Direct to Yuma

Another day at the office. Today I'm en-route to Yuma. The "D" with an arrow through it is the symbol for "Direct To." I was hoping for a leisurely day on standby duty, but my digital leash (pager) went off shortly after I fell asleep and said: "Ride to Yuma, Reposition a plane back to PHX." I enjoy flying most of the time, but I really don't like going to Yuma because that is where all sorts of company drama starts.

This time out there, I really felt as though I got "the shaft." As you may recall, I helped bail the company out of stupidity by living about a month out of El Monte to start up a run to El Centro until they could hire a 135 IFR pilot who lives in the area to do the work. My only compensation was supposed to be an additional $23 per day. I have seen now 4 paychecks since but no per diem. It turns out that nobody wants to take responsibility for why I haven't been paid. One of the owners even told me today that "Cargo pilot's don't get per-diem." The total amount of money owed to me is only a couple of hundred bucks but I'm more distressed about the principal of the situation. I don't make much money and have my wife to support until she's done student teaching so I budget every penny I make.

I did enjoy the flight though. Since all of our cargo runs are single pilot it was nice to have the change of pace and actually have somebody to talk to on the way over. After a year of single pilot flying I'm starting to feel rusty on my general conversational skills.