Composed, calm, professional

The 747 Super Tanker concept seems to come and go over the years. If I had to guess, I’d say it is because there is a lot of money and politics involved in the idea, so the efficiency of the tanker gets questioned constantly. At the time of writing this blog, the Super tanker is parked, while last year, when we came up with the comic, it flew.

But what this strip really is all about is the enthusiasm for aviation. While I see many private pilots always excited about flying, I don’t always see that with the professionals. I guess I would chalk that one up to somewhere between “the grass is always greener…” and “once this becomes a day job…”.

However, there are always exceptions. Chuck is obviously one of them, always positive, always excited. But they exist in real life as well! One of my fellow pilots and good friend is the Chuck-Type when it comes to maintaining the enthusiasm for this business, even after almost 20,000hrs of flight time. He amazes me. He seems to be as excited every morning to do his job as he was on day one. I don’t know how he does it, but it is kind of infectious when you work with him (sometimes it can be downright exhausting, HAHA). It is definitely the way to go and makes the day go by faster 😉

On my last roll I ended up getting stationed out of the Camarillo airport by pure luck. It is the airport where my aviation career “took off”, so to speak, and where everything started including “Chicken Wings”. I had forgotten how cool of an airport this really was after a 10+ year absence and really enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and checking out all the on goings there. There is always so much happening at KCMA. I can highly recommend the trip if you are looking for the “100 Dollar Hamburger”. The airport restaurant is one of the best I have ever been to. (Don’t go on Monday, that’s when they are closed). Camarillo reignited my passion for flying and motivated me to get current again on my private fixed wing aircraft rating. I have had a blast since and I am sure me getting back in ‘ye ole Cessna Skyhawk’ will spark a few ideas down the road, LOL.

Keep flying, my friends! And if you’re not flying currently, do it! Or get a chicken at least. That’s fun as well.

Mike

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3 comments on “Composed, calm, professional
  1. Felix says:

    Love Jason’s dedication to note every bit of advice he is given, while not being distracted by other things. We all have something to learn from him.

  2. Tampa says:

    Money? It’s a 74 they are out there like sand on a beach these days, parts and airframes are so cheap you can more easily get one than a Gulfstream. I can only imagine it has to do with what it represents, it being the largest firefighting apparatus out there signifying how dire the situation is with the fires that we have to take passenger aircraft to put out the literal and proverbial dumpster fire.

    Them “yellow bees” as the Spaniards like to call them apparently are far harder to maintain and service given how few parts are out there. Not to mention getting them anywhere on short notice is quite a bit harder. They are more versatile in the field and don’t need ground equipment to get the water back in there, but comparing in effectiveness on large scale fires you want a whole lot more water.

    The politics problem I see more in everyone haarping(not a typo) on about controlling the weather in that regard when we are fiddling with the ecosystem so much anyways is a moral line in the sand I don’t really get why that would be so abhorrent in comparison to pumping god knows what into the ground to get more oil. Beyond that fires are a somewhat natural thing and nature recovers quite quickly if you let it regulate itself. They just absolutely want to live in the forest and heaven forbid natures example of regular small fires is followed to rejuvenate the forest flora.

    I watch these fires on the news and kinda wonder what exactly they expected to happen letting brush and trees pile on for years like that. Like watching a slowmotion trainwreck and not pushing the baby stroller off the tracks.

  3. Hanging out for lockdown to end so I can go & get current again. Thanks to COVID it’s been so long since I was last PIC, I have to go & do a “return to currency” check flight then log three full flights (inflation & deflation included) and three hours PIC within 90 days of my check flight.
    The joys of being a hot air balloon pilot down here in Oz 🙂

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