living the dream

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?????