On the same trip that I lost my iPod and Bose noise canceling headsets, I got to fly from Atlanta to Vancouver. I had never flown this route before, and though I had flown in and out of ATL many times in the past, I’d never flown the queen of the skies, the 747, in or out of Georgia’s capital. The captain and I had an early wake-up call, at 04:10, but when getting to the aircraft, there was a last minute maintenance issue that caused a three hour delay. We both wished we could have slept for three more hours that morning.

During the delay, the sun was coming up so I went on my own little “walkabout” with my Canon S90. All airline pilots do an exterior inspection prior to each flight, known as a walk around. To me, it sounds a little like the Australian version of an adventure, called a walkabout. Walk arounds are much more dull than walkabouts unless some major technical problem is found. Even so, I use the time to admire the amazing aircraft I fly, the 747-400. As eloquent a description of the 747 as I’ve ever read, Barry Lopez compares the aircraft to a gothic cathedral, describing it with, “Standing on the main deck, where ‘nave’ meets ‘transept,’ and looking up toward the pilots’ ‘chancel’ . . . The machine was magnificent, beautiful, complex as an insoluble murmur of quadratic equations.” Amazing. I love this machine and she truly is the “Queen of the skies.”

I’m so used to flying over the Pacific, the sparsely inhabited regions of Northern Canada, and Asia, where ‘potential’ trouble constantly lurks because of the terrain or water below us, the scarcity of emergency airports, and Russian air traffic controllers that may or may not know what we are saying, that I had forgotten what a piece of cake flying over the continental U.S. is. Alternate airports in case of a fire? The navigation screen was filled with them. High terrain in case of a depressurization? Iowa is flat. Position reports in a non-radar environment with non-English speaking air traffic controllers? Radio slang and jargon was the norm over our radios and we were blanketed with radar coverage. Communications with the ground? The VHF radios produced crystal clear transmissions throughout the whole flight. Rules for an emergency descent? Simple. Fuel freeze potential? Please. Step-climb requests? No problem. Minimum fuel calculations? Not with a short six hour flight and plenty of alternate possibilities. May we have direct Spokane? “Approved.” The rest of the aviation world likes to deride the U.S. aviation system (out of spite?) but with more air traffic than pretty much the rest of the world combined, the system works pretty well for what it is. “Works pretty well” = “Makes my life easy.”

In my regional jet days, I could pretty much fly without thinking because honestly, the flying was so easy. Cathay flying, in a large jet, into high threat environments, over desolate areas, with terrible radar/radio coverage, has taught me a lot about the challenges of flying outside the comfy confines of the continental country in the U.S. Any Boeing pilots reading this? You may agree with me that CPDLC is a Godsend!

Needless to say, this domestic flight was quite a joy for me and I’ll take that type of relaxed flying any day. However, it’s the challenging flying (like what I’m doing next week to Manila and Shanghai) that keeps me sharp, and honestly, keeps the job fun. Meanwhile, I’m just blessed to have one of the best jobs in the world!

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