Got a kid interested in aviation? Not sure how to help foster it? In the US, the Experimental Aviation Association (EAA) will give kids from 8-17 their first flight in a small plane! I’ve flown a few; a great opportunity for kids & pilots, too! eaa.org/eaa/youth/free-ye-fl…

Actually, we can see outside pretty well. It’s not just pitch black, even without a moon. The lights & screens are all on dimmers. A few are tied to a switch that goes from “Test” to “Bright” or “Dim”. We dial down the lights to a level we can just kind of see them. We don’t want them wrecking our night vision. I’m nice you lose night vision, it takes about 15 minutes to get most of it back, and 30 minutes to completely readjust. Some spotlights can be switched between white & red. Red light doesn’t impact your night vision nearly as much. There are always a lot of stars visible, as well as the Milky Way. It’s one of the best views of the night sky you can get!

I ran the Marine Corps Marathon w/ my brother (the Marine) in 2012. At one point, a random guy was handing out Pabst beer to runners. My brother & I laughed, but now I regret not taking that beer.

It’s not the same scenario as Spirit, and I don’t expect JetBlue to cease operations, but the pilots are nervous. Bankruptcy doesn’t automatically mean the employee contracts get renegotiated, but it opens a window. Canaries & coal mines.

Good article on a complicated subject. Airlines can look like they made a lot of money, but there is a reason they say “becoming a millionaire in aviation is easy. Just start as a billionaire”. The Senator should know better.

First layover golf: the Emerald course at Wailea, Maui. Spectacular. Early tee time; played 18 & loved every minute. Tired myself out for a good nap before the redeye home. Let’s not discuss score or balls lost. Shhh. We don’t ruin good things.

In my airline interview, they asked why I wanted to work here. I told the story of leaving Hawaii with my 2 year old & 6 month old, plus all their accessories. Just loaded like a pack mule. The Flight Attendants latched onto my daughter immediately & said they’d bring her to me when we were settled. She vanished into the cockpit; I doubt they knew I was an Air Force pilot. The crew was all smiles & tan after their Hawaii layover. I’d get pretty tan on deployment, but it’s not quite the same thing… A while later, the PA came to life & it was my daughter saying “welcome aboard mom & dad”. That’s what I wanted. Needless to say, I got the job.

When boarding, ask the Flight Attendant if your kid can visit the cockpit. We can’t always do that, but most of the time we’re happy to. We’ll do a little show & you can take pictures. Just be ready to do it in a way that doesn’t block others & is quick. As for kids in the cabin…do your best to keep them occupied, but remember that most of us have been where you are with our own kids & we remember. I took my 6 month old from NJ to Sydney, Australia once. Miserable. She wouldn’t stop crying if you set her down, refused to lay in the bassinet attached to the bulkhead & I ended up in the galley, holding her much of the way from LA to Sydney. I’ve been there, it will be OK. Your kid is welcome & most of us have been in your shoes.

The correct answer is that the First Officer screwed up. Maybe the FO wasn’t even flying, doesn’t matter. Probably pressed the transmit button on the yoke too hard. It’s never the Captain’s fault. Maybe there are slight, strategic critiques that can be made of the Captain’s performance, but it’s best to be delicate. For that matter, it’s best to be delicate when critiquing your FO’s performance, too. Get aggressive & they shut down, playing defense. Signed, Guy who spent many years as a First Officer, and flew with Generals & such before that, sometimes wanting to ask “what the fuck was that bullshit?” but had the wisdom to instead say “that didn’t go as I envisioned, sir, what did we do wrong?”

Leg 1 of 3 today gets a one hour weather delay & we get a go-around from tower due to spacing. Leg 2 already has a one hour delay & we’re going to miss that. About 25 jets in line for takeoff at LAS, storms closing in. This is why I prefer to just fly Hawaii & back.

Ouch. Looks like they will lose a billion dollars or more this year. After JetBlue, American is the carrier I’m watching as a canary in the coal mine, and the canary is getting quiet.

Hotels are superior. Just booked a hotel in Dublin for the kids & I. A little more expensive, but right next to Trinity College & Temple Bar, shopping, 5-star room & I know staff will be great. I get what I’m paying for. Don’t feel that way w/ Airbnb.

Rain is no reason not to practice…next tee time is Saturday in Maui, and I hope to break 100.

Most of the time we declare an “Emergency”, it ends up being kind of boring. In the U.S., we “declare an emergency” to get priority handling from Air Traffic Control (ATC). Technically, the correct way to do this is “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday”, but for some reason we don’t do that here. I suspect it’s because that’s associated w/ crashing in the movies, and an emergency isn’t the same as crashing, but that’s just my guess. Mayday is the way the rest of the world does it. Declaring an emergency or calling Mayday commands other traffic on the same frequency to remain silent. The rest of us shut up, this frequency is now reserved for the distressed jet & ATC. ATC will eventually move the distressed jet to a private frequency, as the rest of us still need to talk, but until then, keep your finger off the transmit button. ATC will want to know the nature of the emergency, how much fuel you have aboard (in minutes…how long can you fly?) and how many souls onboard (SOB). As Captain, our final weight numbers come through with the SOB, and I write that down on my yoke note…on a bad day, the FO & I will be counting heads as soon as we get off the jet. I’m going to be the last one off, after I go all the way to the back & sweep forward, looking for stragglers. As I say in my brief: “I’ll sweep forward, we’ll go down the slide, then start counting heads, herding cats & watching for fire trucks”. We’re herding cats because panicked people do unpredictable things. I want them in a single group away from the airplane, but that’s going to be tough to manage. I’m watching for fire trucks because they come barreling at you with high speed & may not see you…more than one person has been killed by a responding truck after successfully evacuating the jet. Anyway, declaring an Emergency (“the E word”) or Mayday is not something done casually. At the same time, it’s something you do when you know things are most likely going to be fine, but there’s a slight chance it’s not, and having those fire trucks waiting for you already would be really nice if it turns into a bad day. There are a lot of emergencies that spin up the whole system & end up being just fine, maybe even the majority, but you don’t want to be that outlier. It’s just that beyond some point, I’m not a fortune teller. The probability of bad things may still be low, but it’s suddenly higher than it usually is. I think many pilots are reluctant to declare an emergency, and can’t blame them; these things usually turn out fine. As soon as I throw out the E word, ATC will move everyone out of my way. They’ll move heaven & earth if needed, and can do some remarkable things to help you. I think of it as a license to do whatever I want…where ATC usually tells me to turn this way or that, or what runway I’ll be assigned for landing, that relationship completely flips & now I tell them what I’m doing. They will make it possible…even if I’m landing opposite direction at a busy airport like Chicago, at the busiest time of day, I know they’ll just say “you got it, cleared to land” and will “roll the fire trucks” (pre-position them at the ends of the runway…they will start chasing me as soon as I pass them). You can declare emergencies for many different reasons. A passenger medical emergency isn’t a threat to anyone else, but you’ll still get priority handling, even if they don’t roll the trucks for that (taxiing to the gate is best in that case, but they’ll clear traffic out of your way on the ground, too). So, always glad to see an emergency come to a safe conclusion, as the majority do. Just wanted to share some background on what that means & why it’s not always a reason to panic.

The usual layout for the kids on Taco Tuesday…but you have to up your game. Before I made the tortillas from scratch this morning, I made a surprise dessert for them. Caramel-Honey Flan. It calls for bee pollen garnish; I couldn’t find it so used lime zest. Win.

Dawn Patrol isn’t as exciting as it was when I’d strap on a helmet & parachute, then blast off into the dark in a little jet, but these guys have sheep to bark at the next field over. Appointments must be kept.

European military pilots would get based in TX to instruct at Shepard AFB as part of an international program. They bought big trucks, rented large houses & had a ball. Some took garbage disposals back to Europe, where it’s unheard of. Not everything is as it appears.