Procedures

We all have them, there in the background, helping out in some facet of our lives. From the loop swoop and pull that helped us remember how to tie our shoes as children, to the signal, followed by the shoulder check that kept our parents car away from those in the lane over as teenagers, and our own cars later in life. Procedures. Some may be learned from others, while other procedures seem to creep into our lives without us having been aware of it ever happening. My life at work is dictated largely by procedures that have been put together to make my life as a pilot easier. In theory, a copilot should be able to fly with any given captain within the company and be able to know, even if they have never flown together, how and when checklists will be called for, when the landing gear and flaps will be retracted on departure, and when they will be brought back out for landing among other things. I find a certain comfort in these procedures as it adds an element of familiarity in a world that is constantly in motion. Regardless of what airport I am taking off from in whichever end of the world, once I have climbed the aircraft to 400 feet, I would call for "flaps up, set climb power and after take-off checklist" Or so it used to be. Since leaving my former job and starting my new one, I have had to leave behind the procedures that served me well for three years, and learn a new set of procedures that will hopefully help to keep me safe in the years to come. While the experience I gained at my last position has certainly helped in the transition to my new job, I have found it difficult to forget the long ingrained procedures from my past. Even something as easy as calling for flaps to be set at 17 degrees has been made into a chore by differing companies with differing procedures. In my last position, 17 flap was referred to as approach flap while at the new company it cannot be referred to as anything but 17 flap. Now before I ask for something to be done in the cockpit, my mind must run a translation to be sure that my terminology will match what the new companies procedures call for. Here, a call for approach flap will be met with a questioning raised eyebrow. While this may seem like an innocent enough mix-up of terms, if this particular mistake was made at the least opportune time, it could make both my and the captains life more difficult than necessary while we try to figure out how to bridge the communication gap. I know with time, I will come to know the procedures I am trying so hard to remember accurately as intimately as I knew my former procedures that are making life difficult now. In the meantime I will be spending my free time reading and re-reading the new procedures, and hoping for understanding Captains.

Enroute

Eight and a half years ago I stepped off of a flight which had brought me from the east coast to a place I would call home for the better part of the next decade. I can remember making that first step onto the jetbridge in Edmonton, saddened by what I had left behind but excited for what lay ahead. Nearly two weeks ago, I received news that I had been waiting on for a few years now, and though it has been more than eight years since the day has passed, I find myself feeling the same way now, as I did when I first stepped off of that flight eight years ago.

The past few weeks have been busy as I have tried to do as much packing as I could in between flights, and get-togethers with friends to say goodbye. I have welcomed the busy pace that the past few weeks have brought though, as it has distracted me from thinking about all that I will leave behind when I head east. The distractions however are temporary, all the feelings associated with leaving will be waiting for me when I get all the things that I need to get done, done. In my scarce free time the past few weeks when I have had a moment to think, I have found myself questioning whether or not I actually want to head east. I suppose there are a number of reasons for this; the move I am about to make is daunting, a bit frightening actually if I were to be completely honest. I am on the brink of pulling up the roots I have set in Edmonton, and setting off in the direction of a dream I have had since I first moved here, a dream of going home. Even while, when I do leave, I will be going back to friends and family that I have been missing for years, now as I finish packing, I can't help but think of those that I will be leaving behind.

I have been replaying the drive out of Edmonton over and over in my head over the past few days, and every time I do I feel a great sadness seeping in as I think back over the fond memories of my time here. I suspect it will be one of the harder things I will have to do in my life to not turn around as I hit the city limits. When I do leave though, it won't be thoughts of Whyte Avenue, or the downtown, or even the airport that will entice me to turn around, it will be the people that call this city home whom I have been so fortunate to call friends that will tug at my heart. It is with no exaggeration that I say that all of you that I have gotten to know, or gotten to know better since moving here, are what have made my time here as wonderful as it was, and it is to all of you that I owe a huge debt of gratitude for all of the memories I will take with me when I leave.

While it will be with great sadness that I will leave, I can assure you that, as Billy Connolly said, "there is a great deal of hope out there, it's not all bleak." There is no telling where this adventure I have teed up for myself will take me, and as much as it scares me, I like that. Whatever may come, good or bad, from here on in, will be entirely what I make it.
Where ever this adventure does take me, know that I will miss you all dearly, and I'll look forward to the day we meet again.


"It's staggering out there you know, it really is extraordinary, and kind-of bleak and weird, and it's going to get alot weirder, and the weirder it gets the happier I become..... You ain't seen nothing yet"- Billy Connolly