Airline Grooming Policies

When the show Pan Am came out (sadly it has now been cancelled) I noticed a flurry of comments and opinions on airline grooming standards.  Many seemed to find the way in which the flight attendants in the show were expected to adhere to strict policies surprising, and some thought that such a thing would never happen today.  Well... I can say that The Airline has never made me get one a scales, thank goodness (although I know other airlines that do include regular weighing schedules for their flight attendants).  However, while things are perhaps slightly more lenient these days, my grooming manual is still twelve pages long.  And I work for a relatively relaxed airline.

Out of interest, I thought I would share a few choice excerpts from the manual, including instructions on uniform and on appropriate self-conduct.

• You shall be aware of the impact that you have on the public when wearing the company uniform.
• You shall present an image of self-awareness and self-care with a professional look.
• Personal variations or individual additions to the uniform are prohibited.
• You shall carry a sewing kit at all times in order to ensure the uniform is in good repair.  (Personally I am not a huge fan of being instructed to carry a sewing kit.  While I see the sense in it, I feel like my next order would be to make a damned sandwich.)
• The uniform shall appear freshly cleaned and pressed at all times.  (Fair enough, but then the material it's made of means that the second you sit down the whole thing creases to hell anyway.)
• Good posture and carriage shall be maintained at all times.  (You try having good posture on the way back to the hotel after a red-eye then...)
• Gum chewing in not acceptable at any time while in uniform. (The only bit that is bolded in the whole manual...which I find rather odd considering the following instruction prohibits consuming alcohol or going to a bar at any time in uniform...makes you wonder where the priorities lie....)
• Re-application of makeup, or styling of hair, shall not be done in public view.  (Yes, this prohibits me from putting on lipstick in a public washroom...who the hell cares?)
• When eating in uniform and in view of public, Flight Attendants shall be seated. (... seriously?)
• Flight Attendants are required to conduct themselves in a mature and responsible manner in all dealings with the Company.  (This one actually makes me LOL)...
• Conversation in the presence of customers shall give the impression that the Company is a professional and efficient organization of courteous and friendly employees.  \
• Skirts may not be hemmed any shorter than 1" above the knee.
• Hair shall be clean, neat, and dry and worn so as not to fall into your face ... Hair colouring should be well maintained (translation: No roots!)  ...trendy styles are unacceptable.  When tied back, hair shall not fall below the shoulder blades at the back (So if you've got super long hair, it's a nun-bun or the chop).
• (Here comes my favourite... make up!)  The intent of cosmetics to improve one's appearance in the airline industry is to support an image of alertness and confidence which is important to passenger safety perceptions (There you have it, folks.  We are so concerned with your safety, even our MAKE UP is in on the game).  Moisturizer and foundation shall be applied prior to makeup application to help combat cabin dryness (The moisturizer, yes, but the foundation? Hells no). ....Heavy dark makeup is not permitted. (I used to be a huge fan of green eye make up on the red-eyes...because literally red eyes are not attractive and the green toned it down a bit.  Only with cool flight directors, though).
• As a flight attendant, your hands may be seen by your passengers as often as your face.  Nails shall be well groomed and manicured at all times. (I got told off on a few occasions because I'm not really the get-a-manicure kind of girl.  Apparently having bare nails looks "cheap".  I had to bite my tongue not to reply that the lipstick on the accuser's teeth also looked cheap.)
• Contact lenses are preferred to glasses... Sunglasses are not to be work in terminal buildings, hotels, on the aircraft or anywhere you may be in contact with passengers.  ...They may never be pushed up on top of the head.
• ...all footwear must be approved by in-flight services.
• Pearl or diamond stud earrings may be worn, provided they are are in good taste (How exactly does one find pearl or diamond studs that aren't in good taste?)
• It is not permitted to wear a necklace at anytime (Absolutely NO ONE adheres to this rule).

AS FOR THE BOYS (yep, they have grooming rules too, although perhaps more relaxed than the ladies...)

• Hair shall not fall forward and shall not conceal the top of your ears and appear unkempt.  The back of hair shall not touch the top of the collar, but not to be so short as to show scalp....Hair shall be kept clean, neat, dandruff free and conditioned regularly.  (The dandruff bit is another LOL).
• Sideburns shall be no longer than mid-ear level...they shall be trimmed frequently to avoid the appearance of being bushy.  Moustaches shall not extend below the corner of the mouth.  The upper lip shall be visible and false, waxed or curled moustaches are not permitted.  Full beards are not permitted.

So there you have it, choice excerpts from the Grooming Standards of The Airline.  And I even cut out the boring bits!  And, so you have a visual, here's me in my uniform last year.  This was a skinnier time, so the uniform got a little loose.  Also, please ignore the fact that it's a lame "take a picture in the mirror" kind of shot. 

 

The Flight Attendant's ABCs - F (foxtrot) is for...

• Ferry Flight - One of the most exciting things for an FA to see on the schedule.  A ferry flight is basically a flight which serves to position the airplane from one place to another...WITHOUT PASSENGERS.  It's like free money.  You get paid to sit on a plane for however long, and do whatever you feel like.  Some particularly mean Flight Directors (see below) may make you work during this time, cleaning the aircraft and such, but for the most part it is widely understood that this time can be reserved for sleeping, reading, or other general relaxation activities.  I personally enjoy to spend the whole time in the flight deck, picking up tidbits of information and storing them away for future use.
  
• Final Approach - A time during which the aircraft is lined up with the runway and about to land.  It's a time during which everyone is supposed to be seated with their seat-belts secure.  Flight attendants included.  So don't get mad if you're ringing the call button and we don't magically materialize at your side.  And no, it's probably not the best time for you to get your bag out of the overhead bin, either. :)
  
• Flight Director - (also known as In-Flight Director, Purser, etc).  The lead flight attendant on any flight.  Apparently someone has to be in charge, and since the Pilots are locked away in the flight deck, one flight attendant takes charge of the rest of the cabin crew.  Some are wonderful and friendly and have a decent work ethic, and so your flight will be relaxed with a good "team spirit".  Other Flight Directors....well let's just say that they are type who will write you up for wearing more than one ring on each hand or not having lipstick on.  In most cases I often find that the Flight Director sets the tone for the whole trip.
  
• Flight Attendant - 

Next time... G (golf) is for... 

In Which Hannah Gets Her License and Drops off the Face of the Earth...

Dear Readers,

My sincerest apologies.
I suck.

If you have ever had some sort of writing commitment such as writing a blog or keeping a diary, perhaps you will be familiar with the following sentiments.  Sometimes it feels there are too many things happening at far to quick of a pace to be able to even keep up with it yourself, let alone be able to write it down for other people to follow as well.  That has been precisely what the past six months have been like for me.  I have been so busy and had so many things happen that the idea of writing them all down is very daunting, and I procrastinate like any student and just leave it and leave it until there is too much to catch up on and I just panic.

If you read that strange journey into my mind and are still with me then I am very surprised, but grateful.

Well, I believe when I left off in July I was just working up towards my first cross-country flight (and was apparently in a slight feminist rage).  Well, plenty has happened since then, so let me try and give you the Coles Notes version.  The basic idea is that last semester was ridiculously intense, academically speaking, and with that and my job I literally didn't even have days off.  So with little time and lots to do, a lot of my personal hobbies fell by the wayside.

In July and August I did my first two cross country flights with My Instructor, and then moved on to do two more by myself.  No great catastrophe occurred.  I found my way competently enough from Ottawa to Kingston and back, and then a trip from Ottawa to Cornwall and then Brockville before heading back to Ottawa again.  At first, the idea of doing a cross country by myself was terrifying, but I sucked it up and got on with it, and somehow pulled it off.  Overall, the idea of cross-country flight proved to be a thrilling experience.  I got a chill of excitement the first time I left CYOW heading for Smiths Falls - it was a completely different feeling to be flying myself to another place, instead of the usual out to the practice area and back.

After the cross country flights, it was time to start polishing.  My Instructor and I spent a lot of time working in the circuit and out in the Practice Area trying to perfect my air-work and such.  Some time around the end of July I got the Transport Canada written test for my Private License done and passed, and then My Instructor and I did my first Pre-Flight Test.  In order to be recommended for a flight test, the Instructor must be confident that you would indeed be able to pass a flight test, and so in many cases you do the Pre-Flight Test.  The PFT is basically a mock-up of a flight test.  You do the entire process of the test, from ground briefing to finish, with the instructor, and they grade you as you would be graded in the real test.  My first PFT wasn't brilliant, but it wasn't too bad either.  There were a few items I needed to work on, and others I performed quite well.  So I went back to work on fixing things up a bit.

At one point half way through August My Instructor offered to book my flight test, but for some reason I really wasn't feeling confident yet, so I told him I wanted more time.  At the end of August I had two weeks off from school, which, in theory, I should have used to practice.  Instead, The Airline popped up with some flight attending for me, and I jumped at the chance to make some extra money (this flying stuff isn't cheap...).  I rounded off two weeks of pairings with a nasty bout of food poisoning, and all of a sudden it was September and the new term of classes was starting.

Once I was well enough to fly again, things got serious.  I did another pre-flight test, and then we finally booked the day.  I booked the flight test examiner for September 28th, and studied my face off.

It was time for THE FLIGHT TEST *duhn duhn DUHN!*

The morning arrived, and unfortunately the weather was not great.  Still I did the prep, and when the examiner showed up I ignored the sensation that someone was tap-dancing in my stomach as best I could and got on with it.  We did the entire ground briefing for the flight, and I performed pretty well.  I got stumped on one or two questions, but for the most part I had it down.  However, when we finished up and checked the weather we discovered that the wind had picked up and there was definite rain on the radar.  We called it off.

To be honest, this came as something of a relief.  Breaking it up felt simpler to me than having to do the whole ground briefing AND the flight portion on the same day.  That being said, this led to the most stressful ten days of my life.  I must have booked and had to call of the flight portion three times thanks to horrible luck with the weather.  I was absolutely nuts by the time I finally got a halfway decent day in order to be able to do it.

The test itself was a bit of a blur.  I remember pulling off a SPECTACULAR power-on stall, which was fabulous, but the I also remember forgetting how to count and determining that I had a ground-speed of approximately 45 knots despite a tailwind...so, uh yeah.  High points and low points basically....

Anyway, we landed for the final time and taxied back to the flying club.  I had a feeling that I hadn't passed.... I knew I hadn't outright failed or the examiner would have stopped the test, BUT I thought I might have failed an item or two and would have to repeat them.  So as I shut down the engine and packed away I mentally prepared myself for the worst.

The examiner started talking and I didn't take it in too well.  He said something about a few mistakes he wanted to discuss but overall I had passed.  I blinked and paused for a moment.
'I passed?' I asked, in disbelief.
'Yes,' he replied.
'Like, pass passed?'
'Yep...'
'As in I-get-a-license-now passed?'
'Uh yeah!'
'Holy sh*t'.

The examiner packed up and headed inside before me, leaving me to gather my flight kit...or perhaps just giving me the privacy to have a complete meltdown from relief.  Honestly the feeling that came over me then is unlike anything I've felt so far.  Such a rush of relief and joy.  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so I did a fair bit of both.

I spent the rest of the day (during which I worked a full shift at work) alternately bouncing around with joy and telling everyone EVER that I had just passed my flight test, and having to excuse myself to have a meltdown in the ladies room.  It was THE MOST exhausting day.

Anyway, after that happened, I had to catch up on a lot of schoolwork that had taken the back-burner due to my flight test preparation.  For the rest of the fall I did a little flying - mostly working on my checkout to fly the Cessna 172, and a little bit of night flying.  Then exams came, and then Christmas, and on New Year's I took a work trip to Chicago for two weeks... and then all of a sudden I was back at school and back at work, and now it's the second week of February and I can't even say I have flown this year.  Epic fail.

Anyway, I have lots of other things to write about, but this was meant to be a bit of a catch up post, so at least you all know I am still alive and still working on my flying!  Better than that, I'm a license pilot now!  What a strange and wonderful thing to be able to say!  I certainly never would have predicted that in my future five years ago.  Hell, not even three!

Keep an eye out for more!
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"but it wouldn't be nothing without a woman or a girl..."

What do you do if you're interested in something?
Google.
I'm a huge fan of doing random Google Image searches.  So while I was contemplating this post, I thought I'd do a search for "female pilot".

One of the first few pictures I found was this beauty:

This picture is now my desktop background, and I wish I could find a print of it and get it framed and stuck on my wall.  I then scrolled down the page a little way and found this gem...

Sigh.  This is the sort of thing that makes me want to bang my head against a wall.  I suppose it's no worse than all of the ridiculous female driver jokes, but it really fits what seems to be my theme of the week.  Females in aviation who aren't flight attendants are pretty thin on the ground and thin in the air.  In my class at the college there are two girls, and that's a big number, considering one of the previous classes had almost thirty students and only one girl.

The OFC has always been very welcoming to me, and for the most part it certainly seems like women are accepted.  The comfortable atmosphere and general friendliness is something I love most about my flying club.  I have endured a bit of good-natured teasing from my classmates which is, for the most part, no big deal.  However, I have also encountered some more surprising and backwards attitudes.  For example; on our first day of classes one other student told me that every time I fly I could stick a pink star on the tail of the plane, and then in the same conversation asked me to hem his pants.  Not too bad at all really, mostly just the kind of thing you roll your eyes at and laugh a bit.  Perhaps suggest it was time for the mama's boy to cut the apron strings.  But then I've also had few sincere "What, you train here?!" comments followed by considerable laughter, AND have been told by another student that he would be nice to me when he was the Captain and I was still the flight attendant.  

I had a discussion with another student a week or so on the subject of families.  The student was surprised to learn that I hope to have a family one day, but continue to be a pilot.  I'm not sure if he thought I intended this to be a hobby or not, but he seemed to think it a tall order to hope that I may one day find a man who would be happy for me to continue in my dream career, despite having the family I also hope for.  However when I turned the question on him, he didn't seem to find it at all strange that he should one day have a wife to stay at home with his children while he travels the world.

Many things are noticeably geared towards men.  Like our uniforms, for example.  I bought a selection of the "ladies" size of the shirts, and they STILL made me look like I was wearing a sack.  I had to have them taken in so I wouldn't look quite so ridiculous. 

Every so often, even the Instructors will drop in the odd boys club kind of joke.  Not two days ago we were learning about the VOR in ground school and the instructor presented us with a mnemonic.  "TICS".  It stands for "Tune in the VOR code, Identify the morse code, Check the VOR, and Select a heading.".

'Except I use test instead of check,' said the instructor.  "Haha, see what I did there?"

My response was to start singing the chorus of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", which had been stuck in my head and seemed fitting.

Things like that aren't necessarily harmful, but they do represent outdated ideals.  I'm not one to go on a crazed feminist rant and denounce men as pigs who just want to keep women down.  I'm a girly girl.  I almost always have my nails painted, I like for my hair to look nice, and My Instructor has laughed at me a million times for forgetting to take out my earrings before putting on my headset.  (I learned my lesson when once in my pre-uniform days I had to ask him to keep my hoops in his pocket because I didn't have anywhere else to put them.  I've now restricted myself to studs on flying days).  

The gist of it is that I can't help but draw attention to my feminine side, and I don't see anything wrong with that.  If I were wimping out about the oil stain on my arm, or complaining about having to refuel my own aircraft then perhaps there would be a problem, but as long as I'm getting on with things, I don't see the issue in having painted nails and the like.  I suppose I could try and be more of a tomboy, cut my hair short and never wear make-up, but I wouldn't be happy, so there's no point.

As I said, I'm no ranting feminist.  I'd much prefer to distract them all with my feminine charms, and then surprise the hell out of them when I do well.  I still remember being told that females in aviation have to be "twice as good to be equal".  And I still have that burning desire to be three times as good to be better.  Eat your heart out, boys.

Now the burning question is, do I buy a pilot headset with pink accents and really add fuel to the fire?

Publisher's Note...

alwayslookingabove.com was originally set up with a wordpress page, but after several weeks I have still failed miserably to make it work the way I want.  So I convinced my friend to set me up with the same website name, but back here at blogger!!  SO that means I can update here and change my page the way I want to!  It also means that there shouldn't be any changes for you, dear readers!  Even if you type in the old site address (alwayslookingabove.blogspot.com) it will automatically redirect you here.  LOVE IT.

I'm going to repost my more recent entries here, and then get back to work on new material, now I'm not in a constant formatting war.  Apologies for the lack of entries lately, but hopefully now I'm back at blogger things will be sorted out!
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Gusting 29kts? Oh no problem...

Before I left my house at 8.30am this morning I had a quick look at the weater.  My immediate reaction was “HOLY CRAP IT’S HOT!”  I was so distracted by this alarming realisation that I didn’t even think to check the winds.  Had I thought to do so, I would have seen something that looked a little like this.

Right.  Challenging.  Interesting.

So we hit the circuit.  My Instructor asked if I wanted to head to Carp airport and do some circuit work there, but with the strong winds I felt more comfortable sticking close to home.  At least then if it proved to be beyond my capabilities it would be a lot easier to call it a day than if we were over at another aerodrome.

During the first circuit My Instructor remarked that we were the only plane working in the circuit for runway 22.  By the end of the second I knew why.  That was probably one of the most challenging flights I’ve had in a long time.  Possibly ever.  The winds were insane.  We had gusts of about 25kts for most of my landings (thankfully they were primarily headwinds), but towards the end they were making it up to 29kts.  Considering that if there is anything above 30kts we aren’t allowed to go flying at all, that was probably the craziest wind conditions I am likely to experience in a C-150.

I was quite surprised to find that I performed relatively well.  Not my best batch of landings, true, but given the conditions they could have been a lot worse.  There was even one landing that earned me an “Oh yeah!” from My Instructor, which made me glow with pride for about three seconds until I took off again and had to concentrate pretty hard to keep control of the plane.

I’d call that an improvement, and we’ll leave it at that for now.

Up next are some more trips out to the practice area by myself, and then my first cross country flight!  Exciting stuff.

I realised while flying this morning that I’m actually going to have to start thinking about flight test stuff.  Now I know all the basics.  After my cross countries there are really only one or two more things for me to lean for my Private License.  Now it’s all about practicing and perfecting the exercises and getting ready for that test.  Scary thought that one, but incredibly exciting!  I can’t imagine how nervous I’m going to be leading up to that flight, but I CAN imagine how wonderful it is going to be to be able to say that I am a licensed pilot.  And I REALLY can’t wait to be my epaulettes with two bars!

After my flight, I sat in the lounge with The Newfie for a while as he went over some of the math stuff I missed while I was in Calgary.  At one point I was trying to explain something to him that made sense, but in the process of doing so managed to completely prove myself wrong.  Oops?  At least it made sense after that!  No one ever said I was going to find math a breeze…

Student Pilot

"Student Pilot".  That's what I am now classified as.  A Student Pilot.  Except that three weeks into the program it feels like all I am is a student.  There's nowhere near enough Piloting going on.  But there is a giant pile of homework and reading to contend with.

The weather this month has been awful. I have managed four lessons in three weeks, and that's it!  I'm on the verge of throwing a temper tantrum every time I check the METAR/TAF.  So much for spring in Ottawa.  I actually had to wear my uniform sweater for half of last week because it was too darned cold outside!

The small amount of flying I have managed to squeeze in has been pretty interesting so far.  The first lesson was just a bit of review.  It had been about two months since I flew last, so My Instructor just took me out to the practice area and we went through the basic exercises.  After that he let me do an hour of solo circuit work to let me buildup my confidence flying solo again, and then back out to the practice area for some work on precautionary and forced landings.  Apologies to any farmers whose fields I buzzed.

On Wednesday this week I finally got the go ahead to go out to the practice area by myself.  My first solo flight last summer was a really big deal - it was like the instructors were saying "OK we don't think you're going to kill yourself if we let you fly a plane alone, so go for it..."  But it also felt like there was a little bit tacked on the end there saying "...but we don't trust you that much yet, so stay right where we can see you, young lady."  Getting signed off to fly to the practice area (a good ten to fifteen minute flight away) felt like the training wheels were finally being removed!

I felt pretty nervous leading up to the lesson.  I'm not entirely sure why - I am confident in most of the exercises, and have a pretty good idea of what to do in case of an emergency.  I'm comfortable with radio communications involved, and in working the circuit.  Nothing really to be terribly nervous about there - it was probably just the whole "what-if" going around in my head.  What if I do forget something and My Instructor isn't there to remind me?

After a quick walk around of my plane for the day I had a short briefing with My Instructor, and received an "Off you go then", so off I went!  I lost most of my nerves once I was in the air.  Working in the Practice Area alone wasn't at all bad.  I picked my area to work in, announced my intentions on the radio, and got to it.

I found it strange to be giving myself directions.  Usually My Instructor tells me to do a stall or a steep turn or whatever else he wants, and I do it.  Now I had to decide what I would work on by myself.  I chose to start small, so I put myself in slow flight for a little while, and then recovered.  Not bad.  Then I figured I'd have a go at power-off stalls.  I did a lookout to make sure no other aircraft were nearby, did a cockpit check, and began to reduce my power slowly, while simultaneously pulling the nose up to keep my altitude.  It worked nicely.  I didn't lose any height, and I waited to hear the stall horn sound.  It should have gone off around 50kts or so, but by the time I reached 40kts in silence I figured something wasn't quite right, and recovered.  I tried again, and once more made it to 40kts without hearing anything.  Feeling spooked, I recovered again and decided to call it a day on stalls.  I thought perhaps the stall speed was a lot lower because of the absence of 160lb of flight instructor in the plane next to me, but it turned out that this particular plane just doesn't like to sound it's stall horn, which is slightly worrying.  It was probably a good job I gave it a rest, in hindsight.

I moved on to work on a few steep turns, which was pretty fun, although I was frustrated to find I still lose about 150ft of altitude during the maneuver, so I am going to have to work on that.  After about 40 minutes out there I figured that was enough of my newfound freedom for the day, and headed back into Ottawa, requesting a few circuits before calling it a day.  It definitely felt good to be flying solo, although I wasn't pleased to discover that I have apparently lost the knack of a good landing.  I can land safely, and it's not terrible, but the landings are quite bumpy and lack grace so I need to work on that again.  My primary goal is not to cringe when I imagine which of my friends are in the club house watching me do circuits!!

Still, hopefully once the weather improves I can start flying more and start polishing up my skills.  The next thing on my training schedule is work on cross-country flights. This is rather exciting, and I'm looking forward to getting into some real flight planning.

Aside from the flying, classes are going rather well.  There is a lot of material to learn, and a lot of homework to be done, but I find it nice to have something productive to do with my brain again.  I didn't realise it but I actually don't mind doing schoolwork.  I had been quite nervous about the math class, but I am surprised to find that I haven't had much difficulty yet.  We are mostly reviewing things that I learned in high-school.  It is just a matter of convincing my brain to remember them.  However sometimes the professor will still go off on a little tangent and I have to look at The Newfie sitting next to me and ask "Is he still speaking English?"

Some things never change I suppose.

Changes...

Well folks...back in January I came to the realisation that this whole training to be a pilot privately wasn't working out for me...

So I applied to full time education and am now training to be a commercial pilot through Algonquin College!  Surprise!

A classmate has recently set me up with my very own webpage, so I'm picking up my darling blog and sticking it there instead!  I really want it to grow and become something I can be proud of, and I feel like having my own page for this will help.

SO if you wouldn't mind terribly, please mosey on over to http://www.alwayslookingabove.com

It's still very rough, and I will be spending a lot of time tweaking it over the next week or so to get it just right. At the moment it appears basic, but I've imported all of my old content to it, and have also written a new post.  Enjoy!

Much love!
-Hannah

More Changes

Well how was your winter?  For me the winter was, to put it delicately, a huge pain in the ass.  At least with regards to my pilot training anyway.  The weather sucked, which in itself made flying difficult - but then I had a number of small and not so small setbacks that meant that from November up until March I barely managed to scrape ten hours in total.  Not good.

Eventually a decision had to be made.  Unfortunately, obtain Pilot's licenses is extremely difficult, not to mention expensive!  But giving up was not even a remote option for me, so I eventually came to the conclusion that if I am going to follow this dream I needed to do it properly.  That's why in January I applied to Algonquin College for the Aviation Management program.  Now it's called "aviation management", but what it really does is train you up as a commercial pilot, and provides you with the starter kit to getting a job.  All accomplished in eighteen months! Sounds good to me!  To make it even more appealing, I was able to continue flying at The Ottawa Flying Club, and even stay with My Instructor.

Initially I applied to and was accepted to the September program, but after speaking to the program's coordinator I was convinced to apply for the May program.  I had intended to work my butt off all summer and then start in the fall, but eventually I figured out that I might as well just do it.  I got my acceptance, got my student loans in line and was ready to go.

Term started May 9th, and so far I am having a blast.  It's a pretty daunting thing - being a full time student again.  But I am sure I will manage.  My classes are pretty interesting, and a lot of them are specifically aviation based.  For those that aren't (English and Math for example), our professors are doing a good job of trying to incorporate aviation into the material, which is much appreciated.  In addition to interesting classes, it's a delight to be around a group of like-minded individuals, and naturally I adore the fact that I get to fly more than once a week - indeed it is expected of me!

I'm still keeping my job at the airport, although I have reduced the hours to part-time on the weekends, and I will take some flights with The Airline if I can at all manage it.  I've been told by several of my professors already  that working while I am in school is not a good idea, but it's not going to make a difference.  When I consider how much this program is going to cost there is no way I can justify giving up my job.  And to be honest, although I understand the workload involved in this program I don't think I will have any difficulty finding the time I need to do my work.  I've only been in the program for a week and a half and already I feel as though I have had more down time than I ever did working full time.  That time can easily be put to good use for studying.

Giving up full-time work was a huge challenge for me.  I didn't realise it, but since I finished university two years ago I have been hugely motivated by the goal of full time work (and then some...in March I worked 23 days in a row without a day off!).  I found that in the week prior to the start of term I was extremely nervous and jittery.  Initially I chalked it up to nerves about the program, but when I really considered this I discovered it wasn't the case at all.  I'm not completely new to training, and I've done full time education in the past.  Nothing there could really intimidate me.  After some time spent thinking on the subject, I realised that what was really throwing me for a loop was the idea of going from full-time employee to part-time employee.  This was an extremely distressing thought for me, and I am quite sure that if it were at all possible I would be attempting to cling to my full-time status AND do school.  But my flying and class schedule simply will not permit it, so part-time hours it is, and a life of full time studies and austerity for me for the next eighteen months.

Really though, if it means I get to fly three times a week, who cares if I don't get to buy that colour of nail polish I really want, or can't buy that shirt I saw in my favourite shop?  None of those things can truly compare to how it will feel when I am a licensed pilot.

Now obviously I didn't do much updating over the winter.  This was due, at least in part, to a severe lack of flying to write about.  However there are a few snippets that I will attempt to share with you soon in order to get you caught up.  I did a lot of flying with The Airline, so there are plenty of stories to tell!  But now that I am in the Algonguin program I should have lots to write about so expect more frequent updates.  I am even going to try and put myself on some sort of schedule so that you know when to expect updates from me.

All this is still to come, but for the time being I have math homework to do.  Now there's something I didn't think I'd ever be saying again after high school!

The Flight Attendant's ABCs - E (echo) is For...

•  Emergency Exit Row - Always a matter of some contention.  The EE rows are generally reserved for what FAs call “ABPs”, or “Able Bodied Passengers”.  We don’t mean it to be discriminatory.  All the bodies and organizations that organize aviation regulations around the world enforce the rule that the passengers who sit in EE rows must be able to open the exit and not hinder evacuation in the event of an emergency.  So no, it's not particularly reasonable for you to ask for the extra room for your kids to play around in.  And if you're hobbling around on a broken leg with crutches, you probably aren't going to be the swiftest at getting the emergency exit open now, are you?  It’s not the FA’s fault you can’t sit there, so don’t hate.  It’s a matter of safety, and that's really,  really not a cop out.
  
• Engine - What’s the difference between a jet engine and a flight attendant?  The engine stops whining at the gate.
  
• Entertainment - In flight entertainment - fantastic on Air Canada and other such large carriers.  Not so good on other airlines.  Non-existent on charter companies, unless you count listening to the Flight Attendants gossiping in the galley.  But then, you pay peanuts for a week-long, all-inclusive Caribbean Vacation…do you really expect to be flown down on a shiny, brand new, fully tricked out A380 instead of a B737 that’s older than you are?  Bring an iPod, or even one of those old-fashioned book things. 
  
• Engineer -  Officially, the engineer is “an enlisted man or NCO who monitors and maintains aircraft operation in-flight and otherwise aids the air crew.” (Source)  Unofficially the engineer is either the best person in the world who will fix your mutinous coffee maker four times during the flight, or he’s a jerk who sits in the back row reading/listening to music/playing on his nintendo and laughs at you when you have a flood in the galley, yet still expects to be fed, watered, and otherwise treated like a passenger.

The Flight Attendant's ABCs - D (delta) is for...

• Dead-head -  Dead-heading is the term used whenever a member of an airline crew travels on another airline in order to be positioned for work.  There are two kinds of dead-heading crew.  The first is the conspicuous variety.  The FA will find ways to `casually` let everyone know that he or she is a flight attendant in the hopes of scoring perks or upgrades or general admiration from civilians.  The second category is slightly more incognito - they keep a more low-key profile.  That way they can silently judge other flight attendants at work on their safety demonstrations, uniforms, announcements, bad jokes and so on.  Personally, I only break out the `wings`if I suspect it will get me a free drink.
  
• Diet Coke Products - Diet soda, particularly Diet Coke, is the devil at altitude.  Something about the carbonation and the chemicals make it impossible to pour without getting a huge head of foam.  Ice only makes the situation worse.  Sometimes pouring it like a beer down the side of the cup can help, but on the whole you will usually spend a good two minutes trying to pour a drink and looking vaguely incompetent while doing so.
  
• Delays - How to piss off passengers, pilots, flight attendants AND ground staff all at one time.  Some passengers will act extremely put out whenever a flight gets delayed, and naturally assume that it`s a ploy devised by the airline just to make their lives difficult.  What they usually fail to realise is that everyone else is just as put out as them.  It means more time at work for everyone, and most people try to avoid it.  Often when the delays are due to weather or mechanical issues with the aircraft, I like to cheerfully remind people of the well-known quote - `It`s better be to on the ground and wishing you were in the air, than to be in the air and wishing you were on the ground.`
  
• Dehydration - It`s a well known fact that an aircraft is mechanically designed to suck the hydration out of you.  And at altitude NOTHING ever seems to be a good substitute for water.  Soda will only make you more thirsty (not to mention give you jet-belly), and coffee makes you want to pee.  H2O is your friend.  

A Series of Anecdotes

Obviously I haven't been writing as much lately.  Not as much as I should have been, and definitely not as much as I should like.  It's just been one of those months full of "go here" and "do this" and "sleep, what's that again?"  I've been a busy little bee, and have lots of things to tell you all, but in the interest of saving writing everything out much in the fashion of an epic poem full of Vikings and pillaging and plundering, I shall provide you with a Series of Anecdotes.  Perhaps this is also an attempt to save your attention span also.  Who knows?

********************

Early in September (or perhaps late August, I can't quite remember) I worked a pairing for The Airline.  We had been sub-contracted by another airline (one I had considered applying to) in order to operate one of their regularly scheduled flights up to Iqualuit and back again.  One of the other FAs had originally been scheduled to work this flight, as she had done the previous week, however she happily offered it up to me and I snapped it up.  I soon knew why!!!  This airline we were operating for has a RIDICULOUS service flow.  You probably get more service with this lot in a 2.5 hour flight than you would crossing the Atlantic with Air Canada.  I literally didn't have a split second to myself.  Oh shoot, my bun came undone and my hair is hanging loose?  NO TIME!  Don't fix it, just MOVE!  Somewhere between the third coffee service and the second round of "hot towels" I wondered if I had somehow slipped into the 1960s, and contemplated having a nervous breakdown.  Somehow we made it through, but I can tell you that if another of those contracts comes up, I will need some serious persuading to say yes. 

Terminal at YFB

 ********************

"She's got me landing with a 30kt tailwind!! Who the hell does she think I am?!" - Overheard in the flight deck landing in Quebec City.

********************

A few weeks ago a guitar case appeared in the customs hall.  A nice one.  A Fender.  I took a look at the tag... Steve Miller.  Um.  Wow.

********************

A week or so back I was working in the customs hall at the airport, and a young man came up to the baggage information counter.  He looked rather upset, so I steeled myself for the incoming rant, but as it happened he was very polite.  He told me he was sorry to bother me, but the zipper on his suitcase had broken some time during the flight.  I immediately launched into the spiel about our company's baggage repair service, but he interrupted me.  He said he wasn't bothered that his bag was broken, only that his girlfriend had given him a piece of tupperware before he left, and it had fallen out of the bag somewhere along the way.  He asked if the ramp agents could check for it in the plane, which they did, and found the tupperware.  They brought it up to customs for the young man, and I had a look, expecting to see home-made baked goods or little candies or something like that.  The tupperware was empty. 

'Oh thank you so much!  I am so relieved!'  he said, and walked away.

Riiiiight.

********************

I was forced to go to YUL for training by the company I work at the airport.  It was maddening.  I spent the better part of a week stuck in a room "learning" things I had known for almost three months, and to top it off I heard jets fly overhead every 45 seconds, and couldn't see a single one of them!  I was reluctant to go to Montreal at all, until I remembered that they had cool planes there, and I imagined myself in heaven, hunting B747s every afternoon.  The reality was a little different.  YUL is a terrible airport.  There is not ONE place in the whole building where you can see the ramp and the airplanes without having to pass through security first.  All I wanted to do was eat my lunch and stare at planes.  Is that so much to ask?  And because I am not stationed at YUL, using my Red Pass to get to the gates just to go look at planes made me feel like I was in Mission Impossible.  I managed it, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to...

Misson accomplished!

********************

One afternoon in YUL, having made it to the gates in time to settle myself by a window and watch the sky for the appearance of my beloved B747, I noticed something strange.  A stream of water seemed to be coming from between two planes parked at the gates.  I wandered over to get a better look, and saw something wonderful!  What I believe to have been an Air Canada Embraer 190 was taxiing between two fire trucks as they discharged their water canons.  A Real Life Canon Salute!  I was very moved, and amazed when I looked around me to realise that none of the other people sitting in the terminal had any clue what they were witnessing.  I literally had chills.

********************

Also while in YUL, I went to visit a friend of mine.  He was previously a ramp supervisor here in Ottawa, but had left about two months ago, and got a job at one of the FBOs at YUL.  He invited me over to the FBO one evening, and spent some time showing me the incredible private jets of the rich and famous.  Shining gorgeous challengers all crammed into  one hangar with fancy sports cars parked between them, and the whole place smelled of Jet Fuel!  I just wanted to bring a sleeping bag and move in.  To make it even better, the FBO was right on the runway, so we stood on the ramp for a long time and watched the B777s and the B747s and the A330s taking off.  My friend even let me sit in one of the Mazeratis, AND turn it on!  I'm not really a car girl, but the sound of that engine was jaw-droppingly sexy.

********************

On Tuesday this week I finally got my behind back in an airplane, after a two week gap between lessons, thanks to rotten weather and my trip to YUL.  I was more than a little nervous, to tell the truth.  We were due to undertake my first Instruments lesson, which is accomplished by making the student wear a "hood" which blocks the student's view of anything but the instrument panel.  No visual flying.  Meanwhile the instructor takes care of the radio calls, keeps an eye out for traffic, and gives the student directional instructions.  The idea of having part of my vision obscured gave me the creeps, but I sucked it up and dealt with it, and although it wasn't the most pleasant lesson, I felt pretty confident that I performed well.  My Instructor gave me a bit of a break half way through the lesson, and had me land on a grass strip to give me some practice with Soft Field landings and take-offs, which was pretty enjoyable.  And then it was back to the sky and back under the hood.  Halfway back to Ottawa I realised that I was essentially flying an aircraft blind, except for my instruments.  I had no idea where I was and no idea where any other traffic might be. 
'Damn,' I said to My Instructor.  'It's a good job I trust you.'

********************

The 52nd Annual Fly Day at the Ottawa Flying Club

Flying an airplane is one of the best highs I can get.  Nothing is comparable to being a few thousand feet above the ground in a small plane, and I tell everyone I talk to that they should try it at least once in their lives, if not more.

But let's face it; flying is not exactly cheap.  Unless you're lucky enough to be relatively wealthy, or else you are like me and willing to budget yourself to within an inch of your life and work your tail off at two or three jobs, it's unlikely that you will get to spend a great deal of time in the sky.  The Ottawa Flying Club (my second home) offers introductory lessons/city tours for approximately $90 after taxes, which is really reasonable in the aviation world, but still doesn't exactly qualify as spare change. 

When I heard about the annual Fly Day, it sounded to me like a brilliant idea.  City Tour flights are offered by experienced pilots in small planes for $30 per person, and all proceeds go to charity.  I knew I wanted to volunteer and help out, so at Ridiculous AM on Saturday morning after driving home from Montreal the night before, I dragged my butt out of bed and headed off to the OFC.  I am beginning to get the idea that a life in aviation and getting a good amount of sleep are two things that are totally incompatible.  But really, who needs sleep when there are airplanes nearby?!

It was a gorgeous fall day, if a bit cold, and the weather looked very promising.  The odd low cloud here and there, but nothing that looked too menacing.  By the time I arrived, things were already well under way.  A line of planes were on the tarmac, dropping off passengers, picking up new ones, getting refueled, and taking off again in a steady routine.  I was given a very stylish orange vest and put to work as an Escort (of passengers...to and from the planes.  This is a family show people.)  Already there was a crowd, and I was told that almost two hundred tickets had already been sold.

Marshalling in the traffic.

And so I got to work, not that I would exactly call it that.  I ended up enjoying myself immensely, and smiled so much that my face hurt.  I was on the ramp, there were airplanes everywhere, and I was helping out a worthwhile cause.  Not exactly hard work, in my book!  And putting little children in airplanes for the first time in their lives, and seeing the elation on their faces after they had landed did not, for one single second, get old.

As the day wore on, I was amazed by a number of things.  The amount of planning that must have gone into making this day a success must have been staggering.  I can't even begin to imagine the co-ordination with the OFC, the pilots, the ATC tower and the Rotary Club that it must have required.  It appeared that the Tower was pretty relaxed with us too, although I can't imagine we made their day an easy one, with flight after flight after flight taking off and landing, so I am quite sure that their co-operation and patience was appreciated by all!   The pilots  flew relentlessly, some only stopping long enough to fuel their aircraft and then head off again with the next load of passengers. 

The passengers themselves impressed the heck out of me too.  In the end I believe somewhere along the lines of four hundred tickets were sold, and almost three hundred and fifty people took flights.  We stopped selling tickets at around 11am, and needless to say it took all day to get through all the passengers that waited it out.  But everyone was, for the most part, incredibly patient.  It must have been especially difficult for families with small children to keep the little ones from throwing tantrums at the idea of having to wait all day, but I witnessed very few meltdowns.  Impressive.  I got the impression that people realised this was something worth waiting for, and that they appreciated the restrictions we had to work with - such as only being able to send three people at a time in each plane, and the necessary stop times for refueling and pilot breaks, and so on.

Based upon the remarks from the passengers after their flights, most of them seemed to think that it was well worth the wait, which I was very happy to hear.  Obviously I am a little biased, and think flying is just about the best thing ever.  But it was nice to hear that people were happy to wait for so long and were still able to go away content.  It made me feel very proud of the OFC for pulling off such a successful event. To add to the enjoyment, Vintage Wings brought over a few of their planes - a Harvard and a Tiger Moth - which caused a little bit of excitement, and a few lucky people got to take flights in them.

 A more surprising addition to the party came with the arrival of a Norseman.  One lucky couple took a flight in that amazing plane, during which time the young man made a successful marriage proposal!  How's that for romantic!  I'd definitely have a hard time saying "no" if someone proposed to me in a vintage aircraft.

The Norseman

As I mentioned, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Not only did I get to spend the whole day on the ramp, but I made some new friends, received a prophecy of marriage from one young boy, was told by another that I was a Fairy Princess (yeah, that's a name that just screams Badass Pilot...), and I bonded with my new Fairy Godmother.  What more can a girl ask for?

At the end of the day, everyone left happy, and the Ottawa Rotary Home went away having raised almost $10,000!  Quite the feat!  Please visit the Ottawa Rotary Home's website for more information on this fantastic organization, and if you are interested in next year's Fly Day, check out the official website!

The stunning photographs were taken by Mike McKay from the OFC - as always, demonstrating his enviable photography skills!  In true form, I had (as always) left my camera at home.  But I was too busy enjoying myself to have taken any photographs anyway!

An Unintended Hiatus

I didn't really intend to take a break from posting, but I suppose that's just the way these things go sometimes.  It hasn't been quite two weeks since my last post, but it feels like much longer since I have put much effort in here.  Life has been life, and I've been having one of those busy periods of time where you feel like you can't remember the last time you got to sleep as long as you wanted to, or spend a whole day doing whatever you wanted to do with no prior commitments.

My flying hasn't been as regular as I should like. I counted up and during August I only scraped 3.7 hours in total, a number which I shall probably surpass by mid September.  I was away, My Instructor was away, bad weather, etc etc.  About a week after my first solo I had a lesson with The Bearded One.  It was quite an enjoyable experience, having never flown with him before.  We did a couple of circuits, he determined that I was good to go, and sent me off to do four or five circuits by myself.  I didn't realise it at the time, but I had a massive adrenaline rush doing those solo circuits.  I only noticed it an hour later when I showed up to work and discovered that my hands were shaking. 

TEN DAYS later I finally got the chance to go for another lesson, this time with one of my regular Secondary Instructors.  I had hoped to get some solo circuit time in, but it was pretty windy (Ok so it was gusting 20kts...lets not be picky).  But we decided to go for a bit and see how things went.  I was concerned that it had been a while since I flew, so I at least wanted to keep my hand at it.  It was clear after my first take-off though that I was not going to be flying solo.  The wind was making the first two hundred feet or so unbelievably bumpy, and I found it a real struggle to keep control of the plane.  The Instructor gave me the choice to go solo(although I think he was just testing my judgement) but I said hell no.  We did a grand total of twenty minutes, and the wind was a real challenge.  It was the first time I had tried to take-off and land in a strong  headwind, and while it was interesting, I definitely felt myself begin to sweat a bit.  I wasn't comfortable flying by myself, and to be honest I was even getting stressed with the instructor being there to help me, so we called it a day.

Another ten days passed and on Saturday I finally got back in the air again.  It was an absolutely beautiful morning for flying, and I felt butterflies of excitement in my stomach as I drove into the city.  I scored my favourite plane (LKN) and my heart did an excited little dance.  Flying on a gorgeous morning, barely a breath of wind, with My Instructor and then solo in My Favourite Plane?  What could be better?  It felt like forever since I had worked with My Instructor, so it was actually quite nice to have him raise an eyebrow at me and give me a hit of that dry sense of humour when I came in from my walk around to admit (rather sheepishly) that I had somehow managed to get the fuel pipe all tangled up on the rack and couldn't get it unstuck.

We did two circuits and everything went pretty well, although I had some interesting and different clearances from ATC - unfortunately our multi-engine JFE was sitting on runway 25, having suffered a nosegear collapse, so the tower was a little tense and busy that morning.  Heartbreaking about the plane though, it was a bit of a mess, and will take a fair bit of time to be repaired so I understand.

The circuits went well, so My Instructor sent me on my way for an hour.  My first take-off was less than pleasant.  I came unbelievably close to hitting a goose, and in a moment of blind panic I realised I had very little idea about what to do if that actually happened.  I wasn't even sure what kind of effect that would have on my little Cessna 150, but the alarm bells singing in my head informed me that it would be really bad news.  Somehow the goose and I missed eachother, so that was good.  However the whole encounter did little to repair the ill relations that goosekind and I have been having for years now.  It would take a UN meeting of epic proportions to have us be allies.

Once my heart vacated my throat and I was able to breathe again, I turned crosswind and downwind, and pulled off a nice landing.  Several more landings (and a few more tense moments with gulls) later I felt pretty comfortable.  I had one landing where I knew I was going to be awfully high, despite my best efforts, and it became clear I would have to do a full-flap overshoot.  I did my best to not let my nerves get the better of me, and pulled it off relatively well.  I'm sure it wasn't perfect, but that's what practicing is all about. 

When I landed I took delight in entering a full 1.1 hours of solo time in my log book - I am now just hovering under 30 hours in total, and just under 3 hours solo.  I also made sure to request that My Instructor goes over some emergency procedure type things in my next lesson.  Such as what I should do if I actually hit a bird and sh*t Goes South for the Winter.  What registered in my mind as a pretty close call with a Real Problem made me realise that I am perhaps not as comfortable as I would like to be with emergency procedures, so we must work on that, hopefully later on this week!

I do have some flight attendant related entries planned (including Delta and Echo in my Flight Attendant ABCs series), but for now I have a plane on its way in which requires greeting.

Too Stubborn for my Own Good (Or - The Day I Fell Out of a B737)

Once upon a time a Flight Attendant worked at the 1R door.  That Flight Attendant was me.

On my last pairing I had a minor clutzy moment.  I had to open my door in order to empty my garbage cans, and noticed it was rather heavier and hard to push open than I was used to.  But I got the door open no trouble.  When the time came to close the door, however, I had a hard time pulling it back.  It was very heavy, and didn't seem inclined to budge.  The mechanic was nearby, and mentioned that the door needed to be fixed, as it had gotten very stiff, and offered to close it for me.

I am a stubborn kind of person, and when someone tells me I can't do something, it usually makes me want to do it more.  So the door said "No, I am not closing" and I replied "Like hell you aren't, I will MAKE you close!"

The next thing I knew I was hanging out of the plane, only holding on by the door handle with my legs swinging ten feet above the ground.  The mechanic was nice enough to pull me back in, but the massive bruise on my leg will serve as a reminder of one of the most important lessons a Flight Attendant (or Pilot) can learn.

Sometimes you just gotta let the mechanic deal with it.

"Whiskey Zulu November, confirm that was your first solo?"

Well this has been a long time coming.  No excuses, just apologies.

On Thursday morning I woke up early and went straight to my window to check the weather.  Slightly windy, a few clouds, but nothing too sinister.  I immediately got butterflies.  I was going to go for my first solo.  I packed a change of clothes, and attempted to eat some breakfast, but couldn't manage much more than an English Muffin.  During the drive to the Flying Club, I felt as though my stomach had vacated my body, and was somehow already cruising around at circuit altitude checking out the conditions.  The little voice in my head seemed to be stuck on repeating two tracks.  The first went "What am I doing?  This is nuts.  Why am I nuts?!"  The second; "I'm gonna fly today, AND I'm gonna fly by myself today! Oh my god oh my god oh my god yay!"

Parts of the day are a blur.  Some things really stick out in my mind, but others have just blended in, overshadowed by others.  I met up with the instructor who was going to be taking me out that morning, and he sent me out to do my walk-around while he had a cigarette - hopefully NOT to calm his nerves!  The walk-around went well, and I even managed not to have a single clumsy moment. 

Checking out the fuel - I hear it's useful.

 After I had determined my plane was good to go, I walked back to the club feeling slightly dazed, and following what I vaguely remember as being a quick weight and balance sheet and checking out of the weather, it was suddenly time to go.  I am quite sure that at least half an hour passed between my walk-around and climbing into the plane to go, but I can't for the life of me remember it.  There may even have been a briefing situation.  Like I said...there are blurs.

 As I climbed into the plane (Whiskey Zulu November, definitely one of my favourites!) I calmed down a bit.  It was just going to be like doing normal circuits with My Instructor.  That was no problem.  It was the bit after that would be the challenge.  I went through the motions of all my start-up procedures and such, and we taxied out to line up on the runway.  Just a normal take-off, although the circuit was a little busier than I am used to.  My first landing an approach was unbelievable - I had no idea I was capable of performing such a smooth and gentle landing.  My confidence soared, and hearing the instructor say "Holy crap, that was amazing!" made me smile so much my face hurt.

Naturally, because it's me, my second landing was awful.  Cringeworthy, unbelievably poor.  I think I landed twice.  Facepalm of the century.  I started to worry that the instructor would just say "I have control" and call the whole damned thing off.  The movie theatre in my mind played a film of us parking on the grass and me walking up to the club with my head hanging in shame while everyone stared at me and said "What happened?" as they lowered the water guns which were supposed to provide me with a celebratory soaking. 

But nothing happened.  I opened the throttle again, and took off.  The instructor showed no signs of taking control of the plane and berating me for a poor performance.  I perked up my hopes again, and started mentally preparing myself for my third landing.  The approach was better this time, and I somehow pulled off another good landing.  At this point there is a huge gap in my memory.  I can't for the life of me remember if that was my last circuit with the instructor, or if we went around again.  The next thing I remember was the instructor telling ATC that we were going to do a full stop and drop off a passenger.  My mind did the math - a little sluggishly, like ailerons in slow flight, but when the solution arrived, it hit like a truck.  We were letting off a passenger, and I was going to fly solo!

Taxiing back to the club with the instructor.

 We landed and taxied over to the club.  The instructor spent a few minutes going over a few last minute instructions, and hopped out.  As he shut the door, he said something to me along the lines of "good luck and have fun", and shut the door.  I was alone in an airplane with the engine on.  I took a moment to appreciate that fact, and only succeeded in making my nerves come back tenfold.  I paused for a moment before calling ground control and requesting my taxi clearance.

A few last-minute instructions...

As I taxied to the runway I felt as though someone was dancing a tango inside of me.  I could not believe this was happening.  I felt sure that at some point before I reached 04 someone was going to come sprinting across the field and say "NO!  What are you doing?  Get your overreaching butt back to the club right now young lady!" but the request to return never came, so I positioned myself on the runway when instructed to do so, and it was time.

"Full power.  Oil and temperature gauges are green.  Airspeed is coming alive...and who the f*** am I talking to?"

And that was it.  I was in the air.  My nerves seemed to have been left on the ground - their own airspeed hadn't come alive quite as quickly, and the sudden and surprising rate of climb had caught them off guard.  They weren't going to catch me now!  I had been warned that the plane would climb a lot faster without the added weight of an instructor next to me, but I wasn't prepared to be quite so high in such a short time.  I felt like I was auditioning for a role in Top Gun.  Ok not quite.

I had no issues during the circuit more than a bump or two, a result of the wind picking up slightly.  But considering I always seem to be flying in strong wings, I wasn't bothered.  At one point I turned to say something to My Instructor, having completely forgotten that he wouldn't be there, and instead of his head and a teasingly raised eyebrow, I saw the view out the right side of the plane. 

Coming in to land I started to feel slight anxiety again - this was the big test.  Landing by myself.  But then I realised that there really wasn't any reason that landing by myself should be any different from landing with someone else there, so I just ignored my brain and went for it - not exactly like I had a choice.  I had gotten myself up into the air.  At some point I was going to have to get myself back down again.

The landing is a blur, and taxiing off of the runway I can recall in a haze of happiness and pride in myself.  As I did my post-landing procedures I became aware of several people on the radio - mainly Controllers wishing me congratulations on my first solo.  I even received a congratulatory call from 1102, which turned out to be an Air Canada flight just on its way off to Winnipeg! 

I taxied over to the club, and parked the plane on the grass.  As I shut down the engine, I realised my hands were shaking.  Seemingly out of nowhere, My Instructor appeared and showed me how to enter my times on the sheet, before kindly taking my things so they wouldn't be soaked in the upcoming ritual.  We walked back to the club, the others taking care to stay clear behind me, and I saw the group of people waiting and trying to look innocent.

'Hey, what are you all sitting around here for?' I asked, trying not to laugh, just before a bucket of water was dumped on me from behind.  Got to love traditions.

A Day I'll Always Remember

Yesterday I flew a plane solo for the very first time.  It was an incredible experience, and be assured that I have plenty to say about it!

Unfortunately, I have to get my butt to work, and I would rather spend a bit of time on the entry rather than just bash something out for you guys.  Expect it some time between 2am tonight when I get off work, and 2pm tomorrow afternoon when I have to go to work again!

In the meantime, HERE is a link to the Ottawa Flying Club blog, where Mike kindly wrote a blog entry for the club's news page - complete with photographs of me in a wet t-shirt!  If that doesn't entice you to follow the link, then I don't know what will! 

Enjoy!

FINALLY!

Two posts in one day!  Goodness me, how dedicated I am this week!

I didn't hear back from My Instructor this morning, so I sucked it up and drove into the city, figuring I'd find something to do with myself if I couldn't have a lesson.  South of the city there was nothing but beautiful clear skies (although unreasonably hot).  However towards the north and east I could see a line of sketchy looking clouds - just around where I reasoned the Practice Area to be.  I didn't feel hopeful.

My Instructor was still in the air when I arrived, so I waited to do a walk-around before getting his go-ahead.  Why waste the time, I figured, convinced he was going to say it was yet another no-go.  But to my delight he walked in and said we were on!  I immediately bounced out the door and began to check out my plane (Tango Mike Mike - the first one I ever flew in).  All went well, until it was time to check the oil.  The plane had just been out, and that in combination with how hot the weather was made the oil-cap unbearable to touch!  It was screwed on pretty tight, and I simply could not get a good enough grip to turn it without burning my hand.  I found a glove, but it was a right hand, and that made it too awkward to turn, so eventually I begged a paper towel from the mechanic and wrapped that around my hand.  By the time I got it uncapped I was practically sweating with the effort required, not to mention feeling like a bit of a tool.

I did a quick briefing with My Instructor to refresh my memory of a few exercises, like stalls and slow flight, and to learn about the new subject of the day - steep turns.  We had a bit of confusion with the radio and my squawk code - the flight planning service had assigned me the code 4211, but the Clearance Delivery and the Ground stations switched me to 4222 - I'm still not entirely sure what that was about.  Still, in a short time it was sorted out, and I was lining up to take off.  I felt slightly nervous.  It had been ten days since my last flight, and I was worried that I would forget how to do things. 

I was very pleased with my take-off.  It felt just perfect - so much easier with no wind than with the crosswinds I usually end up having to deal with.  The trip out to the practice area was nice and smooth, and I could see that most of the clouds were hovering over the Gatineau hills, leaving most of the PA clear. 

I made a couple of mistakes during the lesson, having not practiced some of the manouevers in quite some time, but practice makes perfect, and after a few tries I got them right again.  I suppose the next step will be just practicing until everything is truly stuck in my memory.

Steep turns were fun - one of my favourite exercises so far.  It's quite something to see when you're on such a steep angle, and of course you really feel the Gs when you have to pull back to keep your altitude.  I felt pretty confident that I did a reasonable job of the exercise, and before long we were headed back to Ottawa.  My approach to landing wasn't the greatest, but the landing itself could have been worse.  I caught some kind of draft or something just as I was flaring, which pushed my plane up a few feet, but I managed to correct it for a relatively smooth landing. 

After the lesson My Instructor and I sat down to discuss the lesson, and he finally signed off on the recommend for a solo!  We booked the Assistant Chief Flying Instructor (the same man who previously tricked me into a good landing) for Thursday at 11am for the pre-solo check, and hopefully if that goes well enough he will hop out onto the tarmac after a couple of circuits and I will finally fly a plane by myself!

The Vengeful Weather, and Other Fables

I am going to lose it really soon.  Once again it's my day to fly and the weather is looking completely inconvenient.  I asked My Instructor via text if he could let me know by 1 if we will get to fly, thus saving me a trip into the city and hanging around until 7pm for groundschool.  I haven't heard back yet, which I am hoping means that the weather in the city is better than it is here, and he's up in a plane right now.

I feel like I am finally there, I'm at my solo, it's here, and all I want to do is book it and then ping around like a housefly on steroids due to the excitement.  But now the Universe is going "Oh no, this is so ill-advised that I'm going to throw all my weather at you and get in the way".  I just need that one lesson.  One more.  Why is this proving to be so difficult?  I haven't flown since last Saturday.  That's a very long time for me, and although I was pretty damned good that day (if I do say so myself), I am really scared that after so long I am going to get in the plane and fall flat on my face (metaphorically speaking...literally that would be extra bad).  I don't want to have lost all my awesome superpowers (translation: the ability to flare) with the long gap between flights.  If I suck today (or tomorrow, or whenever), My Instructor could easily say he wants me to have another lesson before the big day.

On that note, I appreciate that I am perhaps making too much of a big deal out my solo.  I spoke to a few other students about it all last week, and the consensus seemed to be that no one had really cared all that much about their solos.  It was just another day and they got on with it.  But for me, it's a huge accomplishment.  I'm the kind of person who can look at something, even small, and say "this is proof that I have done something/worked hard/am awesome".  I find it keeps me positive.

To be quite honest, I completely fail to see how anyone could pooh-pooh at flying a plane alone for the very first time.  You're flying a plane alone for the first time for crying out loud.  That's amazing!  Six months ago it's something I never would have imagined to be possible for myself.  I would never have dreamed about even flying a plane at all, let alone being able to do it by myself!  And now here I am, my mind is completely overrun by a tiny tin can with an engine and wings and all I want to do is throw myself through the air inside it completely by myself.

Well...if today's lesson gets called off, I suppose the next step is to beg My Instructor to come in on his day off (tomorrow)...perhaps bribe him with cookies, so that I can still look at going solo on Thursday.  IF THE WEATHER CO-OPERATES!  I'm cranky anyway because I had to turn down a pairing with The Airline this weekend thanks to my full time job, so if I add in not getting my solo again, I am likely to snap and make a dramatic exit like this guy.