A 45min X-Mas with the folks

So, as I had mentioned in my last post. I did get the opportunity to come home for a little bit this holiday season.

But man, what a series of events I had to go through so that it could happen.

It all started the day before. I drove up to Edmonton (where it was -25!!) at night and stayed there in a hotel. I got about 3.5hrs sleep and I was off to the airport bright and early for our first of a series of flights. It was simple enough, Edmonton to Calgary. Lots of icing in the area and freezing rain. After landing in Calgary the aircraft had a good coating of ice in places that didn't have icing protection. We were on the ground in Calgary for a couple of hours. But this was mainly spent doing errands for the company, picking up little gifts and extra bits of catering. Then we took the same clients back to Edmonton. We then did a very quick turn around and came right back to Calgary. We were in a bit of a rush now, because we got stuck in some delays enroute to Calgary and our next set of clients were going to be arriving shortly. We were maybe on the ground for 15mins, after changing out the catering and coffee and they had arrived. With MOUNTAINS of gifts. It took some strategic packing to get all of these gifts loaded into the aircraft. Where were we off to next!? VANCOUVER!!!

So as we approached into Vancouver I switched radio frequencies for a minute on our 2nd radio and quickly called my old job at Boundary Bay Airport. They were shocked to hear me and I wished them all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Then back to business. We approached into Vancouver over the water, and on a 2 mile final for landing I couldn't help but mention to my Captain "God damn I love this place".

We pulled up to the executive air terminal building we use at YVR (Shell Aerocentre) and I saw 2 familiar people waiting in the lounge area. It was my parents. I hadn't told them that I was returning to Vancouver and had only mentioned that I was sending a package on this flight and that they should go to the airport and meet the plane to receive it. They were under the impression that I was flying to Phoenix (which I actually was supposed to do the day earlier; schedules change very frequently here though).

So I hop out of the airplane and they are a little surprised to see me. Our next leg was back to Edmonton to finish off the night, so the only rush to get back there was for our restrictions on how long we can be on duty as pilots. 15hrs generally. This is not the time flying, but calculated as an hour before departure until 30 mins after your last flight. So because we had started so early in the day, I only had about an hour tops I could spend on the ground in Vancouver. My Captain was kind enough to let me have that time with my folks. So I met them and yelled, "to the house!"

We quickly drove back to the house so I could see the dog and the new renovations and take in all the xmas joy that I was to be missing this year. It was a great few minutes. Then "take me back to the airport!" On the way I managed to surprise Cindy too, I stopped by her house on my way out and took 2mins to say Merry Christmas. Her response to my Merry Xmas greeting was "What the hell are you doing here!?" ~thanks Cindy! =D

Back at the airport now and I said goodbye to the family and got on to the plane. The Captain had everything ready to go. I shut the door, the engine fired up and before I was even buckled in we were heading for the runway. I got to fly most of the flight home and what a spectacular view departing over the North Shore mountains on the way home. We flew right over Grouse mountain and right beside Whistler on our way back to Edmonton.

Now, we've arrived in Edmonton and I'm pretty darn tired, but I know that I do need to be back in Calgary the next day to start office shifts again. So I prepare to load up the rental car and drive back. Then I get a phone call from the office telling me I have to wait another couple of hours, because one of the other pilots is flying up to Edmonton and also needs to return back to Calgary. Holy cow.. this was starting to turn into a LONG day.

Finally we are on the road at about 12:30am! A good 3 hour drive ahead of us now. I have now been up for 21 hrs straight and only received 3.5hrs of sleep the night prior. I was tired. We made the drive home, it got dicey for a little bit on the last 100kms or so. But we made it. Home and to bed. Up for 24.5hrs by the time I got to sleep. I then proceeded to sleep for 12.5hrs that night! It felt sooooo good.

So, to make a long story short. I spent 24.5hrs of my life running all around the southern portions of Alberta and BC so that I could spend just under 1 hr with my family before Xmas.....

and it was worth every minute : )