Things went sideways

 Well Initial flights were scheduled incorrectly by me or the system. Then they were cancelled and I was stuck at home for another week. During that week I was attending the ground school via zoom and trying to power through the 90ish online courses that they expected us to have finished before we started flying.

All of this should have been signs of things to come...

Got on a plane, finally, it was turbo delayed and I almost missed my connecting flight.

Then they cancelled my connecting flight, there are no hotels anywhere near or convenient to the airport so I tried to get comfortable in one of those awful chairs and get some sleep. The next morning the new flight that I was scheduled for was also delayed.

They are blaming the weather, but I remember years ago Canadian pilots would routinely fly through snow and weather that spooked Americans. Some articles even say the pilot shortage isn that bad. It is, every op is scrambling to reschedule and reduce their flying in order to try and mange the problem that is Toronto. Too many people need to fly and too few people can make that happen

Eventually I got to Winnipeg, and my baggage was not loaded in the air craft by the guys at Toronto, I had a feeling that would happen. 

I saw a woman in tears because they lost her dog, like her dog is gone. Possibly still in Halifax? Possibly buried under a bunch of bags somewhere at the airport. 

I decided to go to my place of employment and meet my class mates, get some paper work done. Told them of my Odyssey through Hell to get here and finally got to the hotel and got somewhat settled. 

There always seems to be 4 when it comes to pilots. The whole Wingmen thing that people unironically used back in the day is especially true of pilots. There is always the 'leader'. It is not anything formally agreed on, one guy just becomes the guy to take point. There is one guy who is the pretty, party boy. The jester. There is the youngest guy, who more often than not is the better pilot. The Ace.

Then there was me, what the fuck am I doing here. This is leading edge all over again. Its Mark, Boris and Jason again, except different. We had the older, more experienced pilot. We had the pretty/party boy we had the ace.

The experienced pilot and I went to what passes as super store out here and I hunted for some basic supplies, food, clothes etc. I was not sure how long it was going to be until I got my baggage. After all that I met up with my sim partner. I am lucky, I was partnered up with the ace. Who happens to be mutual friends with an old bouncer I worked with, a guy I knew from cadets and my first year university room mate. 

Maybe this was not such a bad thing after all