Before I begin, I want to say that this may be the last one for a while, as I have a couple of real-life situations that are going to come to a nexus here in the next month or so, and I'm going to be going through some pretty dramatic changes in my life. I'll continue to post continuations of the series as I find time.


Beneath The Wing, Part 5: Bags and Tags.

Next time you fly with an airline, don't just cut off that little strip of paper and plastic that got...

Beneath The Wing, Part 4: Read Between The Lines

Looking around the ramp at an airport, the first thing that sticks out is all the hustle and bustle of operations. However, if you look closely, you can see that certain paint lines can impact how aircraft, crews, and support equipment are moved around.

In the picture below, I have shown the four most common color patterns that I interacted with:
...

Beneath The Wing, Aircraft Focus #1: CRJ-200

Manufactured by: Bombardier.
Seating: 50+4 crew.
Powerplant: 2 8,729 lbf (38.83 kN) CF34-3B1 turbofans.
Production status: ended
No. Produced: 1021

Overview

The CRJ-200 was an update to the previously existing CRJ-100, and provided an increase in takeoff weight and range. The design originated from the Canadair CL601 Challenger corporate aircraft, and therefor has many similarities....

Part 3: Oh Captain, My Captain…

I’ll give you a quick recap of last week’s finale…

Now, as I put on the loaner vest, set my earplugs, and donned my sunglasses (it was about 1530 PDT), I thought back to the training I had been undergoing...

Beneath The Wings, Part 2: I Get Schooled

Now that I was officially hired, I now needed to go through training before being allowed on the ramp near the aircraft. Most of this would be in the form of computer-based training through the Delta corporate network, but I would also be trained through the internet for Jet Blue and Frontier, and in-person for Hawaiian. The training was wide-ranging, and largely interesting to me, if not the other new guys (and gal)!

...