Well, today was my first day of training for being a lineman at one of the Falwell Aviation airports. They moved my training day from Saturday to Sunday due to scheduling issues. Falwell Airport was the particular airport for today's training. Next Tuesday and Thursday mornings will be training at Lynchburg Airport.
Sunday's are apparently the slowest days of the week. It is definitely more laid back here than I expected. When I say laid back, I'm talking laid back! Half of the instructions ended with the phrase, "you can do this if you want, but its not that big of a deal". That was the case for just about everything other than actually dealing with the planes. Even that was more casual than I thought. My self and the lineman for the day and my trainer, Jim, were the only two people working. There was a quick stop in from Kyle Falwell, the grandson of the owner and manager of the two airports. He's a fast-moving, fast-talking guy in his early 30's. Seems nice, but it was only the first day and I haven't screwed anything up yet.
About 4 or 5 planes landed throughout the day. Most of them were either instructors just taking their planes out for fun or "weekend warriors" as Jim put called them. They are the rich guys who own one or two planes and just feel like taking them out for a spin. The airport acts as a gas/service station for guys like that. They'll pull up and Jim would ask, "Do you need any gas? Would you like the windows cleaned?" It was even less formal than a gas station, though. One guy hopped out of this plane in sandals, Hawaiian shorts and a tank top. He was a regular "weekend warrior" who just came by to get some gas and hang out for an hour or so. Then he was off.
The funniest thing that happened was that after Kyle stopped into the Falwell Airport, he left to go check on the Lynchburg Airport which is only about a 10-15 minute drive down the highway. A few hours later, a plane lands on the runway and whips up to the door of the hangar at full speed. Out pops Kyle and the lineman working the Lynchburg airport! Apparently, Kyle didn't want to drive the 10 minutes from Lynchburg Airport to Falwell Airport, so he flew and brought the other lineman along because nothing was going on down there. Hey, why not, right!? Shoot, if my family owned an aviation company and managed two airports, I wouldn't drive anywhere. I'd turn the drive-through at Taco Bell into a fly-through.
I'm not sure what's in store for me at the jet center over in Lynchburg Airport, but I hope its as laid back there as it was today at Falwell Airport. I was expecting more of a large regional airport setting with security, FAA and Homeland Security officers. Instead what I got was one guy, a golf cart and a BB gun. Of course, the planes they have at this airport are so small, you could push them by hand into the hangars. Not exactly government official worthy.
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3 comments:
I didn't know you were going to
work at both airports. You should
meet lots of interesting people.
Do you have your schedule for
school yet? Should be fun trying to
make two jobs and work all come
together.
What's an Aiport?
Sounds like you are having a great time! I'll be praying it all continues to go as smoothly as it did that day! Have fun and stay safe!
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