Professional Pilot Career Journal

March 27, 2004 – Last night in Newark

Tomorrow is my last day of reserve duty in Newark. I was thrilled to be awarded my base transfer to Cleveland as of April 1 and am looking forward to a significantly higher quality of life. Next week my fiancée and I will also be moving from Chicago to Cleveland so I won’t have to commute anymore. Thank God.

Don’t get me wrong – I am quite happy to even have a good flying job in this industry but commuting while being on reserve just plain sucks. They haven’t been using me very much (I flew a total of 27 hours in March) so I spend most of my day sitting in my crashpad, including my 30^th birthday yesterday. Most days I don’t even bother getting up until 11:00 or so because seriously, what’s the point? I’m just too old to be living in what amounts to a glorified college dorm full of pilots. Everyone in the crashpad is pretty cool but I have developed a serious case of cabin fever and was getting lazier by the day. It’s just no way to live and I don’t see how people can put up with it long-term. Even though I spent seven months last year commuting from Las Vegas to Chicago it was a lot different because my life was really in Chicago. But that isn’t the case with Newark and I will really be happy to say goodbye to this place when I leave it for the last time tomorrow. And another thing, people here are the worst drivers I have ever seen in my life.

I think once we arrive in Cleveland I’m going to be quite happy. It probably won’t be long until I’m off reserve but being on reserve is actually pretty cool when you are at your home instead of being in a completely different city. In my spare time I am considering getting into some other activities. Carey will generally be away on trips while I’m working so I really would like to make good use of my time while I’m waiting for a phone call to fly. I definitely will be taking better care of my body – my apartment complex has a basketball court which I plan to use frequently. With good weather approaching, I also hope to spend some time in nearby Cuyahoga National Park to catch up on some hiking. I have also considered doing some teaching or tutoring of math or computer science, ramping up my consulting business, getting back into Civil Air Patrol, or maybe even learning to cook! Really whatever, as long as I feel productive.

The small amount of flying I have been doing has been good. I’ve flown literally about one day a week but even with that I am quickly getting more comfortable in the airplane. Today I did a round trip to Baltimore followed by another one to Pittsburgh. I hadn’t flown into either of those airports before. Also, the pilots and flight attendants I have flown with have been wonderful people – even a notch more pleasant than the great crews I flew with at ACA. That really makes all the difference in this job. I’m really looking forward to doing some more flying with these folks.

I did enjoy a 4-day trip earlier this month which took me to some places in the south like Houston and Lake Charles in Louisiana. It was nice to be where the weather was 80 degrees when back at home it was still snowing. I can’t wait to fly to Tucson, Bakersfield, Palm Springs and Denver. I’ll definitely be bringing the camera along an those trips.

It’s fun to run into people I used to fly with at O’Hare when I’m commuting. A lot of people I knew weren’t aware I was furloughed from ACA and when they see my uniform they do a bit of a double-take. I’m going to miss my friends in Chicago a great deal. Carey and I don’t know a soul in Cleveland but we have each other and we generally make new friends easily. We will be making frequent visits back to Chicago which is only a one-hour flight. It’s nice that distances are shortened so much by being in this career.