Professional Pilot Career Journal

April 3, 2006 – LAS, IAH and LAX

For the last three months I’ve been flying a very solid and regular schedule – about 80 hours per month and being paid for 90-95. This is how my trips typically go.

Thursday nights I leave my home in Las Vegas (LAS) and take a red-eye flight into Houston. This has not been an easy commute. The flights are always very full which often forces me into the jumpseat, after worrying if I will even get on the flight. But usually there are no problems and I arrive in Houston (IAH) sometime between 0400 and 0600 on Friday morning. Sometimes I am lucky enough to have a late show-time on Friday which allows me to commute in Friday mornings instead of Thursday nights, which makes me much happier.

After getting a few hours of sleep Friday mornings, I start my trip. I usually do three flights the first day and end up in a southern city at around 2200 Friday night. Lately it has been places like Lubbock, Austin, Shreveport and other places where the hotels are decent and the weather nice and warm for this time of year. I get a very good night’s sleep Friday night, catching up from the Thursday night commute, and wake up late Saturday mornings in time to start my day.

On Saturdays I fly back to Houston, then head to Mexico. The cities in Mexico I fly to are always one of Leon, Morelia, or Aquascalientes. Sit there for an hour, then fly to Los Angeles (LAX). These flights to LAX are some of the longest in our system, taking three-and-a-half hours or more.

I really like flying into LAX. It’s a well run airport, very consistent, and it’s just plain kinda cool. We always land to the west, touching down and turning off the runway before heading into the ocean. We park the aircraft usually around 2230 and catch the shuttle to the infamous Holiday Inn LAX.

This is the worst hotel in our entire system. It’s bad even for a Holiday Inn. Despite much complaining on my part and others, the company has no desire to change us out of this hotel which lies in the middle of a very bad area of Los Angeles at I-405 and Century Blvd. The hotel itself is rundown and has a host of problems with plumbing, doors not working right, and putting us into rooms that are already occupied. I get to look out my window at hookers and other various street people. PLEASANT, let me tell you. I usually fall asleep an hour or two after arrival, engaging all the locks on my door.

The next day we spent all day in the hotel, or sometimes catch the nice free shuttle that runs to Manhattan Beach. The shuttle is the only nice thing about this location – it runs on the hour and takes you right to the heart of shopping and restaurants near a pretty decent beach. A couple of times my crew and I have rented bikes and rode to Santa Monica or other various locations on a really cool bike path that runs for miles along the Southern California coast. Sometimes I just hang in the hotel and do my consulting work, depending on what I need to accomplish. I have seen some wonderful sunsets on the beach and seen very interesting (and expensive) real estate. I enjoy my Sundays in LA.

Then at 2330 we catch the shuttle back to the airport. We take off out of LAX for the three-hour return flight to Mexico, sit for an hour, then return to Houston. That flight to Houston requires caffeine – it’s simply not natural to stay up all night and fly until 0900. But I’ve handled it pretty well and have found different ways to stay awake.

My trip is over, and I catch the 0945 flight back to LAS Monday morning. It is wonderful to get home. Our new house in Las Vegas is beautiful and I love being there with my wife. We make the most of our days off together, then it all starts over again Thursday night.

I have been unable to drop any of my trips like I did last year due to understaffing, which is unfortunate as I find myself somewhat burned out on this schedule. I only sleep in a bed five out of seven nights, but my choosing this schedule does maximize my time at home, which is the most important thing. I’m usually back in my house by noon on Mondays. I hope our reserve coverage improves at some point because I could use a little bit of time off since I have no vacation scheduled until September.

Airline news: Continental announced plans a few months back to withdraw 25% of our flying and give it to another unnamed airline(s) in 2007. This has caused some stress but our management says they have plans in place to replace that flying. Hopefully their idea isn’t to start another ACA/Independence Air, which finally ended as the miserable failure that it was and closed its doors in January. I am now a super-senior first officer in Houston, bidding around number 50 out of 700 first officers which allows me to essentially choose my schedule, especially since I like working weekends. I have just bypassed upgrade to captain for a third time, but I plan to actually take the plunge and bid for upgrade in July. My intention is to start training in the fall and be holding a scheduled line as a captain by the end of the year. After what will be three years of being an FO here, it’s time to get off my ass and take the promotion. But I wanted to ensure I would be senior enough that I wouldn’t have to go back on reserve when I upgraded, and it looks like my timing will be just good enough to ensure that.

So until that time I’ll most likely continue with these LAX trips and enjoy the heat as it arrives in Las Vegas. It’s a good life. We are happy and looking forward to exciting things ahead.