Jakarta, Hilton Hotel, Tuesday, 1996-05-21 05:00 local (Z+7)
Back on the road again after 22 continuous days off, 4 days to get to Miami and back for 2 sim sessions, and then another couple of days off. By the time I fly tomorrow or the next day, it will have been in excess of a full month since I've been in the cockpit. Will I remember how. Yes, but my currency will have suffered—no question about that.
What has happened is that I got 4 days of funeral leave for Jean's mother's death, that fed into 6 xx days that finished out the month of April, and then I bid a line that gave me all 12 days off at the beginning of May. Then, when I had expected to come to Jakarta for the Hajj, they instead sent me to Miami for my 6 month proficiency check. I had expected that they wouldn't figure out that this is my grace month for my sim check until later in the month. That would insure that I would be pulled out of Jakarta or Saudi in time to do the check before the end of the month.
Having to do the sim check after not having flown for some time made me really nervous, but I passed it without consequence. However, I think the other guy with me did a slightly better job than I overall. That bothers me when that happens, but I have the excuse of not having flown for awhile. Whether or not that would have made the difference, I don't know, but it's a crutch for my ego.
Anyway, I arrived here yesterday at noon after a 42 hour jaunt. I collapsed into bed and slept 12 hours, waking at midnight. Until I find out when I'm going to fly, there's no point in trying to order my sleep schedule to anything other than what my body feels like. So far in these wee small hours I've figured out how to access Compuserve and the Internet, unpacked, cleaned up, and took an exploratory walk around the hotel and the immediate vicinity. What I'm really waiting for now is 07:00. That's when the restaurant (one of 14 eating places in the hotel—yes, I said 14) where I can get my free buffet breakfast opens. That's also where the Tower crews congregate and where I'll find out some important info, like where I can get my laundry done cheaply. <g>
This is the outbound portion of the Hajj, the part where everybody is being brought back from Mecca. We'll fly empty from Jakarta's Halim airport to Jeddah and then come back full. There will only be time for me to do one or two round trips since the whole thing is supposed to be wrapped up by the 29th. Personally, since I can't possibly exceed my guarantee in this month, I'd just as soon fly only one. That'll reestablish currency but yet won't wear me out. One round trip is 20 hours of flying—10 hours each way.
This year's Hajj is not going well for Tower. The problems that have arisen include an on time rate of only 62% for the aircraft based out of Jeddah (4 of them I think), 6 Jeddah based flight engineers quitting in disgust, an airplane from Jakarta having to turn back with the Indonesian Minister of Finance on board, racial troubles among the Jeddah based flight attendants (black vs. non-black). Morris Nachtomi made a trip to Jeddah to try to straighten things out, and Tower's Director of Operations and Chief Pilot are both there now in an effort to get things running smoothly. I'll get the details on my first trip there I trust. Basically I think the problem is that those based in Jeddah for the Hajj simply aren't getting to fly—which translates to their not making any money and having a lot of time on their hands in a place where time weighs heavily. The people there have on the average apparently been flying only one trip a week, and it's usually been a very short trip.
That had been predicted by those familiar with the Saudis and was the reason I stayed away from bidding the first part of the Hajj, when we weren't allowed to bid as to whether we would be Jeddah based or Jakarta based.
Things also are not going well for at least six of the f.o.s in my class. They've had their probation extended by six months. That probably means they'll be let go as soon as the summer rush is over. This brings up an interesting thought insofar as my situation is concerned. I haven't been through New York in a month now. That means I haven't checked my mailbox there to get either the notice of a pay raise (completion of probation) or a notice that my probation has been extended. Frankly, my paranoia is making me a little nervous. Oh, well, however the cookie crumbles.
The Hilton Hotel complex here is huge. It includes a large convention center, a commercial center, a shopping mall in the hotel itself, and two 31 story apartment complexes as well as three hotel towers equally as high. Very nice, but I'm hearing that most would have preferred the hotel we had last year, and I agree. However, that hotel is closed for renovation. It was on the periphery of the downtown area and was more peaceful. The Hilton is right downtown. The big difference for me is that the Borobudur (the one under renovation) had a running track on its grounds. The Hilton doesn't.
Did anyone see on TV or in the newspapers mention of Tower as one of the carriers that had maintenance problems equally as bad as Valu-Jet. I didn't see or hear it, but everybody else seems to have. Let me know if you did and the content if you can remember.
Okay, time to see if I can send a long message as well as receive.
Terry