Wishing you well sir.

Wishing you a speedy discovery. If you can fly a strange metal box into the sky, beating some little piece of tissue will be a piece of cake!

You guys always know exactly the right thing to say.

Seriously, you make me smile. Thanks.

Good luck with everything. I'll try to think up a bunch of questions for you to answer while you're recovering.

Hope you have a quick and easy procedure and recovery. Thanks for keeping your fans up to date.

Best wishes, Cap!

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Sounds really encouraging that you caught it before any symptoms, that is great to hear.

Best wishes cap'tn

Good luck W0X0F!

I hope your ride with the illness will be smooth without any turbulence, and involve a safe landing.

Best wishes and speedy recovery. I'm not far from you so if there is anything I can do please reach out.

I'll start up with a new question. I was on the B787 the other day and the during the normal Pilot PA announcement before we took off, he stated "we hope you enjoy the B787 as much as we enjoy flying it." I know it's a new state-of-the-art aircraft, but I don't ever recall a PA quite like that. What makes the B787 so enjoyable to fly vs. other Boeing aircraft? Also, since it's similar to the B767, are you rated for all 3 if you have one?

Best of luck on your recovery W0X0F.

I'll be honest here; I read your first post and then skipped to the end of the thread since it's the size of a Steven King book.

How does it look for you to be able to retain your medical after all is said and done? Best wishes and blue skies.

You should read this thread.

I probably will this week since I'll have a little free time AND access to the internet! Woohoo 256k download speed

I've actually made PAs like that from time to time and, in my case, it's certainly not because I'm flying the leading edge of aviation technology; it's just because I still enjoy flying. A few weeks ago we had some gorgeous flying days, with in-flight visibility exceeding 100 nm. I'm pretty sure I said something very similar to what you quoted above (without actually mentioning the type of plane we were on, of course).

I'm not at all familiar with the 787 but it is, by all accounts, a wonderful example of the advances in human factors and systems' automation. I would love the chance to fly it, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards.

I'm not sure just how similar the 787 is to the 757/767. When the 757 and 767 were being designed, Boeing made a conscious to decision to make the cockpits nearly identical, allowing for one type rating (although, oddly enough, they are listed separately on my certificate). The design differences aft of the cockpit (e.g. wide body vs. narrow body) were to handle different market segments.

After millions of flight hours on those planes, Boeing has learned a lot about what works in the cockpit and the 787 reflects this. I'm sure I would find some major differences if I got the chance to fly it. And it is a separate type rating, so it would mean a trip back to the schoolhouse for a few weeks of training.

Best wishes for what I'm sure will be a successful procedure and a speedy return to doing what you love. I've only been following this thread about five years, but with all of your friendly and thoughtful insight that's long enough for you to seem like someone I've known for ages. So, go out and kick cancer's ass.

Random question, do you know if any airlines still offer the ability to listen in to cockpit radio communications?

I always loved doing that, but its been a couple of years since I've had it available.

Iirc United was one of the few doing this. On a recent SWA flight I had Internet and listened to parts of my flight on Scanner Radio, although the delay was 20 to 30 seconds.

United was the only airline I knew that did this. One of their in-flight entertainment channels was hooked in to the plane's #1 radio (the one usually used for ATC communicaitons). I always thought it was a great marketing idea and I don't know when they put an end to it, or why.

Along the lines of what PP mentioned above, I have an app called LiveATC on my iPhone which lets you listen in on various ATC frequencies. But as PP mentions, there is a delay of up to half a minute.

My dad loved those channels too. Good stuff, way more informative than the entertainment screens!

Best wishes for positive medical outcome and speedy recovery btw, W0X0F.

Best,
Pete

Not at all related to your current situation, but if an airline pilot wanted to semi-retire, what's the minimum he would need to work to stay active? I'm talking about company rules, not FAA regulations.

Wishing you all the best, W0X0F!

One of the greatest threads of all time on 2+2, been reading it for years.

All the best man, love the thread.

I'm wondering when the airlines are going to start making people buy two seats if they need them. Just endured a flight sitting on the isle with 2 rather large individuals, both required seat belt extenders and not having the armrest down. Luckily I was tired and just took a muscle relaxer so I passed out but I literally only had like half a seat to sit in

It would only be company rules that would determine this. The FAA doesn't care if a pilot gets rid of all his trips, so long as he maintains the currency required by FAR whenever he does actually fly. The big one here is making three takeoffs and landing within the 90 days preceding a flight. If the pilot manages to drop so many trips that his landing currency expires, he will have to go back for three "bounces" in the simulator to restart his currency clock. Doing this is an extra expense for the company and I don't know what their feeling is when the lack of currency is a self-inflicted wound.

As far as I know, a pilot can drop any or all of his trips. There are two ways to do this. The easiest requires adequate or over staffing of the seat/airplane for that individual. For example, if an MD-88 FO want to drop all of his trips in February, he can look at the daily reserve coverage for the trip he wants to drop. If during that time span, the number of available reserve pilots exceeds the number required, his trip drop will be granted and his trip will be made available to the pilot group at large for them to pick up. If no one picks it up, it will be assigned to a Reserve pilot the day before the trip starts. For a dropped trip, the pilot dropping it loses the pay. If he drops his entire month's trips, he gets paid nothing for that month. Never having done this myself, I'm not sure what considerations there are for maintaining benefits, such as sick leave accrual, awarding of vacation days, etc.

If the company is tight on pilots (i.e. inadequate reserves available), the pilots next choice is post his trip on the pilot swap board. Another pilot can see this trip and decide to add it to his schedule. The company doesn't care who flies a trip; they just want it flown.

The FAA cares about none of this, except that they have a regulation that requires each pilot to make three takeoffs and landings within any rolling 90 day period. If a pilot drops three months' worth of trips, he will become non-current and need a trip to the simulator for three bounces to reset his currency. This costs the company money and is not something they're thrilled with having to do. I had to do it once back in the fall of 2012 when I was on reserve for the 767 and didn't fly for three months. They were so fat on 767 pilots at the time, the daily numbers would show 18 reserve pilots required/ 75 reserve pilots available. They were having trouble getting the staffing right.

That is a horrible situation and you're being unfairly inconvenienced. I think there is one airline, Southwest, that does require the purchase of two seats for individuals of a certain girth. I'd hate to be the gate agent who has to broach this subject with the passenger walking up to the ticket counter.