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Perspectives Jon Reed In the Sky (vol.8) | In The Sky: Jon Reed (vol.8) |
| Written by Jon Reed | |
| Monday, 04 June 2007 | |
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The Big Call April 2004
The big call came. SkyWest wanted to set up an interview. I knew what to do. Study. And study harder than I ever had. I took 6 weeks and studied every chance I had. Flew every approach I could, got my hands on every bit of gouge, every study book, anything that would help me prep. I flew out to SLC two days early to get ready. Sim Prep, Suit pressed, folder created. It was my time to shine. The interview went great, HR, Technical and Simulator. By 1pm I was done. I didn?t know if I passed or not, but I accomplished the goal I had set for myself. To leave there that day knowing that I prepped as hard as I could and gave it my best shot. I felt great. I flew back to Hawaii and waited to hear. It was a hard week to wait. I got a call from my roommate that a FedEx Package had arrived. A THICK package. I was so excited I could barely sit still on the last flight home from Honolulu. I got home to find 6 of my coworkers anxiously waiting. I had made it. CRJ200. It didn?t seem real. I had been put into the hiring pool and would be contacted when I had a class date. I made a call to let them know I was available anytime and made my way back to the mainland. It wasn?t long until I got the call. July 12, 2004 my career would start with SkyWest. Ground school and Sim training was a great experience. To be there with everyone who had worked so hard to get there, the excitement was in the air. It was stressful but there were a lot of laughs and great friends made. This wasn?t the end of the road but it was a good start to a career. We bid for Domiciles and I received Chicago. Wow, one of the busiest airports in the world and I was going to be flying in and out of it. I was on top of the world. Made it through IOE without any big problems although the first time I took off and landed during our aircraft training it was a little overwhelming. Eyes wide open and mouth ajar, it was all so fast, you just fall back into training mode. React and go back to basic skills. It all started to seem pretty normal by the end of IOE and I was ready to be released into the wilds of line flying. Gitty Up! Chicago, Trial by Fire O?Hare is a world unto its own. Imagine two circles, one within another surrounding all the terminals. One goes clockwise, the other counter-clockwise with only one rule. Don?t stop. Ever. Luckily I got to get up to speed during the relatively calm Fall months. Flying in and out of Chicago was an experience unlike anything I had ever seen. It wasn?t so much the flying part, the only rule there seemed to be fly as fast as you can until they tell you to slow down. The controllers in Chicago are in my opinion some of the best in the country, and to their credit they do the impossible on a daily basis. They manage to vector all arriving aircraft onto the complex maze of runways with only 2 ½ miles separation most of the time. It is a work of art. Then you land. And the work begins. We would usually spend more time briefing the taxi than the approach. It is rapid fire instructions from ground, frequency changes and a lot of making sure you don?t hit anything. I personally saw and heard some crazy events, from baggage carts being tossed into planes from Jet Blast to planes being sent to the penalty box as punishment for fowling up the operation. The controllers are quick witted, extremely competent and don?t put up with attitude. Things seem to work best when you are patient, self-motivated and most importantly just go with the flow. One of the most impressive things that I witnessed was the park job of almost 40 planes during a thunderstorm. All corridors had been shut down for arriving and departing traffic but everyone continued to push from the gates in order to be ready to launch when the weather cleared. We were stacked up on a huge pad with 4 rows of 8-10 planes, with everything set up for first in, first out order. Everyone had their engines shut down and was waiting further instructions. The ground controller was rapid fire issuing instructions and everything was executed perfectly. One of the last arriving aircraft showed up and said ?Holy cow, this is an amazing park job?. Without missing a beat the ground controller said ?I used to be a Valet.? and continued his barrage of instructions. It was this kind of humor that kept us going in extremely frustrating situations I transferred to Denver in the winter of 2004 and although would still spend a lot of time flying in and out of O?Hare, it was that initial experience there that really helped my feel comfortable flying in and out of one of the busiest airports in the world, and I am extremely grateful for the experience. |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 04 June 2007 ) |