Perks of the job

I have a 180 degree view of a landscape of endless clouds. The sun shines on the clouds from a low angle, making them appear almost solid, like thick white cotton candy. We angle down towards a dip in the clouds and we are surrounded on all sides. My brain is trying to tell me we are about to run head-on into a solid mass as the Hawker Siddeley 748 speeds towards the far side of the dip. The flight deck starts to bounce and shudder and the engine noise is loud despite my headset, but I don't mind at all. The view is stunning and the excitement is exhilarating, like the best roller coaster ride I have ever been on.

--- three days later ---

I am again in the flight deck of an aircraft, this time on a Boeing 737-500. It's 8pm and we are taking off from Vancouver. The low sun creates sunsets after sunset as we climb over mountains, and city, ocean and layers on layers of clouds. This time it is calm, quiet and serene. The pure beauty overwhelms me and I feel my eyes well up with tear which I furtively wipe away. 

Both of these flight deck experiences left me grinning ear to ear. Passengers must have thought I was the happiest flight attendant on the planet. I believe I have officially added an experience to my top ten list this week. Actually, two top ten experiences. I'm very grateful to co-workers for giving me this unique opportunity. It definitely keeps my spirits up during the stressful parts of the job and I feel honoured to have a career in aviation.

Next time though, I need to bring my camera!

Swan Haven

Everything is relative.

Swans are pretty common in Collingwood, where I come from. I never noticed when they arrived and I didn't much care when they left. I've been up close and personal with swans at the Elmvale Zoo and I can tell you they have wicked teeth from the time one tried to take a bite out of me, and from that other time another one tried to bite me.

We drove out to Swan Haven on Marsh lake today to see a bunch of swans a couple of miles away. We looked at them through a telescope. They bore a strong resemblance to specks. We then took a hike out on the ice. From there, with my 200mm lens, they looked like slightly bigger specks. Dozens of people were out walking, bird watching and photographing.

Every year, thousands of swans stop to rest at open water as they migrate through the Yukon. Marsh Lake is one of the first places they can be seen in the spring. Here, the arrival of swans means the beginning of warmer temperatures.

After half an hour in a deck chair on the ice listening to the distant honking, a couple of swans decided to fly to our side of the lake. I got very excited when they flew closer to us and I could get a few photos. I wasn't even worried about the potential for a swan attack. They were quite beautiful, the white of the swans against the white of the ice. 

Sometimes I can feel the Yukon changing me. Something deep is changing. It's a strange kind of contentment, a feeling like I'm where I'm supposed to be. I look at people differently now. I see the best in them instead of the worst. When I'm walking and I look up and see someone, I smile, and that person is usually smiling back.

Even the swans aren't mean here.

It's for work, I promise...

Usually when I'm picking a wine, I stare at the rack of selections mindlessly for a few minutes until I eventually pick something either cheap or on sale. Today, there was no mindless staring, no sale or cheap purchases. Today, two labels jumped out at me, the Latitude 50 white and the Painted Turtle shiraz. They stood out because I've seen them on Air North's Boeing 737 where I had my service training and my first two flights as a flight attendant.

I've already been stumped by a passenger asking how strong the coffee was. I had no idea, having never tried the Yukon roasted Midnight Sun coffee. (It's strong, by the way, but delicious.)

I have two night flights coming up next week, so it's time to do my wine research. I know, I am, like, the best employee, ever.

In our service manual, the Latitude 50 is described as "a blend of vinifera grape varieties specifically chosen for their unique characteristics." According to the label, this blend is unique to the microclimate in the area where Lake Okanagan meets a certain latitude... and that would be latitude 50.

The Painted Turtle shiraz, another B.C. wine, is described as full bodied and smooth. The label suggests sipping it with "bacon wrapped pork or cedar plank Pacific salmon." Now that just makes me hungry. Now I'm picturing salmon wrapped in bacon, ooh or scallops wrapped in bacon. I'm trying to drum up the same enthusiasm for tonight's salad. Hmmm.

I'm not the best wine connoisseur. My critique of wine usually consists of "I like it" or "I don't like it" and let's face it, after a few glasses I like pretty much everything. My husband, however, is British and comes from a long line of British and Scottish drinkers. Richard often detects a "hint of elderberry" or comments that a wine is "slightly oaky" in that delicious posh British accent. Usually I nod wisely while the information immediately falls out of my brain, but tonight I will be taking notes. That stuff will be pure gold.

Flashback: Alaska

Last night I dug through my photo archives. I'm lucky enough to have travelled and experienced many interesting places around the world while I worked on cruise ships. One of the reasons I was drawn to the Yukon was my connection to Alaska. Skagway was the port that most reminded me of home, and a great port for escaping ship life for a bit to go hiking Lower Dewey Lake. I had some of my most memorable experiences in Juneau, exploring the Mendenhall caves, hiking up Mount Roberts and of course. You can see more photos here.

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Glacier ice and rock, forming the Mendenhall caves. Photo by Christa Galloway.

The view tonight

Sometimes when I'm dragging myself out of bed at 5am I envy the person who gets to sleep in another 45 minutes because they live in town.... and then I see a herd of caribou, a pair of lynx, a moose in my backyard, or this view out my window, and you know what? It's totally worth it.

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... And here's the view from the other direction. Photo by Christa Galloway.

Silver wings and diet coke: my first flights

Yesterday, I got my wings.

After five weeks of training, on Sunday I had my Boeing familiarization flight (fam flight) and yesterday my Boeing line indoctrination (line indoc). The fam flight was my first with flight attendant duties although I was technically a passenger with a passenger seat and supervised by the "real" flight attendant, my trainer. During my line indoc I was again shadowed by a trainer, but this time I was also being evaluated.

I passed, hooray! Plus in the last few days, I've been to Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. I saw Calgary for the first time from an airplane window, I caught a glimpse of an Edmonton runway and I actually got a chicken samosa from the departure lounge in Vancouver. And it was great. (Not the samosa, the travel. The samosa was very good though.) I'm not sure why it felt so good to go to these places when I didn't actually see much, but funnily enough, it did.

Oh yeah, and Vancouver felt like the tropics with the moisture in the the air. I could feel my skin greedily sucking it in. If I ever fly from Whitehorse to the Caribbean, it's going to feel like taking a bath. (Whitehorse is the driest city in Canada.)

It wasn't perfect. I gave a VIP of Air North a coffee with no stick stick, among other things. I did, however, have a great team on both flights, knowledgable and fair trainers and when the passengers figured out that I was new they were very encouraging. One kind lady gave me a wink and said "You're doing great!" It actually meant the world to me.

I have now experienced, first hand, the diet coke phenomenon. Heaven knows what they put in there, but it fizzes like crazy in high altitudes. I ended up pouring it like a beer, halfway, making another drink, and then pouring the other half. I was secretly pleased though. I have wings AND I've poured a diet coke at high altitude, I'm starting to feel like a real flight attendant. 

In addition to the diet coke phenomenon I've made it through (in relatively good form, I think) pre-flight briefings, pre-flight checks, safety demos, making coffee, galley checks, arming and disarming doors, securing the cabin, drink service, warming cookies and even a last minute plane change. It was overwhelming at times, but fun. 

The next hurdles are my Hawker fam flight and line indoc. The Hawker is a little more of a challenge because there's only one flight attendant, so I will be doing everything on my own, announcements, door opening, stair lowering, paperwork etc. Part of me is excited about being in charge (I may be a tiny bit of a control freak) and the other part is nervous bordering on terrified (of the responsibility that comes with that very same control.)

Class of 2014! Woohoo!

Yesterday was graduation. 

We dined on champagne, pizza and the famous Air North cookies, enjoyed a photo montage, and the shortest speeches ever by two of our instructors, Wini and Michael. I'm not complaining. I was a wedding photographer for seven year. I lOVE short speeches. And it was really cute to see them all nervous in front of us for a change.

We got to hand out our gift baskets we'd all contributed to. They seemed genuinely pleased. As Wini said, "If you are trying to bribe us to be our best class ever, you succeeded. But really, you didn't have to bribe us."

Jessica and Susan bring out the baskets.

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Roxanne, Michael and Wini open their gift baskets.

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Roxanne and Michael, receiving their baskets.

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Michael and Wini, sharing some of the messages written on the mats of their frames, some sweet, some hilariously inappropriate.

Then we proceeded to get our diplomas and flight bags, one by one, to traditional graduation music.

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Angelica receives her certificate from Wini and Roxanne.

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Sonja gives Michael a little present back.

As people started drifting out, Susan to prepare for her line indoctrination, Jazmine to host bingo, everyone to their normal lives, it was bitter sweet. I'm proud we all made it through but I'm going to miss these guys. I've spent almost every day of the last month with them and now it may be months before we work together.

I'm going to miss Angelica's joy and humour, Sonic Sonja's incredible laugh and spirit and Eric's good nature and mystery. There's the strength and confidence of Jessica, the openness, vulnerability and sweetness of Jazmine, Susan's aura of cheerfulness and generosity and Erin's creativity and steadiness.

If you're reading this while simultaneously making gagging noises, I completely understand. I too, am compelled to imaginary fits of vomiting by excessive displays of gushing compliments. These comments, however, are quite true, and thus not vomit-worthy.

And then our instructors, two of which I now know read this. So I have to be nice. Just kidding! Well, yes they do read it, but I don't have to be nice. Let's see... They all have one thing in common, they all expect excellence, but they all have a good heart and a lot of empathy. I wouldn't have a bad thing to say about any of them, even if I was so inclined. In fact, I secretly want to be like them. Well, I guess not so secretly now.

I hope we will all stay in touch and hang out. I'd hate to meet all these great people and then drift apart. I'll probably be guilty of it myself, with a family, photography and other pulls in my life. Then again, I met my maid of honour, Clare, and my husband, Richard, in a similar situation on my first cruise ship, and we're still tight!

9 reasons I think I'm going to like my new job

As you may or may not know, I am about to launch (pun intended) a new career in aviation. To be exact, I've just finished my flight attendant training with Air North and am looking forward to my first flight on Sunday.

The training was thorough and tough, challenging and rewarding, and now I'm excited to get flying. There are obvious reasons why would be a great career, but here are a few reasons I think I'm going to like it.

1. A shared obsession with labelling. Someone has taken the time to label every compartment WITH A LABEL MAKER. It's Christa heaven. I'm considering putting my label maker in my flight bag in case it's needed.

2. I'll always be going somewhere. Even if it's just to Vancouver and straight back again, I always feel like if I'm going somewhere, I'm accomplishing something.

3. Being surrounded by great people. From what I've seen, flight attendants are like cruise ship people, we all have a certain flair for adventure. 

4. The food. Not that I'll get to eat it, but I've sampled it, and I know I'm going to have some happy passengers because of it. Plus I get to serve those adorable little liquor bottles.

5. The tidying. Okay, I might have just a touch of OCD, but I love that there is a place for everything and a great excuse to be putting stuff away.

6. New places. I mean, I'm going to places like Old Crow and Inuvik. Air North has even flown to Greenland. Greenland! Totally. Awesome.

7. The swag. I've already got an Air North hockey puck, a tote bag, a number sticker and a couple pens and tomorrow I get my flight bag. This company knows the way to a girl's heart.

8. The views. I checked out the Air North Facebook page today and saw some stunning views from the airplane on route to Yellowknife. I hope I'll have lots of chances to sneak a peek out the window.

9. Reaching the stars. I'm not an engineer, or a scientist, but if there ever are commercial flights into space, for sure there will be space flight attendants. This is my ultimate mission. Totally possible. ;)

Flight attendant service training

"Everyone here has had service experience, right?" asked our in-flight service trainer Roxanne on the B737 400. 

It occurred to me she didn't mean serving people a wedding album, or a folder of images.

"I haven't," I piped up from the back, expecting to have a few other voices joining me. Nope. I'm the only one. Awesome.

Roxanne gave me some special attention and gently went over with me the finer details of serving drinks. Then I was "volunteered" to provide service to our group.

I was surprised by my nervous thumping heart as I pushed the trolley up the aisle with Angelica. It was like my body was aware I should be nervous while my head wasn't. It can't be that hard right?

Either it's hard or I'm a complete idiot. I'm giving it even odds. 

Lets see, I didn't offer a napkin first, I plunked down Roxanne's can of Clamato juice without a glass or ice or an offer of lemon or tabasco, I gave Michael a stir stick in his straight Coke for no apparent reason, I took ten minutes to get three pieces of ice out with the tongs and I held a glass too close to the rim. And that was serving three people.

I'm pretty sure I made about seven or eight mistakes I will hopefully never make again. I sensed the suppressed eye roll of my trainers, having had many moment over the years suppressing that very same eye roll.

I've spent the last ten years as either a business owner or in a management position. It's been a long long time since anyone told me what to do. If I listen carefully, right now I can hear the gleeful laughter of all the interns, photography assistants and cruise ship photograpers of my past.

The experienced service professional around me were very encouraging. "You've served people in your house, right?" Yes. And well, I hope. "You'll be fine."

Michael left us with some general advice. "Smile, be friendly and try not to be awkward." Smile, I can do (although it's not pretty with a missing tooth). Be friendly, sure. Awkwardness though. Dude, I was born awkward. That should have been apparent from the interview krumping.

I've spent the early hours of this morning going over the comprehensive service manual Roxanne has made up. I may not have it yet, but I am going for most improved player. I refuse to be someone who lets down my fellow flight attendants.

I hope this is the heart I was hired for. I hope so. It's not my good looks, not my service training, not a short commute or a lack of dependants, certainly not my poise or social grace. It's got to be heart. I think I have that in spades.

So, if you are on an Air North flight in the next few weeks and a flight attendant awkwardly grins at you with a missing tooth and looks at you with eyes vaguely reminiscent of a deer in the headlights, and you order a spicy clamato juice, you can rest assured, there will be ice and a stir stick in your glass, you will be offered lemon and tabasco and it will be handed to you, graciously, from as far down on the glass as possible without risking spillage. And it will be done with heart.

I love working for a fun company

Happy April Fool's Day!!

We saw a bit of the filming of this ad during our training on a Boeing 737. Nicely executed by a company called GBP Creative. 

My new workplace

Yesterday I took my final exam for Air North flight attendant initial training, and I passed. I'm not quite there yet, I still have my service training, familiarization flight and line indoctrination before I'm officially a flight attendant. The line indoctrination sounds like something unpleasant the Borg or a cult might do, but it's a training flight where you have all the flight attendant duties while you are shadowed but a supervisor. Probably the Borg would do it too.

Today is service training. I really hope I learn how to pour coffee. I can't even drink coffee without spilling it on myself. If the service training is anything like safety training, I'll be a pro in no time. Maybe they'll even teach me to drink coffee.

You know you're a flight attendant trainee when...

You know you're a flight attendant trainee when...

You audibly say assessing and reassessing while reversing your car.

When your son tries to sit up on the dinner table you say REMAIN SEATED in a loud authoritative voice.

You've said something like, "So then I grabbed my Halon, while my ABP informed the PIC," and had to explain.

You dictate your actions aloud, as in "I am opening my door, I am now locking my door, I am now closing my door, confirmed, the door is locked."

People are surprised when they find out that after the first four weeks of flight attendant training you are absolutely no better at serving coffee or handing out mints (but you could put out a fire, administer first aid oxygen, evacuate an aircraft and about 11,000 other safety and emergency related actions.)

You've said "Don't touch my FAM," or "Be careful of my FAM" at least once.

Your neighbours are expecting flashing lights and sirens after hearing EMERGENCY, BEND OVER, STAY DOWN shouted from the next apartment for the last four days.

When you're with another flight attendant trainee you tend to show things together in sync.

You start abbreviating the names of random items.

You shout your name, "out, door 1L" when you leave a room.

Imaginary round houses and real yellow slides

It's five-something in the morning. After a restless night dreaming of fighting fires and evacuating passengers I've spent the last two hours desperately trying to sleep. I've tried counting sheep, meditating, designing imaginary round houses and any other trick I've ever heard of to try to sleep. 

My round house has four levels, a courtyard and a wrap-around deck and I don't even want to tell you how many sheep are in my paddock.

Eventually I gave up and just studied. I'm not sure how much is retained at 5am but there you go.

Yesterday was intense. I went from highs to lows and upside down, around and back again. The day began with an exam and then we had drills until the early evening. My name was drawn to inflate the escape slide, which was awesome, and then we all got to jump down the slide, which was also pretty awesome.

Christa Galloway deploying the evacuation slide on JLB. Photos by Roxanne.

Then I voluntarily strapped myself into a jump seat, heart pounding, limbs shaking, gave a thumbs up to start the drill, shouted evacuation commands and "evacuated" a B737 while an instructor evaluated my every move. And again, and again, and again for the next seven hours on different planes with different scenarios.

Several times I felt the strong overpowering urge to run away and weep uncontrollably in a dark corner, but I stuck it out. I went into these drills knowing they would be very hard for me but with the intention to do my best. I made more than my fair share of mistakes, but if nothing else, I did my best.

I had help. I remember once, after feeling quite beaten, Jessica looked me in the eye and said "We got this." At one point Erin said a quirky "erinism", like only Erin can, and the tension evaporated into laughter. When I nailed a drill I got high fives and "You rocked it." I feel closer to my team mates than seems possible after four weeks. I consider every one of them a friend and without them, and my instructors, I could have conceivably been out on day one. My instructors are fair, tough, encouraging and relentless, all at the same time.

I can't congratulate myself on getting through it quite yet. I have more drills today and a final exam on Monday, service training, not to mention my line indoctrination. If I don't pass, I will be extremely disappointed but I feel like I've grown so much, the experience is worth it. Plus, it's like the most effective weight loss program ever!

Sunset over Red Ridge

Another spectacular sunset tonight. This is the view from our deck towards Red Ridge.

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Sunset over Red Ridge, March 23, 2014. Photo by Christa Galloway.

The day I yelled "bend over" to four of my co-workers

We've had three solid weeks of very serious safety training, capped off with two days of first aid training last week. This week-end we've all been studying for our exam on the Hawker Siddeley 748 on Monday. Today we had a study group and practiced evacuations in preparation for emergency procedures training and evacuation drills this week. 

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Erin Sanderson studies the FAM (flight attendant manual). Photo by Christa Galloway.

Evacuations involve memorizing commands verbatim, developing the right authoritative and loud voice and endless practice. We need to know exactly what to do and exactly what to say in every conceivable evacuation scenario. I believe the goal is to get to the point where we won't have to think about what to say and do in an emergency, we will just do it.

By the way, if you are ever unfortunate enough to be in a plane crash, the best advice I can give you is listen to your flight attendant. We know this stuff inside out. By the time we graduate we will have passed a drill where we evacuate two types of aircraft in front of our instructors, which for me is the most terrifying scenario I can think of.

I've tried yelling emergency commands in my car, shouting: EMERGENCY, BEND OVER, STAY DOWN so many times that my three-year-old son has the command memorized. 

My three-year-old son Oscar has picked up the emergency command to brace from my practice sessions in the car.

Today in our study group, we had a chance to practice yelling commands at each other. We set up an unplanned land evacuation on a make-shift Hawker 748 today. The Hawker was actually Susan's kitchen, the seats were lawn chairs and the jump seat was a bar stool. We practiced two scenarios, one where both the aft exits were clear and one where the aft exits were blocked and the ABPs were unable to open the window exit. (ABP stands for able-bodied person.) 

I've learned a lot about my co-workers today. I now know that if you hear Angelica, Susan, Jessica, Erin or Eric shout "BEND OVER," you bend over. We are a forceful group, let me tell you.

After several run-throughs, some of our more gregarious personalities made things a little more challenging with some erratic passenger behaviour. While we are very serious about safety and emergency procedures, it is nice to have a little fun every now and then. Plus, the challenge of successfully remembering evacuation commands while a "passenger" is repeatedly making loud tropical bird noises, is very good practice.

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Jessica Clark practices evacuation commands while Susan Burton, Eric Girard and Angelica Daravingus-Muric pretend to be passengers. Photo by Christa Galloway.

By the end of the study session my voice was starting to get hoarse from shouting so for now, it's back to studying the Hawker.

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Susan Burton has actually been found asleep on the couch with the FAM (flight attendant manual) before. Here she re-creates the visual. Photo by Christa Galloway.

If only I'd studied like this in college

So my week-end so far has consisted of studying, some more studying, and then I took a short break and studied. Tomorrow though, I am heading into town... for a study group.

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Studying for the Hawker 748 exam on Monday with my self-made study quiz, a way to re-organize information in order to remember it better.

Monday's exam is on the Hawker Siddeley 748, of which Air North has four that I need to worry about, and it seems each one is very different from the other.

Fortunately for me, my husband is a teacher and has some great study tips. One tip he gave me was to re-organize the information so I could remember it better. So far I've been doing a lot of flash cards on the advice of my classmates, but I tend to get bored easily so today I decided to create my own 61 question test including every difficult question I could think of. 

I'm feeling pretty confident but I suppose I will find out Monday if this technique works for me. For now, I think I'lll (can you guess?) study some more.

Saving Herbert

For some reason, we do not practise donning and inflating infant life vests on actual infants. I can't imagine why. Thank goodness for Herbert. Herbert is a stuffed bunny who has gamely allowed us to practise life-saving skills on him.

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Jazmine Carey inflates Herbert's infant life vest. Photo by Christa Galloway.