Jumpseating...

I had to do my 5 hours of required cockpit observer on Wednesday. Had a blast doing it, but not looking forward to doing it again anytime soon. The jumpseat on the Brasilia is so damn small...and I am not. I wokeup this morning feeling like I'd been hit by a freight train. Back, shoulders, legs...all sore.

Either way, it was a great experience. I figured I'd share the experience leg by leg. Sorry for the lack of real pictures...I don't really have a camera anymore.

Date: Dec. 13,2006
Route: St. George, UT (SGU) - Los Angeles International (LAX)
Airline: United Express/SkyWest Airlines
Flt. #: SKW5711
Aircraft Type: EMB120 Brasilia
Reg. #: N580SW

Seat: Cockpit Observer Jumpseat
Distance: 348 Miles
Duration (Block Time): 1 Hour 22 minutes
FlightAware.com Info for SKW5711

I rolled up to SGU Airport around 0600 for my 0655 flight. I went to check in with the ticket agent and let her know that I had to ride in the actual jumpseat for training. She got really nasty with me about how Flight Control is supposed to take care of my reservations and supposed to notify the captain, blah, blah, blah. I believe this is the practice on Delta Connection flights, but not on United Express flights. I told her there should be a comment on the dispatch release, so the captain should know I'm coming. She scoffed and gave me the form I had to fill our for their paperwork. Not a great way to start my day.

Having been warned repeatedly that the cockpit jumpseat on the Brasilia is a huge pain in the ass to get set up, I decided to board last. I introduced myself to the flight attendant, Eddie, who set up the seat for me. That works for me because, as I learned later in the day, I look like a total jackass trying to unlock the damn thing out of the floor. The Captain and First Officer were going through a checklist, so I held off on the introductions. I didn't want to hop into the flight deck without the captain's permission, so I stood there for a minute or so before the captain waved me in.

I got settled into the hell seat, introductions were made and we were set to leave. The captain was an older gentleman...been with the company 20+ years. The FO was much younger, female, and fairly new to the company. And she was cute, too. :) I told them this was to be my first jumpseat ride and I was a bit nervous. I wasn't sure what to expect. I've flown/flown in Cessna's and whatnot...but never in an airliner with a real crew (no matter how small the airliner was). They briefed me for the flight and away we were.

We taxied out to the end of runway 16, got our clearance from LA Center, let traffic know we were taking off, and before I knew it, we were barreling down the runway. The V speed callouts were made, positive rate, gear up, and we were on our way to LAX. Once we got above 10,000 feet, the captain let the autopilot takeover the rest of the way and we just shot the breeze for an hour.

The captain grilled me about how we do our fuel planning, amongst other things. I tried to answer his questions as best I could...had to play the "I'll try to get an answer for you on that" card a few times. The rest of the hour was spent just talking about all sorts of things...and flirting with the FO (I'm a horrible person, I know).

We made our way onto the KIMMO2 arrival into LAX, were cleared for runway 24R as expected, and followed a Southwest Airlines 737 in for landing.

We touched down with a perfect landing and made our way to gate 86. After we parked and let all the pax off, I hopped out, said my goodbyes to the great crew (while resisting the urge to ask for the FO's number...LOL), and went to find my gate for the Modesto roundtrip I was to take next. Despite the pain in my back and legs that was already starting to develop, I was having a blast.

Date: Dec. 13,2006
Route: Los Angeles International (LAX) - Modesto, CA (MOD)
Airline: United Express/SkyWest Airlines
Flt. #: SKW5769
Aircraft Type: EMB120 Brasilia
Reg. #: N585SW

Seat: Cockpit Observer Jumpseat
Distance: 292 Miles
Duration (Block Time): 1 Hour 09 minutes
FlightAware.com Info for SKW5769

When I got to the gate area for my Modesto flight (a whopping 2 gates away), I realized I had a little time to kill. I checked in with the agents, filled out my forms, offered to buy them coffee as I always offer for gate agents (they declined), and went to the Starbucks across from the gate.

I was originally going to get a coffee, but decided that it would stimulate my need to use the restroom...which is a bad thing to need to do when you're in that cramped seat behind a locked door. So, I got a really overpriced sandwich since I was starving. I grabbed a ham and cheese focaccia sandwich. Amazingly, it was damned good and actually semi-fresh. I scarfed it down, walked back to the gate. We were ready to board and did the drill all over again.

Another senior captain (who looked disturbingly like Willem Dafoe), another new-to-the-company female FO. This bird was missing the headset adapter, so I wouldn't be able to listen in. We were still able to have some conversation...but the situational awareness wasn't quite as good.

Taxi out was quite fun...we were behind a couple of heavies the whole time...and had to give way to a couple of international 747's. LAX has so much going on at any given time, so much more fun to watch than the American Airlines MD-80 Fest at DFW.

The flight to MOD was pretty uneventful. It was a bit overcast in Modesto and it had been raining. Landed on runway 28...took us no more than 20 seconds to get to the terminal. Another SkyWest bird was on the ramp, having fallen a victim to San Francisco ATC Flow Control.

Date: Dec. 13,2006
Route: Modesto, CA (MOD) - Los Angeles International (LAX)
Airline: United Express/SkyWest Airlines
Flt. #: SKW5769
Aircraft Type: EMB120 Brasilia
Reg. #: N585SW
Seat: Cockpit Observer Jumpseat
Distance: 292 Miles
Duration (Block Time): 1 Hour 12 minutes
FlightAware.com Info for SKW5769

A little bit of a ceiling rolled in during our 20 minutes or so of ground time, but not enough to effect the operation. Greg (the dispatcher for our flight...and my trainer for the last few weeks) had planned us to land with 2000 lbs of fuel on board so we didn't have to buy any fuel in MOD. We landed with 2050, so we were all good there.

I helped the F/A cross the seatbelts and pick up any trash in the cabin before the pax boarded, the captain went to the little boys room, and the FO did her walkaround. Less then 10 minutes later, we were straped in and at the end of the runway ready to take off for LAX. This trip was even more uneventful. KIMMO2 arrival again...for runway 24R again...followed a Delta 757 in for landing.

Again, I thanked the crew for the ride...walked inside...and did the whole check-in thing all over again....again.

Date: Dec. 13,2006
Route: Los Angeles International (LAX) - San Diego International (SAN)
Airline: United Express/SkyWest Airlines
Flt. #: SKW6096
Aircraft Type: EMB120 Brasilia
Reg. #: N292SW

Seat: Cockpit Observer Jumpseat
Distance: 109 Miles
Duration (Block Time): 53 minutes
FlightAware.com Info for SKW6096

Warning: "Too Much Information" Alert.

Alright, so at this point, I was REAAAALLLLLYYY needing to use the restroom. I went to the first men's room...and every single stall was occupied. Grrrr... I walked for awhile and found another john...freshly cleaned...LOL. I'm sitting there, doing my thing, and I hear "Paging Line Check Passenger Cook, final boarding call for United Express/SkyWest flight 6096, service to San Diego". After spending a few seconds trying to figure out why she was calling me "Line Check", I realized they were trying to go early. DAMMIT. I finished what I was doing, washed my hands and didn't bother drying them, and ran like hell. I barely made it.

I got on board, asked the captain if he minded if I rode along, flipped the seat up, dove in, and heard the cabin door shut. I reached back, locked the cockpit door, and we were being pushed back within 10 seconds.

This crew was young and all-male. Made for some interesting conversations that would have likely embarrassed my mother at the NTSB Cockpit Voice Recorder hearings if we'd gone down. Flight time was something like only 25 minutes and we never got above 9,000 ft. We did get buzzed by a little Columbia 400 about 700 ft. below us and the TCAS warnings went nuts. Cool to see how that little box works.

We were vectored the whole way...most of the route was down the coast. On final approach we had to make a fairly elongated S-turn to buy about 20 seconds to let the A320 that was on the runway complete it's take off.

On the ride in, the captain told me that they were swapping aircraft and sitting in SAN for an hour so, if I wanted to get back to LAX sooner, they could tell San Diego Ops to list me on the 6096 return flight that was leaving sooner. I thought it was a good idea, so that's what we did. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea after all.

Date: Dec. 13,2006
Route: San Diego International (SAN) - Los Angeles International (LAX)
Airline: United Express/SkyWest Airlines
Flt. #: SKW6096
Aircraft Type: EMB120 Brasilia
Reg. #: N292SW
Seat: Cockpit Observer Jumpseat
Distance: 109 Miles
Duration (Block Time): 49 minutes
FlightAware.com Info for SKW6096

When we deplaned in SAN, I walked in to the secure side, rather than follow the rest of the pax to the non-secure side. I checked in with the agent, filled out ANOTHER jumpseat form, and waited to board. Turns out, the crew for the "earlier" flight back to LAX was running late. Thanks to this, I was just going to get back at around the same time as the one was originally scheduled to hop on. Oh well, new crew...that last crew wasn't as nice as the rest of them...so it would work out.

Met the new crew, 2 more young guys, really funny guys...could tell we were all just having a blast being there. No, really. No sarcasm. The captain was fresh off of IOE and on his first trip on his own.

Since we were running late, they were tearing through the pre-flight checklists and the such. I got into the jumpseat (at this point I was like a frickin' pro at it...and was starting to look like one of the Duke boys sliding into the General Lee when I did it with my newly developed system of getting in and out). I got strapped in and set up my headset while they were working up the Before Engine Start checklist. In the middle of the checklist, Caution lights started flashing and the master alarm kept going off. All 3 of us, at the same time just went..."SHIT!".

The captain called maintenance control and a MX tech was there within a few minutes. In the meantime, we watched as the flight I was SUPPOSED to be on taxied out. Turns out, it was just a switch we had to reset. MX guy was there for all of 20 seconds...but I still had to get out so he could see what was going on. So, I Dukes of Hazzard'd my ass back in and we were gone. We got to LAX in record time. Captain was ex-Navy, so we slammed down on the runway as soon as there was pavement to slam down onto...took the first highspeed exit...and were in gate 88 in less than 20 seconds. That's almost unheard of at LAX. The crew asked if I wanted to go to Monterey with them, but I was beat and had the hours I needed. I went inside and wandered the airport for almost 6 hours. My flight back to SGU was at 2040

I wound up running into Kirk and Greg (the SAN-LAX flight crew) later on and started to wish I had gone to MRY with them. It was all fogged in and they had a missed approach. They were supposed to go back to MRY later, but it was canceled because of the fog...so we went and got dinner. Timing could not have been better because I was about to go nuts not having anyone to talk to and my cell phone about to die.

I made it back to SGU around 2330. Was driving up St. George Blvd. when I got pulled over. I didn't know why, but I was starting to think maybe they thought I was drunk since I was so tired. Turns out, I just had a headlight out. Oops. I was let go pretty quickly and was in my bed by midnight. I think I was asleep by midnight-01.

Not much else to say...I vegged out all day yesterday...and I'm about to go get groceries and a replacement headlight for the Honda.

More to come...

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