hotel is laid out very weird. It is best described as a bunch of connected octagons. There is an elevator to the second story, another welcome perk for crew who don’t like carrying bags up stairs.

I get to my room and watch television to wind down. Unfortunately, I mis-judged the caffeine and it takes me a while to get to sleep.

Day 2 – Friday 11/13/09

I wake in the hotel room disoriented. I am thankful for the light-blocking drapes in most rooms. But they make the room so dark it is difficult to get my bearings. Especially when switching between hotels so often.

I use the microwave to cook my instant oatmeal packets and eat a few pieces of fruit for breakfast. And I brew a pot of coffee in my room to feed my caffeine addiction.

The weather outside is icky. One of the first winter storms for the year is running through central Washington State. It isn’t cold enough to snow yet, but is close.

This morning is the one descent length overnight for the trip. I usually try to get out and be active with the crew on at least one of the rest periods. But, it’s icky outside. And our hotel is very isolated from anything but a golf course.

Leg 1 – PSC to SEA

We arrive at the airport at scheduled show time. Our airplane isn’t here when we arrive but it parks a couple minutes later. I preflight the airplane while the inbound passengers are deplaning. The rest of my crew huddles inside to keep warm. A disadvantage of being a first officer is having to brave the elements ahead of the rest of the crew.

The gate agents hold us a few minutes late for last minute passengers. Some airports will take pity on the late people.

The front that had brought the weather through earlier has passed Pasco by the time we takeoff. However, fronts often leave moisture and unstable air in their wake. We are getting continuous bumps riding through cloud tops at our 16,000 ft planned cruise altitude.

The captain is pilot flying and has me ask for a block altitude from 17,000 ft to 19,000 ft. The altimeter setting is low, so the controllers are not able to assign 18,000 ft as it is the base of the flight levels. We are heading west so have to fly at even thousands. We do not want to climb all the way to 20,000 ft for our short leg. The block assignment allows us to range between the specified altitudes. 17,000 ft gets us out of the clouds.

There are thunderstorms in the departure corridor north of the arrival we are flying into Seattle. The departing planes are having to deviate our direction to stay out of the storms. The controllers have us descend far earlier than we would like to allow the deviations.

When we park in Seattle I complete my daily systems checks. Each airplane has to have a specific set of checks done once a day. Some of the checks are done by maintenance. Other checks are assigned to each pilot role. The prior crew was lazy and hadn’t gotten the checks done.

Leg 2 – SEA to MSO

As we are boarding one passenger gets a wild hair and walks to the wrong exit from the gerbil tubes which feed passengers to our airplanes. Many other lemmings followed. Funny thing is, we were the only airplane parked at this specific gerbil tube. A ramp worker points everyone in the correct direction.

Taxiing there are many other airplanes ahead of us working their way towards the end of the runway. Seeing upcoming glut, the controllers offer us an intersection takeoff to get out before the backup starts. We take it this time. We will often turn down an intersection takeoff if another airplane is taking off from the same runway but full length. This puts us in prime position to hit their wake turbulence.

The icky weather is still hanging out so I pitch the nose up to get above the bumps and away from the building cumulus clouds. We indicate 210 knots with a 3,000 foot per minute climb. I kick on the weather radar to peak at the building storms. We get out of the weather quickly at 12,000 feet. I pitch the nose over for a gradual cruise climb at 240 knots indicated.

Shortly into the flight we get direct routing to the Mullan Pass (MLP) navigation facility. It starts a transition onto an instrument approach that works well when flying to Missoula. If we are not on a published route going into Missoula the controllers will hold us way to high to for a reasonable descent and landing.  Staying on route in this case works well.

We cruise at 25,000 feet. The wind is initially in our favor, pushing from a quartering tailwind and giving us a 390 knot groundspeed. But, by the halfway point it has shifted to a direct crosswind and we are back down to cruising at 350 knots.

30 minutes into this leg it is dark. This is where age difference between pilots shows. The captain I am flying with is not that old. But his decade and a half older eyes need the screens much brighter than mine. His side of the flight deck is much brighter.

There is a higher overcast layer that we will need to descend through in Missoula. I plan on flying the instrument approach to get through the layer and then continuing on the approach to landing. Missoula is surrounded by mountains and it is dark. Staying on the instrument approach ensures that we won’t kiss one of those mountains.

I plan the descent for 1,800 feet per minute and start 70 miles out. We have the flight attendants clean up and sit. There is a strong wind that will be blowing across the mountain tops. Sometimes, this makes it bumpy. We don’t want to risk bouncing the ladies off the ceiling.

In Missoula we land to the east, our direction of flight to that point. We taxi in, park, and kick the passengers off. We are 7 minutes early.

Leg 3 – MSO to SEA

Our gate agents allow straggling passengers to our airplane. This is good from a customer service standpoint. But at some point the passengers need to be held to the published time limits. The captain has to redo the weight and balance twice as people and bags are loaded after our passenger count has been cleared. We leave 5 minutes late.

We takeoff to the west, the opposite direction we landed. We try to land straight in and to takeoff in the direction of our course at less busy airports. It saves time and gas.

The mountain valley we fly up is bumpy. The captain, who is flying now, pitches the nose up high and we quickly climb out of the bumps, which end at 10,000 feet.

Air traffic controllers are thinking ahead and give us direct routing onto the arrival in Seattle only a few minutes after takeoff. We still have the same winds aloft as before. Initially, they are crosswind. But they shift to a headwind and slow our groundspeed to 300 knots.

We have light bumps at cruise the entire flight. After parking in Seattle we have a long break and then an airplane swap.

We sarcastically refer to these breaks as productivity breaks. We get to be productive for 2 hours tonight. During the break I socialize again, this time there are lots of people in the crew room. I hear one of the restaurants in the food court is having a special and is offering bowls of clam chowder for $1.50. I don’t pass this up.

Leg 4 – SEA to YLW

During my preflight walk around I find the tail position light has reverted to the backup. There is a primary and a backup for each of our position lights. The captain tells maintenance who uses a cherry picker to change the light bulb 27 feet up.

The long productivity breaks are oddly tiring. The captain makes a couple mistakes during the preflight paperwork and has to do it over again. We still leave on time. We takeoff from an intersection again. This time it is our request; we are trying to get to our overnight quick.

Most of the weather has cleared and the climb is smooth. Leveling at 21,000 feet we have a 90 quartering headwind. Our groundspeed is 290 knots.

I plan a shallow descent to start down early and lessen the impact of the headwind.

There is a high overcast layer in Kelowna, same as Missoula. Also like Missoula, Kelowna is in a mountain valley. I decide to fly a GPS approach which is mostly on our course. This approach does not work when the weather is bad because it puts us in a position where we would have to dive at the airport. Its ok to dive at the runway in general aviation airplanes. It is a bad idea in airliners. I use the approach to get through the clouds and then break into a visual approach when we are are over city lights.

Our passengers deplane using a jetway in Kelowna. We have to wait longer for the jetway to be parked against our airplane. We only use the one forward door to deplane. This works well for us as it allows us to put the airplane to bed and get to customs before our passengers get their bags. If we don’t beat them we end up waiting in the long line.

The friendly Canadian Customs agent lets me into his country after I promise to not lead a violent uprising. And that I don’t have any apples.

Our hotel in Kelowna does not have a shuttle van. My employer has contracted with a local taxi company to transport us. The taxi company usually sends Prius’s, which are extremely impractical for the driver, the four of us, and the bags we live our lives from. This cab driver had been smoking in his cab prior to our arrival and it is unpleasant. But unlike most of the Kelowna cab drivers he does not drive at the speed of light. I will put up with the cigarette fumes if it means I don’t fear for my life.

We check in at the front desk and go to our rooms. This hotel is one of the nicest we stay at. After winding down I go to sleep.

Day 3 – Saturday 11/14/09

I wake well before my alarm goes off today. This will serve me well as our schedule starts shifting forward today. I go downstairs and take advantage of the free breakfast the hotel provides. It is pleasant except that another guest has a child making very creepy sounds. I have a toddler and have grown used to children. I just feel like I am eating breakfast in a horror movie.

Today is my wife’s birthday. My phone company is not kind when I call from Canada, so I wish her happy birthday through the chat feature on Facebook. I will call her when I get back into the states this afternoon. Some of my family has a gathering planned for for her tomorrow, when I am home.

As the schedule is shifting forward this is a shorter overnight. I do some work and then take a shower. My employer has an odd arrangement with the taxi company. The cab company wishes to take us to the airport at their convenience, which gets us to the airport well before our legal show time.

At the designated time we cram into the taxi for the ride back. This time we aren’t assaulted by cigarette fumes, and the driver stays at safe speeds.

We have to go through the Canadian version of airport screeners. Canadians are usually more pleasant than their counterparts in the States. Except that their screeners are more irritating than TSA. TSA leaves me alone to get through in my learned sequence. Canadian screeners try to control me through the entire process, screwing up my system that gets me through faster. In the states, flight crew is allowed exceptions. In Canada they take away my coffee and water.

Leg 1 – YLW to SEA

We arrive at the airport early. I am able to do my preflight inspections at a leisurely pace. Preparing for the flight I program the flight management system (FMS) for our cleared route. I insert a no link into the flight plan and append the route we will actually get once airborne.

We leave the gate 10 minutes early, which is the earliest we can leave without getting blessings from on high. Out of Kelowna we are usually cleared directly to a point on the arrival in Seattle. This time, there is a plane inbound in the middle of the direct routing, so we are kept on the departure procedure. After clearing the traffic we get our expected clearance.

At our cruise altitude of 22,000 feet we have a 50 knot direct crosswind and are crossing the ground at 365 knots. The Q400 has highest cruise speeds in the 18,000 to 22,000 ft range. The weather is good, except that it is hazy. There is no turbulence.

The captain plans for a steeper descent. We are in smooth air and have a good cruise speed. No reason to rush into what could be bumpier air. And by planning a steeper, continuous descent we burn less fuel.

Into Seattle the controllers slow us way down. They vector us onto a downwind (pointing away from the airport) prior to turning us inbound. We don’t mind the delay as we will still be early. Once inbound the controllers have us speed up.

Per captain’s request, on short final I ask the controllers for a long landing rollout. Our terminal is on the far end of the airport and we would like to minimize taxi time. My co-workers and I spoil the Seattle tower controllers. Per regulations, once we are cleared to land the runway is ours, the full length of it. The controllers have gotten used to Q400s turning off early, and they expect it. They expect us to ask permission to do otherwise.

We are coming from Canada and have to clear customs. We park at the south satellite in Seattle. We get through immigration and the customs quickly. We follow the asinine policy and go through security screening again. I marvel at the efficiency of TSA. We often go through this check point when there is a long line and only one screening line open. Today there is two screening lines open and screeners are mulling about.

I have another two hour productivity break. I take advantage of it and pick up more of the clam chowder that is on sale. I use the rest of the break to get my side job work done.

Leg 2 – SEA to RDD

We preflight and get things going without issue. As we are boarding a co-worker gets on. He and the rest of his crew are being co-mailed to Arcata for a long overnight. However, by departure time this person is the only one from his four-member crew on our airplane. After much confusion we are told the rest of the crew has been working separately from him and is working a flight that will park soon. We hold for them and depart 15 minutes late.

Weather is clear to the south. But we see another storm moving in from the west as we leave. In cruise we end up cloud surfing at 25,000 ft as the weather is steadily marching into our flight path. We eventually outrun the advancing system. We have a 40 knot tailwind and are covering the ground at 390 knots.

Shortly out of Seattle we get direct routing to the Lakeview navigation facility in southern Oregon. In central Oregon we further straighten our course and get direct to the Redding airport. It is dark at this point.

At our cruise altitude of 25,000 ft our cabin is pressurized to 8,000 ft. As we start the descent, usually 1,500 to 2,000 feet per minute, the cabin will also start to descend but at a more comfortable 500 feet per minute. If we have a prolonged fast-rate descent we will sometimes catch the cabin. When this happens the cabin will then descend at the same rate as the airplane, which is uncomfortable.

Flying into Redding from the north, catching the cabin is a common problem. This is on my mind as we approach Redding and I start the descent early to prevent it. But, I focused to narrowly and forget about Mount Shasta in our way. We have to level at 17,000 ft for a while; bad planning on my part.

The wind is favoring the runway opposite our arrival. There is other air traffic so we fly a full traffic pattern downwind, base, and then final. Our landing is normal except that a flight training airplane is maneuvering 1,500 ft above final approach. This is not illegal, but is odd and not a good idea. We make up the late departure and park 5 minutes early.

Leg 3 – RDD to ACV

We must always fly on an instrument flight plan. However, we are able to get visual restrictions to that flight plan where we have to maintain our own terrain and traffic clearance. This helps by allowing us to avoid lengthy departure procedures and fly directly to a point on our course. I arrange a visual climb direct to a point.

This is a through flight. Passengers that departed Seattle are going to Redding and Arcata. The Redding passengers hop off with the Arcata passengers staying on board. We gain one more passenger from Redding. The ground crew works fast and we are ready to depart 10 minutes after parking. We leave early.

Our airplane weighs 49,000 lbs for takeoff. Our max takeoff weight is 65,200 lbs so we have gobs of excess performance for this takeoff. We accelerate through the 80 knot callout before the engines stabilize and before the autofeather system finishes arming.

We level at 15,000 ft.  There is a slight headwind and we have a 335 knot groundspeed. We were initially planned for 17,000 ft but decide it best to stay lower to avoid stronger headwinds.

The weather at Arcata is surprisingly nice. The airport often has fog or at least a low marine cloud layer, especially when its dark. The captain is pilot flying and he decides to still remain on the instrument approach profile. We have to fly over low mountains on arrival. The weather is nice now, but the visibility has decreased, so fog is threatening.

The runway we use in Arcata is short for the Q400. It is well within the planes landing and takeoff ability. But we cannot allow the airplane to float in the flare, so landings are firm.

We park 15 minutes early. When I call the station to warn them of our arrival I ask them to call the hotel since we are so early. When we get to the airport we find that the hotel does not have enough people staffed to send a van driver early. Our early arrival is wasted and we wait for the normal van time.

Arcata is a prime example of where crew rest requirements are lacking. The rest requirements say that transportation ‘local in nature’ can be counted as part of our rest period. Our hotel is in Eureka, which is a 20 minute van ride one way. The 10 hour rest we are scheduled for tonight has 40 minutes chewed out by the van ride.

I get to my room 30 minutes after we parked the airplane. I eat dinner, watch football, and try to wind down for sleep. It is difficult getting to sleep for our early show in the morning because we have been working until late the previous two nights.

Day 4 – Sunday 11/15/09

I want to to throw my phone. It is screeching at me to wake at 04:20. It is especially harsh as it turns out my room is just above the pool where a large group was being rambunctious until 22:30 last night.

I scrape myself together and head down to the lobby to drink coffee before the 05:00 van time. The hotel has fresh coffee and a sack breakfast with yogurt, a muffin, and and apple waiting for me. The rest of my crew stubbles to the lobby and we leave at the scheduled time. The van ride is long but is comfortable and pleasant.

When we walk in 45 minutes prior to our departure time there is still a long line of passengers at the ticket counter. This does not bode well that this many people are checking in this close to departure. Once again, our gate agents are allowing it.

I do the external preflight inspection while waiting for the airplane to be opened by station agents.

Leg 1 – ACV to RDD

We board late, not starting until 10 minutes before departure. It is for the best though as the cabin lights must be on 15 minutes prior to passengers boarding so the fluorescent emergency strips on the floor can charge. We do not get into the airplane to turn the lights on until 25 minutes before departure.

One of the passengers tries to get herself up our boarding stairs but is not physically able. The ramp is wheeled up. The captain requests one final inspection of the wing top prior to closing the door. Dew is covering the airplane and we are nearing freezing. Turns out it is freezing and the dew is solid. So we get de-iced before departure. We leave 25 minutes late.

I grab the clearance from the enroute center controller as we taxi out. The airport does not have a control tower. When an airplane gets their instrument clearance it ties up the airspace until that plane is in radar contact. Considerate pilots wait until taxi.

We takeoff to the west and are over the ocean at the end of the runway. We do a wide 270 left turn directly to our destination. There are times when I curse this job; later today I will. But this morning the scenery reminds me of the good. I see rolling waves breaking against the shore in the morning twilight. As we turn inland the sunrise is back lighting the mountains. Valley fog is nestled in the mountains and is swirling in neat patterns.

We have a tailwind at 17,000 ft and are covering the ground at 370 knots. Redding weather is clear, so I descend for a visual approach. I use some tricks on this visual approach. When I turn the heading knob a dashed blue line appears on the moving map on the multi-function display (MFD). I turn the knob halfway between the runway and the final approach fix for the GPS approach I am using as a backup. This will put me at a 3 mile final. I use the calculated altitudes shown on the approach overlay as a planning guide.

We land normally and park 15 minutes late, making up time already.

Leg 2 – RDD to LAX

It is the captain’s leg to fly, but he doesn’t care which runway we use. I arrange with the controllers to takeoff to the south (our direction of flight). It is a long taxi, so this doesn’t save time. However, turning around taxiing saves fuel over turning around in the air.

We have a smooth climb but are struck by how quiet it is on Oakland Center frequency. It is still early on Sunday morning; most sane people are asleep. We level at 25,000 ft and cross the ground at 365 knots, a small tailwind helping.

A company airplane is following close behind. They left Medford, OR earlier than we left Redding. The controllers slow them until they are far enough behind. They are a Q400, so they are allowed to resume normal cruise speed afterward. Each time we switch controller frequencies they check on the new frequency a couple minutes later.

In cruise, the sun is warming the flight deck, the air is smooth, and the turbine engines are humming. I have to work to stay awake, even with the vast amounts of caffeine circulating through my body.

When I get in range of Los Angeles operations I call for our gate assignment. They tell us our gate, but also have the dreaded message to call crew scheduling on the ground.

The captain has an exceptionally smooth landing. We taxi to our gate with little waiting. The normal waiting has less to do with air traffic control, which is surprisingly easy to work with, and more to do with our screwy parking. My employer does not have enough gates in Los Angeles.

I turn the auxiliary power unit (APU) on as we park. There is no ground power for our airplane, so we must use the generator in the APU to power the airplane after the engines spool down.

After we park it all goes to hell. The captain calls screw scheduling as instructed. Operations are messed up across our system, probably a bunch of broken Q400s, and the schedulers would like to pass the hurt along. Our originally scheduled day was to fly to Arcata, Redding, and then on to Seattle. We were supposed to be done a little before 15:00 and I was going to make it to my wife’s party.

New plans have us flying to Flagstaff, AZ then to Prescott, AZ, and back to Los Angeles. After that we wait for a couple hours before dead heading on our sister carrier to Seattle. Our new scheduled finish time is 18:30. I will miss my wife’s party. If this rarely happened I would be understanding. But my life is screwed with far too often by our schedulers.

It makes it especially irritating because the decision to mess up my day is made by a person that will work their 8 hours and go home today, regardless of the crappiness going down. They will not know what it is like to have their life screwed with.

Leg 3 – LAX to FLG

I ignore my anger and attempt at least a small measure of professionalism. My inclination is to rebel, no matter how little it means, by not planning a reduced torque takeoff to save engine wear. I would like to cause us to burn more fuel. However, this is my job, and I do remain professional. I plan through the next legs as if the company hadn’t disregarded my life.

We depart close to the scheduled time. I start the engines while the airplane is being pushed from the gate. Normal operations for the Q400 is to start at the gate. Normal operations for Los Angeles is to start on the pushback.

I takeoff to the west over the ocean. The controllers keep us on the westerly heading a long time. While we are pointing the wrong direction I choose to gain altitude, not ground. I pitch the nose up for a steep climb at 200 knots indicated airspeed with a 3,000 foot per minute climb.

Once we are pointed in the correct direction I lower the nose to a normal cruise climb. We cruise at 23,000 feet. We have a tailwind helping us again.

Controllers make me start the descent into Flagstaff earlier than I would like. So I descend at a slow rate. There is gusty winds in Flagstaff. As we descend the turbulence gets worse. For landing I decide to have the propellers brought to maximum power pitch setting and use a higher reference speed for landing. We use the higher speed when the airplane has ice on it, when there is gusty winds or wind shear at the surface, or if we have to use steeper bank angles to maneuver.

The gusty winds make the airplane squirrely on final. I do not attempt to finesse the airplane on, but rather plant it. This is preferable in these conditions. We park at the gate 10 minutes early.

Leg 4 – FLG to PRC

I do not like Albuquerque Center controllers. They have Flagstaff tower requesting our takeoff estimate as we taxi in from the prior leg. Wheels up estimates are only needed everywhere but in Albuquerque’s airspace if traffic is being metered at our destination. They will also not allow us to fly a departure with a visual restriction on course. They are the only controllers I have dealt with that do this, and there is no reason for it.

The Flagstaff agents are slow turning our airplane and we lose 5 minutes of our early time. We depart to the North and do a wide arcing right turn back to Prescott (per the obstacle departure procedure we are stuck with). We are held at 12,000 feet rather than our cruise altitude of 15,000 feet. This works out as we get to Prescott very fast. We are in the air less than 15 minutes.

The captain miss-plans the tailwind and we end up high. He slows the airplane and we configure for landing before doing a steep descent. This is a trick that can be done with any Dash 8. Once we configure and are diving, if we can see our point in the front windshield we can make it. We call this a VREF drop.

Just after touchdown we get a caution light that there is something wrong with the pitch trim. It quickly goes away. Gremlins playing in our computers. There is slop time built into the schedule for this leg. We park 15 minutes early.

Leg 5 – PRC to LAX

Because we are so early we have a wait before departing again. The complete Arizona circuit is a through flight. At each stop there are passengers remaining on board. Unfortunately, this means our flight attendants get no break during this long wait.

We leave 10 minutes early. We are not able to climb with a visual restriction so are once again stuck with the departure procedure. However, with the procedure we turn to a navigation facility that is on our course. The procedure specifies that if we are at 9,000 ft by the navaid we can continue on course. If we don’t reach the altitude we have to follow a lengthy procedure. Reaching 9,000 feet is no problem for the Q400.

We cruise at 24,000 ft. This time the wind is hurting us and we are crossing the ground at 330 knots. Los Angeles center controllers often reroute airplanes arriving from the east. It is usually a pain in the butt. However, our rerouting today only entails straightening our course.

While descending we must be above another airplane also descending. The controller is giving us a step down clearance of 1,000 ft a time. I purposefully descend a little slower so I don’t level off at each altitude. But once we are clear of the traffic the controller then gives us an altitude crossing restriction at an upcoming fix. We cannot make the altitude and tell the controller. They are fine with it as long as we try.

We fly the Kimmo arrival into Los Angeles. It brings us in over eastern Burbank. Unfortunately, it tucks us close to mountains and is often bumpy. The bumps don’t disappoint today.

Our first arrival into Los Angeles was quiet with little traffic. This arrival is busy. The controller slows us down to follow an Asiana 777. When we turn final we are tucked in close to other airplanes. The Asiana heavy is a couple miles ahead landing on a parallel runway. There is a Southwest 737 landing on our runway two miles in front of Asiana. There is also an American 757 flying a couple miles to our side. It is landing on the south complex.

We park 25 minutes early in Los Angeles.

Leg 6 – LAX to SEA

I am not flying this leg. My company is co-mailing me back to Seattle. We have a couple hour wait for the flight. The gate agents are pleasant and give us our choice of seats that are remaining. I get an aisle seat in the exit row.

The flight leaves early and is pleasant. Except that one of my neighbors is frequently passing nasty gas. I sleep for the first hour. I work on my side job for the rest of the flight. We arrive in Seattle early.

I check in for my commuting flight home. The gate agents don’t wish to be bothered by me so I check in at the customer service desk. I meet an American Airlines pilots who is jumpseating on another flight. He and I eat dinner in the food court together waiting.

The previously lazy gate agent is replaced by dragon lady. Dragon lady is a mean person. When non-reving we have to actively make our case known or she will not make the effort to get us on the flight. She closes the flight for boarding before checking on the jumpseat for me. I politely ask about this. After some huffing and puffing and making it known I am making her day worse she checks on the jumpseat. I get on the airplane.

The flight home is uneventful except that the airplane picks up a lot of ice during the climb. There is a warm front moving through the state. The pilots decide the best way of dealing with the ice is to climb out of it, the Q400 has enough power. In a couple thousand feet the ice stops. Another thousand feet and we are on top of the clouds.

I get to Spokane too late for my wife to pick me up. Our son is asleep. So I take a taxi home.

Summary

This trip was smoother than most. The computer gremlins usually play at least a couple times. The captain being exceptionally smart kept things humming along well. Most captains are smart, but do not manage as well. My schedule being screwed up doesn’t happen every trip. It’s about a once-a-month occurrence.

That we arrived and departed early so often is because the scheduling gurus have finally added a little slop into the schedule for non-normal operations. We didn’t need the slop for this trip, but we commonly do.

We rack up 14 flight hours and 2.5 hours of deadhead time. We are on duty 32 hours and have 69 hours time away from base (TAFB). The trip is worth 17 credit hours, rigged on time away from base. I earn:

1. $680 of pay. 17hrs  x  $40 rate.
2. $120 per diem. 69 hrs  x  $1.75 rate.