Sit and Wait

Well Ill just do a quick blog to update on how things are going in dis hood. Seriously, In Chicago I live in not the greatest area, its not crime filled, but it isn't some place I would want to raise my own children. I'm staying in what we pilots ironically call a crashpad. Basically it's an apartment that someone owns, and this case, isn't a pilot and actually not even related to the aviation industry at all, he rents outs beds to people. Not rooms, beds. There are different types of crashpads, some you don't have a assigned bed, you just have a "hot bed". Meaning you show up and choose a bed that's open. Store your sheets somewhere in the house when you leave and bring them out again when you come back. Some crashpads have assigned beds, that's what I'm in. I don't have to worry about packing up my sheets, well actually I just use a sleeping bag, makes it so much easier that way. In this crashpad there is 2 rooms. Each room has 3 bunk beds for a total of 6 beds per room and a total of 12 guys in the apartment. On average there is probably only 3 people per night that stay here so it really isn't as bad as it seems. In fact, there wasn't anyone here at all yesterday for the majority of the day and then no one spent the night but me and I'm all alone still. It doesn't really make any difference to me if there is people here or not. Gives me someone to talk to if there is someone here tho. But the reason that I have to stay in this delightful place is because I'm on "reserve". Meaning that they give me a call out time period that they can call me at any time in between. That time for me usually is 10:00am to 1:00am the next morning. So if any other pilot calls in sick, or they are delayed in another city and cant make their next flight out of Chicago they call reserve pilots to do the flying. Well there is about 15 of us on the plane that I fly, that are on reserve. So I'm like number 7 / 15 so there is a few people that get called before me. It always goes in order of who is the most junior person and who isn't already doing something else and if they are legal to do the flying. But because I fly the CRJ -

It means that I fly less then the people who fly the other jet that we have, the Embraer -

The reason for this is that we only have 25 CRJ's and we have over 200 Embraers. So you figure there is about 5 pilots per airplane that only leaves about 125 First Officers and 125 Captains. Then on the embraer there is probably about 1100 first officers and 1100 captains. Now don't quote me on these numbers, I'm just taking a shot in the dark. But there is alot of people who don't want to fly the CRJ because there isn't as many of them, so the schedule isn't going to be as luxurious as it would be on the other airplane. Personal choice I guess. The CRJ is a much better airplane then the Embraer and if I did need to find another job, there is quite a few more airlines that are using CRJ's instead of Embraer's so It looks good on a resume. But Hopefully in the next few months I will be able to hold a line. Or in otherwords, have a set schedule that I know what days I will be flying for sure. Instead of sitting around and waiting. It could be 4 days flying 3 days off. Better than not doing anything, and I would get paid more and have more days off a month. Sounds like a better deal to me.

Some of you might wonder how I ended up in Chicago to begin with. Since I moved to Dallas to be close to where I would be working. Well, I was based in Dallas for a little while, 7 months or so I think. It was really great living right next to the airport and having the ability to go in if they did call me while I was just hanging out at home doing absolutely nothing! But, the downside of Dallas wasn't the convince, it was the other people there. I despised some of the captains i had the pleasure of flying with. Not all of them mind you, just like 60%. Most of the guys in Dallas are really senior. Been there along time, don't like new guys and hate their job. Well, what ended up happening was there was going to be a shifting around of airplanes and pilots and we could tell them what we would prefer to have done to us, didn't mean that it would happen, but you could do it anyways. Well, there is a code to do this "preference choice" and then there is a code that tells them that you want to "transfer bases" Well the 2 codes are identical expect 1 letter. Well I got confused and used the wrong code and the preference choice wouldn't do anything to you right away, but the base transfer would. So 1 letter ends me here in Chicago. But to be honest with you, I wouldnt go back to Dallas. The people here are a BLAST to work with. I've had so much more fun at my job since being here. I actually am excited to get a phone call to go flying now, instead of, "Oh great, who are they going to make me fly with now? Another fag?" So, here I am....In Chicago. Ha ha. The major downside to Chicago is that Im here, and my beautiful pregnant wife is in Dallas. 5 days here, 3 days in Dallas...She doesnt really like it. We are planning on moving back to Utah after our lease is up in May if we can afford to. If I am commuting, we might as well be closer to family, since of course we will have a baby then.

So I'm just sitting here in Chicago waiting for them to call me. It is actually a possibility that they could call me today. There is only 1 person below me that is open to fly, which could mean I might get called. I get paid either way, so If I don't get called, no bother.