On The Flight Line

By Erik Minty

A pleasant dream is interrupted by an alarm clock. With eyes half open, I roll over to shut it off. Wait ... it's 6:00 already! It should've gone off half an hour ago! Hang on _ wide awake now _ that was not my alarm clock. That's the doorbell! I hit the floor as I trip over my sheets scrambling out of bed, realizing that I had forgotten to set my alarm.

Within seconds, I'm standing at the door in my shorts, telling Jason I'll be ready in five. Quick shower, and in 5 minutes I've got my flight suit on, all essential material haphazardly stuffed into my bag in one hand, flight boots in the other, and muffin in mouth as I fly out the door. "Rrret's rretrrroing!" Stepping into one of my boots, I discover my keys which I left there so I wouldn't forget them. A quick stop at the local Chateau McD's express window for an Egg McMuffin (standard pilot rations), and we're on the freeway out to Abbotsford. The joys of carpooling.

When you've got a day's flying ahead of you, and it's a Sunday morning before the sun is quite ready to get up, and you're the only ones (almost) onthe road, there's never much to be said. At least Jason realizes this. We'll have plenty of time to chat throughout the day. Things pick up by the time we get to the airport. We start chatting with some old buddies we haven't seen in a while, and someone runs off to the Flight Service Station to get a weather report. They return to brief everyone _ blah blah temperature, wind, blah blah, runway 19 in use, blah blah ... in short, a perfect day for flying! We load all the equipment into the truck, pile in the back, and we're off!

The first thing that needs to be done is, we stop at one of the taxiways to put up a sign warning pilots to watch for gliders landing over their heads (yes, there have been some close calls, because not everyone pays as much attention as they should). Next stop is midway down the grass landing field,where Glider Operations is to be set up. Usually two people stay behind to set up the radio, table, chairs, and prepare the tow ropes, but we're a little short on staff this morning so I'll stay behind and do it myself.

This is (apart from the actual flying part) the best part about the whole day. Once everything is set up, I get to sit back, put my feet up on the table, watch the sun rise over Mt. Baker in front of me, and listen on the radio to the occasional early bird who is transiting the zone, taking off for some exotic (?) destination like Hope or Pitt Meadows, or arriving from such a place. At Abbotsford there are two ways to tell when the sun is coming up over Mt. Baker. First, it gets light out. Second, the grass bends under a nice light breeze from the south. Just as the weather-guessers said it would. There's a light dew on the grass, and a very faint mist still hangs suspended above the airfield.

I take a look over to the north end of the airport, where the rest of the crew is busy preparing the aircraft for a day of flying. The two on-duty towplane pilots are busily untying their beast, checking over every last bit of it, and cranking up the engine. By the time they are in the air, the others have managed to untie and inspect the gliders. I've done that enough times to know exactly what they're doing, without being able to quite see them from this distance. Three crew to a glider; one to hold the wings level, a junior crew member to carry out the inspection, and a senior crew member to supervise and sign it off.

Once that is done, the gliders begin to move (with more than a little help from the crew). One will be pushed straight onto the runway in behind the towplane while the other will be wheeled in with the right wing tip (that's starboard for you nautical types who think aircraft are boats!) 15 feet to the left of my table. Within minutes the first glider is in the air, someone is dispatched to escort the morning's passengers, and we are in business.

For the crew at the Abbotsford Gliding Program (run by the Air Cadets), there are a number of jobs to be done throughout the day. The most junior glider pilots are responsible for handling the gliders and general supervision of the cadets. Many of these junior crew are still cadets themselves, and have just completed their glider pilot training. After they have accumulated enough flying experience, they get a special check flight with an instructor so that they may carry passengers. This is when life gets really fun, because those are the people doing most of the actual flying. Some of the more ambitious senior pilots then decide to go all the way and undertake training as a glider instructor. These people not only share in flying the cadets (most of the instructors are officers), but they are responsible for launch control operations, organization, and conducting training flights on crew members every so often. This I found to be the most rewarding, because you get a real close-up look at how your crew members perform in the air as well as on the ground. On several occasions I have found myself surprised, whether pleasantly or otherwise, at what I saw people doing in the air.

"Gee, you know, I don't think I learned a darned thing today. I must be running out of things to learn"

After the morning group has been flown, we all wander over to the only cafeteria at the airport and talk about life over a sandwich and fries. (BLT's: more standard pilot rations!) By the time we get back to the airfield, we've mostly walked off our lunches and are ready for the afternoon group. Once they have all been flown, and the junior crew members have decided who will take the "hangar run" (last flight of the day, meaning you get to stay up a little longer if you can, and nobody cares too much if you botch the landing a little), it's time to pack it in. The gliders and towplane are returned to the tie-down areas and snugly tucked away. This is actually important, because once or twice over the years crews have returned the following week after heavy wind storms to find ropes snapped and aircrafts in very unnatural positions. Which is generally something to be avoided if possible.

Back to the hangar to pack up all the equipment and sit through a debriefing. These are usually pretty quick, and can be pretty dull or very instructive, depending on the events of the day and who is giving it. After some time you begin to hear the same things being harped on over and over, but there are often some very astute observations that get you thinking about how to do things a little bit better next time. One of my instructors once said, that if you find yourself driving home after a day of flying, saying to yourself "Gee, you know, I don't think I learned a darned thing today. I must be running out of things to learn," then you should seriously consider not returning. Any experienced pilot will tell you this: there's never as shortage of things to learn, if you keep your eyes open.

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