Good morning folks!
I’m sitting in a Vermont hotel writing this at 4:30 in the morning. Worked all day at FlightSafety yesterday, getting two initials ready for Astra Sims. Immediately after I zipped up to Philly airport to get on a full flight to Burlington. I had 30 minutes to spare, but I’m not a fan of rushing through airports. The lady at Express Park heard about it when she cost me that 10 minutes I made up on the highway. She told dispatch I was 10-6 and they had her leave with just me right then, and I had her take me to Terminal F.
Went through security in another 10 minutes, only to find out my flight was out of Terminal B. Off to the bus and a mild jog to B5 with time to spare.
So I made my flight and then UBERed for the very first time on the other end. I love that app and the process worked very well. The driver was pleasant and I learned that they have their very own flag out in front of arrivals. I won’t have to walk around quite so much and guess how to find them. I think there is a way to know what car I should be looking for when my Uber comes, but haven’t figured that out yet. I’ll ping Christopher later today – he’ll know.
Dinner was at the WindJammer where my two beers cost more than my dinner. Ribs and a baked potato were just heavenly. The talk around the bar was about romaine lettuce and psychotherapy, so I kept mostly to myself. I was happy to be up here and ready to do a full day of WestWind flying before heading back home.
Bev’s birthday is Tuesday, and I have dinner plans for later in the evening. I hadn’t asked about the return flight plans, but can’t see how I can get to Texas and Virginia from Canada, and then make it back to Canada and Vermont while still catching a flight this evening. I’m sure my commercial home won’t be non-stop at that hour. I’m not looking forward to getting home at 2am either. Rules of the road say pilots should charge for that extra day, but I’m having trouble doing that. Let’s see how it goes today. I’d rather stay the night and direct flight home early Tuesday.
N833DF is on my mind. Matt may have run it up yesterday, or may be doing that today. In any event, I’m going down there to see for myself on Wednesday.
The house was decorated for Christmas before I left, and the entire month will go by in a blink. My sleep schedule is permanently hosed now with the Seniors. I go to bed a 8am and get up at 3:30. That worked out well for this trip, so I guess God has a plan and I’m along for the ride. I really like the ride.
I’m once again evaluating whether or not I want to do this contract flying allot. Wondering if the travel and being away from home will get as old as it did with the airlines. I suspect that if I do it too often it will, so I’ll keep taking this one day at a time. Then I get to thinking how nice it would be to fly my own airplane up here and remove all the rushing. Get back to Vermont late at night and sleep in at the hotel until morning. Fly home and put the airplane in my hangar, then drive around the block and cover my afternoon sim session at work. I’ll be home for dinner with smile on my face.
Focus on today. I’m getting picked up in 30 minutes to go flying for the day. In a jet. Someone else is paying for the gas.
Life is good. Fly on!
Frank