My Chicago based flight crew worked for Skywest, a regional carrier for United. Their Canadian Regional Jet (CRJ-200) was crammed full of students heading home for spring break and families on holiday, but most just students wanting a tan and fun in the sun. I was seated in 5B, and aisle seat. To my left a NDSU (North Dakota State University ) student who had never flown before and was on her way to South Carolina to meet up with a few friends. Behind me were a couple who had never flown before and were on their way to New York to visit friends. On my right was a pilot on his way home to Chicago. My pilots were seasoned veterns, with a combined 26 years of service in the airline industry. My flight attendent was also a seasoned vetern. Her uniform was neatly pressed even after a very long day of shuttling passengers to and from Chicago.
Her attention to detail was only outshown by her kindness and bright smile. I know that she is paid to be kind and smile despite her mood or attitude. But this kindness was not fake or company policy driven. She actually seemed to truly care. Despite having an 8 plus hour day, she continued to give the best service that she was physically able to give in such a small plane.
Our pilots were highly professional. Their abilities were tested when we were only 40 mins outside Chicago when the weather started to become nasty. Smooth air quickly turned into moderate turbulance. Our plane caught several nice up drafts and a couple of nice down drafts.
Remember the girl on my left, yeah my left arm still has imprint marks from how tightly she was grabbing my arm. Our pilots were pros though. They kept the plane extremely level during all of the flight. Seeing how it was a smaller plane, that takes talent and an extreme knowledge of your aircraft and its abilities.
We arrived at O'Hare even 20 mins early, thanks to our flight crew and that lovely tailwind. Some people are not fans of walking off the aircraft and having to walk onto the tarmac and then into the terminal, but I am a huge fan of it.
I got off my plane and not 200 yards away were a Lufthansa 747-400 and an American 767-(?) lumbering down the taxi way. The roar of their engines were just amazing. Being that close, down there with the sounds and rumbles really shows you how amazingly huge these aircraft are.
After checking the status of my next flight, it was time to head to Chili's for a bit of dinner. The second leg of the flight update tomorrow.
Well you obviously know nothing about aviation. The airplane you were in has an advanced auto flight control system. How do i know, I used to train other pilots on that aircraft. I now fly a larger jet and let me explain something to you, almost 100% of your flight was more than likely flown by the autopilot.
A small amount of turbulence is not much of a challenge for any airline pilot. and it certainly didn't test their abilities. In fact they probably barely noticed as the autopilot flew the plane through some turbulent air. If they did, it might have been to look at each other and say, hey, that's bumpy.
And how did you figure that they had 26yrs at skywest between them. The first officer couldn't have had more than 2 years of time with skywest, because they upgrade first officers fairly quickly. And there are no captains at that airline with more than 20 years with the company. So did you just make up that number? Or did the flight attendant feed you a line? As for the flight attendant being paid to smile for you, well they are barely paid to show up. A regional airline flight attendant is lucky if they break above the poverty line. Most are eligible for food stamps.
I appreciate that you had a good flight but I am tired of people writing "facts" about aviation when in fact they know very little about what goes on.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 12, 2006 11:23 PM | Permalink to Comment