To be clear, I'm writing this page from memory in June 2018, not 20 years ago when the email journal entries were written. I wrote no journalling emails from late May through mid December, 1998, nearly seven months. Things just got too hectic. In that period I was notified that I would be furloughed, had that cancelled after having accepted but not started a job at another carrier, then upgraded to captain, and then I got seriously ill. It was quite a ride.
When Tower notified me that I was going to be furloughed, I called a 747 freight carrier that was hiring first officers. I had an inside track with them because they were using the DOS weight & balance software I had originally written for Evergreen. Their hiring committee interviewed me, and I was okayed for their next ground school, although it was made clear that given my age, I would never reach the left seat.
A few days after the interview, Tower cancelled most of the furloughs, including mine, and I bowed out of the upcoming class at the freight carrier. It all happened so quickly I was never off the Tower payroll. Then, a few weeks later I started the captain upgrade process at Tower. It was a remarkable chain of events.
I had a period of uncertainty about upgrade at Tower shortly after the furlough was suspended. Tower's captain upgrade protocol included having to get an upgrade recommendation from captains you flew with, and I hadn't been given the forms for that. Also, you were supposed to have an interview with an upgrade committee, and I hadn't heard a peep about that. I finally called the Chief Pilot and politely enquired as to my status. He told me that I was already okayed for upgrade, that I was, in his words, considered a shoo-in and there would be no need for captain recommendations or an interview with the upgrade committee. That made me a happy man. Barring the unusual, I would finish my flying career as a captain.
The captain upgrade ground school, sim training, and check ride went well. There was no need for a type ride because I was already typed in the 747, having been a captain at Evergreen. As usual there was difficulty getting scheduled with check captains for i.o.e. (initial operating experience). During that period I flew as an f.o. when crew scheduling was unable to put me with a check airman. When I finished i.o.e, I flew as an f.o. waiting for a captain line to open up. That happened quickly in unusual way.
I was scheduled to fly as an f.o. for a JFK to Paris flight leaving around 23:00 local. When I returned to my hotel room around 18:00, there was a message to call crew scheduling ASAP. They told me that I would be operating as captain on the JFK to Tel Aviv flight. The flight was scheduled to leave in less time than I could possibly get there, so it would be held for my arrival. I hurriedly packed, dressed, got to the airport and went directly to the gate. All of the usual preflight things a captain does were taken care of by others. When I walked onto the already full airplane, they closed the door behind me. Reaching the cockpit, I found everything set up, the tug connected and the ground crew waiting. I told the f.o. to get push back clearance, and we were on our way. He had already gotten our enroute clearance.
I flew the leg, and when we leveled at our first cruise altitude, I asked what had happened. Neither the f.o. nor the f.e. were anxious to talk about it at first, and asked what I already knew. When I replied that all I knew was that I had been told to get to the airplane as soon as possible, they filled me in with what they knew.
Tower's #1 seniority captain had been scheduled for the trip, and he showed three hours before departure—an hour before the required two hours—to talk to the payroll department about money that he felt was owed him that had not been paid. Those he talked to in payroll smelled alcohol on his breath. What happened next was as much a function of the man's personality as it was of regulation. He was an excellent pilot, but not well liked. He didn't have any friends, and the payroll people notified management. He was given and failed a breathalyzer test. I got his trip to Tel Aviv and the captain slot his termination opened up.
A few weeks later, and settled in to being a captain again, I had a trip to Santiago, Chile. Our usual hotel there was the Crowne Plaza, but it was full, and crew scheduling put us into Hotel Carrera, across the street from La Moneda, Chile's presential palace. Once a top of the line hotel, it had become a decrepit dump. I and the flight engineer got body lice, and I contracted hepatitis A. We didn't realize this at the time, of course, not discovering it until we got home. By the time I arrived home, I felt really bad. When I awoke after my first night home, I was severely jaundiced. Blood tests showed I had hepatitis A, but was starting to recover.