I know it´s been a while, and a lot of you have been asking ´why I’m not flying as much and when I´m flying next´. So I thought I share with you a little secret, or not so much of a secret but one of many benefits having the schedule that I have, every year we get one full month off and this year October was mine, hence the less flying lately.
It´s like riding a bike, strange feeling but it actually is. I didn´t think much about work during my month off, I was too busy having fun sand duning in Dubai and road tripping in California. First day back in the office I thought I would feel somewhat ´rusty´ but it was like riding a bike, and I flew right back into it. Starting off easy with a single Luxemburg and back, departure time was not until 6.40 pm giving me plenty of time to adjust back to Europe time zone after spending the last couple of weeks in sunny California.
I know that I get a lot of followers on my social media channels because of the fact that my username is @pilotmaria and some of you were expecting to see more ´pilot life´ I would love to share more from my every day at work, I love my job and there is nothing I am as geeky about, but unfortunately I can´t do that due to company regulations and procedures. I hope and I wish that you have understanding for this. (However, on my facebook I share more facts and random geeky aviation stuff: @pilotmaria).
The second day back, flying high and fast, a four sector day in true fall, low visibility fog and with a dark, new moon night sky. We flew to Verona in Italy and back to London. It was my sector flying us back and then to Billund in Denmark. The visibility in Billund was 300 meters in fog and we did a so-called ´CAT III´ approach. We can start an approach with reported RVR down to 200 meters, no cloud base required for a precision approach. We flew a dual channel, both autopilot A and B connected, at 50 feet radio altitude the Captain (company procedure might differ with other companies) makes a decision to land or do a so-called missed approach ´go around´, we need to see parts of the landing system, lights, threshold etc to make the decision. It´s not the Captains decision by feeling, but a decision by the procedure that we follow. The airplane lands by itself and discontents the autopilots shortly after landing. I love flying CAT III approaches, it is something mystic and beautiful about fog and the normally so still and quiet air that fog is typically associated with.
I could not stop thinking about the adventures I had just been on! It was some of the best few weeks in my l i f e! No matter how much I love my job, I would fly back to California and go on another road trip in a heartbeat. I promise to share more about this trip with you soon.
The rest of the week flew by! A couple of days later I boarded my flight back to Gothenburg, where I had not been for the past five weeks, I had two big suitcases full of laundry and my flight bag full of paperwork. For once I was looking forward to getting home and do nothing (read; get my laundry done, see family and friend, update my blog, edit photos and videos, eat healthy get a gym membership that was now very much needed after this trip and last but not least, sleep). You can imagine my happiness, landing in Gothenburg exhausted and tired and my mom surprised me by picking me up at the airport and driving me home ❤️ best mom ever!
Read more about fog and coding aviation weather on my facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/pilotmaria/
I´ve decided to designate my facebook to be more aviation related, share more knowledge, facts etc and keep my Instagram as it is, a mix of travel and aviation. You can also find me on Twitter where I share the most random thoughts not related to anything really: https://twitter.com/pilotmaria
Take care now, until next time
xx Maria
