USAIR TALES # 16 KPIT - KCLT A Minor Issue... (Part 1)

Christmas was coming and I had plans. I had decided to fly to Jamaica by way of Charlotte to spend the holidays with my family down there. Lolo had been bugging me to take her again, so I arranged for Jess to send her to CLT for the pickup. Should be good getting some beach time with my daughter... Lord knows we have not had much time to bond in the last few months.



I'd still been playing musical first officers up till now, allowing people who needed checkrides to fly with me on Steeler Air, and there seemed to be no end to the wealth of applicants. Alas, good ole N733UW was in the shop for another 100 hours maintenance, so dispatch stuck me with the blue oversized sausage... the A321. Sheesh. They could have at least had it repainted! As I got ready I checked the schedule to see who was going to join me on this flight...

Hmm, Chris Minor... oh yeah, he's that eager beaver pilot from LAS, or DCA, or wherever he hub-hopped to now... I seem to recall he is a good hand in the CRJ.

No sooner I thought it, there he was... Uniform pressed and shiny buttons.



Good morning Mr Minor! You're on time I see!

"Morning Chief! Ready and rearing to go!"

Good deal, I like that. Well hop in and let's get this show on the road. Now I trust you read the manuals on the Wilco improvements to the Airbus fleet right?

"Yeah.. yeah... went through the quickstart guide Drew. Seems easy enough."

Umm... ok... well the quickstart helps, but I actually meant for you to read the whole thing.

"Oh... well I brought it with."

Hmm... This could get interesting...



Tiffany interrupted our preflight in a moment...

"Drew. Our luggage is checked. I made sure to confirm the reservations in both Charlotte and Montego Bay, and WAIT till you see the bathing suit I bought!"

A smile beamed on my face... as well as that of my new first officer. I shot him a curious glance... His smile stopped. I could see him blush a little as he turned to stare at the ground crew outside.

Tiff giggled, then excused herself, closing the door behind.

Problem Mr Minor?

"Oh... NO sir!" He answered a little sheepishly.

I laughed heartily... It's ok Chris. Just about everyone in the VA thinks Tiffany is hot. I'm used to it. Come on, let's finish the preflight and get rolling.



I started the APU a little early, letting the old bird warm up some as we finished boarding, and turned to see Chris looking puzzled at the FMC.

You DO remember how to use the flight computer, right Chris?

"Umm... yeah yeah I do Drew." he began as he fumbled with a few buttons.

I shook my head. Here... let me program our weights in... You can watch me.

I could tell he was a little relieved, if not a little overwhelmed by the new Wilco systems. I told him he should have read the full manual... why people do not listen is beyond me.

In a couple minutes we got our clearance to pushback and I had Chris start our engines, then sat waiting for the tug to disconnect from us.



"Drew, I have a stupid question..."

No question is stupid Chris.

"Ok... how do you steer this thing?"

Chris are you SURE you read the manual? I pointed at the sidestick. I was beginning to wonder if he was really ready to move up from the regional jets...

He placed his hand on the stick and opened up the throttle just a little bit...

... No movement...

Ok, I'll get us rolling, you steer us side to side... we are going to runway 28 C... that way.

"Ok Boss!"



I pushed the throttles forward and hovered my left hand over my sidestick as Chris tentatively steered us along the taxiway.

There you go, now you got it. Much bigger than the CRJ isn't it?

"Yeah it is! I gotta tell you Drew I am soooo thankful you are giving me this experience! This is awesome!!"

Yeah well... we have not taken off yet. Wait till you see what this baby can do.



As we taxiied down the runway I figured it was in our best interests to go over the whole takeoff procedure, and pray he remembered it.

Halfway down the runway, he reached for something in his flight bag and let go the sidestick. Good thing I was holding on to mine.

What are you doing Chris???

He produced some shades and promptly put them on.

"Gotta have shades, can't stand the direct sunlight."

Yeah well NEVER take your hand off the sidestick when the plane is in motion.

"Oops, sorry."

Oops he says....



At runway's end I called for our clearance and moved us out onto 28 C. I waited for Tiff's call to the cabin that we were about to takeoff and had Chris make the announcement to the flight attendants to be seated.

Normally I would let my first officer do the takeoff, but it was becoming more and more apparent that Mr Minor had never actually FLOWN the 321 before, so I figured I better handle it this time.

Your job Chris is to call out gear up, and call out our height when we pass 2500 feet.

"Gotcha Boss... Let's rock!"

Indeed....



As we lifted off Chris let out a loud "WOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!'

Gear Mr Minor... try to contain your excitement please.

"Oh yeah, right Drew! Gear coming up now."

Flaps too please...

"Flaps coming up now Drew!"

Not bad there rookie... ok NOW you can get all excited, just watch our altitude for me, I gotta call Pittsburgh departure.

The grin on his face was priceless.



"2500 feet Drew!"

Thanks Chris... I transitioned our throttle to "climb mode" and activated the autopilot for our turn to our first waypoint.

"Man this is sooooo cool! I never knew the Airbus was so sweet! The guys back in DC Regional will never believe this."

Oh is that what hub you are out of now? I swear Chris you are the "nomad of the airline"... PIT, PHX... now DCA... when you gonna find a station and stick with it?

"Hahaha" he chuckled, "Well I gotta try them all out till I find one that suits me!"

I rolled my eyes...



As we made our turn, the ACARS started spitting out paper. I asked Chris to get it and see if it was important... He shook his head and tossed it behind him.

Ok key thing in this portion of the flight is making sure the aircraft is showing the right attitude...

"Right cause no one wants to fly a plane with a bad attitude! Get it?"

I rolled my eyes again... You know what I mean there joker...

He nodded and continued chuckling.

Pit departure announced we were clear to climb to FL210, so I turned to Chris.

Pop Quiz... set our autopilot to climb to 21,000 feet.



The look of shock was all over him.

"Umm"...

I could see him looking intently all over to find just which button or knob he needed to use. From my side I adjusted the altitude setting on the autopilot and sat there as he wondered how the numbers were changing on their own.

Do me a favor Chris... take out the manual please... read through chapters 3 and 4 real quick.

"I'm sorry Drew... it's all a little new. I have to admit I was really excited when I saw I was gonna fly the A321. All I have flown up till now was the CRJs."

Suddenly it dawned on me... Umm.. what did that paper say?

"Oh that, nothing"



He stared out the window...

Chris. Give me the ACARS paper please.

Reluctantly he handed it to me.

My jaw dropped as I read it... Apparently Joe Espino says there was a dispatch error. I was supposed to be taking a different first officer on this flight, not Chris, who was scheduled for a CRJ flight today...

I glared at Chris.

"I'm SORRY DREW! Please don't fire me! I saw A321 and figured maybe they wanted me to start my training on it now!"



You just ASSUMED they wanted you to fly the A321? Chris how many hours flight time do you have with USAVA?

"48..."

OMG! You have FORTY EIGHT FLIGHT HOURS??? You are not even CLOSE to being ready for the Airbus series of planes!

"I'm sorry Drew... don't fire me please! I'll do anything. I cannot afford to lose this job!"

I sat there in silence for a couple minutes... fuming... Now it was making sense... the emails asking me about the Airbus... the request for the manual... and now this convenient dispatch error.

I had to figure out what I was gonna do with him.

My mom always told me if you cannot say something good... say nothing at all...



And that is what I did till we passed BURGS waypoint... I said nothing.

"Are you still mad at me Drew? I'm sorry sir."

SORRY DON'T PAY THE RENT MINOR! You realize what you have done is in clear violation of our SOPs. Even if the dispatch was in error, you KNOW you are supposed to bring that kinda thing up to your manager!

"I couldn't reach him! He was not in the office!"

You ever hear of email? You email ME often enough!

You are a category B pilot... you have no business in a category C aircraft!

"I know I just thought..."

That's the problem Chris. You did not think!

Tiffany popped in.

"Everything ok in here?"

Yeah Tiff aside from my first officer duping me.

"I said I'm sorry Drew. It's ok I will take whatever punishment you say. Just don't fire me PLEASE."



"Ok I am not sure i wanna know what's happening... here's your drinks" Tiffany said, placing our juice down.

I sat there drinking my juice as we continued our cruise to Charlotte... thinking what horrible punishments I could have Tony unleash on Chris. This flight certainly was not going to be counted in his log... but I reminded myself, no matter what happens... we still have 177 souls on board that demand a professional, safe flight to CLT. I decided I could deal with Chris when we landed.

Well Mr Minor... since I cannot kick you out of the plane... you had better get a "crash course" in Airbus piloting. We'll discuss your discipline later. For the next few minutes till the top of our descent I BETTER see you reading that manual!

"Yes sir!" he replied as he got out the manual.



Over the next 20 minutes he would refer to the manual, and look around the cockpit, feverishly trying to familiarize himself with the overhead panel, and the pedestal. I made the calls to the various ATCs along the way, until Atlanta center, which was my cue that we were about to begin our descent.

Tiff popped in to grab our cups and make sure everything was hunky dory on the flight deck, and a couple minutes after, the call came in to begin descending to 19,000 feet.



Mr Minor... please change our altitude setting.

Chris did as told and set the aircraft on a slow and steady descent to FL190.

Well, if nothing else... he learns quickly anyway.

"FL190 Captain..."

Thank You Mr Minor.

Tower called us down to 7000... Before I could say it, he had already dialed it in and stabilized our descent.



Just then ACARS spit out another piece of paper.

I decided to take it this time... Josh... he informed me he was ready and rearing to go to Jamaica and he would be my copilot on the next flight for this bird.

That ought to be fun...

"Drew, do I put out the flaps now or later?"

Not yet... wait till we get below 10,000 feet then give us setting two. You DO know what setting two is right?

"Yeah I just read up on how to do that... I will have it done"



I banked us into approach for runway 18R. Steve was not in CLT tower today, which was a surprise... usually he is there on Sundays... but his protege, Ryan Flynn, our resident tech guru was...

It was a pleasure to hear Ryan's voice as we came in. Seems like he has learned the ropes of ATC pretty well.

Just below 10,000 feet I could hear the slats extend and like clockwork Chris had the landing lights on, the autobrake set to medium, and the ground spoilers armed.

Nice work Mr Minor....

"Thanks Drew. By the way, for what it's worth, I am really glad you are our CEO."

I appreciate the sentiment... you are still getting punished however. Now let's get ready to land this thing. Inform the cabin please.



Chris made the announcement that we were coming down to land.

I had to admit it... the kid has potential... but breaking the rules is no way to rise up the career ladder. I would have no choice but to withhold his pay and hours for this flight, and have a reprimand placed in his record...

I would also make a note that once he accrues the hours he should be fasttracked to the Airbus course officially.

It might seem like a "minor issue" to him, but flying out of category is a major no no for the airline.

I was pretty sure it won't be happening again.



4600 feet and ready for our turn to final approach.

I had Chris reread the landing procedure and with the effort of a speed reader he went through the book faster than I ever did.

"Ready Captain!"

Ok... I acknowledged as I waited for Ryan to clear us in.

Without delay Mr Flynn gave us our landing orders... and I banked us to line up on 18R



Gear out please...

"Gear out Captain!"

Flaps to full please...

"Flaps to full aye, Captain."

Thanks, and you can drop the aye... we are not on the Starship Enterprise here.

"Sorry Drew..."

And for Gawd's sake stop apologizing!



We cleared the outer marker and swooped in on a perfect glide slope.

Chris took mental notes as we passed the medium marker to the runway.

I dropped our throttle and brought us down gently.

Well... as gently as this oversized sausage would allow anyway... I was not going to be getting any stellar Steeler Air landings today, but at least I would not be creating more potholes...



Chris mimiced the callouts for altitude as we crossed the threshold and set her down.

Not a bad landing indeed... but not perfect.

I hoped it was enough for Chris to get the idea when his time actually came to fly the Airbus as to how it is done.

"Nice landing Drew"

Thank you. I am gonna give you taxi duties to the gate by the way. Consider it a Christmas gift.

He chuckled...



Still a little jerky on the turns, but Chris did a decent job taxiing us back and to the apron.

When we got to our turnoff I opted to pull us up to the gate.

I could tell he was a little disappointed, but not by much. Even though he would have to deal with his discipline, he was right... He would be the envy of his regional pilot peers, having flown with the CEO on one of the "big planes".



What have you learned today Chris?

"Oh a LOT! I now know how the Airbus operates... how to work the Wilco systems... proper taxi procedure..."

And what else???

He blushed...

"Oh yeah... and not to fly aircraft out of my category. I promise this won't happen again!!"

I should hope so. I am gonna issue a reprimand, but I am also gonna note in your record that when you gain the proper hours you are first in line for formal Airbus training.



"Thanks!" He beamed...

Somehow I think I just made his day... even though he was not getting paid.

ACARS spit out another slip of paper...

Josh again... telling me to hurry up so we can get some island sun!

I swear that guy has no life sometimes... sheesh.

Tiff popped in to let me know she heard from Jess and Lolo's plane should be pulling in any minute as well from Ft Lauderdale...

Excellent... I could not wait to see my daughter.



I pulled us up to the gate...

Pop quiz Mr Minor... shutdown procedures...

He took a breath, and went through the checklist, turning off every switch needed, then waiting for the ground power to be connected so he could switch us over to that.

Granted he did do some of them out of order, but he got them all. Yeah... when he is ready... I'll give him another crack at the Airbus.

Not bad Mr Minor.



After we debarked our passengers... for which I had him say goodbye and thank you for flying to every single passenger who left the plane, I had my writeup finished and transmitted a copy to Tony Pitt in DC, as well as Will and Joe in HR.

I got my coat and joined the crew in the jetway.

Mr Minor... Merry Christmas.

"Merry Christmas Drew" he replied as he shook my hand. I handed him his writeup.

At the top of the jetway I was met with an impatient Josh, ready for the Jamaica run...

"BOSS!!!!!!!! I am so pumped for this trip. You and me man! Together in the skies! We gonna GIT R DONE!!!!!"

Josh... calm down... we don't leave for another 2 hours already.

There was a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see my gorgeous 13 year old, escorted by USAVA personnel.

"Hi dad."

I hugged her like there was no tomorrow.

(end of part one)