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Operating Experience for Two

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • A new international captain's first flight is immediately challenged by an inoperative APU on a hot day, leading to a sweltering cabin and heavy reliance on external ground equipment.
  • The flight faces extensive delays due to ground crew issues, heavy airport congestion, thunderstorms, and miscommunication with air traffic control regarding a critical Bermuda curfew.
  • Despite efforts to secure priority and renegotiate the curfew, the flight encounters continuous operational hurdles, including critically low fuel levels and being pulled from the takeoff line.
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One of the cool things about my new position with the airline is that the job is rarely routine. The trips are different. The people I fly with are different. The qualification requirements for each pilot are different. The side of the cockpit that I fly from is different. But what I hadn’t anticipated was the fact that my own learning experiences would be different.

In that regard, when I shook hands with Leon in Operations, neither one of us had a clue that the evening would become a learning experience for both of us. Leon was flying his first trip as a new international 767 captain. I was his check airman. We were beginning the first leg of a three-day sequence that was scheduled to depart JFK for Bermuda at 1720.

FLYING Staff

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