I miss driving my WRX!

It teases me just sitting there in the driveway. I continue to wait for my car's ECU to be returned with the new and improved programming geared towards better performance and smoother application of said performance.

The latest I've heard is that it has arrived in Squamish, and if they can finish with it by tomorrow before 1pm, then I can purolator it back here for a Saturday special delivery so that I can have access to my car before Monday. Monday I've got a 3 day trip coming up on the jet where I'll be do a significant amount of traveling. And I'd like to be able to have my car so that I can drive to work! Otherwise I'll have to beg a roommate for a ride to work early Monday morning.

So far the trip has me going to San Diego, Omaha, some place in Vermont, then some place in Ohio, then over to Toronto, up to a town right next to the Quebec town that I visited on my North Bay ON trip (Temiscaming), back to Toronto, then to some place in South Dakota, then over to a place near Salem Oregon and then finally back up to Calgary. So, should be a good trip. I'll get to travel a long distance in the jet and see a lot of new destinations.

You might have also noticed I changed my banner at the top of the site. It's a shot of downtown Calgary. Unfortunately, the Calgary tower is hidden behind some of the other buildings. At any rate, as I continue to be snap happy with my new camera, that banner is likely to change with various scenic shots.

W R X

Well it has been quite a while since I've done any modifications to my WRX. That time has ended. :)

Foolishly, as soon as my jet raise kicked in I go and spend a little money. But I couldn't help it. I've been very good as to not spend any excessive money on the Subaru for quite some time. I've been waiting a long time to do this particular mod. But before I continue, here are a couple of pics I took of the car this past week with the Calgary downtown landscape in the background.





So, back to the modification. I've taken the ECU (brain of the car), out of the WRX and shipped it out to Squamish, BC. For there, nestled near the sea to sky highway is a rally and performance shop called Rocket Rally. This group of individuals is made up of the old Canadian Subaru Rally team after they were disbanded when they kept winning all of the Rally events and Subaru didn't see the need to keep proving themselves. So, the driver and his maintenance team decided to open up shop. If there is ANYONE I would trust to know about my car and what it is capable of... it's these folks.

So they have what's called an ECU reflash, where they take my ECU and reflash all of the programs to be more performance geared. They adjust the fuel mapping, ignition timing, boost control of the turbo etc. The end result is between 35-45 extra horse power simply from changing some settings.

So, I now await for my ECU to return so I can put it back in my car (which is now just sitting in the driveway waiting, as it's useless and undriveable right now) and go out and have one hell of a fun drive. :)

I know a few people that have done this and are very pleased with the results. It is nothing that will add anymore wear and tear to the car that it couldn't normally take. I can't wait.

First jet flight = awesome

It was a very quick flight, but damn.. she's a beaut. A nice little hop over to Kamloops in 44 minutes in great weather. It will take a few flights to get adjusted to the new cockpit, but so far so good.

Tomorrow off to Prince Rupert and then back to Calgary. Should be a quick day.

It's going to take some time to whipe the grin from my face. :)

Marathon flying, but not on the jet

Well.. after vacation and days off I check my schedule only to see that I am scheduled on the turboprop and not the jet! We're really busy right now and barely have enough crew members to handle the flights. So I have been put back on the pilatus to help cover the insanity.

And insanity it was! My one day trip turned into a 4 day trip with layovers. I ended up actually visiting all new airports on each of my days. Something that hasn't happened too often in the past! Adding to the destination tracker is Golden, BC; 108 Mile Ranch, BC; Ponoka, AB; Denver, CO; Eagle, CO and Sandspit, BC. So I have traveled quite the distance in the past few days.

It has all been a bit of a gongshow.. but the biggest was when we went to Denver on Saturday night to hold for a trip back to Calgary the next day. Well, we were waiting for the passengers when we get a phone call from the office saying that our clients were actually in Eagle Colorado instead!!!! About a 45min flight away and in some of the most challenging terrain around Colorado, it's a big resort location and requires a lot of preparation to get in and out of the airport. We actually botched the approach in and got too high and fast on our final approach and had to pull up before landing and do a circle around the airport to bleed off the speed and set our selves up properly for landing. Pretty much everyone, including our clients, saw this and all had something to say... whoops :) From the ground it probably looked like we were doing a high speed pass and showboating.. but it totally wasn't! But at the same time.. it was pretty cool.. ;)

On another note... I FINALLY have a jet flight booked for Friday. My inaugural flight will be to Prince Rupert! Haha, not so glamorous, but I'll take it! Can't wait!

Back in Cowtown

Well, I'm not sure how many posts I've started with this exact some title, but it is what it is... I'm home.

After spending a long time in Dallas and then my vacation back in Vancouver I have returned. I have a couple days off now to get my life back together here so that I can go and grab groceries and do some laundry and get back into the books while I await my first flight as a jet pilot.

I took my new camera with me to the Coast and took some photos while down there. Here are a few I took. I went to my mom's barn and took some photos there and also took some at fireworks from Saturday night's finale.

My mom and her horse 'Tucana'

Her other horse (smaller like a pony) 'Winston' being ridden by one of the girls who rides at the same barn

A baby horse that is only a few days old

The crazy crowd growing at Saturday's fireworks display which had Mexico performing

Some boats in the bay as the sun was setting

The sun continuing to set...

Going...going...going...

...and finally gone!

An impromptu shot of the actual fireworks, I didn't have a tripod so wasn't trying to take any photos, but thought I'd give it a go by just bracing the camera on my backpack

So I'm pretty happy with the camera to date, I've been able to get some pretty nice photos and I'm getting better at post editing as well.

Now it is time to return to the normal life. Can't wait to get into that jet and start flying to further places, faster and higher! I'll keep you all appraised about my first trip... so far nothing is on the books as of yet.

Stephen Colbert on "Wikiality"

If you've ever watched an episode of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, you probably know where this is going.

These two shows offer a different perspective on current events and other news worthy items. Combine with a few interviews and reviews and you've got a well rounded show right? Well.. yes.

Last week Stephen Colbert made some waves with the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Read further here: Stephen Colbert Causes Chaos on Wikipedia, Gets Blocked from Site

And here's the clip from the show. Read the article above first for maximum comedic effect. :)

The digital airwaves

Something I keep hearing more and more about (quite literally as a matter of fact) is the internet radio show phenomenon quite simply known as podcasting.

Anybody with an iPod has a pretty good idea what a podcast is. Podcasts are pretty much radio shows that have been produced (professional and amateur alike) then posted on the net for any and all to download and listen to.

So I was surfing around earlier today, looking on some other aviation related blogs and I came across a couple of individuals who compliment their blogs with podcasts. Perhaps it would be better stated that they compliment their podcasts with blogs, but at any rate, it got me to thinking! Hotel Coffee, a blog done by a younger pilot flying for Horizon out of the North West in the States and also Fly with me which is done up by another pilot flying long haul flights, are a couple of the aviation related podcasts I've come across.

I've been told many times that I've had a voice for radio. Even when I was flying traffic reporters around downtown Vancouver, once people found out what I was doing for a living they immediately would say something like "Yah, you totally do have a radio voice!" Even though I wasn't actually the one talking on the radio ;)

So I'm considering taking this a little further. So I ask upon you, my faithful followers... What if I was to produce a podcast perhaps twice a month, something to be in addition to my normal blogging? It would likely be aimed more towards my flying and those experiences and less on my personal activities. So? What do you think? Some feedback? Ideas, topics of interest? Anything you'd like to hear about? Questions on the industry? What exactly is it that I do? It would show up in mp3 format, maybe a 10 min blurb per episode or something along those lines. Of course I'd make it entertaining, or at least reasonably so. We'll see... we'll see.

A little R&R

So far so good with operation take a load off.

Good home cooking, good weather (anything's better than 45 degrees!) and good people! But let me just back track for a second and update on what's happened since my last post just after we finished our jet training.

That night we went out to party it up a little in celebration of a job well done. Well we certainly had our fair share of alcohol. We started off at Bennigan's next to the hotel and after a few hours it was time to call it quits... however, once the hotel shuttle came by to grab us.. suddenly we deemed it a good idea to continue the boozefest and we headed over to the local hooters for more beer. It gets a little fuzzy after that.

Some highlights that do ring a bell:
-having a $60 bar tab at Bennigan's off of $2 beers
-buying drinks for random people in the bar
-yelling out of the hotel shuttle that we were going to Hooter's and having people try to join us (this was while we were stopped near a walmart while enroute to Hooters)
-poking fun at a cop who was on guard at the Hooters
-hitting on the every single waitress at Hooters, and then also finding out that one of them was 18.. that was a little sobering
-I don't recall the ride back to the hotel but I do recall falling down in the elevator
-being completely messed up the next day... worst hangover ever. Wasn't until 6pm that I could stomach food

So that was the fun in a nutshell. And for now I'm just at home, chilling out and taking in the peace and quiet. I believe there will have to be some Pokering and some other fun while I'm here. Fireworks are on, so I'm sure they'll be some flashbacks to good 'ol memory lane with some firework outings.

Well, time to head back to the relaxation. If you're in town and want to meet up, give me a shout!

Done! Now.. it's beer o'clock

A little less than an hour ago my license was endorsed with the Cessna Citation Excel aircraft type rating. We passed our check rides with flying colors after about 4hrs of simulator flying.

So our training has finally come to an end in Dallas. We'll be hoping on a plane tomorrow night to return back to Calgary. Where I will only spend a few hours, before turning around again and coming to Vancouver on Sunday morning.

I'm glad it's all done with and I can relax a little bit. We're now off to the pub next door for many celebratory drinks!

Take cover, Matt's coming home!

Hey folks. Heads up! I'll be taking vacation immediatley upon my return home from jet training.

I'll be in Vancouver from Sunday July 30th until Sunday August 6th!!!

So.. pass the word along. Stock up on the booze, practice your poker skillz and be prepared to have some fun! haha..

The waiting game

So yesterday was my last simulator session. Now we wait for our examiners to arrive so we can have our flight test on Friday. So today and tomorrow will be spent relaxing, studying and maybe even playing tourist.

Yesterdays sim session was a no-abnormals day. A day to fly the simulator as if we were flying the plane normally. Not having to worry about engines failing, or explosive decompressions or flying into mountains. We did a flight from Calgary to Vancouver and then over to Seattle all in the simulator. It was pretty cool. The graphics do somewhat resemble the areas, but the flight is more to see all the normal things that go on with the airplane. We had time to play with things in the cockpit and really see how the airplane operates on a normal basis. A great way to end the training.

On Friday we'll get back into the simulator for 4hrs and go for our flight tests. I'm feeling very confident in the aircraft and don't foresee any problems. I hope I haven't jinxed myself there. :)

I've met a lot of great people while being here. We had a large class in our ground school and they were from all over the place. There was only 1 American in the class. There were people from Belgium, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Brazil. All of them with varying levels of experience. Aviation is different in every country and so it was great to hear stories from all of these people. Quite amazing some of the backgrounds of these folks. The instructors are also a great bunch of people, and they know these airplanes like the back of their hands.

So while I have been getting a little tired of living out of a hotel for 3 weeks, the time has been well spent molding this aircraft securely into my head.

Things are coming together

Finally starting to understand this aircraft. And starting to feel much more comfortable. We've had a couple of great flights dealing with all sorts of emergencies.

Think of the worst things that could ever happen to you on a flight and then add some extra stuff, and that's what you have when we take off in that simulator.

Jet aircraft like the one I'm going to be flying are certified to take off on ONE engine with the other totally inoperative after you've reached a certain speed on the take off roll. For example, as we roll down the runway if we were to have an engine malfunction or some sort of major catastrophe we would abort the takeoff up to a certain speed (around 170 km/hr usually). After that, no matter what, we take off (usually around 190-210 km/hr) and deal with the problem in the air. The aircraft can get up to a safe altitude and we can then run through the appropriate checklist to secure the aircraft and get things ready to come around and land again at the airport. It would be unsafe to try and abort a take off past that safety speed as it would likely result in an over run off the end of the runway at a high rate of speed.

So this is the kind of stuff that gets lots of attention in the simulator. Failing various systems at the most crucial periods of flight. Today we also practiced emergency descents going the full nine yards and getting the oxygen masks on and dive bombing down at a very alarming rate! Glad to see it is affective.

Here are some pics of the simulator units. In our area of the building there are 4 sims all next to each other. They run all hours of the day. I tried to get a picture showing the graphics inside but it was very dark, so it's pretty blurry, but if you look hard you can kind of see the runway off to the left.

Dallas is HOT

Holy smokes.. these are the hottest temps that I've ever had to put up with for an extended period of time!

We arrived last Monday early in the morning at it was already 32 degrees. Most days end up hitting 40 degrees and likely hotter with the humidex and the fact that there is lots of concrete around to radiate it all back at us!

Today is the first day that I've got a bit of breathing room. The first day (Tuesday) we were right into class. A full day of class each day of the week. This goes on for the first week and then we head to the simulator in the second week. It is a very intense program. Lots and lots of information gets covered and each night is spent reviewing all the information and preparing for the next days class.

Just to explain a bit, pilot training for specific aircraft is incredibly detailed. We are pretty much taught everything about the aircraft, not just how to fly it. Which makes complete sense. And this is how it has been done for all the aircraft I've flown before as well, but this is the largest, fastest and most complicated aircraft I have flown yet. As they teach you about the systems of the aircraft they not only teach you what buttons to press and when, but also what exactly happens when you press the button. Everything from electronic schematics showing which relays and busses are activated and then what hydraulic systems they might trip into action. Then exactly how that system then produces the hydraulic pressure to push actuators and jack screws to lower the flaps for instance. Here's an excerpt from one of the phone book sized manuals I now have:

"In GEN, regulation, protection, and Feed bus connection are automatic through the GCU; the generator connects to its Feed bus once the generator reaches operating speed and begins supplying power at the correct voltage. The center OFF position disconnects a generator from its Feed bus without de-exciting it by opening its power relay. The momentary RESET position resets a generator field relay that tripped from overvoltage, feeder fault, or ENG FIRE switch actuation. Positioning the switch to RESET also may be necessary following a windmilling restart"

Pretty exciting stuff eh? Haha, it's not that bad, but it is a lot of information. We are expected to know how each system operates and why. This comes in very handy if/when various systems have problems in flight. If we have the knowledge to know what's effecting each system it just further helps us in solving the problem.

The training thus far has been fantastic. These instructors really know the airplane well and are very very knowledgeable, friendly and genuinely make sure you understand if you have any questions. I'm very happy with the program.

The hotel is very close by and the hotel shuttle takes us there every day and picks us up. They are also able to take us to restaurants and really anywhere else we need to go. So that is a big help, because there isn't a whole lot near the hotel and certainly nothing is worth walking to in this heat. We tried yesterday and I nearly died I kid you not! We lucked out and bumped into the shuttle driver at a local store and scored a ride back by pure fluke to the hotel! :)

The simulator is excellent. We did a quick familiarization in it yesterday and it is very much lifelike in every shape and form. We had the motion turned off, but the visuals were still so good that I felt like we were moving and I had to keep looking back at the open door behind us to prove to myself otherwise!

So things are going well. Today we are going to go and sit in a fake cockpit of the plane to just run through checklists to help get our familiarization of the cockpit and where all the switches are down solid. It will also give us a chance to practice all the proper SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) which are developed so that it doesn't matter who you fly with, everybody within the company knows the same procedures as everyone else. The jet is new to me and the company is new to the other pilot I'm down here with. So this will be good practice for the both of us.

Tomorrow is the last day of ground classes and the rest of the week will be spent in the simulator.

I'll take some pictures within the next couple of days and post them up. It's a nice facility and so far the weather has been great, aside from being hotter than the surface of the sun!

It's Jet time!

Tomorrow I head off on my American Airlines flight direct to Dallas Texas. I'll be spending the next 20 days there "on course" for the Cessna Citation Excel business jet.

I'll be attending a facility called Simuflite where they provide ground school and simulator training for the jet. At the end of it all, we meet with a Transport Canada flight examiner (who gets flown out from somewhere in Canada) to give us our flight test. If all things go well, I shall return to Calgary on July 29th a fully licensed jet pilot.

I'm currently in the process of packing up my bags for such an extended stay. I'll be staying in the Embassy Suites, so I'll have some breathing room and won't be too cramped in a little hotel room. I'm also a big fan of their full service free breakfast in the morning and then complimentary drinks and snacks at night. :)

So thankfully I'll be spending most of my time indoors while down in Dallas as they are calling for some rather warm temperatures for my entire stay. Somewhere in the vicinity of 35 degrees the whole time during the day! HOT.

Well, back to packing. First time I'll actually have to bring an extra bag to help handle all the extras!

Calgary Stampede!!!

Well it's that time of the year. When the whole town goes crazy for a couple of weeks as we host our annual rootin tootin good cowboy times at the infamous Calgary Stampede!

Anybody that is anybody in these here parts knows what good fun Stampede is. It's just one big party with some western flavor and good all around craziness. Just south of downtown in the Stampede grounds there's all sorts of good stuff to check out. It's similar to PNE for you west coasters and CNE for you east coasters - but better! If anyone knows how to throw a party... it's Calgary! People travel from all over the country and even from the states to come and check out the festivities. The whole town gets involved and for these couple of weeks people will be walking around in cowboy boots and hats having a good 'ol time.

Last night at work we had a huge Stampede BBQ for everyone. It was good times all around with management at the BBQ cooking up hot dogs and hamburgers and buckets full of ice cold beer. But the real party started at about 7:30pm when a bus rolled into the parking lot to take us all to a downtown bar to finish the night off! The bus was hilarious. It was an old converted school bus and was called "The Party Machine". We were dropped off in style with music blaring the whole way there.

We went to a bar called The Roadhouse. I had actually never been there before. It was more of a country style bar, but holy heck was it a good time. All sorts of people two stepping and having fun. We all got 2 free drink tickets at the door and those were quickly consumed. And then the boss kept walking around and giving out more and more drink tickets. I can't even recall how many drinks I had last night but what I do recall is that I didn't pay for a single one! That's one good thing about this company. A couple times per year (usually Xmas and Stampede) they party it up right and usually it's a open tab at the bar for the employees!

After about 5 hours of drunken partying myself and 4 others all crammed into a cab and made our way back into my neighborhood where at least 10 employees of AirSprint live! So that worked out well. I slept not too bad, took a little extra force to remove me from bed, but overall I didn't get too f'ed up.

Can't wait for the xmas party... :)