Page 16 - April 2017 Twin & Turbine

Thirty minutes later, we were over southern Oregon at FL410 looking through the ref lections on our iPad screens at ominous areas of red areas over Lake Tahoe, moving slowly east and dropping ice and wet snow over the west side of Reno. The question was, would we beat the weather to the airport? When we were 10 minutes out, inbound on the HARTT One arrival, approach was reporting winds 200 at 30 knots gusting to 45, with significant wind shear below 1,000 feet AGL, but visibility good at 10 miles with 2,600 broken with 16R and 16L in use.
Breaking out of the clouds at about 2,500 feet in light rain doing Vref+10, we could see a gray curtain of snow mixed with rain to the airport’s west, with occasional f lashes of lightning penetrating that gloom. We land just before it covers the airport. On the ramp at Atlantic Aviation, we find the linemen already have our rental cars out and running, making the baggage transfer from airplane to car in the worsening mixture of snow and rain a quick task.
Now with the airplane safely put away in the hangar and our passengers gone, we face what is our most challenging conundrum...what to do with ourselves for the next three days and two nights. By comparison, if this had been a personal flight in my Cessna 340, I would have arrived with some specific purpose or schedule in mind, most likely with my wife or family members on board. But this is rarely so when you fly for pay. You often find yourself with several days with nothing to do other than just wait. In addition, some of the destinations that might seem to be glamorous at first pass, lose their glitter once you’ve been there often enough.
Faced with this problem, almost always the first topic for professional crews is what to do about dinner. And for veteran pilots a lot the glitzy, expensive places advertised in the
airline magazines lost their attraction long ago. No, for most of us it must be some place where the tourist crowd never goes, preferably a little on the exotic side, hard to get to, and ideally cheaply priced. Generally, one of us will always at least claim to know of such an eatery no matter where we are in the country.
After some discussion, TL says he has a hankering for German food, which sounds fine to me. As I drive up to the Marriott, he is already punching in the location of a what he says is one of the best German restaurants in the country, and it is right here in Reno. When the location comes up on his cellphone map, it is quite apparent that the only tourist we will meet in that isolated part of town is a mugger out on parole, and maybe some illegal drug salesmen. I mention this and TL does admit with considerable satisfaction that “yes, it is indeed in the ‘bag lady’ section of town.”
We check into the hotel then head over to the famous German restaurant with me driving through the rain. TL is navigating and calling out “90-degree left now” and “clear right” whenever we enter an intersection. We have been flying together for some time and CRM habits are hard to drop.
Finally, after getting lost in an abandoned industrial park, we arrive at the German restaurant just after dark onamoonlessnight. Nearthedoor,we can see a gang of local residents hanging out, admiring each other’s plentiful and crude tattoos, smoking and looking for handouts. Others are pushing their life’s accumulation of worldly possessions through the large and empty parking lot in rusty Safeway shopping carts, with creaking and worn-out wheels.
Seeing only one other car present in the lot, I mention to TL that all this is not a good sign for a restaurant at the dinner hour. He assures me that contrary to all appearances, this place is a true “pilot’s find.” Nodding to the intimidating door greeters, we enter to find 30 tables nicely laid out with white tablecloths and silverware. Except for one other couple, it is absolutely empty. The waitress who has a distinct
Pilots pride themselves on being excellent sleuths for nding great restaurants off the beaten path. Sometimes, however, the results turn out to be not so great.
1
E
14
4•
A
•T
T
W
WI
IN
N&
&
T
TU
U
R
RB
BI
IN
NE
A
p
pr
ri
i
l
l
2
2
0
0
1
1
7
7