B Season Coming to a Close

It has been a very busy month here in Anchorage. I originally was scheduled to fly SHELL charters. As most of you may know the oil companyn SHELL has recently decided to drill here in the Arctic. They chose our airline as one of its charters companies to fly them to and from Dutch Harbor. Usually it is twice a day with two different crews. Unfortunitaly I was told that I needed 1000 total hours in order to qualify for SHELL. This wasn't a company restriction. It was soley SHELLS idea. So this entire month has turned into me doing whatever was left. I have gone to King Salmon and Dillingham a ton this month. It has been crazy. I was also able to do some freighters earlier in the month to Unalakleet, Dillingham, and St. Paul and St. George Islands. It was really fun to get to fly the freighters because you really can toss the aircraft around and not worry about passengers in the back. As a pilot you definitely learn a lot from being able to just fly and not wprry about people vomiting and getting pissed in the back. Recently we recieved an email from corporate informing us the Penair is enacting a hiring freeze and will not be giving any raises until March of 2013. Which as many of you may know I was slated to get a 2 dollar raise for flight hours and a 200 dollar raise for my base pay. I was really looking forward to it because it would help out A LOT! So I have applied at the Brown Jug Liquor store and FEDEX to make extra money. I am hoping I can get one that is super flexible so I can come and go as much as I want. Alex and I have also got two bikes off of craigslist to start exercising all over town. We have been riding a lot and it has been going well. Today I am sitting at home waiting to go to St Paul and St. George. The weather has been really bad all day. We were supposed to takeoff at 1145 this morning. So we will see. I am scheduled to fly to Dillingham tonight at 9pm. Hopefully that will be all I do today. I am trying to go to Arctic Thunder tomorrow. Its a major flight sho at Elmendorf Airforce Base. The Thunderbirds have been training for it for the last few days here and been able to see them on our bike rides. Hopefully I can get tomorrow off and go see them. Alex is leaving tonight for Seattle. I leave next thursday for a good friends wedding in Seattle. I will be there until the 5th. We have got Dozer all set up to stay at a Dog kennel in Anchorage. We shopped around a lot and this place is amazing. Its called AK Must Love Dogs. Anyone curious to check it out? http://www.akmustlovedogs.com/ Here's the link. Anyways, Hopfully we will see everyone soon!

Unalakleet

Well, I saw the infamous airport where the show on Discovery channel took off today. It looks very similar to the town they shoe on the TV. Jim Tweeto's Cessna 180 was parked over by their hangar. Must not have been flying today. Our hangar is about 300 yards down from the ERA hangar. I took a few pictures on my phone and I will post them on here for everyone to see. It is a very mountainous region. I thought it would be really flat but as we got lower it got very hilly. It looks like great hunting and fishing area. Very beautiful day today there. The captain and I had to unload 7,300 pounds of food and mail because our contractor out there couldn't muster up more than two rampers. Penair corporate is pissed because now the captains back is hurt and we pay them top dollar to unload us in Unalakleet. So we will see what happens. I have to go back to King Salmon tonight at 9:30pm. All the touruist in King are going home now so we will be flying to King pretty non-stop for about two weeks till they are all home. Lots of flying this month for me. Not getting a lot of time off. Next month though I have 13 days off. Im excited to finally get some vacation!

Tweeto Sighting

The last week has been great. Alex is finally moved up here and living full time. We are getting her all settled into the apartment and getting her insurance and looking for jobs. I have been flying a lot and have been very busy. I have 3 days off starting tomorrow. I have flown with a couple new captains. I like all but 1. The guy today was an asshole for no particular reason. I don't understand why. Lighten up! My landing was WAY better than his. Maybe that was part of it! Yesterday Alex and I saw Jim and Ferno Tweeto at the ERA gate. We were going to go over there and get a picture but of course we didn't want to bother them. They were heading back home from what I heard. The weather was crappy in Unalakleet yesterday so I wonder if they made it out there. I have seen a few of those guys from TV. Today we finally got our new uniform stuff. It looks alright I guess. Not really fond of the puke yellow epaulets but I will get over it. Going to the store today and getting a few things! Talk to everyone later!