Still haven't flown since the first of the month. There has been nothing open for me to pick up on my days off...or on my reserve days. There is a trip tomorrow that opened up. I proffered for it (proferring is telling crew scheduling what you would LIKE to do)....but didn't get it. The most senior reserve first officer got it instead. I had morning airport standby today....afternoon tomorrow. I really prefer morning over afternoon as I can sleep most of it off. There is another trip open Friday that I will proffer for again. It's a nice 3 day trip with a PIT and XNA overnight with a really fun Captain. I hope I get it. Otherwise there is nothing else open the rest of the month. The only way I will get to fly is if a first officer calls in sick, mis-connects (as in they are flying inbound to DFW and are so delayed the next flight will be delayed as well) or drops a trip. I doubt anyone can drop trips as first officers on the CRJ in DFW are in short supply. Today two Captains from the training department flew a trip to SBA because there were no spare reserves.

One good note is my vacation for 2009 has been approved. My mother in law is paying for a family trip to Disneyworld in January. When this was first discussed earlier in the year there would be no issue as January is a slow month for vacation request and I would probably be holding a line then anyway. With the displacements my initial training date for the ATR was the day after Thanksgiving and finishing late January. I would not have been able to go. My second training date was January 5th...again...unable to go. Thankfully my third training date is January 19th...two days after I get back from vacation!

Not much else going on.....sure would like to fly.

I haven't flown a real plane since November 1st. On that day I did a Little Rock, Arkansas turn....a whole two hours of flight time. I got airport standby again today. After getting dropped off by my wife I slept from 6AM until 9AM. I then went down to the Samsung room at B27 and relaxed and surfed the Internet. After about 2 hours I got bored and wanted to watch my judge shows. When I used to get at home reserve I would watch judge shows from 10AM until 2PM everyday. The TV in the Samsung room is almost always tuned to CNN or FOX news. Then I had a thought....Terminal E! Terminal E is the only terminal in DFW airport that does not have American Airlines or American Eagle serving it. Three of the other four terminals are almost all AA/AE except for 3 gates in Terminal B that United uses. Terminal D is mostly American along with all international flights. Terminal E is a ghost town. I took the Skylink over and went down to the gate area. Empty. Totally empty. The Samsung room at E 32 had one person in it....another DFW airport employee. He was watching something other than judge shows so I booted up my laptop and watched the judge shows via my USB HDTV tuner (I am a geek.... www.stillageek.com !). Eventually the other person in the Samsung room tuned to Judge Mathis. I then took off my headphones and watched TV with him. At 1:30PM I packed up and took the Skylink back over to Terminal B to pack up to leave. Tomorrow I plan on doing the same thing. After my shift tomorrow my wife and I are flying out to Sacramento. I will have more hours in the back of a plane than I will in the cockpit this month. Crazy.

There are ZERO flights/trips open for DFW CRJ FO for the rest of the month. There is a very real chance that I will not fly again until December. I hope I get to fly next week (I am on airport standby again tomorrow, but doubt I will fly) otherwise I will be really rusty. 

There are rumors flying that more CRJs are coming to Eagle and DFW. I hope it's true. 

Below is a photo showing winter is truly here. This was taken October 22nd on a flight from Des Moines, IA to DFW. The flight there was quick...but the flight back slow. Why? The winds were 109 knots which is about 125 MPH. The winds are on the left side under DFW 238/109. The direction is 238 and the speed is 109. 

Airport Appreciation....aka Airport Standby....aka Ready Reserve. This is the worst type of reserve to be assigned. Most of the time it goes to the most junior pilots in a particular status. My current status is DFW CRJ FO. I used to have 22 First Officers below me. Right now I have 2. I was assigned Ready Reserve from 2PM-10PM today. I wanted the good ol' sit at home reserve that I used to get. With the sit at home reserve (officially known as Reserve Availability Period or RAP) I just have to be a available from either 4AM-6PM or 10AM-Midnight. If they need me then they must call me 2 hours ahead of time. Since I live 15 minutes from the employee parking lot it was great. Right now I am so far down the seniority list all I can hold on a daily basis in Ready Reserve. There are two Ready Reserve periods for DFW CRJ FO. There is the 6AM-2PM shift and the 2PM-10PM shift. During these periods I have to be ready at a moments notice (normally 15-45 minutes) to hop in a plane and go. I prefer the 6AM-2PM shift as I can sleep. I had that shift last week (and I scored it tomorrow as well!) and slept from 6AM until 11AM. The company provides a quiet room which is just a large dark room with recliners. When I get the 2PM-10PM shift (I am the bottom guy today) I just sit and surf the internet for 8 hours. Sounds fun....but it's not. I normally sit in the Samsung mobile office centers and relax (which is where I am right now).

I am planning on flying out to see my sister in law Friday. I am on reserve Friday. If everything works out right I will get the 6AM-2PM Ready Reserve again and then catch 4PM flight out to Sacramento. Right now that flight is overbooked by 8....so I will probably get the 8PM flight which has 25 seats open. Of course this is all dependent on me getting 6AM-2PM Ready Reserve. If I get 4AM-6PM Reserve Availability Period I could still catch the 4PM flight (will explain in a second) and most assuredly the 8PM flight.

So how could I get the 4PM flight if I am supposed to be available from 4AM-6PM? Well remember they have to give me a 2 hour call out. The longest duty day I can be scheduled for is 14 hours (hence 4AM-6PM) with the longest I can work being 16 hours (the extra 2 hours is for weather/en-route delays....can't be scheduled). So a 4AM-6PM RAP is really a 4AM-2PM RAP. If they call me at 2PM for a 4PM sign in the flight likely won't leave until 4:45PM. That gives just 1 hour 15 minutes of flight time. Since I am not good for an overnight (I have the weekend off!), there is no where the CRJ currently flies from DFW that can be done in 1:15 minutes. Hmm so really I am only useful from 4AM-1PM. Either way I hope to go see my sister and law and niece this weekend. 

 At 10PM my wife is gonna pick me up as I have to be back here again tomorrow morning at 6AM. If I were to drive home that would take away 25 minutes tonight and 40 minutes tomorrow morning leaving me a little over 6 hours to sleep. My wife is going to drop me off on her way to work tomorrow morning. Thankfully the airport is on her way and she normally leaves for work before 6AM. For the next 6 hours though....I will sit in Terminal B appreciating the airport.