More Blog-As-Therapy

So I'm thinking of changing airplanes.

This is not anything earth-shattering, but I'm having a hell of a time figuring out what I think of the idea. I think part of the problem is that there's no clear right and wrong, and the pluses and minuses come out about a wash.

Here's the deal. Most airline pilots fly only a single kind of airplane at a time. Over the course of our careers we will all have flown a number of planes, but virtually always one type at a time. It's quite difficult to keep two sets of numbers and procedures in one's head at once, so we concentrate on a single airplane, and moving to a different airplane is a pretty rigorous endeavor. Lots of class time, studying, simulator work and checkrides are required.

My current airplane is an oldie but goodie. The Douglas DC-8 is the oldest large jet flown in airline service (in my case, a cargo airline) in this country. Most of our airframes are now fully 40 years old, well beyond what Douglas surely expected when they built the airplane. Nothing lasts forever, though, and when I got hired at this company in 2001 we had 49 of these DC-8s, spread between two different models; now we're down to 41, and there are more retirements slated for next year. They are beginning to remove crews from the airplane and shuffle them off to other fleets. We remain the biggest remaining fleet of DC-8s in the world, but their end is in sight out on the distant horizon.

I have enough seniority that I can remain on this airplane without difficulty, probably for several more years yet. But as the flying assigned to the fleet diminishes, the quality of the work available to my seniority--from a quality-of-life standpoint--also diminishes. Most junior crewmembers on any fleet are assigned "reserve flying," which means we spend our workdays tethered to our cell phones, needing to be within an hour and a half of the airport, ready to fly out. If they don't use us, it's an easy way to live; I'm paid quite well to sit in my apartment in Louisville and watch movies or read or take naps or look at new cars or--you get the idea. But the downside is that these reserve schedules keep one away from home more than a flying line would do. I've been fortunate for the last 18 months or so in that I've been able to bid flying near my home, making for a great schedule. Now, as the DC-8 fleet loses flying, I'm moving backwards and have been forced this present bid period to return to sitting on reserve in my little apartment.

So there's my incentive to make the change. I could have a choice of some quite good schedules on a different airplane fleet, though never as good as what I was getting before on the DC-8 (which schedules are probably going to remain unattainable for me on ANY fleet). So nothing is simple. I've determined that even though my company flies all over the world, and it would be cool to see other countries on someone else's nickel, I'm going to stick to domestic flying so that I have a more family-friendly schedule. That limits my airplane choices to two (in addition to the DC-8, another all-domestic fleet), one of which has absolutely brutal schedules. The tolerable airplane is the Airbus A-300. So there's my choice: DC-8 or Airbus A-300.

Please bear with me while I go through this all again.


Pluses of life on the DC-8:

• The schedules are virtually all week-on / week-off.
• The workday is kind, with very few trips which involve more than one leg in and one leg out of the package sort (during which we sit idle), and the legs are usually not more than two hours in duration each way.
• There is plenty of rest time on most DC-8 trips.
• I know the airplane, having been on it now for six years. Being on the DC-8 is easy for me--there is no studying required.
• The DC-8 serves several of my favorite cities, either favorite for commuting purposes (Milwaukee, Chicago, Minneapolis) or for layover purposes (Newark, Chicago, Ontario CA, Minneapolis, Dallas).
• I have immense admiration for the stoutness and brick-like solidity of the airplane; it's a privilege to be flying a piece of aviation history, one of the great airplane designs. Few if any modern jetliners will be flying at age 40.
  
• As a co-pilot in a 3-person cockpit, I have a very light workload; my job is very easy.
• Sitting reserve keeps me away from home too much, but it's a really, really easy way to earn a good living.
• The age of the DC-8 requires one to hand-fly much more than with other fleets, which makes one feel like a pilot. All newer fleets have considerably more automation, and one "manages the airplane" more than one flies it. Most pilots at my company are scared of the DC-8 because it places great demands on its pilots relative to a newer airplane. Being in the midst of this, I don't notice it until someone else points it out.
  

Minuses to life on the DC-8:

• The fleet is shrinking, so my work is not likely to return to the days of wine & roses I had last year. A life of reserve flying stretches out before me for the next few years until I get upgraded to Captain (after which I'm sure to be back on reserve).
• The airplane is not very comfortable, being awkward to get in and out of (especially for a fat guy like me) and the 40-year-old seats are only passable.
• It represents the very best engineering of its time, but the DC-8's time was 40 years ago. A lot has changed since then. I came from a much more advanced airplane at my last job, and I miss the navigational amenities that a more modern airplane provides.

Pluses to life on the A-300:

• The airplanes are new, so everything is in good shape.
• Because they are new, it is the most reliable fleet at our company, maintenance-wise.
• It gives me many more choices of work schedules, presently including (though it is a domestic airplane) some Europe flying--which I'll probably never get because it goes very senior.
• It's a very comfortable airplane, much moreso than the DC-8, both for flying and for jumpseating on.
• It's something new to shake things up after six years of relative stasis.
• It flies to many of the same cities as the DC-8, and several other interesting ones as well (plus a bunch of less-interesting ones as well--but the DC-8 has those too).
  

Minuses to life on the A-300:

• As a machine, the Airbus is the least impressive airplane we fly (though it's much newer and more advanced than the DC-8, everyone recognizes that the 8 is the best of its era and the 'Bus is, well... not). I don't worry, as some do, about the airplane coming apart on me mid-air (though one lost its tail leaving New York a few years ago, something that nobody ever said about Douglas's DC-8) but it's not a machine to be fanatical about.
• Most flying days on the 'Bus involve three flying legs. That's not so many, but two legs after the sort means getting to the hotel after sun-up and a shorter time to sleep. That can make for tough going compared to the DC-8.
• Training is not a thing to be undertaken on a whim. It's a hell of a lot of work, and though I'm a good learner I'm not a particularly fast one. Every new airplane has proven to be a challenge for me. I need to internalize things, which requires time to acclimate; so training is stressful. I can see only wanting to do this a limited number of times in life.

So that's what I'm left with. I currently have a bid in to move to the Airbus, and I have another couple of weeks before I have to pull my decision back or live with the outcome. I'm not guaranteed to make the move this time because I've put in my request. While I'll certainly be able to transfer to the airplane at some point, there will have to be space for me, and no one above me wanting the spot, for me to make the move.

Stay tuned. (Or WAKE UP! The post's over.)