Posting time

Ok, yes I have really been slacking on here as of late. My posts are just dwindling down and for that I apologize. I've said it before a couple of times and I'll say it again, having Facebook is essentially replaced the majority reasons for this blog. Not all however, but the constant short updates that I used to give seem to be easier and less time consuming by just updating my "status" on Facebook. I know, I'm lazy, what can I say :)

Ok, so.. some cool stuff has gone on since last posting.

First off, I just got back from a night in Puerto Vallarta last week. It was great, and I definatly could have used more than just 1 night, but I was grateful to get it. The previous week was a solid week of Arctic Air Mass in Calgary and thus caused some very chilly temps (highs of -15 with lows of -25). I ended up airlining out to Kitchener Ontario to start the trip, but it took 3 tries to get there. The first try was haulted by a broken airplane, so I was rebooked for the next day (luckily the plane wasn't departing for a couple days and I was just going out early to babysit it in the event a last minute flight popped up) but then the weather was so bad all across Canada that Westjet cancelled all "non-essential" flights and that of course included Kitchener. It was 3rd time the charm and I arrived into Ontario to the chilly and snowy weather out there as well the night prior to going down to Mexico.

We traveled all the way down to Puerto Vallarta via Laredo Texas for a fuel stop, and we did all this without any passengers. We were just doing a pickup flight to take some folks from PV to Vancouver. So we arrived there on Wednesday night and once we got sorted out at the airport we were off to our hotel, the lovely 5 star Sheraton right on the beach. It was gorgeous. I was on the 16th floor and had an ocean view. I immediately opened my window and let the warmth of Mexico and the sounds of the ocean surf crashing on the beach below fill my room.

We stayed at the hotel the whole 18hrs of our stay. There was plenty to see and do in our limited time right there. We had dinner on a patio outside, Mexican food of course, and also a few Mexican cervesas! After ordering our first drinks the waitress came and put 4 drinks on the table, we were a little confused until she mentioned 2 for 1 drinks for the next 2 hrs. We were all smiles of course. I made sure to sample all of the Mexican beers I could think of.

That night was a very good sleep, and I met the other pilot for breakfast out on the patio once again and we had a grand buffet with lots of fresh fruits and juices along with some authentic Mexican breakfast goodies. We did not want to leave as we sipped our coffee looking out at the Pacific Ocean, the whole time trying to plot a way to increase our stay in this warm and tropical paradise. Alas, we were snapped back to reality and we got packed up and headed back to the airport.

It was a good flight up to Vancouver, with a stop this time in Yuma Arizona for fuel. After dropping off the passengers we headed out empty to deliver the plane to Edmonton. We took off in +28 degree weather and ended our day in -28 degree weather. As we ate dinner that night we were both pretty sad to have left Mexico so early, but at the same time grateful we got to stay for as long as we did, because it could have just as easily been a pick up or drop off with no layover at all.

So, that was my major trip this past set of days on call, I now go on days off until Saturday so I'll be here in Calgary, perhaps getting some X-mas shopping done.

Other big news:

I have accepted a command position back on our turboprop fleet. I will be returning to the good 'ol Pilatus PC-12 at the beginning of January 2008 and will remain on that aircraft for 1.5-2yrs until a jet command position opens up and then I'll either return to the jet world, or perhaps decide I've had enough of Calgary and want to move on. Only time will tell, but for the immediate future, and at least for the next 2 yrs I will be staying out here in Calgary, molding the careers of new pilots getting their start in the industry just like I did when first moving out to Calgary in 2004.

So on January 7th I travel to Orlando Florida to go for a one week course on the aircraft then begin my company retraining after that. By February I should be a full blown Captain on the turboprop fleet. Should be a lot of fun, it's very exciting flying and I look forward to returning to some of the smaller airports that the jet just can't fly into. However, I will also miss the winter layovers in places much warmer than here as those are mostly jet trips and the turboprops do a lot more local flying in the winter time. One good thing to note however is we now have a few more Vancouver clients so I predict some more Vancouver layovers once back on the turboprop.

So there you have it. Oh, and I will be returning to Vancouver for Xmas holidays Dec 26th to Jan 3rd. Perhaps I'll see a few of you there!

Left my Visa in Miami

Almost has the same ring to it as "I left my heart in San Francisco", I wish it had been that instead though. It wasn't until I was in Palm Springs the next day trying to pay for dinner that I realized the well used slot in my wallet was empty. I figure I must have paid for dinner the previous night, signed my receipt, but then neglected to remove my credit card from the little book the bill came in.

I promptly called Visa and declared the card lost, and started the process of getting a new card sent out to me. I started the process on Friday night, so the new card would have been batched out on Monday, but that was a holiday, so then sent out on Tuesday on a Purolator 1-2 day express package, but I have yet to receive it (now being the 2 day mark). I hope it comes tomorrow, it is my last day off and also I need to make an online purchase that has a sale which ends tomorrow.

My remaining days on call stayed pretty close to what I thought they would be. The only change was that instead of going to Tampa, we went to Miami instead. We left, snow and slush in Toronto and landed in a beautiful 24 degree clear night in Miami. We were only there for the night (just enough time for me to leave my Visa in the hotel bar), and then off to Kentucky for a pickup to take some horse buying folks to Palm Springs. After a night in Palm Springs, I hopped on Westjet to head back to Calgary direct on Saturday. Which was far nicer than the fate of the pilot who was sent down to replace me. All the direct flights were booked solid so he had to connect, TWICE, by going from Calgary to Edmonton to Los Angeles and then finally to Palm Springs. It took him 12 solid hours when it took me only just shy of 3 hrs on Westjet.

So now on a pretty relaxing 5 days off, which were definitely needed after a full 10 days on the road!

Oh, on a side note, my folks just called me and said I was summoned for jury duty in BC. I guess they're using some out of date voters registry or something, because I have been in Calgary for over 3 years now. Needless to say, I wont be serving on a BC jury any time soon!

Working a full 10 of 10 days

Yup, as predicted it's been a busy set of "available" days. Not a lot of flying, actually, barely any, just mostly sitting around in hotels.

My trip has differed slightly from what I predicted in my last post, which of course is no surprise with my occupation. I'm currently in Toronto and have been since Sunday. I did spend Thursday to Sunday in Penticton just hanging out, then flew out to Toronto later Sunday afternoon. I was only in Calgary for a couple of hours but was surprised to see our hangar was full of Bentleys. It turns out we did a joint program where we had a bunch of showroom Bentleys being shown off in our hangar, along with one of our newest jets (the jet I was to take to Toronto later that day). A pretty smart idea getting some Bentley people out to see a different way of travelling around. Because if you can afford a $250,000 automobile, there is a chance you could afford a share in a private jet. And vice versa, our clients who were flying around that day came in to check out the fancy cars inside, because I'm sure if they can afford to fly on our jets, they can certainly afford any of the Bentleys that were on display. Some of our pilots even got to take them out for test drives too, I unfortunately had a flight to Toronto, so was unable to partake.

So I've been in Toronto now since Sunday just hanging out. Tomorrow (Thursday) we are showing off the plane to a potential client at the Pearson Airport here. We might go up for a quick flight, but weather is supposed to be real crappy and so I'm not sure they're going to want to go up only to get bounced around and not be able to see anything outside anyways. We'll find out tomorrow I guess. After all of that is done I'll be heading down to Tampa FL for a night, then Friday it's off to Lexington KY and then Palm Springs CA. Saturday is day 10/10, and I foresee a Westjet flight home to Calgary that day in time to begin my days off on Sunday. I'm sure glad I packed a full suitcase for this stint. I haven't been in Calgary in quite some time, based on some busy flying last rotation and then spending my days off in Vancouver. It will be nice to get settled back into Calgary for a change!

About to get busy, again.

I really haven't spent much time at my own house in Calgary this past month. The next couple of weeks will not be an exception either, I'm preparing for a 10 day trip that will occupy all of my 10 available days of work.

I just returned from Vancouver where I was able to spend my 5 days off. Love the coast. I wish to return one day, but alas, the jobs just aren't as plentiful as they are out here. I did have a meeting with a YVR based corporate/charter company to learn more about them and to enquire about possible employment. I had a great meeting, but got the answer I was expecting, they were looking for a bit more experience, something that I could return back to them within a couple of years. However, at that point I could be pretty high on the totem pole at my current company with an early jet command, which is something I will not find anywhere else at my current experience level. So it appears I'll stick around for a little bit further and see where this road takes me.

My 5 days off started early in the morning on Thursday. 4am early! The flight was on our turboprop aircraft flying empty for an early morning pick up in YVR. I got approved to travel on the flight and was even able to bring some precious cargo (a 42" HDTV) for Ian. It fit quite nicely strapped into the back of the airplane. I should have taken a picture. My time in YVR was great, meeting up with friends, attending a couple of house warmings, just relaxing and breathing in that great sea level fresh air. I feel healthier just being on the coast. Westjet returned me home last night, and I was lucky enough to fly on a brand new 737-800 LR (Long Range) which boasts even more legroom than Westjet's normal fleet and an added bonus was the relatively empty airplane (less than half the seats occupied). Another interesting tidbit from this flight was that after checking in the night prior online, I was offered to use an "electronic boarding pass" or an E-BP. I read the little blurb online and thought, what the heck, a little less paper is always good. So it sends a message to my blackberry and is essentially an email with all of my pertinent information (name, confirmation #, seat #, flight #, gate # etc etc). I have to wonder though, anyone could create one of these and walk through security without actually having to be on a flight. At any rate, this new option worked great, until one flaw became quite apparent. As everyone was lined up at the gate to board the airplane, everyone with their boarding pass and photo ID all prepared, the line was moving very fast, until it was my turn. The agent has to take the extra time to punch in my reservation # into the computer and manually check it, instead of just scanning the barcode that was printed on everyone else's boarding passes. This caused the very free flowing line to come to a screeching halt, I'm sure a few people looked up and wondering what the hell I was doing. Will this stop me from doing it in the future, well....... probably not, haha, It's just too easy, I'll take the extra 30 seconds at the gate versus fiddling with a check in machine/kiosk for 3 mins. Time is money!

Speaking of money, just dropped a little coin today on my eyes. Had an eye exam so I could order a new set of contacts. My work health plan, don't ask me why, does not include vision, so I'm forced to pay fully out of pocket. So, $114 for an exam, and $160 for a 6 month supply of contacts later and here I am, just that much poorer.

Also, my winter tire fiasco. I got an email saying that my tires which should have been delivered by now from 1010tires.com, have been delayed coming from the manufacturer, and the only information they have is that they'll be delivered to them sometime in November. So I will have to come to a decision in the near future whether to just keep the order open for now or to totally abandon it and pick a different winter tire solution. Just irks the hell out of me, seeing as how I'd found this great deal. It has already snowed twice here in Calgary (just quick evening flurries, mostly gone by morning), so I haven't been really messed up yet with my summer tires. However, it is getting too close to take any more gambles and I'll spend the time tomorrow removing my summers and swapping on my all season rim/tires. I still do want to get a winter tire put on those rims in replace of the all season tires because I had a couple of close calls last winter in regards to stopping on a snowy/icey road and I don't wish to gamble again this year. If I haven't heard of any updates from 1010tires by the 10th of November I will likely end up going with a different set of tires. Perhaps the Kuhmo KW17 or the Hankook W300 Ice Bear, both similar but cheaper variants of the Yokohama AVS 901 Winters which I have currently on order. The nice thing with the Yokohama tires is that they also provide good dry weather performance and I don't have to worry about burning off a really soft winter tire compound when the roads dry up. Calgary is known for little bits of winter, but a lot of the time the roads are bare and dry, so I would like a tire that also performs half decent on the dry as opposed to just a fully dedicated winter tire.

Ok, and finally to address the title of the post, my upcoming busy schedule. Looks like a full 10 days, not a crazy amount of flying, but a full 10 days away from home. I'll start off by laying over in Penticton from Thursday to Sunday, then straight out to Toronto for a couple of days. A local flight around Toronto early the next week and then a flight down into Detroit and then all the way over to Fresno California, only to come back the very next day. At the end of all that I will be on day 9, and then likely commercially fly home from Ontario on day number 10.

So, we'll see how much of that actually sticks.

#301

Just realized this is post #301, where does the time go? I know I have been posting less and less lately, but with Facebook and MSN most people are able to keep tabs on what I'm up to. The whole purpose of this blog was for that purpose, for me to keep everyone up to date as to my life out here in Calgary, and Facebook and MSN also now share this ability. So yah, I'll keep on posting, but I doubt I will be able to keep up with what I have done in the past. I've also noticed my "regulars" have also slowly started to dwindle off too with rather infrequent visits to the site, which of course is directly proportional to my lack of posting most likely.

Anyways, to the post! Last night I had crazy insomnia and saw 5am on my clock before finally drifting off. I set my alarm for 10am to help make me tired today, so that I could get a good night's sleep in preparation for a flight most likely on Thursday morning. My alarm went off, and I could have sworn only 3 songs had played on the radio by the time I rolled over and looked at the time. It said 11:42! I must have zonked off again. Not only was I a little mad at myself for sleeping in, I had a haircut appointment at noon which I was late for. Thankfully that all worked out. I write this blog in between scratching my neck where many little hairs have fallen down into my collar creating quite the irritant. I'll have to take a shower soon to rectify that.

Tomorrow I'm off for a full day, down to Tucson AZ, up to Vancouver and then to spend a few nights in Sun Valley Idaho, kind of a ski resort area right in the mountains. Should be an interesting day.

Whirlwind tour over

Back in Calgary now on days off after 8 days of flying all over the place. I was in Montreal, West Palm Beach, Charleston, Minneapolis, Palm Springs, St Louis and even a little Cabo San Lucas Mexico. It was a lot of flying and I'm glad to be back home on days off.

I find it a little too hard to keep up with the "Where is Matt" feature on the side, so I have removed it. If you have me on Facebook than you can usually see where abouts I am.

Some flying, things picking up

Well, I've got some more flying now that I'll be happy to get under the belt.

Monday I'm driving up to Edmonton to take and airplane to Montreal. We'll spend the night there, and then on Tuesday fly down to West Palm Beach Florida. Wednesday up to Charleston, SC to pick up some people to go back to Edmonton via Minneapolis as a fuel stop.

So should be a nice start to the work week for sure. I hear good things about the Hilton we stay at in West Palm Beach.

On some side notes, I got an email back from the people at 1010tires.com where I had ordered my winter tires from. They are out of stock! Too good to be true at those prices. Now I'm trying to find an alternative, I am very very irked!

Oh, and the big news, Canucks kicked the Flames ass on Friday! I was at the game, way way way up in the nose bleeds, actually, even above them in a special zone called the "SportChek Zone" in the Saddledome. It is a special section that was reopened a few years ago which is a first come first seat area of 600 seats for cheaper prices. It was a very high energy area and we had a great time. Especially with a lot of other Canuck fans in the area. I'm glad we one (our farm team against their top lines too) as it would have been a hard walk out of there with all those Flames fans.

And on a last note. I was watching SNL today which I had PVR'd from last nights season opener. The digital short with Andy Samberg was once again quite funny. I was amazed how well this production was put together, I can't get the song out of my head! haha. Enjoy it on youtube via THIS LINK HERE.

Starting 5 days off

Well, the new schedule I have (10 days on call and 5 days guaranteed off) is a pretty darn good one. I worked 4.5 of my available 10 days and now I'm one day 1 of 5 which I can just relax and get a bunch of errands done. Many of them happy to be car related.

First off, my last little bit of flying was great. Spent a night in Scottsdale AZ and visited a very nice pub called the Tilted Kilt. It has a great pub atmosphere, great food and a little something else you can probably guess by viewing their website.

I was called out while having coffee yesterday. I was asked how quickly I could be at the airport and told not to worry with a uniform and to just get there. A plane had gone mechanical in Victoria and we needed to get a working plane there, and also a mechanic to fix the other one. I was all excited to go flying without the uniform, woulda been a very nice change. However, at the last second we were stood down. Plane was already outside, fueled, ATC clearance received and then they went with another option. So it was back home for me, oh well, next time.

My car is heading in to have the back bumper repaired this week, from when my neighbor misjudged his parking attempt back in August. I will be happy to have that all fixed and done with, but I will be without the car for a couple days.

I was looking online at some prices for winter tires and came across a phenomenal deal on some Yokohama AVS Winter tires. My old roommate Mike had these last year and thought they were really good. The great thing about them is they're designed not only for winter driving, but still maintain good dry weather handling for those days when it's -15 but the roads are clear. So, nobody around here could match those prices and with free shipping it was no contest. The tires are enroute to me now and should arrive by UPS within a couple days. I was getting along OK with my all season tires and the all wheel drive, but last year had a couple of close calls, both of which were at less than 10km/hr when I lost traction on small little hills and then couldn't stop on the icy roads. So that is the main reason, I need better protection for the slow speed maneuvering on the icy roads that develop here in Calgary.

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"