What a week! Terry and I departed late Tuesday evening with Joe and JT. We flew to Vegas, which I have never visited in the Beechjet! Even better, I had time the next day to explore The Strip! I walked up one side and down the other, and my feet still hurt! I visited the M&Ms store (no surprise there), saw the Bellagio water fountain show, and even saw monster-size pictures of Donny and Marie Osmond on the side of a casino! If that doesn't make a day worth it, I don't know what does!
That evening we flew to Van Nuys in Los Angeles. It was a late flight, as always with Joe. The following day allowed us to find a yummy Indian restaurant for lunch. I don't know if I will ever get enough Chicken Tikka Masala in me! Later, I got to see some of the airplanes of aviation legend Clay Lacy, which were showed to me by his grabber-and-feeler best friend from long ago! It was worth the occasional pinching...I got to see some amazing airplanes! We spent the rest of the day waiting for Joe and JT to arrive for our next flight...to SAN DIEGO!
I haven't been there since I was a kid, so I was very excited. Unfortunately, we had to leave early on Friday to return to Los Angeles (LAX airport this time). One of our Eclipse 500 jets met us as well with three other passengers. We hung out with pilot, Darryl, who worked at Eclipse for a year shortly after I left before being discovered by Bruce, our boss. It was fun to swap stories, and we both felt grateful that we were out of there and had great flying jobs with a wonderful company.
Joe was just having too much fun (a.k.a. working up a storm) on the road and warned us on Friday that we may stay through Saturday. He doesn't kid about stuff like that, so we prepared for another night on the road. We flew to San Francisco airport late that evening. To avoid flying over the city and waking all the sleeping people, we did a visual arrival and got to follow the bridges between San Fran and Oakland to arrive at our runway. Very fun! I have been there once but it was five years ago. It was neat to catch up on some landmarks, though I didn't have time to visit the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory. I am sure everyone involved was grateful. I could spend hours in a place that just randomly hands out chocolate! I feel fifty pounds coming on...but it would be worth it! Have you HAD Ghirardelli Chocolate?! I won't even go into detail about their hot fudge sundaes. Anyway, back to the city. Terry and I visited the Golden Gate Bridge, which was fogged over in typical summer fashion. Also, it was freezing. About half the temperature back in Phoenix!
We got back to the airport in time to prepare for our flight home. On arrival into Phoenix, we were able to overfly the airport to prepare for our landing on the south runway, which provides us the shortest taxi to the ramp at Swift Aviation. It was hot when we opened the door at the completion of our trip. Despite working through the weekend, it was yet another wonderful week at work!
Phoenix to Las Vegas to Van Nuys to San Diego to Los Angeles to San Francisco to Phoenix.
That evening we flew to Van Nuys in Los Angeles. It was a late flight, as always with Joe. The following day allowed us to find a yummy Indian restaurant for lunch. I don't know if I will ever get enough Chicken Tikka Masala in me! Later, I got to see some of the airplanes of aviation legend Clay Lacy, which were showed to me by his grabber-and-feeler best friend from long ago! It was worth the occasional pinching...I got to see some amazing airplanes! We spent the rest of the day waiting for Joe and JT to arrive for our next flight...to SAN DIEGO!
I haven't been there since I was a kid, so I was very excited. Unfortunately, we had to leave early on Friday to return to Los Angeles (LAX airport this time). One of our Eclipse 500 jets met us as well with three other passengers. We hung out with pilot, Darryl, who worked at Eclipse for a year shortly after I left before being discovered by Bruce, our boss. It was fun to swap stories, and we both felt grateful that we were out of there and had great flying jobs with a wonderful company.
Joe was just having too much fun (a.k.a. working up a storm) on the road and warned us on Friday that we may stay through Saturday. He doesn't kid about stuff like that, so we prepared for another night on the road. We flew to San Francisco airport late that evening. To avoid flying over the city and waking all the sleeping people, we did a visual arrival and got to follow the bridges between San Fran and Oakland to arrive at our runway. Very fun! I have been there once but it was five years ago. It was neat to catch up on some landmarks, though I didn't have time to visit the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory. I am sure everyone involved was grateful. I could spend hours in a place that just randomly hands out chocolate! I feel fifty pounds coming on...but it would be worth it! Have you HAD Ghirardelli Chocolate?! I won't even go into detail about their hot fudge sundaes. Anyway, back to the city. Terry and I visited the Golden Gate Bridge, which was fogged over in typical summer fashion. Also, it was freezing. About half the temperature back in Phoenix!
We got back to the airport in time to prepare for our flight home. On arrival into Phoenix, we were able to overfly the airport to prepare for our landing on the south runway, which provides us the shortest taxi to the ramp at Swift Aviation. It was hot when we opened the door at the completion of our trip. Despite working through the weekend, it was yet another wonderful week at work!
Phoenix to Las Vegas to Van Nuys to San Diego to Los Angeles to San Francisco to Phoenix.
Hi Micah! I just happened across your blog and wanted to just say that your writing is great! I hope you keep a journal of the adventures that corporate aviation takes you on, because you have a natural knack for it! It sounds like the company has you flying EVERYWHERE (I was impressed with a visit to Greybull, WY... one of those WWII bombers is slated to fly and operate in Mesa soon!). Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Ryan Keough
(who works next door at Cutter Aviation :) )