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.