NOVEMBER 1978
Getting hired by a major airline like Braniff is time to celebrate in the eyes of a young pilot.
The day you get your ID Card and employee number it all becomes real. There are about 20 guys in your class. Seniority in your class is awarded by age... the only time age helps you... the oldest guy in the class is the most senior guy in the class. You are paired together by age and as a byproduct by seniority. Your table mate will become your simulator partner later in the training. Your seniority number is 1721... 1720 guys are senior to you. In no time you will have 500 pilots junior to you...
The Airline Pilots Association... Union Propaganda. The union representative spends a lot of time with the class early one morning. He explains your contract to you and tells you how rich you are going to be and how little you will have to work. All eyes go to the part of the contract that show how much a 747 Captain makes while flying international... we all think that will be me... Can't come too soon. You check out the retirement plan and you see that you are set for life. Braniff was hiring like crazy and in no time we would be Co-pilots... but for now we are lowly Flight Engineers or Second Officers.
Reality sets in and you remember that you are poor... As a Second Officer (Flight Engineer) the first six months you get paid $500 per month... the second six months you get paid $600 per month. You figure you can take home a little more if you don't eat much when out flying a trip... you get $1 for every hour you are gone from home... for food. This pay is tradition with the airline industry. With every class hired you are closer to Co-pilot because of the seniority that you are gaining... seniority is like money in the bank.
You are in class for 6 weeks to learn the airplane and how to do the Flight Engineer job. You are training to sit sideways behind the pilots. We refer to it as "sitting side saddle". Sometimes we call ourselves "plumbers" since we are controlling fuel, air and hydraulic fluid through pipes and tubing. You are responsible for all the aircraft systems and reading the checklist and making sure it gets done. You have to fully understand the hydraulic, electrical, pneumatic and fuel system along with other smaller systems.
The electrical system of the Boeing 727 is a mind teaser... like a lot of other airplanes... we memorize the electrical system diagram. The relays and automatic switching confuses things. Our instructor says: "Take out a blank sheet of paper... and draw the electrical system..." That phrase initially created a lot of anxiety, but in the end we could do it... we could recite how it worked.
The fuel system is easy. Fuel tanks and pumps and valves to position to get the fuel where you want. You can even pump the fuel out the back of the aircraft and into the air at a rate of 2500 pounds per minute... thats over a ton a fuel dumped into the air in one minute... You didn't know that you would later dump 20,000 pounds (10 tons) of jet fuel over New York City...
Once you start figuring out the airplane they start putting you into the simulator and you get a few days of normal stuff then the emergencies start. All these systems you have to take care of start to fail... explosions... fires... switches don't work, gauges don't work and the pilots are ever demanding.
Everyone in the class has been worried about making it thru the training. Here you are... in your dream job... and what if you can't hack it... it would be the end of the world. You hear the stories of the guys that just lose it... breakdown... freeze up. You remember a guy in the Air Force that went into a Catatonic Stupor in class. He was carried out on a stretcher still frozen in the seated position. You will never forget that.
You are on probation for one year. They can fire you for the littlest reason... no recourse... you are gone. Pressure builds as your check ride at the end of training looms. Even after you pass your check ride in the simulator you get another check ride on your very first trip.
You get fitted for your uniform... Some famous designer uniform... Halston. You get your hat and you start smiling more. You just might make it.
The big check ride day comes and the pilots are getting a simulator check ride too. Their emergencies aren't too complicated but the Check Engineer makes sure your little problems are more complex and the pressure is on. The check ride is over and you keep waiting for the guy to say you passed... you think you did pretty good... you passed. Party time... a couple of beers is all you can afford... you are living on savings.
Soon the party is over and you start stressing about the first flight and with it the next check ride. It happens quick... you are scheduled for a round trip from DFW to Newark with 4 hours on the ground in Newark. Your uniform hasn't arrived yet so you head out in your dark suit... your interview suit.
You find the crew lounge at the airport and check in. Soon your Check Engineer finds you and leads you thru the maze of hallways and doors and you are on the ramp... he is a real nice guy. With a stroke of luck the airplane is there early. It's a Boeing 727-QC. You struggle but you remember the special things about the QC. A "QC"... that means "Quick Change." Quick change means all the seats in the cabin are on rollers and there is a big cargo door toward the front part of the cabin. It is a new airplane and the big cargo door is pretty well disguised. It is a bright red airplane... the Braniff paint jobs are known in the industry as "Braniff's Flying Colors."
Many flights around Mt Rainier would be in your future.
The artist Alexander Calder made a lot of money off of Braniff Airlines. Pilots referred to the Calder airplanes as "Sleazy Snake"... there were two of them... this is the 727... the other was a DC-8.
It's a dark winter day around 6pm and you are excited about walking around that big airliner and forget that you are in you suit and getting a check ride. The pressure is off and you find yourself laughing at the hydraulic fluid that dripped off of some part of the airplane and is now soaking into your suit.
The rest of the crew shows up and soon after that the passengers board. Now things speed up and you have trouble keeping up with the flow. You turn everything on and read all the checklists and your crew is laughing at you because you can't keep up with everything they ask for. The Check Engineer is laughing at you too... soon you join in the laughing and you are part of the crew... one of the gang.
Too quickly you are airborne and sitting back there trying to think of what you are supposed to be doing... not much... most of your work is done. For the first time you realize that nothing is broken... it's probably not going to break... nothing like the simulator, with it's fires and explosions... but you eyes are glued on your panel.
The pilots level off the airplane at cruise altitude and it is quiet until the flight attendant comes up and asks: "What do you want to drink?"
You answer: "Coke, please" and she says: "I have extra Chateaubriand and Crab Meat Cocktail."
You say; "No Thank you"... but soon it obvious that there is more than one and even the new guy gets one. Especially the new guy gets one... he's broke... everyone on the crew makes more than you... everyone.
Dinner comes on a tray with linens, china and crystal, real silverware and a steak knife. You are the only guy in the cockpit with a table... you hadn't thought of this advantage. You pry your eyes off of the instrument panel which seems to be unmoving... it's still working... a miracle. The meal is great... you didn't know what Chateaubriand was... now you do... wow.
The flight attendant shows up to take your tray and says: "Baked Alaska or Cherries Jubilee?" You have no idea what Baked Alaska is, but you love Cherries... how could you go wrong with Cherries... you couldn't go wrong... she brings you both. The "Stewardess's" take care of the new pilots... later the new title doesn't change anything... the "Flight Attendants" take care of the new pilots too... all the pilots.
You find that you are stuffed and it is quiet and dark... but you are too excited to even think about sleeping.
The descent and landing were uneventful... the airplane didn't break and your job is easy. In Newark the flight attendants leave for their layover and the pilots and flight engineers hang around the airport. Later you would call hanging around the airport; "airport appreciation time." Time goes slow and you are bored and no where near wanting to take a nap... everyone else does. You spend the whole 4 hours wandering the mysterious area beneath the passenger terminal. You occasionally walk by your airplane and it is still sitting there just like you left it.
It is getting close to 5 AM and some ground people show up and open the cargo door on your jet. You watch as they roll off row after row of seats... it amazingly fast and simple. With the seats off and gone you take a peek and see the entire floor of the cabin is rollers. Next the ground crew brings cargo containers and simply lift them up and roll them on. In no time we are ready to go... that was quick... a "Quick Change!"
The passengers are on board... nope... just cargo. The pilots are ready to go home and you are scrambling to figure out all the takeoff data. You have to figure the power setting (almost never use full power) for takeoff and the speeds for go-no-go and liftoff. Your numbers are not jiving with what the ground crew gave you... they differ by 10,000 pounds... as you add the numbers for the ump-teenth time your Check Engineer starts laughing and you realize that you were still adding in the weight of all the seats that are now gone. Off you go in the early morning light.
You passed.
On the way home your mind drifts towards the dreaded "Off Probation Check Ride" that is about one year away. That thought goes away when your uniform finally shows up and you have a few flights under your belt.
No comments:
Post a Comment