Going to work a Pierce's shop....

[behindpropellers]

Just Moved to Texas for my new job at Pierce Aero......

May 30th:

Just moved to Dallas. Now this is a city that knows how to

live!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place! I

watched the sunset from a park lying on a blanket. It was beautiful.

I've finally found my home. I love it here.

June 14th:

Really heating up. Got to 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an

air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to

see the sun everyday like this. I'm turning into a sun worshiper.

June 30th:

Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of

cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing lawn for me.

Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th:

The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people

get used to this kind of heat? At least it's kind of windy though. But

getting used to the heat and humidity is taking longer that I expected.

July 15th:

Fell asleep by the pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my

body). Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do. I learned my

lesson though. Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th:

I missed Morgan (our cat) sneaking into the car when I left this

morning. By the time I got to the hot car for lunch, Morgan had died and

swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and stank up the $2,000 leather

upholstery. I told the kids that she ran away. The car now smells like

Kibbles and shits. I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat.

July 25th:

The wind sucks. It feels like a giant freaking blow dryer!! And

it's hot as hell. The home air-conditioner is not working and the AC

repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th:

Been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. $1,500 in

damn house payments and we can't even go inside. Why did I ever come here?

Aug. 4th:

It's 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today.

It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to 85, but this freaking

humidity makes the house feel like it's about 95. Stupid repairman. I hate this stupid city.

Aug. 8th:

If another wise ass asks, "Hot enough for you today?" I'm going

to strangle him. Damn heat. By the time I get to work the radiator is

boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!!

Aug. 9th:

Tried to run some errands after work. Wore shorts, and sat on

the black leather seats in the ol' car. I thought my ass was on fire. I

lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and ass.

Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried ass, and baked cat.

Aug. 10th:

The weather report might as well be a damn recording. Hot and

sunny. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to do **** for 2

damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week.

Doesn't it ever rain in this damn desert? Water rationing now, so my

$1700 worth of cactus just dried up and blew into the damn pool. Even

the cactus can't live in this damn heat.

Aug. 14th:

Welcome to HELL!!! Temperature got to 115 today. Forgot to crack

the window and blew the damn windshield out of the car. The installer

came to fix it and said, "Hot enough for you today?" My wife had to

spend the $1500 house payment to bail me out of jail.

Freaking Texas. What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live here?

[SJ]

HA! I like it.

[hottshot]

That funny rite there!!

[aktango58]

[Dave Calkins]

Funny.

George, how 'bout wordsmithing somethin' like that about moving to a "dream" job in Alaska??

[Tadpole]

Love it! haha!

[Steve Pierce]

That is how we keep the Yankees out although I did talk to Tal while he was in MN earlier in the week and that poor Alaskan was dying in the 100 degree heat driving a car with no air conditioning.

Tim, Graham is a dry heat, whole different deal than Dallas.

I liked razzing all ya'll all winter so now it is ya'lls turn to pay me back. Been 100 degrees here all week, ready to return to Alaska but it would take too many 18 wheelers and a Sky Crane to move my hanger and stuff.

[JP]

There is a similarly veined e mail that makes the rounds in the Northeast around January of each year when people who moved here and got spoiled by the usually lovely spring-summer-fall (hint--spring was a bi-atch this year) run into that week in January where it goes to 20 below and sits there..... Emphasis on cold and snow and just as funny with the "writer" going off the rails at the end....

p.s. it is 84 deg here and very humid. cold front is on its way, though, and tomorrow will be high 70s, no humidity. That's the Maine I know and love....

[jcrowles]

One hot day in Minnesota , last week , reached 103 #F. Today it is a pleasant 61#F !! You can keep your Texas oven !!

[Tim]

Take your pick, 4 feet of snow and 0 deg. or 100 deg.for 2 or 3 months

[kevin]

I'll take the heat.

[hottshot]

Snow for me......

[ndill]

Yes in the summer its hot but then on the other hand we have our mar-apr and sep-oct when Ya'll are freezing.

[btracy]

Give me a call when it finaly warms up down Texas way and I will come back down.

[aktango58]

i got a job flying!!

yes, someone will pay me to fly THEIR airplane. They live in the 'big city' they said, biggest on the Yukon, (a river, not part of Canada), and they fly mostly IFR! They want me to be there in March to start training, said it warms up about then, hangs around 40 degrees! I need to sell some stuff, cause I am just taking the Pickup, and not taking a trailer. What I can fit is what I take. I wonder if I can keep the sub-woofer and still fit my other gear.

They told me they run a scheduled airline servicing around ten communities. Must be a big airlines with a HUGE hanger, cause they told me that their fleet has fifteen aircraft, but said that two smaller twin Otters, (yes, they said they have twin otters), will make seventeen when they get back.

Twin Otters are the small ones? I bet that they fly jets... ohhhh yea I will be a jet pilot!

February 15th

Off to my job, I am excited. If I can get out of this darn cold area in Montana, zero degrees, I will be fine. Radiator hose froze last night, had to change it and put more anti-freeze. Expensive considering I will be in 40 degree weather in a few days... What an adventure.

February 20th

Fort Nelson. It is a small berg on the Alaskan Highway. Learned today that when it gets below minus thirty here, they just say thirty. Can't wait to get back to the United States where they talk normal, aye, and I can turn my truck off.

February 23rd Watson Lake

It is now 'forty five' and temperature falling. Was a blizzard so get held up for three days in a little motel at $125/night for a room. That is ok, three days and I should be reporting to my job if it clears. Then it is nothing but $40/hour for flight time!!! I will be rich by the end of summer.

February 26th Snag Junction

Slow going trying to keep warm. My heater can not keep up. I was told to 'tarp' my engine, but it got caught in the fan belt before I made it ten miles. I got it free, and just put it back in the back, the hood keeps the warm air from escaping anyway. Laying a tarp on top of the engine.... huh.

Saw the Yukon River, while driving in the Yukon of Canada. Not that big of a river, I am getting close to my new home I bet.

It warmed to thirty two below. Since that is centigrade I think that means it is about ten below F? I will find out, but the temperature is dropping as I head west they say, so expect to see about twenty below headed across Alaska. Why are all these crazy people driving around with stuff flapping under the front of their car, that hurts the paint job.

February 28

Tok Junction

Fifty degrees.

Fifty below.

Fifty below U.S.

The guy down the street said he has an engine that they can put in my pickup for $3,000, or will buy the truck from me for seven hundred and a ride to Fairbanks. He said my mains froze... I don't know what that means, but it sounded bad. I told him if he could drive me to Bethel it would be a deal.

He was still laughing when I went back three hours later. Mom and Dad told me to take the deal and just UPS my stuff on to my job, I could find a truck or someone driving from Fairbanks to Bethel.

March First

Warmed up this afternoon. Fifty three below. Spent my $700 from my truck on new boots, coat, gloves, hat, long underwear, and a few other things to try and stay warm. Staying at the youth Hostel, can not afford anything else. Called the new boss, class starts at the end of the week. He told me that if I go to the airport and talk to a guy in a green hanger, tell him 'bill' sent me, I could maybe work off a free ride to Galena, and then I cold help 'sam' get going the next day to get to Bethel.

No roads into Bethel. It is dark already.

March second.

Bill is letting me stay in the hanger on a cot upstairs. I can sleep downstairs, but they turn off the heat, so I move upstairs around midnight to stay warm. Spent all day helping load mail and cargo headed to "villiages" hoping I could get to Galena.

No seats were available.

I am glad I am going to Bethel, because these people are crazy. Not a single passenger or pilot for this outfit wears a tie, nor dress shoes. Everyone wears 'Bunny Boots' to work, and old shirts and coats with real fur!!!!

Every airplane needs a paint job. I can see three different patches on the one plane they call the 'sled'. The horizontal stabilizer has three dents in it as big as an M&M, the prop has been filed, and they don't have a single wheel pant on any plane.

The passengers look just like the pilot. One guy even got off carrying a rifle. Maybe he was a police officer, but I did not see a uniform, just a hat with ear flaps.

I think I helped load ten airplanes and am beat.

Galena March 4th

Helping Sam today. Got here just after sunrise, and expect my new boss to arrive late this afternoon.

Sam flies a, well, I don't know what it is yet because we are still trying to get the snow off the covers, and the covers off of the plane. It is a low wing. I can not believe that he does not hanger his plane.

Sam said it is going to be warm today. I wonder what he means by warm.

Must be a lot of coyotes around here, everyone is talking about a bunch of dogs coming to town soon.

March 7

Bethel

No hanger.

Housing is a bunk in the back of the office.

Fifteen aircraft: two flying, one waiting for a wing, another for a new engine; eleven (what is remaining) are behind the office in a 20' container for spare parts. Twatters are RC planes the boss and his brother built.

Class today was weight and balance. I stood waiting and holding the tail while my boss loaded enough into the plane to balance costs to income.

Propwash from a 206 is cold at 30 below.

March 25

Will be checked out in the 172 tomorrow. I got up late today because the weather was bad. Below IFR; the river ice was covered in snow so we could not see definition. I was told monday, what I thought was a pay day, that only flight time 'for hire' was paid by the company. Until I get checked out I can not fly 'for hire'. I still get to help load and unload the planes though.

March 26th

got a bill from the boss for room rent.

March 30th

Jump seating to Anchorage and then to a place called Yakutat. The largest city for about four hundred miles of coast line. They have surf! OOOHHHHH Yea, surf, sand, bikinis... Wahoooo!

No more of this loading tons of mail and soda pop. Probably just tourists with Samsonite luggage to load. Probably all just light little stuff, after all, the big plane there is a 206! Free room with the new job, and they pay by the month. They want me there early April to study for my checkride, but say the job starts mid-april and goes until the middle of September.

Sounds cushy... Just think, they have to give me time off by the FARS, so I will be on the beach soaking up rays on weekends looking at the girls...

And the average temperature is not anywhere near zero!!!!!

April 16th

They told me to take some time off, two weeks, before coming to work. I went home and picked up my summer clothing. Today is my first official day flying as a 'line pilot'

July 1st

I asked for a day off, told them that the quarter was ending and was required to have two weeks each quarter of leave. "what was the first two weeks of April?" they asked. Today started a new quarter.

September 6th

Now I see why they snickered about 50 lbs fish boxes being "heavy".

I also know why they call them Moose.

They say the mountains are pretty here. I hope to see them before i go home

I should have taken Pierce up on his job offer sweeping hangers...

[docstory]

Excellent!
Ain't summer grand?

[Dave Calkins]

Before long, you guys are gonna needs bags to put over your heads.................or you'll need to delete all your posts......I'm not sure which. D

[aktango58]

Naw,

Just start flying a red and white plane, shave myself bald and change my name to sEaton

[Dave Calkins]

Naw,

Just start flying a red and white plane, shave myself bald and change my name to sEaton

Shave what? How 'bout the "walking backwards" part?

[JP]

Take your pick, 4 feet of snow and 0 deg. or 100 deg.for 2 or 3 months

Given that I get a big grin anytime I think about last winter's ski flying I'll take the snow any day of the week.....

[Ole Bob]

Well, I have lived in: Mass, NY, VA, GA, OH, WA, CA and now NM
Mass: cold and lots of snow in the winter. Hot and intolerably humid in Summer (born there)
NY: Where did all the people come from?
VA: Hot, humid Summers and ice storms in the Winter.
GA: Hot and humid but can't hold a candle to OH in that regard. Wonderful people make up for a lot. Tornados and ice storms.
OH: 90 degrees most of the late Spring thru Fall. Not too bad? The humidity was always 90%. Snow and ice storms during the Winter.
WA: Learned to feel comfortable flying in the rain. And driving in zero/zero. Lived there twice. But now trying to drive there is like being in jail. Other people completely control one's life.
CA: Are you kidding? What a guy will do to earn a living!
NM: Paradise. 50 degrees in Winter and 95 in Summer. Low humidity makes 95 feel great . 6 weeks of wind in Spring: Airplane maintenance time. 19 years here in retirement and they'll have to carry me out!

[Iflylower]

Well, I have lived in: Mass, NY, VA, GA, OH, WA, CA and now NM
Mass: cold and lots of snow in the winter. Hot and intolerably humid in Summer (born there)
NY: Where did all the people come from?
VA: Hot, humid Summers and ice storms in the Winter.
GA: Hot and humid but can't hold a candle to OH in that regard. Wonderful people make up for a lot. Tornados and ice storms.
OH: 90 degrees most of the late Spring thru Fall. Not too bad? The humidity was always 90%. Snow and ice storms during the Winter.
WA: Learned to feel comfortable flying in the rain. And driving in zero/zero. Lived there twice. But now trying to drive there is like being in jail. Other people completely control one's life.
CA: Are you kidding? What a guy will do to earn a living!
NM: Paradise. 50 degrees in Winter and 95 in Summer. Low humidity makes 95 feel great . 6 weeks of wind in Spring: Airplane maintenance time. 19 years here in retirement and they'll have to carry me out!

Agreed on all.
New Mexico is like Arkansas. Half the state is beautiful, half the state is uninhabitable...