Hurry up and wait...again

The first month of being dfw based has come to and end. It's October, where has time gone. I was surprised to find that DFW flying was slow for the month of November. I'm currently at about 150 hours in the Embrear. Things are beginning to come together for me. I'm starting to feel like I know what I'm I'm supposed to be doing. I have made two Trips into Mexico now, does that make me an International Airline pilot?

The first was an overnight to Leon Mexico. Located in the State of Guanajuato. It was late when we got in, but I woke up early and went outside to enjoy some very cool morning temperatures. It was a beautiful morning.

I noticed something on the tallest peak, to the left in the picture. We didn't have enough time to go there, but i knew it was a structure of some type.

Since I didn't have time to visit it, I looked it up. Turns out it's called Cristo Rey, or Christ the King. It stands 20 meters tall, its a bronze statue of Jesus Christ set atop the summit of the mountain Cerro de Cubilete. It is located in the geographic center of Mexico. For the Christ followers in Mexico, that is significant as it shows That Christ is in the Heart of their Country. This monument was built in 1950, just after a smaller version was destroyed at the end of the Mexican revolution.

Just this week, I picked up a Vercruz Mexico trip. I was not to excited about, as Veracruz was just in the news when 35 headless bodies were found in the city apparently on a major road or highway in the center of the city.

On the way down as we began our descent through 18,000 we were handed off to VER approach. Which did not have radar. To top that off the last weather we had indicated low visibility, and 1200' clouds. I did not like that, since there was only VOR approaches available, and their minimums were 1200'. The Atis was inop so we did not have the most current wx. Luckily it was uneventful. we broke out of the last layers around 6000' and the rest was all visual. It was interesting to have to make position reports to approach control.
Finally. we are on short final things are looking good, we're visual, everything is OK...maybe. I was looking down at the approach chart when out of the corner of my eye I see something go past the windshield. I looked and before I could say anything the captain jumped and said wow. what the? About then another went by, and another. At 140kts I couldn't make it out, other then just a bunch of large birds! We are do to take the same plane back to DFW in the morning, I do not want to ingest a bird right now! Finally, on the ground, it doesn't appear we had any bird strikes, and its off to bed, for a very short overnight.
The next morning came way to early. It's very difficult to just walk into a hotel and go to sleep. It takes time to relax and get ready for bed. next thing you know it's midnight and you have to wake up at 5am. 5 hours of sleep is just not enough. That is one reason the faa is trying to update rest rules for pilots. I would say most of the time it's not an issue, but all it takes is one tired pilot, and mistakes can be made.

It's my turn to fly. After some computer issues we're finally ready to go. Mexican airports are unusual. Unlike US airports many of them do not have taxiways, which means you must "back taxi" or taxi down the runway you plan on departing from and do a U turn at the end and then take off.
While we were boarding and being delayed due to computer issues I was watching outside. I could see weather building of the coast. I was hoping it wasn't to bad.
Finally we get our close-out. It's time to go. The weather wasn't bad, we flew through some heavy rain for a bit, but then broke out on top and seen this just off our left side

The Pico de Orizaba. The highest mountain in Mexico and the third highest in North America. It rises 5,636 meters (18,491 ft). The volcano is currently dormant but not extinct with the last eruption taking place during the 19th century.
Its the second tallest volcano peak in the world, second to Kilimanjaro in Africa.

it was an amazing sight to see. Just after we broke out on top, to see this towering mountain all covered in snow, still well above us.

For the most part this new adventure has been exciting. I like most aspects of it. The one thing that has turned out to be not so nice, is how trips are assigned when your on reserve. I'll talk more about reserve later.

It's sometimes still very surreal to me. Especially when I jump out after we land and do my post flight inspection. Standing in front of the plane and looking back at this 100' long jet and thinking...I just landed this! Yeah, I still have those moments!