Well my first trip is pretty much over. What wasn’t supposed to be a 5 day trip with ~27 hours of flying turned into a 3 day with ~12 hours of flying. My Fed ride was supposed to be today but the northeast is getting some pretty good weather! Currently stuck in BOS and all I have is deadhead tomorrow back home to LGA. The check airman who is also able to do our Fed rides was awesome. He had lots of experience and was very laid back and made me feel comfortable. My first leg was CVG-EWR. We got to the gate, introduced ourselves to the FAs and I apologized ahead of time to them saying it’s my first flight as a captain and they may get thrown around back there! We had 1 MEL and one CDL. The MEL was the aft FA jumpseat was broken so she had to occupy a seat in the back. The CDL (configuration deviation list) was very minor and we did not take any performance hits. The check airman basically said, he’s going act as my FO, whatever I need to get done, he’d help me with. He also did the walk around! We get settled in and it was about 5 minutes prior to departure and I noticed the jet bridge has not been disconnected from the plane. We had our cargo load report and everyone was ready to go. I ran upstairs to the gate agent and asked why the jet bridge wasn’t pulled. She told me that Delta told her to hold the flight for 5 pax incoming from ORD. We needed up pushing about to 10 minutes but still made it on time. The first time taxiing was fun. It was a quick taxi so we started both engines and got out to the runway in about 10 minutes. I completely messed up lining up on the runway centerline. The check airman gave me some tips when we were lining up but I still botched it. He just laughed and said I’ll get it. There were reports of moderate turbulence up to FL200 so I briefed the FAs that I’d chime them at 10K but to remain seated until I give them a call back. It was a relatively quick flight so we didn’t have much time to go over a lot of stuff. The majority of the stuff that we were initially covering is stuff I’ve already been doing as an FO such as FMS programming, ACARS initialization, pre flight, etc. My first landing was horrible. I forgot to flare but it was right on centerline! We taxi in to the gate and I have a hard to finding the gate centerline and getting lined up with it. We shutdown and get ready to go back to CVG. The check airman asked what I thought. I told him the landing could have been a little better. He said, the landing was the least of his worries. I did everything else almost perfectly. Had a few legs the next day and now stuck in BOS. I was supposed to have the fed ride scheduled today from CVG-PHL but that didn’t happen. Overall, I really enjoy the left seat. I like controlling the tempo, setting the tone, and running the cockpit how I like it to be run. Looking forward to my next trip!
