As the story goes, we up-and-coming pilots keep a pretty solid look on the horizon.  It's actually quite a balance sometimes...throughout training, my eyes are always on what I'm doin' it for, yet at the same time, you don't want to get too far ahead of yourself.  In other words, I would love to fly corporate jets and probably even regional jets, too.  But I can't even apply for their minimums yet.  So it's finding the balance of inspiration, dreaming, reality, and timeframes.

But with all that said, we do have a tendency to find ourselves browsin' the internet every now and again to see what the minimums for hiring are.  The airlines always change depending upon the need for pilots (American Eagle, for example, just lowered their minimums this week to 350 total hours and 50 multi-engine whereas they used to be 500 TT).  I looked around quite a bit in the first couple of weeks at the hiring requirements, but then I realized that I was months away from even sending out a resume, so I kinda stopped lookin' for awhile.

Well, until recently...without much time to fly, ya gotta pass the time with other stuff.  So I might as well fill it with aviation items, right?  Well, in my browsing, I found the following requirements rather, um, interesting...this is a current requirements page for hiring a Flight Attendant for Era Aviation, a regional carrier in Alaska...the excerpt is below...

Era Aviation is currently hiring flight attendants.



Minimum Qualifications



• Must be at least 21 years of age

• Valid drivers license

• Good communication skills

• Dedicated to customer service

• Positive and professional image

• Able and willing to work weekends, holidays, late nights and early mornings, possibly with short notice

• Excellent decision making skills

• Confidence, as you are the only flight attendant on the aircraft

• High school Diploma or GED

• Two years customer service experience preferred

• Stable employment history

• Fluency in English, both verbal and written

• Able to lift up to 20 lbs overhead

• Ability to swim

• Able to operate aircraft emergency and safety equipment, including opening a 40 lb emergency exit door and tossing same from A/C.

• Must be able to tolerate fumes and odors associated with aircraft operations.

• Able to tolderate inclement weather, turbulence, and pressurization changes while on duty.



Now I consider myself a fairly smart and competent individual.  I can usually hold my own when it comes to understanding and interpreting various scripts.  But there are just a couple of things that I find rather...well...intriguing here.

First and foremost...the ability to swim?!  I mean, c'mon now.  If your jet is goin' down in the ocean, the last thing you need to know how to do is swim.  I can only conclude that these jets have onboard hot-tubs that we contiguous 48 locals just don't get to enjoy.  Lucky fools.

And you "must be able to tolerate fumes and odors associated with aircraft operations."  I find it rather amusing that these exact fumes and odors were not exactly mentioned.  Now while I would like to think that these would be the usual jet fuel exhaust, new leather interiors, etc., after talking with one tourist pilot, I might be left to conclude that this is not necessarily the case.  I'm not sure exactly how Alaska operates, but if you take the job, you might very well be signin' on to fly around people who don't take showers.  Hey, every job has its ups and downs, right?

And I won't even go into chucking the 40-pound emergency door out of the aircraft.  I mean, go ahead and picture Miss Petite Stewardess grabbin' the door, unlatching it, and hurling it out into oblivion...oh, and all of this is taking place while the jet is screeching at 300 miles per hour (or more on a descent if an emergency) and creating a vacuum which happens to be located where?  That's right.  Right where that door (and stewardess nonetheless) used to be.

hmm...so...any takers?!

Needless to say, today didn't involve any flying.  I had more than enough time to kill.  The weather here in Kansas is just not lookin' too good.  We had low ceilings again with a bit of ice while flying (Van and Venkat went up), and although maybe not detrimental, it still doesn't make for great flying.  That and the Cherokee is still down.  So we were all stuck inside today.  And I am gettin' a cold, so that doesn't help out, either.  And on top of that, it's still cold outside.  To think I was in shorts just a few days ago.

Kind of a blah day.

Studied a bit for the oral exam, went out and bought some cough medicine, took a nap, went to a town 15 miles away with Jyri to enjoy a pancake-and-sausage supper [I have to comment on this one.  The town is pretty desolate...small...kinda poorer.  They were havin' a silent auction, and I'm not lyin', these were some of the things for sale...shampoo, a solitary piece of ash firewood, a cowboy hat, a used pair of Carhartt bibs, dog food, bird seed, and other various items.  The people were great...mostly older...but I love that...the food was fantastic...and the experience was fun.  But I sometimes just have to wonder why we don't really get to see this side of America very often!  Jyri loves it...he's gettin' a true taste of America!  None of this New York, Boston, LA stuff.  And I'm not goin' to lie, I kinda like it, too.], and then watched some basketball on TV tonight.

A pretty slow day, for sure.

But tomorrow and Monday look to be a bit more exciting.  I might be gettin' to fulfill one of my dreams...we'll have to wait and see.  It turns out that the elements are linin' up for some pretty hefty storms to be passin' right through here.  The moist air from the south is goin' to line up with some nice jet stream action along with all that other mumbo jumbo stuff that doesn't really make sense to me or any other civilian...TRANSLATION:  We are goin' to have very nasty storms with probable hail and tornadoes.

So what does that mean?  Time to clear out the camera memory card, charge up some batteries, fill up the car, and scout out a local house with a basement so that I can stay safe (one of those is for my mom, but I'm not tellin' you which one).

I'm pretty excited.  It should be quite a ride for the next couple of days...

In terms of flying, it's really not good.  Probably won't be seein' an airplane until at least Tuesday.  Nothin' like crunch-time, right?

Woke up at 9:52 A.M.  Went to bed at 11:30 P.M.  Time to sleep off this cold.