Flying!

Finally some flights.

Just got back from a quick Calgary to Edmonton run and return after spending some time in Edmonton. The way back was a bit of a mess thought, got put in a holding pattern awaiting bad weather to pass in Calgary (stormy conditions). But of course, we then got sent way south of Calgary before coming back up north to land north bound. We ended up flying through that crappy weather twice, it was not so great. Quite turbulent and just generally something we try to avoid.

Tomorrow is off to Vegas and then a night in Edmonton.

Saturday is then off to Scottsdale for a night.

Sunday is over to Vegas and back up to Calgary.

Should be fun fun. All of this after a very inactive flight schedule. I look forward to putting some hours in the log book.

Drive into the Rocky Mountains was awesome

I sometimes forget how close these mountains really are. After spending Monday out driving around out there I was quickly reminded. I really need to head out there more often.

Here's an album from my Facebook account with some pictures from the drive.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53127&l=296c6&id=885990646

Back from Chicago

Back in Calgary now, just in time to start my set of 5 days off. Our new work schedule is a period of 10 days "on call", followed by 5 days guaranteed off. We don't normally work all those 10 days, so it's not a bad schedule at all. I might get scheduled to work 7 to 8 of those 10 days, and that would be a busy time for us. More likely than not, I'll expect to work around 5 days during that period of 10. I need some more hobbies to help fill all the time off I'll have coming.

We fought headwinds all the way home, but not a big deal to me, just means more time in the logbook and that much quicker to the next upgrade. It has certainly been a very slow summer however, haven't been logging much of any flying. The winter time flying should pick things up, I'll expect to spend some time down south in warmer destinations throughout the cold season up here in Calgary.

My folks sent me a text message while I was in Chicago, they're currently on a vacation out to London and then down to Africa for a big Safari tour kinda thing. They sent me a message that said they had just landed in Kenya (good cell reception there at least) and were heading off to meet up with the rest of their group for the Safari. Sounds quite exciting. My mom hates to fly however, and I know for a fact they'll be taking some charter flights into some small areas only accessible by air, so she'll have to put up with some "small" airplanes hopping them all over the African countryside. That is one thing I always thought about doing, traveling to Africa to do some work as I see the job ads quite frequently. However, it's not all in the safe areas and something about flying as low as possible so the locals don't have as much time to shoot at you, kind of puts me off that idea and I'm suddenly pretty happy to be cruising around North America at 40 some odd thousand feet. :)

Tomorrow on my first of 5 days off I will meet up with my old room mate Mike, who has since moved in with his fiancee. We are going to go on a driving day trip (me in the WRX and he on his sport bike) which will take us south of Calgary and then west to the rockies, then up in the back way through Kananaskis country and then up through Canmore and back into Calgary from there. Around 300 some odd kms that should have some nice twisty sections and also some great views. I'll be bringing my camera, and my radar detector. A map below shows our intended route.

Currently in the 'Windy City"

I'm writing this post from my hotel room (Marriott) in Chicago, IL. I have visited here before a couple years ago and was excited to return. However, due to the stormy weather we've had here we were unable to make the trek downtown. Which kind of sucks, I would have loved to walk around again and explore the sites.

So instead we've just been hanging out around the hotel and the few places around here close by the Midway Airport. The airport is just south of the city, and also very near by the very very busy airport O'Hare. That's not to say this airport isn't busy, it is certainly a handful flying around these parts, the airspace is very congested. Southwest Airlines also uses Midway as one of their hub airports, and I'd venture a guess to say that at least one Southwest airplane lands or takes off every minute here!

One thing I did get to experience this time was authentic Chicago Deep Dish Pizza! Best pizza I've ever had in my life. It is huge, and incredibly filling. I forced half of my small pizza down last night and nearly died. The other half is here in the hotel room, I'll have some more tomorrow before the flight out and likely another piece at home when I arrive back in Calgary tomorrow night.

I continue to fight with my laptop and it's power issues. It looks like I'll be able to get it in for repairs next week at a shop in Calgary that was recommended to me. I can't wait for this issue to get resolved, because it's very very frustrating jiggling the power cord to find the perfect position that will get it charging. 1 day in the shop hopefully cures all that!

yup...

Beer Review: Alexander Keith's Red Amber Ale

After taking quite some time to make it's way out west of Ontario, Alexander Keith's Red Amber Ale has hit Alberta. I had heard of this elusive and rare brew (rare to west coast folk at least) some time ago and it always peaked my interest how it would differ from one of my current favorites, the original Keith's Ale.

So during my current set of days off, which nicely fell over the long weekend, I picked up a case from the local booze store. First sip, I couldn't even tell the difference between original Keith's and the new Red Amber. Perhaps this was because I was expecting something hugely different, that's just not the case. The second sip, there it was, a nice hint of a smoother Keith's. A faint hint of the "red" you might be more familiar with from say the more potent Rickard's Red.

Long story short. I like it. I will now purchase the Amber Ale over the normal Keith's as a new beer of choice. I still enjoy original Keith's, but a little smoother and a little more fragrant, the Amber Ale rates highly with me and will certainly be the quick response when asked next time at the pub, "what can I get you to drink?"

"F&$%ing Awesome"

Woke up today at 2:20pm

And this certainly wasn't by my choice! This story begins one day prior when I awake to an email stating I have a flight later in the day. I open it up and go on to read about a flight up to Edmonton and then down to Palm Springs. However, that is it, and I don't see the return flight info. Normally this wouldn't peak my interest, but the next day was my day off and the flight landed in Palm Springs at 6:30pm, which would mean I'd just make it back in time if we turned the plane around and came home. That was not meant to be.

I eventually find out that this is a last minute flight change and only myself and another pilot (also to go on days off the next day) were the only available crew to do this flight. So the plan was for us to do this trip down and then we'd airline home to Calgary. I was sure we'd have to wait until the next day as there are no direct flights to Calgary from Palm Springs so I knew there'd be a connection. Fate would have it that there was a 9pm flight from Palm Springs to Vegas and then a connection from Vegas to Calgary at midnight Vegas time, which would put us into Calgary at 4am.

The flight down to Palm Springs was mostly uneventful, a few thunderstorms in the Vegas area that we needed to keep an eye on, but we managed to overfly most of the weather and beside some of the real nasty stuff. It was 41 degrees in Palm Springs when we landed. Holy moly that was hot. We raced around to get some dinner and then got to the airport just in time. We had a couple beers at the airport bar and nearly missed out flight, we had a view of the airplane and saw it come in and then hadn't seen anyone loading onto it yet, then all of a sudden we saw everyone load at once, so we went racing for it. We flew the short 35 min flight to Vegas on a US Airways Dash 8-100. A 37 seat turboprop which I hadn't flown on since my days of living in Castlegar, BC attended pilot training and taking the Dash 8 to and from Vancouver.

We then had nearly 2 hours in Vegas to kill, all of which was to be in the terminal building. But for anyone that has been to Vegas, you probably know they have slot machines in all the terminals there, to get that last few dollars out of you before you leave.. and also to snag those first few dollars for when you arrive! I managed to resist the call of the slot machines, and instead people watched the thousands of people coming and going, even at midnight.

I was pretty tired and didn't even think about it, until it was too late, about trying to get upgraded to first class. Not too often when traveling on business in Canada do we get the opportunity because we usually fly Westjet, so only when traveling Air Canada do we have the option for the upgrade. Aircrew are often allowed the free upgrade to business class, however I have yet to have it work out for me. Had I been on the ball, we could have had the upgrade. It was too late when we finally thought about it and even the CSR (Customer Service Rep) had told us if we had come by earlier she could have given us the upgrade. As it was, a couple of total skids were given the upgrade somehow. It wasn't all bad though, we had an Emergency row exit and nobody in the middle seat so it was quite comfortable. I did manage to get some sleep on the flight back.

Once back in Calgary I was totally messed up from the long long day I didn't even think about one of the other perks of aircrew when it came time to clear customs. If I'm traveling on pure business I can bypass the customs line and go to the "crew and diplomats" line which is never busy. Even the customs agent asked why I waited in the normal line, all I could reply with was "it's 4am". So, I'll have to remember that for next time. It's not like I was held up much anyways, maybe an extra 5 mins. Not much of a line at that time of the day.

After getting back to the hanger and getting my car, I was at home and in bed by just after 5am. I then started sleeping, and slept and slept and slept. I finally decided to wake up, thinking it must only be noonish, how wrong I was.. the clock read 2:20pm.

Canadian Pilot License format changing

Currently, my Canadian Pilot License is a piece of paper. There are 2 parts to it as well. The physical license itself, which depicts my type of license with endorsements and any specialized aircraft I'm certified to fly. Also required is another piece of paper which is my Medical certificate which specifies what class of medical I have completed, and the latest date of which it was done with a stamp signed off by the physician.

This has been quite an archaic system that I'm surprised has taken this long to be changed. The United States have a card much like a drivers license with all the pertinent information on it, including a photo. Currently the piece of paper is not photo ID for Canadian Pilots.

Current US License format:

Current Canadian Format:


What Transport Canada has decided on for the new Canadian license format is that they'll be similar to a Canadian Passport. So similar in fact, that it is made by the same people that make the Passports. It will combine both the license and medical certificates into the same document and will also have photo ID. Of course with everyone getting their passports now with the increased travel restrictions and requirements, it still might be some time before the project even begins. Eventually however I will be carrying around 2 of these little books!

the damaged WRX

I don't think I had even been in YVR on vacation for more than 48hrs when I got an email from my rommate saying that the neighbors had hit my car! I did not appreciate that one bit! They're good people so of course they called right away to say what had happened and that they'd pay for everything.

So I get an email with pictures of the damage, luckily just the back bumper, and it's only plastic damage.




So once I got back to Calgary I started going out to get some quotes. I went to places that were recommended to me and got quotes ranging from $920-$590. One of the places that quoted me $590 came highly recommended and they were able to slot me in for a late September appointment, so I went with them. The other places could not even fit me in until October and some even January.

So now I just await for my car to become whole again.

The land of Starbucks

Was a fairly uneventful 3 days in Seattle, a nice little flight with a cool little layover. Spent Aug 16-18th there and had a nice relaxing few days with one of our most senior pilots who I haven't flown with in many months.

Day 1 had us hoping to Kamloops and back, then continuing on to Seattle. Once in Seattle we arrived at our hotel which was quite nice, and right at the Seatac airport. The Doubletree, which is a member of the Hilton hotel groups was certainly a nice way to spend our 2 nights. Upon initial check in we found out we were on the 1st floor and tried to get something a little quieter, but they were fully booked. I gave them my Hilton Honor's number and then all of a sudden a couple of rooms popped up. I managed to get us on the "Hilton Honor's Floor" in one of the hotels 2 towers. This was a nice upgrade. The hotel rooms were excellent, large, clean, modern and even the soaps, shampoos and moisturizers were all made by Nuetrogena.

I also found out the hotel had 2 gyms and having just come back from Holidays I figured I should check it out. Holy cow, better than most of the gyms I've seen back in Calgary. All brand new equipment and weights, I was impressed. All the machines had personal TVs on them along with 2 big plasma tvs on the wall. I spent nearly 2 hours there each night trying it all out.

The 2nd day we decided to go downtown Seattle to Pike's Place Market and the Wharf. We managed to get a "crew car" from the facilities we used at the airport (free car for the use of airplane crews using the business). We drove down, found some parking and found out they were celebrating the 100 yr anniversary of Pike's Place Market, it was very busy and quite the event. We had a good time just checking things out and I of course found a Starbucks to consume (when in Rome!).

We left the next day for a fairly uneventful return in to Calgary. However it was rather stormy on our ride in and we had to divert quite a bit south of the normal arrival procedures, then come around from the east side of the airport to avoid the worst of the storms. We had a few good bumps coming in and I was glad I had taken the time to really cinch my seatbelt tight.

After finishing up at the airport I went to join my roommates who were at a local bar where one of my roommates was a finalist to win a pair of Harley Davidson motorcycles.. he did not end up winning however. We ended up going out on the town that night and had some fun. Not exactly the rest my liver was expecting, but it was a necessary evil and I had a good time out with some friends.

Back from holidays

Wow, what a great time it was back on the coast. A whirlwind adventure and I didn't even get to see everyone! The 2 weeks I was back was just action packed with everything from Fireworks, to BBQ's, to side holidays down in San Diego and LA, Beach Vball, Clubbing (most know I hate clubbing, but this one was much better than my last encouter - read: no near bar fights).

All in all I had a blast, and now I'm back in Calgary resting a little, and giving the liver a little time to recover too. I pretty much drank the entire 2 weeks, so now I'm in need of a little detoxing.

I'll post up some pictures from my trip soon. Anyone that still reads this blog will notice that ever since joining facebook my posting has become more and more minimal. This is mainly because the whole purpose of this blog was for people to keep tabs on me and my life in Calgary and all the places I'm flying to etc. Facebook now serves this purpose as well, so it's become redundant to post on both. However, all my more detailed stories will always be here in the blog, along with the odd think piece which seems to pop up every couple of months haha.

For now, it's back to work, Seattle to be specific. I will head to Kamloops and back on Thursday then head right back out again to Seattle to spend a couple nights there. Then it's back to Calgary. A pretty simple trip, which is good, because with being gone for 2 weeks I'm bound to be a bit rusty. I apologize in advance to whichever clients get to experience my first landing in nearly 3 weeks :).

Vacation

More slow going than usual on the blog these days, but currently I'm on vacation in the Vancouver area until August 13th. Just relaxing and soaking up what the west coast has to offer.

Slow going

Still not much flying to be had, but now I've got a couple days of flying that I can mention.

Off to Winnipeg for Friday night.. Ooooo, and then Kelowna for Saturday night which sounds much better. I'll hopefully get to meet up with Craig during my stay in Kelowna and check out his pimp new condo.

Then it is Vacation time, I'll be in Vancouver from July 30th to August 13th - a full 2 weeks. I am likely to be taking some side trips during that time as well, but hopefully I'll get a chance to see many of you at some sort of summertime functions!

9 years ago today...

I was given the fateful words by my flight instructor "ok, so, take it out for a circuit by yourself, have fun."

I took to the sky by myself for the first time and managed to take the Cessna 152 C-GPFE for a quick 6 minute flight which included a takeoff, return and landing!

Sadly I learned one day while in Castlegar during my commercial flight training I received news of a mid air collision over Surrey where some people were killed. It was that airplane and another that were involved.

It was after about 10hrs of flight instruction that I was released to fly by myself and what an experience it was. I believe I had white knuckle the whole time, the adrenaline rushing, it's a memory I won't soon forget.

So, 9 years later here I am, "livin the dream".