Les Abend

(May 2011) I HAD COMMUTED INTO JFK from my home in Florida with plenty of time to spare before my late evening trip to São Paulo. As I opened the door to Operations and walked past the revision room, Rocco Zavaglia was engaged in the mundane chore of wrestling Jeppesen paper in and out of […]

(April 2011) AFTER DEPOSITING MY wallet, cell phone, parts of my uniform and various other sundries into the required plastic bins, I walked through the arch of the security magnetometer. I shuddered, fearing an activation of the chirping beep that would force me to succumb to a re-entry. I would then be required to remove […]

(March 2011) ON OCCASION, I AM ASKED if we airline types actually monitor guard frequency — 121.5. My stock answer is “Of course.” And for the most part, I’m telling the truth. However, in some circumstances it’s not practical. What are those circumstances? I don’t want to speak for all my colleagues, but below 10,000 […]

(January 2011) — I had just begun to fill up the tank on my truck for the drive to JFK when my cell phone rang. The caller ID displayed “Crew Sched.” “Great,” I thought. I was probably going to be told that my trip to London was delayed. Nope. The news was something that I […]

December 2010 — A diverse gathering of aviators from all age groups could probably debate for hours the first airline airplane that required administrative thinking to manage the cockpit. If alcohol were included in this debate, days rather than hours would pass before a collective agreement occurred, if at all. For my purposes, and the […]

A little over a year ago a good friend asked if I would consider writing a column about a skytyping/airshow operation. My friend was a former chief pilot at our New York domicile, and through the years the job had given him the opportunity to become acquainted with pilots that had unique backgrounds; one of […]

At my day job, it’s easy to take for granted that most aspects of flight planning are generated by typing the appropriate codes into the computer. The data have already been entered by the dispatcher and the load planner. For the most part, my job is to simply review the information. When I made the […]

The month of May was my first full schedule as the new kid on the 777. Priorities dictated that I have specific days off. My wife and I would be celebrating our anniversary. The seniority cards dealt a five-day trip to São Paulo, Brazil. I’ve never been overjoyed with the idea of flying all night […]

En route from Miami to Medellin, Colombia, the cockpit satellite phone rang on board Kalitta Air’s 747-200. Dispatch was calling with a request. A competitor’s 747 freighter was experiencing mechanical problems in Bogotá. The competitor would be unable to transport a large load of flowers back to the United States. Would the crew divert into […]

JUNE 2010 — WITH A SUBTLETY BORNE through years of experience, the captain pushed the power levers forward on the Super 80. Other than the occasional rattle and the whirring of the nosewheel below our feet, the cockpit was absent the typical sounds of a jet airplane accelerating. Engines mounted at the far end of […]