Standby

in

Well, being that Hurricane Wilma is right around the corner, I had some recurrency training yesterday in the DA40. It was fun to fly that plane again. The landings were nice and smooth and I was even impressed. We did three approaches and because it wasn't a checkride, we got to act as a crew. I had the Standards Manager, Wes Treco as my co-pilot. It is so intimidating to fly with him because he's so well trained. He's just an overall awesome pilot. He did all my radios and configured the avionics accordingly. I shot three approaches and finished up. I did all this because I was almost at the 90 day mark for DA40 flying. Now, I might get to rent it when Adelle gets here. That should be fun.

I got a call this morning at about 11 EDT just to notify us that we were not going to be evacuating today. We are still on standby for 8 AM EDT Sunday until the evening and even till perhaps Monday morning. It'll be interesting to see what ends up happening. I'm starting to feel how it is being on standby. I just need a pager now!

First real AMEL PIC time

in

After logging my checkride as PIC, today was the first real log, without testing the anxiety factors. To my dismay, the flight wasn't that great at all. You probably would have been asking how the heck I received my ticket. I guess you can attribute it to being very tired and weary (preflight was at 6:00 AM EDT). I was just so drained. I stayed awake for Manoj's ride and when I got in front, I just started to get sloppy. I wasn't holding altitude well nor was I actually cleaning up the plane due procedure. I was a mess. Oh well...I'll do better next week.

We might evacuate this weekend actually when H.Wilma comes along. It'll be really interesting. I'm excited for the flight. I'll definitely be posting daily as I hear more news on this.

I also got my first iPod today from my one and only. Go over to TECH Rants for the small words. I'll have a review soon enough.

Evacute?

in


CAPT has put up a temporary advisory notifying us qualified pilots that they might need our assistance. As of now, we are on standby for temporary evacuation! It's nuts huh? Check out this graphic. The red circle/dot is where I live. We are just north of the track, so it shouldn't be that bad, but H.Wilma is still a very scary Category 5. For those who don't know, Hurricane Hunters have already called this the strongest Hurricane ever measured in the last 150 years. This means that the central pressure was measured to be the lowest at 882 mb. That is just darn low and abnormal. Wish us luck!

Private AMEL

in

Guess what? I can fly multi-engine, complex, high performance aircraft! Let's go do it! Now, I just have to build up a lot of PIC (pilot in command) multi-engine time so that I'll look qualified to the airlines. Come to think of it, I'm already at the level of being 3rd senior in the piston phase of CAPT! That's just ridiculous! One more section (Commercial Multi-Engine) and Advanced Meteorolgy and on to jet! It's soon all going to be over! I just hope that I'll be able to finish and have a job ASAP. Umm... Ft. Lauderdale?

Hectic times, WX, Bolts

in

Well...as the hurricane season is coming down to an end, we have yet another tropical depression that has formed just south of cuba and seems to be heading in our general direction. We'll more of an accurate estimate of landfall as the upcomming week progresses, but until then, I hope that I'm able to get ahead in the commercial phase of my multi-engine training. Most of you may not know yet, but I did pass my inhouse checkride on Friday and I have the DE ride tomorrow morning bright and early. It should be fun.

I'm going to be a hermit for the remainder of the day and try to get everything down. I'll probably even just paper fly (that's when I sit in front of the plane and pretend) a bit for work on my procedures of Vmc demos and Emergency descents. So far so good though.

Hopefully I'll be posting some good news tomorrow afternoon.

GO CHARGERS!!! We better win esp. after last weeks performance. It was good, but apparently not good enough.

get the low down...

in

*update* Tech RANTS

When I titled this blog, I was technically referring to the cloud bases. It has been so bad lately, that the only flight I've done in the last 8 days was today and that was just staying in the pattern for some short field take offs and landings. Yeah, we also got to work on the single engine takeoffs and stuff, but nothing like a true flight. Manoj got to finish today, so he just needs to complete some paperwork and off he goes to the DE. I have yet to finish the actual end of course (EOC) ride with the inhouse instructor. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be more cooperative. The prog charts say no.

Compassion

in

I have to admit that there are few with it, but those who have it are usually the ones in the right place making the fair decision. Not to say that everyone doesn't have it or chooses a wrong decision, but attitude and maturity always comes in to play. I highly admire this individual and I have to say that I will be owing quite a bit of my future to his sole belief in me. Thanks again for everything.

Now, on to the checkride!!!