Tuesday, May 25, 2010

I feel like going to Aspen for lunch...huh?

Well, this will be new for me. I am actually trying to type this entry on my new Apple iPad. The keyboard is certainly easier to use than my iPhone, so I thought I'd give it a try. The funny thing is I really do like Apple products, but I am also one of the few people you will meet that bought an Apple computer, gave it a try, and went back to windows. I definitely think Apple is better than Windows, but I already knew the shortcuts for windows and was having a hard time learning the Apple ones. I digress...

I thought i would write today on some of the things I have been able to do in my life, that are not readily possible if i wasn't in the aviation industry. While most people can look at day trip as say going from Houston to Galveston, I look at it a little differently. My possibilities are only limited by the size of my imagination. Ask my teachers when I was growing up, and they would probably tell you that my imagination was too big for my schoolwork.

I'll give you an example. I was living in the Washington DC area. I had a sister living in Littleton, Colorado. I also had a friend, who is a pilot for United Airlines, who was at their training center in Denver. He was learning to fly the 757 at the time. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and go out to visit them both.

As a non-revenue traveler, we go standby. That means that we only get on the airplane if there are seats available. Thankfully, we have a computer system that will tell us what the loads are for the flight we are trying to get on. Therefore, we can't always be picky about how and when we want to go.

Things were not looking good for the day I wanted to go, and the only flight I had a fighting chance of getting on was at 5:30 in the morning. My sister had to work until 5 and my friend didn't get out of training for the day until around the same time. I was going to be arriving in Denver at about 9 in the morning. Herein lies my dilemma, what was I going to do for the day? I had a rental car reserved, and if I would have picked it up then, I would have had to return it at the same time at the end of my trip. That wouldn't help me out when it was time to leave, so I had to decide what to do for the day. Do I hang around the airport, or do I go somewhere? I walked up to the nearest flight monitor, just to see what there was. Low and behold, near the top of the list, was Aspen! I had done an internship with Air Wisconsin, a United Express carrier, during the winter months about 5 years earlier. I had not been back since, and I thought...that might be a good place to go for lunch! Even I have a hard time saying it. Here I had started the day in DC, flown to Denver, and was going to go to Aspen for a few hours to have lunch. WHAT? I know...crazy!

The flight was leaving in 30 minutes, so I walked over to the gate and asked if the Jumpseat was available. For those that don't know what the Jumpseat is, it's the extra seat in the cockpit that is available for pilots if they are going somewhere. It can be for pleasure, or it can help me get to or from work. I can do this on any of the airlines that my company has a reciprocal agreement with. For those of us in the United States, that is pretty much any of the US carriers.

The Jumpseat was available, so I was given a boarding pass and made my way down to the cockpit to introduce myself to the Captain and ask if I could catch a ride. This is a common courtesy and recommended most of the time. I do it every time, as I would hope they would if getting on one of my flights. As it turns out, this particular Captain remembered me firm when I had done my internship. At that time, I was a ramper, loading bags in the cargo hold, and guiding the airplanes in an out of the ramp. By now, I had my first airline pilot job, so he was interested in how my career was going. He invited me to ride in the cockpit, which I gladly accepted. The view into Aspen from the cockpit can be breathtaking. As It turned out, it was a perfectly clear day in Aspen...and I decided, maybe I didn't want to know just how close those mountains mountains were when you are on the approach.

When I arrived is Aspen, it was wonderful to see all of the people I had worked with. Many were still there, and we exchanged stories about how our lives had been in the 5 years since I had left. Not too much had changed, except there wasn't any snow on the ground at this time of the year. This was the first time I had been there outside of winter and Aspen is just as beautiful without snow. My friends then called a cab to take me into town to get lunch.

I have occasionally been accused of torture. Sometimes when I do these crazy little side trips, I will call my family and say, "guess where I am?" This certainly seemed like a good opportunity to rub in where I was to my family members. While this may seem mean, they have had ample time and opportunity to do the same to me. I enjoyed a great lunch overlooking the mountains and then made my way back to the airport. I was beginning to run out of time. The flight back to Denver was only 30 minutes. After I got back to Denver, I still had to pick up my rental car and drive into the city. I didn't have much time to spare!

All in all, it was a great trip! I got to see my sister and visit with my friend. It does make me laugh sometimes on the experiences my job has afforded me. Most places I go, foreign and domestic, I have friends I can call upon to share a good meal. This is just one of the examples of why my job has some amazing benefits. Right now, as I sit in Starbucks, typing on my iPad, I am letting my imagination wander. Where should I take my next trip? Oh yeah, from Houston to DC for my Godson's Birthday this weekend. Virginia, here I come!

Time to finish up, so fasten your seat belts and prepare for landing. Happy travels!