Scavengers

Ahh, the little extra benefits of being a pilot and having no shame. On an average of 1 out of every 4 to 5 flights we have catering for our customer. And for some strange reason the customers never seem to finish the food that they order, sometimes they do not even touch it. Now, if you have no shame in going through the leftovers you can usually find a nice snack that is still in it's wrapper, or a whole meal! On this paticular flight the customers did not even touch these amazing 4 inch thick clubs. And it so worked out that we had dropped them off late one night and had a two hour empty leg back home, t'was the perfect late night snack.

A meal like this was probably worth half my days pay, aircharter meals are some of the most expensive meals out there. A pilot I used to work with told me of the time he was down in the lower 48 and picked up catering for 8 passengers, which included a platter of sandwiches and a platter of cheese and crackers. The bill came to a total of over $600US, crazy but not at all unusual.

Happy landing

It had been about 3 or 4 months since the last time I had been into Patuanak's short gravel strip. Now on short final, with the threshold of RWY14 coming at us at 110mph, my mind is racing with possible situations that could arise between now and engine shutdown. 'What if we float too far in these windy conditions, the runway is only 3000' long.' 'What if we break a brake line with this gravel?' 'How far into Beta/Reverse is OK before we start to damage the prop?' 'How soft is the runway.'
My mind is alert for what might happen in the worst of situations and how to handle them while keeping my attention focused on the job at hand, approach and land, all in safe fashion...

The last time I was here was spring and the runway was soft, requiring higher than normal taxi power, which in turn caused our props to take a slight beating with all the thrown up stones. A brake line was broken on landing also, resulting in an interesting taxi. Example: a normal 90 degree right turn now became a 270 degree left turn. The takeoff was also a little unnerving as the end of the runway started to approach much sooner than what was comfortable. But in the end, after a company Cessna 402 had flown a couple of mechanics out to fix the brake line, we got out of Patuanak alive, safely, on time and without worrying our passengers.

...Our tires hit the ground at 95 mph and spray gravel in all directions, a cloud of dust is climbing behind us and racing down the strip to catch up and cover our plane in a thin brown coat. Props flatten into Beta range and act like spoilers, creating drag, and pushing me forward into my shoulder harness. The brakes tighten up and slow the wheels down, turning the kinetic energy of the spinning tires into heat waves wafting up from the brakes. Within about 10 seconds and thankfully well less than 3000 feet, it's all over, the plane is turning around to back track RWY14 to the little gravel apron. Once again, the satisfaction of a safely flown plane is heard as the passengers all clap their hands in appreciation of their two pilots...Okay, I went a little far there. The clapping is all in my head and the passengers are wishing that we had never landed as now it is their turn to start working...

Western Canada

The month of August has been slow. I've been pretty consistant at working only one day a week for the month so far. Although last week it picked up to 2 flights, one on Monday and then one on Friday, but with the spacing I really didn't feel the pressure of over working myself...haha.

The last two flights though have been excellent ones. The first was a trip too Vancouver, with a stop in Campbell River and Calgary on the way back. Three firsts for me with this company. The day held for us a bright VFR sky and decent winds for crossing the mountains. While entering the Vancouver terminal control area I remember thinking somewhere along the lines of 'Thanks goodness for the VFR weather.' As I was working just to keep on top of all the different routeing they we're giving us, let on having to worry about getting an approach loaded up and intercepted. I was thankful of my captain as he had done this route numerous times already, which led to me being reminded once again the value of experiance.

The second excellent flight took us to Beauval for the day, which was spent sitting in the plane for 2 hours before I decided I really needed to use a washroom. However with bush thick around us for miles there was no nearby washroom to use. So I grabbed a Kleenex box and took a stroll in the woods. Ten minutes later I walk out feeling better but a little sore from the prickly bench I had 'used', and to humour the situation even more my captain, who had been walking around on the apron and down the sole road that led to the airport. Called me over and told me of his discovery he had made. A motel with a restaraunt was just down the street 200 meters! And was sure to have a washroom, a little late now though. But we walked the road to Amy's Bar & Grill and waited out the rest of the afternoon in the air conditioned restaraunt drinking coffee.

Two hours later, our passangers show up and we head back to Saskatoon to drop off two of them and take on a bit of fuel before blasting off to Winnipeg to drop the other three off. The sky quickly dims as fly East and we are greeted with centerline lighting as we touch down on RWY18 in Winnipeg. The passangers are happy to leave the plane and get to there hotels for the night. However we still have the 2 hr deadhead back home before we can end the day with our heads on our pillows.

There's a reddish orange line seperating the earth from the black sky as we level off at 24,000 feet. The faintly lit horizon off our nose gently merges with the green glow of the Northern lights out my side window. Two dull blue flames are streching back out of the exhaust stacks not more then three feet away from my side. The world below is sprinkled with lights from warm cozy homes, the universe above me is sparkling with millions of far away stars. I try to take a picture of it all with my wifes digital camera that I steal from her for some of my flights. However the small screen comes up black, showing nothing of that which is outside. This is a moment that I have been priviliged to see, a picture that is just for me. The cockpit is peaceful tonight, warm lights illuminateing the insturments, gentle roar of the power giving turboprops, and a cozy seat beneath me. I'm happy for the headwind tonight.

Line Checkout

Yesterday was my final line check ride for the King Air 200, which consisted of flying with a senior pilot on a trip up to Collins Bay. Basically, there was nothing different about this flight as opposed to all my previous flights except for the "linecheck" that was printed beside my name on the schedule.

The captain I flew with was the same one I had done my ride and previous other trips with. He is always a good time. There is about 5 captains for the King Airs in our company so naturely I have flown with all of them more than once. Today my Captain and I got talking about some of his friends that had ended up flying for Air Canada and other major airlines. He told me of them flying for years with the same airline and only a handful of times flying twice with the same pilot. Hard to imagine, that is a lot of employees in one company. We talked about where I wanted to go with my flying career, and the pros and cons of all the different routes a pilot could take. My decision was that where ever I was to go, I was going to enjoy the ride there...