Moving up the ladder

Recently I got an "upgrade" at the hangar, and became part of the "elite" group that call themselves the flight coordinators. Really, I was asked to help in this role because we are so short handed at the time being. As I have stated before, we have more airplanes than pilots. Our workload and requests for flights hasn't lightened at all, and therefore we find ourselves doing a lot more than just flying.

What flight coordinating entails is really quite simple in print. I take all the flight requests, the various cargos, and put them all together in a logical manner trying to make the most of our flights. What makes this job hard is the amount of flights requests, the weather, which makes flights impossible, and people that don't show up for their flight or come with more people and/or cargo than planned. It can become a logistical nightmare. Because of the workload involved with flight coordinating, the flight coordinators try not to fly. It is very helpful to always have someone at the hangar that knows the flights that are happening, the next flights that will happen, someone that can check the weather for you, get cargo together, make flight plans, etc. Because of this I haven't flown the past two days. I had myself on the schedule today, but weather prevented my flight from happening all day. So, I will try and do it tomorrow. At this point we have 9 flights planned for tomorrow, among 3 pilots and 3 planes. Our fourth plane is getting a new engine, and our 5th is the one I brought down from the States, still held up in the red tape of certification.

Although I haven't flown since Saturday, it has been nice. It is refreshing to not have to think about making a flight happen, fight weather, have precise landings, make smart takeoffs, etc. I am only 2 days into a 2 week shift, but at this point so far so good. Tomorrow will prove to be different, since I will be hopefully making 2-3 of our 9 flights. I started working on the flight schedule today at 10am and finished at about 5:15pm. Now, add that kind of workload, with over 4 hours of flying, and I might have a different opinion tomorrow.