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United Airlines hosted a career day with Southern Illinois University to promote the industry and more specifically the university’s aviation programs. It was a great event to learn about college level aviation programs as well as talk to some of the pilots in the industry. Today’s long day started with an early wake up of 4:30. Crawled out of bed, got ready, and left for O’Hare. We arrived there around 6:10 and checked in soon after that. We had a bit to wander around before the plane took off so I grabbed something to eat. We boarded United Airlines flight 9895 on our Boeing 737-300 and sat at the gate for the rest of the students to board. While waiting I plugged my headphones into the arm rest and was extrememly delighted to hear ATC. I thought they discontinued that feature but I guess I was wrong. It was interesting to listen to the conversations between the captains and clearance. I did not know that going a few hundred miles was so complicated. I counted a total of 5 waypoints on the route. After receiving our clearance we taxied out to runway 32L and departed for KMDH. It was quite comedic hearing each new controller asking “what’s a United Airlines flight going down to Carbondale for?”. While on the plane the captain explained a little bit about the plane and the crew. All of the crew members on the flight had graduated at one time from SIU and were affiliated with the flight program. Additionally, the plane had a special meaning. Mathew Meier, a SIU graduate as well as a United Airlines Captain, was diagnosed with cancer and passed away at the young age of 28. In memorial of him, United Airlines Boeing 737-300 N9933UA was dedicated to him. We were privileged enough to fly on that airplane. Our captain made a very skilled landing on runway 36R at Southern Illinois Airport. Landing a 737 6,506 foot runway is quite a challenge. After landing we got out of the plane and posed for a large group picture then broke off into our tour groups. While we were franticly searching for our groups, some of the staff brought out the school’s mascot; the saluki. A saluki is basically a really skinny dog. They look funny but are really good runners. After getting into my designated group, we took a tour of the airport. We visited the main airport building briefly covering on the weather service then moved on to the pilot center. Our group leader, Jeff, talked about the school’s extremely successful flight team which has taken regionals the past six out of seven years and has ranked in the top five schools at nationals. He also touched on some basic rules for flight training. After the flight training building, we moved on to the classrooms where aviation technology was taught. We went through labs such as the propellers lab, the composite lab, the avionics lab, and ignition lab. Each lab had a short presentation about what they do. It was interesting to see how many topics are covered in the maintenance program. From there we moved on to the helicopter hangar. The professors there gave their spiel and we were on our way to lunch. The airport cafe provided all 75 of us with a sub sandwich, chips, cookies and a drink. It wasn’t bad at all. I enjoyed it at least. After lunch, we loaded three school buses and we headed down to the actual campus. The quick 4 mile ride wasn’t long at all. When we got to the campus, we walked pass all of the beautiful scenery into the lecture hall for an hour presentation. During the presentation, they had the captain, copilot, the flight safety officer, and two aircraft technicians talk about their jobs and their experience at SIU. This was followed by a semi-short question and answer session. Preceding the presentation, we were handed our event t-shirts (they are super cool) as we walked to the student rec center. It was a really nice facility they had 2 tracks, an abundance of basketball and racket ball courts, and even a swimming pool. It looked like a very well equipped facility. When we were all done, we hopped back onto the buses to return to the airport. When we got there, the TSA was just setting up their security screening area. Because we flew on a United airplane, we were subject to their regulations. One of them was, we had to pass through a TSA certified security checkpoint before we could board the aircraft. This took them a good hour to do so, causing us to arrive an hour late at 18:00 instead of 17:00. After getting screened, we got to eat some pizza then fly home. On the way back, i listened to ATC again. I was very proud of myself because I could understand most of what was being said. While leaving the aircraft, we got a nice coffee-table-style hardcover book all about United Airlines. I paged through it and it was very nice. It was supposed to be a $40 book but all of us got it for free! Overall I really enjoyed attending the trip. It was a great opportunity to learn all about the school as well as how that specific education can help you out in the future. I met a lot of new friends and look forward to seeing them again on the American Airlines Career day coming up in October. Pictures from the trip are on the photos album. I know this post was a bear, but thank you so much for reading it. You have no idea how much I appreciate your support. Thanks!!!

Evan Krueger

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