New York, Monday, 1995-07-31 06:20 local (Z-4)
I'm sitting at gate 11 in the United JFK terminal waiting to see if I'll be able to get on jumpseating to San Francisco—a few moments to reflect on what has been my worst trip for Tower. The trip ended better than it started. After that cruncher of a landing at Paris, my next flying leg was Athens to Paris, and the landing was a real greaser, better in fact than the last landing of the trip, the captain's landing, at JFK. So, I felt like the bad landing was balanced. My 4 total landings for the trip with this captain came out at 2 good, 1 very good (the greaser), and the one embarrassment. My ego is now once again reassembled. <g>
It's really unfortunate that this captain has such poor people skills because he has a lot to offer—12 years plus on the 747, probably about 10,000 hours on the airplane, and he is totally comfortable with it, really knows how to fly it. In spite of the raging personality conflict going on in the cockpit, I feel I learned a few things from him.
Crew screw (aka Crew Scheduling) has indeed succeeded in screwing me over. They've assigned me a deadhead from JFK to Miami on the 2nd, with 10 hours of operation on the 3rd down to Sao Paulo. This will be legal since I will drop 10 hours from the last 30 day total (max of 120 for international flying) as I flew 10 hours on July 3. However, once I arrive in Sao Paulo, I won't be able to operate back as that would take me over 120. So, I have to deadhead back. They'll probably be deadheading some other poor soul down who won't be legal until the return on the 4th. So, we'll both arrive back in JFK maxed out for further flying. The bad thing is that this destroys my bid line right off the bat and, worse, takes away my days off. So, my plan of the moment is: go home today, spend Tuesday at home, jumpseat to Miami on Wednesday, operate to Sao Paulo on Thursday. Hopefully, things will slow down in September and I'll get my life back.
Well, they're calling the flight...hope I get on...Terry
home in Oregon, Monday 1995-07-31 22:00 local (Z-7)
Made it home!!!