I have been spending the
past four days doing IOE, where I am flying routes with another pilot. I expect IOE to continue through the end of
the week, and hopefully next week I will have my own route and can start flying
without a “safety net”.
I have really enjoyed my
first taste of revenue flying. Last
Thursday and Friday I flew AMF 414, which goes from Portland-Redmond-Burns and
return. It averages about 3.7 hours of
flight time and is really not all that hard of a route because there are only
two stops in each direction, meaning less paperwork and cargo
loading/unloading. It was very cold in
Redmond and Burns and I shot several ILS approaches into Redmond at or near
minimums, only to be rewarded with landing on an icy runway after breaking
out. Winter flying is definitely not
something to be taken lightly.
Monday and today I have been
flying AMF 440, which goes from Portland-Roseburg-North Bend-Gold Beach, then
returns Gold Beach-North Bend-Eugene-Portland.
Gold Beach is a nice place and it has been sunny here both days. And I’m currently writing this from my couch
in the nicest Motel 6 room I have ever stayed in. This week I have gotten my first bit of light icing, which is
really no big deal with a known-ice certified aircraft. It’s kind of fun to “boot” the ice off the
wings with the deicing equipment.
We keep a very tight
schedule so from takeoff from PDX to landing at our final stop for the day I am
very busy. It’s great though, by
running around so much I don’t have time to stop and get cold!
This Friday we turn our bids
in for our route assignment for the next 6 weeks. Being the junior pilot here, I don’t have much say in the matter
but I am hoping to get either the Burns route or the Ontario route. I don’t think I should have much problem
getting the Ontario route because most pilots don’t want it. It has four stops each direction, but also
averages about 5 hours of flying per day, which I sure could use. Since we are “fat” on pilots right now, I am
a little bit worried about not getting a route at all and ending up on reserve
(an on-call pilot), but if that does happen it should be for a very short
time. Even so, I’m keeping my fingers
crossed – I sure didn’t quit Jeppesen to sit around at PDX for 10 hours a day
waiting for someone to tell me to go fly.
Yesterday as we took off
from PDX our right engine started backfiring so we had to return to Portland to
pick up a new plane. It was amazing how
quickly the ground crew transferred 700 pounds of cargo from our broken plane
to the new plane and even had it all preflighted for us. We were on the ground maybe 10 minutes. That’s quick!
Well, 15 minutes until it’s
time to head back out to the airport and fly home. Tomorrow I fly a UPS run to Tillamook and have to get up at
0345. I’ll only be doing that for one
day, then Thursday and Friday I do the Ontario run.