Flew out of Salisbury with a leisurely 10:40 am report. Several changes in Captains occurred due to canceled flights, and I don’t know what else. Ended up flying with an understated Captain whom I enjoy flying with. Nice guy. Quiet professional.
There had been a flight cancelation earlier in the day, and our flight was filled to capacity in a 300. My roommate Darrel was dead-heading on my flight, and it was great to see him board into the back. I apologized in advance for my performance on the upcoming leg, and it came out sounding like I assumed I’d be doing the leg. My Captain was gracious about it and actually let me fly that (it is the Captain’s choice who flies what).
Nate joined us on the flight deck in the jump seat as a first officer in his final days. He is headed to Charlotte for upgrade training, and is very excited about it. Two experienced heads watching me fly – and a classmate in the back about to experience whatever I do here. At least two other Captains were dead-heading on this leg, so there were allot of eyes to witness.
All in fun. The three of us talked more than usual on the way down. I thoroughly enjoyed picking their brains, and once again was reminded about the fortuitous timing of my career move. It still looks good for Captain upgrade in as little as two years, and/or jet training in the same time frame. This is my interpretation of events, and really doesn’t matter. I’m happy to be here.
We landed out of the ILS23 into Charlotte and got to our gate just fine. Everyone I talked about headed off in different directions, while the FA and I went to the crew room to burn off the 3.5 hour layover for the flight to Charlotte.
On that final leg I flew with the Captain from my MDT night experience. We’d be arriving FLO in the dark, and he gave me this leg to fly as well. I could not be more pleased with that and enjoyed a bit of hand flying again.
Double dead-head through charlotte to Charlie West this morning (west virginia), and then working flights to PHL and ERI for the next overnight.
Tomorrow I’m excited to be going into DCA for the first time, and ORF for the first Piedmont experience there. Bring it on.