Flying J's: ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖅᑎ - qangatasuuqti

Saturday, July 2, 2011

ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖅᑎ - qangatasuuqti - pilot

As long as I can remember I’ve wanted to be a pilot.

Eight years after starting my flight training between the summers of engineering, the dream is in full swing. In addition, I have an amazing and supportive wife who is every bit as excited on our journey as I am.

After reviewing the books and numbers for the Dornier over the last few months, the training came as a nice progression when dealing with a much larger aircraft that fly with more inertia and responsiveness. However, working full time on the ramp for 12 or more hours a day, everyday, while training made it somewhat more challenging. Management's methodology of pushing you beyond limits stems from an interesting idea; that the training Captains can observe how a new trainee will respond in the cockpit when fatigue or stress sets in at the end of a rotation. Two weeks of being in Yellowknife was hectic and exhausting, but I am now licensed to fly the Dornier. It is great to be done and heading back to Iqaluit. Strangely enough, I now refer to Iqaluit as home. For home is where my better half is. Can you tell that I miss her?

I’ll have the opportunity to fly for nearly 3 weeks this coming month on the three Dornier’s we have stationed in Iqaluit. Now that I’m on the flight line I will also have scheduled off days to reset flight duty times. The rest of the time I will continue to manage the Iqaluit base.

We are truly blessed for this opportunity. Thank you to our family and friends who have prayed diligently for us and continue to do so. Truly a testament to the power of prayer. Looking towards the fall I would suspect we will take a couple weeks off at the end of October or beginning of November to head back to Edmonton and do some moving to the NWT. As for the time here on Baffin Island, the snow has melted/is melting, “summer” is here with all its wonderful daylight, and the logging of flight time will begin.

Regards,
Joshua