Woke up today at 2:20pm

And this certainly wasn't by my choice! This story begins one day prior when I awake to an email stating I have a flight later in the day. I open it up and go on to read about a flight up to Edmonton and then down to Palm Springs. However, that is it, and I don't see the return flight info. Normally this wouldn't peak my interest, but the next day was my day off and the flight landed in Palm Springs at 6:30pm, which would mean I'd just make it back in time if we turned the plane around and came home. That was not meant to be.

I eventually find out that this is a last minute flight change and only myself and another pilot (also to go on days off the next day) were the only available crew to do this flight. So the plan was for us to do this trip down and then we'd airline home to Calgary. I was sure we'd have to wait until the next day as there are no direct flights to Calgary from Palm Springs so I knew there'd be a connection. Fate would have it that there was a 9pm flight from Palm Springs to Vegas and then a connection from Vegas to Calgary at midnight Vegas time, which would put us into Calgary at 4am.

The flight down to Palm Springs was mostly uneventful, a few thunderstorms in the Vegas area that we needed to keep an eye on, but we managed to overfly most of the weather and beside some of the real nasty stuff. It was 41 degrees in Palm Springs when we landed. Holy moly that was hot. We raced around to get some dinner and then got to the airport just in time. We had a couple beers at the airport bar and nearly missed out flight, we had a view of the airplane and saw it come in and then hadn't seen anyone loading onto it yet, then all of a sudden we saw everyone load at once, so we went racing for it. We flew the short 35 min flight to Vegas on a US Airways Dash 8-100. A 37 seat turboprop which I hadn't flown on since my days of living in Castlegar, BC attended pilot training and taking the Dash 8 to and from Vancouver.

We then had nearly 2 hours in Vegas to kill, all of which was to be in the terminal building. But for anyone that has been to Vegas, you probably know they have slot machines in all the terminals there, to get that last few dollars out of you before you leave.. and also to snag those first few dollars for when you arrive! I managed to resist the call of the slot machines, and instead people watched the thousands of people coming and going, even at midnight.

I was pretty tired and didn't even think about it, until it was too late, about trying to get upgraded to first class. Not too often when traveling on business in Canada do we get the opportunity because we usually fly Westjet, so only when traveling Air Canada do we have the option for the upgrade. Aircrew are often allowed the free upgrade to business class, however I have yet to have it work out for me. Had I been on the ball, we could have had the upgrade. It was too late when we finally thought about it and even the CSR (Customer Service Rep) had told us if we had come by earlier she could have given us the upgrade. As it was, a couple of total skids were given the upgrade somehow. It wasn't all bad though, we had an Emergency row exit and nobody in the middle seat so it was quite comfortable. I did manage to get some sleep on the flight back.

Once back in Calgary I was totally messed up from the long long day I didn't even think about one of the other perks of aircrew when it came time to clear customs. If I'm traveling on pure business I can bypass the customs line and go to the "crew and diplomats" line which is never busy. Even the customs agent asked why I waited in the normal line, all I could reply with was "it's 4am". So, I'll have to remember that for next time. It's not like I was held up much anyways, maybe an extra 5 mins. Not much of a line at that time of the day.

After getting back to the hanger and getting my car, I was at home and in bed by just after 5am. I then started sleeping, and slept and slept and slept. I finally decided to wake up, thinking it must only be noonish, how wrong I was.. the clock read 2:20pm.

Canadian Pilot License format changing

Currently, my Canadian Pilot License is a piece of paper. There are 2 parts to it as well. The physical license itself, which depicts my type of license with endorsements and any specialized aircraft I'm certified to fly. Also required is another piece of paper which is my Medical certificate which specifies what class of medical I have completed, and the latest date of which it was done with a stamp signed off by the physician.

This has been quite an archaic system that I'm surprised has taken this long to be changed. The United States have a card much like a drivers license with all the pertinent information on it, including a photo. Currently the piece of paper is not photo ID for Canadian Pilots.

Current US License format:

Current Canadian Format:


What Transport Canada has decided on for the new Canadian license format is that they'll be similar to a Canadian Passport. So similar in fact, that it is made by the same people that make the Passports. It will combine both the license and medical certificates into the same document and will also have photo ID. Of course with everyone getting their passports now with the increased travel restrictions and requirements, it still might be some time before the project even begins. Eventually however I will be carrying around 2 of these little books!

the damaged WRX

I don't think I had even been in YVR on vacation for more than 48hrs when I got an email from my rommate saying that the neighbors had hit my car! I did not appreciate that one bit! They're good people so of course they called right away to say what had happened and that they'd pay for everything.

So I get an email with pictures of the damage, luckily just the back bumper, and it's only plastic damage.




So once I got back to Calgary I started going out to get some quotes. I went to places that were recommended to me and got quotes ranging from $920-$590. One of the places that quoted me $590 came highly recommended and they were able to slot me in for a late September appointment, so I went with them. The other places could not even fit me in until October and some even January.

So now I just await for my car to become whole again.

The land of Starbucks

Was a fairly uneventful 3 days in Seattle, a nice little flight with a cool little layover. Spent Aug 16-18th there and had a nice relaxing few days with one of our most senior pilots who I haven't flown with in many months.

Day 1 had us hoping to Kamloops and back, then continuing on to Seattle. Once in Seattle we arrived at our hotel which was quite nice, and right at the Seatac airport. The Doubletree, which is a member of the Hilton hotel groups was certainly a nice way to spend our 2 nights. Upon initial check in we found out we were on the 1st floor and tried to get something a little quieter, but they were fully booked. I gave them my Hilton Honor's number and then all of a sudden a couple of rooms popped up. I managed to get us on the "Hilton Honor's Floor" in one of the hotels 2 towers. This was a nice upgrade. The hotel rooms were excellent, large, clean, modern and even the soaps, shampoos and moisturizers were all made by Nuetrogena.

I also found out the hotel had 2 gyms and having just come back from Holidays I figured I should check it out. Holy cow, better than most of the gyms I've seen back in Calgary. All brand new equipment and weights, I was impressed. All the machines had personal TVs on them along with 2 big plasma tvs on the wall. I spent nearly 2 hours there each night trying it all out.

The 2nd day we decided to go downtown Seattle to Pike's Place Market and the Wharf. We managed to get a "crew car" from the facilities we used at the airport (free car for the use of airplane crews using the business). We drove down, found some parking and found out they were celebrating the 100 yr anniversary of Pike's Place Market, it was very busy and quite the event. We had a good time just checking things out and I of course found a Starbucks to consume (when in Rome!).

We left the next day for a fairly uneventful return in to Calgary. However it was rather stormy on our ride in and we had to divert quite a bit south of the normal arrival procedures, then come around from the east side of the airport to avoid the worst of the storms. We had a few good bumps coming in and I was glad I had taken the time to really cinch my seatbelt tight.

After finishing up at the airport I went to join my roommates who were at a local bar where one of my roommates was a finalist to win a pair of Harley Davidson motorcycles.. he did not end up winning however. We ended up going out on the town that night and had some fun. Not exactly the rest my liver was expecting, but it was a necessary evil and I had a good time out with some friends.

Back from holidays

Wow, what a great time it was back on the coast. A whirlwind adventure and I didn't even get to see everyone! The 2 weeks I was back was just action packed with everything from Fireworks, to BBQ's, to side holidays down in San Diego and LA, Beach Vball, Clubbing (most know I hate clubbing, but this one was much better than my last encouter - read: no near bar fights).

All in all I had a blast, and now I'm back in Calgary resting a little, and giving the liver a little time to recover too. I pretty much drank the entire 2 weeks, so now I'm in need of a little detoxing.

I'll post up some pictures from my trip soon. Anyone that still reads this blog will notice that ever since joining facebook my posting has become more and more minimal. This is mainly because the whole purpose of this blog was for people to keep tabs on me and my life in Calgary and all the places I'm flying to etc. Facebook now serves this purpose as well, so it's become redundant to post on both. However, all my more detailed stories will always be here in the blog, along with the odd think piece which seems to pop up every couple of months haha.

For now, it's back to work, Seattle to be specific. I will head to Kamloops and back on Thursday then head right back out again to Seattle to spend a couple nights there. Then it's back to Calgary. A pretty simple trip, which is good, because with being gone for 2 weeks I'm bound to be a bit rusty. I apologize in advance to whichever clients get to experience my first landing in nearly 3 weeks :).

Vacation

More slow going than usual on the blog these days, but currently I'm on vacation in the Vancouver area until August 13th. Just relaxing and soaking up what the west coast has to offer.