panam.captain by Timothy Mellon

Author:Timothy Mellon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510780354
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2024-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 12: Clipper A. Jay Cristol.

Clipper Service on our Pan Am was all coach, but we did make the seats more comfortable by increasing the “pitch” (distance between seat rows) by about four inches. We forewent meal service in favor of drinks and snacks. This allowed us to do away with the rolling food carts, which present a real hazard to passengers and crew alike in turbulence. Friendly flight crew personnel were also an obligatory component of our strategy.

As things settled down, I took it upon myself to undergo the training necessary to fly the Boeing 727 as Captain. The training took place between several ragtag simulator facilities in Miami. As I was the first person on the roster, even before the bankruptcy was finalized, I declared myself Number One in Seniority, thus avoiding any childish labor disputes about when and where I could fly. The hardest part of training was the ground school, which taught the various aircraft systems such as hydraulic, electrical, fuel and so forth. The simulator, although cranky and unpredictable at times, was easier to master. Clay Faulkner was my instructor; he had been a check pilot on the previous Pan Am. When I graduated to the real airplane, Clay was the one who acted as my co-pilot for the training flights. Although I passed the FAA flight test without too much trouble, I did not yet feel totally comfortable landing the actual aircraft. Eventually, one of the Flight Engineers gave me an important hint: cut the power on the middle engine while 100 feet high in the landing zone. This worked perfectly, and Clay’s method, using too much power, was abandoned.

In the next several years, I flew regularly scheduled flights, for example, Pease to Sanford and back, as well as charters from Boston to the Caribbean (Jamaica and Aruba) and to Mexico. I accumulated about 180 hours in the 727. I enjoyed the work, although it was quite a bit more dogmatic than flying one’s own aircraft. The main difference was the necessity to work with two other crewmembers; to communicate clearly with one another, and to follow the FAA approved procedures as closely as possible. “CRM”, or Cockpit Resource Management, has become a big theme in the FAA’s campaign to improve aircrew performance and maximize safety. If one sees someone doing something improperly, the idea is to challenge them to the point they must respond, acknowledge, and then correct whatever was performed improperly. In earlier years, the captain’s seniority would often intimidate those of lesser rank into keeping quiet, which sometimes led to disastrous consequences. By contrast, flying alone as a single pilot, the trick is to keep challenging one’s self that everything is going according to proper method.

Meanwhile, my wife Pat decided that she wanted to train to be a flight attendant. We tucked into the Marriott Residence near Pease, with our dogs, one cold winter, and she attended the daily classes in Tower D of our hangar. Ready for her check ride, she was scheduled to fly on a round-trip from Pease to Sanford and back, then on to Bangor.

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