Calgary winters

Well, today was a typical Calgary winter crazy day. This morning was 6 degrees outside at 10am, and by 11am the temperature had risen drastically to 14 degrees thanks to some powerful "chinooking" winds coming over the rocky mountains. Then at about 6pm, the winds shifted from the north bringing in the cooler air from the north and the temperatures dropped down to zero within a couple of hours and the snow has begun to fall already. We're now to expect snow off and on for much of the night, then no doubt it will all melt away once tomorrow afternoon rolls around back into the plus temperatures. Ahhhh Calgary.

How computers make my job easy

Back in the day, there were true aviators. They took off in airplanes which were hardly airworthy by today's standards, flew them in weather that they really couldn't predict and somehow managed to navigate themselves with crude and basic instruments over long distances and still get the job done.

Fast forward to today. Our company uses an online flight planning website run by Honeywell. The software in seconds can figure out the most optimum routings between airports based on winds, temperatures and airspace. Using up to date and forecast information, it is an incredibly accurate tool that makes my flight planning as safe and efficient as possible.

Here are some screenshots of a trip I've planned from Calgary Alberta to Palm Springs California.

Here we have the opening screen for inputting information for a flight. Just simply input the from and to airports, time of departure, fuel information and after clicking proceed, it will take only a few seconds to think of some routes for you to select from which usually includes one routing that is optimized for current/forecast winds and temperatures.









Now on the second screenshot here we have a few different options I can select for a routing, or I could manually enter in the waypoints myself. For this trip I've opted to use a company stored route that is what we always get routed on for a trip between these two destinations. I also enter in my cruising altitude at the bottom of this screen and then continue to the next page.



I can also select to view the map of this routing to make sure it is in fact what I want. I can then also overlay current satellite imagery to show cloud cover, and also radar coverage to show precipitation. This image shows the routing we have to use when traveling from Calgary to Palm Springs due to a lot of the restricted airspace in the vicinity of Nevada (Area 51 anyone?).





Finally here we have the finished printout showing our flight information. It tells me how long the flight will take and how much fuel I'll be burning. It also specifies information on the winds to be expected along the routing and mentions a "shear level" which refers to windshear and turbulence, it has computed via the winds where we could likely expect some turbulence and tells us where it will be the worst with a value from 1-15, 1 being very smooth and 15 being holy moly, hold onto your bagel.





So there we have it. Within 5 minutes I was able to build a flight that spans over 1000 nautical miles, figured out the most optimal routing, computed my fuel planning and will also now have an extremely accurate time I can use to inform customs of our arrival in the US. This same online site will also file my flightplan for me automatically so all I have to do is show up to my aircraft and talk to the air traffic controllers initially to obtain my clearance, if they have any adjustments to my routing, they'll give it to me then.

Had this been "back in the day" a trip like this would have taken considerably longer to plan out. Many maps would be required, adding up distances, checking wind charts and using complicated math to figure out ground speeds and estimated times of arrival. Something I've very thankful I do not have to do. It is a very very handy tool, especially with my job as our schedules change all of the time and having the ability to quickly jump online and alter or produce a new flightplan quickly really does save time, money and heartache. I'm sure the company pays a pretty penny for this service, but it's worth every cent, whatever it may be.

So.. now who wants to go to Palm Springs?

Mexico rescue mission

Last weekend I flew down to Puerto Vallarta on Alaska Airlines, and as much as I was constantly reminded by the flight attendants about how my vacation was underway, alas, I was headed southbound for work.

True, most would argue that it's not a bad day at the office when you need to commute down to Mexico, however with only one short night in town, it's more of a tease than anything.

The reason for the trip was that 3 weeks earlier one of our jets was on final approach to land in Puerto Vallarta when they injested a pelican directly into the left engine. Another 3 birds struck the aircraft in other areas thankfully only causing minimal damage. The engine itself, aside from a momentary surge, managed to remain running until on the ground where it was determined quite quickly - it had been destroyed. Bits of engine and bird would fall out the exhaust area when the fan blades in the front were turned by hand.

So started a 3 week gong show of trying to swap an engine in Mexico. A rental engine was shipped from Long Beach, CA (where Cessna has a maintenance service center) with DHL 2 days after the incident. The engine got held up in customs for some rather "shady" reasons and it took 2 weeks of greasing the wheels before the engine was actually permitted into the country. An engine specialist along with one of our mechanics performed the engine swap on the hot Mexican tarmac in just under a day. This was about the time I was informed that myself, another pilot and our head of maintenance would be airlining down to Mexico in order to pick up the plane and fly it to Long Beach, CA in order to undergo some more inspections.

It was a ridiculously early morning flight to Seattle where we caught our connecting direct flight down to Puerto Vallarta. We got through customs no problem, which wasn't the case with the first mechanic that went down.. he had to "grease" the officials a little to allow him and his toolbox into the country (going grease rate for mechanic and tools, ~200 bucks). We checked on the plane, all looked good, so off to the hotel. We relaxed, had some cervesa's and enjoyed the quick one night Mexican layover we had.

Early to rise the next morning we later found out our mechanics had spent a little more time on the town and were in pretty rough shape, but their job was already done, so they could just relax in the back of the plane while we flew it up to California (via Yuma Arizona for customs). We new it was coming, we just weren't quite sure how much it was going to cost us, but we were denied permission to leave the country with the jet. Simply because the paperwork did not say it was going to be in Mexico for so long and the pilots that brought it down were not the same ones taking it out. In Mexico you need all sorts of stamps and approvals to get out of the country which usually isn't too much of a problem, but for this 'special occasion' we knew we were in for some sort of mess. When we operate in other countries (Mexico, Caribbean) we use the services of specialized "Handlers" who we pay a great deal of money to guide us through all of the paperwork and arrange things from as simple as fuel requests all the way up to and including landing permits. So our handler came to us and explained why the officials wouldn't permit us to depart. Our next question for him was "what will it take?"... to which he replied with a small smile.. "a tip.. in the neighborhood of $400." Well, this was a little better than what we thought it might take, but after pooling all of our company money together we were still short and had to go to the ATM machine at the international terminal building to obtain the rest. I'm not quite sure what the other pilot wrote down on the expense form on that one haha.

So, after handing over nearly $1000 to various Mexican officials over the stay we were finally permitted to depart. So we got the heck out of there. The plane flew fine all the way up to the US. We dropped it off in Long Beach and I was the only one to stay with the plane as everyone else was either needed back in Calgary or was about to go on days off. So I got a 3 day layover in California while they fixed the plane up good and I awaited the other pilot to airline in. I spent a couple days cruising around the beaches and up and down the Coastal Highway in the rental car. Unfortunately I managed to catch a nasty cold and am still fighting it 3 days later.

I'm currently on my days off and hope that I fully recover before going back on call on Tuesday. This weekend finally looks decent after we've had a barrage of snow the past week and a half, some crazy April weather. It's either 20 degrees and sunny, or -10 and blizzarding... ahh good 'ol Calgary.

Poker tourney at the River Rock

While back in Vancouver a couple weeks ago I went and played in the early bird tourney at River Rock with Jon Sy. The entry is $30 and I have played in this event a few other times. I haven't placed in the money 2 times, but have placed 7th 8th and 4th at other attempts fetching between $60 to $195.

The amount of entries range from 65-100 each event, in this event there were 65. On this latest attempt I made it to the final table with the smallest stack, but survived making a couple of doubleups to afford the blinds, which led me to 5th place with the smallest stack. At this point I jokingly offered a 5 way chop of the money.. of course there were no takers.

Then I had a series of good hands to keep me in the game, eventually to the point where I took out 3rd place and went heads up with a healthy chip lead over 2nd. A few hands later it was all over and done with, my A9 taking out his 44 when an Ace came on the flop.

So I was very happy, especially with a $650 1st place finish. This is not my highest amount won in a tourney (2nd place online netted me $1700 USD a couple years ago), but it is however my first time winning a tournament. In the end I went from 3,500 in chips, dead last in 5th place, to take all 130,000 in chips and win the event. Oh, and poor Jon had some crappy luck and was out within the first 20 mins of the tourney.. better luck next time I'm in town Jon and convince you to skip work again to come play cards. :)

Death of an Xbox

After opening up some bad mail from Revenue Canada about how I owe them some money (too much to get into I'm afraid) I turned on the Xbox to go and shoot it out with 14 year olds around the world in Call of Duty on Xbox live.

As the machine powered up, the "red ring of death" appeared and on the screen came up an error code. A quick google search later revealed it was a hardware failure. A quick call to Xbox confirmed this and I was then told how it was no longer covered under warranty (if I had more than the one red ring flashing it would have been). I then recalled I bought the machine on a Visa with extended warranty protection services. So yup, Visa will pay for me to repair the unit. That process is under way but costs $110 and takes 3-4 weeks of me sending my Xbox to them and they in return send a remanufactured one to me. I'm quite irked over the whole deal, but upon researching online however I discovered how common a problem hardware failure is in the Xbox community.

So now I'm without my gaming vice until this whole mess is resolved. Then will begin a 4 week wait for getting my money back through Visa. This is why I buy absolutely everything I can with the Visa. Warranty protection, bonus money for Starbucks, the free 45 day loan before I have to pay and an easy way to keep track of expenses - all from a free, no fee credit card.

Oh man, I've been busy!

The past couple of months have been very busy, and things are just starting to settle down a little now. So I'll just say that some updates are on their way. But in the mean time, here's a link to a crazy video of a Lufthansa Airbus 320 attempting to make a landing during a very strong and gusty crosswind which to me appears to be well outside the safe envelope. Watch the video at the bottom of this page here:

VIDEO LINK

Then view a picture taking during the incident here:

PICTURE LINK

I'm very happy they were able to return for a safe landing, but that is some very sketchy stuff. They should not have even attempted that landing in the first place.

Being sick sucks

...simple as that. I've been fighting off a cold for the past few days and am finally on the upswing, but now have one heck of a cough. The kind of cough that keeps you up at night and seems to never want to leave. A constant tickle in my throat which seems to induce a painful cough about 12 times a minute.

I had been flying over the past few days and thanks in part to Cold FX was able to get the job done. My first day back from vacation was probably what led me down the road of sickness. I was already feeling like I might be coming down with some sort of sickness when I flew very early in the morning to Seattle after not much sleep. After returning from that flight I knew I was hooped. I had one day to sit around the house and heal as much as possibly before spending the next couple of days going up and down to Palm Springs from Edmonton and Phoenix. Finally finishing with a quick trip to Vancouver and back to Calgary yesterday. Now I'm on days off and just trying to get rid of this damn cough!

In other news, my return to the turboprop has been postponed a little due to some crewing issues and there not being enough coverage on our jet fleet for me to leave right away. So my new course date for Orlando training has been arranged for January 21st. The good thing about this inconvenience is that I will now be going on course with my previous roommate Mike. This should be a lot of fun and almost more of a vacation as we've both heard the training course is rather relaxed. Not to mention we both have 2 years of experience on the particular airplane as well.

Oh, and I am a guitar hero. Aside from the fact I can't get past the medium level! I've also hooked my xbox up with xbox live online and playing call of duty 4 online is amazing. The game itself is likely the best video game I have ever played, and the online play just takes it to another level. I am somewhat addicted when I should really be spending more time in the books preparing for training!

Canucks

I had the pleasure of attending the Canucks 2-1 victory over the Ducks on Sunday! It was great, my folks got me the tickets for xmas from a friend of a friend who has seasons tickets.

It was a pretty darn good game and it felt great to be able to witness it live. Especially the incredible goal tending by Luongo... what a machine! He was quoted in the province (jokingly) today saying how he had been so bored in the third period with no action, that he purposefully drew a penalty to get the puck in his zone to see some action. Haha, true or not, he is a force to be reckoned with.

Hopefully I can call upon this "friend of a friend" in the future when I'm back in Vancouver on future visits to take part in another home game.

Juno

I want to see this movie, I've seen a few ads for it now and hear good things.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/juno/trailer/

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to everyone! I'm currently back in Vancouver enjoying some time off with family and friends. I hope Santa was good to everyone, and the turkey has been plentiful.

Back in Calgary there was some serious Guitar Hero action happening as one of my roommates got me and the other roomie each a Guitar Hero (II and III), so there is some serious rocking going on. What a fun game!

My folks also got me some tickets to the Canucks game this Sunday against the Ducks, can't wait to go! It's been a while since I've gone to a home game, so I'm really looking forward to it.

All the best to everyone in the New Year!

Be careful, YVR full of emergency landings!

I'm back in Vancouver for the holidays and as I was flipping through the Province the other day I came across this article: Vancouver International Airport on radar after jump in emergency landings

Emergency landings at Vancouver International Airport more than doubled between 2006 and 2007, The Province has learned.

There were 16 such events last year -- but 36 official incidents up to Christmas 2007, according to statistics obtained from Transport Canada and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

It irks me when the media has to sensationalize everything. There is nothing to say that YVR has done anything to cause an increased amount of emergency landings. Most of these landings are precautionary landings, and the term "emergency landing" isn't quite correct but of course anytime someone sees a runway full of trucks with lights flashing it must be an emergency. A return to the airport can be for any number of reasons and is rarely a full blown emergency. The airport will respond in the same fashion if an aircraft reports an engine failure or fire (actual emergency) or if perhaps they are having minor mechanical issues (still completely safe to fly) but makes more sense to return for a landing then proceed across the Pacific Ocean (much like the Cathay flight last month which returned to the airport after flap problems).

A little sidetracked there, the long and short, perhaps as a factual note about an increase in emergency landings, but not singling out YVR as if it has ANYTHING to do with why a minuscule percentage of the thousands of flights per year return for any number of reasons.

I have returned a couple of times myself, thankfully not for anything incredibly serious, but it certainly need not be as glorified as the media will always make it out to be.

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.