I have just completed the “to work” portion of my typical commute to St. Louis. As I sit in the crashpad this evening, I am thinking about how this is the last scheduled trip I will fly for this company. It is likely not the last trip I will fly, but it is the last trip that is hardcoded on my schedule. In other words, I am back on reserve next month. The flying that I will I do (and there will be some) will be last minute assignments, scraps created by sick calls, etc.

Am I sad? Not really. I have already made the decision to close this chapter of my life and as I sit here at this crashpad tonight, I am READY to close the damn chapter and move on. Nothing could have happened, even at Lucifer Airways, to take the flying bug out of me. And so it goes with this place, I will walk away looking upward, as I did when I interviewed here. Part of me will miss the frequent flying and all the good things about it. But, this industry isn’t for me. The lifestyle isn’t for me. I am done. And as such, I am waiting in anticipation for the oppertunity to come to walk away and get back to working on a noble game.

This trip is a 6 day trip, (yes, I won’t be home until next Saturday evening and it is Sunday evening right now), 4 days, followed by a short 2 day trip. I will fly 26.6 hours, putting my time in type on the EMB-145 at 995 hours. My goal is 1,000 hours time in type. Certainly I can fly 5 hours during the 3 or 4 weeks of reserve before the fat lady clears her throat.

The bid packet comes out tomorrow. This will tell me exactly where my seniority will lie for December. The results of the bid will be published Nov 21st. I currently have two communications pending replies from high ups in the company asking about moving my furlough date closer in. I am scheduled to be furloughed Mar 5th. If it can be moved to Dec or Jan, then I could wait for the furlough and walk away with my seniority number still on the list. However, the decision is that I will not be here past the time school begins. If they either refuse to move the furlough date or will only move it so far, such that it doesn’t fit into my plans, I will walk away having resigned and not look back. Regardless of the outcome, my chances of returning to this company are nearly nill. So, with that fact in mind, there is no difference between a furlough and a resignation in actual fact. It is more an attempt at due diligence than anything else. I want to walk away with ALL “T’s” crossed and ALL “I’s” dotted. Following through with this question is on the list of items to clear.

With that, I am off to bed shortly. I can sleep in in the morning, then its off to shoot around the country chiseling away at the 31.4 hours that I have yet to fly before hitting 1,000 jet time in type.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Airline Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.