O.B.E.
O.B.E.
Anyone trained in the military will understand those three letters mean Overcome By Events. That means that a plan you had was rendered useless by events outside your control. It also pretty nearly describes this leg (Jackson WY to Calgary Canada) of the trip.
Without getting too deeply into the reserve (or 'on call') system for pilots at American Airlines, let me just say that I had 4 days off, beginning on the 16th of July, but the first one was 'movable' at the discretion of the company. I had been awarded international division requiring training, which was scheduled for the 20th, beginning at 1245. So a plan developed to ride from the 16th to the 19th, ending in Calgary, and flying out first thing on the 20th to arrive in DFW at 1135, drive down to the Flight Academy (it's on the way home) for my school, and have someone pick up Emily. Best part would be that since I was heading to training, I could get a priority seat without worrying about non-reving. Then my call out schedule became such that I was off duty starting at 0100 on the 15th, so I figured we could even leave that morning at 0900 allowing yet another day on the road. Five days to move the bike 875miles.
My Plan.
And then events began to take over.
First, Emily reasoned that she didn't really want to ride that whole way, considering that the next bit (from Calgary to Lake Louise) would only mean an hour on the back of the bike and her boyfriend, Roy, had a single vehicle, non-injury accident totalling his car.
So she was out.
Then Crew Skeds called at 1630 (that's 4:30pm) on the 14th sending me out on a 2+ day trip getting back at 0100 (yes, that's one o'clock in the morning) on the 16th and not only denying me the early go on the 15th, but pushing my 'movable' day back to the 22nd leaving me on call for the rest of the 16th!
O.B.E.
Presently I'm at 35,000 returning to DFW on a Super 80, as a passenger, and my plan has become this: After checking that there are no open flights on the 16th to which I could be assigned, and that I do not have a reserve assignment period, I will head to the employee parking lot to sleep the remainder of the evening in Burt the VW Bus. Tomorrow (the 16th) I'll rise and dress in my traveling clothes (yup, brought 'em along when I left) and get on said 0900 flight from DFW to JAC as a D-2 THRU (a little higher priority, thanks to my coming in from San Francisco) and start my ride. Solo. Depending on the weather I may head up thru Yellowstone NP to the northeast, Beartooth Pass, and a town called Red Lodge, or I may head due west, then north on the interstate to Butte and save a few hours en route Glacier NP.
If things work out for a 2pm Saturday flight from YYC (Calgary) to DFW (ah, DFW) flight, fine. If not, I'll park the bike, hit a motel, and take my positive space ride home for training.
And so it goes.
Anyone trained in the military will understand those three letters mean Overcome By Events. That means that a plan you had was rendered useless by events outside your control. It also pretty nearly describes this leg (Jackson WY to Calgary Canada) of the trip.
Without getting too deeply into the reserve (or 'on call') system for pilots at American Airlines, let me just say that I had 4 days off, beginning on the 16th of July, but the first one was 'movable' at the discretion of the company. I had been awarded international division requiring training, which was scheduled for the 20th, beginning at 1245. So a plan developed to ride from the 16th to the 19th, ending in Calgary, and flying out first thing on the 20th to arrive in DFW at 1135, drive down to the Flight Academy (it's on the way home) for my school, and have someone pick up Emily. Best part would be that since I was heading to training, I could get a priority seat without worrying about non-reving. Then my call out schedule became such that I was off duty starting at 0100 on the 15th, so I figured we could even leave that morning at 0900 allowing yet another day on the road. Five days to move the bike 875miles.
My Plan.
And then events began to take over.
First, Emily reasoned that she didn't really want to ride that whole way, considering that the next bit (from Calgary to Lake Louise) would only mean an hour on the back of the bike and her boyfriend, Roy, had a single vehicle, non-injury accident totalling his car.
So she was out.
Then Crew Skeds called at 1630 (that's 4:30pm) on the 14th sending me out on a 2+ day trip getting back at 0100 (yes, that's one o'clock in the morning) on the 16th and not only denying me the early go on the 15th, but pushing my 'movable' day back to the 22nd leaving me on call for the rest of the 16th!
O.B.E.
Presently I'm at 35,000 returning to DFW on a Super 80, as a passenger, and my plan has become this: After checking that there are no open flights on the 16th to which I could be assigned, and that I do not have a reserve assignment period, I will head to the employee parking lot to sleep the remainder of the evening in Burt the VW Bus. Tomorrow (the 16th) I'll rise and dress in my traveling clothes (yup, brought 'em along when I left) and get on said 0900 flight from DFW to JAC as a D-2 THRU (a little higher priority, thanks to my coming in from San Francisco) and start my ride. Solo. Depending on the weather I may head up thru Yellowstone NP to the northeast, Beartooth Pass, and a town called Red Lodge, or I may head due west, then north on the interstate to Butte and save a few hours en route Glacier NP.
If things work out for a 2pm Saturday flight from YYC (Calgary) to DFW (ah, DFW) flight, fine. If not, I'll park the bike, hit a motel, and take my positive space ride home for training.
And so it goes.
posted by Randy Masters at 12:22 PM
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