Grumpy face? No. I was up very early with severe indegestion, but no "grumpy face."
If the day ever comes that meeting a crossing restriction gives me a thrill, I'll quit flying entirely and drive a beer truck.
Yesterday I had a short-notice dispatch to a fire on the south end of an island. Turbulence was severe, windshear at the dropsite 40 knots, and the drop was over a sharp ridge and into a tight canyon. The workload was high, with a moderate pucker factor. I wouldn't call that a thrill, either, but if the day comes that making a power off descent, or meeting a crossing altitude is the cats meow, then I'm done. I hope the wings come off long before then.
Sitting at FL350 and watching the night slice cleanly into day, with a clear sunrise and sunset on each wing, is a spiritual thrill. Overflying the Grand Canyon and realizing that you're looking down on the fingerprint of God, is a thrill. Watching a student solo for the first time, or sitting in the cockpit as they realize a concept for the first time, is a thrill. Breaking out of a heavy smoke column bathed in sweat and alive, to hear the words "load and return," is a good thing. To each his own, I suppose.
"Flying a DC8 was great experience. You'll get tired of old dirty and unreliable airplanes. Newer is always better. The last DC8 was built in '72."
Speak for yourself on that one; I've never tired of older airplanes. Older and unreliable are different things; the two don't equate. Perhaps "unique" would be a better word than "unreliable." Some of my favorite airplanes were built during or before the second world war. The last 4Y was built in 1945. Still a great airplane.
I remember flying with a captain in a corporate airplane once. The captain was new to the company, and has "stepped down" from a highly automated aircraft into our meager "older" jets. The captain commented that it was so nostalgic to be flying these aircraft (Lear 35). He scoffed at the "round gages." I commented that this was brand new technology compared to what I had been flying before. Different worlds...but that "old technology" did just fine for a lot of people, for a lot of years...and it still works great. How can it be nostalgic if it's working today as good as it ever did, earning a living, and doing it's job? Folks to see older equipment as antiquated or round gage as nostalgic are probably the same ones who put their nose in the air and proclaim that props are for boats, or other such trite arrogant immature commentary.
If it does the job and works as advertised, then it's certainly good enough for me.
