4 times coast to coast

Well, pretty close to it. Just got back last night from my latest travels. Started with Calgary to Montreal for a night, then over to San Jose via Sioux Falls SD for fuel for a night, and then back to Montreal. Then Montreal to Toronto and a commercial flight back to Calgary. All of this was in our brand new jet too, what a great pieces of machinery!

I am very impressed with the performance of the aircraft. I wish I could fly this one exclusively!

Overall this trip was pretty good. I got to spend some time in Montreal where I got to use some of my horrible French comprehension and also got to explore a little bit of down town San Jose. Staying in the Hilton downtown San Jose was an added bonus, some good views from way up on the top floor.

Because the jet is brand new we actually have 2 new clients that were anxious to see their investments. So we had the closet of the aircraft filled with 3 bottles of Dom Perignon to be presented to the clients as a congratulatory offering from the company. On return back to Montreal our first clients mentioned there was still some champagne left. After they had left, Colin and I were in the back of the airplane pouring ourselves a glass each. Here's a shot of me being oh so hoity toity about to enjoy a glass of $200 champagne. However, while it did taste "expensive", I probably couldn't have told you the difference between a $20 or $200 bottle. I'm not a big fan of champagne as it is, I guess my palete just isn't quite so refined yet. Haha.


The next clients we were to meet didn't want to take the plane for a fight, but instead wanted to have a little cocktail party around it. So it was arranged, we parked the plane in the very nice hangar facilities we use in Montreal and cleaned it up real nice. Turned on all the lights and gizmos and then some curtains were set up around the airplane and a couple of tables were arranged with catering and a bar service. It was quite the little production. The client brought his family and friends to come and check out the new toy and we were there to answer some questions. However, everyone just assumed we spoke French. So the majority of the night was spent saying the words "I'm sorry but I don't speak much French". I did however get a few phrases out, but it was for the most part an awkward time of French/English misunderstandings.

After the event was done, we took the plane and flew it to Toronto. Another crew was to pick it up there the next day and carry on with some other flights. We then took an AirCanada flight home. The plane had the new on demand entertainment system onboard so I watched a movie and some tv shows. It's a very nice system, it's not live, but you have such a great choice of picking whatever you want that it really is a great way to make the 4 hours more tolerable.