A dog's life.

gliderboy

Well-Known Member
Since being hired by a local freight outfit my life has devolved into a bleak, proletarian ritual of staggering out of bed at some ungodly hour, wolfing down what ever is left in the fridge and then driving in the direction of the airport with all the drunks, druggies and others whose failed lives find them on the freeway at 2:45 in the morning instead of in some nice warm bed with a nice warm honey, which is where all the sane people are at this hour. Still, there's nothing like humping a ton of cargo into a Beech 18 to get you nice and warm--and sweaty, and dirty. Then, climb in through
the window while trying not to think of how you're going to get out of this
flying coffin if anything goes wrong, blast off into the night sky for some god forsaken island and hope the runway lights come on as advertised. Of course, because your captain's life is even more screwed up than yours, he hasn't even had breakfast yet, so as soon as he gets the beast aimed in the general direction, he says, "You, got it," and starts in on his egg McMuffin (or, is he really just trying to find out if you can keep this antique airplane more or less straight and level and on course on a moonless night over the ocean with nothing more than a VOR and an artificial horizon?) Later, If I'm really lucky, I get to fly with the boss, who will mince no words in telling me what a hopeless kook of a pilot I am and that my sorry attempts at flying his airplane don't bode well for any dreams I may have had of becoming a professional pilot. After ten or so hours of variations on this theme, a few more tons of cargo, two more flights (followed by wiping off all the oil puked out by those old radials) I somehow make my way home and collapse in front of the TV while devouring anything left over in the dark recesses of the refrigerator.

Still, there are compensations.
 
Sounds about right in the OOTSK world. I have been where you were at and it does get better. I went from 135 freight to 121 pax and now 121 freight.

Flying at night rocks. ATC usually says go direct, usually a smoother ride, cooler cockpit, wx deviations are and best of all BOXES DON'T COMPLAIN.

You will look back on this experience years from now when you are in an airliner and realized what good experience it was and how much it taught you. I learned a lot by flying 135 freight and have very glad I did it.
 
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