It took me about two months to complete all my initial jet training as I bounced between Salt Lake City and Atlanta. From now on, I will find myself in Salt Lake once a year until I retire or change airlines. Airline pilots are continually evaluated each year and can be terminated at any time if their performance is not to standard. This is different from folks who have private or even commercial pilot certificates, who essentially have valid licenses for life as long as they do a brief review with a flight instructor every other year. As a former flight instructor, it was a huge liability to do these flight reviews for obvious reasons. The pilot's most recent flight could have been over a year ago, and as long as they perform a few token landings, they could legally carry passengers the next day. Yikes. The point is that when you board an American air carrier, your pilots are qualified and capable, and statistically the safest in the world. And now you know.
As I have not requested Salt Lake as a base, I do not expect to be here much until my next evaluation. It is a city that I have explored in just two areas: the airport vicinity and downtown. The area around the airport is not terribly exciting. I have had lunch or dinner in this area only out of desperation. The restaurants are just . . . awful. It is a simple matter of convenience...I'm looking at you Lofte's on West Temple. If you were in the middle of Utah, would you trust a restaurant whose specialty is exotic burgers like alligator or kangaroo? Exactly. Those have probably been sitting in the freezer since the Bush administration.
Fortunately, Salt Lake has a fairly clean and efficient light rail to take people from the airport to downtown so they don't have to eat ostrich burgers. The downtown has a fairly thriving bar scene, which is confusing for two reasons. One being the fact that obviously there are a lot of Mormons in the area. Second is the fact that Utah liquor laws are the most confusing in the country. Draft beer in Utah is limited to something like 3.2%, but you can order bottles or cans with the normal amount. Happy hour is illegal as are any discounts on alcohol. Now, a "bar" must also serve food and must card everyone who enters even if they don't plan on drinking. There is a workaround for this, as I saw at Bar X (the actual name of the bar). Inside the dimly lit bar, only drinks were served. But, at the far end of the bar was an open door connecting to the restaurant next door. Voila. So all in all, Salt Lake is a nice enough city, but I could never see myself living there. Being neither mormon nor meth addict, I have a feeling I would be in the minority.
