Magic Moment 2

Magic Moment #2

Two years later I signed on as an employee at JetBlue Airways. I worked in a beautiful, modern building located on the perimeter of Orlando international airport (MCO). This is where JetBlue pilots, flight attendants and technicians come for training and my job was to maintain and audit the pilot training records. There are full flight simulators and cabin simulators in the building for both fleets of aircraft, and it was in the simulators where I had the most fun.

This is a JetBlue simulator used for pilot training.

JetBlue has two fleets of aircraft, the A320 airbus and the Embraer 190. My favorite was the Embraer 190 because it has a yoke for steering. This is an aircraft that is manufactured in Brazil and carries only one hundred passengers, as opposed to the Airbus that carries one hundred and fifty passengers and has a joystick for steering.

My first experience in a simulator was when the security instructor asked me if I would like to participate in some security training. The training was to take place in the cabin simulator and some Federal air marshals were going to demonstrate how a flight crew should handle a high jacking. This was an interesting experience, because when I was a flight attendant with Pan Am there was zero security training. I was interested to learn that the Federal air marshals travel incognito. They only identify themselves if there is an on-board circumstance that needs to be handled. The demo that they gave was brutally efficient and seemed to be very real. I was acting as a passenger along with a group of flight crew who were also acting as passengers. These air marshals meant business and I was duly impressed.

The best part about my job was interacting with the pilots and pilot instructors. These were a great bunch of mostly guys, but there were a few very proficient female pilots and one female pilot instructor as well when I was there.

One day after work I was exiting the building when I bumped into one of the Embraer flight instructors. He was leaving early because his two pilot trainees didn’t show up for their simulator training. M   had reserved one of the Embraer 190 simulators for two hours and now it was sitting empty. All of a sudden M  asked me a question.

            “Have you ever been inside a simulator Morag?”

            “Only once,” I responded. “I was given a short tour by one of the airbus instructors. He allowed me to sit in the left seat and try a take-off but that was all.”

            “How would you like a real lesson on the Embraer from me?” he asked, and without hesitation I said, “Yes, I’d love it.”

It was one of the best experiences that I had at JetBlue. Not only did Mike  allow me to sit in the left seat (captain’s seat), he allowed me to take off, fly the aircraft and practice landings. He gave me two hours of flying instruction and I loved it. I learned how to taxi on the runway, how to park an aircraft and how to line up in front of a runway for landing. It was truly magical.

Later that year, JetBlue announced a contest for its employees. Each entry had to be a five hundred word essay nominating one JetBlue employee who exemplified and demonstrated the JetBlue values of safety, caring, integrity, fun and passion. I wrote an essay about M  and my experience with him in the Embraer simulator. I nominated him as my choice and I won the contest. The prize was four round trip tickets with confirmed reservations, to anywhere that JetBlue flew. I used my tickets to travel with a friend to Costa Rica and M  used his tickets to take his wife on vacation to the Caribbean.

One of the other instructors G  gave my son and his wife a similar experience when they visited me here in Orlando for which I am truly grateful. And just before I left Jetblue Airways, another instructor C  did the same for my friend who came over from England for a visit. S  is a recreational pilot and it was a fine experience for him.

C  allowed me to try my landings again, although this time I was in the right seat (first officer seat). I was able to land the aircraft twice without wobbling off the runway. It seems to me that if I was a passenger on board an Embraer 190 and both pilots became incapacitated (something that would never happen of course), I could take over and land the aircraft, not easily of course, but perhaps I would be able to at least keep it on the runway.