Wiley Post

The route that I flew yesterday took me back to Oklahoma, to an airport just north of the airport that I did all my training in called Wiley Post. For your big final test to get your commercial pilot’s license you need to fly with an FAA examiner. Three years ago when I was ready to take the test the FAA guy lived up by Wiley Post, so that was the airport I flew out of. I hadn't done as well as I had hoped on the test, and I was frustrated at my inability to perform. I remember sitting in the terminal watching all the planes taxi past wondering if I'd ever make it. It's a surreal feeling for me as I sit in my airplane and taxi past the same terminal. I wonder if there is anyone in there looking at me wondering if they will ever make it.

Maybe it's kind of like the way Anakin felt coming back to Tatooine, no longer a slave boy, but now a mighty Jedi. If it follows this trend the next time I go back to Wiley Post I will be the undisputed master of the galaxy.

My own little world

It's funny sometimes to think about the the pilot world. There's something about pilots that makes us part of a club, that non pilots just wouldn't understand. Not only do we connect in a way that someone who hasn't experienced their firs solo, or hasn't seen the fog sticking to the valleys in the calm early mornings just wouldn't understand, but we also have our own language. It's similar to the military language of abbreviations, acronyms, and regulations. Kind of like french is similar to spanish. It helps to learn one if you know the other, but the two can't really communicate. When I talk to another pilot about my new job I tell them that I am doing part 135 cargo. That's all I have to say, and they understand. I told my mother this yesterday, and she had no idea what I was saying. I explained it as best as I could in non-pilot terms. Part 135 is the section of the regulations that govern most non airline commercial pilot jobs. In aviation the FAA rain supreme. They regulate everything from when, what, and how much we fly. For example they tell us that we can't work more that 15 hours in a day, and no more than 7 of those hours can be flying. after a days work we can not return to work without 9 hours of off time, and at least 24 hours of consecutive off time per seven days. They tell us how often we have to inspect our airplanes (every 100 hours of flight time), and even what has to be inspected during those inspections. They regulate our cargo, documents, our plains. They tell us what weather conditions we can fly in, and what conditions we are not allowed to try and make it into an airport. It's true that if the weather conditions are above FAA minimums we fly, and a lot of people won't fly with the weather that low, and we get more flight time than most people, but it's regulated to make it safe, and so an employer can't pressure the pilot into something he's not comfortable with. Or in pilot terms 135 cargo.

Armstrong

My posts haven't been very in depth. This one is just a quote from lance armstrong:"It's ok to quit, if no one ever quit when the going got tuff they'd have nothing to regret for the rest of their lives"

FAA

A plaque in my new bosses office:
Arguing with the FAA is like wrestling with a pig in the muck. You'll never win, and after a while you realize the pig is enjoying it.