Your First Officer Speaking

Moving has been an adventure, but something we (or more specifically I) forget about adventures is that they aren’t always easy and it’s not always fun. There’s a tendency for me to focus and dwell on the difficulties and what I’ve left behind. Giving things up, however, often creates space and room for other things. Sometimes pilot’s families follow them on a pairing (their shift) when they have enough time in a place to actually do some things and enjoy the place. So far, I’ve never had or given myself time to do this. So, when B-Rod mentioned he had a pairing coming up that would be one of these, I agreed to tag along to do something and go somewhere different. We met up in Edmonton where we took a red-eye flight to have 30 hours in the destination city. This excursion involved a lot of firsts for me. These included the first time:

• following B to work
• being in the cockpit of a 737
• going to Nova Scotia and being in Halifax
• trying a lobster roll
• hanging out with L
• knowing who was flying my plane there and back

Don’t worry . . . . I’ll get to all that! The flight to Nova Scotia was pretty uneventful, but cool (though made me a bit nervous) to sit in the cockpit before the flight and to hear B-Rod making the announcement. Because B was working, he did have to make sure to get enough rest and sleep which means I explored partly on my own and partly with him.

Halifax is a great city! I loved the combination of European influences with East Coast vibe and tons of history mixed right in. The first things I came across in my wanderings was a clock tower built in 1803 and a cemetery that has been around since 1749. You just don’t really come across that sort of historical significance as much in the western part of the country.

Once B felt rested and ready to roll, we met to hit the streets to wander the coast, have lunch and check out Pier 21.

Immigration has always been an issue close to my heart, so I was fascinated with our time at Pier 21. The last time B was here he actually found the passenger list of the boat his dad came on and saw the name and signatures of his family. I’ll assume that I have family on my dad’s side that passed through here, but without an actual name or time frame, I didn’t get this same concrete experience.

From here we met up with B-Rod’s good friend L. L is a pilot B has known since his air ambulance days. I’ve come to know L through social media, but this was the first time I got to spend time with her and the first time B has been in the same place as her on a pairing. It was great to get to know someone that B-Rod has always spoken so highly of and it’s always refreshing to spend time with good peeps! Had a pint and mussels (because that’s what you do in Nova Scotia) and then ended the night with a nice walk back to the hotel.

The next day I was on my own and headed to the Citadel. I got there as it opened and was rewarded by being one of the first and only ones there. There was so much interesting information about the city, military life and history and was well worth the time spent there.

I had a bit of time to do some final wandering around before getting ready to go back to the airport.

30 hours may sound like a ridiculous amount of time to fly across the country for, but that’s the type of adventures pilot families get to have if they choose. It gave me a taste of a new area and a glimpse into what B-Rod’s working life is like. On the way back, B was flying through Toronto, so I chose instead to go on a direct flight to Calgary that left 15 minutes later than his. Guess who happened to be flying that plane?!

Starting and ending in the cockpit with flights where I personally knew the voice on the other end of “this is the first officer speaking” made for an adventure that was pretty darn fun!