New York, Wednesday, 1995-07-12 15:00 local (Z-4)
Hopefully I'm headed home albeit in a roundabout way. I'm supposed to operate to Paris this evening, spend 24 hours there, and then operate to Chicago from there. The schedule then calls for me to deadhead from Chicago back to New York, but since I'm supposed to have 6 guaranteed days off starting on the 15th, I'll just leave the trip at Chicago and jumpseat from there. If I'm lucky, I'll get into Chicago early enough to get home that day (Friday).
A couple of trivia items. I've got the baggage problem under control. My shoulder was getting sore from my previous baggage setup. I switched to a smaller flight bag (which always has to go into the cockpit with me) and pared down the items in it to only those that I may actually use in the cockpit. Also switched to a different piggyback luggage case. It's a little bit bigger but a little bit lighter than I had, and it has a quick way of disconnecting the flight bag. I found I was always behind the captain the flight engineer. All of us would have to disconnect when we came to stairs, but under the old arrangement (they had the new), I was always holding up the show because I had to remove a strap and then retract it at the top of the stairs, pull out the strap and reattach at the bottom.
Also, the new headset is working fine. It cuts out the noise better than the old and doesn't hurt the inside of my ear like the old after about 6 hours of usage. I had problems with it slipping off when I first got it, but I've finally figured out how to position it so that it doesn't do that often, and I've learned to automatically reach up and steady it when I'm putting my head down far enough that it will slip off.
Minor things these, but it's amazing how little irritants can pile up and affect your performance.
Okay, time to get ready to go to Paris. I haven't been there for Tower before so I don't know where we stay. Hopefully it will be downtown rather than out at the airport.
Evergreen Airlines didn't often go to Paris, but when we did, they always put us up at the aiport. Tower had regular flights to Paris. They always put us up in the city, and I came to love Paris overnights, especially in the summer.
Take care...Terry