I’ve been on line for a little while now, and have had a blast flying this airplane. It’s definitely a different type of flying from freight.
So, my first flight was to Augusta, GA, a few days before the Masters’ Tournament began. My Captain for this flight is a former freight dawg himself, and we get along great. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for this flight. We went to Fort Myers, FL, to pick up passengers, and then to Augusta. Well, since we were empty out of our home airport, it was my leg…unknown to me at this point. We get to the end of the runway, and the Captain says your leg, do the briefing. Okay. That’s interesting. So, we go blasting off and I’m still in the Pilot’s Lounge trying to figure out how to get everything ready for this flight. It was not pretty.
I did finally catch up to the airplane. On short final at our destination. I managed to do a good freight dawg approach into the airport…unfortunately I am now a charter pilot and shouldn’t be doing this. I was behind the airplane on about a 10 mile final, 5000′, high and fast. I managed to trade the speed brakes for flaps at about 4 miles out, slowed down, and stabilized…well at least before we touched down :-).
The Captain didn’t say much other than we were high…thanks for that. So, I guess I made an okay impression, since he didn’t take the controls and we made it down okay.
Since then, I am feeling more comfortable with the airplane, and building up trust with the Captains. I have 3 different Captains, and I have now flown with all of them, with good results.
So, now I’ve been to Fort Myers, Miami, and Ocala, FL, Augusta, GA, Asheville, NC, San Juan, PR, Ft. Worth, TX, Phoenix, AZ, Camarillo, CA, and I am sitting in Washington, DC, until early tomorrow morning, when I head home for (hopefully) a couple of days. I won’t keep track of where I’ve been any more, since it looks like I’ll be visiting numerous places.
For those on JC, I will try and let people know when I’ll be in town, but it will definitely be short notice and subject to change. As always, questions and comments are always welcome!
Fly safe everybody…it’s been a rough week aviation-wise!!!