Freight Dog Days

A few years ago, I was flying freight in a Cessna 210. My route was usually Tampa to Miami, with the occasional stop in West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, and a few other places. I did this two to three times a night, racking in about 7 hours of flight time a day. A lot of the time logged was night and actual IMC. Great experience for what my goals were. I loaded and fueled the airplane myself, and it was definitely not a glorious job. Lifting and throwing 100 lb coolers into the airplane, then 110 bank bags. while on the hot ramp in the afternoon in Florida with mosquitos everywhere was not what I had dreamed about when I decided to become a pilot. I did get in great shape, however, but working until 2 AM Monday through Friday took a lot out of me.

Before signing up for the freight job, I had worked as a flight instructor at the local flight school. We were a Cessna Pilot Center, which meant we had newer Cessna 172s, including one with a Garmin G1000 cockpit and air conditioning. 90% of my flights were when the winds were fairly calm and the skies were clear. If I didn’t feel like flying, I didn’t. It was pretty laid back and stress free.

Interior of a newer Cessna 172

When I got the job at the freight company, I honestly thought the guy was joking when he showed me the airplane I would be flying. It actually had duct tape on it; and that duct tape was serving a legitimate purpose. Oh geeze! Everything in the Cessna 210 had been stripped. Everything. The interior had, of course, one seat,  but it also had no door panels or headliner, it was stripped to the metal inside. The outside wasn’t much prettier. Looking at the panel, I saw no GPS or digital radio. I figured I wouldn’t have a GPS, but it took me a few times to remember not to start dialing in the next radio frequency because I couldn’t have one in STBY to switch over.

I was the only female pilot in the company at the time, actually come to think about it, I might have been the only female employee in the company. So let’s just say I heard lots of interesting late night talk on the company frequency. The company frequency was basically the only thing that kept us pilots sane. At 1 AM, after your third flight from Tampa to Miami, your brain is fried, your body is sore, and you’re lonely and most of the frequencies are dead. So you become friends with the faceless pilots on the company radio. There were some fun talks on there, mostly just the guys B.S.ing about usual guy stuff. I got an earful most nights, but it was entertaining. It was nice too, on those awful weather nights when you’re getting tossed and thrown around, to hear that you’re not alone, even though you feel that way.

I worked at the company for just under a year. The typical pilot worked there a couple months. I remember many walking off on their first day. It was harder than it looked, but it was also much more fun than it appeared. I met some good friends at the company and had some great times. I also learned more in 10 months than I have in all the rest of my experience flying. I learned to do things I really didn’t want to do. I pushed my comfort level and became a much better pilot. I experienced things that most pilots won’t. There were nights my hands were shaking and my heart was racing, and I swore I was never coming back. But I did. Every day. Why? Because in some sick way, I loved it. I was the one flying as opposed to sitting in the right seat and instructing or watching someone else fly, I was facing fears, and I was becoming the kind of pilot I wanted to be.

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