Yesterday, I got my wings.
After five weeks of training, on Sunday I had my Boeing familiarization flight (fam flight) and yesterday my Boeing line indoctrination (line indoc). The fam flight was my first with flight attendant duties although I was technically a passenger with a passenger seat and supervised by the "real" flight attendant, my trainer. During my line indoc I was again shadowed by a trainer, but this time I was also being evaluated.
I passed, hooray! Plus in the last few days, I've been to Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. I saw Calgary for the first time from an airplane window, I caught a glimpse of an Edmonton runway and I actually got a chicken samosa from the departure lounge in Vancouver. And it was great. (Not the samosa, the travel. The samosa was very good though.) I'm not sure why it felt so good to go to these places when I didn't actually see much, but funnily enough, it did.
Oh yeah, and Vancouver felt like the tropics with the moisture in the the air. I could feel my skin greedily sucking it in. If I ever fly from Whitehorse to the Caribbean, it's going to feel like taking a bath. (Whitehorse is the driest city in Canada.)
It wasn't perfect. I gave a VIP of Air North a coffee with no stick stick, among other things. I did, however, have a great team on both flights, knowledgable and fair trainers and when the passengers figured out that I was new they were very encouraging. One kind lady gave me a wink and said "You're doing great!" It actually meant the world to me.
I have now experienced, first hand, the diet coke phenomenon. Heaven knows what they put in there, but it fizzes like crazy in high altitudes. I ended up pouring it like a beer, halfway, making another drink, and then pouring the other half. I was secretly pleased though. I have wings AND I've poured a diet coke at high altitude, I'm starting to feel like a real flight attendant.
In addition to the diet coke phenomenon I've made it through (in relatively good form, I think) pre-flight briefings, pre-flight checks, safety demos, making coffee, galley checks, arming and disarming doors, securing the cabin, drink service, warming cookies and even a last minute plane change. It was overwhelming at times, but fun.
The next hurdles are my Hawker fam flight and line indoc. The Hawker is a little more of a challenge because there's only one flight attendant, so I will be doing everything on my own, announcements, door opening, stair lowering, paperwork etc. Part of me is excited about being in charge (I may be a tiny bit of a control freak) and the other part is nervous bordering on terrified (of the responsibility that comes with that very same control.)