Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Let Me Help

In declining the opportunity with Eagle, I included the offer to help out in the meantime because I have a number of skills that match the needs of the small company and didn't want to leave them in the lurch. My offer was accepted and the day after I returned to my own province, I was out at that airport doing ... can you guess? Company exams, of course. Deicing, aircraft, ground handling, ops, flight following, all very thorough and properly done. I believe it may be the first time I've actually had the prescribed number of hours tracked for each segment of the indoctrination. There was another new employee there, so we went off to the airplane together and inventoried the survival kit and first aid kit for some independent learning. We checked off and initialled all the boxes, got my name on the insurance and went for a training flight.

Thanks to my experience and the nature of the operating certificate, I actually require minimal aircraft training. It turns out I've flown both the airframe type and engine type for an acceptable number of hours, but never both at once--but I need to learn how the practical aspects of the particular operation, so this is a working flight.

I'm in the left seat, at an unfamiliar airport, stumbling my way through clearance delivery, ground, not taxiing anywhere I shouldn't, and then following an unfamiliar departure procedure. Oh whom am I kidding? I love it. The sky is blue, the engines are in limits, and I quickly see what it is that we have to do to fulfil the mission. My situational awareness is still quite narrow, but I'm learning. Doing it all correctly is another matter, though, and I give control to the owner for the more complicated tasks. I fly a few shaky practice lines, and then the weather changes and we head back for landing. I don't think there's a reason I can't tell you a bit more about this operation, so I will do that next day.

en français:
la piste - runway
la vois de circulation - taxiway
le seuil - threshold
le point d'attente - holding point
circuler - to taxi

Je circule lentement parce que je ne suis certain ou se trouve le point d'attente et je ne veux pas être sur la piste sans authorisation.

4 comments:

Cedarglen said...

Thanks for the brief update. The situation is starting to make more sense and I suppose that the subsequent details will make it even more clear. With waht is currently known, your choice to "Help Out" at Eagle is a brilliant choice. You never know when circumstances might change and, but do know that they will NOT forget your effort. Think of it as building bridges rather than burning them. And, you did some real flying! Win-win and zero loss for anyone. Standing by... -C.

pat said...

Hello,
A few corrections from the "translator" ;-)

la voie de circulation - taxiway.
But no one uses this in France. We say, guess what? "taxiway" :-)

circuler - taxi
we say "rouler" instead.

However, Canadian french is very different than "French french".

hawk205 said...

well Looks like you will delay the start of Alzheimer’s see
click here
And I have use for my high school french

Thomas L. said...

Hello!

Here in France, we do not say "le point d'attente", but rather "le point d'arrêt", as in

"F-DB, roulez point d'arrêt piste 25, rappelez prêt"

I don't know if it applies to Canadian French however.

You may want to check the Manuel de Formation à la Phraséologie edited by the French SIA (equivalent of NavCanada I guess).

Have fun!

Thomas