Monday was my last of four golden days, which means I was off. Beverly was busy, so I loaded up my car with my uniforms and drove to the beach. My first stop would be my hangar for a nice two hour flight and some approaches.
Approaching Georgetown, where my hangar is now, Piedmont Scheduling called. They asked me if I’d be interested in a Jr Man, and for the very first time I said yes. It was for a ferry flight taking a fixed airplane up to Philly and bringing a broken one back. Why not use their gas to accomplish the same purpose, so I kept on driving another hour to Salisbury.
The next day started a three day stretch of assigned reserve days. By the end of the Monday trip, they had assigned me another ferry flight to Harrisburg. Cool – I’d be able to continue shaking the rust off of my flying before I do a revenue flight.
Tuesday morning I arrive around 10:30 am from our beach place. Mike Doyle is my Captain, and this will be his very first flight in that role. How very cool to be a part of that! We had a nice flight out to Harrisburg, and Mike bought me lunch while we waited to dead head out. I thought that was pretty darn cool. By the end of this trip I had my schedule for the next two days. SBY to PHL with a round trip to Buffalo and an overnight in New Haven, CT. The rest of the crew is on a four day, but I only do the first two days.
I am writing this in the Philly crew room. The Buffalo round trip was given to a junior captain to allow him to build time, and we were given his round trip to State College. That Captain has higher minimums due to limited experience, and State College was not likely to be doable for him. Our trip to State College was subsequently canceled as the weather didn’t improve enough.
Getting to the crew room, the phone rings and now we have a Syracuse Round Trip in the same airplane. We’ll shuffle back down there with our gear and do that. Better than sitting for 6 hours here. Plans are made for dinner tonight, and my mind is on Beverly’s follow up exam at her doctors.
The flying is awesome and I’m blessed to have had this opportunity. I did learn that the junior man I did Monday makes me eligible to remove one of my reserve days instead of taking the extra pay. I’ve asked to drop the 16th, and roll my departure back a full day.
Making plans now to join the gym again on Jan 1st, since I’ll be home. I enjoyed having that as part of my day, and need to drop the weight I’ve picked up while on this job.
Fly safe – but do keep flying.