Happy 3 Years of Flying!!

March 3rd marked the completion of my three years with my airline. Looking back on things, I really can't believe it's been 3 years.  It's really not that long, but where did those years go?!

The short version of how I ended up here: Along with the family & friends influence, I graduated college & didn't have a job. None of us did. (Helloooo Recession) and I knew I needed insurance & money.

My training was 3 weeks long. I was qualified on 3 types of regional jets to operate flights for 5 major airlines.  Oh and I was assigned a domicile that made me cry for 30 minutes in the shower in my hotel room.....the very city I was sick of after 3 weeks in the Midwest during March. Sure I'll talk the talk about growing up a Pittsburgh girl & I can handle snow. But clearly I had acclimated to the sunny (despite the sometimes cold) winters of the Carolinas....and the lack of snow.

Speaking of snow- our first visit to the hangar was at 10pm during a blizzard.  We didn't have mock-ups so we had to go to the hangar and wait for a plane to come in for the night.  Ours was parked outside about 50 yards away.  Oh I should mention that this jet doesn't always have airstairs built in- they pull up stairs.  The door is only about 5' off the ground so we got a ladder & all climbed into the plane using our required flashlights to get a peek at the plane we'd be flying on.

This should've been my first indication that this job was going to be far from glamorous.

Anyways....five of us girls were stuck into a domicile we didn't want to be in so we split a hotel room as our crash-pad for the first month.  Month 2 left me as the only one left who didn't get her transfer to the base she wanted. Sad.  Two leg commute to sit reserve for 12hrs/day.  Awesome. To be fair- spring in Indianapolis isn't that bad.  My first few days there resulted in not being called to fly and the hotel van taking me downtown.  I was quite happy to find a familiar sign in a window "Free Smells"...oh JimmyJohns. I almost cried tears of joy for the delicious, better-than-subway, sandwhich.

Then my first trip. I should mention that my domicile only operated for 3 of the 5 carriers and only 1 type of aircraft.  BUT on reserve I could be called out anywhere.  Of course do you think it was any of the 3? No. I was called to deadhead to St. Louis to work an American Airlines (Express? Connection? whatever they called it) flight to Baltimore.  The whole flight from Indy to St. Louis I was studying announcements & pre-flight, and the order we did things, and especially my notes on all of the things that AA did differently than ALLL of the other airlines we flew for. My deadhead was late arriving and my flight's departure time was fast approaching! I rushed to my gate, which was full of angry passengers who made comments like "nice of you to show up for work today"

I had no time to be nervous. I introduced myself to the crew. (oh btw I was the only flight attendant) and started my preflight like a pro.  Looking back on things- the hardest thing about being on that plane as the only Flight Attendant was that if you didn't know what you were doing- you had NObody to ask.  Thankfully we were given some really great supplimental info packets.

Eventually I got my transfer into the crew base in my city.....and was on reserve- aka hanging out- for the better part of 18 months until I transferred to another airline certificate in my company.  Currently I'm living the good life with my 12 minute drive to work as a line holder.  Okay its not THAT great....the other day I had a 13.5 hour duty day and only got paid for the hours flown....which was 4.5.  LOTS of sitting around.

More stories from the past to come!!