My flight was a long one, San Francisco to Frankfurt, an eleven hour all-nighter. These trips were generally what left flight crew feeling like long-distance truckers at 36,000 feet; tired and bored but with jet lag to boot. Don't kid yourself, pilots get jet lag too; frequency doesn't dull the worn out feeling, we're just maybe a little more used to it than most people.
Yes!! I punched the air with iPad in hand as John, my Co-Pilot tonight looked up over the rim of his coffee cup as we sat in the lunch restaurant of the Grand Hyatt overlooking the SFO runway. He knew I was checking the manifest.
"No way? You're kidding..." he looked at me questioningly.
"Yup. It's a brand new A350!" I confirmed back to him.
The A350 had a crew rest area in the back but also an exclusive pilot sleep area above the cockpit. We'd read about, talked about it, and as two single guys we'd also had a long-standing arrangement whenever we'd flown together - this was the first chance we'd had to actually use 'The Plan'.
"So we're actually going to see if one of us can pull this off? We only have two hours before our takeoff slot." John said, a little too loudly for my liking.
"Keep your voice down fella. Not sure the company would approve." I reminded him quietly. "But yes, let's flip for it."
John reached into his pocket for some change and sorted out a quarter. Then looking at me: "Heads or tails?"
"Heads!"
The silver coin pinged off his thumb flipping several times until John grabbed if and slapped it down on the back of his left hand. We looked at each other and both of us grinned.
"Fuck!" he whispered as we looked down together and saw that I'd won.
"I'm going to have to work fast." I said looking at my watch. "Where am I going to find a gorgeous, willing woman in...108 minutes?"
"Not hanging around here." John said sensibly. "She's gotta be a passenger on our flight."
Sure, rumors abound about pilots and cabin crew but the reality is that it can become way too complicated and it's better not to create mess where you eat. Luck, and the challenge, was going to be finding the right woman with a seat up front in first class so that we had a good chance no-one else would cotton on to events.
We got the lunch bill, signed it, and then tracked down the rest of our crew to tell them we'd meet up at the gate in Terminal 1. I headed up to my room threw my gear into my bag and then back down to check-out and grab the shuttle. The whole time I was wondering whether, even as a pilot of 14 years, I was finally going to break my duck and join the mile-high club.
I entered the terminal and headed straight for our airline lounge. It was quieter in there and if I stood any chance, 'she' was going to be found in here.
The receptionists waived me through, it wasn't busy which was both a good and bad thing, and I scanned the room and the nooks as I went over to pick up a Pellegrino. Damn...No wait. Who's the elegant looking strawberry blonde with the pearls and the Hermes scarf?
I picked a leather armchair not too far away from her, put down my flight bag and pulled out my phone charger. Crossing over to her I asked: "Mind if I plug this in here?"
Blue sparkling eyes looked up at me. "Can't have a pilot with a dead battery." she replied with a slight French accent and a smile.
"Not on an 11 hour flight." I told her. "We connect to the plane WiFi but no cables allowed in the cockpit."
She laughed a beautiful laugh. "Well good luck then. I'm also on a long flight to Frankfurt Germany."
That was my cue. "Really?" I extended my hand. "I'm your pilot, name's Roger and I'm delighted to be flying you to your destination today, tonight."
She elegantly extended her hand, I felt it's softness. "Nice to meet you, I'm Marie 7D."
"7D?" I looked at her quizically, casually sitting in the seat opposite her.
"My seat." Marie explained.
