A Return to Farmington

Last Saturday was another day for work. I am rather enjoying this new job.

Because Farmington is just a 45-minute flight from home, and because they wanted $130 a night to park on the ramp (wha?!), we simply flew home last Monday after dropping off our passengers in the northwest corner of New Mexico.

It was actually a real treat, since I had been gone for two months straight and had lots of things to accomplish at home before we had company (starting today…woohoo!).

So instead of spending a week in Farmington, I got to come home and work on the house. And then, on Saturday, we went back to pick everyone up.

We were supposed to be wheels-up at 5:00 PM, but the other guy didn’t show until 5:20. That meant that I had the pre-flight and walk-around finished and the airplane ready to go. And then I got to wait for half an hour.

With the time change, we landed around 7:15 PM and taught the line guy gal how to fuel our airplane. Then we rushed to a restaurant in town for a quick bite to eat. The food took twenty minutes to get to our table, and the whole time I was worried that our passengers were due back any second.

I hate being late. Did you know that? It is probably in my top-five for pet peeves. If I’m not fifteen minutes early for something, I feel like I’m late and being rude.

Even worse than being late? Being consistently late.

Because the evening started out behind schedule, we chomped down dinner and rushed back to the airport.

We would have been late, too, but the passengers called and said that they were still a few hours away. Saved by the bell? I hate being late. Is there a broken record in here?

Luckily, dinner was pretty good. Even if I only ate three bites and then boxed it up to bring home. Hubby liked it the next morning, too. Homemade red corn tortilla flautas stuffed with shredded beef and cream cheese, covered in New Mexico green chile sauce. Their rice and beans were pretty darn good, too.

I spent the next few hours peeking out the FBO window watching for my passengers. A few moments before they arrived, they let us know that there were two additional passengers. And bags. Looooooooots of bags.

I got to find out tonight that the baggage compartment of the Phenom 300 is massive and can hold a whole lotta bags. We really put it to the test. I was relieved to discover this, since our next trip has six passengers on board. Six! When translated from Aviation Speak, six means “lots of bags.”

We had some catering waiting for them as well so they could eat on the flight home instead of grabbing a bite on the way. We had only ordered enough for two people, but there was plenty inside each box to feed any army.

It was a quick flight home, and we landed around 11:45 PM. I crawled into a warm bed about 1:00 AM. What a great day at work!