gatt wrote:
As for me, it meant I could start the search for hours in earnest.

How did you go about it?


In a way I had it made because my day job was running a dive shop. Every classs
had to go to Florida to do its open water training and testing at the end of the
course. It usually wasn't too difficult to find some warm bodies willing to
split the costs with me. The van was going whether I was in it or not but that
made weight pretty much a non-issue. The heavier stuff went in the van; just
people, fuel, and the bare minimum overnight stuff went in the plane.

Initially, I used to fly down early on Saturday morning but the nasty morning
fogs of northern Florida soon convinced me it was better to fly down Friday
night. We'd be back mid to late afternoon Sunday, unlike the van folks who got
back around midnight. It was most excellent.

I also made it a habit of becoming an airport urchin and hung around whenever I
could. Pretty soon I was being invited along on part 135 cargo runs to keep the
pilot company during his flight. That led ultimately to a part 135 job for
myself when I had enough time to qualify and also ended up closing up the shop
after 10 years in the dive business. After that, time came really easy.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com