BG,

The was I approach flying is that it is my job to get the airplane from point A to point B. The way I do this is by not only making sure my crew has everything they need, but by making sure they have everything they want as well. I make sure everyone had enough time in between fights to get some food. I find out if the FO had an early commute in and if so, arrange the legs so I fly the last leg of the day into our layover. I also offer to get coffee.

In this case, I always ask for two copies of the paperwork. Mainly, because I am flying with FO's who were introduced to the DC-9 by having their own copy of the release. Some of their habit patterns, rituals, funny feelings, flow patterns, triggers, etc., were based on the release being there. If they act excited the first time I hand them their own copy of the release and I see them using it, I continue to get it for them. I imagine that if they didn't use it or if they weren't excited, I would stop getting it, but so far, that hasn't happened.

Keep in mind that some of you complain about having to make a 500' call, or having to have the brakes set prior to push back, or having the entire crew participate in the shutdown checklist. Well, compared to that, you can multiply the amount of changes we have had by 10 or 20. You have a lot of "just as always" and we have very few. Some are big and some are small. If I can manage and mitigate some of the small ones for my peeps (people), maybe it allows them to focus on the big ones a little better. I'm not complaining, but because of this, I try to keep things as familiar as possible. I'll continue to do this until either 1.) we get settled in, or 2.) I get bumped off the DC-9.

From the way things are looking, one of those things should be happening fairly soon.

New K Now