From the Wild, Wild West to the Sunny South

It's been well over a month since I last updated the blog and I must apologize! My student base grew exponentially once the weather finally cleared up, and did over 120 hours of flying in the two months. Many long days at the club has produced very busy days, but an equal amount of very slow days, and I actually spent very little time away from the Flying Club. Scheduling was up to me for the most part, opening up my day to come in for only one flight, or to spend entire day at the airport with bookings. I had myself scheduled for 4-6 bookings 6 to 7 days each week, due to the finicky weather that was produced just east of the rocks.

More often than not, there would be quite a bit of convective build up (air and moisture rising, forming large cumulus clouds) which could (and do) build up into to thunderstorms in the afternoons. There can be many updraft/downdraft situations occurring in and around the thunderstorm cells, sometimes making the air very turbulent and counter-productive in flight training. In this picture, you can see there is a bit of a darker haze below the clouds (Virga) which is visible moisture rising up and developing the cumulus clouds above it. Nothing dangerous to fly into per se, however if you can see the moisture rising, chances are if you are flying through it, that you will rise also, and get bumped around a bit, so we try and avoid it as much as possible. Having so many bookings each day, ensures (not really) that even if there are cancellations, I'll still be able to eat at the end of the month! As a flight instructor, you are only paid for ground briefing time in the classroom, or the time the engine is running, so when the weather deteriorates, it can hurt! However, there are days like this, where you know you have the best job in the world.

My student and I practicing Instrument training. You can see he has on a pair of silly glasses, where he can only see from the bottom of the lenses. This allows him to see only the instrument panel, without any visual reference outside, simulating being in cloud. The picture below is on a long final approach with another one of my students practicing his landings. At first, I must admit it can become fairly scary when they start to land and it does take a few hours of Takeoffs and Landings to actually start to get it down. [Before that happens there can be many tense 'NOT LIKE THAT, LIKE THIS' landings.]

At the beginning of May, I received a phone call from the Human Resource department of LIAT, an airline based in Antigua, (West Indies) to interview for a First-Officer position in their airline. It was very short notice, but re-arranged my students to enable myself to get down there and do the interview; as it has been a dream of mine to fly for them, for many, many years. I was given a call (along with several other candidates) and asked if I would be interested in attending the second round of interviews which starts this upcoming monday. The interviews would consist of a 3 week technical ground school on the Dash-8 aircraft which they fly (they have 18) and then sit several aircraft systems exams. From that, they would then choose 8, out of the however many candidates they have selected to continue on to Simulator training, which would be held in Toronto at the end of June/beginning of July.

Now, there has been no job offer, and they are only taking a select number (8) out of however many they have invited to the ground school. It wasn't easy but upon returning Calgary, as I had to leave my position at the Calgary Flying Club to pursue a chance with this airline. I only had a few short days to get my things together and discuss it with my boss, who was fairly understanding in the matter that it is an amazing opportunity. Unfortunately, it would be way too much to ask, to have 3 weeks off at very short notice, with a chance of not actually returning: it sure wouldn't be fair for them, or any of my students. It will just give me even MORE of a drive to ensure I get one of those spots.