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Sunday, March 10, 2024

Chattanooga

 In my previous post, Uncle Billy, I discussed my time living in Atlanta Georgia.  As part of my effort to become more aware of the American Civil War, I drove to the Chickamauga GA battlefield.  It was a humiliating defeat for the Union Army of the Cumberland.  The army was routed and made a disorganized retreat to the city of Chattanooga Tennessee. 



The Army of the Cumberland, under Rosecrans, was put under siege by the Confederates, under Bragg.  Supplies were difficult to come by and the troops were reduced to quarter rations. 


 Rosecrans


Bragg

Generals Grant and Sherman made their way to Chattanooga, with the Army Of The Tennessee, after a successful campaign at Vicksburg Mississippi.  General Joseph Hooker arrived, with an element of the Army Of The Potomac after a victory at Gettysburg.  Grant took charge of al the Union troops and devised a successful plan to greatly improve the line of supply in Chattanooga.


Grant


During this time, the men and officers of the Army Of The Cumberland were taking lots of abuse, at all levels of rank, from their counterparts in the Armies Of The Tennessee and The Potomac.  They had been embarrassed at Chickamauga and it was mostly because of a communication malfunction at the highest level of command.  They were seething.



Eventually, Grant's troops outnumbered Bragg's and they were better supplied.  Grant became tired of being under siege and wanted to start trying to break out.  His plan was to send his most trusted subordinate, General Sherman, to attack the Confederate right and rolling their line along Missionary Ridge.  Before this, General Hooker led an attack on Lookout Mountain and won what became known as the Battle Above The Clouds.  This victory was important, but not as important as some of the stories of the time made it out to be.



Hooker

After visiting Chickamauga, I drove to Chattanooga.  I made my way through the neighborhoods to the summit of Lookout Mountain.  I drove to Orchard Knob and Missionary Ridge.  The city has kind of consumed by the battlefield, but there are historic plaques and statues everywhere.  It is easy to get the lay of the land and understand how the terrain effected the battle. 

Sherman's efforts were foiled by his misunderstanding of the terrain at the far right of the Confederate line.  There were more hills there that he was not aware of.  As his attack faltered, Grant ordered the Army Of The Cumberland to threaten Missionary Ridge at the center of the line, to draw reinforcements from the right.  His orders were to take the trenches at the base of the ridge only.  He still thought Sherman should be the emphasis of the effort.  

The Army Of The Cumberland, now under General George "Pap" Thomas, the "Rock of Chicamauga", advanced to the base of the ridge, driving the Confederates up toward the top.  When they got there, they began to climb the ridge, contrary to orders.  I was a spontaneous movement, not commanded by anyone and they began to drive the rebels from the top of Missionary Ridge.  This became an avenging rout of the army that had routed them at Chickamauga.  It was another victory for Grant, despite the fact that it was not according to his plan.


Thomas

After reading much more about this battle and the entire Civil War, I have come to the conclusion that this was a very under rated battle.  It played an enormous part in the final outcome of the war.  

Gettysburg and Vicksburg had just happened and were rightfully seen as critical Northern victories, but Chattanooga did several things that kept the momentum going.

First of all, it helped Lincoln install Grant as the overall commanding general of the entire Union Army.  Despite his record of winning victory after victory, Grant was accused of being a careless drunkard.  There may be some partial truth to that, but he was a hard fighter, who wanted the enemy to worry about what he was going to do, rather than the other way around.  He fought like hell and he won.  Lincoln's previous choices as commanding general had been mostly failures.  Grant's assumption of command eventually led to the Overland Campaign, which resulted in Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.

Secondly, it turned Sherman loose on Georgia.  That is what I talked about in my previous post.  Lincoln, Grant and Sherman met after Chattanooga, to discuss and plan how they would conduct the remainder of the war.  Grant and Sherman would use the same strategy as they advanced on Richmond and Atlanta, respectively.  Previously, Union generals would fall back after a major encounter with the Confederates.  Grant and Sherman just maneuvered around the enemy and continued their moves toward the objective, forcing the enemy to abandon a strong defensive position and try to move to block them.  Eventually Richmond and Atlanta were placed under siege.  This was the beginning of a change from the older forms of battle, which involved armies lining up on opposite sides of the field and shooting volleys at each other, to the modern, trench warfare.

Lincoln, Grant and Sherman understood the importance of breaking the will of the population of the enemy, the civilians, as much as the army.  You can see this in all levels of competition.  If the people supporting the competitors realize there is no way they can win, everyone on both sides is aware that it is only a matter of time.






The only reason the Confederacy lasted as long as it did, is because of the incompetence of Yankee generals and the hope that there would be recognition of the Confederate States Of America by European countries, that it was indeed a separate nation.  The major Union victories eventually killed that hope.

Chattanooga set Sherman and Grant up to be able to demonstrate in the Eastern and Western Theaters that the North would eventually prevail. 


 


Saturday, March 9, 2024

Thin Air

 I'm reading The Oregon Trail, A New American Journey, by Rinker Buck.  Buck and his younger brother, Nick, followed the Oregon Trail in a wagon, like the ones used by the early pioneers.



I just reached the part of the story where they are crossing the lowest point on the Western Continental Divide and spending lots of time above 7,000 feet elevation.  Buck discusses an incident when he watered their mules and then left one of their 3 water buckets and a ladder behind on the trail.  He attributes this absent mindedness to the hubris and euphoria of hypoxia.

If you have read my blog to this point, you know a little of my experience hiking and skiing at higher elevations.  Of course, I also had some experience at high altitudes and high cabin altitudes in airplanes.  For clarification, I distinguish elevation, altitude and cabin altitude in this way.  An elevation is the height of a point on the ground above Mean Sea Level (MSL).  Altitude is a height above MSL in the air.  Cabin altitude is the equivalent altitude in a pressurized airplane.  For example, a pressurized airplane flying above 30,000 feet would have a cabin altitude equivalence of about 7,500 to 8,000 feet.  The air density in the cabin would be the same as that at those altitudes.

The Mount Whitney Trail, which I have hiked several times, begins at 8,300 ft. and goes to the summit at 14,500 ft. elevation.  I have flown airplanes as high as 41,000 ft. (rarely) with cabin altitudes between 8 and 9 thousand feet.  Most flying of jets is done in the 30 to 39 thousand foot range.  

During the early years of my flying career, I flew only two types of pressurized planes.  Almost all of my flying time was in unpressurized airplanes.

The one experience I was reminded of by Rinker Buck's tale of euphoria on the Oregon Trail was very early in my 5 years flying for Graham Aviation FBO in Butler PA.  I was trying to build flying time and experience and always looking for ways to do so.  Technically, I was still married to a flight attendant for Allegheny Airlines and able to fly with a  non-revenue pass.  We were a Piper dealer and the single engine planes we sold were made in Vero Beach Florida.  They then had to be flown to Butler.  That is where I put all of the above together and told the boss I wanted to travel to Vero Beach and fly a new Warrior back.





It has been a while since that trip, early in my career, but what I remember about it was my first personal exposure to the effects of high altitude euphoria, which can be deadly.

I had flown planes back from Vero Beach before.  Jim, BS and I brought 2 Cherokee 140s back, when I was still a student, working on my commercial license.  I learned about the range capabilities of these planes and knew I would have to stop for fuel, at least once.  I think the Warriors range was a little more than the Cherokee's but would still have to stop for fuel.  The best place to do that was before I began crossing the Appalachian Mountains, somewhere in North Carolina.  Options thin out until the border of West By God Virginia and Pennsylvania.  I had thought about this long and hard and knew this was the smart move, when I was on the ground.

Unfortunately, we had this thing called the 1973 Oil Crisis.  Fixed Base Operators (FBO), where struggling to get enough Avgas for airplanes.  They are the gas stations for general aviation flying across the country.  This was before the internet and getting information about availability was not easily available.  Typically, you could call them on the radio to ask about fuel availability, except that the plane I was ferrying had no radios.  They would be installed by our shop, when I arrived at Butler Graham.

I had planned where I would stop.  I don't remember which airport, but it was not one that required radio communication with Air Traffic Control.  To extend the range, I decided to fly at 12,500 feet.  Piston engine planes get a higher true air speed and burn less fuel at higher altitudes, to a point.  By regulation, 12,500 ft. was the highest altitude I could fly without supplemental oxygen or pressurization.  As I neared my planned airport, I checked fuel quantities and thought I could continue farther.  After some time, I was beginning to see the mountains to the north. I suddenly realized that I must have been experiencing euphoria from my time at 12,500.  It hit me like a baseball bat.  I was beginning to think I could extend all the way to Butler.  That was probably a very fortunate and unusual realization, for someone in that situation.  I checked the map for the nearest airport at which I could land and began my descent, getting smarter with each 1,000 feet. 

I think it was Mount Airy, North Carolina, but would have to check my logbook to be sure and it is currently 1000 miles away.  I got refueled, probably got something to refuel myself and flew the rest of the trip without incident.  

When I would tell my parents about trips like this, they were always shocked to learn that you could fly around the country like this without getting permission and talking to someone all the time.  God Bless the good ol' USA, for as long as we can keep it, which is not looking very promising at this time.


Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Uncle Billy

 Since 1979, I have virtually stopped reading fiction, except for those few articles I may read in today's newspapers.  Just kidding...kind of.  I prefer reading books about American history and biographies of people who made an impact on American history.  

The only fiction I have read would be books that are sometimes called "faction", because they are novels about historic events, people and places.  Examples would be Burning Ground, by D.A. Caldwell, about the exploration of what is now Yellowstone National Park.  Caldwell also wrote Fatal Ground, about what is called Custer's Last Stand.  I have also read many of the novels of James Michener, which cover a wide range of history.

The reason for my interest in American history began in 1979, when I was living in Atlanta Georgia.  I had gone to attend a school to acquire my flight engineer rating and was hired as an instructor afterwards.  I met many Southerners while I was there.  One of them is still one of my best friends, about whom I wrote in earlier posts.  However, there were some who were still carrying a grudge against people from the North.  They put them in two categories, Damn Yankees were those who came to visit and left and Goddam Yankees came and stayed.  At that point, I seemed to fall into the latter group.

At that point, the Civil War had been over for 114 years.  Growing up, I had learned about the war as early as grade school and in much more detail during my junior year in high school.  However, I had moved on and was very surprised to learn how people in the South held a grudge more than a century later.

I wanted to try to gain an understanding of the war to have something to say to them, when they told my how terribly the people of the North had mistreated them.  I wanted to learn about their war time experience and their reasons for fighting the war.   Some explained that the focus of their anger and hatred and the excuse for their behavior to me was General William T. Sherman.  My thoughts were that no one from my family had come to the United States until the later 19th Century, so WTF?

Sherman had brought the war to Georgia, taking the city of Atlanta and then marching across the state to Savanah.  To execute that march, he had severed his supply lines and his army lived off the land, taking what was needed from the farms along the way.  What he didn't need was destroyed.

As I read, I got a better understanding of Sherman's thinking.  When the war began, he was the head of a military academy in Louisiana, that became Louisiana State University (LSU).  Sherman was from Ohio and had graduated from West Point.  David French Boyd, a close friend, recalled Sherman declaring at that time:

"You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it ... Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth—right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail."

Southerners were not convinced.

I am now convinced that I know far more, than my antagonists of 1979, about the causes, execution and aftermath of the Civil War.  The following video provides the best and easiest to grasp explanation of what drove Sherman to do what he did in Georgia.






Sunday, February 18, 2024

Communication Skills

 We learn to communicate almost immediately after birth.  Infants can see facial expressions and infer meaning from them.  They communicate with their own facial expressions in a very short time.  It is not difficult to see when they are happy or whether something is bothering them.

When my kids were learning to swim at a very early age, the guy who was teaching them had developed his PhD around a system of teaching young children to swim.  He taught us that different cries from infants meant different things.

There are cries of anger.  There are cries of fear.  There are cries of hunger.  There are cries of, "Hey, I messed my laundry and I want someone to do something about it".  There are many other messages being sent by this crying, but in all cases, a response is expected.  "Let me know you have heard and understood what I am communicating and that you will do something about it".

We moved on to learning the alphabet, then putting it together in words and eventually, sentences and paragraphs.  Even before that, kids are learning language, simply by hearing others speak and trying to imitate.  I've long said that the first time a child says no is the beginning of the development of that child to become an independent and self sufficient adult.

Communication becomes more and more sophisticated as we grow and have more life experience.  I was fortunate to be a child and teenager during the 50s and 60s, when there was more discipline and eduction going on in schools, as opposed to much of the indoctrination of today.  I attended Catholic schools through high school.  We were drilled with correct spelling, grammar  and diagramming sentences.  

As you may know, if you have read my blog from the beginning, I did not attend college.  In some ways this is beginning to look like a blessing, although college was probably not as bad then, as it is today.

Two years after graduation from high school, I was drafted into the United States Army.  I have written extensively about that experience. This morning, I was thinking about some of the things I was taught about communication while in the army.  During my second 8 week period of training, Advanced Individual Training (AIT), we were being taught how to talk on radios.  This was primarily because we were being trained to be scouts for armor units.

As scouts, we would be probing advanced areas, searching for the enemy and reporting back to the main body, the location, nature and size of enemy units.  We would also be calling in artillery strikes.  Precise and clear communication was critical. Mistakes or misunderstanding could cause lives to be lost.

Sometimes it was necessary to spell words in radio communicaion.  It has been decided that the normal alphabet can be easily misheard or misunderstood.  Therefore a phonetic alphabet was developed.  Words are used to represent letters.  You may be familiar with the phonetic alphabet that was being used by the US military during World War II, from seeing the TV series Band Of Brothers.  It covers E Company, 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, "The Screaming Eagles".  At that time the phonetic word for E was Easy.

At some point after WW II, the countries of NATO changed the phonetic alphabet.  This new one was the one we learned in 1966.  For example, Easy was changed to Echo.  Supposedly, the reason for the change was to make communication between people who spoke different languages more easily understood.

Not long after I left the army, I began learning how to fly and as you can imagine, precise and easily understood communication is as important in aviation as it is in the military.  Here, I encountered the familiar NATO phonetic alphabet again.  This makes sense, as airplanes can easily be flown anywhere in the world, it is necessary to have a standardized method of communication.  It was decided that English would be the language of international aviation communication and the NATO phonetic alphabet would be the standard.  Lucky for me, I did not have to learn new ones.  Not so lucky for those who want to be involved in aviation and their first language is not English.  Life can be tough.

Another aspect of critical communication, that I touched on slightly in discussing infant communication, is acknowledging reception of messages. In aviation, a read back is usually expected and sometimes required.  When air traffic controllers tell pilots to fly a certain heading, change to a different altitude or clears them for takeoff, landing or an approach, they want to hear back from the pilot, exactly what they have cleared them to do.  Simply saying Roger, will usually piss someone off.  The read back should also include the call sign, to assure that the correct airplane will do what the controller expects them to do.

Although it is usually not as critical, normal communication between humans should also have some standards.  When someone says something to you, it is good policy to acknowledge in some way.

OK, the reason I started thinking about this, is that I have a mobile repair guy, here in Fort Myers, I have been dealing with for a few years and I have been trying to get information from him.  He and his office have not been getting back to me and I am pissed, but I don't want to dust him off.  He is very good, when I can get him out to work on the coach.

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Stillers FedEx Connection

 It is being reported, that the Steelers have hired Arthur Smith as their new offensive coordinator.  Smith was fired after 3 years as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons.  He led the Falcons to 3 seasons of 7 and 10 records.  Prior to the Falcons, Smith had spent 10 seasons with the Tennessee Titans, the last 2 as offensive coordinator.  During that time, he has been credited with rehabilitating the career of quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, and developing the Titans' running game, behind Derrick Henry.

At first glance, this appears to be a typical Mike Tomlin move.  Many were discussing the many young, up and coming, offensive minded coaches who could be promoted to Steelers offensive coordinator.  Smith seems to have peaked out during his time with the Titans.  As a fan, my hope is that Smith is an example of the Peter Principle and will be able to thrive again as a coordinator.  Head coach may have been a bridge too far for him.  Dick LeBeau would be an example of a coach who was better as a coordinator than as a head coach.  Mike Tomlin may be another.

I had not paid much attention to Smith as the head coach of the Falcons.  I only saw parts of Falcons games on NFL Sunday Ticket Red Zone and he seemed to have the deer in the headlights look that we have seen on Tomlin's face, when the Stillers are losing late in games and he doesn't have an answer.  They would make good book ends.  During one game, the announcers seemed to be talking more about Smith's new mustache than his coaching abilities.

This morning I watched a YouTube video of Tomlin apologist, Rich Eisen.  He is all in on the Smith hiring, but he really likes Tomlin also. One of the points in his argument in favor of Smith, is that he does not need to work.  He is one of the 10 children of FedEx founder, Fred Smith.  Fred has a very interesting story, which you can read by clicking on the hyper link on his name above.  He is reported to be worth in excess of $5 Billion.  Eisen's rationale was that since he is the son of Fred Smith, the billionaire, Arthur did not need to work and was coaching because he loves it, just like Tomlin.

Steelers owner, Art Rooney, is starting to indicate he is getting tired of just not having a losing season.  For what it's worth, so is Snoop Dogg.



Saturday, June 24, 2023

Reflection

In this chapter, I intend to do a review of the entire blog, so far.  But first, I want to address something I have observed about myself, compared to many other pilots.

I have seen and heard many pilots express that they are tired of the job of flying airplanes.  They become tired, bored or jaded.  Sometimes they seem to think they are just too cool for the job. 

As I neared retirement age, some of my friends talked about how they were looking forward to retirement.  One friend was going on and on about that and then stopped and looked at me and said, "You don't feel that way, do you?"  I quietly said, "No."  

When I first went to work for UPS, I quickly learned not to be the first to tell my sob story, about how hard it had been to develop my career to that point.  There was always someone in a group who had more challenges.  However, I had many challenges and it took a lot of time, with twists and turns, to get to an airline job that met my original goals.  When I was still in the struggle, it would piss me off to see or hear those who had gotten the type of job I was seeking and then act like they could not give a shit.  I believed they did not deserve it.

Granted, most of my challenges were of my own making.  Not going to college was the biggest obstacle and that was my fault.  I always thought that was a bullshit requirement, but it was a big and well known requirement.  Some airlines liked to brag that, they had only college educated pilots, but it was primarily a way to thin the herd of applicants, when supply exceeded demand.  I had 12 years of Catholic education, which was very rigorous and I have seen the results when I have read things written by some of those college educated pilots, with grammar and spelling errors that the good Sisters of St. Joseph would never have tolerated, not to mention that much of it was simply incoherent.

The subtitle of the blog is How Not To Build An Aviation Career and I  would not advise a young person to do it as I did.  My success, despite my self created challenge was the result of hard work, perseverance and luck.

Now, let's get to the review.

As a child, I loved vehicles, from scooters, to tricycles, to bicycles, to cars, to motorcycles.  I thought everyone did, but have learned over time that not everyone has the same love of controlling a vehicle that I do. 

At first, I did well in school, but in high school, I really began to get tired of it.  After high school, I was just drifting and existing.

I was drafted at the beginning of the Viet Nam War.  1965. 

On a nasty winter night, as I was flying to my next phase of training in the Army, I made some important changes in the way I viewed the world.  I decided to try to be all I could be. 1966.

I had an opportunity to attend several classes in the military, including the drill sergeant school.  With the help of the Army, I turned myself from a mild mannered young man into a drill sergeant.

After the Army, I tried several jobs, not doing well enough to be successful, because I needed to have something to hold my attention and inspire me to work hard.  I needed something I could love to do. 1967.

I married a flight attendant and that planted the seed that I should be an airline pilot, but at that point in time, getting there looked like a nearly insurmountable obstacle.  It would take lots of time, work and money. 1968.


For a few years, I kind of messed around, but eventually, after many stumbles at my other jobs, I decided I was going to be a pilot come hell or high water, even if it meant not being an airline pilot.  My experience in flight training told me I could do it and I knew I would be happy doing it.  I could be happy as a flight instructor or crop duster, but I would always work toward my goal. 1972.

Shortly after this, my flight attendant wife decided she didn't want to be married to me anymore.  I used my anger about that to power my efforts to build my career.

There were 5 great years of accumulating flight hours, knowledge and experience at Butler Graham Airport.  We put in long days there, flew under equipped airplanes in lousy weather and had as much fun as young men can have.  I was also acquiring lifelong friends. 1973 to 1978.

Airline Deregulation was coming and 2 of those friends talked me into breaking out of the rut.  I kind of landed in another rut, but was gaining a level of knowledge about transport category jet airplanes that probably exceeded what most pilots know.  I was actually teaching systems and procedures to airline pilots.  When a new entry airline sent its pilots to the school where I was teaching, I latched on to them like a tick. 1979 to 1982.

My efforts were rewarded when I got my first airline pilot job with Pacific Express.  My new wife and I moved to California and our daughter was born there.  I gained great experience there.  Flying in the West was quite a bit different from what I was used to.  The mountains were higher and more beautiful.   I had some issues at first, but was getting the hang of it and had upgraded to captain, just before my first airline bankruptcy. 1982 to 1984.

I had friends in management at another new entry airline in Orlando.  I got the job and moved my family down there, as I assumed the position at the bottom of my second seniority list at Florida Express.  It was another low paying, hard working job, but was probably the most fun job I ever had. My son was born in Orlando.  Florida Express began to struggle and was bought by Braniff Airlines, what we called Braniff II.  1984 to 1989.

The Braniff II bankruptcy was much tougher than the first.  I was unemployed for 3 months, the longest such period since I got my Social Security Card at age 15.  I now had a wife and 2 children and was very long in the tooth to be getting hired by an airline, but I had 7 years of airline experience, flying jets to go with my 5 years of flying in General Aviation professionally, nearly 10,000 hours total time.  There were a few opportunities for a guy like me, but there was a reason for that.  Some friends had gotten hired by UPS and were reporting that it was not a great job.  However, I needed a job and life experience told me it had to be a flying job.  I managed to get my defecation in sequence long enough to get through the interview process with UPS and they hired me.  December 27, 1989.

It didn't take me long to learn not to be the first to tell my sob story.  It seemed everyone else had a much more interesting one.  It reminded me of what an old boss used to say, "The first liar doesn't stand a chance."  Anyone who could, was leaving UPS for greener pastures.  I moved up the seniority list rapidly, because pilots senior to me were moving on.  We were working under a contract negotiated as members of the Teamsters, when the company held all the high cards.  We had 3 month bid periods, reserve was a 24 hour per day nightmare (when do you sleep?), and the pay was low, with no hope of even getting back to the atypically low airline pilot pay at the 3 new entry airlines where I had worked previously.  I was a flight engineer on the DC-8 my first year and took the first opportunity to bid to the right seat of the 747, even though I was still on probation.  1991.

I spent the next 5 years flying the Whale to Europe and Asia, as well as to Alaska and Hawaii and a few cities in the USofA.  They were basic trunk routes, carrying lots of stuff between hubs in the hub and spoke system.  It was great fun and experience and I came to admire the captains who could take someone like me, who was not experienced in international flying and go anywhere in the world.  During my first year doing this, we were flying military flights in support of Desert Storm.  During this time, the pilots were able to form their own, independent union, the Independent Pilots Association and negotiate a much, much better contract.  We were now earning a significantly improved amount of money and working under far better conditions.  It was not quite what the traditional airlines were paying, but it was working in the right direction.  Fewer pilots were leaving.  1991 to about 1996.

It became apparent that I was getting close to being able to upgrade to captain and that the junior airplane was the Boeing 757.  I had heard stories about the challenge for geezer pilots, like myself, who had spent their careers flying what we called "steam gauge" airplanes, trying to learn the new generation airplanes with flight management systems and glass cockpits.  I decided to bid to the right seat, as a first officer, on the 757, before I was able to upgrade.  I wanted to learn the plane on someone else's ticket.  Training was a challenge, but my instructor got me through it.  I learned that flying the plane was actually easy, it was a terrific airplane.  The problem was all the computer stuff, but I eventually figured it out, with the help of patient instructors and captains, while flying the line.  My logbooks are currently 1000 miles away at this time and I am guessing this was about 1996 or 1997.

By the time I upgraded to captain, I knew the plane well and felt very comfortable flying it.  I think it was around that time the B-767 was added to the fleet and it was included in the 757 type rating, so all that was required to fly it was some differences training and some time with an instructor in the actual airplane.  The computer stuff was the same, the big difference with flying the 76 was that the cockpit view was higher during landing.  There is a radio altimeter that talks to you during landing and it helps a lot, telling you your height above the runway.  I had a few opportunities to fly the 767 across the North Pacific, from Anchorage to Tokyo.  It was different having only 2 engines, but I flew the 757/767  twice as many years as the 747 and never had to shut down an engine.  There were 2 shutdowns on the 747 that I can remember for sure and maybe a third.  The difference, of course, is that losing one engine out of four is not a big deal.

60 was the retirement age for airline pilots when I reached that age in August 2005.  For many reasons, I could not afford to retire at that time.  UPS still had DC-8s and B-747s, that required flight engineers.  There was no mandatory retirement age for engineers, so I decided to continue working and downgrade to second officer on the DC-8.  The plan was to work for 5 years.

At about 2 to 2 and a half years, the retirement age changed to 65.  There was much anger among younger, junior pilots on our seniority list about that. They wanted the older, senior pilots to just go away.  To them, this meant 5 more years to wait for upgrade and quality of life improvement to occur.  

I could see their point, but had my own concerns.  Because of the setbacks of multiple bankruptcies, with furloughs from which there were no recalls and very low paying years, I had to work as long as possible at the best paying position I could hold.  I was getting close to retirement and had to build up my pile of money as much as possible.  In the debate, I eventually told those who were angry, that I was as concerned about their issues, as they were about mine.

We weren't sure what the company would do with regard to upgrades.  Would they allow an actual upgrade when a position became available that I could bid for in seniority, or would they just award the position for pay purposes and keep us in our previous position, without training for the upgrade.  UPS decided to allow the actual upgrade, probably because they knew of the division within the pilot group.  Regardless, I had to bid for the increase in pay.

It took some time before an actual vacancy bid, but when it came, there were so many pilots in my category as flight engineers who were senior to me, that a captain position was not available to me.  I was able to hold a first officer position on the B747-400, based in Anchorage Alaska.  After discussion with Doreen, I bid for that position and got it.  I had about 2 years to go to age 65 retirement.

The plane was easy for me to learn, because I had flown the B747-100 and was used to the size and weight and because the 400 had basically the same technology in the flight management system to the 757/767.  My simulator partner had never flown any of the electric airplanes and had similar experiences to my own when I first learned the 757. 

I loved the international trips on the Whale and was able to return to my favorite international layover cities, Cologne and Hong Kong.  Hong Kong had been turned over to the Chicoms by the Brits since I was last there, but not much had changed by 2009.  

We began flying a trip that went around the world, albeit only in the Northern Hemisphere.  It began in Anchorage, flew to Louisville, then to Cologne.  From there it went on the longest leg I had ever flown, 12 hours + from Cologne to Hong Kong.  After that, the version I flew was back to the west to Dubai, layover, then to Cologne.  We did the Cologne to Hong Kong leg again, then on to Anchorage to finish the trip.  We flew one really long leg per day, then had a layover of some multiple of about 24 hours, waiting for the next Whale to come back.

The big issue was commuting.  I had never really done that for very long before.  I was looking at 2 years to age 65 retirement and considered buying a condo in ANC, but ended up just getting into a crash pad with several other commuters.  I had to be careful in planning my commute and jump seating on UPS was the preferred option of travel.  It was a 6 hour flight each way and I brought a sleeping mattress and sleeping bag to catch a few Zs for the trip.  It worked out better than I thought it would and I really enjoyed the flying.  

After about a year, I was able to hold a captain bid on the Airbus A300.  The automation was a bit of a step back from the Boeing system, but I stumbled and bumbled my way through my last year on the Bus.  

I was beginning to sense that it was time to hang it up and I had done the best I could do to facilitate a reasonably comfortable retirement.  

I am looking back on all that now, with 13 years of retired perspective and frankly still don't understand those who are so hot to retire.  I absolutely loved everything about my career and in retrospect, would not change any of it.  There were several times in my life, when something that seemed like the worst possible thing that could happen, turned out to be a very good thing.  A few examples would be, getting drafted in the Army, getting divorced from my practice wife, not getting hired by USAir and the Braniff II bankruptcy.  All of those turned out for the better, after several years of letting things work themselves out. 










 

Friday, May 6, 2022

That's All Folks.

 So, my last trip was one of my best, except that I never did get the hang of landing the Airbus as well as I had all the Boeing Airplanes and the BAC.  If I managed to get a good one, it was just blind luck.  The last one was on Runway 13 at Dallas Fort Worth (DFW).

I documented many of the lasts of this trip.


 

This was the last drive on the Watterson Expressway for a rare daylight departure.


 Last time parking in the "secure" parking lot.





Last time going through security.



Last van ride to work.


Last time going in the NASC (the building where we reported and did our flight planning.  I never did learn what the acronym meant.  Didn't care either.)




Last checkin.



Last envelope of Jeppesen approach plate revisions.  I didn't put them in the manuals, just checked to see if any applied to the airports I would be flying to.



First flight plan and release of my last trip.




First Bus of last trip.



First preflight of last trip.



We really had the best job in the world.



Salt Lake City, the first destination of the last trip.



My rig.


One of the layover hotels on my last trip.


One of the competition's Airbus A-300s.


The following is what I wrote when I added this photo to an album on Google Photos.

We had several broken airplane issues with the Airbus (Eurojunk) during this trip.  The only other plane I had this much trouble with was the BAC 1-11 (another European plane), but I was an authenticated systems expert on that plane.  At least the Airbus's engines did not give me any trouble.  I can say that now that I won't be jinxing myself by saying it.  All of the guys I flew with on the Bus got to see it do something they had never seen before.  The Boeing 747-100 has the distinction of the most engine shutdowns (3) and the only fire warning in 42 years of flying.  The BAC was next, with 2 shutdowns.  I flew my last leg from Ontario CA to Dallas TX and I am about to board a UPS MD 11 to jumpseat home.  This is my last official duty with UPS.  By the way, while working in General Aviation, flying "those little airplanes" for 5 years and 5,000 hours I never experienced an engine failure.


Jumpseating home.  Trying not to feel too sad.


My pal Lou Berdoll, who was in my new hire class, happened to be at the NASC when I arrived.  He would be retiring soon after I did.  I always liked standing next to him, because I looked so much better by comparison.


Last van ride off the property.


 Last time passing through the guard shack on the way home.


 Finding the Denbomobile in the dark.  It is not easy to remember where it was parked a week ago.

go

Being greeted by the puppies when I got home.


Wow!  Lots of pictures.  At 1000 per, I save a lot of words.