I looked up as Mirri came into the cockpit. "Hi, it's only me" she said, and sat down. I continued my task of programming our ATR 72's FMC, this flight would take us from Spokane in Washington State to Seattle-Tacoma. She read out our weight and fuel load then asked if I approved the manifest. I told her I did and she signed it off.
The next task was to pull the weather, and she read this out to me. A mild headwind most of the way was not uncommon so I wasn't too concerned there. Our lead Flight Attendant would be Shera on this trip, an anthropoid Lioness. Despite her appearance though most passengers seemed to really like her, business-like but friendly. Mirri now asked if I was ready for the first checklist, I replied yes and she asked if she should handle it. "No" I replied. So we ran the before start checks. With the plane powered up and ready I pulled the ATIS for the morning, then cleared us to KSEA. Ready for pushback, I said. So we called in to our ops personnel then ground and pushed back from the ramp. Engine start was routine as always, the ATR was a reliable old girl and a great favourite with our pilots.
The engines roared to life and we went through the after start checks, then called in for taxi clearance. Runway 21 was assigned, so we called ops again and went to our assigned runway.
As we neared the runway Ground told us to switch to Tower, which we did, then started the pre-takeoff checks. Flaps down, Strobe lights on, Landing lights on, ready. Cleared to hold at the runway, one last check of the heading, our first waypoint was 34 miles away, outside a clearance straight to it, heading bug set to 225 as instructed. Clearance received, Mirri's timing on the final checks as usual was impeccable, and we thundered down the runway, 80 knots, 110 takeoff. As we climbed Mirri raised the gear then the flaps, AP on and clearance to Departure received. Heading 230 bang on course, cleared to 12000 feet, our cruise altitude. Then we hit the clouds, could've been worse, at least it was only our visibility affected.
We climbed out, then received our clearance, resume own Navigation, Cruise altitude reached so we settled in.
The flight over was uneventful, and to keep the pax happy I told the crew to serve hot food and drinks. Then the descent came. Down through 10000 lights on again. Down to 6K, turn up to 340 (North East). As we crossed the area around Seattle we ran the approach checks, then landing, AP on for Approach mode, we're behind two other aircraft, both jets. Right up to 200 feet AGL everything was fine, suddenly though we hit the wake turbulence from the Airbus in front, things got hairy and our Autopilot lost the slope. The ATR pitched her nose down toward the ground and suddenly I had visions of us crashing short of the runway. I knocked the AP of and took over, but landing was near impossible so I called a missed approach and go-around. Mirri handled the checks in her usual efficient fashion. We climbed away and asked for another go this time on the left runway. We were cleared easily and flew the pattern round. As I neared the base leg I called the approach checks once more, then turned to base and the landing checks.
With the old gal slowed down we turned to final for 16L. This time I flew a manual and visual approach, keeping an eye on 16R for other traffic. Down we came, crossing the threshold, 200 ft, 100, 50, 40, 30, 20 then the familiar little squeal as the tires hit the tarmac. Mirri immediately used reverse thrust to slow us so we could clear the runway as early as possible. We turned off, then called for clearance to the ramp.
We reached the gate just 10 minutes late in spite of the go around. Perfect flight, we shut down the plane and waited on the passengers to leave. Then we went to get our paperwork for the next flight back to GEG.