He's good! Riddle taught him to fly anything! And he
has a guaranteed inteview at CAL!
June 8, 2006
It has been a while since my last entry! I have been sooo busy here in Houston. Busy enough in fact that I couldn't even travel last weekend. Today I just took my checkride in the MD-80 simulator here at Continental.
I passed and am now a MD-80 captain and my instructor commended my crew partner and me on what a great job we did. He asked if we had flown the MD-80 before and I said no, but Embry-Riddle does prepare you to fly just about anything.
Tomorrow is our LOFT flight which stands for Line Oriented Flight Training. We will be flying a flight from Houston to Austin and then coming back to Houston to see what pilots experience on a daily basis. So far in the simulator we have been dealing with emergencies, engine failures, and the like so it will be nice for a change to just fly and enjoy it.
The best part about the whole sim training is that Continental uses the MD-80 for interview flights. Maybe if I am lucky they will still have it here when I interview in a few years and I will still remember the systems and flows which will make the interview flight that much easier.
Our instructor has been a huge help to us. He is a 737 instructor and really knows his stuff. Everyone here has been so nice to us. They see that we are interns and ask how things are going, where we are from, and then give us their business card and say if there is anything you need just give me a call. It really is a family here and I can't wait to be a part of it.
May 25
It's Thursday night and for every Continental intern that means packing time! Every Thursday night we get our travel bags ready to jump seat to the destination of the weekend. For me that place is Seattle , Washington. My roommate and I are traveling out there for the weekend and meeting up with a friend of his. We aren't sure where we are saying or how we are going to get around but that's half the fun of just jumping on a plane somewhere.
This will be a nice vacation from the MD-80 ground school I have been in for the past week. We are cramming all the systems and operating procedures of the airplane in our heads in only a week's time. Next Wednesday we begin our actual simulator training with an instructor in the full motion simulator. I can't wait!
My time here is going by so fast because they keep us so busy. I haven't had a free weekend to explore Houston except for the first weekend we were here. After that I flew to Washington D.C. , then to Orlando, and this weekend Seattle. Not sure yet where I will go next weekend but I'm thinking San Francisco or maybe Boston. I'll check the flights next Wednesday and make my mind up then. For now though I need to pack!
May 15
It's been a busy week here in Houston. I had my first jump seat experience this weekend and it was amazing! I flew from Houston to Washington, D.C. to visit my parents for Mother's Day. I have flown into D.C. a hundred times but never seen the flight from the flight deck. I learned so much about flying large transport category aircraft by just observing the crew. It is a great learning experience and the free travel isn't bad either.
I begin MD80 simulator training next week and I am scrambling to learn all the aircraft systems and checklists before the first day of ground school. I am in the first group of interns to take part in the simulator course and am not sure what to expect or exactly what to study , so I will just have to study everything.
Tonight some of the interns and I went to the Astros baseball game to see Barry Bonds try to hit homerun number 714. Even though the Astros lost and Bonds didn't get his homerun it was good to sit down with the other interns to talk about what we have been doing. We really don't see too much of each other, at least the interns we don't room with. We wake up early and stay late at work or at the training center studying MD80 systems. I t seems like I walk into the apartment and it's already 9 p.m. I haven't eaten yet, still in my dress clothes, catch up with my roommates and by the time I look over my e-mail and relax it's midnight and time to head to bed to wake up at 6 to catch the shower rotation. But I can't complain , I love it here and look forward to every day.
This week I'm planning on jump seating down to Orlando to visit my girlfriend, I'm a little worried because it can be tough to get flights into and out of Orlando, especially in the summer months. But ill check the loads before I head out to the airport.
May 8
I'm sitting in my Houston apartment, it's 8:30 pm and I am exhausted but can't wait for tomorrow to begin. Today was day one as a
Continental Airlines Intern. I still can't believe I'm here; it seems like a dream still.
The day began early with my alarm sounding at 5:15 am. I had worked out a shower schedule with my roommates so we would be out the door by 6:15. The drive to work had been given a dry run in the days before. I had come out to Houston four days earlier with my girlfriend and just explored the city. We took in an Astros baseball game (we won and I'm now a life long fan), visited the aquarium, took in some of the Houston night life and celebrated Cinco de Mayo in one of the many Mexican restaurants within Houston. Two days ago I moved in to the apartment that I share with two other Continental Interns. There are 12 Interns in all, 10 in Houston, one in Newark , and one in Cleveland .
The department I'll be working in for the next four months is the Flight Safety Department at Continental. I am so happy that I've been given the opportunity to work in this department. As a safety minor within the Aeronautical Science degree program the knowledge I have acquired over the past three years will be put to good use. I will be entering data into the computer system as well as traveling to other airports to perform safety audits. These audits are to ensure that Continental ramps, gates and concourses comply with federal regulations. On top of my daily work we will be taking high altitude training, sitting in on Boeing 777 ground school classes, visiting the airport rescue and firefighting facility, traveling to Newark to visit the east coast hub, and the crown of the internship, MD-80 training. And let's not forget about the unlimited domestic jump seating. We are encouraged to travel on weekends and see the world, from the flight deck.
For now I still have to iron my shirt for tomorrow, study some manuals, study up on the company for the safety meeting I'll be sitting in on tomorrow and most important Ill be getting some sleep.
