Indianapolis

When I am on the road I love staying downtown and seeing the sites. You would never guess that Indianapolis was such a beautiful city. It is designed to really enjoy the downtown environment. There is a canal walk that runs by the Capitol and ends at the Baseball park. It is beautiful and there are many condos that are on the canal. It is a perfect place to jog or walk. There are paddle boats you can rent and paddle all along the canal. Very beautiful.

Along the canal was a very cool memorial. It is the Medal of Honor Recipients. It is the highest honor that is given to our servicemen. When you read the stories of their heroic actions you can not believe their huge sacrifice.

See if you can read this. It is pretty amazing. The order of importance is:

Purple Heart

Bronze Star

The Distinguished Flying Cross

The Silver Star

The Distinguished Service Medal

The Air Force Cross

The Distinguished Service Cross

The Navy Cross

The Medal of Honor

The heroic actions to receive the Medal of Honor is in most cases fatal to those who receive it.

Hotel Flying

Wow

When they say Airport Hotel they really mean it. This is a video standing on the deck of our room in Miami. It was a cloudy day and you could watch the planes pop out of the clouds and fly by. Very cool, got a love it!

Charter Bus

This trip is a NBA charter. There are several Airbus aircraft that are specially fitted to only fly the NBA stars around. They are what they call above first class. The aircraft in this configuration holds about 50 people. Normally it holds 150 people. It is like having a very large personal jet. Very cool.

It is a long day for us. We started in Minneapolis and picked up a team and dropped them in Dallas and then we flew empty to Oklahoma City and picked up another team. We flew that team to Houston and then flew empty back to Dallas to be in position to fly a team back to Minneapolis the next day. We get in about 2am. The Next day we fly a team back to Minneapolis and then on to Portland Oregon. Wow what a trip. I will keep you posted. The food is amazing. I think my nick name will be fat boy after this trip. Each of the seats have individual video systems and about anything you could possibly want is on board.

This picture is Dallas. We fly into the downtown airport which is very close to downtown. kind of cool.

Snow Days

February has been a snow filled month. It is beautiful and cumbersome all in one. When we are flying it presents some obstacles as all of the snow and ice has to be removed from the aircraft to safely fly. The tricky part is it has to stay off as you taxi out to the runway when it is snowing. The first picture is the cumbersome part of snow in the winter. We are in line getting the snow blown off the aircraft before we can takeoff. It is pretty cool to watch. This Star Wars like contraption works it's way around the plane spraying off any snow and then applying a special mix that absorbs any falling snow so the wings are clear when we takeoff.

The next pictures are some cool pictures of the snow from around the country. One is in Chicago as they are trucking out the snow from the airport and another from the mountains surrounding Salt Lake City. You can see how close the mountains are to the airport.

The small lines in the center of the mountain is a strip mine. This mountain is just West of Salt Lake.

See ya soon

Boy Time

Fun Time At Home

I have had a great time at home. This weekend we had boy time. We went skiing and then to downtown Minneapolis for the big Motorcycle show. It was a blast!

The weather was great for skiing. We were getting a light snow and it was about 30 degrees. We lucked out and there were not any lines for the ski lifts all day. We could ski down the hill and get right on the lift and go down again. It was so much fun. Here in Minnesota we also have night skiing. It is one of the few places around that lets you ski at night. It is a whole different feeling skiing at night. It is a little harder to see but supper fun!

This ski hill is the same one I use to ski at when I was a kid. We lived in Iowa and we had to drive about 5 hours to come up here to ski. I never dreamed I would live here and be so close. Amazing the hill is exactly the same as it was when I was little.

Minneapolis was also the host to the annual motorcycle show. So it was off to the show. Austin had his good friend Travis come with us for Boy Time. We saw cool motorcycles and watched some stunt riders. They even were able to get their autograph. Very cool!

I love these pictures of the boys. There is a picture of the boys sitting on a bike and watching TV. That would be the perfect addition to anyones living room. Might give you a neck cramp though.

This is the video of the stunt riders. Austin and Travis were able to get their autograph. They loved it!

Training Day

The Aircraft Simulator Bays

As pilots it seems like we are constantly being evaluated. We get put through the paces every nine months in the aircraft simulator, we get an extensive flight physical every six months as well as all of the continued training pilots do to maintain their Air Marshall qualifications. We have line check airmen that ride in the cockpit to evaluate our skills in line flying duties several times a year as well. All of these tests are pass/fail and if failed could mean a whole new saying. "Would you like fries with that"? "How about a hot apple pie"? (No Pressure)

This month it is the simulator. We are tested running through many emergency situations. Engine fires, failures, cockpits that fill with smoke, landing gear that fails to come down etc. You get the idea. It is grueling and very difficult. All of the sessions are video taped so you can see all of your mistakes up close, learn from them and practice again. We are then tested, scored and after several days let loose to get ready for the next series of tests.

These pictures are what the simulators look like that we train and test in. Super cool! They are amazing how real they are and how hard they make you work to survive. It seems very real and amazing what they can simulate, even pumping smoke into the device that makes it very difficult to fly, just like it would be in real life. If you can see the computer screens in the back of the simulator, that is where the check airmen sits and enters the malfunctions into the sim.

Happy New Year 2010

Vegas

I had some good time off and had a great Christmas but now back at it. This trip is the Las Vegas shuttle. I flew from Minneapolis to Las Vegas on to Detroit spent the night and back to Las Vegas for a short few hour to fly the red eye back to Minneapolis. The Red Eye is the all night flight. You leave at about 3 am Minneapolis time and get in at 6 am. Wow am I tired. I did get some cool pictures. Las Vegas is very unique as it is an Oasis in the middle of nowhere. At night it is spectacular as it looks like the Disney light parade all lit up. Click on the video to see.

The flight out is very cool. You fly over the Rockies and they are always beautiful. We are at 35,000 feet and they still look so close.

On the way in just outside of Las Vegas we flew by the Hoover Dam. Kind of hard to see, but if you follow the water to the left you will just be able to see it.

Las Vegas is surrounded by mountains and it is very different seeing a city surrounded by mountains like these. The first picture you can see the city and mountains lying around it. The second picture you can see the mountains that are off the end of the runway. We takeoff and turn to gain altitude to fly over. Makes for great views.

Well home soon and back to the cold winter on Minneapolis. The weather shows it -10. I cant wait to see ya. Stay warm!