Happy Birthday Nicole!!!

Happy Birthday Nicole!!!

What do you think of your birthday car?   (Just kidding)  I wish I could get you a Ferrari.  

I am sitting in New York getting ready to come home and have a birthday celebration with you.  19, it is hard to believe.  It seems like yesterday I was flying around with you as a baby to get my paycheck when I worked at Comair.  I would take you everywhere with me.  I was able to spend a lot of time with you growing up which I hold so precious in my heart.  Riding horses, dirt bikes, traveling, the dads and daughters camping.  (Remember we won the look a like contest) We have had so many great times.  I am so proud of you and how far you have come.  I see you growing as a lady and am privileged to be able to walk along side of you.  I think the hardest thing for me as a dad is letting go.  In a way my picture of you is frozen as a little girl even though I know you are a lady now.  Know how much I love you and always will.   I will be home soon to celebrate.  

Happy Birthday 

Looking for Santa

Santa has already started his route!

It is a very dangerous job!

In flight sighting.

Yesterday in LA.  Santa having some fun!

It is even dangerous having fun.

Back in the air after a couple of months at home.  The airlines are over staffed because the load factors are down since not as many people can afford to fly right now.  The nice thing is they have been offering time off for pilots that want it.  It has been nice being at home and just working my Defense contract.  Unfortunately Christmas is a bad time for sick calls and the company makes almost everyone fly over the Christmas Holidays.  Soooo here I am in Las Vegas Christmas eve. I flew into Los Angeles and then on to Vegas yesterday.  Tonight I fly to Detroit and home late.  Christmas day I head out again.  I think I am flying as much as Santa.  If you go to www.noradsanta.org you can track his flight across the world.   

Believe it or not he has actually started his trip.  I will be watching out for him.  I saw him yesterday on the ocean in Los Angeles.  He is a busy guy but likes to have fun too.  The ocean is a dangerous place but Santa is brave and quick.  He is out flying his route today so he made it out of the sharks mouth.  The air is dangerous as well with all of the jets flying around so santa has to keep his eyes open and not fall asleep.  I will try and listen out for him tonight and keep you posted.

As fun as Christmas is I want to make sure we don't forget the reason for the season.  The birth of our Saviour.  It is easy to get caught up with all of the presents and fun, but lets not forget what we are celebrating.  Have fun and I will be home soon.

Lake Tahoe

We flew into Sacramento, California and drove up to Lake Tahoe. Once we got there we climbed Mt. Rubicon. Look it up, it is 9200 feet above sea level and 3000 feet above the lake. The first picture you can see the tower. The tower is a cliff with a shear drop off of 300 feet. That is were I am sitting. It was very difficult to climb and very scary once we got on top of the cliff. It was extremely windy but the view was breath taking. You could see the mountain range called the Sierras. We climbed 2 miles to get to the top with a vertical rise of over 3000 feet. It was very steep and my legs felt like jello. It took us one hour and fifteen minutes to make the climb and we saw snow along the route. The water is very blue and the lake is much larger than it looks. It is over 11 miles wide and 22 miles long. At it's deepest point it is over 1600 feet deep. The mountains surround the lake and we were sitting on the top. Very cool.

Tic Tac Toe

Winter is here

Tic Tac Toe at 40,000 ft

Well it is the end of October and already we are looking at winter.  Snow this morning on the airplanes and across the ground on the way to New York.  The second picture is what we pilots do when we get bored.  Tic tac toe at 40,000 feet.  It is difficult but amusing.  On to Sacramento.  I will get some good pictures.  See ya soon.

October Road

The sunrise flying home for my Anniversary.

Spending time with Mom in Orlando and her new sporty car!

The beautiful mountains in Denver

Another sunset in New York

This was a good trip, but I am glad to be home. It started out at 6 am in Minneapolis with a check ride. As a pilot we have to take many tests each year. We have a 4 day checkride in the simulator each year and then once a year we receive a line evaluation. The line evaluation is not announced and you never know when it will be. The check pilot will just show up and go through all of your manuals to make sure everything is up to date and then ride in the cockpit for a round trip. This time it was to Denver and back. It is about 2 hours each way and they test all of your skills. They ask you questions about the airplane and all of the procedures. They then watch you fly and grade your performance. Luckily I passed and get to keep my job for a while longer. If you fail it is unpaid leave and up to a board if you get to keep your job. (No pressure). We always joke about training and call it - bet your career. The flight to Denver was very bumpy but I did get a beautiful shot of the mountains. It is usually very bumpy going into Denver as the air flows over the mountains it creates turbulence. We call that mountain wave. It can be very dangerous.

Then it was off to Orlando where I was able to have diner with my mom. A short night but it was so cool to see nana. She was sporting a new car. Very cool! The next day taxing in you could see the sunset over downtown New York city. Very beautiful. Flying home on the last day I snapped this picture of the sunrise. It was amazing with the vivid colors of red and blue. The camera does not due it justice. Well it is home for our 22nd Anniversary. I can't wait to see you all and go out to dinner tonight.

Go West young man!

The Fall colors over Minneapolis

Great Sand Dunes National Monument

Portion of the Grand Canyon

The Moon!

The only grass in Arizona

We flew out West to Phoenix, Arizona.  I love flying out West.  It is such a different part of the United States.  The changes are dramatic the further you fly West.  The start of the trip flew over Minneapolis and as you can see the fall colors are beautiful.  As we flew over Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico we flew over this unusual site.  It is the Great Sand Dunes National Monument in Colorado.  It looks like a giant sand box shaped like the United States.  It is located at the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Range and some of the dunes are over 700 feet tall.  This is in the Southern portion of Colorado.  The further West we travel the more desolate and terrain becomes.  We fly over the Southern portion of the Grand Canyon.  It is over 800 feet deep cut into the earth.  As we get closer to Phoenix we fly over the Moon?  No this is actually called Monument Valley.  They filmed many mars and moon movies here as well as many westerns.  It is hard to believe it is real.  An approach into Phoenix we fly over the only green thing you see.  It is a golf course.  It really stands out with everything looking so dead.  Well back to Earth soon.  See ya.

Sunsets

The top two pictures are another great example of the most beautiful sunsets.  The colors are so vivid.  The last picture is in New York and is a picture of the new Airbus 380.  The largest jetliner in the world.  There was a 747 next to it and it dwarfed it.  It can hold up to 850 people and weighs over one million pounds.   It has 20 wheels on the main landing gear and can be yours for only 320 million dollars.  What a bargain!

Fall Flying

The Fall color is beautiful

Minneapolis National Guard prepare for deployment

The stunning skyline of Bismarck

Downtown Calgary set next to the snow covered mts.

The season is changing and it is starting to get cold and the trees are starting to get their beautiful fall color.  It is very beautiful as you fly over and see the vibrant color.  The first picture is taking off from Minneapolis and seeing the color along the river.  In line for takeoff I saw the Minneapolis Guard practicing for their deployment to Iraq.  They fly in a line as they land to protect each other.  The first aircraft lands and the second does a low flyby looking for bad guys in case the aircraft landing takes fire.  The most vulnerable position for an aircraft is in the landing phase just prior to touch down.  Kind of like a sitting duck.  The aircraft behind the one landing protects the aircraft in case they get attacked.  They immediately fly by and come around for their landing and the aircraft on the ground swings around to protect the one  landing.  Very cool to see.

We flew into Bismarck and then back to Minny and on to Calgary.  Long day (13 hours).  We got into Calgary at 130 am.  I was tired but was fortunate to see the amazing skyline of Bismarck.  You can see the metropolis by the single skyscraper.  

On to Calgary which is actually a very pretty city.  You can see the skyline set next to the snow covered mountains.  It was 31 degrees.  COLD!  Oh well it is getting that time of year.  Today back to Minny and on to New York.  See ya soon.

Riding into the sunset

We were getting ready to takeoff for New York when I looked up just before takeoff and saw the owner of the Minnesota Vikings taking off.  The game had just finished and he was heading home.  What a way to commute!

The next picture was a beautiful sunset.  It was one of the most vivid reds I have every seen.  It is hard to capture on a camera, especially bouncing along at 600 mph.  The sunset was sandwiched between a layer of clouds.  It was cool.  Well off the Raleigh Durham and them Edmonton Canada.  See ya soon!

Winter is on it's way

Denver Rockies
The Snow Plows Practicing

The last day we flew out to Denver. It is very beautiful as there is more snow on the Rockies and they really stand out. As we were taxing into the terminal in Denver I could not believe what I saw. The snow plows were out in their shinny trucks practicing and getting ready for the first snow. It is hard to believe but we are only a few weeks away from our first snow fall. I am not ready for that. Winter is already upon us.

Rainy Days

In Line for Takeoff
Landing in Minneapolis
On Approach In Boston
Downtown Boston over the Airport

This trip was a wet one. Much of the country was covered with rain. It seemed like everywhere we went we were bouncing along in the storms. The top pictures we are leaving Minneapolis. A departure leaves about every 2 minutes and in between those departures there is an aircraft landing. As you can see one airplane lands and one takes off. When you land you better be right on because an airplane is sitting right next to the runway waiting to take off. There is always a audience watching your landings.

The next pictures is coming into Boston. It is a very cool city filled with history. The freedom trail is downtown and takes you past so many historical sites. The Boston Tea Party as you have studied is just one of the famous historical events that happened there. The airport is surrounded by water so I have to make sure I don't land short or roll of the end. Swimming would not be good there. The city is very close to the airport as you can see by the picture where you can see the downtown buildings over the airport terminal. There is a train that runs from the airport right to downtown. Very cool. A lot of ships will come into Boston and off load their goods in those giant containers you see stacked up and eventually those items will get shipped to our home town. Boston is one my favorite cities to visit as you really can see how our country was formed.

The road home

NYC taxi
Niagara Falls
Threat of Nature
Threat of Mankind

This trip was filled with adventure and beauty. The skyline in New York is the beauty that man has built. The New York skyline is like no other. There are 3 airports that are so close to the city and even though they are huge they are always at capacity. It always amazes me how close the airports are to the city. Most airports are several miles away from the major city.

The next site along the road home was Niagara Falls. The beauty that God made. It is amazing how large it is. It is next to Buffalo, New York. We are at 36,000 feet flying over. It is hard to see the magnitude of the falls at that altitude. Someplace I would like to take you to see.

One of the threats we deal with as pilots is one of nature. Snow, ice wind and as this picture show thunderstorms. It is hard to believe something so beautiful can be so destructive. The turbulence inside the storms this big can bend the wings. We also face man made threats. With the Republican National Convention here in St. Paul the security has been beefed up against the threats man makes against man. We were flying in yesterday and ATC closed the Minneapolis airport and scrambled the fighters as they had a security breach coming into the airport. The fighters approach the threat and intercept them and either lead them away from the airport or shoot them down. It is very serious business. We have been briefed on their procedures and consequences of ignoring their signals. The threat for us flying in is we do not always have fuel to hold and wait for the airport to open up. In today's fuel conservation mode every extra pound of fuel on the aircraft means it is heavier which means it burns more fuel. To save fuel they only load on the aircraft what is necessary. In this case ATC opened the airport just in time or we would have to diverted to a close airport because we were low on fuel. The new world for the friendly skies. Glad to be back.

Sitting in Jamaica

I am in Jamaica New York.  

My deluxe shower accommodations.  I am not sure what to do with it.

This is the cool lighting system at the airport.  Like something out of Star Wars.

Our deluxe transportation.

Standard issue phaser when leaving the hotel for lunch.

I am actually in Jamaica, New York which is a borough next to the JFK airport in New York City.  Most people refer to this area as Queens.  Not a great area to stroll around in as you can see by the standard issue Phaser.  The hotel is a little weird as it is used mostly for airline crews.  You see crew members from all over the world.  Kind of cool although if that is so, what is up with the shower?  There is a drain in the middle of the floor and the rest of the room is completely open.  I can't decide if I am suppose to stand up or sit on the bench.  Oh well, I knew you would want to see it.  The airport is fairly modernistic airport as you can see by the picture of the lights.  They reminded my of some sort of antennae of a creature out of Star Wars.  Well I will be home tonight. May the force be with you.

Labor Day

Lake Superior in Duluth

The city of Duluth

Phoenix, Arizona  (An oasis in the desert)

Another beautiful sunset

This trip has not been easy.  A lot going on and then the end of summer.  Today is Labor Day and I guess it is fitting I am working.  The sites have been beautiful.  I am in Duluth and the boardwalk along Lake Superior is amazing.  I looked up to see the sail boat passing by the light house.  It is a gorgeous day here.  The view of the city from the pier is cool.  soon it will be cold here again and the lake will freeze.  Hard to believe on a day like today.

Before flying into Duluth late last night we went to Phoenix Arizona.  It is very brown in color and desert like.  The picture of the fountain is cool in that it stands out from the air. Everything around it is brown.  The last picture is another beautiful sunset.  The colors and spectrum is very hard to capture with my camera.  It is spectacular to see though.  Well today on to Minneapolis and New York.  See ya soon.