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"