Propellers and a Road Trip

Not long after I got my transfer to LAX, I was assigned my second IOE, on our Embraer 120 Brasilia. IOE = Initial Operating Experience = more training! See, we have jets and the turbo-prop planes, but we only have the turbo-props in some of our domiciles. In Chicago and Tucson we only have the jets, but LAX has turbo-props, affectionately known as "the bro," so I had to be trained on it. At the end of January, I deadheaded on a flight up to Salt Lake City with my roomie Morgan as my flight attendant (she is amazing!!!) =) and started my IOE the next morning.

Morgan and I at the TUS crew lounge

It was an interesting experience flying on the 30 passenger Brasilia, a different feel than the jet for sure! I had a great crew to fly with, and a very chill and laid back instructor. Our trip was supposed to start out with a round trip from Salt Lake City to Sun Valley, Idaho. We found out that we couldn't fly into that airport because of weather, so were diverted to Twin Falls. They were going to bus our passengers between the two airports... fun fun. When we got to Twin Falls, we were grounded because a blizzard came through SLC and shut the airport down. Got back to SLC an hour late, and then found out that our round trip to St. George had been canceled. That meant we got to hang out for 6 hours at the airport! Fortunately things had cleared up a little by the evening, and we did our scheduled flight to St. George where we spent the night. Bright and early the next morning we flew back to SLC, did a turn to Casper, Wyoming, and we were done!

EMB-120 Brasilia

After my IOE was done, I deadheaded back to Tucson, and felt like our 50 passenger jet was huge! The Brasilia doesn't bother me, but I can't say I'm in love with it like some people are. And I'm definitely not in love with Salt Lake City. One of our Tucson captains was in SLC the same time as I was, and sent me a text message saying he hated Puke Lake! Yeah, me too. =)

(Captain) Mark, me, and Ben (another FA) outside our crew lounge

We LOVE Rosie! Our TUS administrative assistant

(Captain) Andy took Melissa and I out for lunch before I left... he is awesome!

Mom flew in to Tucson late on January 30th and spent the night at our apt. I am SO thankful for her!!! (Love you Mom!) =) She helped me finish packing up my stuff so we could actually get some sleep before making the drive from Tucson to our house in California. I was on call on the 31st, so we hung out in the morning, then around noon started packing up the car. We stopped by the crew lounge to say bye to Rosie, and ran into Mark there as well. Then we began our 7 1/2 hour trip to California! God is good, we had no problems, and we got home just in time for the season premier of Lost. Crucial.