Moments of March Madness

Moments of March madness, regional airline version, with multiple First Officers. Thunderstorms and rain, then sleet, then wet snow at home. A week later at Chicago, an ILS down to bare minimums in heavy snow, with me as Pilot Monitoring. My good First Officer number one did a great job as Pilot Flying. Me in bold: "100 to minimums". "Lights in sight - minimums" "Continuing". "Runway in sight". Airplane: "One-hundred". "Runway in sight". "Landing". All in quick succession.
My smart-phone weather radar showed snow squalls passing through Chicago in waves: moderate snow, then short periods of heavy snow, all of it wet with fog. We boarded the next flight during moderate snow: we got deiced, then anti-iced at the gate, then heard murmurs over the operations frequency: "we don't have a holdover period for heavy snow, so we'll wait till it goes back down to moderate before we deice." My good F.O. updated the ATIC and it now reported heavy snow. Well, our charts don't have holdover times for heavy snow either. Time to be a Pilot In-Command and make a decision. We have a procedure for almost everything in the airlines. You can choose to operate per what's written in black and white, or interpret what is written in black and white. But there are gray areas. I looked at my green, anti-iced, clean wing, then at my good F.O. "It won't last long. They've been changing the ATIS every five minutes. Just because they don't have holdover charts for heavy snow, doesn't mean anti-ice fluid can't prevent contamination of the wing for a while, we just don't know how long." I sensed that we had an unspoken understanding, but I asked him outright just the same: "Are you OK with it? I think it will go back to moderate in a few minutes". Yes he was, and yes we went, and yes the snow went back to moderate five minutes later, and stayed that way at least until we took off.

March madness. Before the trip started I should've briefed my good F.O. number two better, he surprised me with: flight spoilers extended down low on approach (I told him before 1,000 AGL, he stowed them & learned from it); crosswind correction totally opposite of the actual wind during the flare (learned from that too); and after one of his landings he suddenly veered off of the runway on the high speed exit. It was un-briefed, un-planned, un-expected, and and un-apologized for. "80 knots MY AIRCRAFT" I exclaimed to transfer controls as he suddenly steered us off the runway. I didn't have to tell him afterwards that was one of my No-No's. It was the equivalent of driving your car full of people, seeing your freeway exit at the last second, jamming on the brakes and jerking the wheel, not comfortable or confidence inspiring for anyone.

March madness. After flying ten out of eleven days, with a one day break in between, I was totally spent. I did it to myself for extra pay the first time, the second time the company did it to me because of staffing problems. I was already near my scheduled FDP limit and felt tired, so I would've not accepted the extra flying if it had been another revenue flight, but because it was a deadhead flight to the overnight and flying the next day, I could be extended up to sixteen hours of duty.

March madness. Let me develop this one, though. "Nothing beats the sun on the water", I said, as my third good F.O., a former corporate flight department chief pilot, was taking a picture. We were slowly climbing up to our cruising altitude, eastbound over Lake Michigan toward Syracuse, New York. The sun was still rising on this morning flight, reflecting a beautiful golden-silver light on the gray-black water. So many times the interplay of sun or moon, clouds and water is in terms of black and white, and silver and gray. We enjoyed the moment in silence for a little, then he said "What you said made me think of another son on the water". It took me just a bit, but I quickly realized he was referring to Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walking on water, toward his disciples, as told in Mark 6:45-52. I smiled and said, "oh, you're right!". What a play on words. We should've talked more, but it had already been established he and I were both God fearing Christian family men. We again in silence appreciated the glorious scene on the water, a physical manifestation and representation of the Godly glory and spiritual reality of the Son of God and Son of Man being not in the water, but on the water.
If you were a disciple of Jesus in that boat, witnessing him walk, er, march, on the water for the first time, you would think your eyes were deceiving you. You would do the mother of all double-takes. You might think you were crazy. March madness.

March madness, basketball version, is coming right up to Easter. Easter will be on April 1st. Easter will be on April Fools Day. Does that make believing Christians fools this year? My last good F.O. might think so. The other night over buffalo wings and a beer with my Flight Attendant, he stated matter-of-factly that "85% of the founding fathers were deists. I'm a Deist." Well we eventually talked about his Deist beliefs, and my Christian beliefs. And I should've asked Dr. Google sooner, but 85% is pretty far off. It's more like 15%, if you just go by the Denominations they belonged to. I will fly with him again I hope, and we can continue the conversation. It was good just to share with a co-worker my faith in Jesus again, and what He means to me for my life, for the here and hereafter.

It's not madness to believe in a personal, benevolent God, who is (1) Holy and demands Justice because He is Holy, and is (2) Loving, and full of Grace and Mercy - both at the same time. We might not understand God, because His ways are not always our ways, even though we were created in His image. It is not madness to believe that you need a Savior, and that Jesus is who the Bible clearly states He is.

Thanks for reading my blog, and may God Bless you!