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!