I had airport standby as my line from February thru April. I had a routine down. At the beginning of each week I would pack my suitcase for a 3 day trip. Once at the airport on day one, I would store my suitcase in a crew storage room. This way each day when I left (since I don't fly much), I would leave with just my laptop bag. On the last day of airport standby I would take my suitcase home in case I wanted to go on a personal trip. If not the bag would just live at the airport.
Inside of my laptop bag....aka my "man purse"....I have my laptop, water bottle, 2 cans of diet coke, snacks, Bose QC2 headphones, regular headphones, Zune, magazine, and associated charging cables. There is probably something I am missing. Bleh.
Back in 2001 I started my first blog. I was blogging before there was even a term for it. I just kept up a website with my random thoughts. By sharing them I figured I could help improve the species (ha!). Back in 2007 I started a pilot blog that started with my first day at my airline. The blog was very open and intimate. I made no attempt to hide who my employer was or where I flew. I would even post my flight numbers to allow readers to follow my flights via flightaware. I loved it. Then I got a phone call from my union stating I might want to rethink what I was doing. Overnight I had to scuttle all content on my old blog. I really hated doing it. For a few days I thought about forgetting the entire idea of having an aviation blog. This blog isn't my only blog. I maintain a few others. Eventually I decided to relaunch the site. About two months into it I had to re-brand the site with a new URL (those using the "old" URL be advised one day it will just quit working, update now!). I also went thru and removed every reference to my first name, last name or city I live in.
Every now and then I will write a blog on one site that would fit well on another. I get lazy and simply cut and paste. I will proof read the text and remove names and cities. I'm not perfect and sometimes make a mistake. Recently I did leave some information in a blog that should not have been there. It took me a few days to figure it out. I have since corrected it.
On an average day this site gets 95 unique (meaning 95 different computers/devices) visitors. Some days it's much higher, some days it's lower. But 95 is the average unique visitor count over the last year (I love Google Analytics). I'm sure many of readers who have been on board for more than 5 months have no doubt who I work for or where I'm based. It doesn't bother me. I have to refrain from giving direct clues/information alluding to my employer to protect myself and my job. It is annoying. The only other option is to not have a blog at all. Again the purpose of my blogs is to improve the species (ha!) and thus I must go on.
Yesterday my airport standby stint was spent listening to podcast, writing blogs and watching flights. Today I am writing this blog, listening to podcast and watching flights. I do plan on watching a movie I snagged from Redbox. They give free movies on Mondays. I will also continue working on renewing my CFI. I am taking the online course via AmericanFlyers.net.
Thank you so much for continuing your aviation blog. I've loved both your blogs and have been a reader for a while now, and it's very informative to future pilots like me and so many others to get a look into the industry.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up. :D
I love your aviation blog. As a traveler, and general fan of yours, I enjoy reading about how you've progressed from being a cube-geek to the geek in the cockpit. I, also, enjoy reading about how the industry works. Passengers rarely think about the pilot; just that he's up there pressing buttons and probably makes $500k a year. :)
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