Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on each of Kent's trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.

"We've had a minor explosion back here," one of the flight attendants, Susan, told us during our preflight.

"There's orange juice all over 2H and J."

Selfishly, we all perked up. Those were our crew rest seats. The thought of sitting in a wet seat gave a new urgency to the co-pilot's voice when calling maintenance to get the cover and cushion replaced.

I was the relief pilot again for this flight. My schedule for June is exclusively for FB trips to Paris, but occasionally I'm able to trade over to the co-pilot seat if it opens up during the month, which leaves my relief pilot position open to someone who's on reserve or another pilot who's able to trade into it.

Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on each of Kent's trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.

"We're going to try a new place to eat," Doug, the captain said as I walked into operations.

While he waited for the dot matrix printer to spit out the twenty feet of paperwork needed for our flight, he filled me in on what was the plan was for Paris.

"Mike (the co-pilot) and I read a review on a New York Times blog about a really small restaurant up near the Arc de Triumph called Le Hide. I figured we'd give it a try."

Crew members tend to have their own favorite places that they frequent. Sometimes it's easy to get into a rut and not venture out very far to experience anything different. Not so for Doug. He's on a quest to try a new restaurant almost every layover.

"This is my step-son, Mack. He's coming with us tonight," Doug said, as Mack stepped forward to shake my hand. "Mack has just turned 21 this week, so what better way to celebrate the occasion than to bring him along."

I was starting to get flashbacks of Michelle's daughter almost getting bumped from the last trip.

"Are we weight restricted?" I asked.

Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on each of Kent's trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.

"You're not going to believe it, Kent." Michelle, the purser (#1 flight attendant) said as I walked on the airplane.

"Lexi's in the boarding area–did you see her?–anyway the agent says the flight is weight restricted and it's not looking good for non-revs–and there's no way I can leave my daughter here. The flight was supposed to be wide open!" she said.

When a flight is said to be 'weight restricted,' it's usually because we have to take so much fuel due to weather at the destination that we aren't able to take all the passengers. While the weather was going to be a bit foggy in Paris, I still couldn't imagine the fuel load that wouldn't allow us to use every seat on the airplane.

Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on each of Kent's trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.

I'd like to welcome Gadling's latest blogger, Heather Poole and her feature, Galley Gossip. Gadling had been looking for a flight attendant's perspective of this industry and I'm glad they found it in Heather. If you haven't read any of her posts, I highly recommend "Sandvich Girl," which details a little of her past before she gave it all up to join the nomadic existence of a crew member. I've passed along her posts to my sister, who's a flight attendant for an airline that sports an Eskimo on its tail and to my wife, who worked for 6 years as a flight attendant and they could both relate to her immediately.

I think bloggers often get inspiration and motivation when reading the comments to posts. Heather's post called "Answer Please" made it around the world a few times and, judging from the comments, she was a bit misunderstood. She pointed out one annoyance with her job, an issue I've heard from many flight attendants; with iPods and movie earphones plugged in, it's often hard to get a passenger's attention to offer them a drink.

Many of the readers thought she was being ungrateful for her job or just complaining too much, but that's part of why she writes. She's trying to give an insight into the good and the bad of her job. And she cracks me up.

Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on each of Kent's trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.

As I mentioned in the last post, I was given this two-day CCS trip instead of a three-day Paris. While I enjoyed the extra day off, it was hard to give up a Paris layover. Not much happened during the flight down and the deadhead home from Miami was uneventful. So we'll skip ahead to the next Paris trip.

Fortunately I've managed to hold an entire line of Paris trips for June, so I'll be trying to catch up on all the great recommendations for things to do in the city of light.

Since I was the relief pilot for this 6 P.M. departure, it was up to me to do the exterior preflight. The rain was starting to come down in sheets, just in time for my venture outside to look over the airplane.

At least the wet ramp made for a few nice photos...

I finished the last Paris trip four hours before my wife Linda and the kids would arrive in Boston on a Lufthansa flight from Germany. I debated waiting for them at the airport, but I knew Linda would be especially thrilled if she didn't have to go to the store on the way home to pick up some milk for her morning tea. So I drove up to New Hampshire, picked up some milk and fresh fruit, dropped off the groceries and my work gear at home and raced back down to Boston.

While the family was away in Germany, I had arranged to have the interior of the house painted as a Mother's Day surprise for Linda. Part of me wanted to paint it myself, but the entryway has some high walls and pilots just shouldn't be on ladders. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard of aviators falling off a roof while putting up christmas lights, sliding down a ladder while painting the trim or falling out of a tree while cleaning out dead branches. The fact that pilots are dangerous around ladders makes it much easier for me to get out of some of the ugliest projects.

After picking up everyone at the airport, I couldn't wait to get them home to see the freshly-painted house. My six-year old ran straight up the stairs to her room while Linda walked in the door. She looked right into the living room, and mentioned just how clean the house looked.

I managed to move my schedule around so I'd have the first 9 days of May off. My wife and kids had already left to visit my mother-in-law in Germany, so once I was finished working in April, I hopped on a Lufthansa flight to join up with them. Most pilots would rather have dental reconstruction than have to get on an airplane for their vacation, but, I really do like my mother-in-law, and we were all due for a visit to see her.

By working my schedule to give me so much time off in the beginning of the month, I knew I'd be working without many days off for the rest of May. Sure enough, I managed to cram in a month's worth of flying into three weeks.

The day after arriving home from Germany, I went out on an early morning Miami turn with Captain Keith. I like to think I'm caught up on the happenings in the airline world, but that all goes out the window when I fly with Keith. He's the perfect source for the latest happenings in this business and I always feel up to date after flying with him. Unfortunately, I would only be flying the leg down to Miami and then deadheading home. Keith would continue on to Barbados with a Miami co-pilot. It seems the company is running a bit short of pilots and the only way to cover that first leg was to break up the trip--having a Boston co-pilot fly the first part with the remainder flown by the someone from the Miami base.

The next day I had a weekend Paris trip. Everyone is excited to fly to Paris once again. Years ago we flew this trip year-round, but now it's seasonal-from May until October-and it's become a very desirable destination for most of the crews. Occasionally the trip will become available to pick up or trade for, so there's hope, even for those of us at the bottom of the list. My goal was to trade into as many Paris trips as I could hold for the month of May. For a better idea how the seniority system works see this post.

There are some advantages to flying a reserve schedule every now and then. I prefer the variety and the thought that just maybe I'll get called out to cover a New York trip to Zurich or Brussels. It's rare, but it has happened before.

For April, I didn't fly anywhere I hadn't flown before, and they managed to use me on almost every one of my available days. Having just arrived home from the Miami and San Francisco trip, crew scheduling already needed me for another early morning departure. This time they had me fly down to Miami and deadhead home on the same day.

It was hardly worthy of a full Cockpit Chronicles. I rode home in the coach cabin and slept most of the way. Fortunately, we're required to have at least one day off every 7 days, and crew scheduling decided I could use one.

This meant that I'd have a small stretch of three days in a row before my month would be over. There's always the chance that a three-day trip could pop up if someone called in sick, but I was pretty sure I'd have the last few days off.

My wife gets nervous when I tell her that there's little chance they could use me. Don't worry, I'll be home to take you and the kids to the airport for your trip to Germany, I'm sure! I figured I'd flown too many hours to be legal for another three-day trip. I should have listened to my wife. She knew I'd get the call.

I can't wait for our one European destination to come back to Boston in May. These crack of dawn departures don't fit my circadian rhythm at all. I'm convinced in fact, that when I retire I may never again see the sun rise.

That said, it's just so amazing to walk down the jet bridge and out the side door to start the preflight inspection and see the sunrise shining down the polished fuselage just as the light breaks through the horizon. Even after so many years it's still enough to get you excited to climb once more into the sky, turn left to one-four-zero and pop through a thin cloud layer into the bright sun. For me, this is the best part of the job. Not the layovers or the diminished travel benefits, but the ability to fly an airplane I could never afford, to places I never thought of seeing with other pilots and flight attendants that I enjoy working with.

This morning's flight down to Chicago was completely full. The captain, Roland, was someone who I hadn't flown with before and we had two American Eagle pilots in the cockpit jumpseats. The 757 has two seats located just behind the pilots that are used for FAA checkrides or for extra relief pilots who sit there for takeoff and landing. But they're most often used by pilots who are trying to get to or from work. Often these pilots work for a different airline.

Being the only pilot on reserve, I figured I'd be getting a call to fly over the weekend. Sure enough, Camille called on Thursday to tell me I'd be departing at 6:30 the next morning. It was a new sequence that I hadn't flown yet. They took away our Panama City and Caracas trip and replaced it with a Caracas and New York layovers.

While I wasn't really itching to fly to Caracas again, the idea of a day in Manhattan sounded like fun. We seem to get N.Y. layovers every year or two for a few months at a time.

John K. was the Captain and he was yet another one of the Boston pilots I enjoy flying with. I know I'm constantly pointing out how nice it is to fly with the Captains I'm paired up with, but I sincerely believe that Boston has the most good-natured group of pilots at the company. I have no scientific proof of that, but I'm sticking with it.

John and I had a great time in Paris a year ago, when he showed me that some bread, cheese and wine at the local grocery store can be the perfect way to enjoy Paris on a summer evening. So I knew we could find something interesting to do in New York.