Civil Aviation Resources Network 2024-05-02 News: May Day, a holiday for workers, is an ordinary and extraordinary working day for the C919 crew of China Eastern Airlines. This is their "first" Labor Day with domestic large aircraft.
The captain "Wang Da" has grown up with domestic large aircraft
Captain Wang Jiang, who has 21 years of rich flight experience, is now the deputy general manager of the C919 flight department of China Eastern Airlines, and he also has a well-deserved honor - he has won the title of "Big Aircraft Fighter" twice. Because of his seniority, kindness and handsomeness, the crew members who flew with him affectionately called him "Wang Da". On the afternoon of May 1, he completed the pre-flight inspection as usual rigorously and meticulously, stepped into the cockpit of the C919, exchanged holiday greetings with his colleagues, and flew from Shanghai Hongqiao to Xi'an with a full load of passengers.
Xi'an is a popular tourist destination during the holiday season, and the peak travel on the first day of the holiday and the big IP attraction of domestic large aircraft make this MU2160 flight load factor close to 100%. During the flight, Wang Jiang always maintained a high degree of concentration and keen observation to ensure a smooth and comfortable flight for passengers.
"Wang Da, this is the flight log of today's flight passengers. The purser handed Wang Jiang a thick stack of flight logs, which Wang Jiang carefully opened and signed in response. Since it was Labor Day, he saw that the logbook was full of holiday wishes from passengers and flight friends to the crew. These logs and messages are unique to flight C919. In fact, not only holidays, as long as it is a flight operated by C919, the passengers are close to full, Wang Jiang also met many flying friends to fly with him on the return flight, at most, he can receive thirty or forty flight logs on a flight. There are also many passengers who will take photos of the C919 and clip all kinds of aircraft "beautiful photos" in the logbook to the crew as a souvenir. During the flight, he felt the enthusiasm of passengers for domestic large aircraft, and also felt the heavy responsibility on his shoulders.
Wang Jiang said that C919 is like a "good partner" for him to grow up together. As early as 2014, Wang Jiang was selected as one of the three C919 test pilots jointly trained by China Eastern Airlines and COMAC, in 2017, he joined the first user evaluation committee of C919, and in 2022, the C919 flight department of China Eastern Airlines was established, and he became the first batch of captains. In addition to spending May Day with C919 for the first time, he also witnessed many "firsts" of C919: the first commercial operation, the first time to open three routes, the first time to serve the Spring Festival, and the most memorable thing for him is that the world's first C919 flew to Singapore for the first time to participate in the air show, and personally participated in the success of the overseas debut of the domestic large aircraft.
What made him feel the most was not only these "firsts", but also the growth and change of his mood after becoming the first batch of managers of C919. "In the past, when flying other models, we only thought about ensuring safety, but now, we still have to think about how to do a good job in the large aircraft business. Wang Jiang is now the leader of the C919 Flight Innovation Studio, and is engaged in safe operation training, comprehensive aircraft optimization, and flight talent training. He also served as a flight instructor, with the goal of building an expert C919 flight team of "pilots, researchers, and designers", and organized more than 40 C919 dream lecture halls in the past year, leading pilots to study and discuss intensively. "In addition to flying, we will let pilots who have studied a certain field deeply give lectures, such as air conditioning systems, emergency procedures, etc., and we will encourage them to share their experiences and bring everyone to familiarize themselves with the new aircraft. ”
Due to his busy work, Wang Jiang, who has two daughters, can hardly take care of the family, and his wife, who was a flight attendant, quit her job to give Wang Jiang understanding and support. Having a captain dad should be something to brag about for the kids, but his daughter doesn't have much of a concept. Until last year, he went to give a lecture on domestic large aircraft to his first-grade daughter's class, and his classmates looked at his daughter with envy. He said: "When I got home, my daughter said to me, Dad, you are so powerful!" Wang Jiang's eyes flashed, this light was reflected by the sweat of his years of labor, and it also came from the pride of devoting himself to the cause of large aircraft.
Chongqing purser, overlooking his hometown on a large domestic aircraft
"Haiqi, the front is your hometown. On the C919 Shanghai Hongqiao-Chengdu Tianfu flight, when the purser Liu Haiqi was delivering meals to the crew, the captain specially reminded her that Chongqing was in front of the plane.
Liu Haiqi, the purser of China Eastern Airlines C919, who has a tall body of 175cm and a big eyes and a high nose bridge, is a native of Chongqing. He joined China Eastern Airlines in 2016 and became the first batch of C919 flight attendants in 2022 with his excellent business capabilities. In January this year, she and Captain Wang Jiang participated in the "debut" of the C919 to Singapore. Because she is preoccupied with her work and flies all over the world, she may only return to her hometown once a year. Since the first commercial flight of the C919, her favorite flight is the Shanghai Hongqiao-Chengdu Tianfu flight, Chengdu and Chongqing are close to each other, and the large plane will just pass through the Chongqing border. Whenever this happens, she glances at the continuous ridges outside the porthole, as if she can smell the fragrant hot pot smell of the mountain city and the strong hometown flavor.
This May Day, Liu Haiqi scheduled a flight task and still couldn't return to his hometown. She is flying a flight from Shanghai Hongqiao to Xi'an these days. At 5:40 in the morning, she packed up and walked out of the house, signed in at 6:35, and picked up the guests at 7:40, she wanted to use the best state, warm smile and intimate service to greet every passenger on vacation.
After 8 years of work, Liu Haiqi has experienced the transformation from an ordinary cabin flight attendant to a first-class flight attendant, and then to a C919 purser. In her view, the purser's role is more like a "glue", not only to pay attention to the load factor, catering, baggage situation, etc. before the flight, but also to maintain close communication with the entire crew, and have enough control over all matters during the flight.
The five C919s that have now been delivered perform approximately seven flights per day. She basically maintains the working frequency of flying C919 4 days a week. In view of the characteristics of the three routes from Shanghai Hongqiao to Beijing Daxing, Chengdu Tianfu and Xi'an, Liu Haiqi summarized his own set of service priorities. For example, there are mostly children and elderly passengers on the Tianfu route, and she will focus on those family travelers with the elderly and children, and take the initiative to help them. The Daxing route generally has fewer tourists, and she will think about how to better meet the travel needs of business travelers.
"On the inaugural commercial flight C919 on May 28 last year, I was the one in the red uniform. "At this year's Singapore Airshow, we all called it the C919 'Internet celebrity punch card'. Talking about the common memories with the C919 aircraft and crew, Liu Haiqi is full of excitement and pride. What she is most proud of is the cohesion and sense of belonging that C919 has given her and the team. For example, once when she flew to Chengdu, the passenger gave the crew a cute panda pen, which made her very touched and happy. For another example, she called the relationship with the C919 crew "comradeship". She said: "Now the team of C919 pilots and flight attendants is getting bigger and bigger, we have 7 batches, nearly 200 C919 flight attendants, we have experienced so many historic 'big events' together, and everyone has a very good relationship, just like comrades-in-arms." ”
Indeed, whether it is Wang Jiang, Liu Haiqi, or all the C919 crew members, they all have the same original intention and struggle for the same goal.
"Labor is the most glorious! Working with a large domestic aircraft is even more glorious!" Liu Haiqi said with a smile. "I really hope that next May Day, our C919 will be able to fly more and more routes. She also has a wish, that is, one day the C919 can fly to Chongqing, so that she can often travel to and from her hometown with domestic large aircraft.