Robert Stogsdill’s Flyblog

Reserve is kind of boring, yet kind of fun at the same time. Its pretty amazing that this month I have only flown about 23 hours and currently only have another 3hrs scheduled. I have sat reserve the whole month. I live in base, so I sit around in my pajamas and sleep in until I wake up, or until scheduling calls and wakes me up. I feel sort of like a bum without a job, but then I remember that I do have a job, and that I am technically on duty.

If only the pay was better.

The picture below is actually pretty boring, but here is the story to go with it.

This was the weather yesterday at Dulles:

KIAD 141852Z 18004KT 3/4SM BR OVC004 12/12 A2989 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 4 SLP121 T01220117

So every time we would come into Dulles we were shooting an approach to just above minimums. The first 2 legs were IAD - CRW - IAD. We flew out to CRW just fine, but on the way back I noticed the red “VIB” flag on my altimeter. The altimeter would also stick by 500 feet. The captains altimeter which has a completly seperate system to mine would show us going through 2000′ while mine would stick at 1500′ and then come unstuck and quickly swing around to match up. When we finally leveled off, my altimeter was almost 125′ off of the captains, and just as a joke I tapped on the glass face, but it actually began to correct itself by 10′ every time I tapped on it. So I tapped until it was pretty close to correct.

My altimeter in the decent would always lag by about 100′ so as we began our approach into Dulles my call outs were based on what I saw on the captains side, I decided not trust my instruments. We landed at Dulles and we were supposed to have a quick turn back out to MGW. However since the red flag was still up, he wrote up the altimeter and grounded the plane.

Fast forward to 2.5 hours later, we finally have a plane with a new altimeter. Finally its my leg, the Captain flew the first 2 legs and I was going to take the rest of the day. So we are cleared for take off, and as you do in the Saab, the captain controls the steering until 80kias when the first officer makes the “80 Knots” call out to verify we are both reading the same thing. At that time the captain either says “My controls” or “Your controls” this time he said my controls as it was my leg, and I took over the steering. The captain then called v1, Rotate, and off the ground we were.

In the Saab all of the autopilot is run off of the captains side. His side has an air data computer (ADC.) We also prefer to climb out at an airspeed instead of a vertical speed. So as we are climbing out, I keep hitting the vert sync button on my yoke. The speed at which the captains side airspeed indicator is indicating, will show up in the top right of the efis screen as you can see in the picture. As we climb out we are about 400′ AGL and we are IMC and I hit the vert sync button, my side is showing around 140kias but when I hit the vert sync, 150kias shows up. I know that normally they are off by 2 or 3 knots, but never 10. So I click it again and its off by 15 knots. My airspeed begins to decrease down to 120, and I lower the nose to gain some speed. I then ask the captain what his side is showing and its reading 180kias, and the stand-by airspeed indicator is showing 180kias. We quickly realize my side is messed up, and the captain takes the controls. So we reorganize a bit, and I take over radios and he flys the plane. Pretty much just like you do in the sim, this is a fairly common problem they throw at you in the sim.

We call ops and they tell us to keep going to our destination. I was glad I brought my over night bag. However a few hours after we land we get an FAA ferry permit and bring the plane back to Dulles. It was very strange not having any of my normal instruments working during the whole flight. Sometimes at a split second I would forget mine were off, and would think something was wrong.

Anyway, here is the picture. We are climbing at 174kias going through 7000′ for 8000′.

Just over a week ago I completed IOE. I finished up with 11 landings and just over 20 hours. IOE was a great experience. I was able to have 2 separate check airmen and learned a ton from both. The only thing I am a little disappointed in was the fact that I was unable to shoot any real instrument approaches. We setup for an ILS into White Plains, however we broke out well above decision height.  My landings throughout IOE where pretty decent. I didnt have any “hard landings,” getting onto centerline was another story though.

I currently have 51 hours in the Saab and am starting to get a real feel for how the plane flys.  At first I was having difficulty on visual approaches, where we would come in real tight and I would have to judge when to turn. Going from a Cessna to a Saab is a big difference. However Im getting the hang of it and having a blast.

Last Wednesday I began IOE with Colgan. IOE stands for Initial Operating Experience. You fly with a Captain who is also whats known as a Check Airmen. A Check Airmen is given special training to fly with new guys. IOE is normally about 20 - 25 hours of flying time with Colgan. During IOE you are flying real routes with passengers in the back. No they dont know that the guy up front of brand new, and you dont ever want them to know this. After IOE you are released and allowed to fly with any other Captain who has more than 100 hours in the aircraft (they dont want 2 new guys flying the plane.) It would be pretty hard to find a Captain right now with Colgan who has less than 100 hours in the Saab.

The cool part about my IOE so far is that I am doing it out of Charlottesville, Virginia. This is the same airport that I would fly to with my students when I was instructing. Another funny part is that we would fly from Manassas to Charlottesville. My first day of IOE was Charlottesville - Dulles - Charlottesville - Dulles - Charlottesville. For those that dont know, Dulles and Manassas are about 2 minutes by air from each other. I was basically flying the same route on IOE that I was flying previously with students.

I arrived into Charlottesville about 2 hours prior to our scheduled departure to Dulles. An hour later my check airmen showed up. We discussed the flights and what routes we would take. We talked about what was expected of me. He told me about the things that you do while flying for an airline that I was not used to doing while flying outside of an airline.

Side track warning to explain pilot flying and non-pilot flying: Many people, friends mostly, ask me “Do you actually fly the plane?” “Do you land it?” Well the answer is, yes of course, why wouldn’t I? When you are in a multi-crew environment you decide prior to the flight who is going to physically fly the aircraft and who is going to do all the non-pilot flying stuff. Pilot flying stuff is fairly simple to explain, this is the person that will have his hands on the yoke and manipulate the plane. This is the person that will actually take off, and the person that will land the plane. What does the non-pilot flying do? He does everything else. Now to a new guy like me, the non pilot flying duties can be a bit overwhelming. To an experienced person its nothing. The non flying pilot will do all the radio calls. The non flying pilot will run a flow after take off to get the plane to begin to pressurize, he will pull back the prop RPM a bit, he will also turn off external lights that are no longer needed to be one. He will then run a climb checklist to make sure everything is done. The non flying pilot will call back to operations after take off to let them know our times (they want to know what time we backed out of the gate and what time we left the ground, this information goes into the computer and lets your companies dispatch know that your on time, it also lets people log on online and see that the plane has left its location.) The non flying pilot will make all radio calls along the way. When we get into range of the destination airport the pilot not flying will get the weather and call the operations of that airport and let them know that we are “in range.”

For my first flight I would be the non flying pilot and the check airmen would fly the plane. But there is much more to do prior to even pushing back from the gate. We get out to the airplane and I set my flight case next to the stairs. Its my duty to walk around the aircraft and make sure everything is in order prior to flight. Im looking for basic stuff, are the tires properly inflated, do they have enough tread, is there any fluid leaking from the hydraulic lines and much more, but too boring to explain. After a walk around of the plane I hop up on in and get situated. I now have 3 things I need to get working on. Getting the current weather, getting our clearance and then beginning the weight and balance. Prior to every flight we must manually complete a weight and balance. The first bits of information I get from a release. A release is basically paper document that contains weather information, fuel information, NOTAMS, runway information for our aircraft, and a ton more. Its about 8 pages long. The information that the release gives me that I need for our weight and balange are the basic operating weight of the plane, how much fuel we plan to have on board, how much fuel we plan to burn on taxi, and en route. I complete all the information that I can from that. By the time I have completed these 3 things the passengers are on board and Im waiting for the rest of the information I need for the weight and balance. The gate agent will then hand the Captain a document that says how many people we have on board and how many bags we have. I then have to quickly use this information to complete our weight and balance. While Im adding up our weight, the captain has a tool to we call a See Gee wheel to make sure that the plane is loaded up correctly. It checks to see that we dont have too much weight in the aft or in the front of the plane. He then spits a bunch of numbers off to me, I write them them down and hand him the completed weight and balance. He signs it and hands it to the gate agent.

Its now my job to use the release and the take off weight that I just calculated to see how much power we need for take off. We RARELY use 100% power for take off. I would say on average we use about 88% of our normal available power. At the same time Im doing this Im also supposed to be calling ground to ask for permission to begin taxiing. After I get the speeds and take off power figured out, we are normally taxiing to the runway. The captain will then call for me to brief the numbers which I just calculated and to run the taxi checklist. I brief the numbers, and run the checklist.

The next thing I know we are at the runway ready for take off. I flip over to the tower frequency and ask for take-off clearance. Tower clears us for take off. Its now time for me to run through my before take off checklist. Gust lock off, props to max, flight controls checked, transponder to alt, tcas to auto, radar standby, bleed valves off, check all the warning lights. I run this through my head, trying to remember everything from memory. I pull the checklist off the dash and quickly read all of these things aloud, verifying that I have done them. By this time the captain is about to turn the nose of the aircraft down the runway. I hit the take-off inhibit button, external lights on, and say “before take off checklist complete.” The captain advances the power levers forward. Holy shit.. this is happening. The captains asks for me to set the power. (pretty much the only automated thing we have in the Saab is whats called the CTOT. We basically turn a knob to pick our torque setting so that all you have to do is flick a switch and the plane adds or decreases fuel as necessary to keep the torque setting the same. This saves us from having to play with the power levers while going down the runway, trying to set it just right.) I bring the CTOT switch to the APR setting. I scan the instruments, all green, I shout “power set.” Whoops, there goes my 80 knot call out that I forgot. I shout 80 knots, even though we are actually at 100knots. The captain replies “My controls.” I confirm “Your controls.” Next thing I know we are at V1. I shout “V1, Rotate.” The captains smoothly rotates the Saab into the air. I say “positive rate.” The captain replies “Gear Up.” Me.. “in transit” as I bring the gear handle up. I then run through my climb flow. Mid-way through my flow, the tower is calling us, telling us to contact departure. Ahhh, its going so fast! I flip to departure and let them know our altitude and where we are going and then back to my flow. The captain then calls for the climb checklist. I silently read the checklist, verifying I did everything I was supposed to do on climb out. The captain then flips on the autopilot and tells me to call back to operations to give them our out and off times. In most flights, the pilot not flying can now have a breather. However when the flights is only 20 minutes long going up to Dulles, we are pretty much “in range” of Dulles.

I tune in the weather at Dulles and scribble it down to brief to the Captain. The plane then levels off at 6000 feet. Approach then calls us and starts to give us vectors for the airport. The captain then tells me to call Dulles operations and let them know that we are in range of the airport. At the same time they tell me what gate we should expect to be pulling into. Using the weather and our weight I figure out our landing V speeds. The captain then asks me to brief the V speeds. I brief him. He then asks for the descent checklist. I complete the descent checklist. What seems like seconds later he begins to track the localizer for runway 1 Center at Dulles. He asks for me to complete the approach and in range checklist. I then call up approach and let them know we have the runway in sight. Approach clears us for the visual approach. We flip over to tower, we are cleared to land.

We are now on the glideslope for the runway, and the captain is calling for flaps, he then calls for the gear down. I begin my gear down flow. The captain calls for flaps 20 and before landing checklist. I bring the flaps to 20 and read aloud the before landing checklist. We are now on short final. He brings the plane in right on speed. He then lets the plane settle onto the runway, but doesnt grease it. He tries to prove to me a point that we cannot try to grease every landing, and float down the runway. In a cessna you didnt need all that runway, but when your at a short runway with a turbine powered aircraft, you need to get it on the runway and stop it. We pull off the runway and tower tells us to call ground. I call ground and am bombarded with taxi instructions. I manage to spit them back correctly. As we get closer to the ramp where the aircraft are parked I have to call the ramp to ask for permission in. I let them know our gate and we are cleared in, but are told to hold short. As we pull up to a spot near our gates we are told that our gate is currently full. We wait for almost 20 minutes for a gate to open up. I found it funny that we spent more time on the ground waiting for a gate, than we did in the air getting to Dulles. We finally pull into the gate. I do my engine shut down flown, read off the parking checklist, and then call ops to give them our on and in times.

An hour and a half later its my turn to fly, and for the captain to do everything I did on the first flight (besides the stuff before take off, weight and balance, and speeds, thats always the first officers job.)

The day after we passed our indoctrination test we where sent to St Louis, Missouri for training in the Saab Simulator. Colgan gives us 7 sim sessions and then a proficiency check. Sim is basically one huge mind fuck, to be honest. The first day you fly the sim you are just getting used to it, we went out and did steep turns, stalls and shot a few instrument approaches. Thats where the normal flying stopped.

Sim sessions 2 through 7 are just pretty much the worst things. After you are finished, you realize how fun it all was. But when you have an engine failure prior to rotation, then a generator failure on the engine that does work and you have to fly using only a compass and back up instruments, it gets really tiring. You are running checklists over and over and over again. The biggest thing you learn about checklists is FINISH THEM (more on this later.) They basically want to give you the worst possible situations and see how you handle it, and see IF you can handle it. They also want to make the proficiency check seem like a cake walk in comparison to what they have put you through during sim.

On a side note for any family and non-aviation geeks, the sim which we fly in is a full motion simulator. The inside is a full mock up of the actual aircraft. Every button does what it really does in the real plane. When we have a hard landing in the sim, the simulator shakes and gives us a hard hit. When we retract the landing gear, we feel a thud as the gear locks up into the plane. Its about as real as it gets, and trust me, when your coming in an your about to crash it, you actually feel a bit of fear thinking its real.

The proficiency check was easy in comparison to what you get during sim training. However because you are now being tested, it is stressful. My flying partner and roommate went first. Basically the guy in the right seat flies the plane and the left seat guy runs the actual checklists and talks on the radios. You use each other, otherwise it would be impossible to fly the plane.  My partner passes his ride, he also received no retraining. During our proficiency checks we are allowed to be retrained on 3 things during the actual checkride.

During my checkride we learned why completing checklists is necessary ;D  After taking off we where told to fly a localizer approach. While setting up for the approach and landing we tried to extend the flaps like you normally would. However our flaps failed. My flying partner then ran the checklist for no flaps. The checklist will basically run down a few items to look at, it will give you new airspeeds for your approach, as now you will not have flaps to slow you down. The new speeds are located on this chart, and right underneath the chart is the last part of the checklist, which we forgot to do. The last part basically tells you to override the Ground Proximity Warning System. In normal flight if you have no flaps down and you are close to terrain, the aircraft will start to yell at you “Terrain, Terrain.” Then it will say “Pull up, Pull up.” You are required to follow it. When you put your flaps down, it overrides this warning.  However when your flaps arent working and your coming into land you dont want that thing shouting at you, and giving you a false warning, because of course your getting close to terrain, YOUR LANDING! However we forgot the flip the override switch. So while coming into land the plane starts yelling at me to pull up, I realize that this is a checkride and there is no way I am going to crash into a mountain I cant see and bust the checkride (these checkrides are done with the plane set at “night time” so you cant see anything but runway lights), so I opt to go around. As soon as I call for the missed approach the person giving the checkride pauses the sim and asks us what just happened. My partner then fesses up that he just realized we didnt finish the checklist and thats why the plane was shouting at us. Lesson learned to us about finishing checklists.

We are then given vectors to another airport. At the other airport we are told that we are going to shoot an approach to one runway, but circle to another. No big deal, we had done this same approach a ton of times before in training. However this time it was going to be without flaps, she kept them failed. The problem with this is that now instead of coming in at around 125 knots, Im coming in at somewhere closer to 150knots.  So as I begin to turn toward the runway at the same location I always would have, I overshoot the runway. I also come in high, as we have no flaps, this causes the plane to start shouting “Sink rate, sink rate” meaning Im coming down to fast. My mind is now going nuts thinking, “Oh shit, Im about to fail this checkride.” I then have a hard landing. The person doing our check then asks me if I knew how much bank I had into the turn. I said that I knew it was “alot.” She then said “you had 45 degrees.” Pretty unacceptable.  30 degrees is pretty much max allowed. She then started me back at the beginning and gave me flaps this time. I came around and turned towards the runway and had a perfect circle landing. This was my only “retraining” during proficiency check. Needless to say I was pretty pleased to get it over with

So I failed at keeping this up to date. But ground school is pretty intense and the last thing you think about is keeping your blog up to date.

6 weeks ago (or there abouts..) I started Saab ground school with Colgan. Ground school for the Saab is in Manassas, which is where I instructed and 25 minutes from where I lived. This made my experience much different from everyone else in my class. Everyone else who attends a 121 ground school is NORMALLY away from home and is able to focus completely on studying. My friends really couldnt understand why I wouldnt hang out with them on occasions that I normally would have. Sometimes however I did ditch studying to go hang out with my friends on the weekend.

Ground school is broken up into 2 phases. Systems and Indoctrination. Systems is just what it sounds like, systems that are on and inside of the aircraft. Electrical, Hydraulics, Pneumatic, etc. Indoctrination is basically learning the rules in which we operate our aircraft. Normally you go through indoc first, and once you pass the indoc test you move on to systems. However for us they switched it around. We arent sure why, but it turned out to be a pretty good deal.

The systems are extremely in depth and going from a light twin to a fully loaded Saab that can take off at 29,000lbs is a huge step and when most systems are only covered for a day, and never touched on again you better prepare to be bombarded with information. Most compare it to drinking water from a fire hose. The first 2 weeks where spent on systems, one a day. After the 2 weeks we took a 100 question, multiple choice test. I passed. To be honest the test was much easier than most of us had thought it would be. They go much further in depth on each system in class than they will on the test.

We then moved onto indoctrination.  To be honest we all found indoctrination to be a bit of a joke since it was an open book test. Most of the stuff you know already, but are required to be taught it again. Yes, I passed this open book test.

Next onto Sim….

So lets not beat around the bush, AMR, the parent company to American and American Eagle had to make a decision due to rising fuel prices. Their decision was that for AMR to start making some cash ($300 million dollar loss in the first quarter of this year,) they would have to ground planes. Between 70 and 80 plane, 30 - 40 of those planes are going to be Eagle planes. That comes out to be about 400 pilots. At the point this decision was made, they decided to cancel all future training classes. Which included my class.

When did I find out this information? Just after I had successfully completed the RJO course with Flight Safety I was sitting in LaGuardia, waiting for my connection to Washington I saw this on the national news. I then got a phone call from HR notifying me of classes being canceled. It was a pretty crap day.

Fast forward to 3 weeks later. I walked my resume into Chuck Colgans office. The outcome seemed fairly grim. Colgan had raised its minimums to 1000/100. I dont even come close to those minimums. Chuck and Cathy and I talked anyway, and I left feeling like I wouldnt hear anything. A day later Chuck emailed me with an invite to LaGuardia to interview and sim test. Well that was yesterday, and again I left feeling like I had not done my best.

This morning I received a phone call from my sister who works in Colgan customer service. She asked me how my interview went, I told her it went so-so. She said that Karen and Cathy thought it went really well. I said “oh really? thats good.” My sister then told me that I was hired!! I didnt believe her at first, I thought it was my sister just playing around. Chuck and Cathy apparently thought it would be a good/funny idea for my sister to let me know, and to be honest I thought it was great. If it was not for my family’s support, I wouldnt be where I am today.

I start Saab class next Wednesday and Im thrilled. In these dark times of aviation, the chance to even interview somewhere is an amazing thing.

Well the Seminole flying is all done. I felt pretty fortunate the whole time that I had previous Seminole time as well as Garmin 430 time. It made me realize that knowing how your systems work makes all the difference in the world. I didnt feel that I ever was lost, or that I didnt know what I was doing.

The first day my roommate and flying partner flew Vero beach - Titusville - Daytona Beach - St Augustine. We landed in St Augustine and reversed the route. I then flew the same route back. On the second day my partner again had the first leg and flew Vero Beach - Melbourne - Orlando - Tampa Bay. My partner flew the ILS at a much higher than normal approach speed to get the feeling of the speed that we will be flying the Embraer with Eagle. Normal approach speed for a Seminole is anywhere between 88 - 100 knots. He flew the approach at 165 knots. The best part was that we ended up racing a Continental 757 on approach. We won.

The last Seminole flight we went down to Miami and back. We are all glad to be done with the Seminole. We didnt apply with an airline to fly light general aviation aircraft.

We now have 3 days of ground school based on the navigation systems. Today was all about programming the FMS and how it works. We finally got to sit down in the full motion simulator and program the FMS. Its amazing how automated these aircraft are. We pretty much monitor the aircraft after take off.

Ill most likely update during the sim sessions. We all just want to get to American Eagle training in Dallas. While it is fun getting a tan in Florida, you then realize that your not being paid, it kind of sucks.

So my roommate and I are not quite sure if this is a vacation or training. Because the training has changed, as said below. The only thing we are doing is instrument refresher stuff, and if you havent been able to grasp instrument flying by now, you shouldnt be here.

Yesterday my rommate and I (who is also my flying partner) sat by the pool for 3 or 4 hours, threw a football around, and then went to the Seminole frasca for 4 hours. We both shot 3 approches. 1 ILS, 1 Back course, and 1 VOR DME Arc. The first portion of the flight we acted as if it was a real flight with vectors and following victor airways. Our instructor said we did very well. We where both pretty pleased.

Today was pretty much the same thing. We sat out by the pool, threw around a football and then in 2 hours we are going to fly the frasca Seminole.  So far this hsa been fun. We will see what happens when we get into the ERJ Sim.

Well on Sunday I arrived into Orlando at about 1130am, the van was not scheduled to pick us up until 430pm. The drive from Orlando to Flight Safety is about an hour and 30 minutes, so they dont want to have seperate transportation for everyone. I checked out the aiport, which is more like a very nice american mall, got some food and just hung out. At about 2:30 I went to the meeting point of the shuttle and just sat down. A few minutes later a person walked up to me and asked if I was with Eagle. I replied yes, and he said he was too, and that there where other guys upstairs. He then mentioned after hearing my name that he had read my blog.

4 Hours later we arrived at Flight Safety. We where supposed to have 8 guys ride with us, but due to some confusion only 6 made it at the time. Once arriving we stepped out and a guy smoking outside asks if we are with Eagle. He then says that he justs finished the 3 week course and tells us all about it. He says that you basically have flows and crew management to study the first few days, then you hop into the seminole for 6 hours of pilot flying and 6 hour non-pilot flying. You then go over systems and flow for the Erj145 and then you get your Erj145 sim time. We where then greeted by Shane Johnson, the guy in charge of the RJO program. He had heard the other student explaining the program to us and said it was going to be different for us. Apparently Eagle called up Flight Safety and said “Hey, these are the current problems we are having with guys… so work on this stuff.” That new stuff is instrument skills, apparently new hires are having difficulty flying STARS, SIDS, and non-precision approaches. Shane then hands us our keys, and then shows us the class room which we will meet in the next day and then walks us into the dormitory. The dorm rooms are not bad. Its 2 persons to a room. The rooms include 2 desks, a TV with cable, microwave, fridge, toaster and restrooms in each room. Washer and dryer are free as well.

The next 2 days comprised of 16 hours of ground school. The instructors mentioned that they where just winging it because the program had changed at very short notice and that they weren’t sure what exactly to cover. They said this was supposed to be the new order of things: 2 days of Jepp Charts. 2 seminole frasca sessions 2 hours a piece. 6 hours of seminole time, 3 days long, 2 hour flights each. Then we have ground school for 3 days and talk about the navigational systems on the Erj145. Then we have an Erj 145 cockpit procedures lesson. Then 4 sim sessions, 4 hours each, 2 hours pilot flying and 2 hours non-pilot flying. We are actually scheduled to finish before the 3 weeks finish.

You can tell that the instructors are confused on how to throw us into an Embraer full motion sim without ever going over systems with us. Apparently the last classes where able to do V1 cuts, stalls, steep turns as well as instrument procedures. We will NOT be doing any of this, we will be strictly doing instrument procedures in the sim. Im a little disappointed as I really wanted to do a few V1 cuts before heading to Dallas, but oh well.

So far the instructors are awesome. We have been dealing with the older guys who don’t actually seem to fly for Fly Safety anymore. One guy mentioned not having a medical anymore, another guy is a retired 20 year captain with ASA and another guy flys a caravan for fedex feeder. He has been doing that for 15 years.

Anyway, I will update a little more after a few more days.