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21:41
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Cockpit Conversation 
The project in this province is over and we're all going our separate ways. I thought I was going to do some more flights to the north, but just like that we're done. I exchange hugs with the team. No
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20:12
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Cockpit Conversation
Now that I'm travelling all over the place, it seems a shame not to visit
some of my readers when I have the chance. I don't get a lot of notice of where
I'm going, and sometimes I don't have time
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16:36
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Cockpit Conversation
Flying and sleeping trump blog writing, but here's a tidbit for you. I'd gone
back to bed in the middle of the day in order to lengthen my duty day. Getting
sleep at odd times can be a little diso
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20:29
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Cockpit Conversation
I flew into a private runway today. I've flown into many in remote areas, but in those cases the airport is private because it serves a community that is itself a corporation, and/or it's the only san
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20:55
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Cockpit Conversation
Back in Saskatoon, I had a day off and decided to take in the sights. It's the largest city in the
province, so it must have something to offer, maybe a tractor museum or something. I would be willi
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2:19
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Cockpit Conversation
A comment posted yesterday brought me to the sudden realization that there is so much variation in the equipment that people use to fly airplanes these days that it's possible to understand me, yet ha
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1:17
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Cockpit Conversation
Plans change rapidly here, and I have to be flexible. I never know where I'm going on any day, but I have
to say that Kandahar was a surprise. Kandahar? Isn't that in Afghanistan? I re
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20:26
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Cockpit Conversation
I just saw a
hilarious television
commercial featuring cargo pilots doing crazy aerobatics in a Boeing 747. I laughed so hard I logged o
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0:51
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Cockpit Conversation
A cab driver asked me about being a pilot.
"Can you fly at night?"
"Yep. At night, in clouds, on floats, on wheels, one engine, two engines, one pilot, two pilots, whatever."
"What's the hardest?"
I
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17:12
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Cockpit Conversation
The rampee moves the blocking airplane away and fuels my airplane, but just as I am done my preflight and getting ready to go there is a flurry of arrivals. An American-registered jet parks in what I
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14:17
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Cockpit Conversation
Our flying work in the north is done and I'm waiting for the guys to come and tell me it's time to go. The
best place for wireless access is the front steps of the cafeteria, so that's where you'll
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14:01
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Cockpit Conversation
The following comes directly from a progress report that I sent to my boss.
There are 12 hours left on the aircraft and approximately 3 hours airtime left on this project. The project is going well
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21:31
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Cockpit Conversation
The aerodrome we are currently using as "home base" doesn't have runway lights, and the sun goes down
around ten thirty, but official night doesn't start up here until after eleven p.m. and it will
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23:46
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Cockpit Conversation
My job today was pretty cushy. I flew three VFR flights, for a total of an hour and a half flight time, but I put in a fourteen hour duty day. Here's how.
The first flight was in the morning, a ten m
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21:41
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Cockpit Conversation
The aerodrome I haven't named yet (but still might) will be my home base for the next week or so, but I'm
making side trips from there. In the north you don't mess around with fuel, so given the opp
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1:20
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Cockpit Conversation
Having filed my flight plan, and loaded the airplane, I prepared to launch
for the flight discussed yesterday. Step one, get my IFR clearance.
The remote communications outlet that relayed radio tr
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14:09
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Cockpit Conversation
It's time to leave Yorkton. But it's 200 feet overcast, meaning that there
are solid clouds, starting 200' above the ground at my departure airport, and
the same is forecast for a couple of hundre
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11:49
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Cockpit Conversation
I have some friends who forward me dire e-mail warnings. Computer viruses
that can reprogram your refrigerators, gangs that will kill you if you flash
your headlights at them, deadly diseases you
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1:21
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Cockpit Conversation
The boss gave me a little tiny key that opens the main door and the baggage compartments on the airplane. It's a stupid little key that fits in the lock either way, but only turns if you have it in th
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11:31
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Cockpit Conversation
A reader sent me this story and told me I could use it, but that I had to
explain how I got my latest job first. I guess I didn't tell how in great
detail but it was the usual way: contact, follow
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15:12
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Cockpit Conversation
Company personnel keep in touch with each other and the base through by texting. I'd never used cellphone text messaging before. I guess I thought illiteracy was a prerequisite. But you are allowed to
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9:47
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Cockpit Conversation
A co-worker picks me and my crew up after a day's flying. I move enough luggage across the back seat in order for me to get in the truck, and we drive back to the hotel. It's ten or eleven at night an
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23:21
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Cockpit Conversation
In a new city again today. I actually had to look at the hotel directory to remember which one.
Whoa! According to the hotel directory, this hotel has a swimming pool. I'm sorry, but I'm not blogging
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2:18
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Cockpit Conversation
I overheard this actual conversation between the company owner and the chief pilot, in Canadian Tire.
Owner: "Orange Pledge? I thought you were supposed to use Lemon Pledge."
Chief Pilo
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21:05
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Cockpit Conversation
This American Eagle crew managed to do a go around after
striking the runway without the gear extended. Good reflexes, and they g
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8:33
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Cockpit Conversation
There are many points of entry to the airside of an airport, and most
people experience only the one that resulted in me losing my sunblock. I'd say
that one, leading to the airside passenger gate
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17:51
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Cockpit Conversation
I haven't yet decided how much to tell you about my latest job, so I'll
throw out a few things that could happen in any operation.
There will be a lot of travel. (And not the kind that connects Wea
