Like Father, Like Son

By: Capt. Clarke Peele

Aug 24 2011

Flying my recent three-day trip with my youngest son, Justin Peele, as my First Officer made me the proudest Captain at Southwest Airlines. When Justin was in the seventh grade, he made it known that he wanted to be a pilot and follow in his father’s footsteps. From that moment, I mentored him with the hope of someday looking over at the right seat and seeing my son as my Copilot.
Justin attended Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and flew five years for Great Lakes Airlines, building his education and flying experience. I was overjoyed when Justin joined the Southwest Family. He attended New Hire training in Dallas in February 2011, and in June, he was assigned to the Phoenix Crew base, where I have been since 1995. That month I was flying with First Officer Terry Taylor, who volunteered to give up his last day of a pairing to allow Justin and me our first opportunity to fly together. It is very difficult to achieve the same trip pairing with my son flying PM reserve in Phoenix and me flying AM hard lines.

The stars aligned again in August, when I woke up to a phone call from Justin, and he told me he had just picked up my three-day trip and would be my Copilot. We were both excited about the prospect of flying three days together. This was to be Justin’s first time overnighting in both Burbank (BUR) and Columbus (CMH). We had a great time eating at PF Chang’s and walking the shops in Burbank. On our overnight in Columbus, some family members were able to meet up with us, which made it a special evening.
Throughout the trip, I was excited for the chance to pass on techniques within the cockpit that I have acquired during my career as a Southwest Pilot. Flight Attendants, Crew Members, and Passengers continually expressed their excitement to witness this special event. The opportunity for a father and son to fly together in today’s commercial aviation world is very rare. I thank Southwest for helping me be the proudest Captain—and father—in the industry.

This was an article written by my dad and I wrote for Southwest after our most recent three day trip. I just wanted to share it on the blog to give you a glimpse into my day job.
http://www.blogsouthwest.com/blog/father-son

LAX Beach Run

I was on a long overnight in Los Angeles, the City of Angels. I needed to get a run in, and the beach was my only goal. Though the water was not right by my hotel, it wasn't far enough to deter me from seeing waves crash against a sandy beach.

The run started with a nice jog out the front of the LAX Sheraton. The hotel is in a line of hotels within a mile of the airport. As you exit the hotel and head west, you make a right turn as soon as possible to put yourself on 96th Street. This is the first real street you run into.

You know you are headed the right direction because you can see signs for LAX, and as you reach Sepulveda Blvd, it is way too busy to consider crossing anywhere but at a crosswalk. To get across the road, you actually won't be using a crosswalk...you have to climb stairs, go across an overpass, and then go back down the stairs on the other side.

The overpass has a set of stairs you can see pictured by the vertical sign. The stairs lead up to the top of the overpass, which gives a great view of the airport (I didn't get a picture). Once you cross the overpass, the real run begins. It's 3.2 miles from the bottom of the steps until you set foot on a sandy beach. This is a pretty section of the run, and there are nice views of planes taking off over the ocean. The sidewalks are wide and well-kept. As I ran, there were multiple crews doing yard work on the trees and grass, so thankfully, there were no tree branches dipping into my face.

There were flowers along portions of the path and not too much traffic, so no worries about that smell of exhaust. If you look out for them, you can even see a few A380s (the biggest commercial airliner in the world) among the aircraft taking off.

As the airport road adjacent to the runways ends, the path quickly changes into a steep uphill climb through a neighborhood, with a sandy path along yet another chain link fence. This is a nice portion of the run, with tall grass and nice cars sitting in front of the near beach-front housing.

The pay off at the top of the hill is a scenic view of the ocean. You follow the path back down the hill and the interesting part starts. There might be a wonderful option for actually getting down to the water, but I honestly don't know what that is.

I chose to descend a very steep section of sand (and got some in my shoes), but if you are patient enough to run along the road pictured above, there has to be a route specifically intended for that purpose. On this particular run, I went with the less thought-out option, because time along the beach was my my highest priority. Once you are below, there is a wonderful wide path filled with runners, cyclists, rollerbladers, and pedestrians.

The path (though not pictured) leads on for miles in both directions. I didn't have any water, but that didn't pose a problem. The path has a bathroom and water fountain facility every mile. I appreciated the flexibility this gave the entire beach-front portion.

This was an amazing run. I loved the breeze from the ocean, the sound of kids playing on the beach, and the ocean spray off the waves. The entire run is well maintained, and if you are willing to run on 8 miles of concrete, then the rest is scenic beauty. My one piece of advice is to not get too up close and personal with the waves. I got a little too curious, and my effort to touch the waves with my hands was rewarded with a pair of Brooks running shoes filled with salt water. This made my final 5 miles or so pretty interesting, but it couldn't even come close to ruining my first California beach-front run.

This was taken just seconds before my shoes were soaked by these very waves.

Working Out When Sick

I recently drove across the country with my wife, and in the process probably pushed things a little too far. To get a vehicle to my sister in Chicago, we drove from Phoenix, leaving at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday night and arriving in Chicago at 6:30 p.m. Friday evening. We delivered the car fully gassed up and cleaned so that it wouldn't look like we had just driven it 1,750 miles. Several bottles of 5 Hour Energy, a night of catching up with my sister, and a 3:45 wake-up time to catch a 6:45 a.m. flight the next day left my immune system useless.  My throat began hurting somewhere around Tulsa, Oklahoma, and by the time I reached Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, the sniffles had started.

If this were the end of the symptoms, then training would not be an issue. The rule of thumb is that if the symptoms stay above the neck line, then exercise (if kept at a lower intensity) is acceptable. I had a reserve trip starting the next day, and though that means I'm on-call and might not be used, I was already planning a morning workout. We arrived at my house by 9:35 a.m. on Saturday, and as we unpacked, I had thoughts of working out that afternoon. There were so many ways I could have still used that day to be productive.

Smiling because we have no idea what we've gotten ourselves into.

But that was when the rest of the symptoms came. I started feeling fatigued and achy. The feeling of warmth behind my eyes began and this made me think a fever could be around the corner.  The second rule of thumb is that when symptoms go below the neck line, you shouldn't exercise. This can have a couple different meanings, the first being chest congestion, a hacking cough or an upset stomach. The second meaning is a fever, fatigue or widespread muscle aches. Unfortunately, I had chest congestion and aches, so all my ideas of training went out the window. Saturday and Sunday were spent watching several episodes of Mad Men on streaming video from Netflix. I also watched Star Wars: A New Hope, as well as The Empire Strikes Back with my wife. (I am lucky to be married to a woman that will watch all six Star Wars movies in a row with me.) I am now sitting at my computer on Monday the 15th, having not been called yet to start a trip and finally almost healthy. I did watch footage from the Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2010, which motivated me for the next segment of this story, beginning to train again.

Hilary driving through New Mexico and me being very serious.

My plan is to do a light biking workout tomorrow, because once health is determined at a level appropriate to workout, you still can't just dive into it. A cycling workout is a lower heart rate intensity then running or swimming (at least the way I do it). I will try to work my way back to full intensity exercise by the end of one week of health. I am not happy with getting sick within 3 months of an Ironman, but by taking the time to rest and recover, I could be saving myself weeks of dragging this illness on. When recovering from being under the weather, start your training at a lower rate of exertion and gradually work your way up.

Texas was the only state that had one of these signs so big, so we had to stop and take a picture.

There is no exact timeline for working out while sick or a definite answer for what rate to begin working out again. You have to pay attention to what your body is telling you and know your personal limits. The rules of thumb are true for everyone, but the rest is a big variable. I'll let you know if my own assessment of my health turns out to be correct or not.

Handing the keys to my 8 1/2 months pregnant sister having no idea my immune system is being bombarded.