Roehris Aviation Pages - Diary Daily Life

The story actually begins on the 28th of the previous month, when I usually get my dutysheet for the first part of the month to come. So I look into the dutysheet of May 2004, and check the destinations, the OFF-days, and the crewmembers I will fly with. And then I send a prayer to heavens that there won't be too much changes, as this makes it really difficult to live in Switzerland and book flights or traintickets to my "start points". :-)

As soon as possible I book my train or airline tickets for the so called "proceedings" (this means the travel from my home to the location where my first flight will start, and from the endpoint of my duty back to my home). I call our crew contact office, and tell them that I don't need the tickets they book for me, because they assume I live in Cologne (my "official homebase") and always book tickets from there to my first duty location. They either book first class train tickets, business class airline tickets, or a taxi transfer. But as I'd like to travel to my duties from Winterthur in Switzerland, where I live and everything is what I call "home", I will organize my travel on my own (a so called "own means proceeding", or "O/M"). I pay everything on my own initially, but later I can get the value of the originally planned proceeding back. Complicated, huh, but let me give you an example: Crew Planning plans a first class train ticket from Cologne to Frankfurt, which costs let's say 60 Euros. Now I proceed own means to Frankfurt from Winterthur, paying 90 Euros. I'll get back the originally planned 60 Euros at the end of the month, and "lose" just 30 Euros for my own means ticket.

Well, enough theory, let's look how my first few flights look like.

2004_05a_01.jpg (6547 Byte) My first chain (Hapag-Lloyd calls a series of flights which leads over several days and has nightstops at foreign towns a "chain" - you'll get the idea when you read this article) in May starts on the 04th of May by proceeding from Cologne (CGN) to Dusseldorf (DUS) by taxi (TX), and going into the crew hotel. This is because the flight next day starts already at 0620 local time, so I have to check in at 0520 local time, which would be a little bit early.
I appreciate the comfort of getting a hotel night paid, but I don't need the taxi transfer, because I travel from Winterthur to Dusseldorf "own means" (O/M), meaning that I organise my travel on my own. So I call Hapag-Lloyd crew contact and tell them to cancel the taxi, but that I will keep the hotel room because I will travel to Dusseldorf "own means".

I then compare airline ticket prices and schedules with the train schedules and prices. This time, Air Berlin and Swiss Intl Air Lines have already prices in excess of 250 Euros, which would blast my budget by far, so I take the train which takes about 8 hours, but is cheaper. I manage to catch a "super saver Click&Rail" e-ticket for 30 Euros, and am happy. For the travel back to Switzerland I luckily get an Air Berlin ticket for a quite low fare (79 Euros), which I take (of course I inform crew contact about this as well, so they don't book a proceeding for me).

Day 1: 04 May 2004

The big day of farewell closes.

0900h: I pack my belongings, so I don't need to use my underwear for five days in a row.. :-) Something "civil" to wear after duty, some sports gear - if I happen to have some time for it - and for sure the whole uniform stuff, and sometimes even my laptop. Everything is packed into a big suitcase with (nonretractable) gear.

0945h: The suitcase is packed, then the pilot case filled with the Jeppesen Manuals (freshly revised every Sunday...), the Hapag-Lloyd B737 Quick Reference Handbook (our bible for all emergencies and non-normals as well as performance figures), an old-fashioned kitchen alarm clock (the Boeing has no alarm timer in the cockpit, like the airbus), some chocolate to give away to the german crewmembers and to push my glucose level in times of near-starvation, a bottle of water, my kneeboard, some pens, spare paper, my personal log sheets, and the sun glasses.

And then it's time for goodbye *sniff*... 1204h: I catch the bus, get to the train terminal at Winterthur, and off we hurry towards Zurich, where I change onto the Eurocity train to Dusseldorf. Past Basel, Mannheim, Mainz, and then via Bingen, St.Goar (picture: the famous Loreley rock at a bend of the Rhine river), Koblenz, Bonn, Cologne to Dusseldorf main station, where I arrive at 1935h, well fed after my visit to the restaurant car. A quick jump to the ticket machine to get a ticket to the airport, and at 1945h, the S7 train leaves to the airport. I get there by 2000h, check in at the hotel, hang my uniform pieces into the cupboard, and drop to bed - completely flat after the 8h train ride.

Day 2: 05 May 2004

0400h: The sound of my alarm clock kicks me out of bed almost immediately. I shave my face, trying not to cut myself at this early time :-) , get a shower, and punch myself into the mood with a small chocolate snack and a cup of water, as there is no breakfast available at this early time in the hotel, just a basket of fresh fruit and tea or coffee. I hop into my uniform, get my wild hair into kind of a "company-conform shape", pack my suitcase, and transfer the most important things (my toothbrush, fresh underwear) into my pilot case, as (quite unusually for chains) we are planned to return to Dusseldorf tonight, so I leave the fat suitcase in my hotel room.

0440h: I grab my pilot case, and leave the hotel, to take the 10 minute walk to the crew room, which is located in the southwestern hangar buildings. I want to be there a little bitin advance, because I am relatively new to the business, and don't want to hurry. There I find a brown envelope containing all the relevant information for our flight: The aircraft registration (which aircraft of our 28 strong fleet we are flying today), how many passengers we will carry today, a "Significant Weather Chart" which shows the "large picture" of the weather over europe, especially concerning icing or turbulence areas, strong wind zones, and volcanic action (e.g. Mount Etna in Sicily). I get to our briefing computer, and log in to our self.briefing system, which is provided by a Swiss company. I pick our flights out of the database, and the briefing system calculates our two flightplans (the most important papers for the pilots, based on real time weather information), weather information for all airports on our route, and NOTAMS ("notices to airmen" = information about irregularities in the whole aviation system, like closed runways, work in progress, military area activity etc.).

I first check the weather and the NOTAMS to see if the flight can be conducted, because if our destination airport is closed due to an accident or thunderstorms or fog, it doesn't make any sense to even takeoff. I then check if we have a slot (if we get a slot, then we have to takeoff within a time slot of 15 minutes from a given time, which means even more precise timing for the crew, and sometimes a bit of stress during the boarding and before takeoff, if the slot is close), and check the two flight plans for missing data or mistakes, and for remarks (sometimes there is a remark concerning the aircraft, if a system does not work).Today our radio altimeter Nr. 2, a quite important height measuring system is inoperative, but we still have the Nr.1 radio altimeter which works, and according to our books we are allowed to fly like this. I then fill in the flight log sheet, where our takeoff and landing times, our fuel figures, and the crewnames and dutytimes are noted on.

0515h: In the meantime, the captain and our cabin crew has arrived as well. I shake hands with Christoph, our captain, and the "boys'n'girls" from the cabin, handing the "chef de cabine" (CDC) the planned passenger figures and the planned flight times. The captain checks the whole paperwork as well, while the cabin crew has their own briefing in a separate room, discussing safety aspects of the flight, how many meals they want to take on board, and what specials they will expect.

0520h: The captain and I discuss about the fuel amount. The flightplan states that we can safely conduct the flight with 10.400kgs of fuel. We discuss the possible traps: Faro will hve quite a lot of traffic, as there currently are holidays in many countries, and the weather promises a gusty approach. We agree on taking 600kgs extra fuel to cover for a possible delay. This gives us 15 minutes of reserve. The inoperative radio altimeter concerns him, and he quickly checks the CDL/MEL (Configuration Deviation List/Minimum Equipment List), a book that states what effect an inoperative system has. The CDL/MEL clearly states that we may conduct our flight with only one radio altimeter, but we cannot make any CAT II/IIIa "low visibility auto landing" in dense fog. This is no problem, as the forecast is good for all of todays destinations and alternates. I fill in the so called "trip info", a small sheet with the most necessary information for our handling agent, who computes the load sheet for us. Explanations later in the text.. :-)

0525h: Christoph joins the cabin team, and gives them a briefing about the weather situation, specials, and gives them a short resumee of an accident report as a "vivid example": On another airline's flight, a fire broke out, and the cabin crew action was bad. He presents the findings, and reminds the cabin crew of the proper actions to be taken. They really appreciate the example. In the meanwhile I call the fueller and order the 10.800kgs of fuel for our aircraft, and the airport services to send us a crew bus to pick us up.

0535h: We board the crew bus, and are driven to our plane. As I will be the Pilot Flying (PF) on this leg, I enter the cockpit first and install myself, check all the systems while Christoph checks the maintenance logbook to get a picture of all the damages (there are always small dents and scratches in the outer hull of the aircraft from careless ramp agents, which have to be seen and "written off" by maintenance) and inoperative systems before he starts his walkaround. And - surprise! - there is a remark in the book that radio altimeter Nr. 2 has been repaired in the meanwhile. We have our "low visibility landing capability" back!

0550h: Christoph leaves the plane and goes "on tour", doing his walkaround, visually checking the hull and doors, the tires and brakes, the pitot probes (speed sensors) and temperature probes, the pressure and level of the hydraulic system, the wings and flaps, the engines and their covers, the empennage, all the air inlets and outlets, and the antennae on the aircraft body. In the meanwhile I have checked all vital systems and emergency equipment, and set every switch in the cockpit (yes, really!) into the position it must be for takeoff, in a described "parcours" that leads to all the switches and systems. Then I feed the Flight Management System (FMS) with our present position, our route and the performance figures: estimated zero fuel weight, fuel reserves, cost index, expected cruise level, mean wind on our flight, and temperature factors (ISA deviation), and our takeoff flap setting. The cabin is busy to prepare the rear of the cabin, checking the meals and beverages figures, the cabin emergency equipment and so on.

0600h: The cabin is ready for our guests, and Christoph calls the handling company to tell them they can start the boarding.

More soon to come...been lately running out of time...

Last Update: 17.10.07

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