a 4 Hour Sit in Cincinnati Airport

Oh the joys of scheduling a 2 leg day with a four hour sit getting paid only per diem with no crew lounge.  Contemplating where to adventure to around the CVG airport, I find myself sitting her in the McDonalds in Concourse C with a brand new book that I just bought at the airport Borders Book Store.  I guess I shouldn't complain about that though because I got 10% off for being an airport employee and the #1 at McDs was just as I imagined it would be. 

The books that I picked up by the way at by Atul Gawande entitled, "Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science" and his second book called "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance."

Today's scheduled block pay (flight time) consists of 3 hours and 8 minutes.  Our total duty time though is 7 hours and 58 mins.  That means with our minimum duty rig of 2:1, I should get paid for almost 4 hours.  Oh joy... =)  Now with the weather slowly starting to roll into the Columbia, SC, our next destination and with more weather forecasted to arrive in ATL tomorrow, just makes sense that the last day of a 4 day, prior to me getting back to San Diego, should pose these anti-on-time hurdles.  It's going to be nice though once I'm on vacation. 

Sitting...

I'm on the last four day trip prior to my 2-week vacation.  Plans are slowly solidifying, but as we all know, my standby pass is only good when I'm on the plane, seated, and the door is closed.  Till, then, we won't know where I'm going to end up.  This is also the last vacation period that I have for 2008.  I'm going to have to bid around and move pairings around on my lines for the next few months in order to block together some good days off. 

Flying has been going well lately too.  I'm use to just working days in a row with 1 day off in between lately.  It wasn't as rough as I thought it would be with all the low time blocks we have been getting.  (4-days of flying blocked to only 16 hours with one dead head)  The trips all look the same with 3 legs the first day followed by 2-2-3.  We have 2-hour sits in between our ATL round-trips which gives up ample time to grab some dinner too, but the days are that much longer.  You can't complain much when other airlines are asking for voluntary leaves I guess.  I'm just glad to be getting credits of up to 80 hours or even more. 

I just bought a new backpack for my upcoming trip.  Tentatively, I'm heading to the Eastern Mediterranean Shores, but with the current coup in Lebanon, it's getting me a little nervous.  I'm sure it'll be okay, but we'll see what ends up happening.  Back to the bag.  It's a Kelty Redwing 3100 (3100 cubic inches of cargo / 50L) that was on sale at REI for $69.99.  I also had a $5.00 credit so that just made this bag that much more awesome / cheaper!!!  I didn't want a metal frame because I'm all about carry-on luggage only and I think that the cargo space it advertises is more than enough for some summer traveling.  I'm really excited to put some miles on this bag.  I still have yet to get a locking mechanism for those stays at hostels.  Anyone have a good idea?  I just have a Master combo lock but haven't the faintest idea on what to use to tie my bag up to the air-conditioner.  I'm not going to sew on an American Flag Patch or a Canadian one, but I was thinking about a California State Flag patch.  Maybe even something that has UCSD or San Diego.  Who knows. 

It's been awhile

I promised to continue to update the blog on a daily if not every other day basis, but I've just got too much to say sometimes that I talk it out of myself and don't write it down.  I'll keep trying.

Today is the 3rd day out of a 4-day trip and is day 10 out of my 14 of 16 day work schedule.  Plans have gotten a little more solid in terms of when I plan to fly overseas to meet up one of my college friends in the Mediterranean coast.  I leave on a Saturday, arrive Sunday night and hang out for a couple of days.  We're still not sure on what exactly we're going to be doing once I get there, but I'm sure that more plans will come about closer to the dates.  (May 17 - 24th)

Flying this much isn't that bad really, but being away from the comfort of home kind of stinks.  I haven't been back to San Diego now for almost a month and am still dying to try out the new wetsuit that I bought a month prior to that. (O'Neil Mutant 4/3) Parents also moved back to San Diego so I'm really excited to get all setup again.  I probably won't bring the PS3 back to San Diego since there are more chances of me playing it while in ATL but I'll have a room close to the beach and everyone else around town.  Now, I just have to redo a lot of my permanent address stuff which is going to take a little figuring out.  Kind of stinks to keep on changing address especially with all the moves in the last 3 years. 

Just had some great Mexican food at Monterey Mexican Grill in Wichita, Kansas.  Usually can't go wrong with Carnitas, and I wasn't disappointed. 

New May Schedule: 14 out of 16

Check out the new May Schedule!  I'm on Day Four of a Four day but if you could really include tomorrow's 2-day as part of this trip, so it's day 4 of 6.  Then I have one day off, followed by another 4-day, one day off, then another 4-day.  Why am I doing this to myself?  Well, if you look at the new updated May Schedule, I'm going to have 14 days off in a row!  It's a great thing too because with all the days off, I'm still going to get paid more than I would be in months where I only have 11 days off.  I'm so far scheduled to be credited for 86.xx hours!  I definitely could use the extra $300 or so in the check that comes in on the 15th of each month. 

I'm loving the captains that I've been flying with and hope not to jinx the upcoming pairings.  The only think that is killing me though is my ongoing issues with my back.  The pilot seats don't do anything positive to improve it and flying these next few days without proper rest I'm sure isn't going to give it enough time to recover.  On top of that, carrying my bags totaling about 100lbs. I'm sure just makes it that much better. 

Time to start strengthening my core muscles.  I think that I'm going to start swimming laps.  I'm glad that the Tributary HOA finally opened the pool again!!!

Surefire's G2 LED Flashlight

Well, here it is. I'm not just finally able to accomplish my walk arounds, but I'm equipped with one of the best flashlights I have ever used. I leveled up a notch but definitely haven't maxed out. For a low price, and I say low only because it is one of the cheapest that Surefire has to offer (A2 Aviator sells for $195.00), it's truly the best out there. The Surefire G2 sells for $65.00 and it is worth every penny as long as I can keep on my person and not misplace it.

I had a Mag-lite mini that I modded with a Luxeon LED which was great but that was taken from me in the beginning of my career here at ASA and never returned. I replaced it shortly with a what I thought would be a good flashlight, the Coast 3-LED, but that was a big let down. Not much to say there, but I'll give the G2 my personal recommendation until I test out the G3 or the A2. This flashlight is almost overkill really, but it's just nice to carry a light saber in the cold dark mornings.

More pictures after the jump alongside the Coast 3-LED Flashlight with night and day pictures.

The Surefire G2 LED Flashlight is touted as one of the most compact, high-intensity LED flashlights that are great for tactical, outdoor and general use. I chose to use it for aviation specifically but that's just me. The beam is advertised to put out 4x the light of a larger two-D-cell flashlight attacking Maglite directly as they are still the leader in this business. I haven't tried it out yet, but Surefire also says that it is bright enough to temporarily blind and disorient a person by impairing his night-adapted vision. It's detailed specifications include a max output of 80 lumens, a runtime of 12 hours, measures 5.14" and weighs in at 4.10 ounces. "Constructed of lightweight, corrosion-proof Nitrolon® polymer and rugged aerospace-grade aluminum," this flashlight should last the test of my lifetime. The batteries are the only draw to the flashlight as they use two 123A lithium batteries would could add up in cost. ($1.75 each x 2 = $3.50 per 12 hours) My walk arounds don't take that long, but I'll post the first time I have to replace the battery.

Taking a look at these pictures, you cannot even see the beam that the Coast 3-LED light is shinning! I'm telling you that it's on as you can see on my fingertips. The Surefire G2 is a little larger but the spot light is brighter than the sun in the darkness.

There two pictures only differ in exposure, but in the normal shot to the left, you can see the faint light that the Coast 3-LED is shinning. Now, I'm not going to jump all over and say that Coast's Flashlight are inadequate, especially if one of my good friends uses them. They are cheaper, and I'm sure that his might shine a lot brighter than the one that I own because of his 1-LED fixture, but this comparison is over! Surefire wins outright. I'll update this post with another comparison between the Coast 1-LED and the Surefire G2 at a later date when I cross roads with that aforementioned flashlight.

Update: Apparently, I was naive in posting that the brand that I had compared.  Instead of Coastal, the proper name should be Coast Flashlights.  More specifically, the Coast LED Lenser V2 (3-LED) Flashlight is the one that I compare to the Surefire G2.   Thanks for the correction =)

The 3 Days Prior to the Bimmer Dying...

I really got to enjoy driving the machine all over Atlanta with one of my good friends from San Diego, Greg.  I finished a trip on Wednesday and I picked him at the airport once I landed from finishing up a four day.  At first, we were planning to head out to either Cancun, Belize, or somewhere random, but after deciding that it would be much more economical to just hang out in Atlanta, we did just that. 

The following morning, we woke up rather late, but planned to just roam around Atlanta.  Had some breakfast, hung out till lunch and just discussed our alternative Atlanta vacation.  Nothing really too much besides go out and hit the local bars, eat at different Atlanta restaurants, hit up the sights and that's about it.  We ate at Five Guys which proved to have some great tasting hamburgers and fries seasoned with Cajun spices.  Definitely a little more on the expensive side of things but if you consider that their patties are almost a 1/4 pound each and that the regular hamburger has two of these, its not that bad.  We roamed around a little more until it was time to watch the Atlanta Thrashers play against the New York Islanders (NHL). The game was pretty exciting as both teams scored a lot of points (8 total + one in overtime) and then hit up Buckhead.  To make that long story even shorter, we went to one bar where I was going to meet up with a friend but he wasn't there, so after a while we went to Moondogs where we met some random Filipinos who ended up having ties to some of our friends from high school!  Small world, but it was cool to see some friends with connections as it always proves that it really is a small world.  That was Thursday. 

Friday included us waking up late again, hitting up Shane's Ribshack and then hiking up Stone Mountain.  That was the highlight there really as we just burnt the time at Barnes and Nobles and driving around even more.  Saturday was a chill day trying to eat at the The Flying Biscuit Cafe.  We had to go to 2 of them finally reaching the second and still having to wait about 20 minutes in line.  Still good times though. 

We played a little bit of some Pixel Junk Monsters on PS3 and called it night.  Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that I leveled up a female Blood Elf Paladin to level 3 almost reaching to 4 on World of Warcraft and that's when I threw in the towel. 

Now I'm on a 4 day trip just wondering what the heck I'm going to do with my car and everything else in the next few days.  Oh the joys. 

March Schedule

I just uploaded my schedule for March and if you take a look at it, I'm going to have quite a few days off in a row.  I'm looking at even making it a little bit longer with a few swaps here and there.  I'm still getting some flight hours in too along with a good pay credit.  It isn't that great, but at least I'm not losing out on too much. 

If you are wondering what I'm going to be doing for vacation, I'm actually going to be running a 10K in San Diego on the 15th followed by Spring Break with Adelle to who knows here.  The following week, I'm left to believe that I'll just be wandering around the world maybe in Asia if I'm up to the long flights.  We'll see.  Anyone going to be around?

4 Days of Training Over!

It's been a crazy two weeks of training here at ASA.  While celebrating my first year anniversary at my first official flying job, I knew that it would be time to undergo what every pilot goes through at least once every year for the rest of his career.  It was just the beginning and I have to admit that it wasn't even that bad. 

For many of the those who do not know, all pilots throughout the airline industry undergo what's called Recurrent Ground Training and Proficiency Checks at least once every year with another type of training every 6 months ranging from Line Oriented Flight Training (LOFTs) or Line Checks once you're a captain.  What does this all mean?  Our job is on the line every year as we need to pass all these tests or risk having to go back through training.  We also have to maintain first class medical which entails routine doctor visit every 6 months.  All this with only making $19K my first year.  I'm looking forward to making $30K now baby!!!

Now, I have one day off followed by a two day trip, then I'm off for three days.  I think that might work on my taxes or something.  I also have A LOT of filing to do as all my mail piled up over the last 6 months. 

I'll be posting my March schedule shortly and I'm off for 20 days!!!  I have 17 days straight but of course, one of those weeks is Adelle's spring break so we're going to try to find something to do.  Either hang out around the US or maybe even head out to Europe or South America.  I have no idea yet.  Traveling is just so expensive these days with how much the dollar has fallen.  It's going to be an awesome month of March!!!

Two Weeks

It's been about two weeks since my last post and that's due to the overwhelming amount of studying that I've been having to do for my proficiency check.  Of course that went well as I'm still flying happily on the line.  I also went back to San Diego to hang out with Adelle where we watched Jumper and Definitely, Maybe. 

I liked them both as Jumper was a different kind of theory that I really haven't been exposed and found the concept interesting.  They definitely left it open for a sequel which I may or may not see.  Definitely, Maybe was just an all around feel good movie but it's not something that you can go watch over and over again.  It was a little too predictable but still romantic. 

I'm back in Atlanta for 4 days of 8-hour a day class work that's called Recurrent Ground Training.  Both the PC and RGT happens once a year at most airlines and its my turn!  It's kind of crazy as it all puts it in perspective that we are really celebrating our one year anniversary here in Atlanta. 

There are quite a bit of merger rumors lately and we have no idea how its going to affect anyone, but I just hope that people come out of both sides with smiles and hope.  It's such a negative industry that anything can just trigger a mud slide of emotion and disgruntle-ness.  Oh well...

I haven't been able to write lately either for PhoneNews.com due to the fact that my hotels that I've been staying in are charging for Internet service!  It's an outrage!  I thought that it would be easy to write more articles this year, but its only getting harder as my work times are more sporadic and just with all these qualifying events happening, it doesn't look good.  Let's see what kind of news I can dig up.  There's been a lot for sure like all the unlimited plans that all the main carriers have released!  It's about time a price war starts in the mobile phone industry. 

Hunnington Beach

I got to really just hang out with some buddies this past weekend which was quite relaxing and enjoyable.  I went out with my buddy to a shooting range and I have to say that I was relieved that my aim is still pretty good.  I still have a lot to learn, but its definitely getting to be a little bit easier as my confidence level goes up.  The shooting range in Oceanside called Iron Sights is a great place to rent and try out a variety of handguns and rifles.  That's my number one choice in San Diego for now until I have to re-qualify next month.  I also ended up at a Moroccan restaurant called Marrahkesh in Newport Beach where I had rabbit for the first time.  It definitely tasted like chicken but I can't say that I was too impressed.  The lamb was awesome but I enjoyed the baklava and tea the most.  The tea was a minty green with a lot of sugar.  The rest of the experience was enjoyable as I got to hangout and meet some people for the first time.  I met one of my friend's roommate from UCSD and his wife of almost a year and she participated in the belly dancing.  Bobby also got up and danced a bit.  It was all fun.

We headed out to a bar in Newport Beach called "The District" which was basically a really small bar that was on par with PB Bar and Grill but a little bit more upscale.  We had a couple of drinks, met more peeps and called it a night night around last call at 1:45AM.  I crashed at his pad and woke up to a beautiful day.  I really can't see myself leaving Southern California for anything else and I didn't want to leave.  We walked the pier and ate a Duke's where I had an amazing seared rare ahi steak tuna.  The food was spectacular. 

Now I'm headed up to Flint, Michigan where I'm going from 70F to 11F.  i can't wait! 

Crazy Days in KPIA

The last roundtrip that I had was to Peoria, Illinois where my captain and I decided to walk around the afternoon that we got there.  It started snowing quite a bit and the walk turned into a rather long, cold and windy one.  We headed to the theater to watch National Treasure: Book of Secrets and we also got to watch Rambo.  They were both entertaining but I can't necessarily say that Rambo was for everyone.  It's for those who like 70s - 80s style shoot-em up no plot kind of thing.  I liked for what it was and that's how I usually enjoy things anyways.  Book of Treasures was interesting and just fun, as all Disney movies are. 

So, back to the walk, before we arrived at the theater, we hung a left to the Walmart where I bought a $4.00 beanie cap.  It saved me on my walk back to the hotel and I even slept with it because it was just that cold.  The temp dropped from 18F to 8F and it snowed about 6 inches that very night. 

We woke up that morning and got downstairs for a 5:00AM van time and was alerted that the van driver couldn't make it out of his home, a taxi was going to take 1.5 hours and that they were trying to find someone else to take us.  It all worked out about 45 minutes later so I can't say that it was that  bad.  I enjoy biscuits and gravy, an orange, and some frosted flakes for breakfast. 

I got to the airport and it looked fun.  Along the way in the van, the driver had a news radio station on and they said that the Department of Transportation of Illinois alerted that the roads were "treacherous" and that no one should be driving.  Look at what we go through to get our flights done!  The airport runways were great as the ground crews kept them clean throughout the night but the ramp area where the plane was parked over night was horrible.  Here's a picture of it.  I was basically doing my preflight in 6" of snow and having it leak into my shoes and up my pant legs.  It was fun for about 10 seconds then I got over it.  =) 

Check it out...Enjoy!

Flying...Payday....Treo 755p....DVDs...USS Midway

Like I posted previously, I'm flying 10 out of 11 days.  Today is day 5 and I've been bogged down without having the pleasure of being connected to the outside world.  It's definitely boring with the Internet these days, but I guess that I should be reading and studying for my recurrent training scheduled in the next few weeks.  It's definitely not by choice either believe me.  The Internet at the Hilton charges $9.95 for 24 hours of connectivity pleasure and that's just not really in the budget.  Not sure if you caught wind either but my loan payments are in full swing at $1100.00 a month for the next 20 years.  Really...it's that much.  It's more than my 2nd paycheck here at ASA's 2nd year rate too.  I'll try not to let it depress me, but hey, like I've always flown by, I've got the best office view there is.  Maybe not the FL410, but it doesn't matter because I'm not comparing myself to the other pilots out there.  It's isn't the largest cabin either, but that doesn't matter, because like I've said, it's all about fun and doing what you love. 

Am I going to work out today?  I just might, but I'm forced to run indoors again because of the forecasted 6-9 inches of snow falling in Peoria, Illinois.  We have a 6:15AM duty in too but I'm a little weary on the fact that we might not be leaving that early.  Who will be cleaning the runways? 

I've upgraded to my sister's hand me down Palm Treo 755p.   Do I like it?  It's definitely got more pep to it and the Internet is quicker using EVDO rev. 0, but it's still not the BlackBerry 8830.  It does have a camera, but I'm not too sure if that's a concern anymore.  Maybe I'll just bring my camera with me everywhere instead.  What do you think? 

I'm going to post all my DVDs online on Amazon so that I could begin converting them to Blu-ray editions.  Of course, I'll be a little smarter in my purchases limiting them to not every new Tuesday release, but to the ones that I think I'm going to watch more than just once.  Shoot, maybe I just won't buy any more movies.  I'm talking like I could afford them!  :-) 

Here's a picture to enjoy of Adelle and I touring the USS Midway Museum in San Diego.  We went spur of the moment right after she picked me up so I was pretty beat but it's always fun hanging out with buddy!  You have to check it out but be sure to have 3-5 hours for the entire trip.  We had but 1 hour to roam around and we only got through 20% of it and we rushed too.  When we going again babe?

First of 45

Well, today is day one of the 45 days until my second 10K.  It'll be here in San Diego around Fiesta Island (without hills) so it shouldn't be that punishing compared to my first one.  Today's quick "back to workout" mode consisted of a 20 minute light jog (treadmill speed 5.0 with a little speed increase during the last few minutes) followed by some stretching and quick weight lifting.  I'm not trying to get bigger, just lose some weight, tone up and shape up.  I don't want to end up hurting for an entire week. 

Today's flight were pretty nice a long and uneventful.  Remember that these ones are the best!  So far my food intake for the day has consisted of water, a Triple Threat Power Bar, and a couple dips into my trail mix bag.  Time now is 12 hours after I've waken up.  I think I better replenish.