DCA, and Annoyed with Crew Tracking (again.)

Location:  Smelly Cat Coffeehouse, NoDa, Charlotte, NC

Crew tracking can kiss the fattest part of my ass.  I don’t mind sitting reserve, but don’t give me overnights and call right before I get on the flight, take them away, and put me back on reserve.  My friend was working a charter flight to Mardi Gras, while I was sitting in the crew room finishing season 5 of Weeds.  Yesterday I was in Austin.  I woke up early, and my flight out wasn’t until 6PM.  72 degrees, no humidity, no clouds.  Awesome day for a walk, and I was full of energy, so I went for a very long 5 mile walk around town, only to be questioned by the Austin Highway Patrol for “looking suspicious.”  Apparently I wasn’t wearing the state-mandated big-ass belt buckle and cowboy hat.  Last night I was supposed to go to Newark, spend the entire day there (which meant train to NYC for the day,) fly back to Charlotte, and go back to Newark again tonight.  I had an entire trip where I could sleep really late.  Not only that, it’s really windy in Newark, and bumpy cross-landings are fun.  Then I went to Wilmington, where I always have famous people on my flights.  Of course they took that away, and gave me a DC overnight with a 7AM flight out in the morning, and Memphis and Phoenix overnights.  Which work, only I couldn’t find the DC flight in the system, so I called and I was told that I would now sit reserve until midnight, and do an O’Hare round trip today.  So naturally, rather than a bed, I slept in the crew room last night, and will sleep there again tonight.  There or my car.  I have a headache due to my current state of pissedoffedness.  At least I still have my long Pensacola overnight the last day of the month.  If they take that away I will have words with them.  The good thing to come out of this is not having to do the long flight from Phoenix back to Charlotte.

My last 3 days off I sat around the house bored for the first two days, and then couldn’t take it anymore.  I booked a flight to DCA from Columbia, because there were three people on the plane.  Nothing like having a plane to myself.  After that I took an empty Airbus to LaGuardia, and then back to Columbia on another empty plane.  I fly just to fly.  I walked around DC for a bit, took a few pics, and ate a nice brunch near Metro Center.

EDIT:  As I was typing this crew tracking called and gave me 2 overnights, which I can deal with.  But they took away my Pensacola overnight, which I'm not happy about.  Picked up Newark tonight (after Chicago round trip,) and a Savannah overnight.

Airbus at DCA

Austin skyline from my walk yesterday

US Capitol

Ditto

Clouds over SC

DCA terminal

DCA tower

About to descend through the clouds

Dawn over SC

Washington-Dulles from cruise

Empty Airbus, with my receding hairline

Itinerary booked the night before.  Notice the price.

Seagul doing an impression of Jesus

Philadelphia International Airport

LaGuardia

Approaching LaGuardia, before the left turn to land

Lower Manhattan

Ditto

Washington Monument

View of Manhattan while approaching LaGuardia

Ditto

United/Continental Airbus

Panthers Airbus at DCA

Philadelphia from cruise

Seagulls in DC

Statue of Liberty

Sunrise over SC

About to take off and make the left.  Stewardess got bitchy that I took this pic.  She got over it.

Just descended through the clouds, over the Potomac.

Ditto

View from DCA

Randomness

Location:  Somewhere above New Mexico, 35000 feet.

I’m on a company deadhead from Phoenix to Austin, to work Austin to Charlotte, and then onto Louisville for the night.  Nothing really exciting has happened since the last time I checked in on here.  I’m on day two of a four day trip, full of deadheads, long flights, and long overnights.  In other words, the type of trips I like.  Every one of my off days this month are three at a time too.  My last trip was a 5 day, with 18 short flights in 5 days.  I’m beginning to enjoy my frequent Wilmington flights.  They’re apparently filming several movies there, and my flights seem to have at least one famous person on each one.  My ride to the airport in Cleveland the other day from the hotel was, I kid you not, a prom party van.  I wish I had my camera.  It was this tacky, stretch limo, a red Dodge Charger, complete with champagne bar, LEDs, a disco ball, and everything else people with no class seem to enjoy.

There was a huge Rotweiller/Lab mix on my flight last night.  This was a drug dog, so he had no cage, and took up an entire row of seats.  I had an animal to play with during the long flight, so I was happy.  I had a service cat once.  The other day there was a kitten on board, who I of course petted during the whole flight as well.

And of course I’ve done some non-rev traveling on my days off.  Why not enjoy my crappy pay by utilizing my free travel benefits?  Last week I flew to Los Angeles on the morning flight, spent an hour there, and flew straight back home.  I was on a plane for 9 hours, and in L.A. for one.  I was originally going to spend the day there, and take the redeye back.  I decided to take the light rail around Los Angeles.  Shortly after my connection in Compton, I realized that using the light rail in Los Angeles was not the best of ideas.  I would have pictures, but I was afraid that if I took my camera out of my pocket, I would never see it again.  So, I went back to LAX and went home.  Here are the few pictures I got, plus a few others.

British Airways 777 at Charlotte.  Diverted from Dulles

Over Chicago, two days after the blizzard

Over Chicago

Chicago skyline

We got a new vending machine in the crew room (that was removed two days later because it was so damn loud and was being unplugged constantly, which I assume didn't spoil the preservative-injected shit they sold in there.)  There was a suggestion sheet as to what should be in there.  Someone wrote dinosaur.  The next day, there was a dinosaur in the vending machine.

The view from my commute to work

Ditto

Ditto

Over Lake Michigan with a frozen shoreline

Hawk at the overlook

737 lands at Charlotte

Over Los Angeles

L.A. skyline

Over Chicago-Midway

Approaching Los Angeles

Over mountains, Southern California

Ditto

Over the Palm Springs area

Qantas 747-400 at LAX

United 747-400 at Chicago-O'Hare