When I was still working, my choice of flights were coast to coast. (We had to bid on our flights.) We could do Washington D.C. or New York to LA or San Francisco in about 5-6 hours, depending on the wind direction and velocity. A strong headwind can slow down the plane while a strong tailwind can get us their faster.
Bidding on flights can can be a crapshoot. Sometimes, the pilot will bid on a single flight, or the pilot may have the opportunity to bid on a “string” of trips. It sounds confusing, but it’s easy and from my viewpoint, I thought it worked well.
When I trained to fly the B-747, my reasoning was because I wanted to fly the Chicago to Honolulu or Kauai trip. That worked out well and was about a 10 hour flight, give or take an hour. I just tired of flying over water, so after two years, I reverted back to flying just inside the continental U.S.
I wanted to add that United has now retired their Boeing 747’s. That was a tough pill to swallow. The 747 was the plane that started the whole jumbo revolution and from a pilot’s perspective, it was the safest and most comfortable plane in the air. What a plane.
Bidding on flights can can be a crapshoot. Sometimes, the pilot will bid on a single flight, or the pilot may have the opportunity to bid on a “string” of trips. It sounds confusing, but it’s easy and from my viewpoint, I thought it worked well.
When I trained to fly the B-747, my reasoning was because I wanted to fly the Chicago to Honolulu or Kauai trip. That worked out well and was about a 10 hour flight, give or take an hour. I just tired of flying over water, so after two years, I reverted back to flying just inside the continental U.S.
I wanted to add that United has now retired their Boeing 747’s. That was a tough pill to swallow. The 747 was the plane that started the whole jumbo revolution and from a pilot’s perspective, it was the safest and most comfortable plane in the air. What a plane.
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