Note to Capt darby

[Darby]

Hello darb

Don't worry about the Beaver I've spoken to maintenance and they can look at it. Check out the Arrow we have over there and prepare for a charter tomorrow am. Deadhead to Seatac and pick up a Mr Jitters at the General Aviation coffee shop (he owns the lease on the coffeeshop as well as a few others and has hired us to take him on his rounds tomorrow). You will take him to: Tacoma, Olympia, Bremerton and finally here to Boeing. I would suggest you do not rely on GPS or the inflight map. They are usually unstable in our planes..haha. Hop to it and go easy on the coffee...haha........regards Herb

KRNT-KSEA-KTIW-OLM-PWT-KBFI. Arrow. 1 Pax and small amount of coffee supplies. 93nm (firstleg deadhead rates) = $910.00. Weather cold fronts predicted with moderate winds. No GPS or maps...-1 (strong), Roll 3. OK I better check out that Arrow.

[Darby]

Morning arrived in due course and as predicted, the air was chilly and a gusty breeze brought the smell of rain coming. After prepping the Arrow I got away about 6.45 for the hop over to Seatac. My plan for the day came unstuck almost immediately as I was instructed to 'go around' and the day began slipping away. Once landed and at general aviation I found the coffee shop and was cordially greeted by a waitress and a very agitated gentleman with dark shadows around his eyes and a nervous tic. I quickly assumed this guy to be Mr. Jitters the coffee shop king and he sure looked like a coffee connesouir/lover/addict.

The waitress brought me a short black (strong) which I bravely sipped down as Mr Jitters finished his instructions to an 'all staff memo' and stuck it up near the cash register. I then assisted my passenger to the plane where we bundled his two briefcases and a carton containing coffee samples into the luggage hatch. Then we were off.

First leg to Tacoma was a breeze. A breeze from Mr Jitters that is. This guy never stopped shifting about or talking. Between sips of a very acrid smelling coffee from a small thermos he spouted on about coffee, coffee percolators, espresso machines, the benefits of small oval coffee cups against normal round coffee cups and regaled on vehemently about how the bottomless mug of coffee is killing the tastebuds of coffee lovers world wide. All this interspersed with direct questions to me like 'you are a coffee drinker right?...you like coffee right??'. I assured him that as a PGA pilot I have tasted the best and the worst.

At Tacoma I tinkered around the plane until my passenger disappeared into the coffee shop presumably to hyper harangue his staff, then headed off for a chat with our despatcher Diane. She of course was tre interested in my Stearman Bi plane (on loan) and we made a tentative promise to fly together soon. As I expalined the purpose of my visit she assured me that the coffee at the Tacoma airport coffee shop was very good if a little overpriced. I did not ask her why she was not drinking our PGA free issue stuff.

After an in depth discussion with the lovely Diane I gathered up some paperwork she had prepared for Herb and went off to find my passenger. He was as predicted waffling on and on about coffee and his two waitresses looked both awed and dumbstruck and also releived that I had come to gather up their employer and whisk him away. "Don't forget" he yelled back as we exited, "Make it stronger...they love it stronger!!. As I made my taxi request to Tacoma Ground and began to throttle up, Mr Jitters leaned over and stuffed a load of coupons into my shirt pocket. "Freebies" he called out "Whenever you fly in here stop at the coffee shop. Ask for it strong, make sure they make it strong, coffees no good if its not strong".

As we lifted off for our next destination, I noticed Mr. Jitters take a swallow of very strong smelling coffee from his thermos which no doubt had been recharged at Tacoma.

[Darby]

Tacoma - Olympia

I called into the airport coffee shop to remind my passenger of our departure time. Mr Jitters was ready to leave and just needed to top his coffee thermos up from the espresso machine. As I picked up his two briefcases I heard him giving last minute advice to his two staff (who were paying full attention). “Just remember to make it strong” he insisted. “The customers like a good strong coffee, isn’t that right pilot?” he dragged me into it. I nodded without commitment.

Departure went smoothly and we were soon on course for Olympia. The weather was a bit hazy with rain showers flowing through and I tuned into the Olympia VOR and tried to stay busy as Mr Jitters sipped from his thermos and chatted incessantly. He waffled on about filters. Percolator filters, coffee plungers, coffee bags, paper filters, synthetic filters, fabric filters and something about a primitive type of filter made from coconut fibre. I had an instant vision of an old filthy weatherworn coconut fibre doormat I saw outside the company caboose in San Jose. I wondered if it had somehow become incorporated into the ingredients of the PGA coffee pot.

I was pleased to make out the runway lights at Olympia and set about preparing for landing as my passenger drank the last of his thermos then shook it upside down to make sure he had missed nothing. The landing was bumpy due to the gusty wind. I pointed out to Mr Jitters that the next leg to Bremerton would probably be a bit turbulent due to the wind direction. I handed him his briefcases and assisted him with the carton of samples to the airport coffee shop. It was very noticeable that as soon as we walked into the shop, one of his staff rushed forward and handed him a mug of hot strong coffee. I hurried away to find Barney our local dispatcher from these parts.