downgrading....

Ever since I became a Regional Airline Pilot, I have succumb to a simple life. I didn't have one that was too extravagant I might say but of course, others have had a difference of opinion. I ended up selling my Mercedes C55 AMG because I no longer wanted to bear the responsibility of the monthly payment (not that I was making it either while in school) but I felt like it was time. I will also be transporting my car bar to my mom from Atlanta and driving once more the 1985 Turbo Diesel! I'm excited to be driving that car again, but getting it there is one thing. I'm too sure exactly how I might accomplish this car swap, but we'll see how it goes.

To date, I have been spending less and less and becoming a little more frugal with my cash flow as it has been restrained by the paychecks that the airline provides me. Even though I am as skilled as I feel I am (BS degree and professional airline piot training) I'm forced to be dealt the cards of a poverish wage. It'll be a while before I can ball it up again, but I will once more. It'll just be by slower and different means. I have been able to experience the good life and I am more than eager to get back there. I do feel a sigh of relief and look foward to just being simple. I hardly buy clothes anymore or things (although I want the new PS3 and no I didn't get an iPhone) but we'll see how things go in the next few years. It's going to be an interesting ride!

Supposedly August 7th is a good day to keep in mind for new and upcoming Apple products...we'll see what ALPA and ASA provides for the pilots in the next few weeks.

waiting and waiting...

I decided that I should finally get my 10K mile service this morning right after the Valdosta Nap that I had. I'm not that tired just yet but I guess that I should be especially after having only 2.5 hours of sleep. I've been slacking when it comes to the daily things such as bills, car washes, you know...the basic stuff. I've been spending a lot of time just traveling and relaxing a little bit. Today marks the last day of my relax schedule as you can see if you click on my July Schedule, I'll be flying around 96 hours and some change. It's going to be a doozy and I guess if you were to take in the time that I am "On Duty," I'll be working more than 40 hours a week when you compare it to the normal worker bee. Make sure that you look at the calendar and see if you are going to be at the cities that I will be having a layover at and if you are, leave a comment...Let's have dinner.

I was driving yesterday to work while the thunderstorms were surrounding Atlanta and of course, we were delayed by a few hours. What do you expect you know? But one the way to the parking lot, I had my windows down and the driver next to me in a Honda Accord coupe looked at me, and rubbed in fingers together in a way while saying, "You making the ends eh?" I was just laughing a little bit, but I have to admit that I'm a little irritated that people or the general public still think that pilots make a lot. It provides for the perception that since we make so much that 1) We don't care about the passengers 2) We are too good to be them 3) We don't deserve the raises that we are fighting for. It makes us look spoiled and in fact, I have to think twice if I can buy a stupid value meal at McDonald's for breakfast which in fact I just did and it was good. We couldn't even get breakfast at the hotel this morning because they don't start the service until 0700! We left at 0545 of course to go get ready. The fact is is that ALPA needs to begin informing the public a little bit better at the airports or something. I mean, it'll definitely be a while if not it'll take me my entire life to achieve the American Dream if I just sit back and hang out at the airports.

I was on top of the iPhone news debut yesterday and am still frantically thinking about getting one. I can't believe it because I can't afford it, but damn...all the videos look sick! I guess I'll do better as long as I don't go to the store and look at one. I heard that once you touch it, you can't let it go. Damn this tech addiction!

Anyways, like I might have mentioned a few days ago, I'm going to try and be better in updating this blog. Please leave you comments and stuff and it'll motivate me even more.

Delta's New Livery!? APU's Warmth

Well folks, the internet is crawling with all different pictures of what Delta is planning to paint their planes after their emergence from bankruptcy. What do you think?

I've been hanging around the APU of our aircraft a lot more than normal because of the late winter. Once again, I've been extended for about 5 days straight and I really won't be surprised if I don't get a 6th day. I might as well take my Captain's advice and always pack for 6 days straight. I dead-headed to Wichita, KN today after 3 legs and I'm ready for more tomorrow. I just want to get a trip that goes out West already. Looks like I have a good chance of getting a Reserve or Relief Line this upcoming month because of the amount of lines that we cut. Oh well, should be another exciting month. I'm just happy that I'm flying!

Sim V and fatigue

I was tired today. For some reason unknown to me, I just felt tired throughout the entire day. I can admit that it hampered my learning and performance a little bit today while in sim training, but it didn't necessarily downgrade it all too much. I thought that I did okay. It was the first time that we went through a full flight up to altitude and back down via emergency due to an APU fire. That was good stuff. I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow's lesson and learning more. I think that these next two days off, I'll need to just hide out somewhere and study for 10 hours or so. Anyone been to the library at Emory? I think that I'll try to hit that up or something. We also practiced quite a few crosswind landings today. We went overboard a little bit and I have to admit that it was my first red screen where I added too much aileron correction. I'm definitely improving and getting it down. I can't wait till the moment that I can stand up and say, "I'm awesome!" That'll be a while, but man...I can hope and imagine that feeling right?

Had some awesome Hot Jalepeno Spicy Talipia again today from Johnny Carino's after mass. It was the bomb! All you can eat salad and bread too. So, I had two salads, saved half of the second, ate a lot of bread and saved half my entree and now I have a great lunch for tomorrow. I'm a little excited.

I noticed that there was a press release today by CAPT that states that they are lowering their program cost to the first 50 people. I hope that they are able to attract a few peeps. I have a house down in that area that is in dire need of renting out to students.

Alright, well, its a little later than I would like it to be and I need to wake up early too. Better get some rest. Goodnight!

I really don't like how Obama is against the Iraq War. Don't get me started, but that is definitely a downer. Chargers look like they are setup for 2007 at least almost. And...yeah...that's about it! Western Digital finally released their NAS (Network Attached Storage) External Hard Drive. I'm excited to pick one up and hook it up. I'm dying here without any form of extra space since my last disk failure. 2GB Flash drives are on sale at Best Buy for $29.99. That to me is a little cheaper than before. Almost so awesome that I wanted to buy one but I thought of all that awesome cash that I don't have and resisted. I think that I'm going to give up, what I like to call spontaneous-rogue spending, for Lent. Should prove to save me a couple cents here or two. Hopefully...

of jogging on a treadmill and diamonds...

Today was a rather productive day where I had some good studying time on my own, went to church, had some awesome grilled mahi-mahi at Bonefish, went to Barnes and Nobles to study, then to Flight Safety to study and worked out for about 45 mins. When I say worked out, I mean that I jogged at a rather timid pace. But the machine said that I burned off ~350 calories and that I had jogged 3.5 miles or something like that. I was happy and I sweat which is what I was looking for.

I had a rather interesting dream last night where I ran a half marathon. Probably because I thought that I was doing such a great job on the treadmill yesterday that I was proud that I didn't tire like I thought I would. Today was good too. I put my iPod to Rock Genre and jogged on!

So as for the title, I was reading this awesome article and it's just awesome! Everyone has to read it because it's what my geology friend has always been saying. I haven't even gotten a chance to see Blood Diamond yet, but I hopefully will someday. Here's the link! Click here

So, tomorrow' schedule is another rinse and repeat. Since I'm presumable only going to be in this hotel for another 3 weeks, and I have some food left, I'm going to the supermarket tomorrow and will try to make it my last trip there. I also have laundry to do and am going to try to study as much as I can somewhere in between taking care of other errands such as getting a refund for the trip that I paid for and maybe, just maybe...if there's time I'll go to Bed Bath and Beyond, j/k, get an oil change.

of confidence

There you have it folks. I finished CPT4 this afternoon with a better head on my shoulders compared to when I got out of CPT3. It was pretty bad in that I went in with too many questions and hesitations. As my instructor told me today, I just need to start doing things and act like I know what I am doing. I really do and trust me, I would tell you want I don't know and what I really know. It took a session like today to finally realize where I stand. As many of you know, I require a lot of personal reassurance anytime that I have a decision to make. I know that they are not training us to be Captains just yet, but I seek it for everything. I've always wanted to make everyone and anyone happy and just do things right. You could say that this is my strongest setback. I'm definitely a little more confident now today and I will be forging a new type of character for these next sim sessions. Shoot, I might as well carved it out right now and set it straight right now!

On other news, My Barack Obama set out for the Democratic Nomination today in Chicago, Illinois. He is definitely one of my favorites and for those that do not know me, I am a Republican. He's ideas and campaign platform for 2008 is a little on the unrealistic side and I can't say that I agree with everything but he is the first candidate, Republican or Democrat that I would actually see myself supporting. I just hope that Mr. Giuliani makes up his mind and announces something soon. He hasn't really had that much time in the public eye recently, and with the storm and Barack is part of, its definitely going to overshadow some of Rudy's efforts if he doesn't do something fast! That's just my point of view. What do you have to say about it? Here are some polling reports from some random website. Click Here

I have a lot to study and I'll try to post as often as I have been doing but its going to get a little tough really quickly. If you were to sum it up and check out my Google Calendar, you'll see that I'm set to finish training in just another 18 days. That's scary huh?

I'll also been working out so far three days in a row! I'm going to two weeks straight and hopefully it'll become habit. I'm also on the don't eat past 1900 (7PM) routine. As long as I'm here stuck in Atlanta without any type of nighttime entertainment, looks like I'll be able to stick to it.

of commuting to LAX on an airplane + videogames

So my girlfriend kick some major butt on Mario Kart on the Nintendo Gamecube. She took first place quite a few times while I only had it once or twice. It was good stuff. I got to hang out with some friends in San Diego tonight and that I haven't done in such a long time. The original plans were to try to make it to Hawaii on a connecting flight to LAX from SAN, but of course, as my story goes, didn't happen. We made reservations at hotels and even planned out a little excursion here and there. It was going to be nice and to think that we only planned it about 3 days ahead. Oh well. I thought that we could head out somewhere else too, but I wasn't pack for anything that had to do with some cold weather. So, only anything south of San Diego would be viable and it just wasn't going to happen this time. I posted some pix on trelijah of tonight's festivities. We also had an awesome dinner at C.P.K. Did you know that you could get a rootbeer float with Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream?

Adelle and I got to airport early enough to get listed and do whatever we needed to accomplish to actually get on board, but because of how overbooked the two back to back flights were, it made it impossible to get on. So, we missed our connecting flight Honolulu. Sadness...but, I'm just starting to learn all the tricks of the trade when it comes to non-revving. It's definitely an adventure but I'm glad that I got to hang out today and just relax a little bit. We all ended the night playing Donkey Konga and some Mario Tennis. I still have a lot of studying to do, but its going to be an awesome weekend.

Marella's brother, Jomar is in a 3 man play and we're all going to check it out at 1400 tomorrow. Probably going to see some grandma early in the morning, do some backing up of documents and pictures in the afternoon, then off to see one of my friends who's wife is due in the next 7 days! It's amazing how much things can change in about 2 years. The last time I saw them, I was just beginning my training and or in the midst of it all. Congrats to Timothy and Stacey Chou.

I can't locate a stupid Aliph Jawbone at any Cingular store in San Diego. I'm going to try a few more, but man, I just want to try it out already and write up a review. I'll post it once I get some usage out of it, but of course, I'll need to buy it. I had a chance in Florida, but I didn't think that it was going to be so scarce already!

A tornado came really close to my house in Florida but I guess I was lucky in that it stayed to the south of where I lived. I pray for those that are now without a house. It's going to be tough especially during this very cold winter.

of the vote...and trying to get on a plane

ALPA: Deal Not Good Enough, Comair Strike Possible

another link to an informational website: http://www.dcipilots.com

The above is a link to just some general knowledge of the state of the industry that I am now part of. There were a few of my follow pilots from ASA that were picketing on behalf of our other brothers in the now fledging Delta Connection Carrier, Comair. It really stinks that this comes at a time when I just signed on, but I can only hope for the best. It is a service industry out there but finally people are starting to recognize that they get what they pay for in terms of low airfare = crappy seats and service. I do believe that as pilots we are underpaid but I guess a drive from within is the only way to do it. Many say that we did it to ourselves because a lot of us wouldn't mind flying for free, but it hurts to think something like that. I guess if you were to imagine that one thing that you have been wanting to do for a good portion of your life and you had a chance to do it, you would. That's where it comes from. It is sad that I'll be playing it low key for a while, but hey, my view is better than yours!

Looks like I'll be "stuck" in San Diego this weekend. I originally made plans to try to head out to Honolulu, Hawaii with Adelle and got everything setup in like 2 days, but we weren't able to head up to LAX on a commuter flight. I knew that we should have drove to LAX, but I took the chance and just couldn't get on. The ticket counter ladies at American Eagle were very nice and courteous as well as the gentleman at the Sky West booth but nothing came out of it. I got listed as a jumpseater but I didn't want to go anywhere without my Lisa. =( Oh well, at least we have each other and lots of choices of food and I saved some money! (not by switching to Geico either)

Gen Ops Mod CRJ200 in Freezing Weather

Today was the first day of Ops Mod and we got to learn about stuff like the new Aero Data System that we are using for Takeoff Limitation and Weight and Balance figures. It went really smoothly today with another sponsored lunch from ALPA. So far, our class has gotten just about 1 or 2 free lunches every other week while we have been here in training. It's not a bad deal. The hotel is a different matter but at least the newest classes that started today got the benefit of our complaints. They got put up in the Amerisuites which just have too many nice amenities that it's a shame to even compare it to the hotel that I'm at right now. So with that, I'm not even going to start to mention any of them.

The calculations seem to be pretty easy and the homework wasn't that bad. You just have to get use to how to read the dispatch release and the actually Take-off and Landing Report. We have 3 more days of this with a test on Thursday. Then I get 5 days off before all the simulator sessions. I know that I have to study a lot and get all my flows down still, but I'm trying to work something out where I could use my time wisely and get a lot of studying done while traveling!

Adelle got to find out who was who on my travel list so she's ready to head out and use them. I told her to check out some flight, but who know how the loads are and to where we would actual travel to. I'm also still unsure on the whole cost of traveling. I'm getting my second paycheck tomorrow which is going to be tremendously large! I'm excited for that! <-- that was sarcastic by the way but who am I to complain really. I'm loving what I'm doing.

Oh yeah....totally forgot too, the temperature right now in Atlanta is freezing! I saw a puddle today that was iced over. Here's what the weather was this morning until the afternoon where it heated up to a warm 45 degrees. Now as I post this tonight, its 30F!

On other notes:

• Chick-Fil-A has a nice restaurant / diner here in Atlanta and I have to admit that I was impressed. I'll definitely go there again.
• The FAA is posed to announce that they are increasing the age limit for mandatory pilot retirement tomorrow. The new age is 65 years old. I really have mixed feelings about this because it just means that I will be forced to wait another 5 years until I upgrade. Just to think that all the major airlines are going to be postponing their hiring for another 5 years kind of stinks. On the other hand, it does prolong my "career" another 5 years. Can't complain there I guess. I think that the one stipulation is that someone in the cockpit has to be age 60 of younger while the older pilot is present. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/29/national/main2410945.shtml

...living without roommates

This past 3 weeks have gone by rather quickly and I have to admit that living by myself in a hotel room once again has yet to spike the "awesome" meter. As I tell everyone else, it's only cool when you're 18, single and wouldn't mind inviting people upstairs every now and then. Living the true penthouse life-style. Well, that couldn't be done here either at the oh so luxurious Red Roof Inn, Atlanta North. It's quite enjoyable when you hear little scratching between the walls then upon breakfast, your peers tell you that what you hear is the sound of mice. That's a spike in the sarcastic "awesome" meter.

Again, back to the subject, I've since lived in a place where there was always social interaction with at least someone else. From 2005 up until living in the hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Luxembourg and now, it's just not fun. Even though there are more than 16 of us floating around the floors and halls of this hotel, not to mention the other 30 or so new employees, it just doesn't have the common room effect where you could just lie down on a coach, talk random stuff and "hang out." It almost is a production every time you want to get people together. Don't get me wrong, we're all here for one thing and that is training, but still, a living room can bring the needed ingredient for sanity...at least on my end.

I was able to get a lot of studying done tonight and am surprised by the amount of notecards that I have learned. It's definitely one of the best strategies to get to know simple facts quickly. Now if I could only get the memory action items down pack, I think that I would be 50% ready for the test on Friday. We'll see how my studying goes for tomorrow.

Let's see here is my dining menu for today:

• Breakfast - One Jimmy Dean's Ham Cheese Sandwich (where after I microwaved the thing, all the cheese melted onto the plate so I had to improvise and just eat an American Kraft singles square along side it), one glass of orange juice, bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal and a Banana.
• Lunch - amazing leftovers from Smokey Bones which included half of my leftover Pulled Pork Sandwich, 1 potato skin loaded with cheddar cheese and bacon, and 1 chicken strip.
• Dinner - Canned Italian Ravioli, Deli Meat Sandwich with melted cheese and some carrots with dip.

All of this was within the confines of my awesome hotel room. I have to say that I'm very happy that I was able to save up a little money today. I even went back to Best Buy to exchange my camera, bought some batteries, and still spent less because I brought the $30 worth of coupons. Good deal! After that, Eric, Justin and I went to Barnes and Nobles and I didn't buy a thing! Yeah! That's what I'm talking about.

Now, if I could only find some time to actually configure my Linksys Router to the DD-WRT firmware, I could share my internet connection and save more money! Loving it! I didn't get to work out today, but at least I ate well and am drinking way too much water. I'm doing just about 750 mL every hour or two which definitely is just awesome!

sports news: Bill Parcells retired today so does that mean that the Chargers are going to lose another one of their staffing coaches, Wade Phillips? It's going to be a tough year next year. We're already lined up to play both SuperBowl contenders. How exciting!

of studying...

There is just so much to learn and review in so little time. It's awesome that I feel like I'm learning things again and "moving on" but I just wish that I had more time. I can't say that I am spending it wisely updating this blog either, but I have to keep myself sane. Spending time on the computer definitely does put in a good dent into my studying time, but I enjoy it. It just stinks that it takes up too much time to read my sites and update, e-mail, etc. It's just like having a part time job.

Well, a bunch of my friends ending up flying away either visiting their families or wives, and I'm stuck just studying. I wanted to do the same, but I just feel like I should be doing something else. We'll see tomorrow.

Bush Plan: Now that's just a different idea and agenda. Can it be compared to Vietnam? I would say no because you don't have 11 year old boys doing the dirty job of terrorists. It does suck, but we need to finish it once and for all and just finish it hard. Will this work, we don't know.

100 Hour Congress: Seems like Congress is really pushing all they can and fast! It's a rush to just get anything and everything approved. Stem cells are a nice idea, but I really don't know where I stand. Now yet another Democrat wants to run for Office? That party is just going to have yet another big split just all over the place if they end up splitting votes left and right. What the president is doing right will definitely give the opposing party some good ammo for the 2008 election. Convention 2008 in Denver just announced.

Kaleeforne-ah: Whoa, what is Arnold thinking? Is California really going to be able to afford the new Universal Health Care plan? I don't think that its going to happen. I mean, it almost seems like political suicide for what he is proposing. I need to read the plan more, but I just don't have the time. It's going to be a tough year for CA.

Airline Biz: Northwest and Delta now talking about a merger possibility post bankruptcy? That's just outrageous. It is mean that USAir would increase their bid for the hostile takeover but man, its just getting scary. I do like the idea of larger competition for the world amongst other international airlines, but within the domestic US, cut throat is turning into beheading!

I like doing this topic news discussion. I'll try to do it for Thursday's posts. We'll see how it goes! Thanks for increasing the traffic to this site. It got some good hits over the past week! Back to studying!