The Captain and Co-Pilot are highly entertained by you. You can't get anything done quickly. You are still doing all the stuff that was supposed to be done on the ground at Love Field when you are actually taxiing to the gate at DFW. There is just the 3 of us on the airplane and they can probably hear the laughing outside as we pull into the gate.
The most important thing the Flight Engineer does, is to fill out and turn in a copy of the pay sheet. It's complicated... there are four algorithms to figure out your pay and on a flight like this none of them make sense to you. The Captain and Co-Pilot head down the jetway laughing and disappear as you try to figure the pay out. Luckily the Flight Engineer that is about to take the airplane back out shows up and teaches you how to do it.
Soon you are back in San Antonio... it will be the only time you are based where you live. You have heard about pilots commuting to New York and the similar spots but you thought they were crazy to subject their body to the stress and pressure of the commute. No one could have convinced you at that time, that you were someday going to commute until you retired.
The second trip comes quick and it is a two day trip with a lay over at DFW. It is a PM trip which started about Noon and ends up at DFW around dinner time. The Co-Pilot is a good guy and he will become a good friend. The Captain seems nice enough and when we get to DFW he's says he has a car here and will give us a ride to the hotel... and the first layover begins...
On the way to the hotel he stops at a convenience store to get something and comes out with 12 beers. The Co-pilot and I are rapidly taking our uniform parts off and hiding them... not wanting to get caught with alcohol and being in uniform... I am on probation and I don't appreciate this. But... Captains can get you fired and you have balance your thoughts... since you are on probation... you pretend this is great... Mistake number one.
The Captain pops a top and sips on a cold beer while in uniform and driving to the hotel. The Captain offers the two of you a cold beer in the car and you both turn it down. The Co-Pilot and You are thinking alike... "Slam Click"... go in our hotel rooms and not come out.
The Captain pounds on my door and the Co-Pilots door also... he has filled his trash can with ice and beer. He pulls a can out and pops the top and hands it to us. We both drink it slowly and he tries to give us another and we think we have found an out by saying we are hungry. Mistake number two. He says... "I'll drive, I know where to go." Mistake number three... we get in... big mistake. This man is crazy and now there are two new guys not trying to upset him. As the night goes on he will not listen to reason.
It's two in the morning and he has taken us to the 3rd night club of the night and we haven't eaten. The third night club is a rough place and the sign outside says no guns or knives inside... it's a strip club... we get lucky... they are closing ... and he can't think of another place to go to. So it is back to the hotel hungry and mad... and a little scared about all the drinking. The Co-pilot and you had switched to coke after the second drink and tried to get the Captain to lets us drive his car... and he got aggressive.
We have more than 8 hours to recover before our show-time the next day and remarkably the Captain shows up looking pretty sober. You are wondering how many of those beers in his trash can he drank...
Mercifully trip number two ends without incident and you will never fly with this Captain again... but you will never forget his name.
A flaw in the system... probation... and the fear of speaking up if your Captain is pushing the limits. You don't want to be in the Chief Pilots Office playing the blame game when you have no status and can be fired easily. There was two of us against him and maybe we could have survived it... But... One day you will be a two person cockpit and there will be no one to back up the story.
Later in your first year you will keep your mouth shut again when there is another incident. Years later you will do it again. With good reason, toward the end of your career the system will change a little to give the probationary pilot a little more voice... but he will still be on thin ice...
It is a great job but you just have to get past the probationary year. Because it is a union job you really can't be fired after you are off probation... Another flaw?
About 5 years after trip number two this Captain will be out of work and will sadly commit suicide.
About 15 years later random drug testing is the law.
A few years after that random alcohol testing is law.
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