I thought I should give you a follow up report on attendance at the Jacqueline Cochran Air Show last Saturday, before I get out of the office this week. Many of the County Offices work on a 9/80 schedule, so today (Thursday) is my Friday this week, because I am off tomorrow.  

I could go on, but I think I have confused you enough already if you are not familiar with this type of work schedule. Suffice it to say that I work enough hours over a two week period to have every other Friday off work. I do love those 3 day weekends in the Desert, but back to last Saturday…

 The Air Show, which is free to the public, is put on by our county Economic Development Agency, the same division that organizes our annual county fair in Indio. 

Anyway, EDA – Workforce Development staff in the Desert agreed to have this bus sort of thing (which they call mobile one) out to the Air Show, so that we could collaborate to let attendees know about current job opportunities with County government in the Desert, and to advise them about the job hunting resources at the Workforce Development Center in Indio. 

 Mobile One has a pull out awning for shade, and we set out a couple of tables to hold printed job announcements. We were parked were a vendor would have otherwise been located (actually the behemoth took 2 spaces), at the main pedestrian entrance to the event. 

 

We didn’t have any lines form, but there was a steady flow of people stopping by our area from event opening at 9:00 a.m. until closing at 3:00 p.m. Our tables were staffed by a tag team pair of Workforce Development staff, Charlie, a Career Development Specialist in the morning, and Regional Manager Wendy in the afternoon. From Human Resources there was my self from the Indio office and Anita from the HR office in Riverside. 

It was great getting to talk face to face with people about our current career opportunities in the Desert (no offence meant to blog writers or readers). I let them know that to get any job with the County you need to have your resume in our Job Match candidate database. 

When a new request to fill a position comes in, the recruiter assigned first looks in Job Match for candidates that have skills which match those needed in the position the recruiter is filling. If they have enough matching candidates they simply refer them for interview, and the position is never posted on “Hot Jobs.” Although for tested positions, you will still be asked for a current resume. 

Charlie, managed to wrangle a VIP dog tag for each of us, and Wendy and I got to eat lunch in the VIP tent. There was a woman ahead of me in the food line that must have been in her 80s and she had on her WWII Women’s Army Corps (WAC) uniform. 

If you watch the History Channel you have probably heard about the women pilots that ferried bombers to Europe and elsewhere. Jacqueline (Jackie) Cochran was an early aviatrix who was said to have done everything that her contemporary Amelia Earhart had done, except crash! Actually, she did a lot more; click Jacqueline Cochran if you would like to see her accomplishments. 

The Air Show its self was fantastic. Everyone just had to stop what they were doing when the Blue Angles flew over in tight formation, and when the stunt planes started falling to earth wing over wing in a cartwheel fashion. As a former pilot myself, I can tell you none of that is easy to do, especially the stall recovery the stunt pilots performed. 

 

A “stall” is when you no longer have lift on the wings, which is what makes an airplane fly. When an airplane no longer has lift holding it up, it is just so many pounds of steel and aluminum falling to the ground.  The way you recover from a stall is counter intuitive. If the nose of the airplane is pointing to the ground and you are in a spin, you use the opposite rudder to stop the spin and you actually have to point the nose down further to gain lift on the wings and then gently pull up.

 

I learned about being in a stall, spiraling to earth, while being in a stall, spiraling to earth. Fortunately, my flight instructor was giving me instructions on how to recover. Later, he said that maneuver was no longer practiced, because too many instructors and students crashed. No, I didn’t say, “Gee thanks for telling me that”… but I wanted to.  
 

To rap up... I hope everyone has a pleasant week end; and takes in the Indio Tamale Festival if you are in the area. You can get a copy of the flyer for the Desert positions we are now recruiting for the Facilities Management Department, at the information booth. If they run out, give me a holler and I will get one to you.