"Smells Like New York"

Firebird2XC

Well-Known Member
"Smells like New York."

A funny thing to hear the Captain say as we rolled out at JFK. I did detect the odor too, but I think it had more to do with the proximity of salt water from the bay. It smelled like the infamous "Aroma of Tacoma" down by the Tacoma waterfront to me.

Either way, I'd found myself flying 135s out of New York for four days. Not really my usual routine, as I'm DFW based. It's not unheard of to find a trip from a different base in open time at my company, and I jumped on it.

After a deadhead up to LGA, I flew in and out of LGA, JFK, DTW, and a few other stations for four days.

I definitely enjoyed the views of NYC during the approach vectors. I'd forgotten how cool they are.

My point? Seems like it's easy to get downtrodden and a little burned out these days with things in the industry being so grim. As fun as flying is, the routine can make things a little boring at times.

The last approach of the trip, the Captain gave up the second half of his leg so I could do the LGA 31 Expressway visual. I'd done it before, but not in the jet, so it was something a little new.

The change in the routine made all the difference. I walked to the crew bus in DFW with a smile on my face. It was a great trip.

If you're feeling the slow, tedious burn of the all-too familiar, mix it up a little bit. It works.
 
I agree....I have been in IAH for the last year and just moved to EWR. I was kinda bored of the LIt,mlu, shv turns.....I picked up a day trip with a DAY and YYZ turn. Havnt been in EWR in several months and at the end of an 8 hr flying day I left saying, "That was fun....I really enjoyed that". All it takes is a change of pace to reignite the fun factor.
 
Going to international certainly reinvigorated my career. Big time.
 
Thats why I like the charter side of the company better than the scheduled side. I sit a lot or either I fly 5 to 6 hr legs (single pilot!) sometimes. But atleast it's getting to fly somewhere different every other day and it's great.

Oh and I get paid more also.
 
I got displaced to LGA for my last 6 months at AA.

Yes, it does "Smell like NY"!


Shaking it up in that way (getting displaced & refurloughed) was not particularly invigorating. It did however, give me the chance to do a LOT of transcon & west coast flying that I would not have had the opportunity to do if I'd not left the ORD base.
 
I got displaced to LGA for my last 6 months at AA.

Yes, it does "Smell like NY"!


Shaking it up in that way (getting displaced & refurloughed) was not particularly invigorating. It did however, give me the chance to do a LOT of transcon & west coast flying that I would not have had the opportunity to do if I'd not left the ORD base.

Yeah.. displacements are crap. I agree about the smell- I was just trying to be diplomatic. :)
 
I was displaced from ONT to EWR starting October 1st. To be honest, I was pretty pissed about it at first. I stressed out quite a bit over it. I was worried what it was going to do to my relationship (recently engaged), my personal life and my time off. I was going from driving 45 minutes to work, flying whatever schedule I wanted to commuting transcon. My fiance assured me that we'd be ok, no matter what. After my first trip out of EWR this month, I realized it's not all that bad. I'm really enjoying the crews and it's a nice change of scenery. While I loved flying out west, going to the same 20 airports all the time got boring. The commute isn't that bad (thanks to FedEx) and I'm a line holder in EWR, getting a fair amount of days off.

I'm continuing to look on the bright side. I'm still employed and I'm still building PIC for that ever elusive final job.
 
Ya know, now that I think about it, I know what that smell was.

I must have been downwind of Wall Street while all those paper millionaires were collectively crapping their pants.


THAT explains it. :)
You probably also want to avoid walking down to the river. When the tide comes in, a lot of the brokers wash up on shore.
 
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