the day is done

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The day is done with 1 more test to take (ADX - Dispatcher FAA Written) within the next couple of days while the ATP stuff is still sort of fresh in my head. I can't say that I did stellar or that I was able to score anywhere where I wanted to be. It is my own fault I guess, but there were a few questions that I didn't recognize. For those who really want to know, I scored a measly 85%. Trust me, that isn't that good knowing that the rest of the class scored above you. What does stink is that out of a bank of ~1300 questions you are provided with a selection of 80 random questions. They could be of the hardest or the easiest. It's just all random. Someone could get away with a 100% or a 70% just by the chance that they got screwed or blessed. I like to think that I got away with being blessed. I didn't fail or score any lower. Of course, 85% was my line for failure.

I am too many things on my mind at the moment and sometimes, standardized tests don't mean a thing, ya know? As those who score low would say, "Give me a pracitical situation where I need to demonstrate my knowledge and I'll do just fine, but give me a test that the FAA expects you to come up with the right answer, I'll fail..." I mean, some problems were so gross in that each answer was separated by only a few numbers and if you rounded before, in the middle or after you completed the problem, you would wind up in between two different choices. Its just ridiculous! Oh well, on to bigger and better toys!

Tragedy at Local SD Airport

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http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/24/plane.crash.ap/index.html

Sad times up there at Palomar. It's always saddening to know when an fatal accident occurs, but more so when it involves an aircraft. Perhaps it is the thought of me in their position and or the reality that pilots deal with everyday situations such as these. I like to think that we are one great family. I pray for the continued safety for all those that are up in the air to know when to go around and try again for another approach. Going around is definitely one of the hardest things to do with fuel and time knocking at your door. Condolences to the families of all those onboard.

RANT: Of course, there are people out there who still think that we get paid "too much" and don't realize the continued training that we go through nor the responsibilities that we carry every time we are planning and are at the controls. There is the other reality of first year pilots only making ~$18K to ~$22K varying on airline. Wage increases don't happen that frequently or abruptly either. But that's all knowledge that the common travelers don't care about really. They don't realize that the cheaper they want their fares, that maintenance is cut and so is safety. Just remember to say hello to your flight crew and be nice to them.

ATP is THIS WEEK!!!

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Before you go on, I just added two posts total. This one and the other about my LOFT the past weekend. Check it out!

So, I have about 48 hours left to cram whatever I can into my head before heading into the ATP test. It's going to be an exciting next few hours trust me. Red Bull, Coffee, salads I guess. Any other nutritional ideas for me people?

Today for lunch, Manoj and I headed to Burger King (rememeber that there isn't that much of a selection around Flagler) and I ended up spending $8.01! That was for the Angus Burger Medium Meal (much better taste of meat and bun selection) along with a Resces' Pie. I should have just gone to Subway or tried to find something else. Is it me or are fast food places getting to be just as expensive as TGI Friday's?

I read that there was a new Burger Joint that opened in San Diego called Tommy's. It's one of the more popular places in the LA area and this is the first for SD. The Chili is what sets it apart from all the others. I have never tried it before and am looking forward to giving it a shot when I get back. So far though, you can't go wrong with In-N-Out or Islands for sit down burgers!

Back to studying...

Wilmington, NC

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Last Saturday, Ryan and I decided to take a DA40 to Wilmington, North Carolina. We still have quite a few hours to burn in the DA40 so these long trips always help out with taking care of those. It's all about building hours from now on. I just wish that we could get a couple more Multi-Engine time. I'm so close to 100 hours (89.1). I had my first real life diversion which occurred around Charleston, South Carolina. Bathrooms are an amazing thing in airplanes, but these little buggers give you no choice but to land. We got vectored around a landing DC5 and felt just a little bit of his wake turbulence but stayed above the path the entire time. It was a huge Air Force Facility with large heavy aircraft lined around the airport.

Passing Myrtle Beach was a first. The view from above definitely led us to believe that they are that nice. The sand was bright white and the water was a lighter shade of blue. Looked pretty neat. It even looked like there was quite a few tourist spots along the way. We encountered only a few cloudes and I got to log .1 actual. That's always fun. We keep each others count pretty accurate using a timer in the plane. It definitely feels like a lot longer when you are in the clouds.

We got to the Air Wilmington and they had a crew car available for us to take out. We chose the Jeep Wrangler over the Chevy Tahoe and as far as I can remember, it was my first time in a Jeep. It was stick too! Had some good power but was definitely fit more for an offroad drive. Coming out from the airport down 23rd, we passed by a place that was reminicent of Forrest Gump's home town. Brick houses and trees along larger than my normal plots of land. It was homey I guess you can call it. Southern is probably a better term. The real estate definitely gave you the feeling of "experienced." I don't know a better adjective at 12:37 in the morning. I just know that I have to get back to studying. But I'll keep writing just a little bit more. Here's a pic of a house on Midway just at the end of 23rd. Pretty quaint eh?


Oh yeah, we ate at another place that was #1 in 2005 for BBQ. That was the 2nd time Ryan and I tried a place that said they were the best. Never again and we'll leave it at that, or not. I'm just glad that I didn't let it out on the way home. I was ready though with the sic sack at my side just in case. It was probably the banana cream that pushed me over the edge.

On the way home, we had to stop by St. Augustine to refuel because we would have landed below our reserves. That was a quick flight and fuel. Ryan caught the women punching in wrong numbers into the machine to charge us. She almost rang us up for 49 gallons. If you didn't know the DA40 only holds 40 max! It was a little fishy and we got it corrected. So, make sure that you verify all the time how much they are charging you.

MD90 Landing and the FMS!

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The FMS system is such a great way to navigate in a jet, that is once you understand all the qwerks about it. From inputting, calibrating the IRUs to just setting up your route is a small pain at first, but I'm sure it'll all come together soon enough.

You have to love that CBT (computer based training) lab that we have for the MD90 FMS system. "There are alphanumeric keys on the MCDU. You have Alpha keys on the right and the numeric keys on the left." Seriously, that's what it is. You can't speed up nothing either. But you do learn a lot. It just drags quite a bit. CAPT really needs to move the MD90 CBT to Flagler.

Today was the first day that we got to sit inside the sim and actually punch in numbers and "execute" navigational commands. I got to rotate and actually even land the plane. It was an KLAX 24R Departure followed by an ILS back in. We programmed the FMS for the KLAX Loop4.Dagget route, etc, but didn't really need to fly the path so we just turned around. Landing was pretty neat, but once I disengaged the autopilot, the corrections that I made were too much. I wasn't on centerline and I started to oscillate a little back and forth. All of this plus the fact that I was below glideslope the entire time. The landing was that smooth, but I got it down without a bunch of shaking going on. I'm sure that it'll get better with practice. I didn't red screen the thing, so, so far so good! I can't wait to actually learn more about flying this airplane.

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Just an update on the New Washer... I love it! It's so fast and I finally gave in and ditched the downey ball for the round middle spinner thingy. Good stuff! Go Whirpool.

I still wouldn't mind the front loading LGs. My friend in Boston got a new television over the past week or so. He went all out with the a 32" Samsung LCD. Its freaking kick ass too! I wonder how much stuff inside current my house and my old room I have to sell (maybe on ebay) to upgrade to that thing. I still have one of the original HDTV Built-in TVs from Sony. It's definitely one of the best tube televisions out. I even bought it for the full intro HDTV price. Its the 34" XBR WideScreen, but for $4000, definitely not the same when the new Samsung only costs $2K. Gotta love the advancement in TVs and the decline in prices. I do have to admit that my TV at home is probably 5 years old or something. So, I guess you can say that it did its job.

Oh yeah...the new USPS postage stamp fee is now .39 cents. Don't forget those awesome .02 cent add-ons.

121 Regs...

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DONE!!! I didn't pass with the greatest of grades today only scoring a 90%. Remember that 90% is the passing score here at CAPT. It's an awesome standard and only makes you want to strive harder and work at it more and more. Tomorrow morning is going to be our first hands-on on the MD90. We're not going to be too much flying but instead we're going to be punching buttons into the FMS and learning how to preflight the plane. I'm loving all the new information that I am learning. I just wish that I can swallow the food before I get another mouthful. I'm sure that this is just going to make us deal with it better than others without this kind of firehouse experience who apply to the airlines. =)

Today was the first day that two of us were approached with some antagonism around the Main Campus at Daytona Beach Embry-Riddle. To think that some of these individuals were also graduate studnets. It's ridiculous that there is that animosity in the college itself about a sister program. I mean, at UCSD, when we opened the new Business School, expanded other things around campus, students were envious but not hating new. Is it partly due to the fact, student at main campus do not know that we did our time finishing up our BS degree already? We are already accomplished individuals who decided to change career paths. Give it some rest already. There are going to be a lot jobs available for everyone in the next few months. Just think though, the bonds that CAPT is building now will only strengthen ERAU as a whole! Get this too folks: The first main campus graduate just graduated from the CAPT program last week. What does that tell you? Please, lets just all get along.

Focus Air anyone?

Feature Film: The FBO

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Have any of you watched "The Terminal" with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones? Just imagine camping out at a little FBO, in Naples, Florida, with no bags, in full CAPT uniform for more than 24 hours.

The rising action: After the exciting graduation and insightful visit from the Chief Pilot at ExpressJet, Captain Joe Seitz, Ryan, Kurt, Manoj and I hoped on a DA40 to burn off some LOFT time. After a careful weather analysis, we left X47 for what would be a clear, flight to Naples, Florida. Along the way around the Orlando area, we got into some IMC that bumped us quite a bit, but it wasn’t anything too bad. We got in around 1830 on Friday, 13th of June after a 2.6 hour flight and checked out the crew car to grab a quick dinner. After driving for a little while, we sat down at a Cheesecake Factory outside in the patio to only find ourselves getting drenched by the pop up Florida Thunderstorms. Lightning was visible throughout the vicinity and with that observation, we headed back to the FBO to wait out for the weather to clear up. Prior to the FBO closing at 2200, we jumped in our aircraft at 2145, powered up, and just listened to the AWOS hoping for the best. The lightning had stopped, but the cloud layer was coming in like a fog of war. The AWOS was calling for a cloud layer that was below the minimum approach MDA. A limitation in the CAPT FOM states that a crew cannot takeoff if the ceiling is reported as being lower than the lowest altitude on an instrument approach. On our way back to the FBO, we actually heard a Falcon Jet go missed because the soup was just so thick! Apparently because of that, a CRJ200 diverted to another airport due to the WX. Being unlucky on Friday the Thirteenth, we shut down and just sat ourselves outside on the benches underneath the awning, waiting. Around 2300 or so, we were approached by some good men of the FBO and were offered to come inside and stay in the Pilot Lounge. We couldn't get enough of it. We moved sofas around and finally got comfortable. Looking forward to departing early in the morning on Saturday, we went to sleep with knowing that the TAFs were calling for good weather. That couch wasn’t comfortable at all, but it was something! Thanks for the mouthwash in the bathroom. I went to sleep thinking that I love adventure.

We awoke to winds howling and people bustling around the FBO. After checking the WX, the TAFs said that the winds wouldn’t calm down until 1800. Hoping that the WX would change, I grabbed whatever caffeine I could to help me for the flight home (Venti Java Chip from Starbucks). I ended up passing out on the recliner for a couple of hours while the other guys just watched television. I caught the last part of Conan: The Destroyer on HBO which was interesting. Throughout the day, we met some interesting pilots and two that come to mind were NetJets pilots. Chuck Fox and Eric Knott both were really cool to talk to. They even gave us a tour of their Citation XLS and that probably made our trip worth while. It’s always nice to talk to really happy pilots that enjoy what they do. You can’t blame the bitter ones for the position that they are in, but I like to remain as positive as I can. I’ll tell you though, it can be really difficult at times. I hope that I won’t ever be that way.

Finally, as the night wore on, we ended up eating at Dairy Queen for a snack, and then headed over to Mickel Bobs for “America’s Finest Ribs.” We saw it on along the road, and kind of laughed at the assumption that they made. After Gordon a pilot from AirNow and Tonya, a dispatcher from CAPT recommend the place we decided to give it a try. The ribs were soft and the coleslaw was great! Good stuff. We did have BBQ from Woody’s at graduation again, so I guess the whole BBQ thing was kind of played out for me.

Sitting around at 1900 once again in the Pilot Lounge, the ATIS was still reporting some gusty winds. Still a no go per CAPT FOM which states that a crew cannot leave with winds gusting greater than 20 knots. It’s a good limitation, but I guess it seemed as if, we would be able to handle the situation and takeoff safely. Oh well, we the TAF was calling now for 2100 calm winds. Did it happen…nope…what can you do with unforecasted weather. Nothing apparently besides just wait and watch some football. Finally nearing close again, we were forced to just hang outside this time around, but I made friend with Joy and Chris from the European-American Flight School next to the Naples Air Center where we were hanging out all day. They were a blast to talk to and were surprised at how well and disciplined we were for abiding to our FOM.

Finally, after the executive decision was made to stay, we got a room for $55.00 at some local in. I was able to ask them for a student-pilot discount and she was kind of nice. Prior to leaving the FBO, the front clerk called for us and she said that they were charging $119 for a room. I guess we were lucky!

We left the next morning as early as we could and caught a $10 cabbie ride to the Naples Air Center. There was a good headwind forecasted the entire way up. I logged 2.8 hrs on the Hobbs and was happy that I was once again able to take a shower and sleep on my own bed. I took a 6 hour nap and studied the rest of the night to only find out that we were able to postpone the test for Tuesday. So, with that being said, I should get back to studying my 121 Regulations (CAPT 501 Final). On another note, I love the CAPT 504 course too. The FMS system is awesome. I just wish that we were able to actually press some buttons to get familiar with …