Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good Old

Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

I read this story this morning as well. Very scary insight into how it use to be. I'm kind of jealous in a way.
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

Yeah, it was a good read.

Which is why recurrent training can be a very very good thing, regardless of how much one dislikes it.
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

The description of the lear flying was my life for 18 months. The best 18 months of my career.
24 years old, left seat in a Lear with a copilot that has 10 hours in the plane. VSI pegged at 6k fpm. Climbing out of Logan out over the water and then turning back 270 Direct CMK and being at 12,000 ft over the airport a couple minutes after pouring on the coals.
FL380 35 miles from the airport and turning a 3/4 mile final.
I miss it everyday.
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

I resent those comments Mike, I had at least 12 hours back then (spread out over the previous 3 months) when we shot off for TEB out of Logan:). I miss those days too.
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

mikecweb said:
The description of the lear flying was my life for 18 months. The best 18 months of my career.
24 years old, left seat in a Lear with a copilot that has 10 hours in the plane. VSI pegged at 6k fpm. Climbing out of Logan out over the water and then turning back 270 Direct CMK and being at 12,000 ft over the airport a couple minutes after pouring on the coals.
FL380 35 miles from the airport and turning a 3/4 mile final.
I miss it everyday.
Click to expand...

You know, I don't want to call you out, I enjoy your posts. I was kind of hoping for a mini-pilot report of your current mount similar to the one Boris gave about the Beech. If you get a chance I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the beast.
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

WacoFan said:
You know, I don't want to call you out, I enjoy your posts. I was kind of hoping for a mini-pilot report of your current mount similar to the one Boris gave about the Beech. If you get a chance I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the beast.
Click to expand...

Me too! Also, how about a "night in the life of a freight dog" account.
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

I'll see if I can muster up something to describe this piece. Pretty uninspired by it actually. The Metro flys like a bread truck. They are fairly well equipped, usually have a good auto pilot and radar but still /a or /u with an MEL. I've been told I'm lucky because most of my time is in former DHL and UPS metros so they are a bit nicer. I can't imagine flying these things with a co-pilot. There is a slight kick in the pants with the alchy-water injection takeoffs but honestly it's really only noticeable when you turn it off. The company profile has no high speed ILS which is different for me, but read below.
The flying for the most part is very unchallenging. No tight deadlines, no pressure from "dispatch" or the bank department. 90% of the time i'm at least assisted with my loading or unloading. I also fly during the day which is weird.
I have done a lot of flying up in Canada which is something new for me. I've done the international thing before going to the Bahamas as a CFI but I guess it's different with Radioactive material on board ;)

Overall it's a job, I have to wear a monkey suit, the plane does have windshield wipers (until the breaker pops) and it's the first plane I can walk underneath, so I got that going for me.
 

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Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

mikecweb said:
The flying for the most part is very unchallenging. No tight deadlines, no pressure from "dispatch" or the bank department. 90% of the time i'm at least assisted with my loading or unloading. I also fly during the day which is weird.
Click to expand...

Thats more of a CVG deal than anything. The runs are actually scheduled to work out on time. It's a whole different story when I was doing bank runs out of OAK or BUR. It was not unusual to be late due to the customer, ATC, or just not enough estimated time scheduled on the run sheet. When I first got to CVG, I was in rush rush rush mode until I found out that by getting everywhere super early only meant that I would be sitting there waiting on the drivers an extra 20 to 30 minutes or that I'd make it up to CYOW well before I told Canada border services my proposed ETA would be which is supposedly a big no no!
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

i've flown lears and never understood the fascination with them. the only thing they really do well is climb fast. fuel burn sucks, they are uncomfortable, made very poorly. they suck for short field landings. small. incredibly unstable. oh and they suck to load cargo into.
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

Queboat said:
i've flown lears and never understood the fascination with them. the only thing they really do well is climb fast. fuel burn sucks, they are uncomfortable, made very poorly. they suck for short field landings. small. incredibly unstable. oh and they suck to load cargo into.
Click to expand...

But making noise, going fast, rate of climb and smoking engines (on the old turbo jets) are many of the things that make flying fun!
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

WacoFan said:
But making noise, going fast, rate of climb and smoking engines (on the old turbo jets) are many of the things that make flying fun!
Click to expand...
Formula for aircraft awesomeness:
(Fuel burn)*(top speed)*(noise volume)=Awesomeness Quotient.
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

lears have never been considered a fast airplane, the mmo of a lear is lower then a falcon 20 (which is an older airplane).
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

Queboat said:
lears have never been considered a fast airplane, the mmo of a lear is lower then a falcon 20 (which is an older airplane).
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the Lear is the dirty, raucous, ill-behaved, eponymous archetype of the private jet age. Plus, it has a pointy nose, a small, thin wing, and shares genes with a Polish fighter. No one will ever confuse it (by sight or by sound) with a Citation, an Astra, a Hawker, or a Challenger. Old Lears rock the awesomeness quotient! :D
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

mikecweb said:
The description of the lear flying was my life for 18 months. The best 18 months of my career.
24 years old, left seat in a Lear with a copilot that has 10 hours in the plane. VSI pegged at 6k fpm. Climbing out of Logan out over the water and then turning back 270 Direct CMK and being at 12,000 ft over the airport a couple minutes after pouring on the coals.
FL380 35 miles from the airport and turning a 3/4 mile final.
I miss it everyday.
Click to expand...

:drool:

That sounds like alot of fun
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

Underneath the wings? Of course! I'm 6.0" and I the wings tips are a good foot and a half above my head. It is a very tall airplane for it's size.
 
Re: Gear Up, Good Night — Flying Freight in the Not-So-Good

I was thinking more the fuselage. I remember the days of working around Metros and always making sure I ducked REALLY low behind number two after I had just pulled the GPU plug, lest the left side of my head get really warm.
 
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