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... :)

Gettin Somethin' for Nothin'

I'm not sure why I haven't played a bigger part in this before now, but I've recently done what many pilots have been doing within the company for a long time.

Rewards programs.

We frequent hotels on a weekly basis and many of these hotels we stay in have some sort of rewards programs. Many of them can be set up to earn you flat out Aeroplan miles at the same time. Now while in the past I've shunned the idea of signing up for these miniscule little programs, I'm now seeing the errors in my ways when I hear of pilots getting huge gift cards or even flights off of the rewards programs.

Our company foots the bill for all of our hotels and they have no interest in these rewards programs, so us pilots when checking in simply give the front desk our program account number (The blackberry is very handy for holding all sorts of information just like this) and then it gets entered into their system and we are credited the points for the stay. I know of one pilot that has 15 different rewards programs in current use - crazy!

I've decided to just go for the main 2, plus an extra one that's going to add up big time for me in the very near future.

Best Western's Gold Crown Club program is a very common one, as we stay there quite often. They offer 250 Aeroplan miles per stay. Not too shabby, because these add up over time quite quickly.

Trip Rewards is a very large program that is shared by many hotels that we frequent (Travelodge, Days Inn, Super 8, Wingate, Ramada, Howard Johnson.. etc).

And finally I've signed up for Hilton Honors which is for obviously Hilton's and their counterparts like Embassy Suites (which is where I'll be staying while in Dallas for 20 nights).

So for the 20 nights in Dallas I will earn 25,000 Hilton Honor points PLUS 2,500 Aeroplan miles. That's nothing to snub a nose at! And considering in the past few months I've been spending more than 10, sometimes 15 nights in hotels, it won't take long to start racking them up.

I also have a fuel rewards program that is from a US based program that gives points whenever you fill up with an associated fuelling company. There are a few airports that we go to all the time in the states where these points can quickly add up (Scottsdale AZ, Palm Springs CA, Spokane WA and many many more). Every 5000 points and I get a cheque in the mail for $50. Once I start flying the jet, simply 2 stops in Scottsdale will put me at 6000 points, so I'm looking forward to some extra spending cash.

All of these programs should net me somewhere in the vicinity of $500 worth of free stuff per year at the bare minimum. So.. not too bad for having to do nothing at all.

Happy belated Canada Day!

I spent this past holiday in North Bay, ON. Which is in the very eastern chunk of Ontario. The trip started on the Friday when we took some folks to Kenora, ON and then continued on to North Bay to spend a couple of nights in preparation for a trip back on Sunday afternoon.

It was almost 3hrs to Kenora. And Ontario is so big, that it was another 2hrs and 22 mins to get to North Bay.

I had never been to North Bay and was interested to see the area. Well, it took all of about 30 mins of driving around in our rental car and we discovered that there was absolutely nothing there worth checking out! We came up with the plan to go and visit Quebec the next day, as we were very close to the border.

So bright and early on Canada Day we hoped in our rental POS (Chevy Cobalt) and we were off for the land of the frenchies. It was only about a 30min drive east and we crossed over the Ottawa river and entered Quebec at the town of Temiscaming. It was a quaint little town that had primarily been created around a large mill on the river. It was neat to see the little town and we took a hike and found some neat waterfalls and scenic viewpoints around the area. We even took a turn down a gravel road at one point and just kept driving. Right up until the point where the car could barely fit on the road anymore. :)

There was supposed to be fireworks that night down by the lake, but thunderstorms rolled into town that night and quashed those plans.

2 nights in North Bay was certainly enough. On Sunday afternoon we departed for Edmonton with a fuel stop in Winnipeg. We were fighting headwinds associated with the Jet Stream the entire flight back. It took 7hrs to make the trip to Edmonton. Luckily my iPod held up for the majority of the flight back or I would have been quite bored. The weather was great for the return flight except for our fuel stop in Winnipeg. It was very thunderstormy, and we barely got in and out.

I am now spending the next few days preparing to go away for the majority of July for my Jet training in Dallas. So it's quite the scramble right now to tie down many loose ends. I leave on Monday and will spend pretty much everyday up until then doing some sort of preparations. More on all the jet stuff in another post.

Here are a couple of photos, just raw from the camera from my North Bay weekend. I just don't have time to make them shine with photoshop other than for resizing and this is just but a couple of the 300 pictures I did take. :)

On the tarmac in North Bay, ON (CYYB)

Temiscaming QC!

Me with the Ottawa river behind

Taking the Cobalt offroad and finally coming to a point where we had to back up out of!

Snap happy

Well I've had the new camera since Friday and have been snapping away ever since. So many features and options though it is quite overwhelming. It'll be a long time before I'll have learned half of the things this camera is capable of.

So far I'm quite pleased with it in all regards. It has a very fast shutter rate, accurate auto focus, quick function changes on the go and some incredibly fancy features I have yet to even use!

Here's a sampling of some of the better shots that have come out of the camera. I have a lot to learn yet, including some fancy post editing with programs like Photoshop to truly get the most out of each picture.

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Some flowers in the backyard.

Westjet departing out of Calgary at dusk.

The WRX at dusk on a dirt road.

My roommate Mike's new car - Acura RSX-S.

A coworker (Geoff) caught on the Jet staircase shot through a chainlink fence zoomed in.

I'll likely have more pics on the blog from now on as a result of the new camera. I'll want to try all sorts of different techniques and I'll post 'em all up for critique and Oooo's and Ahhh's.. :)

So what do ya all think?

I've joined the Digital SLR Camera craze

Well after MUCH deliberation. I finally decided I'd head to a recommended camera store in town and ask them flat out what they had to say between the 3 cameras I was trying to decide on.

The 3 were in order of personal preference from my own reviews:

Olympus E500 2 lens kit
Nikon D50 body only with separate purchased lenses
Canon Digital Rebel XT with separate purchased lenses

The salesman at The Camera Store here in downtown Calgary was very informative. Explaining that while the Canon and Nikon's had good groundwork, the lenses that came with them were crap. Mainly constructed from cheap plastics and not really a good choice. So if I were to go that route, it was suggested that the body should be purchased and then spring for a better lens (which was going to put me a few hundred dollars out of my price range).

Then he started talking to me about the Olympus and the more and more he looked into the camera the more and more he was impressed over what it had to offer with the 2 lens kit. He explained that the lenses were actually very decent for what I was planning to use the camera for and far superior to the Canon and Nikon counterparts. Not only that, but the package deal has a rebate of $100 right now as well. So this was my selling feature and I was sold.

Almost. Haha, unfortunately they couldn't find the 1 box they had somewhere in the store but they have more on order. So I'm waiting for a phone call in the next few days to tell me my new toy has arrived. Can't wait to start snapping.

A full review on the camera can be found here from this very informative camera and accessory review site: Olympus E500 Review

Here's a pic of the camera with it's lenses:

Are the friendly skies really that friendly?

**Updated with new articles**

A few newspapers from Ontario have been doing a series on Aviation safety over the past couple of weeks. Some of it is very informative. Some of it is a little exaggerated, as can be expected from the Media. But for the most part, it is a well done series.

The articles touch on everything from maintenance practices, to pilot work schedules and overcrowded skies. If you're an avid flier, you might find some of the information surprising. It's definitely worth a read to better educate yourself with aviation safety and regulations within the Canadian Aviation system and how we compare to other countries.

Too Close for Comfort

Collision Course

Air taxi tragedy points to industry flaws

Canadian Pilots battle fatigue

Economics trumps safety: Jazz staff

Judge calls for review of `sliding' air safety

Airline suspends mechanics

Lax air rules blamed for risky landings

Jetsgo problems ignored

As they continue their series, I'll update with more of the articles. But some of the information may be quite surprising. It's true in many situations, but extremely so in Aviation - ignorance is bliss.

My opinion - I'm happy to be at a company which does not imply any pressure to get the job done. We don't cut corners to save a buck or to save time. Our passengers are our clients, and they certainly don't want to risk anything anymore than we do! But there are companies out there that will put pressure on it's young and inexperienced crews (pilots/mechanics) to get the job done. It still exists to some extent as high up as Air Canada. The aviation industry in it's entirety is not well understood by John Q Public. Perhaps that is best, but many are surprised by what actually happens behind the scenes... I know I am.

Cool Impreza Model Car

Looks like a pretty neat model car of the Subaru Rally Impreza eh?


And the really cool thing about this model... wait for it... wait for it... It's all constructed from paper!!!

There's a 38 page PDF file on the webpage at the bottom of this post which you can print off on a photo high quality paper and create your own masterpiece. Pretty darn cool. But I'm not sure I have the patience and talent to construct it. If anybody does, let me know how it goes! :)

Here's the webpage: Subaru World Rally Car Paper Model

I worked myself ill

I've been going absolutely non-stop over the past month, barely getting enough time in my days off to catch up on normal life events such as shopping for groceries or doing laundry. And most of the time has been spent away from home.

Yesterday it finally reached it's breaking point when after a couple days of continuous flying, and difficult flying at that (weather issues all over the place), I found myself throwing up for the first time in a long time! And to top it all off, it was inbetween flights. They had to quickly call in another pilot to finish off the rest of my flying.. it's a good thing we were back in Calgary at the time. So I've got today off and am on my way to getting tomorrow off as well so that I can recover. I think it's just been a combo of lack of sleep, crazy eating schedules and crappy food at that, with difficult flying conditions that finally packed it in for me.

I'll then spend the next couple of days flying and will be on days off so that I can recover even more. Ahh the gongshow. Well, back to bed for me.