My "Sully" moment...not the Hudson, but a lighter!!

"That "ding" is driving me crazy"...so here is a post about my latest flying adventures. Last week I did a 4-day trip with most of the flights going in and out of SFO. For those who don't know, the majority of my trips are usually 4 days in length and most of them are usually in and out of SFO or LAX to numerous "out-stations" or small airports around California and Oregon. This trip happened to have a lot of flying out of SFO and, for once, the weather was great in the Bay Area. I was able to get some great pictures of downtown San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge. I have seen this view of San Francisco so many time that I sometimes take it for granted and need "pinch" myself to remind me of the awesome views I get to see from my "corner office." Unfortunately, the pictures don't do the real views justice, because they are taken through a 7 layer hazy window...but you get the idea.

Downtown San Francisco.

The Golden Gate bridge at dusk...on our way to Arcata/Eureka.


Final approach to 28L in SFO - of course the First Officer, Brian, is flying on this one!


Of course every trip has its highlights and adventures, and this particular 4 day didn't disappoint! On the second day of the trip we literally got hit by adventure with our version of a "Sully" moment (minus the ditching in the Hudson, of course). It all happened very fast, as everything does when you're traveling in an airplane at 200 mph. Around 8 pm, at 3000 feet and 15 miles out, on final approach to runway 28R in SFO traveling at 180 mph a flock of birds decided to get in our way. I saw something out of the corner of my eye, which, like any human being, forced me to "duck" and SLAM!! (OK, imagine with me, for a moment, the sound that would be made by slamming a very large water balloon against a car window...now multiply that by 1000 times and you'll get the idea...I am pretty sure the folks in Palo Alto could hear that one!) We literally pulverized 5 birds in a split second...2 slammed directly into my windshield and one glanced off of Brian's side window. Luckily, he was flying because I couldn't see jack out of my window, and I'm pretty sure the windshield wipers wouldn't have worked very well at cleaning the mess off. OK, no big deal, the engines are still running and Brian can see to land (both being very important things to land safely at SFO!) We promptly informed the tower and a few minutes later we landed safely in SFO. I snapped a couple of quick pictures of the carnage that was produced on the windows, but unfortunately didn't get pictures of the 2 that hit the nose area of the airplane. Believe it or not, this isn't the first time I have hit a bird, but it is the first time that I have hit a FLOCK of birds and so directly! A lot of times they'll hit on parts of the airplane that you can't see from the cockpit and don't realize until you see the carnage when the airplane is on the ground. It really didn't scare us, but I did duck...not sure why I ducked...maybe it was the whole seeing out of the corner of my eye, "something" coming at me at 180 mph!! Andy Roddick can serve a tennis ball at 150 mph...so imagine standing on a dark corner in a telephone booth concentrating on, let's say a calculus problem, and from no where Andy Roddick serves a pigeon sized tennis ball at you at 150 mph...what would you do? DUCK!! So, I ducked...I don't think Brian ducked, but I ducked...not sure if Sully ducked, but maybe he should've ducked?

This was my "view" on final approach. You can see the direct hit in the center and another on the upper left hand corner.

The was on Brian's right side window.



These are some random pictures I took during our 4 day trip.

This is our final approach into Arcata/Eureka runway 32. The runway is elevated about 200 feet above the ocean, which is only about 1/2 mile off the other end of the runway. Very fun approach and even better departure out over the ocean!
Final approach over the ocean to Crescent City runway 35. It is an awesome approach, with the end of the runway only about 1/4 mile from a cliff then the ocean...not a real long runway either.

This is the sunrise over the Sierra's at about 6 am on our way to Sacramento from Arcata/Eureka on our last day.

This is the exact same sunrise as above, but taken this morning on the same route, Arcata/Eureka.

Let me wrap this up with another funny story. A lot of times we, as a crew, joke that some passengers just plain leave their brains at home when they travel on an airplane. This story is about one of those passengers. On our way to Modesto, I know, make the jokes now, "Modesto has an airport...that has passenger service?" Yes, it does! We only fly to the best places! Anyways, we were on our way to Modesto when the flight attendant calls up and tells us that a passenger has taken a lighter away from another passenger because she was making him "nervous." "Why would he be nervous", I ask...because, she was LIGHTING IT UP IN THE AIRPLANE! How smart do you have to be to know that it isn't a good IDEA to light up a lighter on an airline? So many BAD scenarios can be drummed up with this idea! So, we make sure she didn't get the lighter back and made sure she wouldn't cause more problems because "we" took the lighter from her. Come to find out, the flight attendant noticed that she was very "nervous" looking, tapping the side of the airplane and, in general, just fidgety. When she exited the airplane she had her hands up in the air, waving them around and twirling around, as if to say with her body language, "thank goodness I made it through that 15 minute flight!" I told Brian, "watch, I bet that's the lady that had the lighter"...sure enough the flight attendant says, "see that lady, she's the one." Another problem diverted! I wish I could make this stuff up, but believe it or not, it's just another day and another trip!

The First One...

So lately I've been thinking of sharing my stories and life experiences as a professional pilot. I am not much of a writer and don't exactly know why I have this feeling that I "need" to share, but here I go. My wife, Jenny, has one of these blogs which is, more or less, about the struggles of living as a single mom for half of every month...trying to juggle the lives of 4 year old and a 2 year old (my crazy kids, Hunter and Ainsley). My hope is not to necessarily elaborate on her blogs about family life, but to share some of my thoughts and stories as I am away from my family, wandering around the west coast in an airplane for 15 to 16 days out of every month. I often have these things happen to me at work that don't go beyond my fellow crew members and aren't shared with my friends or family that are held inside and aren't "discussed" outside of work. I seem to think that this would be a great avenue to share those experiences. Not that anyone will read about them, but at least I have a place to "share" them. I guess I could say that this is just the ramblings of an airline pilot or, as my blog name states, a dim light in a big sky...