Great story. Had me chuckling. Would love to read the book when you have it finished.
Thank you. Here is the prequel to the Kingair 200 story, about the FE school. Again the names are changed to protect the guilty as hell.
Biff and I were hired at the same time. Biff was a very popular fellow in the local aviation community, was married to a local celebrity and they were always in the local newspaper society pages attending this event or that event. A very striking couple they made. In fact I had attended a few of the same events with my wife. He was always talking about his flying experiences, most as a bush pilot in South America. Soon a trend appeared, nearly every flight he took was with a lousy, cowardly co-pilot as he bravely flew in mountainous terrain, in the dark of night in horrible weather (thunderstorms and all that) to save a very sick child, pregnant woman, sick Nun, well take your pick. He claimed to have thousands of hours in a wide multitude of aircraft, none of which, strangely enough, required a type rating. Clue number one that I was, at the time, totally oblivious to. Oh, one more thing about ol' Biff, he was always dressed to the nines and there was never a hair on his head out of place.
Moving on now. We were scheduled to attend FE school at the same time, which was fine by me. But ol' Biff had a different idea, he went to the chief pilot, who had hired Biff, and explained that he, Biff, could not attend FE on the scheduled date as it interfered with his busy social schedule. The chief pilots, who was enamored with Biff and his wife cause they took him to fancy parties, instantly agreed. At first the chief pilot was going send both of us, but when Biff found out we were both still going at the same time, he ran to the chief pilot and told him that it would be much better if he went alone as he did not want to 'get saddled with someone like me and have to teach me everything'. Of course the chief pilot agreed and off he went. Really didn't bother me, I didn't want to go to the damn school anyway. As one of the other chief pilot's 'pet' pilots had failed the FE school that had been used in the past, Biff and I would be the first to attend a new FE school in California. So off Biff goes, I stay and fly.
Two weeks later Biff comes back with a brand new FE (Jet) ticket in his back pocket and now I go. The first day in class I am called to the Chief Instructor's office for a meeting with the Chief Instructor. Now I was really confused, hell I just got there, just what could I have done to get into trouble that fast? No, I was not trouble, but things turned very interesting, to say the least.
I go into the Chief Pilot's office where he meets me and asks me to have a seat. He starts talking, "Now if I intrude into any area of confidence or secrecy, please stop me, as I don't want to cause you any problems?"
Areas of confidence or secrecy, what the hell is he talking about, I think. "Uh, just what is it you are asking about?" Is my not so witty reply.
"Well, it is about your radio monitoring duties."
What duties? Radio monitoring? "Hmm just what about my, err, our radio monitoring?"
"Well Biff told me that you are required to monitor the radios in the mornings, as we have morning and afternoon class secession and the same with the simulator secessions, he could only attend the mid-afternoon secessions for both. So should I schedule you the same?"
About that time the old cartoon light bulb came over my head. Well hell, seems I underestimated ol' Biff, go to afternoon secession, party, sleep in late, go to class/sim, etc. "Uh yes sir, the same schedule will be quite adequate."
"Well good, glad we could work that out. Now the next matter is, hmm, rather delicate, but I need to ask anyway."
Oh God now what, "Yes?"
"It's about your weapon, your hand gun, you know, pistol."
Now I'm clueless, I've not a clue about what he is taking about, I don't have a pistol. "Yes?"
"Would you mind not bringing it into the sim, Biff did and it kept falling out of his belt onto the sim floor. It made the instructors and other students nervous. I can lock it up in a drawer in my desk."
How I am keeping a straight face at this point, I've not a clue, I'm about to bust a blood vessel trying to keep from laughing. "Not to worry about a thing, I promise not to bring a gun to class or the sim."
The Chief Instructor smiled, stood up and shook my hand saying, "I'm really glad we worked this all out, I hope you enjoy your time here with us.
I replied, "I already am sir, I already am."
Next will be Biff's and my first Kingair 200 trip together. You ain't going to believe it, but it's all true.