The race is long, and in the end, it is only with yourself. I will try to convey my excitement in advancing my skills in the Dash-8, with a humble tilt of my hat to those that already do this well without thinking about. I am not suggesting I have bragging rights concerning advanced skills here; just letting you share in my adventure from my eyes. The views are the best – the people are the best – and the airplane capability is amazing. I mean it – this airplane is fun to fly.
This past week I was called out on reserve every day I was available. I had the opportunity to fly several trips that resulted in five actual ILSs in two days; and a few of them by hand for the final segments. We were flying around in the highest winds I’ve encountered on my legs in this airplane – around 45 knots at 3000′ and gusting crosswinds at ground level.
One of my landings was on RW16 (somewhere – maybe AVP) with winds 220 degrees at 13 gusting 25 knots. Certainly not a concern for a private pilot flying allot, nor for me flying in my Twin Comanche. In this airplane; on this day; at my experience level; this was stretching my envelop just a little. I loved it. I remember planting it on the centerline, but that was the one comment my Captain made. I’ll work on that making sure I actually straddle the centerline in all conditions.
This last Captain – like most others I’ve flown with – was entirely comfortable with me flying the airplane the way I wanted to. I really liked his style, and appreciate his confidence given the conditions. The Flight Attendant also set a positive tone, and reminded me we had met before while I was dead-heading during training. Very cool lady.
Allow me to indulge: I have flown 100 hours with Piedmont, and now have 100 Turbine hours in my logbook; not including the 40 sim hours!!! (To all the regional men and women with a KaBillion hours in the dash – forgive me this indiscretion). I also have 82 cycles of the 100 I need to remove the ‘High Minimums’ limitation on my privileges, so things are moving along. I’m a rookie – with plenty of time to really get this done right.
I can now tell you first hand that the Piedmont people are professionals and they work hard. I’m continuing to learn from them the skills needed to fly customers efficiently in increasingly challenging conditions – while making it appear routine. I can’t wait to meet my own standards at this…..
Is this cool, or what?