I just have to share a special moment that I had today...it may only mean something to the readers (if there are any) that are pilots, but here it is...
This morning I was landing the airplane in St. Lucia (Castries), and it is always so fun to land there. Short runway, mountains ahead, and always people watching. My captain this month and I have a going challenge to see who can stop in the shortest distance. This morning I went back in the lead! The first taxiway (of two) that leads off to the very small ramp is a huge challenge to slow in time to make, this morning I got the airplane stopped completely just before the taxiway...the great thing is that there was a LIAT Dash-8 (which is half our size) waiting to backtaxi for takeoff in that taxiway...the guys were amazed! We routinely see them come to a stop in a additional 2,000' than we took today. Over the radio they told us in an antiguan accent..."impressive guys". I shouldn't have, but our reply was "that is to show you guys how to do it!". Even a guy preflighting an Islander for a short inter-island hop was amazed to see the ATR come to a stop that short.
I don't know why I am posting this, but it was just a special moment today that made both me and Shaun realize that we have the most fun job in the world! I think our total ground roll was around 700-800 feet max. Last week the captain landing and had to do a 360 on final because a sailboat with a tall mast went through the channel at the wrong time! We routinely do go-arounds for Iguanas, sailboats, heavy rain showers, or goats or sheep on runways!
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