The Rerouted Skytress

I flew to Atlanta on Sunday, January 24th for my annual Skytress training. I had to be at the training center the next morning at 610am. I had been dreading going to training since I got my annual Skytress training email in November. If you are, or ever were, a Skytress or Skyter, you definitely understand the fact my stomach had been doing flips all week long. My nerves were becoming more frayed as my training date approached. I tried to study one last time on my flight to Atlanta. But, my brain didn’t want to cooperate anymore. It was tired from my marathon week of studying. I closed my study guide. I closed my eyes. And I thought about Ron.

My last day I saw Ron alive we went through his emergency airplane door drills. He had his annual Skyter training coming up. Just like me, he was nervous about training. He asked me to shout out the pilot emergency commands and he would go through the motions of evacuating the airplane. We reviewed each aircraft. Ron was flawless with his evacuation drills. Understandably, he was still nervous about executing the drills perfectly at training. I gave him a reassuring hug. Annual training has a way of making the most confident person feel scared of failing. Looking back on that day, I wished we had hugged many more times than we did. Sadly, even if we hugged a million times that day, it wouldn’t have been enough to sustain me for the days that have followed. I clearly remember we held hands a lot that day. I remember feeling the callouses on Ron’s hands as our fingers entwined. It’s silly, but, I always liked to gently rub his callouses with my thumb. It always made me smile. Yes. It’s a sweet memory now. I, undoubtedly, remember our last kisses. Especially our final kiss. If I had known it would be our last, I would have kissed him longer. When we said our goodbyes that day we held our gaze a little longer than usual. I recall we smiled sweetly at each other. Neither of us spoke. We simply smiled. Then in unison we gently waved goodbye.

As I sat on my flight to Atlanta, I recalled how Ron always reassured me when I was nervous about my annual Skytress training. He would repeatedly say, “You’re a smart girl. You are going to do just fine”. I tried to let his words wash over me as we made our final descent into Atlanta. Then, I gave myself my annual Skytress training pep talk. “You get nervous each year. But, each year you pass training. You’ve studied. You know this material.” “Believe and know that everything will be okay.” “If you happen to fail, you can retire.” This last thought made me laugh. Then my nerves kicked in. I reminded myself I might be a thirty- year Skytress, but, I was definitely too young to retire!

Fortunately, when I got to the hotel the NFL playoff games were on TV. It was a welcomed distraction. I fell asleep once the football games were over. Then two hours later I woke up. I tossed and turned the rest of the night. Each time I woke up I went through my evacuation commands. I wasn’t the only one that had a restless night sleeping. At 540am I went downstairs to the lobby and met up with the other Skytresses and Skyters going to training. Everyone was exhausted. Nobody had slept well through the night. Our sleep-deprived bodies yearned to be on our flights home.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first walked into the training center. I knew things would be different because of COVID-19. Yes, things were different. There were multiple signs reminding everyone about social distancing and wearing masks. Chairs and tables were placed at least six-feet apart. There were distancing markers placed on the floors throughout the building. Thankfully the training center didn’t look cold and uninviting. No, quite the contrary. Somehow the training center had a warm, modern-hip feel to it. The bright red swivel chairs were fun and comfortable. The white tables were sleek and shiny. The lights that cascaded down on them made them welcoming to the eyes. The real warmth of the training center, however, came from my fellow Skytresses and Skyters. We were all very nervous. But, everyone was encouraging each other. We knew we would get through the training day as a crew. There is something to be said about the annual training camaraderie. It’s special. It makes me extremely proud to be a member of my airline family.

This year I only had seven Skytresses in my small training class. The classes were smaller so everyone could be socially distanced. Normally my small training class would have twenty-five Skytresses and Skyters in it. This year we, also, had to wear goggles whenever we couldn’t maintain social distance with one another. In addition, our instructors wiped down everything we touched with disinfectant. Their eagle-eyes caught everything we touched. I tried to catch myself from mindlessly touching things. I wished I had kept my hands behind my back while I inspected the emergency equipment attached to a whiteboard. Instead I touched each piece of equipment to determine if the pre-flight check was air worthy or not. I passed the pre-flight equipment test. I definitely failed the “stop touching things” test.

I had two incredible instructors this year. They were extremely kind. I thoroughly appreciated their wonderful senses of humor, too. Their calm demeanors made us all feel comfortable and relaxed. Well, as comfortable and relaxed as one can feel at training. More importantly, they reignited our confidence that we were going to pass each component of our emergency door evacuation drills. And we all did!

This year we had to successfully evacuate 12 different types of aircrafts. Our airline retired several types of aircrafts this year. Thus, we actually had fewer evacuations drills. Woo-hoo for us! We, also, had 2 aircraft window evacuations. This section of training we affectionately refer to as “the doors”. We nervously waited in the Sky Lounge while each instructor took one Skytress in to the airplane mock-up room. This room is an enormously long room filled with different types of aircraft doors and windows. There are multiple doors and emergency windows of each aircraft in this room. This enables several instructors from different classes to evaluate their group of Skytresses and Skyters in the same room. There are signs attached to each airplane mock-up to remind you of the type airplane door or window you are facing. The instructors also reminds you of the door or window you are looking at. In the whirlwind of going from one door evacuation to another it’s an appreciated helpful reminder.

The instructors ask each Skytresses and Skyters to arm and disarm each door. We arm an aircraft door so it is ready for an evacuation. On an actual airplane, aircraft doors are always armed for an evacuation as soon as the jetway is pulled away from the aircraft. In training, we arm the doors so we can get ready to go through our evacuation proficiency drills. Once the door is armed, we sit on a jumpseat and wait for the instructor to play the crash tape. You guessed it. The crash tape is a recording of an airplane crashing. Next you hear a voice give the pilot commands. We shout our emergency commands based on each pilot command signal. We have procedures to accomplish with each pilot command. If a Skytress or Skyter misses a component of a procedure, or if they fail to shout the proper command, the evacuation has to be redone. The instructors cannot tell the Skytress or Skyter the actual component they missed. If the second attempt is not perfect, then the instructor can explain the component that was missed. One more attempt for a successful evacuation will happen at the end of the day. If the third attempt is not successful, the Skytress or Skyter will be shot. Not really. But, it would be less painful than being pulled from flying and having to come back for additional training.

Of course, our training day is always filled with security, CPR, utilizing the emergency equipment and reviewing numerous sections in our manuals. Oh, but, my least favorite part of annual Skytress training is the Event Management Validation section. In the EMV section of training, we re-enact potential emergencies on the airplane as a crew. Our instructors evaluate our knowledge and response to each emergency. This section of training reminds me of when I was a child and played pretend school with my friends. Except when we were children, we didn’t have our parents in the room making sure we didn’t make any mistakes while we played school. This year the scenarios didn’t seem as daunting. I think the smaller class size really helped me. Okay. Let me be honest……It also helped that we had less scenarios to re-enact this year. Woo-hoo for us! I was proud that my fellow Skytresses and I really worked well as a crew. Our instructors seemed like they were part of our crew…..and not scrutinizing parents. I truly appreciated this. After we debriefed our last emergency scenario we were finished with our training. And just like that….my stress was gone. Yes, we all retained our FAA qualifications for another 18 months. Wait….did I say my stress was gone? Silly me. I still had to go through regular security at the airport to get home. That was another kind of dreaded stress.

I cannot remember the last time I went through security as a regular passenger. It has been years. Usually, I go through the Known Crew Member security line. Or I wear my Skytress uniform and go through the regular security line. Either way, I am exempt from the liquid carry-on restrictions when I am in my Skytress uniform. Because I was on a company leave this month, I couldn’t use the Known Crew Member security line. Since I came from training and was wearing my regular clothes, I had to adhere to the regular passenger security procedures. I went through all my crew bags several times that day to make sure I didn’t have any extra liquids besides the ones in my regulation quart-size plastic bag. I was definitely stressed I had missed something in my crew bags. To make matters worse, I normally don’t have a ticket when I go through security. I just show my airline ID when I am in my uniform to the TSA agent. I thought I was properly prepared by having my ticket displayed on my phone to show the TSA agent. Unfortunately, I didn’t know I had to place my phone on the TSA agent’s machine for it to scan my ticket in order for me to proceed past him. It was an awkward moment or two for me. It was definitely a frustrating moment or two for the TSA agent. My next blunder came when I pulled out my computer and put it in the bin to go through the screening process. I took my iPad out. I just forgot to take it out of it’s case. In my defense, I never have to take my iPad out of my crew bags when I am in uniform and I go through security. Atlanta has a rolling bin system to keep the security line moving. Unfortunately, I wasn’t up to speed on this procedure, either. My only thought was that the TSA agent had seen worse than me. Or at least, I hoped she had. Now, I’ve watched hundreds of passengers go through the full-body scanning machine. I know you won’t be surprised to learn I, myself, have never had to stand inside this machine before. I was throughly ready to mess up this procedure, too. Fortunately for everyone involved, the TSA agent waved me through the regular metal detector machine. Woo-hoo for me! Woo-hoo for the TSA agent, too! I confidently walked through the detector to the other side. Thankfully, I was very familiar with this part of security. And just like that…my stress was gone again.

I planned to work on my blog on my flight home to St. Louis. Instead I closed my eyes and I thought about Ron. I know he would have been proud of me for surviving my annual Skytress training. I could hear his voice, “You’re a smart girl”. I know he would have been proud of me for surviving my ordeal going through regular security, too. Actually, I know he would have laughed. I could hear his voice clearly say to me, “You’re funny”. Yes, going to my annual Skytress training is always a stressful adventure. Fortunately, I passed and I can laugh about it all now. Mr. Paden you are correct. I am a smart and funny girl.