A Look at Pilot Gary H.'s Letters to Trenton Middle School
Hi Trenton Middle School 5th Graders!
I’m writing you from an unusual location for me – the back of an airplane that isn’t operated by Southwest, it’s operated by “the other guys.” One good thing is that many large airlines let Pilots from most other airlines fly free so they can travel between home and work. This way, Pilots enjoy the freedom to live anywhere. I know a few Southwest Pilots who even live in Alaska and the Caribbean islands!
With over 3400 flights a day to 64 cities, Southwest definitely helps our fair share of Pilots from many different airlines get around the country every day. We call it “commuting.” Every week, I need to get to the “domicile” or “crew base” that my trip starts from in time to begin my flying. Sometimes my trips start in the morning – in that case, I usually have to travel in the night before and get a hotel room on my own (like this trip). Sometimes my trips start in the afternoon – then I usually can get a ride to the crew base in the morning but normally I would finish my trip too late at my base to get home, so I spend the night and fly home the next day. Work is great, but there is no place like home!
This week, I am riding first to Dallas, my current crew base and the headquarters of Southwest Airlines, and then to the city that is the capital of Arkansas so I can start a trip tomorrow morning. Let's go over a few things:
I would like you to put your Adopt-A-Pilot map of the country (your teacher has it in the box from Southwest) on the wall or on a bulletin board in your homeroom so everyone will be able to see it. Look at the map - notice that there are no city names on it? You will have to use your Adopt-A-Pilot books or other maps to help you. Each day when I am flying, I will send you an e-mail and let you know where I have flown that day. As a class, you will find the cities on the map and draw each “leg” of my flight for the day. Then you will enter the routing in your own workbook, along with the mileage for each leg, and then the total miles for each day. You will be amazed at how far I can travel in just one month.
Next, let’s work out the legs of my commute from last night and figure out the miles I rode:
MCI to DAL
DAL to ? (the capital of Arkansas)
Finally, make sure you do a good job on your interview homework. We’ll go over it in class and you are going to use it to help you do another assignment later.
Well – that’s it for today, tomorrow I will send some pictures too!
Your Pilot - Gary
