I opened the door to the PHX Ops room and there was Tom, "Where are we out of today Tom?", I asked my first officer, a youngster who still has that "new car smell" on his shoulder boards.
There they were, the pink-almost purple haired Syndy, the lovely Candy and the sensible and most conservative of the group, Jane. Make no mistake there is nothing plain about this Jane!
"What's happnin', Cap'n?" asked Syndy.
"Notta ladies, ready for this trip?", I asked. I didn't get a reply, and I didn't expect to either, to be honest. We were heading to the East coast and my Cactus-born crew was less than enthusiastic about it.
Pre-flight and pushback went as clockwork, we headed out for 26R and caught a familiar livery, it looks as if the Arizona 319 is so nice, Mr. Moro had Tech Ops paint it twice!
As we departed PHX, I decided to get to work on what's bothering Tom.
I'm not one to beat around the bush and when it comes to tact, well, I lack this trait. "Tom, what's going on with you?", I asked.
He sat for a second after putting away the TO checklist then decided to answer, "I'm just worried about the transition we're going through right now. I mean, I'm wondering if I'll wake up in the morning and find out that my VA is shut down or another management member has resigned."
His concerns are valid and felt throughout the VA, how to address this and calm this pilot? "Well, I understand your concerns, I feel them too, but I'm pretty damn confident in the new crew that's taken the helm", I said but didn't get a response. Just after that, Jane knocked on the door and Tom unstrapped and went to begin unsecuring the door.
"You boys want anything to eat or drink? We're getting ready to start serving our $5 snack boxes, the commissary stocked us with 80 boxes for some reason and we all know we'll be lucky to sell 10", Jane said in her best sarchastic voice.
"Yeah, I know, I'm waiting for us to start charging 10 cents a square for crapper paper" I replied. Since Jane was the Senior FA on the crew, I decided to take the opportunity to brief both her and Tom on what's going on and the purpose of our trip to the East coast.
"Well, you guys know we're heading East, so I suppose you're wondering what's up, right?" I asked to 2 nodding heads. "The other night, I get this call from Drew Bolton, the PIT Boss,"
"Yeah, I know of him, the Steeler Air guy, yeah, I went through some training with one of his FAs, Tiffany, I think", Jane interrupted.
"Yeah, that's the guy. Anyway, he was telling me about how someone from Cactus Ops was up to no good. I guess one of our crews wondered out to Boston and took Drew's Steeler Air down to the islands. As a show of good faith, I told him I'm going to head East to see if I can get to the bottom of this and the last thing we need is for West metal to be in the crosshairs of the Easties! I'm just not so sure about taking the 'Valley of the Sun' on this trip, but too late now", I said the last part alound, although I didn't mean to.
As we approached CLT, I turned to Tom and said, "Tommy, you gotta learn to land a real airplane sooner or later, so how about taking us is?"
"Are you serious? I don't know if that's a good idea, I only have simulator time in the left seat!", he argued. I could see the anxiety in his face, but like I said, he's gotta do it sometime!
The approach was respectable for a rookie, but the landing was a bit rough. Tom put us down on the right main first, a few feet left of the centerline. A bit firm on the landing, but hell, we're in CLT and they see Josh's landings enough that this one shouldn't surprise anyone.
We shut down and I catch a JetBlue to our left, I wandered if Nick's Dad was on that crew. I told Tom about how my Grandad and Dad, like Nick's Dad were TWA pilots, but could tell he didn't really care. He was still upset that I made him land and then he was being rough on himself because of the landing.
As we're walking through the terminal, Tom asked, "So do we have arrangements for the night?"
"Yeah, Josh said he's got us covered", I replied
"Who's Josh?"
Just then I hear a loud "Git 'er done!" echo through the concourse. "That's Josh."
After a few beers and some wings, I told the crew it was time to head back to the hotel and get crew rest, "bottle to throttle rule is in effect folks!".
The next morning preflight and takeoff from CLT went smooth. That morning over breakfast, we learned from a couple of pilots that they had seen Mike Moro in town about a week ago, jumping to Philly. Hmmm, what was Mike doing out here? Maybe he was trying to get home to Philly to go visit the family. He's been bugging me to sign the authorization to virtually move his family from the Poconos to Tempe. Other than that, no one has seen any Cactus guys out this way in awhile.
I told Tom that we'll make this Disney run for Josh, who had a crew and plane shortage and needed a CLT-MCO run, we volunteered for him.
Our stay in Orlando was short, we were able to dispatch in a flight to PHL, the only lead I have is Moro going to Philly, maybe he knows something.
I finished off my turkey-bacon club while Tom did his walk-around and got ready to head up North. I figured I go ahead and thumb through a few pages of this month's issue of Airliners when Syndy came into the cockpit, "Ready to board Cap'n'!"
"Hey Tom, there's Disney World, I keep promising my kids I'll take them there, but I figure we're 15 minutes South of Disneyland, so why bother spending $5,000".
"You're cheap Captain, that's why. Like the beer you fed last night".
"Oh yeah? Well I suppose I should be more generous then, so how about I start by giving you landing duty in to PHL", I snapped. Again greated with the anxious face. He turned red and looked away, mumbling something I couldn't make out.
On short final, I told Tom he's too hot and you're going to be left of the centerline again, but he was determined to show the old dog his new tricks.
We came in hot and hard, then before we knew it, we were airborne again!
I heard Candy jump on the PA, "Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of your Las Vegas based flight crew...", reminds me I still need to tell the crew that we've been reassigned to PHX, "...we would like to welcome you to Philadelphia. Please remain seated with your seatbelts securely buckled until we've bounced to our gate...". Her announcement was greeted with quite a few spirited chuckles at the expense of our rookie First Officer. Tom found no humor in his 2nd landing and was showing it on his face. I decided I'll save my opinion until later.
In the terminal we ran into DeRonn Smith who told me that he ran into Mike last week, he told me that Mike had asked him if he has seen Drew Bolton lately. DeRonn mentioned that he hadn't, but then again he was stuck up in MSP during the groundstop, so he hasn't too much of anyone. He did say that while they were talking Earl had came over and said he heard Drew was up in Boston. I said bye to DeRonn and headed down to Earl's office.
"Hey Earl, look who the cat drug in!", I announced as the crew followed me in. "There goes the neighborhood", Earl sighed.
"What brings you to Philly, Will?", asked Earl.
"I'm looking for a cheesesteak and I've suddenly found the need to talk to Mike Moro".
"I saw Mike a few days ago, caught a hop up to Boston actually", Earl replied.
"Now, this is interesting, Boston you say?"
"Yep. So why do you need Mike so bad? Cactus stuff? Oh, and by the way, when are you gonna get that flying flag out of my airport?"
"Earl, you heard about Steeler Air, right?", I asked.
"Yeah, someone took her down to the islands, I bet Drew is pissed!", Earl laughed. "Wait, it departed from Boston, you don't think?"
"Well, it's looking like it", I sighed. "I'll get my flag out of here as soon as you can dispatch us to Steeler country, I need to talk to Drew".
I handled the short hop over to Pittsburgh and had a rather uneventful flight, other than the thoughts of Moro possibly having a hand in Grand Theft Airplane.
Once in PIT, I learned that Drew was out. One of his Operations guys said, "haven't you ever heard of a phone?". He had a point, but in virtual aviation, it's more fun to fly!
Can you get me Boston? Is that where he's at? The ops guy said, "No, can't do BOS, but howabout O'Hara?". I asked if he was a former reservations agent and took the run.
Busy day getting out of PIT, but soon we were on our way out over the rolling Western Pennsylvania hills.
Tom is getting used to being volun-told he's got the landing. This time, he was a lot smoother and not left of the centerline, but to the right. Well, at least it was smooth.
Our taxi to the gate was long! I felt as if Ground said "taxi via Mike to Bravo via Detroit to St Louis". At least some decent scenery, it's not every day a Cactus guy sees a 340!
Finally, we're at the gate, pulled in next to the heritage Piedmont, that's a nice paint!
Once at ORD, we were informed that we couldn't get to Boston, but we we're going to Reagan-National. Appearently, our CEO is in DC speaking to a Congressional panel on anti-trust issues regarding airline mergers and needs a ride to LAS. I guess he's not to happy with his Cactus VP flying all over the East coast looking for Drew and Mike. I was told his exact words were, "Damn it, hasn't Will heard of a damned phone?".
So, it's off to DCA.
Going into DCA, Tom knew what was coming, so I didn't have to give the order. Besides, I wanted to sightsee our nation's capitol. Too bad it looks like rain.
"Damn it Tom, are you allergic to the Centerline? You damn near put down on the apron!", I barked as he put us down completely left of center.
There was a surprise when we pulled into the gate. "Is that, no f-ing way, that's Steeler Air!"
We were almost shut down when Michael Merali stormed into the flightdeck.
"Will, a word?", he said.
As I stood up and started my way to the back, Candy let out a srchastic "ohhh shit".
When I came back, it was obvious that I wasn't going to speak to Drew and I told Tom to fire it back up, we're on a ferry mission now and to call for enough fuel to Vegas.
"What happened, Will?", Tom asked.
"I got my pee-pee slapped a little, but it's all good. Mike knew what he got when he bought it", I replied as I looked back into First Class, where Mike was taking a seat. "Looks like the weather isn't going to let up, so I'll take us out Tom".
With the USAVA CEO in the bird, I decided to take us in, this time Tom looked dissappointed. I figure he is dying for redemption after that DCA landing.
"By looking at the skyline, you couldn't tell it's only 4am here, huh?", I said. Then I hear a shout "Look out!"
While I was busy looking at the Vegas skyline, I started turning us on to the ramp early and almost into a 319 parked in overflow! Oh I hope Merali's still asleep!
After 3 days off in LAS, we took a flight into LAX. I got a call from Anthony asking if I'd mind picking him up at LAX from his trip home to Australia. I said "sure" and called my Wife to tell her to drive the girls up to LAX that morning and we'll have breakfast before I take Mike's plane back to PHX, where I'm hoping Mike's at now so we can have a little chat. When I arrived at McCarran that morning, I found that both Tom and Candy were missing. I saw Jane and asked, "Where's everyone at?".
"Well, Candy and Tom are feeling a bit under the weather or maybe hungover, it appears that he came out, they all had quite the weekend", Jane explained. The 'he' that she spoke of was none other than Drew Bolton. Sitting there with a big grin on his face. I walked over to him, "You sober Drew?".
"Yeah, why?", he asked.
"Well, since you incapacitated my First Officer, you're now gonna be my Tom. Wanna go to LAX?", I asked and he agreed to go.
"I don't know why anyone would take a damned airplane! Can't be the East-West thing, that is taking too damned far!", clamored Drew during our hour run to LAX.
"What if I said I think I know who did it? What if it is a fellow Staff member, a guy who started in Vegas, went Pitt, and came back to Cactus in Phoenix?", I asked.
"F-ing Moro!", he said.
"Yep, f-ing Mike f-ing Moro", I retorted.
Good thing Tom didn't see my slightly left of centerline landing in LAX, but hey, it's early.
Drew was looking down at our timetable, trying to figure how he's getting back home to see his kids, when I nudged him and pointed out the window to our right.
"Damn it, Will, you could have past that dude by and I'd be happy with that!", he shouted.
As we pulled up to the US ramp, we get a radio call on the US ground ops channel. "G'day, mates!", replied Anthony after I keyed the mic.
"Anthony, I'm gonna need you to fly FO for me back to Phoenix, are you up to it?", I asked to which he replied, "sure".
What am I gonna do with Moro? What the hell was he thinking? Surely he didn't do it because of the move to and from Pittsburgh, that's not like him to be spiteful. I'm gonna kill him! No, wait, it was pretty funny, especially the note Drew showed me. I guess we'll see what happens.
A nice on the centerline landing back in Phoenix!
After we parked, I got on the radio to PHX ops, "This is Sanson, I need to speak to Moro ASAP, have him come meet me at A9!", I barked.
"Actually, Mr Sanson, I'll have him come meet you at Pad 3, we need you to taxi over to Tech Ops, the plane you're in is 3 hours over for a Bravo", replied the ops rep.
"OK, Doug, there's your bird keys are in it. Is Mike here yet?", I asked Doug, one of USAVA's Maintenance Crew Chiefs.
"Nah, he aint here man. He went somewheres back East", Doug replied.
"What?"
I went over to Cactus Ops and asked where Moro was, I ran into Diana, an original Cactus employee from 1983. She told me that Mike did indeed head East.
"He asked if I knew where that Eagles bird was, I told him it was in Florida, he said thanks and left. He was in a hurry, oh and he had a sticker in his hand, like a football hat, he held it in his hand and saluted me with it", she stated.
"A football helmet, you mean?"
"Hat, helmet, same difference, it had 'NY' on it, blue I believe", she said as she walked away.
Damn it Mike, what are you up to?
