Busy night

Last night was quite the busy night, making March an officially busy month (50+ hours of flight time).

First I got a call to head to ABQ an hour into my shift. I was glad to get this as it would mean, barring any severe delays, that we would be able to hit up Frontier.

As I started preflighting and removing the plugs from the plane I saw something move in the shadows. It was big enough to catch my attention, and it seemed to be heading towards me. I wasn't sure what it was, but it was only about thirty feet away, and it was about the right size and shape for a coyote. I hadn't unlocked the aircraft door yet, and if I ran to my car whatever it was surely could have caught up with me halfway there. In either case, it meant turning my back on whatever was approaching, and I wasn't about to do that, not knowing what it was. So, I pulled my knife and got ready to go a-stabbing.

As it turns out it wasn't necessary. What stepped into the light was just a rez dog, more puppy than dog, who was trying to be submissive to me (head down, tail between it's legs, arched back, sidways skittish walk). That's why I couldn't figure out what it was; when I started making noises/movements at it (when it was still in the shadows), it became cautiously curious, and the movements weren't of an aggressor as I was expecting.

All the size of a coyote, with none of the douche baggery

The rest of the night went well, over to ABQ where chicken tacos on homemade tortillas were had at Frontier. Something I hadn't realized before was that there are thousands of what I believe are cherry blossom trees (Japanese Sakura) in ABQ.

Seriously, the streets are lined with them

I got back from that flight, sat down on the couch, and literally just started to pull on a boot lace when my phone rang; a flight to LRU (since we only take psyche patients to LRU, I knew what was up as soon as the dispatcher said the destination). This was another baby sit job: the patient was sedated. They were given the smallest amount of medication, and apparently they were a light weight. At the destination waking them proved very difficult, with them falling back asleep literally in situ after being awaken. I have now seen the two extremes that I can group all persons into (a standard deviation?). The most tolerant I've seen was a patient in Alamosa who took paralytics and narcs like champ, making Keith Richards look like a little girl.

So ,with LRU turned, I was just putting the plane away when I got a call to head to FLG to recover a crew. The ride over was a bit slow since I was fighting a skeezy headwind and ATC wouldn't let me get up higher. The ride back was sweet though; I used about a quarter of the fuel, and had an awesome tail wind - even broke three hundred knots ground speed (for a stock C90B, that's moving pretty damn fast).

Pic or it didn't happen!

Today the wind has been damn irritating. It was blowing so hard that while I was laying I bed, I could feel the trailer being jostled about. And it's not some little travel trailer, it's a full on single-wide, suitable for all your trailer park needs.

Supposed to have some rain and whatnot moving tonight, so we'll see how it goes.