Eagerness brought me to Miami Operations an hour prior to my scheduled sign-in time. After almost 22 years with the airline, I was doing something new. I wanted a non-rushed opportunity to review material that I was not completely comfortable with. My trip was to the Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport in Paris. I was flying across “The Pond.” Prior to my line operating experience (LOE) with the check airman the week before, I had flown to Paris only twice, and that was 19 years prior. At that time I was a shiny new copilot on the 767. I had been with the company barely three years. Because I had made a wrong entry on the bid sheet, I was awarded an international flying line by mistake. I attended international training with all the enthusiasm of a high school senior on the last day of Math class. International flying, especially to Europe, seemed intimidating to me back then. And after having had experience with night freight operations in a previous life, the body clock hours made it seem as though I would be stepping backward. I persevered nonetheless, and managed to enjoy myself until I reclaimed a domestic position the following month.
Since that time, I have flown internationally as both a 727 captain and a 767/757 captain. Because of seniority and personal preference, my primary trips were to Latin America and the Caribbean, but never to Europe. Today would be different.
