I spent 3 years as a DC 8 flight engineer. It was not too bad, but it was not great. I had some fun, because it was always transportation from one party to another for me.
I kept getting more junior, because people who were senior to me, but younger, kept retiring and going back to the panel and popping in on the flight engineer seniority list, senior to me. I was only able to hold trips to the Great Lakes area in the winter and to places like San Juan, Puerto Rico, Memphis and New Orleans in the summer. There was one really shitty winter night in Toronto, when the weather was cold and windy, with deicing fluid dripping off the wings onto my overcoat, that I considered retirement. However, I calmed down and realized I had to keep the cash flowing in the right direction.
There wasn't much that was interesting during that time, until the talk that the retirement age was going to change to 65. This started a big fight among UPS pilots and there was also a fight about our contract, between those who were closer to retirement and those who were younger in age and seniority. Having been hired by UPS at age 44, my retirement situation there was not good. While I was plumbing on the DC 8, there was a contract agreement between UPS and our union, the Independent Pilots Association (IPA), that literally tripled the amount of my pension income. Shortly after that, the retirement age change happened. My thoughts toward those who were pissed off about that, were that I was as concerned about their financial situation as they were about mine. I thought they were acting like inconsiderate little assholes, since people like me, who had come to work at UPS when the situation was shitty, had created the good paying situation that they were going to enjoy for the rest of their careers. We had a chance to try to make some money for a few years and pile up some wealth for our retirements. There was also a fight on the contract, between the senior and junior pilots. that revolved around retirement versus pay rates. It was a dark time for the pilots of the IPA.
I knew that the change of the retirement age would occur whether we wanted it or not and it was futile to argue about it. When it did happen, the next issue was whether those of us on the seniority list as flight engineers, would be allowed to bid to return to a window seat, as pilots. The answer was yes, we would, I just had to wait for a system bid to upgrade. The first such bid only allowed me to upgrade to a first officer position on the Boeing 747-400, based in Anchorage Alaska. I had about 2 years to go until age 65 retirement and the company allowed me to upgrade. I would have to commute from Louisville to Anchorage. I talked it over with Doreen and she said, "We can tolerate anything for 2 years". I bid the Whale.
I remembered seeing the 747-400, taxi by when I was preflighting a DC 8 on the ramp in Louisville and thinking I would never have a chance to fly it. Now it was going to be a reality.
In the past, when I had not flown for a period as long as 3 years, I had trouble getting back up to speed. That was not the case this time. The flight management system was very similar to the 757 and 767 systems I had flown for many years. I had flown the 747-100, so I was familiar with the size, weight and sight picture from the cockpit.
The -400 was actually a much better flying machine than the -100. There was more thrust from the engines and the wings were much better. For example, I always kept the power set a little above idle, into the touchdown, when landing on the -100s. On the -400, I had to go to idle, or the plane would float down the runway. Other than that difference, the planes landed similarly. (In fact, I thought the 747,757 and 767 could be landed with the same techniques. The only difference was the sight picture from the cockpit, because of the difference in height. I learned to listen to the radio altimeter call outs.) The -400 flew better at cruise altitudes also. This was mostly wing related. On the -100, you had to always pay attention to speed and not let a downdraft get you slowed down too much. It was a dog. The -400, with its flight management system, more engine thrust, auto throttle and improved wing, flew very well, regardless of vertical wind conditions.
My training partner (we called them sim partners) was a guy about my age, who had only flown DC 8s and steam gauge 747s at UPS. Now, he was trying to learn the modern planes, with flight management systems (FMS). I had made that transition at about age 50. That was tough. Doing it at age 63 or so was excruciating. I felt sorry for him. Fortunately, I picked things up quickly, so the instructor could spend more time with my partner. One day the instructor said to me, "You are a very patient man, Denny Cleary". I could sympathize, because I saw him struggling the way I had, so many years before.
My partner in the airplane for Initial Operating Experience (IOE), was a completely different story. He had picked it all up quickly and was a very good stick. A natural pilot. I had served as a flight engineer for one of his DC 8 simulator check rides, before he reached age 60 and he was the only guy I ever saw, who could land the DC 8 well on every attempt. We had a good instructor, who enjoyed expanding the training envelope a little when he saw he had students who could handle it and we learned some good stuff about the 400. As big as it is, the plane could be flown in a fashion that was almost as sporty as some of the smaller planes.
I loved this airplane. I felt bullet proof flying it. It had 4 of everything. There is nothing like redundancy. I was going to revisit my favorite international layover cities, Cologne Germany and Hong Kong. This was 2008, the Chicoms had taken over Hong Kong, but it was still nearly as free and open as it had been before the United Kingdom had turned it over. It was a 2 pilot airplane, but on really long flights, a second first officer was required. The plane had two bunk rooms behind the cockpit. When we flew with an additional crew member (International Relief Officer), when we got to top of climb, we would see how much time we had to top of descent, divide it by 3 and ask who wanted to take the first break and go back to the bunk rooms for a nap or just to relax. Most guys didn't like going back first, but I did. It was just like my days in the Army. I would volunteer for the first break and everyone thought that was cool. You may remember that I went against the conventional wisdom and began volunteering for everything after basic training and it always worked out as a good deal for me.
I flew with several good guys during this time. I was a fairly senior first officer on the Whale in Anchorage. I remembpoer one flight from Honolulu to Hong Kong, which was probable just a repositioning flight, to get a plane in position to carry rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong, because we were empty, except for empty "cans", the large containers that were loaded with packages to facilitate the quick loading and unloading of the airplanes. There was a lot of time when we were not talking to controllers on the radio, just via data link and so we were listening to the tunes on my iTunes app to pass the time. We passed Midway, Guam, the Philippines and places like that.
This was the first time at UPS, where I felt up to speed upon first making the transition, except that I needed to get used to the international flying stuff and relearn how to understand the foreign controllers and their accents while speaking English. We could fly over Russia now and understanding them when they were drunk on Vodka took a while. The plane was no problem at all. I really loved flying that plane.
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