Moving Right Along

Seven days after arriving in Hood River I’m now on my return flight to Nashville, TN where I’ll get my car and drive back to Saint Louis, MO. My reason for going to Hood River was to successfully complete my training and demonstrate to an evaluator that I am capable of operating our UAV. Now that that’s done the job really starts.

Through the course of this training I’ve encountered a lot of stressful situations and many more rewarding experiences. I’ve taken more tests in the past month than I took though any given college class. I’ve been challeged by instructors to correct inflight emergencies during our simulations and challenged by mother nature to make sound judgements during actual flights. I’ve been vaccinated for all sorts of illnesses and have more lined up. The experience has not only given me job skills but it has also given me the opportunity to meet some very cool people.

People from Washington, Kentucky, Tennessee, California, Georgia, Indiana, Arizona and Hawaii. The majority of them have already seen the war first hand and experienced things that we’re all fortunate enough not to have to experience. One of my friends said that you don’t really know someone until you’ve had a beer with them. If that’s the case, I know a lot of people very well now. We’ve spent entire days together, working from dawn to dusk and then dinner. We’ve driven hours just to find a decent place to eat. I know I say how lucky I am a lot, to have met these people and I’ll continue to say it. The people made this great.

Last night we went out and celebrated our success over dinner and drinks. It was great to sit around and talk about whatever, as long as it didn’t involve work. Afterwards I said good bye to everyone, knowing that I may not see them again. That’s the most difficult part of meeting new people in this environment, saying what could turn out to be the last good bye.

So here I am, in the plane looking down at the patchwork farms, breathing recycled air ;-) shooting back towards the midwest. School is over, now lets start the next chapter.