On those days where the air is like liquid gold….smooth, silky, not a bump anywhere; where the temperatures are cool enough that having to keep a hawk-like watch on the engine monitor isn’t required, but it’s not so cold that shivering is a constant companion….
by planedoc
It had been ten long days. Ten days of getting up, showing up at briefing, pre-flighting the plane…..and sitting. Ten days of walking the ramp, watching the jack rabbits chase the cottontails. Ten days of counting quail. (I’ll bet you didn’t know California quail would post a “guard”…one quail will alight on a fence, or atop a bush…and sound the alarm if someone comes close). Ten days of Continue reading →
Life on the road leads to some interesting changes. You have to make do with certain things….coffee that’s not exactly how you want it, packing everything you have with you every morning (because you never know where you’ll be sleeping that night), meals from unlikely sources (years as a bachelor give you great latitude in expectations), and…..haircuts….. Continue reading →
Air Tractor gave away a T-shirt a couple of years ago at the Ag Aviation convention….it has a drawing of what it looks like from inside an Air Tractor, going down a field….and a title “The View from My Office”….
For some strange reason that shirt has appealed to something inside me. It is my “night shirt”, and makes me smile every time I pull it out of the bag and put it on. I want to give you an idea of what it looks like from my office…. Continue reading →
The flying, that is….
Waiting at the base is the hardest part for a new fire pilot. My first year required significant effort to adjust. This year, we have 3 new pilots with our company. One of our new guys will call occasionally, frustrated with the “hurry up and wait” of our job.
As a fire pilot, we have a mandated schedule of “12 days on, 2 days off”…and there’s no choice about when those days will be….the lucky ones get a part of a weekend, most of us get a random couple of weekdays. Recently, I found myself on a day off, driving along the interstate, and saw a sign…”scenic route”.
I’ve never been a big fan of “scenic routes”….sometimes some great scenery, but often stuck behind a vehicle that has a peculiar talent for speeding up in passing areas, and slowing down in the “no-passing zone”. But, this day, when I had hours to spend prior to arriving back at my motel for the night, I chose to drive the scenic route….. Continue reading →
are welcome. I do moderate them, as I get spam, bots, and other obnoxious stuff. But, if they are real, and contribute, happy to have them….
It’s been a busy few days….I got to Arizona Thursday evening, flew one flight right before sunset on Friday, then Saturday was busy. Hot, and as is always the case in the first of the season, there’s a bit of disorganization that seems to stick like a tar ball on a beach…can’t quite shake it, can’t get rid of it, doesn’t really stop you from running, but manages to make things more difficult.
Bureaucracy, she is everywhere the same… Continue reading →
(“Thank You” to all my friends who have pestered encouraged me to write again this summer…you know who you are….)
It’s that time of year again…when I frenetically tie up loose ends, get things settled at the practice, upset my Continue reading →
The darkness was inky black. Tex drove to the airport, saw the runway lights in the dimness, and was ready. The Corsair was waiting. Day flights, made over time, had left him feeling quite comfortable with the big bird. This morning, with the moon long gone, the stars distant behind a high overcast, the blackness of the night encompassed him in the rumble of the truck taking him to the plane. The darkness added a bit of tension in his gut….not much, but he could still feel it.
cafmustangdotcom