Come Fly With Me

Anticipate

As always, thank you to Ehcimocs for looking this over before I subject you all to it.

The day before he's due to fly home, Scott has lunch in Chartres with an old buddy who now works for Lufthansa. They split a charcuterie plate and take turns mocking each other's current type rating like they didn't both start out hopping tourists around in Cessna Caravans. Scott's just rolled his eyes at a jab about the 787 having so many battery leaks it's been rebranded the 'Wet Dreamliner', returning the favor by labeling the A340 as a tin can attached to four hair dryers that only manages to take off because the curvature of the Earth makes the ground fall away, when his phone rings.

He sighs when he sees that it's American, and sure enough they're calling with a strongly worded request that he take over for a sick pilot and fly back late that afternoon rather than the following day. And so, after double checking that he's fulfilled his mandatory pre-flight rest time, he agrees to fly to LAX tonight and then deadhead to Dallas in the morning, rather than flying direct to Dallas tomorrow and arriving late afternoon.

He says his farewells to Tobias, and then, after a moment's thought, texts Mitch about the change of plans and his new flight numbers, so no one calls him naked in the middle of his crew briefing. Then he swings by his hotel to pick up his stuff, ensures his previous captain is aware he'll be getting a new FO, and reports to Charles de Gaulle.

His new captain is a fifty-something year old named Roger Moore, no relation, and they also have a relief pilot named Jeffrey Kwon, who's about Scott's age, although he has substantially fewer flight hours on the Dreamliner. The three of them go over the flight plan, recent FAA notices, and the forecasts along the route. There's a large weather mass covering much of Canada and extending down into the Midwest, so rather than the usual route that would take them straight over Greenland and diagonally across Canada, they'll be on a less direct track, flying farther to the south than normal. It'll make for a longer flight and a delayed arrival, but it'll be less risky and with less chance of puking passengers.

"I have one last question, Cap," Scott says as they're packing up their stuff. They have to meet up with the rest of their crew and head to the bus that will take them to the plane. "Can we change our callsign to double-oh-seven?"

Jeff snorts, but Captain Moore just sighs and says, "It's 6226, as you well know. And call me Roger, please and thank you."

Scott can't help himself. "Roger, Roger."

Roger rolls his eyes and claps Scott on the shoulder before leading them out the door. "Wow, kid. I've never heard that one before."

***

Scott's pleased to find that the purser, or lead flight attendant, is Nicole, a woman he's worked with before and had fun with. They chat for a while on their ride to the plane, catching up. Once they arrive, Nicole starts organizing her cabin crew, Roger heads out for the physical walkaround, checking the outside of the plane to ensure nothing's wrong, and Scott folds himself into the right hand seat to start the cockpit prep.

A few minutes later, he's monitoring Clearance on the radio, preparing to call in himself as soon as everything else is ready, while Jeff sits in the Captain's chair, double checking their fuel and speed calculations.

Someone on freq is displeased with an unexpected route change, it seems. Half of the resulting rant is in French, so Scott doesn't follow much of it, but enough is in Aviation English for him to piece together that the pilot is blaming ATC for the weather system over Canada. He sighs and mutters, "Way to shoot the messenger, Monsieur Douché de la Dickface," under his breath.

"Fuel estimate confirmed," Jeff says, noting it down and shaking his head. "ATC sure does have to deal with some pricks, don't they?"

Scott nods absently, bringing up the note app in his electronic flight bag. "Yeah, my boyfriend's a controller at DFW. Some of his stories are epic. It's strangely reassuring whenever other countries prove they have all the same assholes."