Weekly Work, Day One

I was on the road this week. Big Boss has a million places to go, and he used My Baby to get there. I didn’t mind. It had been a few weeks since I had flown, and I knew the end of this week was going to be something wonderful. So I willingly went for a trip!

 

This week was the first for my new copilot. He replaced Terry and has been in training for the past three weeks. Since he has never flown the Beechjet except for in the simulator (where they simply try to kill you with every emergency imaginable), it was nice to get on the road and teach him how the normal week runs.

I was expecting to leave Monday and waited for the call all day. It finally came that evening, but with surprising news. We were going to leave the following morning instead.

So, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Tuesday morning, I met David for his first flight as a new Beechjet Captain. We had two passengers on our way up to Reno to pick up a third. Big Boss was actually early, so we left on time and had a nice 1.3-hour flight up to the beautiful city in Nevada.

 

I really like Reno and tend to get there pretty often for work.

     

After getting some fuel and loading his bags, we were on our way to Denver Centennial Airport. We flew just south of my hometown (Hi, Mama!) on our way over the Rocky Mountains.

    

The Landings Restaurant in the FBO at Centennial has some incredible food, and we made it just in time for lunch. Big Boss had a business meeting a few tables down from us, but I didn’t let that stop me from enjoying a lovely sandwich. This was our last landing for the rest of the week with no wind. In fact, by the time we took off, it was gusting 25. That was pretty mild, compared to every single airport we landed for the next four days!

   

Denver Jet Center has such an awesome points program. I have purchased roller blades and more kitchen utensils that I can count using their money. Hey, if I have to buy jet fuel, I might as well get to buy something fun for myself, too, right? If you are looking for a great place to stop in Denver, I highly recommend Denver Jet Center.

 

Next stop? Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I’ve never been here in a Beechjet but think I stopped once on a loooooong cross-country flight from Grand Forks. Other than fuel and wind, not much happened here.

After the Dakotas, we continued our trek east to Madison, Wisconsin. We ended up being here for a few hours, but I didn’t want to spoil anything by going to dinner.

   

I had my hopes up for Chicago for the night, and nothing was going to keep me from a Giordano’s Deep Dish Pizza! It was windy in Sioux Falls, but that was certainly an ongoing theme all week.

Waiting in Madison for just a few hours brought good news…we were skipping a stop in Milwaukee and heading straight to Chicago Midway instead! I ordered a pizza to be ready at 10:30 PM. Don’t judge…waiting forty-five minutes for a pizza when you’re hungry is simply an eternity!

We landed in Chicago at ten and buttoned up the airplane. After getting a ride in the hotel shuttle to the Hampton Inn, we walked the three blocks to Giordano’s and had the best pizza I had eaten all day.

Perhaps the best news was that Big Boss didn’t need to leave super-early the next day. So I got a decent amount of time in the hotel room. I didn’t sleep very well, though, and blame a lack of a warm husband next to me. He is handy for many reasons.

Day One of training the new guy went well. I got to teach him how to have soft landings in a non-trailing-link-gear airplane. It can be difficult to land a Beechjet softly, but I think I passed on that oh-so-prevalent wisdom of mine! 

 

Did I mention it was windy? Sheesh!

Phoenix – Reno – Denver/Centennial – Sioux Falls – Madison – Chicago/Midway