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. 

St. Patti's Day 10K!!!

Well, I'm sitting here sore as heck still, barely able to walk after once again forgoing any form of training prior to running this past weekend's 10K around Fiesta Island in San Diego.  It was even better this time around as I got to run it with my girlfriend and of course, she did a better job in preparing and it paid off...she beat me by 1.5 minutes and also beat my previous 10K first try by 8 seconds!!!

Here is a picture of Adelle and I before the race at 7:00AM just hanging out with our times.  I really suck but of course I just really haven't felt like running more than I need to especially after I touchdown in some random city and am forced to run on a treadmill.

NY, NY

 Back up here again com mi amiga Adelle with the agenda of touring the Columbia University School of Nursing.   We opted to take the M60 Bus Line for La Guardia which was only $2 followed by the subway to 42nd and Times.  We only spent $8.00 total on transportation from the airport compared to $55 the last time we came here.  It's just awesome once you get some confidence to roll around the public bus system. 

With a modestly priced hotel room, for NYC standards won on Priceline.com and tactics from BiddingForTravel.com, we had a great one night stay that the Millennium Broadway Hotel.   It was prime location for the Time Square night life being located on 145 West 44th Street.   We even got upgraded to a superior room on the 50th floor which was pretty nice.  It had a flat screen and everything but of course, we only were there to sleep.  Just like all the other hotels that I've been staying at really without the luxury tag; same bed, shower, bathroom kits but of course I had Adelle with me. 

We ventured around the city quite a bit first heading off to the reservation that I had made at the Rock Center Cafe coupled with the Skate-A-Date Promotion.  Basically for $75, a couple is entitled to two skate rentals and a two course meal.  We even met a nice filipina who waited on us and offered her assistance to Adelle in trying to find a place.  We had a good time ice skating as it was only my second time on ice and just enjoyed the ambiance.  I fell once being really aggressive and trying to skate as fast as I can.  It was a bad fall either, but I fell.  Good times here in NYC when the weather is cooperating.  Here are some pix from the night.  

 

Oh yeah, the meal at the Rock Center Cafe on a scale of 1-10 are as follows:  Appetizer - 6 [Humus and Pita with Lamb was just too salty and didn't taste that great really.  It wasn't like you could keep eating it.  Not recommend / I had the soup and it was pretty good, but not anything that I don't think I couldn't make.  That's saying a lot]  Main Course - 8 [Here is where the restaurant revitalized itself.  The Sirloin that Adelle had was great along with some steak fries.  I had a Salmon and that was just alright really.]  Bottled Water - 10 [AWESOME]  The service was great though which made up for a lot.  But, the fact that the whole package including skating which was a retailed at $18.00 per person -->  $36 for the both of us, the whole "experience" was just worth while. 

Now back to Atlanta this evening for some exciting times!

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?

February Schedule!

There it is...posted on the right hand sidebar.  Take a look closely though and you will find that I will be flying 10 days out of 11 straight.  It's going to be freaking ridiculous the way that they have it for me in February.  I also have a lot of Recurrent Ground Training (RGT) and two Simulator Proficiency Checks (SR2A).  It doesn't look like I'll be making it home that much to San Diego.  I have to maybe even get a trip taken away because per our contract, we are suppose to have a day off prior to any of our training events and if you look at the 11th of the month, I'm still working.  I don't think that I have that I have that many good overnights, but I always try to make it the best I can.

I'm also looking at maybe participating in the St. Patrick's Day 10K here in Fiesta Island, San Diego.  Should be fun right?!  I better start training now or something.  Check it out!

 

Update: Adelle and I just registered to run the 10K.  Come join in on the fun and let's do it together!  Leave a comment if you decide to register. 

Just a Quik Pic

I haven't had that much time to blog at all either on here or on PhoneNews.com because I've been back and forth again to San Diego and dealing with the 60th birthday of my girlfriend's father.  So, until then, here's a quik pic!  Enjoy!

Now this is what I'm talking about!  All that debt that I incurred is going to pay off...somehow. =)

Here's another one during my Mexico City / Cuernavaca Excursion.  Good times!