Page 16 - March 2015 Volume 19 Number 3

lightly loaded and climbs like a 30-06 bullet. We promptly have to throttle back to stay within the SID’s initial altitude of 2,000 feet. After a westbound vector, the departure controller assigns us a bumpy 9,000 feet and then a left turn, direct to the WITRO intersection.
They work us up through airline traffic inbound to SEA from the east, and things get smooth above FL240. Upon reaching FL430, we pick up the expected 100-knot tailwind, and level off with a ground speed of nearly 550 knots, less than 45 minutes to go. Because of the decreased air density, the ambient noise level in turbine aircraft drops dramatically in the high flight levels, and from the cockpit I can hear Kari and Christi chatting away in the back of the airplane. Christi’s husband is a special education teacher in the small rural town where they live, and they also have a 3-year old son. Christi is a hairdresser, but hasn’t been able to work for the past
year because of the time required to take care of Poppy.
When flying jets, you try to stay as high as possible, as long as possible, and so we set the VNAV program on the Universal FMS to keep us up at FL430 until we reach a top-of-descent or TOD, where we will need at least a 3,000-fpm rate of descent to bring us down to pattern altitude about five miles from the airport. Even so, we start descending while still some 100 miles out. The day is as clear as a bell, and the airport, its paved and plowed runway surrounded by open fields lightly covered with snow, is visible from 30 miles away. We cancel
IFR, are switched to the tower, and make a smooth landing on a slightly- icy runway 12.
As we unload baggage onto a frozen ramp, we are surrounded by a crowd of happy, cheering FBO employees and family members, many of whom are in tears. In Montana, even complete strangers seem to know and care about each other. Poppy is home for Thanksgiving, and for them that really counts.
Even for long-time pilots like Jeff andmyself,itsome•timeshappens that the mission is more rewarding than the flight itself. T&T
Kevin Ware is an ATP who also holds CFI, MEII and helicopter ratings, and is typed in several business jets. He has been flying for a living on and off since he was 20, and currently works as a contract pilot for several corporations in the Seattle area. When not working as a pilot, he is employed part-time as an emergency and urgent care physician for a large clinic in the Seattle area.
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