Friday, October 22, 2010

COffee of the Day is Guatamalen Blend, Description: tastes like coffee

That's the sign at the coffee shop today.

I was going through my email inbox a couple days ago looking for a particular email that contained some very important information that was needed exactly at that moment. I found a lot of emails from a lot of people, and for some reason, usually laziness, I haven't bothered to delete. Some of these emails go back to 2002, but I suspect there are some that may have been sitting there for longer, just having been forwarded from another older email account. All in all, this particular inbox contains 670ish emails at any given time. This doesn't account for the 150 or so that have separated into various folders with clever names like "stuff i should save." OK, so that's the only cleverly named one.

My other email, that is used for the less personal things (ie when I sign up for any new website to buy whatever, it get's this email address) is pushing 1000 messages... again mostly crap. Every now and again, I go on a tear and delete a massive block of messages. Facebook is the current object of my deleting wrath. For whatever reason, those messages from facebook pile up. Most the time I delete them, but occasionally something from some one else comes in on top of that message in the queue. And slowly it gets pushed down out of my view. Apparently anything not in the 10 latest received seems to be pushed below my first glance, and thus is destined to sit there for months. This also is a probelm if I don't reply to a message immediately, within a day it's moved out of site and thus out of mind.

The Facebook messages are easy to part with, but others seem to kick in my need to cyber-hoard them until some day I deemed them completely unneeded. For instance, ordering info to get discounts on apparel from a company I haven't worked for in 6 years. The discount code, last I checked, still worked.

There are of course some messages that I have no intention of parting with. Some of them are really uplifting, really funny, or just bring back some great memories. Some, not so great memories and I usually run across those at times when I least expect it, a sort of "I thought I cleansed you from my life but you pop up again" instance. Of course curiosity gets the best of me and I start reading it, in the event there's some morsel of information that I need in there for my benefit, or potentially to use against said person should they ever run for president.

Sometimes it's hard to let go, especially messages from friends who, for whatever reason, you've lost total track of or who have passed away. Kind of makes you think, wonder where they are today? Or more fun, the random emails some one sent me, before I actually met her in person, chronicling a trip around Europe. It's also fascinating how many emails I send myself. SO much for that great memory.

OK, now to shift some gears. I feel like I've been hearting logistics way too much lately, and frankly I'm over it. I spent my last day "off" shuttling to Texas and back. I had a job interview down in the Republic. It's a well known airline and they have a reputation for being a fun place to work... you know treating their employees like people and not liabilities. I think I did OK, but there was a knowledge test that kicked off the session and it left me feeling a little dumb.

Now, way back when in 2001 when I wen through Aircraft Dispatch class, they taught us all this stuff in a 10 week or so period about aviation, navigation, meteorology, regulations, and other various stuff. We were to ingest this knowledge stream, in the way one might ingest water from a fire hose, and at the end of the course regurgitate this vast amount of information during a 4-5 hour long interrogation with a gentleman from the FAA. He then deemed us worthy or unfit to receive the prize of our quest, an FAA Aircraft Dispatcher certificate. Once obtain, riches beyond imagine awaited us in our future.

Like most instances of higher learning, I've found that the basics of the theory are often not required to do the mechanics of the job. It's like not really needing to know the endothermic properties of beef in order to cook a perfect fillet. Such has it become in my job. I don't need to read wind/temperature charts anymore to do a flight plan, I've got a snazzy flight planning computer program that does all that.. sometimes. The day I took my FAA oral and practical exam, when it was all over the examiner remarked "Congrats, you've done the last manual flight plan you'll ever do." He was almost right, I think I've done one as a training exercise since.

So back to the test, the questions on it were basic info I should know, or did know, the day I walked out of dispatch class. Unfortunately, the modern paradigm of punching out 30 or so flight plans usually doesn't lend itself to much more than click this, click that, send, and file. Who gets out a chart???? (For non aviation types, a chart is a what we in aviation call a map. Sounds more impressive... which would you rather hear form the cockpit "We've pulled out our charts and worked a new route" or "We got the map out and are trying to find a way to Boise"?)

And with much sadness, I have to relate I didn't ace this particular test. I missed at least 3 of the 63 questions (it was a timed test, but it wouldn't have mattered if it wasn't). Back at my first dispatch job, we lived in the charts. Why??? It was a small carrier, the flight planning system wasn't one that took into account everything (my current one allegedly does but we keep finding little things that it occasionally forgets... luckily nothing major), or our aircraft weren't equipped with all the new super whiz-bang avionics for navigation so we had to go the old fashioned way (from radio beacon to radio beacon on the ground). Now, I have planes with GPS, IRUs, RNP, RNAV, and a whole bunch of other combination of letters that basically mean we can fly from point to point across the sky with no regard for anything on the ground, except for the place they're landing. I don't look at what causes a particular weather phenomena, but more that it's foggy and some meteorologist says it won't be at a certain time. Even if it's foggy, most big airplanes at big airports can land and the pilots never see the runway until.. well the wheels touch down. So know what causes advection fog to rise into a low level of clouds really doesn't figure into my everyday work. It's good trivia though. Even that it's advection fog versus radiational fog versus upslope fog isn't really that important, it's fog and it makes it hard to see thus increasing the spacing requirements for landing and slowing down the arrival rate. That's important.

That being said, there's currently a brown airplane flying around with an inop piece of equipment that precludes using all the whiz-bang hi-tech computers to navigate with. So, it's back to the dark ages of airways and radio beacons. And when anyone gets that particular airplane, groans follow. Apparently I'm not the only one who needs to clear the cob webs to pull out a chart, and plot out a route from navaid to navaid. Some are less successful than others (frightening), I imagine the pilots are even less enthused, no more following the "magenta line" (its a little line on a screen in the cockpit that represents the intended route of flight, and basically you just keep the crosshairs on it and go forth.. the computer calculating all the course corrections for wind and directions and all... basically the pilots have to aviate Lindbergh style).

So, the next job interview (and there will be a next one) I'll have to study for. There's volumes of information to ingest again, or to learn to recall from the cobweb covered recesses of my brain.

Otherwise the interview went OK, but I'm not sure it's a change I want to make, for various reasons. But it's good practice and I'll learn and be better when that dream job comes up, though I'm not sure the "lottery winner" position has an extensive interview process.

Now that I've thoroughly bored everyone... it's time to wrap it up and forage for food before work tonight. Look for me in the ATL metro area starting Wednesday for a few days..

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