Ill try and be a little more succinct in my storytelling for no other reason than I simply can't compete with that epic posed to us earlier in this tread. Hats off. That truly exemplifies what ACMI can rain down upon you... on your FIRST trip. Ha!!
In only three months on the line at Suddern on the ad hoc 747 flying, I somehow amassed more stories than I could have imagined. A lot of it was exactly what I expected and sort of hoped for... much of it was not. (Especially the near immediate furlough part, but I digress...).
I'll flip the cards here and describe my very last trip at Suddern. I'm going to skip passed many small nightmares in the beginning of the 20 day sequence for brevity (Captain and I in different hotels, not able to locate one another, and me being blamed by the captain for being in a different hotel.... the one scheduling booked me a room in. Yeah, my fault. Right.) The trip started becoming much more interesting upon our arrival in Guam.Here, we had the wonderful fortune of staying at a Marriott resort right on the beach (no longer a Marriott). It was STUNNING. We had a scheduled 36 hour layover, and I fully took advantage of it. There was amazing snorkeling right in front of the hotel, cool bars, very attractive women.... it was why I signed up. Then, by the grace of the ACMI gods, red button of death... Our aircraft was AOG in Japan. We were "stuck" here in Guam for another six days. Now, keep in mind that this was a Marriott, and we all had Marriott Platinum status. Free food. Free booze. Beach paradise. One week. One of the best layovers I've ever had. I'd go into further detail, but some things are better left unsaid (especially on a fairly public forum!).
We finally left Guam (Andersen AFB) early in the morning on a Sunday and headed for Hickam AFB in Honolulu for a short tech stop, and were then to continue to Travis AFB in Northern CA. It was a long scheduled day, something like 18 hours. And for everything the ACMI gods give you, they are sure to restore balance with something else. We broke the airplane in Hickam, but not bad enough to go AOG (so close!). This netted us a four hour delay in which we did not leave the aircraft. We then jetted off to Travis, offloaded our cargo, and were thoroughly exhausted and looking forward to getting off the plane.... No. Just kidding. We were told there was no room to park the aircraft that night. We would have to repo the aircraft to McClellan AFB in Sacramento, a short 36 miles away. But oh, the airfield is shut down for the next three hours. And you can't leave the plane. You may depart at 3am. Ugh. Fine. We waited out the delay, completely fatigued, and now on our 26th hour of continuous duty and not having step foot off the airplane we took off for our short hop to McClellan. We landed and officially clocked 27.1 hours of duty.
Now we head off to our hotel for the evening and you know exactly where this is going. Because we landed in McClellan and not Travis, our limo ride was now 40 minutes, and not 15. Ugh. We roll into the hotel at about 4:30am.
"Hi, Southern Air. We have four pilots."
"Hi, yes. I see your reservation. You are booked for yesterday. We have no rooms for you. You never showed up."
"There is nothing?"
"No, there is a big convention. There aren't rooms anywhere."
.....
We spent the next 30 minutes calling every hotel in the Sacramento area looking for rooms. We had been more or less awake for about 30 hours. Finally, we found rooms, smack in the middle of the city. Embassy Suites. $400/room. Done. Company credit card, engage.
The next day I wake up completely drained, but happy to have slept some. I pop open the laptop. Red button. Call scheduling.
"What's up?"
"We need you in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan as soon as possible!! We are booking your flight now. Get to the airport!"
"......I'm really tired. Okay."
Sacramento - Los Angeles - Istanbul - Bishkek. Middle. Economy. (Except for IST - FRU where I somehow ended in business).
Upon arrival in Bishkek I meet the captain in the hotel lobby.
"Did you hear?"
"What?"
"Oh, we don't have plane. It's AOG somewhere. I think we are going to be here a while."
"Ha. Ha. Ha."
Seven days later after giving my liver a thorough workout and exploring Bishkek and the surrounding mountains I am commercial deadheaded from Bishkek - Moscow - JFK - home and promptly told "You're furloughed. We don't need you."