I finally got my flight time up high enough and now I'm flying for Flight Express, Inc. out of Orlando, FL. I carry checks and internal organs back and forth from the FL Keys to Macon, GA 5 days a week! When I'm not working, I hang out with friends and catch up on my sleep...-----------------Job description:We call ourselves "freight dogs." We are cargo pilots. We fly airplanes that were built before we were born. We fly in all kinds of weather. And we do it alone. It involves long days and long nights. --------------It's not for everybody. Many airline pilots have voiced their reluctance to do single-pilot IFR because they consider it too dangerous! Some former airline pilots, in fact, have come to work for Flight Express and said that it was the hardest, most demanding flying they've ever done. It's not glamorous, that's for sure. There is no computerized, air-conditioned flight deck. No flight attendant brings you coffee. You don't get to wear a dark blue uniform with gold stripes. You have to weigh and load the cargo yourself. Most only do this for as long as it takes to get the experience necessary to get hired by an airline, and not a day longer. Who can blame them? Some would even say you have to be crazy or stupid to want this job. I suppose I'm both. I've been doing it for four years. It's a strange way to make a living. --------------We are old-fashioned stick-and-rudder pilots who remember how to use a magnetic compass, a countdown timer and a manual E6B "whiz wheel." If we have to, we can shoot a circling NDB down to minimums at night in icing conditions and then land in a gusty 17-knot crosswind on a slick runway. And guess what? Sometimes we have to. In short, we're nuts. --------------
The past few months have been busy building a family with my amazing fiance while preparing for our daughter in Feb. 09.
