the on-demand lifestyle

A week ago, I was washing dishes and just chilling at home. As there are few dishwashers out here, its a process done by hand. The phone rang, which isn't entirely usual. I washed the soap off my hands and reached for the phone.

"Hey, Liz? If you hurry, you can fly down to Nondolton and back with Glen," the dispatcher told me.
"Uh, sounds good!" I respond. I turn off the water, grab my headset, and head out the door.

We head to the other runway and help unload the three passengers staying here, fuel up, and load up. We have one passenger to drop off, as well as a bunch of groceries for 3 or so different people. We will also be switching from the Bonanza to the 207. We leave a plane stationed there with our pilot who lives there.

When we get close (about 5 minutes after taking off) Glen calls on the local frequency, indicating landing time, groceries, and a passenger.

As we fly close to the airport environment, I can see the ripples on the water, indicating a strong northwind. I feel it too. Usually we land straight in at Nondolton, but the sun is low on the horizon, so a straight in landing would mean we wouldn't be able to see a thing. So we circle around and land back toward the east. When we land, several people are waiting for their groceries, as well as the pilot with wing covers for the bonanza.

Unloading was a fairly painless process, as we piled groceries in seperate piles. Everything going to Nondolton has bright yellow stickers on it with their names scribbled on in sharpie. After we got all the groceries off, we helped cover the plane and load up in the 207.

I crawled in the left seat, and Glen watched from the right. Take off was a little squirrely with a strong, slightly gusty left crosswind. He didn't have a headset on, so he shouted instructions into my right ear, and I tried to make radio calls and listen to the world outside the airplane in my left ear.

We arrived back in PA, tied the airplane to whatever we could, and headed home. All in all, the episode took about an hour, and I logged .2 in my logbook. While its not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things, I didn't have to pay for that flight time. I am looking forward to more adventures of the same nature.