Mexico, Mazatlan MX to be exact...

I'm off to Mexico for a week! A very nice upcoming trip to Mazatlan Mexico from May 6th to the 12th. I hope this trip sticks, as my last nice layover didn't quite happen.


Mazatlan isn't quite a resorty town like Cabo, Cancun or Puerto Vallarta, but it still is a rather nice piece of real estate. I imagine we'll be put up in a decent hotel and or all inclusive resort. I'm not working much, so if I'm not going to be working, I may as well not be working in Mexico! :)

WWII Aircraft Carrier Operations

Somebody had posted this movie link in one of the Aviation forums that I frequent.

It's an amazing little video spliced together of some of the first carrier operations, back in the hay day when it was still very new. Even today it's still very dangerous, but take a look at how it used to be done. A different world.

Facebook

Well, I've joined the facebook craze.

You can search me out there if you have it too. I've only been on it for a week and the amount of people that keep messaging me continues to amaze me. People from back in high school, college, old friends, cousins, even my sister found me.

It's a fun little tool, I'll have to post some pictures up there because I have other photos that aren't that great that other people have in their albums of me and then tagged me into that album so they show up on my account.. I need some better ones. Haha.

Well, back to facebook, I just had another email pop up that somebody has likely added me as a friend as I was typing out this post.

Sun burnt

Well, I return from Palm Springs, after getting a longer layover than I had anticipated, and I'm sun burnt!

We had a good time, as we met up with another jet crew who had brought a plane in the day before. So we partied it up with them a little bit and we had a rental car so we could all get around pretty easily. The first day was actually windy, cold and rainy, but the next 2 days proved to be perfect - 25 degrees and sunny. Great poolside weather, which is where I obtained a wee bit too much sun.

Our trip ended up changing, so we stayed in Palm Springs until today (Sunday) and then flew over to another little airport in Bermuda Dunes which is right next to Palm Springs and picked up a group of 7 guys and a massive amount of bags. We had to get creative, but we fit them all on board.

I managed to catch both the Flames game and Canucks game last night. What a disappointment, those damn Canucks need to pull it together!

Well, looks like I'm in Calgary for a few days at least, time to go back to nursing my sunburn.

Palm Springs until Sunday

Well, finally I get a trip to Palm Springs and actually get to stay more than 12 hours. Unfortunately, the weather isn't that great! It's cold, windy, cloudy and even a bit of rain. I'm here until Sunday though so I think tomorrow and Sunday should be much nicer days. I'm looking forward to baking in the sun a bit.

Got a call out yesterday kind of last minute. So I stay in Palm Springs until Sunday, and then we head up to Edmonton to drop some folks off and then back to Calgary.

Flying on the jet, but not flying

My days off start today and I was lucky enough to spot that one of our jets is flying to Vancouver empty this afternoon to do a pickup. So I am hoping on the flight in the back to live it up for the hour flight to Vancouver. I'll be sticking around until Wednesday and will catch both of the Vancouver games while back (on TV of course as they're playing in Dallas now).

wednesday I'll Westjet back to Calgary. It's a shame we don't have any travel perks set up with any of the airlines as I could then travel for a fraction of the cost, but every once and a while I can hop on these empty flights within our own fleet and that's not too shabby either.

Go Canucks Go!

Holy Quadruple OT Batman!

That was quite the game there last night when the Canucks and Stars went into quadruple overtime before finally Henrik Sedin finished her off to make the game winner.

The first 3 periods were pretty good with the back and forth, but man, you could tell they were very tired as the OT periods just kept going and going. It was really up to the goalies at that point. Luongo made some amazing saves.

I was hooting and hollering from my house here in Calgary with my Canucks jersey on, but eventually ended up watching the game end in bed because the game went so damn long!

Go Canucks Go!

When do pilot's decide to reject a takeoff?

I thought I'd get into a few topics surrounding my occupation. There is a lot of misinformation surrounding the aviation industry and I'd like to help clarify some of it and hope to make people more aware of what's going on behind the scenes as they travel aboard aircraft for holidays or business meetings.

In this case I'm going to talk a little bit about the takeoff roll in your standard commercial operation. Right up from the little guys, all the way up to the major airlines, these procedures are nearly identical. This procedure in particular is practiced many many times within flight simulators, and is a required item to pass successfully before you will be granted your endorsement on a new type of aircraft.

The procedure in question is the rejected takeoff, or continued takeoff after a major malfunction.

The idea is simply this, before the flight there are a lot of calculations made which are directly formed from the weight of the aircraft, temperature, density, length of runway, elevation of airport, wet, dry or snow/slush/ice covered runways etc. The main numbers that result from these calculations are what are called "V speeds". For the type of aircraft that I fly, we have a "V1" speed, a "VR" speed and a "V2" speed.

V1 Speed = go or no go speed. This is a very, very important speed which means that if any major malfunction occurs prior to this speed it is safe to abort the takeoff. The biggest example of this would be an engine failure, fire or other major catastrophic event. If any of these events occur AFTER this speed, then the aircraft (even with a failed engine) will be able to safely takeoff and you can deal with the problem in the air.

VR Speed = rotate speed. This is simple enough and is the speed at which the aircraft is rotated off the runway and very shortly thereafter becomes airborne.

V2 Speed = flight safety speed. This is a speed at which you must maintain to have absolute control over the aircraft and will allow for a safe climb out.

These are the most common numbers derived, there are some variations with different aircraft, but for the most part, this is what is calculated prior to the flight.

So for an example, I will use some numbers based on our aircraft for takeoff speeds. A typical set of speeds would be around V1=100 knots, VR=110 knots and V2=120 knots. So before each takeoff we brief to each other what we will do for our emergencies. As an example I will publish our company's standard takeoff briefing:

Pilot flying says "This will be a standard left seat, flap 15 takeoff, any emergencies prior to V1 I will call either reject or continue, if the decision is to reject I will retard the thrust levers, and apply maximum braking and reverse thrust, bringing the aircraft to a stop on the runway"
Pilot not flying then says "I will deploy the speed brakes, call 70 knots, monitor braking and reverse deployment and advise air traffic control"
Pilot flying continues with "If the malfunction occurs after V1, the only actions to be taken below 400 ft will be to raise the landing gear and reset any master/warning caution lights as applicable. Emergency return will be vectors back around to runway 34, with the minimum safety altitude of 6,700 ft. We are on the 'Stampede 3 Departure' from Calgary which is to maintain runway heading until 7,000 ft. Our speeds are V1=100 knots, VR=110 knots and V2=120 knots, do you have any questions?"

Some of that may be quite a lot of gibberish to you, but it happens before each flight so that each pilot knows what the other is doing. So if traveling down the runway on the takeoff roll and there is an engine fire in one of the engines prior to the "V1 speed" then the takeoff will be rejected. If it occurs after the speed, then it is safer to takeoff with the engine on fire, and deal with the situation in the air.

You'll be happy to know that all the major commercial airlines are able to fly very happily with only one engine, even during the takeoff. The engines can even be on fire for quite some time before a real danger presents itself.

During my training for the jet I currently fly, the instructors would tell us "if that engine fire light illuminates, take a sip of your coffee, take a deep breath, and then go through your emergency checklists." The reason being, that you don't want to rush the situation and handle it appropriately, rather than hastily doing something that could further aggravate the ordeal.

So rest assured that your flight crew is perfectly trained and capable of handling even the most dire of situations regarding your aircraft. The training is extensive and routine. Airlines do have engine failures, birds get sucked into engines, mechanical malfunctions have occured, but the airplanes and crew are well up to the challange of bringing you back to the ground safely.

I've found a couple of videos on youtube to help in my blog post. The first video is of an Airbus A330 shortly after takeoff, they encounter engine problems and have to return back to the airport. It is a quick clip but just goes to show you that the plane will not fall out of the sky.


The other video is of a Boeing 747 which has a major malfunction and rejects it's takeoff. However, they had been going very fast and possibly even past their "V1 speed" when they decided to reject the takeoff. The result was they were not able to safely stop the airplane and it skidded of the end of the runway as captured by an aiport security camera. Nobody was injured, just a banged up cargo airplane and luckily everyone walked away. It is too easy to be an "armchair quarterback" and say what these guys should have done, I would have hated to have been in their position. If they rejected the takeoff that late in the takeoff roll there was likely a damn good reason for it.


So in summary, the decisions regarding your safe takeoff and subsequent flight are figured and factored out long before you are sitting at the end of the runway ready to fly. Your crew is expertly trained and retrained to handle even the worst disaster at the worst possible time. In the simulator training the exercise is called "V1 cuts" because they will give you the malfunction immediatly before or immediatly after that V1 speed so that you can be trained to handle the emergency right at the worst possible time.

If anybody has any further questions I'd be happy to answer. Enjoy your next flight!

Airline pilot gets flight cancelled for swearing up a storm

Some folks had to spend a little more time in Las Vegas after their flight was cancelled due to one of the pilots who couldn't control his f-bombs.

(CNN) -- Northwest Airlines canceled a flight with 180 passengers aboard after the pilot began cursing at passengers while the plane was being prepared for takeoff in Las Vegas on Friday, airline officials and witnesses said.

The cancellation disrupted Easter travel plans for many of the passengers.

From the moment the captain stepped aboard Flight 1190 to Detroit, passengers reported hearing him use "animated" language while talking on his cell phone, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor told CNN.

"He was having a fit, swearing up a storm," a passenger on the flight said. "He was saying 'F this' and 'F that.'"

When confronted about it by passengers, the pilot became "obscene" and began cursing at the customers, she said. "He made a big disturbance."

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and the local FAA flight standards office were notified, Gregor said. Police arrived on the scene, pulled the pilot aside and interviewed him.

He was not administered a field sobriety test. CNN was unable to immediately contact the police officers involved.

The FAA officials called Northwest Airlines headquarters. The airline decided to remove the pilot from the aircraft and fly him to Detroit for further questioning.

Northwest Airlines then canceled the flight, apologized for the delay and offered hotel accommodations and penalty-free re-booking on the next available flight out of Las Vegas, a spokesman for the airline said.

The airline said "a review of the matter" was being conducted and the decision to cancel the flight was made "due to reports of inappropriate language by a crew member."

Mike Fergus, an FAA spokesman, said the FAA's flight standards investigation unit was looking into the incident. According to Fergus, the FAA has the authority to send a "letter of admonition" to the pilot or, in the most extreme cases, revoke a pilot's FAA certificate, which would ground the pilot.

"I had to call and cancel two family dinners and we're stuck here an extra night," a passenger said. "We've been at the airport for six hours waiting -- it's chaos. It's Easter weekend...we want to be home."

Article from CNN here.

New Jet arrives into Calgary

Our newest jet was picked up in Wichita KS last week and a couple of our pilots flew it back from the Cessna factory. I managed to catch the arrival with my camera as I went to the airport to check it out.

The jet in question is a Cessna Citation XLS, registered as C-FWXL and is Serial number 560-0691. This is the latest version of the jet I fly. I look forward to getting to fly this aircraft, it has a slightly different interior layout than our others, but is otherwise the same.




My roommate Mike is actually flying it right now, and got to fly it's maiden revenue flight to Victoria.

Business is booming for us and so new airplanes are arriving quite frequently, so many that we have long since run out of room in our hangars. The good thing is planes are busy and so not usually all at home base at the same time, but every once and a while it does occur and the hangar is full of planes and with a few parked outside on our ramp as well.

Our next jet deliveries from the Cessna factory are slotted for December 2007 and March 2008. That's the quickest we can get them, as these planes are already bought and paid for!

No more Guadeloupe, Euros order cancelled

Dang. The schedule out east has totally exploded so the plane comes back from Guadeloupe almost immediately and does a bunch of eastern flights before going back to pick up the folks. As a result of all this extra flying it means that proper eastern pilots are able to take over and do the majority of these flights and so my services will not be needed much out there.

Tomorrow we simply head off to Montreal and Toronto as previous planned. Then Wednesday we do a trip down to Vero Beach Florida and back to Toronto. That's where it all ends now, as we'll fly back home commercially on Thursday back to Calgary and leave the plane in Toronto for eastern crews to fly.

Luckily I was able to cancel my order for Euros. I would have loved to have spent the next 13 days trying to communicate in French in Montreal and Guadeloupe, but no such luck. My 13 day trip has been reduced to barely 3!

24 - the drinking game - tick tock, tick tock...

I'm a big fan of the show 24, don't get me wrong. However, there are a couple of things that do drive me crazy and they appear in every episode of 24 I've EVER seen! So, why not make a great drinking game out of it. You're guaranteed to be plowed by the time the "real time hour" is done!

It's very simple too, there are only 2 phrases you need to pay attention for! Are you ready.. have you guessed it.. I'm sure you've all heard these gems:

"...within the hour." - are you kidding me!? Every single episode something is always happening within the damn hour! Haha, ok, so.. DRINK!

and...

"...my name is Jack Bauer..." - if Jack gave out his business card to everyone that he introduced himself to in this show, he'd make Staples a lot of money! Where would he keep the cards though? Perhaps in his shoulder bag which can only be full of spare batteries for his PDA! Again.. DRINK!

So, by the hours end I expect to hear about a lot of drunken debauchery, as I guarantee you these phrases are uttered at least once in between each commercial break!

Poker Update

Well I haven't really been playing much poker over the past few months. My online account has more or less been left stationary. Prior to taking my latest break I recall I streak where I slowly hemorrhaged about $100. In the grand scheme of things, that is not too much when compared to my bankroll but it irked me nonetheless.

I've decided to go back to a similar system that I had last year, which was just systematically winning a set amount per day based on pure heads up tourneys. This worked well for me when I was not working much, and it added nearly $500 to my poker account.

I'm taking part in a slight variation of this now, and have already boosted back up by $130. My simple plan is just grinding it out. I play a $5.00 heads up tourney until I have won outright at am up at least that much (the 5 bucks). Once I'm at that point I switch to a $10.00 heads up game and if I win it, that session is over, if I lose it, it's back to the $5.00 game until I'm back up another $5 and can then attack the $10 game. Essentially this is repeated until I'm up approximately $15 for the session. Average session time so far has been 12-15 mins. So not too bad for just grinding it out. My wins heavily outweigh my loses and I seem to be able to really read these cheap games, as most people are complete idiots willing to throw $5 away. Another rule I have is to not play the same person more than once, no matter how easy of a beat they were, or how shitty/lucky of a player they were to beat me.

So the whole process is just about control, and the grind will, and has, paid off. I'm also not limiting myself to one session per day, but rather as many as I feel comfortable with. But not back to back, So I'll plan to play 2 per day, upwards of 4 if I feel I'm capable.

If I can grind this out for a couple of months, I might be able to justify adding some more performance parts to my car this summer during my holidays. I'd drive back to Vancouver to have the work done by Rocket Rally (not just all rally but other performance parts too)out in Squamish. These guys know what they're doing, as they are the old disbanded Canadian Subaru Rally Championship Team after Subaru decided that they no longer needed to compete because they kept winning everything :)