Occasionally, given the unpredictable nature of the aircraft charter business, I am so short of staff or so have so much work depending on your view point that I have to hit the road as a load master.
It may seem odd but this sometimes means a slowdown of my pace to that legally required by the rest of the crew, this was one of those times. I started on a Friday night at Luton Airport with what on the face of it was a simple flight on an empty aircraft to Belfast. The aircraft was coming out of a hanger check so there was a lot of running about to make sure that everything we needed for the next flight. Once this was complete we were off, an hour later we arrived in Belfast and after putting the aircraft to bed it was off to the Hotel.
The Hotel was nice but located in the Car Park at the airport, It was after 10PM and the restaurant was closed but they did arrange a Chinese takeout for us. It was nearly midnight before I got to bed.The next day was a late start I had my pickup at 2PM and needed to start work at 1PM so I decided on a lie in. Having got up at 8AM and had breakfast this left no time to go into Belfast. The crew transport was late and it was 2:30 before they picked us up and 3Pm before we got to the aircraft. A lot of running around and we finally got underway 30 minutes late at 5:30PM.
We arrived in Nairobi at 4:30 Local time (1:30 UK time) The crew were very tight on crew hours and needed a quick turnround. I was running round like a headless chicken trying to achieve this but a couple of things got in the way and the aircraft departed at 6:30AM Local time (3:30AM UK time). In order to get back home to the family as fast as possible I had opted to remain in Nairobi and position home from there instead of continuing on to the Seychelles. After Immigration and a taxi journey to the Nairobi Hilton I arrived at check in. I should have said that it had been planned that all the crew should layover in Nairobi but a technical issues in the fleet meant the aircraft went straight to Mahe. The check in staff on hearing this and having 10 fully paid for an prepared rooms upgraded me to the Captains suite. I finally got to bed at 8:00AM Local time (5:00AM UK time). I had a wake up call for 11AM local and a pick up at Midday. The suite was nice for the 4 hours that I was in it!.
the view from the captains suite...............
Then it was back to the Airport for a check in on an Emirates flight to Dubai with a connection to London. This happend at the end of an extraordinary week when I managed to set foot on the continents (North America, Europe, Africa and Asia) in seven calendar days, this is a record even for me.
just for fun the Nairobi departures board, the destinations are a lot more interesting that Stansted.
