Commuter Flying 101 (Great Lakes Airlines)

Commuter Flying- 101

Great Lakes had just signed a contract with United Airlines to provide feed in the Midwest to Chicago ORD, Denver Stapleton, Minneapolis, and Detroit, MI.  Due to that contract, Great Lakes was about to experience growth like it had never seen.  

Ground school at Great Lakes started on a Monday.  There were 12 of us.  The Instructor was the Director of Operations- Jeff Davis.  Jeff was a master at the skill of Intimidation.  Intimidation was his technique to garner cooperation for graduation.  Since then, I’ve seen many techniques...and I’m not a fan of intimidation...at all :)

The first few days were VERY overwhelming.  I roomed with a guy named Dan Miexner.  Dan was a sharp guy...very sharp. He was fresh out of college from Mankato State in MN.  Mankato was a breeding ground for Great Lakes new hire pilots.  Due to that, the pilot pool up there had all the ‘gouge’ on Great Lakes.  Operating procedures, 1900 manuals, etc.  In other words, they already knew what you needed to know!  I knew nothing.  

The material came fast and furious, a true ‘fire hose’.  I struggled, and struggled.  Since I did not go to College...I did not really know how to study yet.  I had to learn fast if I was going to make it through the next couple weeks.  

Week one was Ops Specs, and week two was Aircraft systems.  At the end of week one, we had the big test.  At the end of the test, Jeff came into class and wrote all the test scores on the board.  He started with 90’s, then 80’s, then 70’s and a few 60’s at the bottom.  Then, he drew a line between two test scores.  Then he passed out the tests, with our scores on the front, circled.  I looked at mine, and my score was below the line on the chalk board!  I knew it was not good.

Jeff went on to say that if ‘your score’ is below the line, you need to come to my office after class.  I was the first one of 4 into his office.  I told him right away that I want to work ‘here’ very badly and I will do what ever I need to do...I was not going back to the flight school...or instruction.  Jeff told me that I was doing fine (fine meaning he could see I was working hard, I paid attention, etc.)...I just needed to study more.  Roger!  Done.

The next week went better, I was quickly learning how to study and retain what I had studied.  I found out that I am a very visual person.  Not photographic type memory...but close.  If I see it and draw it a few times, or write it a few times...it’s stuck.  So in lieu of a 10 question test, the option to ‘draw’ the electrical system of the 1900 was given.  I chose to draw the system instead of answering the 10 questions.  I nailed it!  Drew it perfectly.  Could I have answered the 10 questions?  I’ll never know if it would have been a 100, 90, or 70.  Second week done, one person let go, 11 pass onto flight training.

It’s Friday night, we are all done with ground school, flight training starts the next day for the number one guy in class (best test scores- not me).  Two of us know we are not flying for a few days, so we party pretty hard that night, out late.  We know the first few guys start training the next day, and we will be later in the week.  So our plan is to wake up and head out to the airport, find a 1900, and start running checklists, flows (setting switches for different phases of flight, etc).

We got to the airport around noon.  We are feeling pretty sluggish from our prior night.  But we are not going to fly for a while- so no big deal.  We go through the hangar to grab a soda before we end up on the ramp in a warm airplane.  As we walk by Jeff’s office, he says to us, ‘You guys seen Miexner?’  I looked at my stick partner (the guy you are paired to train with), and we said, ‘No, have not seen him since last night.’  Jeff is not happy.  He had been trying to contact Dan to begin training and could not find him. 

Your seniority was based on whom ever checked out in the airplane first.  First guy done, #1 in class seniority.  #2 checked out, is #2 in class, etc.  It is a BIG DEAL!  Because, in the Airline biz, seniority determines EVERYTHING!  Pay, Vacation, Days off, Bidding for airplanes, bumping rights, etc.  Everything.

Jeff thought for a minute as we told him we had not seen Dan.  Then he looks at us and says, ‘Miexner is AWOL, you guys want to fly?’  OMG!  Fly, today, I thought.  Do you pass it up because you don’t feel at the top of your game...and prevent more turbulence for Jeff?  Or do you ‘Cowboy up’, and sieze an incredible opportunity.  I looked at my stick partner, he looked at me and we both smiled.  It’s on!

The first flight was something I will NEVER forget.  Up till then, the airplanes I had been flying would not exceed the maximum indicated airspeed for the aircraft.  Meaning, you could fly straight and level with full power and pretty much not go too fast to damage anything or get in trouble.  The Beech 1900 (C model), was a different animal.  

We took off Spencer, IA, runway 18 that morning after our ‘stress relieving’ party.  I’m not supposed to be there, Dan should be there.  Poor sap!  The sun was shining, no clouds in the sky...it was a beautiful day.  Jeff said, ‘Climb-out and maintain 180 knots, level off at 12,500 feet’.  The airplane flew like nothing I had ever flown.  It was stable, fast, responsive, full of performance, smooth (turbine engines instead of Pistons)...I was in love.  The airplane flew so well, in fact, I found myself just enjoying the moment.  I was looking around outside, watching for other airplanes.  The airplane was trimmed up for 180 knots, climbing about 3000 feet per minute, and I was just calm as could be.  I felt like I was home.

I caught Jeff looking at me out of the corner of his eye.  He had a smirk on his face.  To this day, I believe he liked what he was seeing in the first few minutes of our lesson.  I was not chasing the airspeed, I was flying smooth, which is what it was all about.  Soon, there would be 19 people sitting behind me, and rough flying was not tolerated at this company.  Which was fine with me, because I had been flying smooth for at least 3 years already (my CFI check ride was based on smoothness, and I had been providing pilot service since my 18th birthday...so this was easy by now).

During my two hours of flight training that day, I shot multiple approaches in Fort Dodge, IA.  ILS, VOR.  We did all the maneuvers, approaches, landings, etc.  Then, I switched seats with Mike, and he got two hours of training.

When we got back to Spencer, I went into Jeff’s office and he said, ‘Tomorrow, I want you to go to Minneapolis and meet up Mike Heenan for your check ride’.  I wish someone would have taken a photograph of my face, because I’m sure it would be a priceless shot.  ‘Check ride!’  I was wondering how I was going to handle this gingerly.  Thoughts racing through my mind were; 1 Am I ready?  2 Do I object and risk further delays or things I don’t even know about?  3 Is everyone trained this quickly?  4 What if I fail the check ride, am I out of a job?

I thought for a few seconds and responded to his order with, ‘Jeff, I have flown only 2 hours in the airplane.  At risk of not cooperating here, I am not real comfortable with getting a check ride with so little experience in the airplane.  What if I fail the check ride, do I lose my job?’

Jeff went silent for a minute (he was really good at that- very intimidating).  Then, he said, ‘Ok, tell you what.  You fly with Mike, and we’ll call it training.  If you do well enough, which you did today, then it will be a check ride.’  This sounded fair to me.  I had voiced my concern and he met my concern with a fair solution.  So it was, tomorrow I would hop a flight to Minneapolis and fly with Mike.  If everything went well, I guess it was off to ‘fly the line’.

I don’t remember much about the ‘training’ with Mike.  I was flying out of large airport, with a new person, in a scenario that very well could shape the rest of my flying career.  I don’t even remember where we flew that day without looking in my logbook.  All I know is this, I passes the check ride that day and flew back to Spencer that night to meet with Jeff again.

Jeff congratulated me, and told me I was heading out right away.  I was going to be based in Sault Ste Marie, MI...the ‘CIU’.  I was thrilled!  In a few days, I would begin ‘flying the line’ with 19 innocent people behind me.  Serving the Detroit and Chicago hubs for United, picking up people in Sault Ste Marie, Alpena, Pellston, Traverse City, Manistee, and delivering them to their flights at those two hubs.  I would also be flying about 15 days a month, racking up 90-100 hours of flight time (Turbine Multi Engine flight time) in those 15 days.  The other 15 days I did not work...were mine to enjoy.

All of 21 years old, new uniform, new job, happy as a pig in &^%$!

Flying the line, Commuter style...........

My first day, I’m scheduled to fly with Brian Yergin.  Brian was the Domicile Manager, meaning he controlled the schedules and covered any issues with missing pilots due to commuting issues, being sick, etc.  On this day, he was also going to write an evaluation of my performance while flying.  I was in for an education :)

Flying the line is fast and furious.  There is a schedule to meet.  There are ways to accomplish things.  There are many new things to learn.  It is one of the most rewarding times in my aviation career.

We flew a morning schedule that day.  Brian picked me up at my crash pad (another term for a house packed with 6 pilots), and we drove over to the hangar where the airplanes were parked over night for maintenance.  From there, we spoke with the mechanics and assessed the airplanes maintenance status for the day.  Push the airplane out, get in, start it up and run it through all the system checks required before the first flight of the day.  This, alone is overwhelming at first.  There is so much to remember.  Not only what to check, but what are the limits of those items you’re checking.  That’s what the week of ground school is all about.

After the system checks are done, it’s over to the terminal for gas and people.  Park in front of the door, call the fueler for the planned fuel load to either the next airport or all the way to Detroit or Chicago, and go inside to get a weather briefing and figure out the weight and balance.  Cross the t’s and dot the i’s, load the passengers and you are off!

Then comes one the more difficult things I had to learn, the passenger briefing.  When you fly on United, or any major carrier, probably most of the commuters now since they have flight attendants...you listen to a 3 minute safety briefing by the flight attendant or a video system, or maybe even a recording.  At Great Lakes, there was no flight attendant.  There were no video systems.  So, the First Officer (me) had to say this entire briefing over the PA.  Those items are required by Law (FAR 135.117), each time you board a passenger, before you take off.  This is also done while you are taxiing out to the runway, getting a clearance for takeoff, running a before takeoff checklist, watching the taxi route, keeping an eye and ear out for other airplane traffic, etc.  It’s a ‘one legged man in an ass kicking contest’ type of scenario.  So, you had better know this briefing so you are not holding up the show.  Luckily, I had been practicing this briefing while driving around on days off, flying back home on days off, etc.

Our first day was typical.  We flew early AM to early PM.  Down to Detroit through Alpena, back to the CIU.  Down to Chicago through Pelston, Traverse, and Manistee.  When we got back to the CIU, the weather had taken a turn for the worse.  We shot an approach to runway 34, which did not work out.  I was flying.  The clouds were too low to get in from that direction this time (we preferred an approach from the South since we were always arriving from the South).  So we went missed approach, flew North to execute the ILS approach under our own navigation (no vectors from Center control, etc.).  That approach worked out fine, with a landing on 16.

After the day was over, 7.5 fresh hours were in my logbook.  I was also extremely tired.  Up at 3 in the morning, fly till 2 or 3 in the afternoon, it’s all new to me, emotions are running hi...it all adds up.  But, it was a good day.  Brian wrote a very nice evaluation giving me many kudos, and I went to the crash pad to enjoy the rest of my day.  I still have that evaluation in my logbook, it’s fun to re-live those memories every now and then.

For the next 8 or so months, that was my life.  15 days of work per month, earning a whopping $900-$1000 per month, and logging 100 hours per month of that priceless Turbine Engine time.  15 days a month were off, so I was either in the CIU going down to Mackinac Island (Sailed down, drove/ferried down, and flew a small plane down there during my 8 months based in CIU), or sightseeing.  My parents flew up for a few days, and of course, when Corinne was not working, she would fly up there as well.  I went back to IA some as well.  

My next move was to Grand Island, NE.  I went out there as a First Officer, mainly for a change.  Grand Island (GRI) was one of our larger bases.  22 Pilots as I remember it.  And most of those people lived there, or around there...so it was really like a big family away from home.  The CIU was sort of like that too, but those folks up there were, well, sort of eccentric.  I’m not saying I didn’t fit in up there, by any means.  But I was ready for something new.

Grand Island was also where Mac was based.  Mac helped me get hired, so I was looking forward to flying with him.  Grand Island also served two different airports, Minneapolis and Denver, CO, as well as serving Chicago O’Hare.  So, the trips were more efficient, more variety, and much more fun since there were more people there with my interests.  And it was the midwest, not the U.P. of MI.  

The two bases couldn’t have been more different.  The CIU was a rebel crowd, get ‘er done type mentality.   GRI was laid back, nice nice people, good routes, etc.  I liked it there much better.

 23rd Birthday, now I can upgrade to Captain

May 15, 1993.  I turn 23.  Which, is a monumental age for an aspiring pilot because its the minimum age you need to be to get an ATP (Airline Transport Pilot).  It is the final Rating at the top of the ladder.  Before me, there had been plenty of people that had actually taken the check ride and the FAA simply held the piece of paper until the person turned 23.  I was not that eager.  I waited for my upgrade opportunity at Great Lakes...mainly because that was going to be free, I was already flying for a commuter, and there was no advantage to getting my ATP before I upgraded to Captain.

My shot to upgrade did not actually come until September that year.  And it was a bitter sweet moment in my life as well.  In August, I got a phone call from my Mom, and she told me she had been diagnosed with Cancer.  It was a devastating phone call, met with lot’s of emotion and fear.  I told Mac about my news and he said go home.  Let us know when you’re coming back.

I took my manuals home with me.  I decided that if I could study during all this, I would.  If not, then I could wait.  My Mom went in for exploratory surgery a few days later and the news was worse than we could have imagined.  The Dr. told us that she was ‘chalk full’ of cancer.  When Mom came out of recovery, we had to tell her.  It was one of the hardest things I had ever experienced.

A few months earlier, I had also proposed to Corinne.  We had set the date for the following year, in June.  In my ‘way of thinking’, it would be better to provide for a family if I were not making ‘food stamp’ levels of income...so I tied the upgrade to Captain with my launch pad for starting a family.  That put us at a 6 and 1/2 year dating mark, but it was all worth it.  And very key, which I’ll expand on later.

The wedding was also a huge motivator for my Mom though.  In the days following the surgery, we all talked about a lot of things.  Two of those things, dealt with me.  One, she said, was that she wanted me to pursue my career and that she would be just fine.  She told me she did not want to ‘be a burden’ on my mind.  (Hard to imagine not thinking about this...all the time, but I understood her intentions)  Two, she told me that she would be dancing with me at my wedding the following year.  She told me while looking into my eyes, with conviction.  I believed her.  I was convinced she would beat this, and went about my training, and my life while she fought for her life. 

Upgrade training- GLA style

The time comes to start Captain training.  I had been looking forward to this for a long time.  Although I had been flying with Great Lakes only 15 months, I had seen a lot of things.  For one, which I encourage everyone have, I had seen all 4 seasons in the Midwest.  Snow, fog, rain, Thunderstorms topping 50,000 feet, nice days, bad days, ice on the airplane, etc.  Some people I flew with later, that grew up in FL, never ever had seen ice on airplane.  Others had never seen a system of thunderstorms that formed a line across an entire state.  I had seen quite a bit.  

I had also been watching everyone I flew with.  I was collecting notes in my head of things that I would never do to a First Officer of mine.  I was also taking notes of things I liked to see.  How I liked to be treated, etc.  And, I had motivation from a select few individuals that I thought, IMO, that did not deserve to be occupying the left seat of airplane!  I thought that if they could do it, I could certainly do better.

It’s time for the first flight.  Flight training in GRI, would occur after an airplane showed up from Passenger flying (after midnight in most cases).  You could only train when the airplane was not making the company money.  And all of our training was accomplished in the airplane, no simulators.  

My instructor is Mac.  The same guy that helped me get hired.  The same guy I had been flying with line with for months.  What I did not know was Macs ‘style’ of training.  The style is this; Build up, tear down, build up- Check Ride.  And that’s exactly how it went.  First flight- Great!  No big deals, great job, walk away feeling good.  Second flight- went something like this....

We were flying in the afternoon, must have been a Saturday, because all Saturday schedules at airlines are usually a slow day.  It was daylight, which was nice.  Normal hours for the body to do business.  I was feeling good.  I had already completed a few hours of training, which went Great!  Today was tear down day though.  We flew to Norfolk, NE.  I was wearing an Instrument hood (so all I could fly by was the instruments in the airplane).  Up to Norfolk, hood on, and Mac is constructing a plan to rip me apart.  He says, (he’s playing Minneapolis Center) ‘Lakes Air 123, cleared direct the Outer Marker for the ILS approach, report procedure turn inbound’.  I read back the clearance.  Shortly after that, Mac fails one of the engines.  Oh, single engine approach, no problem...I’ve done this plenty of times.  We start outbound on the approach, and he covers my attitude indicator.  Oh, stepping it up a notch...Ok.  I’ve flown like that too.  During our procedure turn inbound, he covers the Altimeter!  This was...new to me.  Now, I have to convert altitudes on the chart from Mean Sea Level, or what I should be reading on the altimeter, to Above Ground Level altitudes, which I will now be reading off the Radar Altimeter.  Now, I’m loaded up.  And that was the idea.  I was flying too smoothly before the altimeter failure for Mac to think I was having a hard time.  So, load the guy up till he’s not flying right, and see if he breaks!  

I flew the approach, which he turned into a circling approach half way down the Glide slope, so now I have to circle the airport, with the radar altimeter, single engine, while not breaking any rules.  Fun stuff!  We landed in Norfolk, turned off the runway, and stopped the airplane on a taxi way.  Mac said take off your hood, relax.  ‘Relax’ was a relative term at this point.

At that point, Mac said something that put the fear of failure in me.  He said, ‘Well Shawn, do you want me to blow sunshine up your ass or tell you how pathetic that was’.  I felt about an inch tall.  Wanting to improve, and most importantly, pass the check ride...I said, ‘I’ll take the pathetic route’.  He went on to tell me every little thing I had screwed up.  I already knew what I had did wrong...I just flew the approach.  I used to teach this stuff myself...not in the Beech 1900, but other airplanes.  I knew what I had fundamentally messes up.  But it was part of his style, and I was his student.  So let it fly.

To this day, we still laugh about that day :)  Looking back on it, it IS funny.  And if you can’t laugh at it, respect it for what it is, then you have no business in an airplane.  

[  There is also one more thing I want to mention here, which Mac taught me during my upgrade process.  And it’s something that I wish everyone would have been exposed to in their training, because it produces a relaxed tempo in the cockpit.  Mac told me that his job as an instructor is to make sure that I do things safely.  He held up his hands and made a box.  He told me that within this box of ‘safety’ were 10, 20, or more ways to complete the mission, perform the job.  He did not care WHAT way I chose, as long as it ‘was in the box’.  Simply put, it did not have to be done HIS way, but a safe way.  To this day, I will never forget that.  It is what sets good pilots apart from the absolute miserable ones to fly with.  There are not many at United, but we have our ‘special people’.  Those people that know only one way of doing things, and your way, no matter how safe or accepted by hundreds before him, is not the right way.  I owe much to this man, he taught me many things, that later, made me a better Captain, someone that others looked forward to flying with.  ]

We flew one more time.  This time was, ‘Build up’ time.  We did everything we had already done.  The flight went great.  We got on the ground that night in the we early hours of morning, and Mac told me he was recommending me for my Check Ride.  And I gave him the same look I gave Jeff Davis 15 months earlier.  ‘Check Ride!’  I told him I did not understand how I was ready after the flight prior going so poorly.  I also pointed out that I had all of 7.2 hours instruction as a ‘Captain’!

He then told me that he felt I was more than ready.  He told me I had more experience than most people before me.  He told me he had been flying with me daily for months, and that I had nothing to worry about.  I believed him, after all, he was ‘in the circle’.  

The night before my check ride, I was sitting in my crash pad in GRI, studying as if my life had depended on it.  Mac called me on the phone.  He asked what I was doing.  I told him I was studying, damn it!  He told me to stop.  I said, ‘Stop?’  He told me to have a few beers, go to sleep and knock Jeff dead tomorrow in Spencer.  Ok.

Another day with Jeff Davis, it’s Check Ride day in SPW

This is the biggest event to date while climbing the aviation ladder.  This ride stands between me and logging that coveted Turbine Engine PIC (Pilot in Command) flight time.  It’s a type rating (a license specific to the airplane your are flying).  It’s the ATP check ride (Airline Transport Pilot).  It’s a 135.293 check, and a 135.297 check...all in one.  It’s a BIG check ride, nothing to be taken lightly.

I meet Jeff in his office.  We begin the oral part of the evaluation.  The only change from my Private Pilot check ride (6 years earlier) to today, was that now I knew how to study, and I was much more confident in what I knew.  Having said that, this is Jeff Davis, and it’s my check ride..so I’m still nervous as hell!  The oral took...forever.  It went well.  It was not perfect, but it was not a failure either.  Jeff’s job is to expand on what you know, get you to think outside the box.  To that end, you need to understand that you WILL NOT answer everything correctly.  It is a check ride, but it’s also a learning experience.  And if you take nothing away from it, then you have failed.

Off to fly!  The flight went exactly as I had been trained.  There were twists.  Like flying a DME arc to a VOR approach single engine while completing a check list that sits on your lap.  Oh, and if I did not mention it yet- this is a Single Pilot Check Ride.  The 1900 was certified single pilot (although we did not fly it that way), therefore, the check ride was executed as if I was the only person onboard the airplane.  It was the last airplane I would check out in as a Single Pilot.  Everything at the commuters, airlines, corporate, fractional, and cargo airlines are conducted as a Crew operation (Captain, First Officer, and sometimes a Flight Engineer).

I used all the tricks I had been learning for 15 months.  I did as Mac had told me to do.  I did my best, that was it.  And it was enough on that day.  Jeff was happy with what he had seen.  He had critique, but it was positive.  No tearing up, no beating, just positive critique on things I could have done better.  Mainly, it was safe, it was to ATP standards...and it was to Jeff’s standards (which were higher).

I flew my OE (Operating Experience) out of Spencer with ‘Freddy’.  Steve Fredericks was going to be riding with me until he felt I was safe, and knew all I needed to know to fly innocent people around.  The first leg was Spencer to Mason City, IA.  Then onto Waterloo (where Corinne was working), then onto Chicago O’Hare.  The wind was howling out of the south which made runway 18 a logical choice.  Freddy was my ‘Co-Pilot’, so I asked him to look up the performance for runway 18.  He looked at me and smiled.  I said, ‘Was it something I said?’  He said, ‘No, no one has every asked me to do that before.’  I thought that was odd...but it proved to be one of those moments that set the tone for the rest of the day.  I think it showed him, right off, that my head was in the right spot.

There was another moment of my OE that I have not forgotten.  We were climbing out of Grand Island on our next round of OE.  I was looking down at the pedestal trying to find the Rudder Trim.  I seen him looking at me like I had two heads.  And he was smirking.  I said, ‘What?’  He said that I should know where that is without looking for it.  And he was so right.  I did know where it was while I was in the right seat.  But when you move left, after sitting right for a while, everything feels weird for the first month or so.  But the lesson was, you should know where everything is by feel, or memory because at some point in time, you may not have the luxury or time to look for it.  Know your ‘office’.

OE was done, I was off to fly as Captain all over the system.  It was a hoot!  I was 23.  A lot of the First Officers were older than me.  I could NOT rent a car!  We were in Burlington, IA one day with a broken airplane.  We were supposed to fly to Quincy, IL and change crews.  Since the airplane was broken, and going to be fixed at some point later, it was decided that we should get a car, drive to Quincy and let the outbound crew bring the car back to Burlington.  So I went to the Car Rental counter to rent a car.  I gave the agent my driver license and she told me I had to be 25 to rent a car with them!  THAT is funny stuff...I don’t care who you are.  The First Officer had to sign the paperwork so that we could rent the car.  PIlots, you can’t trust us :)

Flying for Great Lakes, looking back, was probably the most fun I will ever have in Aviation.  It was during a different time in my life, it was a pilots airline, everyone worked together, when you were Captain- you were someone, etc.  Those days are gone for me.  I will never forget the people, the airplanes, the experience.

To condense a lot of time, I went on to fly the Brasilia.  I got my type rating in that too, and ended up with couple hundred hours in it before I moved onto Corporate flying.  I had 13 crew bases in 4 years.  At that time, all domiciles were outstations. There were no overnights.  All flights were out, and back the same day.  Which was really cool for me after I got married.  My wife got an Agent position in Quincy, IL, where I was based.  So we had a house, almost like a real life (for a pilot, and a Commuter Pilot at that).  We both worked mornings, so we were at the airport by 4:30 am, and home by 2 pm.  In all, 4 years at Great Lakes, well over 4,000 hours of Turbine Engine time, and I was out.  Onto other pastures.

Click here to read about the next step- Corporate Flying