as the title suggests (flugzeug is airplane – auf deutsch) this is mostly about my first work trip around europe.

it all started with a very reasonable 1130pm showtime at the airport for a 1230am departure.  i met my captain who then showed me how to actually get to the plane, which is not always obvious for the cargo side.  we had the usual pre-flight discussions (which involved me explaining that i’m just legal enough to be dangerous at the wheel).  he didn’t seem concerned.  to the airplane.

lots of different procedures here in europe compared to the US.  but nothing too drastic.  the biggest barrier that only gets easier with lots of exposure (i hear) is the strong accents of the air traffic controllers.  they say ‘fly direct @$%#! and contact #@#$ on 132.575.’  which leads to me looking at the captain with a question mark on my face. he looks at me, laughs and says, ATKOS and Makadonia.  Then I say what the captain said to me back to the controller on the radio.  it’s a 3 person loop now, not just 2.  and there’s lots of other things that are mostly minor but usually have to do with making a jet-powered airplane as quiet as possible.  a challenge for sure.  we mostly climb as fast as possible and descend as close to idle power as possible.  this involves lots of planning ahead and knowledge of what the airplane can do and cannot do.  not that i’m real good at either of those things right now, but i’m new.  and i’m getting a little better than i was.

our first night of flying took us all the way to israel with a stop in athens, greece.  i’m sure europe is lovely to see from the air, but at 2 am, we could’ve been over colorado or south africa and it wouldn’t have made a difference.  and flying into athens is probably amazing but we saw mostly dark, some lights, and some really dark where you could make out the hills and mountains.  bummer.  i’ll have to see that some other time.  and of course, when we got to israel, it was cloudy.  oh well, it was approaching 6am and all we wanted was to be on the ground so we could get to the free breakfast at the hotel, and then bed.  and we stay at a pretty fantastic hotel in israel that’s right on the water.  no complaints at all.

the next day was easy, just deadhead to paris and we’re done.  perhaps you have heard that the israeli’s are somewhat security focused?  it’s all true.  i had the pleasure of getting questioned a lot because my overnight bag is pretty stout with metal rails and a metal frame.  it’s a travel bag made for flight crews, and it’s designed to be tough.  apparently it also looks highly suspicious if you’ve never seen one. my bag handler had not seen one so he had lots of questions.  this also earned me a trip through the ‘you’re suspicious’ security line, which is really, really slow.  but, i have no issue with this treatment. i’m pretty sure they have every reason to suspect every single person that shows up at their airport.  it’s not every country that gets told daily by their neighbors that they shouldn’t be allowed to exist.  my takeaway from this was, bring a different overnight bag to israel.

then on to paris.  i was excited because this flight warranted first class, and i love big seats and food.  well, only half disappointed.  the seats were regular with a little extra leg room and with the middle seat blocked so no one can sit there.  but the food was good.  first class on air france was a half full experience.  i imagine their long-haul stuff is nice though.

paris was good.  also a nice hotel in a good location.  i didn’t do much there though because i felt compelled to study in anticipation of our 2 flights the next day.  there’s lots of information available to us to study in preparation for a flight.  so i read that stuff…and watched rugby with french commentating.  i don’t get rugby at all but it’s still fun to watch.

then back to israel the next night.  this was a long flight from paris but the company was good and we are provided with more food and coffee than we could ever hope to consume.  and the food is good too.  i was unfamiliar with the food ordering process and just what everything was so i over-ordered (too much food i can handle, too little…).

israel was good again.  i wanted to head out and see the sights this time around but i felt a little bit of a cold coming on so i took it easy with water, juice and bed.  boring, but hopefully it will keep that cold (which is going strong now) a little shorter than if i had gone out and drank all night.  when we left this time, we were operating the flight out so security was less interested in me.

then it was off to munich and back home to cologne.  this was daytime flying so i got to see some stuff.  we flew between turkey and greece, over macedonia, bosnia, croatia, austria and probably some others as well.  it got cloudy after croatia though so i didn’t get to see much of the alps.  i took a picture of greece, but it could be any piece of land sticking out in the water.  you’ll just have to trust that it’s greece.

then into munich which was nice but only for as long as it takes to unload and re-load the plane.  then back to cologne.  successful trip with no violations that i’m aware of, and i think the captain would fly with me again if he had to.  we just got our schedules for the month of april, and i have some exotic new destinations coming my way including: oslo, norway; helsinki, finland; and stockholm, sweden.  should be fun.