A very gusty day in New York

YEEEEEE HAAAAA!

My last landing in New York! (Just kidding). It was so windy in New York today. The winds were at the absolute max the aircraft could safely land in. Everyone was having to go around because the winds exceeded the max. Once the winds would die down enough we could come in and land. Needles to say we got caught in the conga line and ended up being over a hour late today. It was a wild ride in all the bumps. The winds were over 39 knots. That is just under 50 miles per hour. Yippy Ki Yay!

We were able to get out of there and on to Tampa. It was much nicer in Florida.

This is an area just South of Tampa. Many ships come in and off load and pick up their materials. The city is to the middle right.

Here is a better picture of downtown Tampa. It was so nice to see the water and get warmed up.

Here is a picture of an Air Force base called MacDill in Tampa. This is a cool base where Special Forces work and play. This is the place where Mom and I went to the airshow and Mom was in the infamous portapotty! (Remember)

These are some beautiful homes on the Gulf. It would be very exciting to live on the water. What a view.

Well another early morning and on to Connecticut tomorrow.

See ya soon!

On the Runway

Most of my flights lately have been quick, so I am back before I can post the sights I have seen for ya.

This last trip was cool though into New York again. We landed in Newark, New Jersey and had to take a limo drive to New York (JFK) for a morning departure. It took almost 2 hours to drive it. It was rush hour traffic and stop and go. Very boring! But we did go over the George Washington bridge which crosses the Hudson river. That is the bridge Captain Sully flew over when he landed his Airbus on the Hudson river. To the left is New York city and straight ahead on the water is where he landed.

The next picture is sitting on the runway in New York JFK waiting to take off. Straight ahead is the city. Really cool. Look at the building at the end of the runway. You don't want to run off the end do ya? It looks pretty weird heading toward it.

The city is so large it is amazing how many buildings there are. It looks like a sea of buildings.

Boston with Nicole

I was flying s trip which included a long overnight in Boston. I asked Nicole if she wanted to come with me and she said she would love to. Boston is one of my favorite cities to visit. It is rich in history. She can fly free and there were plenty of seats or so it seemed until the weather came into Boston and flights started getting delayed. My flight filled up and there were only 3 seats left and she was 3 on the list. She got on and I was thrilled until a passenger could not get their seat as the agent had put 2 people in the same seat. You guessed it they had to pull Nicole off the flight. We were heart broken, but there was another flight. It ran late as well and she did not get into Boston until midnight. I picked her up and we went to sleep to be woken up at 430 by fire alarms and sirens. Our hotel alarms were going off and we had to evacuate the building. A story in its self. Turned out there was not a fire and the firemen gave us the ok to go back in after 20 minutes standing outside in the rain. You could not believe what we saw people wearing. The next day was great and we had a wonderful day touring the city. Here are some great pictures of our day.

Our Hotel

On the Trolley in Boston. It was sprinkling today so we took a tour of the city by trolley. It was so much fun. We saw so many cool places. Our tour guide was a retired history teacher and taught us so much about the history of the city.

This was Kings cemetery. Paul Revere was buried here as well as John Hancock and the Franklin family.

This was at the start of the Freedom Trail. This statue was in front of the State House.

This is the home of Paul Revere. He raised 16 children in this home. He had 8 children from his first wife who died. He remarried and had 8 more. Wow! I guess his second wife was very competitive.

The road home

Well today was a early day in Memphis. We flew to New York and then on home to Minneapolis. We landed today to the South in New York, which means you fly up the Hudson river over the Statue of Liberty and circle the city to land. It is very neat flying so close to the city. Seems a little weird being so close to this very large city and seeing the twin towers site. New York is also so busy it is a little crazy talking to the controllers and landing in this very crowded airport.

This is the Statue of Liberty. Kind of fuzzy, it was bumpy coming in.

New York City downtown. The open area is where the Twin Towers stood.

This is upper New York where the Empire State building is located. As you can see it is a huge area packed with buildings.

This is an amusement park just North of the city.

See ya soon!

Change of scenery

(I took this picture yesterday on the mall. It is such a cool place to visit).

Today started out early in DC. The sun was just coming up as we took to the sky and headed for Memphis. I had been looking everywhere for Elvis but little did I know he was under glass at the airport in Memphis. He wouldn't sign an autograph. (Whats up with that)?

Then it was on to Cancun. We were just flying down and turning around and coming back. I wanted to take you all and hang out on the beach. The beaches are just beautiful. We will have to make a trip there! Look at how blue the water is.

Well I must get some rest. It was along day. Tomorrow we fly to New York and then home. See ya soon.

DC Afternoon

I flew to DC today and had the afternoon off to explore. I of course went to the Mother Ship... (The Air and Space Museum). I feel at home there. I can't figure out though everytime I go back, there seems to be more airplanes hanging from the ceilings that I use to fly. That is only suppose to happen to old timers. I remember going there when I was a kid thinking wow somebody really sat in there and flew that. Now I am walking up to an airplane I flew only to hear, "Wow somebody actually had to push all of those buttons and sit in there". Could it be true, that I am becoming an old timer. Nah! That kid is just crazy.

This first picture is the nose of our (NorthWest Airlines) Boeing 747. This is the actual nose off of one of the airplanes we retired. Very cool to see. It is huge.

The next series of pictures is a progression of the aircraft cockpit. Notice the difference with the instruments. I flew each of these. Hard to believe. Computers made a huge difference in cockpit design. This first one is 1950's technology. We call these round dial cockpits. Notice the dials. Everything is moved with large levers and connectors.

This cockpit is the beginning of computer technology making it's way into the cockpit. Just the beginning. This aircraft has the computing power of a small calculator you would use in school today. Not much. This cockpit we called flying the "Steam Gauges". This is getting into the 1970's. Flew that too. Wow maybe I am old.

This is a modern cockpit I fly today. It is the A-320. One of the most sophisticated cockpits of today. (Not a very good picture. It is behind glass and a lot of kids licking the glass or something. I think that same kid that was giving me a hard time). Notice there are not any round dials. Everything is run with computers and control stations. It is fly by wire, which means instead of large levers to move the wings ailerons there are computer control stations that send a electric signal to move the ailerons. Well, since this is very advanced and it is in the Smithsonian maybe I am not so old after-all.

Ok, then I walked around the corner and saw the wave of the future. (UAV's) This is the stuff I am working with for the Government. Well, now I know I am not old, I am just ahead of my time. I feel much better. I think it is time for a nap.

Well hope you had a great day. Tomorrow on to Memphis and Cancun. Maybe I will see Elvis catching some waves.

Waiting for a Jet Plane

This trip starts in Minneapolis goes to Denver and Back and then goes on to New York. We had a 3 hour sit in Minneapolis waiting for our airplane to come in that we were going to take to New York. The first picture was our empty gate waiting for our airplane.

This next picture is our airplane finally pulling in. The days are long when you are flying. We typically work 12 to 14 hours at a time so when you have to sit around waiting you get a little bored as you can tell.

This next picture is of me sitting in the cockpit getting ready to go. I took a picture of the reflection in the window in front of us. If you look closely you can see me in the cockpit, you'll have to look close. I was waving like a crazy person. After I took that I wondered what the passengers thought of this crazy pilot taking pictures and waving at the glass. Oh well it was along day.

This picture is for Kari. This is a picture of your Dads refinery. I flew right over the top. I was waving. Ask him if he saw me.

Well on to New York and then home soon.