living the dream

I got to thinking about the title of this blog, “living the dream”, and what it might mean.  Originally when I was a pilot on essentially a non flying job in the military fellow pilots and I used to sarcastically refer to our job as “living the dream”.  The reality of course was we were doing what all junior officers and aviators in the military dreaded - a desk job.  Now that I am again really living the dream and flying again I often find myself longing for those routine and predictable days at a desk.

Maybe there’s a job change in my future?

One irresistable feature of many FBO’s we go to are the copious amounts of cookies usaully located near the front counter or in some snack room. For those not familiar with general aviation the FBO or Fixed Base Operator is to a corporate pilot what the airline terminal is to the commercial airline passenger and crew. The FBO provides the parking, fuel, some supplies like ice, coffee, newspapers, and of course all the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies you can eat. I think my personal record is 4 or 5 while sitting around MDW. Or actually I may have had more in CRQ - Carlsbad, CA. There’s something about free cookies that I just can’t resist. Add to that the various forms of free coffee (auto machine version or normal brewed coffee) and I’m all set.

So while I’m thinking about food another benefit of flying corporate is the leftover catering. Some passengers have catering delivered to the FBO for the flight and often times they eat little or none of the food. I’ve taken home a full tray of shrimp, cold cuts, and bottle of wine from a single flight. Usually there is just a left over fruit tray and maybe some pastries and bagels but that actually beats out the cookies and coffee because at least you feel like you’re eating healthy.

So despite the low initial pay, absolutely no schedule, and days sitting in an airport hotel waiting for passengers to be ready to go back home the life of a corporate/charter pilot actually has a few benefits.

Just got back from a weekend in a little town in British Columbia called Penticton where the 25th anniversary of the Ironman Canada was held. This town hosts this event every year and it is apparently the biggest event of the year for Penticton. We brought 9 people, 4 bikes, and lots of gatorade on the 3.5 hour trip from Chicago which made a pretty full airplane and baggage area. At least half the baggage was some very very light bicycles which didn’t add much to the overall weight. I can clearly see how operators of business aircraft can get in trouble with going outside thier weight and balance when carrying a full load of people and baggage.

The flight into Penticton was routine with pretty direct routing and a nice visual approach over Skaha lake with boaters and jet skiers enjoying a beautiful summer day. The only hiccup on the flight was a confession half way there that our passengers had decided to substitute one person from the original manifest. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal but we had customs to clear and had already faxed our passenger list to Canada and didn’t want to show up with someone who wasn’t on the list. Luckily a quick call on the satellite phone cleared this up and upon landing customs cleared us verbally over the phone.

The weekend was slow which fit well with the whole Ironman experience. The run and bike course went right by the hotel so we got a good look at some amazing competitors, but it’s not much of a spectator sport with the race lasting from 7AM to well into dark. The winners of course finished in only 8 hours 30ish minutes but people kept streaming by all night. It was inspiring to see all the different people pushing their endurance limits in an all day event. There were people of all ages, sizes, men, women, many different countries. It just makes you want to get off your lazy butt and try something like this. Then again, I’ve been riding my bike about 18 miles to work lately which sounds impressive but compared to the 2.4 mile swim, 100+ mile ride, and marathon of the Ironman I’m really pretty lame. It seemed that a great majority of the competitors were in their late 30’s and 40’s. For one, it takes about that many years to train for a triathalon and second, people must be waiting for their kids to grow up a bit before finding the time to train. See, there’s always an excuse to delay getting back in shape.

So again, after a pretty quiet weekend we departed a little late and had a smooth ride back home. Only problem was that we found ourselves with just about 8 hours rest prior to our next trip. We need to start watching a little more closely to how much rest time is scheduled in between trips since any delay on one end can result in some unhappy customers for a delayed next flight. But that’s the life of a charter pilot, doing the unusual and not expecting anyone to cut you some slack when it comes to crew rest. As much as we fight back on our scheduling I just think things have been scheduled this way for so long we’re not going to catch any slack until we find ourselves in a position where we truly have to refuse a flight because of inadequate rest. Hopefully this doesn’t happen.

After about a 10 day break we’re back to work with an almost continuous 2 week full schedule. The days off were nice but when the aircraft is available for charter there’s always a cloud looming over you waiting to crash down with a pop up or short notice trip. I somehow avoided two pop ups over the 10 days but that doesn’t make up for the 2 hour notice trip that came in the middle of dinner time a few weeks ago. I think I’ll write more about pop ups and the destructive nature of a charter pilots schedule later.

So now I’m in British Columbia after dropping off a bunch of triathletes, bikes, gear, and gatorade for the Canadian Ironman. It was a pretty place to fly in to but unfortunately the Super 8 motel were staying in looks like any other Super 8, and that isn’t saying much. So I’m trying to enjoy a little nice weather on the deck while looking for a new line of work on the computer. I saw a job for a armed personal security guard for some CEO’s, that couldn’t be so bad, could it?????

We’ve been into and out of Aspen twice now and what an experience when you’re used to flying primarily to airports located at sea level.  Aspen is located in a valley at almost 8000′ of elevation with 10K and 12K ft mountains around it.  As long as the weather is nice the visual approach can take you down the valley and over a couple of hills prior to a slightly steep descent into the airport.  This interesting part though is the simultaneous departing aircraft that you have to avoid as you are descending into the valley.  I understand that this procedure has been working well for years but I found it a bit strange to be cleared for takeoff heading north with an aircraft 5 miles out to land on the same runway heading south.  The instructions for takeoff and climb are pretty clear to see and avoid the plane coming in to land as you depart turning to the right of the oncoming plane.  I think you really need to see it to believe that this procedure actually works.

So now after being into Aspen the Captain an I are starting to feel a bit like real corporate pilots.  The ramp there had at least 30 to 40 business jets both days, lots of Netjets, lots of Gulfstreams, lots of Lears, Citations, Piaggio Avantis, Falcons, you name it, and apparently lots of money floating around town.  It would just be nice to get a day off an actually check out the area.

So long from the Rockies, it’s off to Oakland in a couple of days…

We finally got in the aircraft about a week ago but my first time in the seat was a short 20+ minute flight from PWK to MDW.  There’s nothing like taking almost 1/2 hour in a plane to do what only takes about 45 minutes in a car.  Nevertheless it was great to get up in the air and bump along at 3000 ft over Lake Michigan and then follow vectors to an ILS at MDW.  Only one embarrassing moment that day - I was in the right seat for departure and told to “follow the whale to RWY 4 for departure” by ground, which of course at Midway means follow the Southwest Shamu painted aircraft… Just got a little confused on that one.

More later…

I’ve tried adding a couple of pictures.

Sorry for the poor quality, I’ll see what I can do to make them larger.  If you right click and view the picture you can get a larger version…

Well, my partner and I finished up our initial course and are now proud owners of a CE680 type rating!  To say it wasn’t pretty is an understatement.  We struggled from the beginning due to no fault but our own and we were able to hold it together enough to convince the examiner that we knew enough to be only a slight danger to ourselves and hopefully not to others.  A fellow classmate put it best by saying this is just a license to learn and once we get some time in the aircraft we’ll gain confidence with each flight.

To recap the last week or so of the course, we finished the systems and performance exams without problem and then moved into the sim.  The sim was a handful to fly at first while trying to figure out the right buttons to push at the right times.  Our first attempts at stalls and steep turns were rough and early hand flying took some getting used to.  After a few sessions with a very patient instructor we got the hang of it and finished up the sim training feeling pretty good.  After digging ourselves some holes in the check flight we did manage to pull it together and both flew nice single engine ILS approaches, circling at mins, and no flap approaches.  So I suppose we shouldn’t let a few minor errors stop us from enjoying the feeling of completing the course.

So now it’s off to flying some part 91 to start off next week and we’ll see where it goes from there.

Well, we just wrapped up the systems exam on the Sovereign and have only the performance exam to go before all the formal classroom learning is complete. Here’s a recap of what week 1 of 3 has to offer at Flight Safety in Wichita.

My partner (the new hire Captain for the aircraft) and I arrived in Wichita on Sunday before the first class which started Monday. We did the usual hotel check in and rental car pickup and then arrived for class Monday morning. Everyone at FS has been great and the instructors in the Sovereign program are upbeat and enthusiastic in part due to the fact that this relatively new program and aircraft haven’t burned them out yet. They’ve all come from a background on different Citations, most from the Citation X.

We got all our books and freebies from FS and the rest of the week is a bit of a blur. The systems are very straightforward on this aircraft with the exception of the Honeywell Epic avionics. This style of glass cockpit avionics is new to me and there are at least 3 ways to do any single function between the FMS and displays. There are also a number of limits imposed due to software glitches that are in the process of being fixed - the most annoying so far being the requirement to fly in cross pointer vice steering control at all times. This means there is a magenta colored horizontal and vertical line displayed on the attitude indicator at all times. Hopefully this and other faults will be fixed on the next version of software that has been promised by the end of this year.

So the first week went by with a lot of new information and long days in the classroom. We transitioned to a computer touch screen trainer for two sessions and we’re finally in the sim for the remainder of our time here. We ended up with the late time slot (10pm-2am) but at least our instructor is laid back and patient with our slow progression through the checklists and cockpit setup, but what can you expect from one retired airline pilot and one former military pilot. I can’t wait for our first 135 flight to see the real comedy begin… at least by then we should be pretty comfortable in the airplane.

I’ll try to describe the sim sessions in a little more detail next post…

I received a Flight Safety pre study guide for the Sovereign course a week before the class is supposed to start. It looks like just a way to get a head start on some limits and memory items.  The procedures and limits all look to be very straight forward, unfortunately there’s nothing in there about the avionics which I think may be the most challenging part of the new plane.  The Honeywell instrumentation and FMS will be fun to learn and hopefully since I have no experience in this type of setup I’ll be able to come in with a clean slate and not have to unlearn any old habits.

The aircraft is supposed to arrive on Friday so I may get a look at it before taking off for Wichita on Saturday…