The joys of reserve

I flew (rode) out of Columbus early this morning to La Guardia where I am currently sitting on reserve. I ran into the only FO junior to me at the airport and he had the same assignment as me, so we sat next to each other on the flight and got caught up on all our IOE stories. I had to wait about an hour and a half for the hotel van, which I thought was very odd because the hotel is about a seven minute drive from the airport. So I was totally exhausted when I finally got to my room, and I went right to bed and slept till a little after noon.

And now I get to figure out what to do with the rest of my time on reserve. I spent the afternoon updating my logbook and getting a little company work done. Then I took a short walk outside, got a gook look at Shea Stadium, and came in to get some dinner. I ended up paying $17 for dinner WITH my 15% airline discount =0, but it was really good food and I got enough to feed a family of four, so I kept a lot to eat tomorrow.

Now I have time to catch up on all my email, and maybe to call some friends IF they will answer their phones, I only brought one book to read, so if you want to help alleviate some of my boredom, please give me a ring... on the phone. Oh that reminds me... (prize to anyone who can deduce my train of thought here)... I'm debating opening the case of root beer betting again- what do y'all think?

Training is OVER!

Completely and totally finished. Done. Yay! I finished last night with a intense thunder-storming flight into Indy. So now I get to start reserve on Tuesday. WooHoo... Nothing better than getting up at 4:30 am to wait for a phone call. I'm going to spend my days off trying to find a place to stay in Columbus... tell me if you know of any that cost less than $100/month for a bedroom please.

New Heights and New Places at New Speeds

IOE* is going really well! I've made 4 landings and flown about 15 hours so far.15 hours can take you a long way at 37000 feet- I've gotten an airspeed of Mach .78 and a ground speed of 500 knots. Got to go to NYC and see the Statue of Liberty for the first time yesterday. I'm in Richmond Va now, and I get to see both of the Carolinas for the first time tomorrow! I went to Boston this morning, but we had do run a 30 minute turn, so I didn't have time to into town or see anybody there :( It was fun though, I got to land on the fast plane runway (4R) instead of the slow runway (4L) like we used to with Big Sky. We've had loads ranging from 26 to 50 people on every trip, but I haven't recognized anybody I know yet.

That is my life for now. Still haven't found out exactly what is going to happen to me when I get done on Friday, and my cell is down to two bars, so I only turn it on to check messages twice or thrice a day.

*Initial Operating Experience

I passed my checkride!!!

So now I have a EMB 145 type rating and I'm all set to do some real flying!

Half way through sim!

Since my last update I've passed my oral, visited Joel&Stacey in Iowa, met some RPCNAers in Saint Louis, and made it half way through sim training.

Sim has been super intense, with a learning curve of astronomical proportions. Fortunately, we were fairly warned and so we really worked hard through ground school to get ahead here. Our instructor said our work has paid off and that we are way ahead of his last few groups, but I'm not sure I'm ready to believe him yet. We get the day off tomorrow, and then after three more training sessions we have our ultimate test of flight skills.
We did windshear, terrain avoidance and rapid depressurization/emergency descent training today. Pretty fun. I got a huge windshear and had to hold my plane at the shaker for a long time before I could out some altitude under me.

here's a quick shot of us in the sim:

and some sights on my way out here