CRM Training

Crew Resource Management training took up the hours between 0800 to 1600 of this beautiful hot and sunny spring Saturday. With the sky a clear blue and the tempatures high into the 20s, we spent the day locked away in a window less room going over how to behave on the flight deck of an aircraft. Infact CRM training started up about 15 years ago as Cockpit Resource Management and was built and designed to resolve cockpit conflicts and lack of communication between pilots. Which was I guess the reason behind some aircraft accidents. Today the name has changed from Cockpit Resource Management to Crew Resource Management and then too Company Reso... to accommadate the flight attendents, maintaince, ground crew, dispatch and whoever else is involved in the safe conduct of a flight.
Really, the day was not a big waste of sunshine, I did enjoy the company of my fellow employees, some good food, lot's of coffee and oh ya, there was some good things I learnt also. Basically today CRM covers Human Factors (HF), which is basically how to communicate well without offending and how to communicate in way that will not be misunderstood, in other words, communicating clearly. We also learn stuff about ourselves, what some of the mistakes that we can make and how to reconize when we might make them.
All said and done, I'm grateful to the company for offering this education to us. It gave me a lot to keep in mind that might one day save me from makeing a mistake that was preventable. It is after all, the right of any passanger on any aircraft to be able to trust there lives in the hands of the pilots, flight attendents, maintaince, ground crew, and all others that are involved in the safe completion of a flight. And I will happily receive any instruction and education to make myself a stronger link in that safety chain.

The Race

The Back Drop to a Good Day


The weather radar isn't showing much return on the screen as we continue our descent through the clumps of clouds that where forcast as thunderstorms. The end of the day is getting nearer as we are heading back from Mclean Lake Mine where we sat all day after flying up there at 0800. With Prince Albert only ten miles ahead of us and company traffic hot on our tail, we're looking through the light showers that are glistening in the low evening sunshine, a beuatiful picture. But not much time to enjoy it as we decide to chop the power and slow down to 160knots to let our company Beech 1900 speed by to get to the airport first as it was gaining on us considerably. PA radio crackles over the headset to tell us that it has started to rain at the airfield. A glance at the field makes me smile, there's one cloud sitting over only half the feild and showers are falling out of it, it's neat to see the shower from this percpective. By the time we land the rain has stopped, you can see a distinct wet to dry line about half way down the runway, that's a quick shower.
After dropping one passenger off in PA we quickly fire the still steaming engines, run through the check list and start taxing for runway 08. The company 1900 has just fired up also after dropping a few passegners off, the race continues. We pick up our clearance from Radio and take off 08, the 1900 has to wait for us to clear the zone (5miles to the south)before they get there clearance to depart. We climb out of Prince Albert with the sky full of dissapateing TCs and a sun slowly getting lower in the western sky. It's a beautiful and quick 20 minute hop to Saskatoon. With the 1900 catching up with us again Terminal tells us to keep our speed up as we're gonna be number one for RWY27 at Saskatoon, we've got the needle hugging the barber poll at 208 Indicated airspeed, the GPS is telling us we're doing 245knots over the ground. The company 1900 gets there speed cut to 190knots, and told there're number 3 for the feild behind a 737 that we're gonna be cutting in front for a tight turn to final.
We round out the turn from base to final and chop the throttles, throw in approach flap at 180knots, then drop our gear at 156knots. The approach rounds out nicely and after putting in the rest of the flaps on short final we land and exit easily at Bravo taxiway. With a gorgeous sun setting we taxi back to the apron and escort the last 3 passanger to the hanger, I'm just walking back to the plane to tie it up for the night when I see the 1900 land on 27. Guess your first sometimes and last other times.
The sunset is a beautiful back drop for a great end to a long day.

Good Morning

It's currently 0854 and we're sitting at 20'000 feet 280 NM north of Saskatoon. The vast northern boral forest of north Saskatchewan is looking like a sparse and void prairie from this height. The sky is hazing to the north which limits your view of the ground, but looking out towards the East you are greeted by the morning sun. Still low and glaring it makes the thousands of ice covered lakes shine like jewels. The forest is a bright green now, shed of the winters snow; in a few more weeks the ice will be gone, reveiling the bright blue lakes hidden underneeth. The Captain and I are passing the hour and 45min flight to Cigar Lake by with idle chitchat about aviation stories we have only heard and how are past two weeks of no work went. In 20 miles we'll be beginning our descent into the still frozen North.

Embracing Now, Dreaming of Tomorrow

My job is great. Here's an example... Last month I put in many many long days of work, 83 flight hours and well over 160 duty hours, probably somewhere around 250 duty hours (duty day hours is 1 hour before scheduled dept to 15 mins after landing final landing of the day). It was a lot of time spent away from home, but I loved every minute of it.
Now this past week I've worked nil days and next week is sounding a little slow also, and it's not that I don't like being at home around my beautiful wife, but I just am really really craving to get back to work. Not just cause I get bored but because I love to fly and experiance the learning and growth that comes along with every hour spent in the air.
I'm at frequent visiter to airliners.net, this latest photo got me really excited about my career and where I plan to go.
Chicago, Illinois


Here is where I frequently go now. And I get excited about this too!
"Some Dusty, Soft and Short Strip", Saskatchewan


Don't get me wrong, I don't just live for the future, but I enjoy ever minute I spend working in and out of the gravel strips I frequently accomidate. And I like the idea of climbing the ladder to get where I want to go, always having something a little bigger to fly and maybe a destination a little further away. I think that is what I really enjoy about aviation, not forgetting the hard work of a low approach or the beautiful office view at 21'000 feet.