San Francisco, Sunday, 1995-05-21 12:00 local (Z-7)
I'm sitting in the San Francisco terminal killing time and wondering how long the laptop battery will last. Operated last night Sao Paulo to Miami. Uneventful except that when we went over Puerto Rico, the entire island was visible in the moonlight and with the lights on the ground—quite beautiful really.
I did much better insofar as communicating with the foreign controllers, so I felt good about that. Got into Miami (raining and warm) and found out crew scheduling didn't have anything for me. As of the end of the flight to Miami, I have 99 hours and 12 minutes with Tower—48 minutes short of the required 100 hours to complete the training requirements. Had I completed 100 hours, I probably wouldn't be headed home right now as they're still required to pair me with a check or standards captain, which takes a little time. I suspect that had I completed, they would have quickly assigned me another trip.
I lucked out on getting Miami to San Francisco—strolled to the United counter and found out the San Francisco flight was leaving in 15 minutes, and I made it. Now, however, I'm having trouble getting out of San Francisco—just been bumped from my first try to get to Portland and it looks like I'm going to be bumped off the second try. There'll be a third try in an hour and then at 2:00 I can try for direct to Eugene. I'm beginning to fade pretty badly, so I hope I get on. I also don't smell too good by now, I'm sure, having accumulated 14 hours in the air since my last shower. I think I'll start carrying some deodorant in my flight bag to help things out in these situations.
Home now. Laptop battery died. Had to rent a car to get from PDX to Eugene. In case anybody gets stuck doing the same thing, National Car Rental charges only $34 for a car to drive to the Eugene airport and drop it off there (unlimited mileage, no drop off charge).
Now, when will crew scheduling call (also affectionately known as “crew screw”)....
Terry