![\"BULL#3covershot\"](\"http:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/BULL3covershot.jpg\")
<\/a><\/h3>\nHi\u2014I\u2019m Bill Jackson. We\u2019re paired to fly together for the next three days. Sorry I didn\u2019t get to meet you in Operations. I was a little late getting here. My regular guy must have called in sick and I guess they called you in off reserve. I looked up your seniority number. You must have been hired just last year, that right? Yeah, that\u2019s what I thought. Well, I\u2019ve been flying Captain ten years now, so you don\u2019t need to worry, this ain\u2019t my first rodeo. Been watching you from the door\u2014looks like you\u2019ve got the checklist done up to Engine Start. You haven\u2019t done the exterior check yet, have you? I didn\u2019t see you out on the ramp. No? Good. I like to do the outside myself. Look, they\u2019re not going to board passengers for ten minutes or so. How about jumping out of your seat and joining me on the jetbridge and I\u2019ll give you a trip brief. We\u2019ve never flown together before, so it\u2019s gonna take me an extra couple of minutes.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0like it better briefing out here on the jetbridge. No cockpit voice recorder listening. Damn thing\u2019s always on. Say we have a fire on engine start this morning, or some guy clips our wing on taxiout\u2014the bastards pull the box and get to listen to everything we\u2019ve said. Remember, an incident doesn\u2019t have to be your fault for the Feds to find fault with you, so let\u2019s try to keep that voice recorder nice and clean. If you see some sort of malfunction, just tap me on the shoulder and point to it. Now, the red lights that have the voices tied to them we\u2019ll have to handle right away\u2014out loud\u2014but the other red lights\u2014the yellow lights, any squirrelly instruments? Just point them out to me. I\u2019ve got some three-by-five cards in my kit bag that I can let you have. We can pass notes back and forth \u2018til I decide what to do.<\/p>\n
My first nine years as Captain were on the 727, so I\u2019m still getting used to not having a flight engineer. Don\u2019t take it personal if habit has me looking over my right shoulder for the guy who isn\u2019t there anymore. I\u2019m just used to having more help. Came in real handy when the First Officer was a little weak. This two-pilot operation is great when everything works, but say something breaks at a bad time and one of us is assholes and elbows and the other is all alone with the jet and Air Traffic Control. If something breaks like that, you plan on being the assholes and elbows guy. I\u2019ll fly and talk, you fix. Just don\u2019t be throwing any switches we can\u2019t take back without talking to me first.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re Air Force trained, right? Thought so\u2014your hair\u2019s a little long. Well, I\u2019m Navy trained, so already you and I have this difference in how we do things. You guys got a Flight Manual that told you what you could do, and if it wasn\u2019t in that book, you couldn\u2019t do it. The Navy gave us a Flight Manual that told us what we couldn\u2019t do, and if it wasn\u2019t in there, we could do it. It makes for a different way of looking at things that come up on a trip, but don\u2019t worry, you\u2019ll get used to me soon enough.<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s face it. These manuals the FAA puts out are pretty conservative\u2014too conservative really. Take that stall computer inop light. If we see it on the ground, we\u2019re supposed to call and get the computer fixed. Right? If we\u2019re in the air, we just pull some circuit breakers until the light goes out and we go on to destination. No big deal. So why am I going to take a god-knows-how-long delay on the ground for a bullshit light, telling me about a broken computer I don\u2019t really need, so I end up late getting into Boston, and then have to play bumper cars in that parking lot called I-93 on my drive home? I\u2019m senior enough to get the trips I want, and I bid this trip so I wouldn\u2019t have to drive home in traffic. Getting home on time is a goal for us. Not screwing up the schedule is a goal for us.<\/p>\n
Once we miss a connection, those bastards in Crew Tracking can reassign us to a shitty trip or maybe send us home early, and we don\u2019t get paid for the flying we miss. Nothing but bad things happen when we don\u2019t make schedule. That\u2019s why I like taking my time when something unusual happens, but I don\u2019t want to take my time out loud in front of that voice recorder so some worthless bureaucrat can pick over every word I say. I\u2019ll give you ten of those cards. So far the record for a three-day trip is six…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/h3>\n“You\u2019re Air Force trained, right? Thought so\u2014your hair\u2019s a little long. Well, I\u2019m Navy trained, so already you and I have this difference in how we do things<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[680],"class_list":["post-8113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","tag-aviation","writer-john-bubar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11519,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8113\/revisions\/11519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}