Diaries of a pilot's wife

JFK as a base is closing

2009-02-05T18:33:00.002-05:00

My husbands airline is closing JFK as his base. All pilots are being displaced to CVG as soon as March 8. There are a couple reasons why this is a positive and a couple reasons why it sucks.

POSITIVE.....
He won't have to commute to JFK.
No more paying for the bus and expensive LEX taxi cabs.
Food will be more affordable.
Crash pad may be cheaper too.
More flying to the southern states.

Negative.....
He has to find a new crash pad.
It is unknown if public transportation goes to the airport.
There are only 5-6 flights a day to CVG.

Guess we have to re figure his living arrangements and such. He seems to be positive about the change so CVG here he comes.

*** Crappy thing about this move is it affects the landlord of the crash pad he's at now. There are at least 12 crew from this airline that are leaving and now the guy is out $220 x 4 every month.

Hello at last.

2009-01-22T11:29:00.002-05:00

Wow over a month and no post! As the Pilot's wife would say, "Send me to blogger jail!!!"
There are way too many reasons why I have for not been blogging, holidays came and went, I'm currently not working, my computer has so many virus's on it from when it was stolen and then returned that I have to post while on a library computer, and honestly it was hard to find something fun to blog about. But now I have a topic that is pretty funny its worth the time to post about it....

My husband was just telling me about a flight attendant that works for his airline that lives in the Crew room at the JFK airport.
(I know I've blogged before about pilots that tend to sleep in the crew room because they don't want to pay for a crash pad, but this is a good one.)
Well apparently this FA has a stack of blankets, gay porn, and clothes stuffed in a box in the corner of the crew room. Its kind of weird to know he's living there, sleeping on the public couches, and not showering. Well J and another pilot basically saw him get food out of the garbage in the food court of JFK and watched him heat it up in the microwave in the crew room and eat it. I'm talking Wendy's chicken sandwich, fries, an Balduccis sandwich, anything that still had edible food left to eat he was eating it ( if you can call food that has been in the garbage can edible)! Sick! That to me it the lowest of low.
Now I guess I could understand if you were homeless and lived in the streets and the only way to survive was to eat out of the trash. But this man has a paying job! He's obviously saving money by not living in a crash pad, so why isn't he spending money on decent food? And if I'm not mistaken, any crew member in uniform get a discount on airport food.

My pilot's wish list

2008-12-16T13:38:00.006-05:00

My pilot's wish list looks a little like this...... Santa will have to try real hard to scrape up the funds for these.

A new computer with a 22 in monitor. A Breitling watch.

A Luggage Works suitcase.

A leather flight case.

Ground school yea!!!

2008-12-10T10:24:00.002-05:00

I'm not too sure about how my husband feels about this, but he has ground school in Charlotte NC next week and I'm glad! Here are my reasons....

The 4 days he's gone means he doesn't have to commute to JFK, he has a guaranteed seat to CLT.

It also means no calls from crew tracking saying "We need you to move a plane" at 12 am.

It means 4 semi stress free days of shooting the breeze with the instructors and other pilots in the class. (A stress free husband is a happy husband) :)

***I know when he read this though he'll come back to me and say ground school is the worst and it sucks. :)

Be home for Christmas?

2008-12-02T14:40:00.002-05:00

So I asked my sweet husband if he thought there was a chance he would be home for Christmas and the answer is HELL no.

See its like this, Delta is only giving 43 lines with actual flying to his airline and he is # 63 on the roster. Out of all the reserve lines for the month only 2 have the actual day of Christmas off. Can you believe that? I think his airline did that on purpose!
What's even worse is that J will probably be on ready reserve on the 25th and he'll spend Christmas in the JFK crew room. Suck!

2008-11-26T09:38:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all!
I sort of slacked off on my daily 5 things I'm thankful for posts. So in honor of the holiday I really want to express my gratitude for everything in my life....
I am thankful for my husband J. He really is the love of my life and he is my world.
I am thankful for my son K. He can be such a sweet little boy and he is so loving.
I am thankful for my immediate family and extended family and for all of my husbands family.
I'm thankful for food, my house, my car, my clothes, friends, water, trees, airplanes, church, money, music, books, and movies.
I'm thankful for life and for the fact I can experience trials and happy times and I'm thankful that I can learn a grow from life.
I'm also thankful for blogs and all the readers of my blog

2008-11-24T14:11:00.001-05:00

I was tagged by one of my friends from the Pilot Wives club, so here goes.

8 favorite TV shows
LOST
Jon and Kate plus 8
American Idol
Unwrapped
TMZ
Smallville
Real World
Paula Dean's Kitchen

8 favorite restaurants
El Ranchero
Village Inn
Chuck-a-rama
Gezzos
Mellow Mushroom
Cafe Rio
La Frontera
Quiznos

8 things that happened yesterday (Nov. 23 )
Said a prayer in Relief Society
Paid $19.70 to fill my car with gas
Picked Jared up from the airport
Listened to the new Gun's N Roses CD
Made white chicken chili (Tasty!)
Read the book, Shopaholic and Baby
Watched the movie "You could never be my woman" starring Paul Rudd, SO funny
Watched Kaden eat a 3 foot gummy snake

8 things to look forward to
The long Thanksgiving weekend
Seeing my family in Utah
Eating my dads YUMMY food
Getting off work today
Rita's, because I know my hubby will take me there tonight :)
Sleeping in my soft bed
Finishing my book
Next months book club

8 things I love about Fall
Beautiful leaves.
Thanksgiving
Wearing warm clothes
Having a fire in the fire place
Hot chocolate
Distinct smell in the air
Warm bed
Wrapping up in a blanket

8 things on my wish list
Shopping spree to Abercrombie and Fitch
Paint for the inside of my house
New MEK jeans
Britney Spears new album
Tanning pass
Cover for our golf cart
A sib for Kaden
New earrings

Vacation Update

2008-11-18T14:07:00.003-05:00

We had his dad and step mom come for a visit and that was fun to get to know them better since we moved to Florida right after we got married and I had only met them a couple of times before we got hitched. The guys were able to go to the Falcons game and the girls went to a Civil War museum. We went out to dinner and watched movies so it was a relaxing couple of days.
The next couple days consisted of a lot of time just hanging out, celebrating J's birthday, going on the golf cart trail and for J, playing A LOT of Xbox and Gears of War2.
If I thought it sucked going to bed alone when he was gone on a trip, its sucks even more when I went to bed alone and he was home playing his game.
Oh well. Now the vacation time is spent and he's on his way back to JFK for a night and then to PHX for his 6 month training which for some dumb reason is scheduled 2 months early. The airline J flies for is sort of struggling anyway, why not spend more money on an early training. DUH!
I also wanted to note that I have a personal blog I update more than this one, so if you feel so inclined to read that one too here is the link. :) http://jbkhanson3.blogspot.com/

Pilot Wive Club

2008-11-11T11:06:00.003-05:00

There is a site online that I found through Mrs. Capt J's wife's blog and I love it! You can start discussions, read forums and find other pilot wives out there. Here is the adrs. I urge you so sign up. :)

http://pilotwivesclub.ning.com/

2 Weeks off!

2008-11-07T10:36:00.003-05:00

Yeah J has 2 weeks off for vacation. in addition to spending time with his family, what else will my pilot husband be doing to occupy his time? Well like a fellow blogger posted about her husband's gadget obsession, my pilot is an avid gamer. And right now its all about the Xbox 360 game "Gears of War 2" that came out last night at midnight. He stayed up until almost 3 am and woke up and 6:30 am (to excited to sleep) just so he could play his beloved game. I guess this is a little hint of what the next couple days will be like. Hope it doesn't get way out of hand. :)

"Can you try and get this day off?"

2008-11-04T10:43:00.002-05:00

Have yall ever asked your pilot this? And when he answered you did he just give you a look like, "Yeah right"
Holidays for our family are rarely celebrated on the actual day of the holiday. And that's rough for me because we have NO family in Georgia. But we make a point of celebrating even if its not on the right day.
One thing I am thankful for though is that my husband has never missed my birthday. He's always managed to get it off and he always remembers to spoil me. He even made me a cake this year!

Some pilots have bad hygiene

2008-10-28T14:16:00.003-04:00

J has told me numerous stories about pilots that like himself are based in JFK or CVG and they have to commute to work. But instead of renting a crash pad like normal pilots, these pilots stay at the airport and sleep in the crew room.
A couple questions arose in my mind... And J answered...

Where do they sleep? --- On the couch or recliners in the crew room.

Where do they shower? --- They don't.

Do they wash up? Or brush their teeth? How do they shave? --- Well "K" (a fellow pilot) waits until he gets a trip to shower and as far as brushing his teeth, I'm not sure if he does.

Sick! If I had to "live" in the airport, I'd be locking the bathroom door and doing all I could do to wash my hair and brush my teeth.

Wouldn't it be nice if.....

2008-10-23T13:52:00.002-04:00

In the airline pilot world right now, wouldn't it be nice if........

There were no furloughed pilots.

Gas prices didn't effect the travel/flying industry.

Pilot contracts didn't suck and didn't take forever to come to agreements.

Pilots legally had to have at least 15 days off a month.

The airlines would pay for/provide all effects of the "pilot uniform".

I don't think any of these are greedy but I do think they are all needed. Too bad none will ever actually happen.

The pilots wife.

2008-10-20T10:50:00.003-04:00

I just finished reading the MOST depressing and sad book, The Pilots Wife.

If you ever wanted to know what it might be like to have your husband's plane go down or to find out that he's has another life on a completely different country with a wife and children and such, this is the book. But I totally realized its not meant for other real life pilot wives to read. It makes you paranoid and worrisome and like I said before, just plain sad. What else did I expect? Duh on me. Not to mention the "other wife" was a flight attendant, figures.

Why I'm happy right now.

2008-10-15T14:36:00.002-04:00

J was lucky enough to get a 4 day trip this week. This makes me extremely happy for a couple reasons!

1. He gets to go to a hotel instead of in the dreaded crash pad. (I think sometimes I hate it more than he does and I don't have to stay there. I hate that he has to share a bedroom with bunch of other grown adults and sleep on a bunk bed. Not to mention the drama that goes on in the mean time.)

2. He's adding some hours to is P.I.C. (pilot in command) time. Slowly but surely it being built up. Maybe he'll go over the guaranteed hours for pay.

3. This trip breaks up the time he's away form home. This time he is on for 9 days. Too long!

Finally a post...

2008-10-13T10:27:00.002-04:00

I have totally slacked off on posting.

K and I were able to meet up with J in Maine. It was a very much needed get away even if it was just for a couple days. Maine is very beautiful this time of year and the weather was totally fall weather. Just a cool breeze here and there and sunny.

J had 3 days of this weekend and so we spent it as a family. We went to the Great Georgia Airshow and I was excited to see how J would like it. It was fun to see all the different types of planes. There were several trickster planes and its really cool to see how the pilots get so excited about flying the smaller planes.
The best part for J was seeing the f13 and f18's doing there fly-bys. Its amazing to me how fast these jets are and the sound breaking speeds that they can fly. J wishes that could be his job, flying fast just for the heck of showing off to hundreds of people on the ground. Maybe I'm silly but my favorite part was when the Delta jet flew by slow and low. It was the jet that's painted wit the pink breast cancer paint on the tail. (that's why it was my favorite, the pink :) )
K also enjoyed the free candy at the booths and seeing all the loops the planes were making.

Horray for a 5 day!

2008-10-03T10:04:00.002-04:00

J was finally scheduled a 5 day trip! This is such a good thing because J has been sitting reserve for SO long with only some flying here and there. Also a positive to this trip is that he won't have to be at the crash pad and that means a bigger bed, possibly a gym to work out at, more variety for places to eat and he can keep his hotel room as cold as he wants.
He has a long overnight in Portland Maine so I'm trying to decide if K and I want to tag along for a day. It might be good to get away for a bit and nothing is better than being able to be close to my husband.

Why flying stanby SUCKS!

2008-09-29T13:58:00.002-04:00

I was planning to go to Utah this past weekend because I haven't been back in such a long time. So I checked the flights on Wednesday for the Friday night flight. 3 seats in first class and 19 in coach, 7 people on the list. ( by on "the list" I mean there are 7 other people wanting to get on this flight flying standby)
This looks ok, I think and check it again on Thursday. 0 seats in first class and still 19 in coach 8 people on the list. I check the flight Friday morning when I get to work, 0 in first class, 19 in coach and 13 people on the list including myself and K. I check through out the day and the # in coach keeps going down, and the count of people on the list goes up. At 3:30 I check and low and behold 0 seats in first class and -3 in coach. (a negative # means that they have oversold the plane and pretty much your screwed)
Also a factor in flying stand by "the list" shows people by their seniority or by the date they were hired. Also if you don't actually work for the airline your flying on you may not get priority to the other people on the list.
Its so tricky to fly standby. Some days the flight #'s look super good and others they stink. J has to go through the stress of all this every time he comes home for his day's off and when he is commuting back to JFK. I always have to remind myself of that. Yeah there are times when I want to go back to SLC and i can't make the flight but its not like when J has to fly back to NY. Maybe someday he'll be based out of ATL again and not have to worry about the commute.

What is "Sitting Reserve" you ask?

2008-09-26T10:57:00.004-04:00

My husband J's domicile (base airport) is JFK in New York and he's been up there for a few months. While he's been up there he's had to stay in a crash pad. Since Delta had issues with his airlines contract the flying has been cut and some pilots are not even flying at all, they've been "sitting reserve". For instance J has been on reserve for most of the time he has been at JFK.
Reserve is basically when the pilot is on call for a certain amount of hours. Crew tracking will call the pilots if they need them to fly or move a jet or something to that effect. The pilot has typically an hour and 30 mins to get the airport.
Ready reserve is when the pilot actually has to be at the airport waiting for crew tracking to call. Sometimes they call, sometimes they don't. So just imagine always having to be near a phone in case they call and being close to the airport if you need to get there in 90 minutes. Reserve sucks! No going to downtown New York to see the sights, they might call you. No going to a theatre to watch a movie they might call you. And no going to the laundry mat to do a couple loads because once you start that first load they might call you. Reserve disrupts your whole day.
I can't wait until the day J finally get a line. Having a structured schedule will be SO nice!

The beginning...

2008-09-25T09:14:00.004-04:00

I decided to start this blog because I think its a good way to describe and explain to family, friends and anyone else that wants to read this, how it is to be a pilot's wife.

It all began in 2005 when J was hired. We met shortly after and dated through all the training, simulators, ground school, and reserve. We then got married and moved to Orlando to start a new chapter of life. The rest is history and I promise to elaborate in future posts.