Hazards of the Job

So far I've found the most hazardous part of this job seems to be on the ground, when I'm unloading and loading the airplane. The cargo door of the Cherokee has two sections to it. The first part is the main door which swings open towards the front of the airplane, and then a secondary rectangular smaller door unlatches and flips straight up to increase the opening. The problem is that since the secondary door isn't quite as high as the main part, it leaves a nasty corner protruding into the opening. I have hit my head on that corner while leaning in more times then I can count. I can still feel a bruise there actually. The worst part is that I always hit the same part of my head! Gah it makes me so angry when it happens.

Another hazard of the job is trying to avoid getting hit by pickup trucks. There was an occasion a few weeks ago that just left me shaking my head. I landed at one of the reserves with my usual load of stuff, and the truck was there waiting for me. I usually stand by the cargo door and guide the trucks in because I'm A) paranoid that they're going to hit the airplane, and B) if they don't back in far enough it creates twice as much work when unloading the freight from the airplane into the truck.

So here I was standing at the back cargo door, watching the truck back up. As this was happening however, another person approached me to ask how much we'd charge them to take them somewhere, and for the second my attention was diverted, I looked back over at the truck and the native driver had managed to back into the back corner of the wing! GAH!! STOP! STOP!!! GO FORWARD!! Actually apparently Cherokee 6's are tougher then I thought. The back edge of the wing was poking into their taillight and bending the lens cover in on the truck. Frig, crazy driver.

So they pulled forward again, and I went up to inspect the wingtip, it actually had no damage, I got lucky. Once again I walked back to the cargo door to pay more attention to guiding the driver in. You'd think after hitting the airplane he'd drive more carefully... Well after pulling forward and straightening out, what does he do? He GUNS it backwards. WHOA!! STOP!! He managed to skid to a stop about a foot short of pinning me in between the truck and the airplane.

At this point I was getting angry. FRIG MAN! You gotta be more careful! Pull forward a bit... SLOWLY. He finally managed to position the truck properly and I and the airplane managed to stay intact. Sheesh, some people make me wonder.

There was another incident just a couple days ago that left me shaking my head again. This was a different native driver. I was once again guiding the truck up to the cargo door, and he was a little off, so I motioned for him to bring it right. He turned the wheel the wrong way and backed up further moving the truck in the wrong direction. He stopped, realizing he had gone the wrong way, and straightened the wheels and pulled forward. Once again he turned the wheel the wrong way again and started backing up. He pulled forward a second time to correct it, but for the third time he turned the wheel the wrong way again. The one good thing he was doing was driving slow and being careful at least. Nevertheless he never did manage to get it maneuvered into the optimal position. Oh well, I guess that will have to do.