John McCoy

I probably should say nothing, but…I was late to work today. As I’m trying to give you an honest view of what it’s like to be a pilot, I’ll share my embarrassment: The short version is that traffic was significantly worse than I forecasted. While that works as an excuse, it’s nevertheless a personal failure & I must accept responsibility. This is extremely embarrassing to me. Part of what I think makes me a decent pilot is that I’m always where I am supposed to be, when I’m supposed to be there, looking like I belong there. In fact, I’m usually very early…I usually get to my base more than an hour before I have to be there, just in case. I am downstairs at the hotel, ready for the crew van about 20 min early. I started thinking maybe an hour early at the start of a trip was excessive, so I made an attempt to adjust it down today. This was a blunder. I always use Google to navigate, even though I know the route, in case there are closures or crashes or whatever & a reroute will be faster. Even with reroutes, I’m always really early. When I started driving this morning & told Google to navigate to work, it said there was much heavier than usual traffic & that I would be late. I was taken by surprise. I was a little late once before, but then the flight got delayed for weather so it ended up being OK. I thought maybe as I drove, Google would update & I’d get closer to on time, and it did update some, but not close enough. So, after driving for a while hoping Google was wrong & about 1+20 before I was supposed to be there, I called scheduling to let them know I’d be late. I’ve never had this happen before, so I didn’t expect their reaction: they pulled me off the trip. They would find someone else. And they did; the flight was delayed less than an hour, but departed. I actually think the flight would have been less delayed if they had kept me on it, but that’s not up to me & they must do what is needed to protect the operation to the best of their judgement. It’s why I called them so early – I wanted to give them the biggest possible window to get that jet off the gate as close to on-time as possible. At that point, the best thing I can do is give them as much notice as possible, be humble & shut up. I don’t know how much trouble I’m in. I won’t lose my job, but I am expected to report for the beginning of a trip at a certain time, regardless of circumstance, and I didn’t meet that expectation. There was paperwork I had to fill out, and the Chief Pilot will call me. I’m certainly not getting paid, and I kind of needed the money…the party was more than I budgeted for. Other than the time I was saved by weather around 7 years ago, this is a first for me. It distresses me. Both the crew & the passengers expect an on-time departure. 160+ people most days. That’s not always possible, due to weather or ATC or whatever, but today it was because of me. I failed & it cost a lot of people their time. I think this post is my way of trying to apologize, to acknowledge responsibility & agree that it’s unacceptable. I took a chance to try & not be there so early, it backfired & I don’t take that lightly. I will of course recover & vow to never let it happen again, but my passengers & crew were let down & I am the one who let them down. That’s stings. I am genuinely sorry.