Our latest B777 takes off in FRA proudly painted in Olympic Livery
(Ian, I realize you're unaccustomed to seeing such colours on a 777)
Just finished a three day mission. The first day was Toronto-Orlando-Toronto and then to Halifax. All three flights were full. During the flight to Halifax the U.S - Canada Olympic men's hockey game transpired. Flight dispatch sent the latest scores to the entire fleet via datalink and as the scores popped up on the printer, I announced them over the P.A. However, the game had 5 minutes to go as we landed. As we taxied to the gate we could see passengers glued to the T.Vs inside the airport. As I set the park brake, I could tell the U.S team scored within seconds of the game ending.
The cab driver turned on the radio so we could listen to the overtime period. Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal as we entered the city of Dartmouth (Nova Scotia) - his home town.
Speaking of Sidney, when I lived in YHZ both he and I shared the same gym. Actually he worked out there only in the summer under the supervision of his trainer. One day I cornered Sidney in the locker room, he was in his scivvies so he couldn't go far, and asked him to sign my son's hockey card. He did it without hesitation. A true gentleman.
And speaking of signing, I had a passenger ask for my autograph as he deplaned in Montego Bay, Jamaica, yesterday He wanted me to sign his hat. He loved my book and followed my enRoute articles. The F/O jokingly said, I looked like a rock star. To be honest I was a bit embarrassed.
Today, it was just one leg from Halifax to Toronto. We had to wait 20 minutes for 23 connecting passengers from Sydney, N.S, plus another deicing yet again and then while enoute,
a lady in her sixties took ill. A medical situation involves patching through to "medilink" in the States via flight dispatch. Oxygen was administered and the paramedics met the flight. Everyone remained seated as per the request of the in-charge. No one complained although many had connecting flights.
Things are looking up. I removed some nasty viruses from my computer, I regained most of my emails I accidentally removed from my laptop plus my editor is back for one last enRoute article.
**** On that note, my editor mentioned the well of questions are drying up. To help out the new editor taking up the torch, I am asking for more questions. Here's the address:
****P.S Please state your name and where you are from. *******
Captain Doug
P.S If anyone was counting, I flew 82:07 hours this month - 7 minutes over max.
10 comments:
Fascinating, Doug.
_________________
What kind of exercises did the
trainer put Mr. Crosby through?
______
Barbell Incline Bench Press?
Roman Chairs? Mind you, right now
I'm more of a reader than a lifter.
______
Can you estimate what kind of
weight he was handling?
Dan. Believe it or not, the weights used were not heavy. The routine was mostly core exercises. I did not see heavy lifting. Many of the exercises I have never seen or thought about. Something you see in most gyms, with trainers trying new stuff but much of it is gimmick.
What I found intriguing, the trainer would show Sidney an exercise. Sidney would look at the trainer and do it verbatim and with ease.
The media/internet has Sidney to be 5' 11' at 200 pounds. That's pushing it on both measurements. He is a bit shorter and lighter.
Hi Doug,
Nice picture! I've also got one those! Pics just uploaded over at my place.
Well done Canada - I watched from the start of the 2nd and 3rd periods. Shades of West Germany scoring in the last minute of the 1966 World Cup Final against England. All came good in the end.
82:07, aarrrrgh!! So what happens now? You said you would have to drop the last pairing if 82hrs was exceeded. Does that mean the whole of your last 3 day trip, or will you be able to just drop the Halifax-Toronto return flight on Tuesday? Cue the Rocket Scientist?
Question on the way to "askdoug".
Kind regards,
IanH
Simpilot264 (Ian)
Yes, Canada is on top of the hockey once again.
I was allowed to fly my last pairing because I was projecting 81:30 (30 minutes under the max) before the pairing. I gained some block growth because of deicing and some flights were a little longer than normal. Translation - it's all good!
Rumour has it we will be flying hard this summer so I'll probably be complaining because of too many hours. Because of it, less summer vacation is being offered, upsetting all the senior pilots who usually get summers off.
And thanks for sending in a question to enRoute!
That B777 is a beauty. I saw her a few months back at EGLL - she was at her stand at T3, and sure did stand out.
Our efforts on special paintjobs appear to be using transfers from kids comic books - and not that inspiring.
Understand for the 2012 Olympics we'll push the boat out...
Getting ready for Beijing - where's that place for Peking Duck you like ? ;)
Cheers, Ian
Hi Ian. The Peking Duck is located across from the Swiss Hotel. We moved to another hotel. The Peking Duck was next to the "yellow tablecloth," "green tablecloth" and "orange tablecloth" restaurants. (I'm serious). I think the "green table cloth"
restaurant includes "five flavours of dog" on their menu. I gave it a miss.
Peking, so far, is the cheapest place I've been for beer. One could get a large bottle of China's finest for 40 Canadian cents. A pilot's haven. :)
Doug
Ian ****Update****Just received this from a language qualified flight attendant. He is presently in PVG (Shanghai). But I think this reference below is to our present hotel.
_______________________________
You mean Peking Duck in PEK? A lot of restaurants there serve Peking Duck; I am sure hotel concierge can recommend him one nearby. I know one by name (chinese name only) I don't remember exactly where. It sounds something like Shan Maan Liou which means:
Shan = good smell
Maan = full
Liou = building
If you can read chinese, here it is:
香滿楼
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=1810399764425175813&q=%26%2339321%3B%26%2328415%3B%26%2327004%3B+beijing+reviews&hl=en
Don't know if that's good enough clue. (reservation recommended as I recall)
Hope this helps Ian.
Hey Captain Doug,
I don't know if your blog is technical. But I was wondering if you could help me understand how B/P RNAV is different than basic RNAV.
Thanks
Anon. I don't mind going technical at all Btu I'm certain Captain Ian would have more to say on the topic.
For those reading this: RNAV stands for Area Navigation.
B RNAV is basic RNAV.
B(asic)-RNAV defines European RNAV operations which satisfy a required track keeping accuracy of ± 5 NM for at least 95% of the flight time.
This level of navigation accuracy is comparable with that which can be achieved by conventional navigation techniques on ATC routes defined by
VOR/DME, when VORs are less than 100 NM apart.
P RNAV
P(recision)-RNAV defines European RNAV operations which satisfy a required track-keeping accuracy of ±1 NM for at least 95% of the flight time.
Anon. Sorry to be evasive, but we do not perform RNAV approaches on the airbus fleet.
Captain Doug
Thanks Captain Doug
Post a Comment