Fairly active set of days on call

For some odd reason I was only on call for 9 days this past set. Perhaps they're trying to revamp the schedule, or they just totally screwed something up and neglected to put me on for my normal 12. I don't mind, because I'm back on days off right now and they're quite well needed. I was going pretty strong during this set of 9.

The first day I didn't fly but was called and informed that I'd be going to a first aid course the next day. Part of the requirements for our operations is that at least one crew member needs to have current first aid training. Well, we don't quite have that anymore, so everyone is getting the opportunity within the next couple of months to go to a one day first aid course held by Saint John's. I went and met up with a couple other pilots who were also doing it that day as well. It was a good course and am glad I got the opportunity to revamp my skills, as the last time I took any official training was back in the days of boy scouts.

Then the flying began. First I had the glorious honor to drive up early in the morning to Edmonton to exchange with another crew member and continue on the flying. So at 7am I was on the road driving up. All of this just so I could make the 40 minute flight right back to Calgary! Oh well. Then we ended up holding in Calgary for a few minutes and took another client to Saskatoon. Then the schedule got all sorts of changed as they were trying to figure out more efficient ways to use planes and crew. So instead of continuing on to Grande Prairie we were told we were going to hold in Saskatoon for 3 nights and then go to Regina.

That plan lasted all of 1 day as the next morning as I was just waking up I got a message that essentially said "get your asses back to Calgary, we need a plane here soon!" Ok, so we hustled out of the hotel and back to the plane and screamed back over to Calgary. Where I was informed that I'd be continuing on with another Captain to Vernon for a 3 night layover. Hmmm... Ok. I had actually only packed for 2 nights as that was my original schedule, but of course things change a mile a minute. I guess there were going to be re-runs on this trip. We head into Vernon where the weather is decent but nothing spectacular... it did get better throughout the afternoon. The first night we walked all around town and pretty much saw everything there was to see right then and there.

The next day was gorgeous! Was to get up to 25 degrees and lots of sun. We decide to head out to one of the hills surrounding town and decide to hike up it. No real paths anywhere we just started going up and up and up. We made it to a first clearing and looked back over town and the valley. Quite a view we had. We were about a third of the way up the hill. Then it got super steep. We were slipping trying to find good footing. It was hot out, we were getting pretty dirty trying to navigate up this terrain and the whole time I'm looking back down and wondering... how the hell are we going to get back down aside from sliding on our asses all the way!?

We make it to the next clearing and take another look around. Wow, what a day and what a view. But then another view appears and that's the last little bit to the top of this hill, which I'm not at this point going to refer to a mountain! We slowly manage to negotiate the slippery and steep terrain and end up splitting our paths towards the last vertical 200 feet. I'm sliding around barely maintaining my balance when my blackberry is buzzing away. It's the other pilot (Phil again, same as from Scottsdale trip last week) and he's made it to the top. A few more minutes and I crest the top. It was quite the hike up and we were rewarded with a nice 360 degree view of the valleys, town and Lake Okanagon. Then we saw something that was even more beautiful - a construction road that went down the other side of the hill!

So we start to head down this hill via this construction back road and keep hearing all these weird sounds. We see an area of shrubs and trees off the side of the dirt road and it appears to be birds or something. We walk a little further and come across a sign that points in that direction with the warning of "MAD DUCKS!" Eeek! Glad we didn't get too close to investigate, we might have been attacked!

As we traveled further down this road we began to realize it was an active construction site and we wouldn't be able to continue down the road without walking right through the middle of a bunch of active machinery. So we look around and see a large open field off the side of the road that appears to go down into another area of town. We opt for this route but run into a barbed wire fence. We managed to just barely sneak underneath this fence and now there's no question about it, we're trespassing on somebody's property. We scurry down the hill and find ourselves in the middle of a vineyard! No grapes however, otherwise I would have tried one just to say I had. :) We then follow this down further and come across somebody's driveway that leads out onto a main road. We squeeze between some fence posts and manage to make our way back into civilization via this road. It was quite the journey and we promptly found a place and had a couple of nice refreshing ice teas.

It was at dinner that night, as I was nursing yet another sunburn, that we found out about another trip we'd be doing the next day. It was going to be a quick hop back to Calgary and then right back into the BC Interior to Salmon Arm which is just a few miles up from Vernon. Then we would position back into Vernon for another night and finish the original trip as planned.

The next day was also gorgeous and we departed Vernon in style, screaming up the valley and pulling some tight turns before aiming back for Calgary. Another uneventful flight into Salmon Arm and then it was back in the plane for a very fun ride. These are always the best, when we're empty and making these quick little positioning legs in good weather. We leveled off about 1000' above the valley floor and went screaming as fast as the plane would go towards Vernon. Of course on the way we did some turns and had some fun. We circled over town and landed back, for a total flight time of 13 mins. Good times.

The next day the weather was not as good. A cold front had just started to pass on through and was causing a lot of instability in the area. So we had to climb up around some building thunderstorms in the area before we could set course for Calgary. We then also experienced some malfunctions with the autopilot which is not dangerous but very annoying. We managed to get most of the system back operating but just to be sure, Phil hand flew the entire way back which was only another 40 minutes.

It was when back in Calgary that I was told I'd be flying yet again the next day, and by no means was this going to a short day. It was a 9am departure to go to Palm Springs to pick up a couple of people and come straight back to Calgary. Oy, my ass hurt just thinking of it. 5 hrs each way is the usual time involved. The flight down was pretty good, leaving a miserable 2 degrees and windy and rainy in Calgary we got to Palm Springs where it was sunny and 35 degrees! Toasty! On the way down we passed some time by watching "Old School" on the other pilots laptop in the cockpit. The way back we couldn't do that, but I had my ipod that I listened to and some time was spent navigating our way around some thunderstorms that had built up in the south eastern areas of Nevada. It's that time of the year again, fun fun.

So then yesterday thankfully I didn't have flights and now today I'm on days off for the next 4. Some time to finally relax and get some errands done. I need to start studying up for some exams that I'll be needing to take before going on course for the Jet in the summer. Well, that was a novel I just wrote there so I'm going to stop now and go and have a beer while I contemplate what to make for dinner!