Now that I finished all my initial training, it was time to start my first trip as a real 747 pilot for Cathay Pacific. Finally, my puppet strings were removed, my wooden body became living tissue, and my long wooden nose shrank to the proper size – I was a real pilot (boy)! (That grasshopper that used an umbrella as a cane quit following me around too.)

Training is nothing like “flying the line.” Flying the line is normal operations, without a training captain, and without all the stress that comes with being constantly evaluated, second guessed, and instructed. I have nothing against learning. Because I’m finished with my training doesn’t mean I am finished with learning. However, I can certainly say that I am very glad to be finished with training. Talking with other copilots, they all agree that getting over that hump is a huge stress reliever.

I can honestly say that this switch to Cathay Pacific has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Maybe I’ve lived a pretty cushy life, and maybe Cathay makes it harder than it needs to be, but the stress of training took a heavy toll on my body, emotions, and family life. I don’t want to say “woe is me” but the training at Cathay is much different than the training that goes on at most U.S. airlines. I think this is in part because they fly into third-world countries, where the government doesn’t spend much money on air-traffic services like radar, radios, and airports in general. They fly with around 55 nationalities in the cockpit as far as pilot backgrounds go. They fly heavy equipment, with a world class product, and a have a sterling reputation to uphold. They have a British background that stresses perfection in all areas of flying, and they are known in the pilot realm as a checking airline, not a training airline (the trainers happily tell the trainees what they messed up, but don’t do too well at instructing). All this combines to make a training program that is much different than what can be expected if I joined a U.S. carrier’s training. At a U.S. major carrier, once someone passes the interview, for the most part, they are on the road to success. At Cathay, all is in doubt until the final line check is complete!

The point about checking vs. training may be an issue that is slipping into the past. All my training captains were excellent and did a great job, and I think part of that comes from the excellent training manager that is now in charge – Gus Larard. Gus is a great guy who backs the trainees 100% and makes sure that he and his team support us through the trials and stress that we are under while in training. When I had a hiccup or two, he was quick to let me know that I could relax and get the training I needed to be successful. There’s not much worse than being halfway around the world, having just quit a decent job, and now in a training program so tough that the perceived threat of being let go looms with every mistake.

Anyway, that is all in the PAST and I’m glad to be on my way. Yes, on my way from New York to Chicago O’Hare and then on to Anchorage. This was a short, three day trip, where the only negative part to it was that it started at 10:00 p.m. That first night, leaving JFK and heading to ORD wasn’t too bad, but the six hour flight to ANC got pretty long. We arrived in ANC around 10:00 a.m., having flown all night.

Once in the hotel, I took a short nap to catch up a bit, and then took a stroll down to the local mall to see downtown Anchorage. It was a sunny day, somewhat. At noon, the sun was barely up and the shadows were already quite long. Being winter in the far north, the sun can play tricks on “normalcy.” It was also 15 degrees, a bit on the chilly side for my stroll, but I was determined to make the best of it. I made a few purchases for Laura as she celebrates another birthday tomorrow. Consequently, if you are ever in Alaska, make sure and do some shopping, as there is no sales tax.

The flights up to ANC and back were very uneventful and smooth. The captain was very nice and helped put me at ease, as this was my first freighter flight. All through training, I had only flown passenger aircraft, and even though they are pretty much the same, there are some subtle differences. We flew aircraft BLIA, up to ANC and back. It’s a cargo version of the 747-400. I need to do a little more research, but I believe it is the newest 747 in the world! It is an ERF, or extended range freighter, and Cathay has purchased the last six coming off Boeing’s assembly line. Yes, sadly the 747-400 days are numbered, however a new variant, the 747-8 is due out in the next year or two. It is similar in looks, however it uses a newer winglet design and is much more fuel efficient.

The -400 freighter is a great airplane. I stepped onto the flight deck and everything smelled new and the instrument panels were all so clean and nice. The passenger versions that I’ve flown are nearly 20 years old, and their age shows. The cockpit on the freighter has a curtain for a door, as there isn’t too much of a security threat. Behind that is a galley with a full oven and a refrigerator stocked full of catering for us. We had sandwiches, fruit, veggies, bread, salad, cheeses, snacks, and full entrées. The meals that we heat up are usually something like cod in butter sauce, chicken parmesan, beef with potatoes, and the like. It’s awesome, and I need to be careful how much I eat, or we might have to offload some cargo to adjust the takeoff weight to account for my own body weight!

Next to the galley is a cavernous restroom. Moving farther back are six large seats, like first class seats on a U.S. domestic flights. Not as nice as lie-flat beds, but still very comfy, with power ports and all. Finally, there is a back wall with a door in the center. It opens up to the crew rest bunks. Walking in, one can turn left or right and there are curtains on either side of the inside of the door. The curtains keep the light out of the respective bunks when the door is opened. The beds are wide and there is even a window for us and a coat closet to hang our uniforms up while we sleep. All in all, it is amazing, and way better than the bunks on the passenger fleet. Those bunks are smaller because they are inside the cockpit, but because the freighter isn’t limited on space, there is a lot more room.

I flew the leg from JFK to ORD, and this airplane is a dream to fly. It’s very responsive and all the automation is new and up-to-date, as the airplane itself is only a few months old. I even got lucky and the landing just rolled it on. Again, the landings are somewhat scripted in how they are accomplished, at least on a large jet like this. It’s all about the callouts. The airplane will call out “50, 40, 30, 20, 10” as in feet above the runway on landing, in an automated voice. At 50 and 40, I just prepare myself for what is coming next, and make sure I’m lined up perfectly on the centerline of the runway. At the 30 foot call, I start to squeeze in some back pressure on the control column to start the flare (this is not to be confused with the word flair) which pulls the nose up about two degrees to slow the rate of descent. At 20, I start pulling the power to idle so that by the call of 10, the thrust levers are at full idle. Then, for the last ten feet, it’s just: keep on doing what I’m doing – holding the nose up at the same attitude, and waiting for the main wheels to touch down. If I’ve done everything correctly, we don’t feel the touchdown and the aircraft just starts rolling down the runway. The speedbrake lever moves back to the full up position, spoiling any additional lift created by the wings, and we decelerate smoothly with the autobrakes bringing us gently toward 70 knots. If I haven’t done everything correctly, we certainly feel it in our lower backs and don’t need to hear the speedbrake lever moving to know we’ve touched down! I hate those, but every pilot gets a bad one every so often.

Once back in JFK, our trip ended around 9:00 p.m. and well after all the flights to Columbus had departed. There was an early flight the next morning, and I didn’t want to pay $100 bucks for a hotel, especially for just a few hours of sleep. (Yes, $100 is the cheapest deal to be had near JFK. I long for a $35 Motel 6 or a mom and pop dive that just gives me a bed to sleep in, but alas, that’s the way NYC works.) This meant that I was going to sleep on the couch in operations there in the hangar at JFK. Ah, the life of an illustrious 747 pilot for an international airline. The couch was in a closet sized room with a company computer in there and some blankets and pillows off the passenger fleet. I didn’t even want to think about who had slept on the pillows previously or how UN-recently they looked like they had been washed. Sleep was important, so I pushed those thoughts out of my head and into the dirty pillow. The cargo handlers outside the door to my “room” seemed not to care much for closing the doors in the hallway in a smooth fashion as they worked through the night, but were bent on letting things slam their way home. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy those sounds while sleeping? To save $100 bucks, right?

I’m typing this now on my way home to Columbus, aboard a US Airways Express EMB-170, and it feels good to be headed home. Laura’s birthday is tomorrow and I’m glad I’ll be in town to celebrate with her. I do this trip two more times this month and I have a feeling that the couch in operations and I are going to be well acquainted with one another by the time I’ve been at Cathay for a few years. I do love my job, and I feel like Cathay will be a great place to be, especially as the U.S. economy continues to grind ever more slowly. I feel extremely blessed to be flying one of the greatest aircraft ever made and am happy with the choice to be where I am. I acknowledge that there are downsides to my job, as there are with everything – like stressful training and restless nights on a couch in a hangar. Even so, I can’t think of a better job than flying airplanes.

God has been extremely gracious to me as he has protected me while oversees, has proven himself faithful through all the trials and stress of training, and has given me an opportunity to join the ranks of other 747 drivers, a relatively small group of pilots. Finishing my first trip makes me feel like everything over the last six months has now become worth it. I’d leave aviation in a heartbeat if I knew my family couldn’t handle it or if it became a strain on my home life. I like to say that being a pilot is ‘what I do’, it is not ‘who I am.’ For now, I’m just going to hang on for the ride and see where this adventure leads.

TobyLaura.com