May 2018 Cleared To Land In this issue: People in the Aviation Industry: Interview with Eric Auxier Thank you from the UTAC crew
Ladies and gentlemen, We have now arrived at our parking position, and the seatbelt sign has been switched off. Please remember to take all your personal belongings with you as you disembark, and congratulations to those of our members who are graduating this year! This year UTAC had seven events more than in any previous year. Some of these events involved multiple sessions. Completely new events this year were ATC tours, the presentation competition and the networking event. These are intended to become annual. April began with the last simulator session of 2017-18. All the participants did well flying around Honolulu in a simulated Bombardier Q400. Our flight touched down on World Pilot Day, April 26, with UTAC s first networking event. It was a good evening of chatting about aviation topics and careers. The next president of UTAC was announced at this event. It is Madlene Abramian, a 2017-18 internal executive. Madlene also received the most committed executive prize for her outstanding contribution to UTAC this year. The raffle of a pair of Porter Airlines tickets was drawn that evening as well. Congratulations to the winner, Suhas. We thank Porter Airlines for donating these vouchers. Flight UTAC1819 will take-off in September. Until then, keep an eye out on our website and social media for pre-flight activities taking place during the summer. If you would like to join our crew, applications will open in August. We hope you have enjoyed the flight with us this year and hope to see you on board flight UTAC1819! Cheers, UTAC executives Website: www.utorontoac.org E-mail: info.utorontoac@gmail.com Facebook: University of Toronto Aviation Club Twitter: @utorontoac Instagram: @utorontoac
People in the Aviation Industry Interview with Eric Auxier In the last interview of 2017-18, we speak to Captain Eric Auxier, also known as Cap n Aux. An A320 captain soon converting to B767, Capt. Auxier also maintains a blog, writes aviation (and not only!) books and articles for several aviation magazines. UTAC: What sparked your interest in aviation? Eric Auxier: Ask any pilot how they started flying, and you will hear a love story. One much like mine. At age 5, I dreamed of flying both awake and asleep. I would literally have dreams of floating or flying in the sky. At any engine noise, I would stop and look skyward, thrilled at a trip to the airport. I was obsessed with building plastic models, and every single one but a Starsky and Hutch car were airplanes. At one time, I had 72 models in my room! At age 8, I took my first flight on an airliner, a Hughes Airwest DC-9, on a trip to my cousins in California. I still remember verbatim the conversation I had with the pilots up front. I m gonna be a pilot! I exclaimed, to which they chuckled. But, hey, I sure showed them! I always enjoyed writing, too, but never wavered from my laser focus to be a pilot. I started flight lessons as a high school junior, at age 17. Now, nearly 40 years and 22,000 flight hours later, I m still madly in love with flying. UTAC: Before coming to the big airlines, you had a lot of experiences, such as flying in Alaska and the US Virgin Islands. Looking back, which experience stands out to you as the most important in your development as a pilot? EA: I have no doubt my Alaska flying experiences made me twice the pilot I would have otherwise been. It was definitely a sink or swim experience, and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone wanting to be a pilot. Not only will you come away with fantastic experience, the beauty and magic of Alaska will capture a piece of your heart! While today s flight training is rapidly evolving toward the ab-initio model that is, learning to be a flight crew member in an airliner from day one I remain a firm believer in the school of hard knocks. To truly learn to be a pilot, you need to work long, hard hours, in basic equipment, shooting approaches in crappy weather. This will forge a firm piloting foundation that can be called upon when you become an airline captain. There will never be a substitute for experience, which is the foundation of solid aeronautical judgement. For example, I have the greatest respect for those Freight Dogs out there ( The Royal Order of the Sleepless Knights! ) who go to work when we go to sleep. Again, in aging planes, iffy weather, to challenging destinations. Many of those men and women are destined to become some of our safest and most experienced airline captains. UTAC: What is your favourite airport? Why? What about your least favourite airport? EA: Hmm, that s tough! I have a lot of fun flying into and out of DCA (Washington Reagan National) because it is not only a challenge with its short runways, it has a really fun approach down the Potomac River, which in good weather gives you an amazing view of the U.S.
People in the Aviation Industry Capitol, the Mall, White House, Pentagon, etc. And, if I m lucky to overnight there, a trip to those same places are easily taken via the M, or Metro subway train. By the way, I ve always loved YYZ as well. Nice airport layout (if a tad confusing!), and gorgeous scenery on the way in and out. Besides, when flying in there, I can t help but hear in my head the awesome Rush song, YYZ! As for my least favorite, I d have to say either EWR (Newark) or ORD (Chicago.) Not so much because I hate them, but because of the delays they so often incur. They re simply overwhelmed with capacity, and any glitch in the weather brings everything to a slow crawl. But, I must say, the NYC and ORD controllers are among some of the best in the world. UTAC: Where do you find to be the most challenging approach? EA: Well, the River Visual into DCA as I ve already mentioned, but another fun one that comes to mind is the Canarsie approach into JFK. Several miles out, you have to pick up the lead in lights that allow you to circle around to land on 22L or R. In a strong crosswind and a heavy A321, you gotta really crank that baby around to make it! Other challenging ones are into BUR (Burbank, CA), and MMMX (Mexico City.) Both surrounded by mountains, and you just gotta stay sharp and be sure to stay on course. Not much margin for error. I admit, I get a kick out of stopping hard on the short BUR runway, making a sharp right turn, and a mere 50 feet ahead is our gate! I guess I get my idea of a fun approach and landing from the days flying into dirt strips in the middle of the Alaska wilderness, often on the sides of mountains, which also inspired my novel, The Last Bush Pilots. UTAC: In your books and blog, you have told many interesting stories from your career. Could you tell us a story that you have not yet written about? EA: My There I Wuz! nonfiction series was started for that reason, to tell all the crazy tales in the sky that s happened to me over the years. And, each volume has several guest pilot-writers telling their own crazy stories as well. In fact, the latest one, Volume 4, has no less than 10 guest writers! I ll tell you one fun story that I haven t told. How about this: I was furloughed from my major airline back in the early 90s. During that time, I flew as a regional captain on a Dash 8 based in Washington Dulles (IAD). Over a weekend, my buddies and I jumpseated to Caracas, Venezuela, took a 3-hour bus ride to the middle of nowhere, and camped on the beach in a remote fishing village that was so small, there were no paved roads, and no English-speakers. There was one phone in town at the police station, and it was broken! For $5 a night, we lived in luxury at a sort of Mom n pop B & B, locally-caught fish dinners included, and all the rum you could drink for 50 cents a drink! I had intended to go for 3 days, and wound up staying a week! I had to hitch to the nearest town to call in sick. Our dear crew scheduler, Paula, said, I understand, wink-wink, but you owe me a bottle of rum! Needless to say, I brought her a fifth of Venezuela s finest! Now, of course, I m not advocating playing cavalier to your serious company duties but you gotta live life as it comes! UTAC: What do you think the future of aviation looks like for pilots?
People in the Aviation Industry EA: In my nearly 40 years of flying, I ve never seen a better time to begin a career as a pilot. While I ve luckily had a great career, many from my generation of pilots have had a miserable time, what with 9/11, economic crashes and the Gulf Wars. Thousands of pilots found themselves furloughed or downgraded (from Captain to First Officer) as the entire industry imploded. But, today, the pendulum is swinging the other way, and the Looming Pilot Shortage that we sarcastically joked about for decades is finally here! Thousands of pilots are now retiring each year, and airlines are once again expanding, opening the door wide open for up n comers. It took me 6 years, for example, to go from Flight Instructor to being hired at my Major airline. Now, I m hearing tales of pilots making that leap in 6 months to 2 years. What s more, at my own company, we are retiring nearly 1,000 per year for the next ten years. That has blown the door wide open for my own opportunities, and I ve just put in a bid to fly Left Seat in the 757/767 for awhile, with an eye toward the 777 or 787 in a few years. Ain t this business grand?! UTAC: What advice would you give to aspiring pilots today? EA: My advice has never wavered: savor every precious moment of your career! If you will not be happy until you are a 777 Captain, then you will have a miserable life. Despite the rosy outlook for the airline industry, this is a very volatile and brutal business, and anything can happen tomorrow to derail your plans a medical issue, violation, economic downturn or, God forbid, another 9/11. You never know where this business will take you. I ve survived pay slashes, downgrades, furloughs, divorces, airline bankruptcies, and shutdowns. But, I ve cherished every moment of my journey. Because, from the moment you first step into the cockpit for your very first introductory flight You are ALREADY living your dream! For a lot more interesting stories, fun posts and videos and more, make sure to check out Capt. Auxier s blog and books!
Thank You! UTAC executives 2017-18 would like to thank our members and others who attended our events and engaged with us on social media this year. We thank our many collaborators who presented guest talks, took our members on tours, adjudicated the presentation competition, did newsletter interviews, connected us with other professionals and more. Another thank you goes out to our sponsors who provided prizes for the presentation competition: Brampton Flying Club, Avworld aviation store, and Porter Airlines. Porter also donated a voucher for two tickets to raffle off. UTAC turned four years old in April and is now flying higher than ever before. This would not have been possible without all of you. We thank you and hope to stay in touch in the years to come! UTAC1718 crew