August 25, 2012

Well, I am officially on Vacation as of thursday night. I am really excited! Great news at Penair... Two of our guys got hired on at Alaska Airlines. Bad news.... We are firing around 6-8 more guys. We are all hoping it will be the useless FOs that make too much money. I hope to still have a job when I return which I do believe I will. We are the cheapest pilots in the company. It wouldn't make sense to fire us. But you never know I guess. Hopefully, I impressed everyone I flew with. Mexico is looking good. We have all the paperwork and the tickets. Everything is lining up. All of us here are hoping the company survives. I really need this job in order to move on with my career. If not there are a lot of hopefuls down in the lower 48 who are hiring. Anyways, nothing is really new here. The weather is still staying semi nice. Today we are off to the Alaska State Fair!!! Shall be a good time! Alex is excited for her fair food. Packing and getting things ready for mexico tomorrow and monday. We leave tuesday afternoon at 3:30 ADT. We will be in Dallas at 6am. Then on to cancun around 9am. We will be back on the 2nd hopefully. Dozer is so excited to go back to summer camp! He is counting down the days and it sometimes feels like he is pushing us out the door! Have a great weekend everyone!

Danny

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!

3:30 will come early

After my nice 2 days off I get to go back to my 3:30am Dutch flights. Only 3 more to go and I am done with them for the rest of the month. I am stoked to be done with them as they have been very tiring. Only need to push through 3 more... Who knows maybe the weather will be shitty one day and get it cancelled? That would be nice. Anyways, cleaned the entire apartment today. Washing all the clothes and almost done. Then I need to take Dozer to the park and then back here for bed time. Talk to you soon!

Yes, I will take a cup of your Dutch blend!

Went to the Dutch Harbor airport this morning. Had to stop twice just to make it to the airport without running out of fuel. All of our flights were cancelled to Dutch yesterday due to weather. 8 flights are scheduled for there today. Im back home now playing with dozer and trying to get him acquainted with life in Alaska. He is doing well so far. Still on the "dont leave daddys side" routine. Im sure its just a matter of time and he will be up and running. We are planning on a park adventure here soon. Not sure which one I want to go to yet. I will figure it out and we will be on the road. Plus...he needs to poop somewhere in the woods were picking it up is not needed. Haha. Thats one thing I refuse to do if I can get away with it!

Seattle Bound

Leaving soon for Seattle. I still am waiting for the all clear from Penair Traffic. Hopefully they will get back to me soon! Weather is really bad here today. Lots of rain and fog! Things are starting to look more like home around here. My apartment is taking shape. I have a three day weekend starting now!!!!