Checkride = Success!!!

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I couldn't have done it without the many prayers from my family and girlfriend, my partner Eric Christiansen and the studying that I did with Kurt. Thanks guys for your extra patience. It's almost like a speech that I'm giving, but seriously, this is big for me. It's not like when I passed the MD-90 check only because I'm actually going to be hopping up onto this aircraft and fly people around.

It was the first time that an Aircrew Program Designee (APD) gave me an Atomic Fireball during a check. He said, "If you could take a checkride with a fireball in your mouth, then you have to be pretty good." So, we took the challenge and popped them into our mouths. I haven't had one for a while and the burn surprised me but it did take my mind off of the pressure a little bit. Thanks for that!

I oral exam went better than I thought with only a small slip and the ride itself went great. I could have done better, but I like to think that it was good. It was like the A+ that I had to follow, but I'll give myself an A. I start my first flight on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 early morning. But till then, I have to sit on a couple of observation flights. Should be exciting!

Check out my new ride!

of advertising and IOE Schedule!

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I figure that I have to make money somehow. So, I decided to finally put up two banners for NC Software, the ones who make a Logbook program for the PC, Palm and Pocket PC. I've been using it for almost two years now and have to admit that it pretty useful in every aspect of keeping time. There are others out there like LogTen for the Mac, but I'm sure that most of you don't even have one anyways. Under the "link" sidebar menu, there's another banner for APDL (Airline Pilot Daily Logbook) which keeps track of just about everything and even inputs all the data that you get from your scheduling department automatically with a cut and paste. It's pretty neat too.

I just got my IOE schedule and have posted it on pilotcrossings.com. On pilotcrossings, it shows you when you'll be near your fellow pilots that you have as friends. It's really neat. I have a couple of friends and family members that signed up and this is the first time that you guys get to check it out, so go do that! You actually have to sign up in order to see my schedule, but I'll be putting it up on my gMail Calendar or something too in the near future.

I was able to study for about 4-5 hours straight yesterday and looks like I'll be doing the same today. Hopefully I'll get more done, but it was nice yesterday to have that university feeling again. I actually went to Emory University's Main Library with Kurt. They have 23" iMacs all over the place along with dual screen PCs for their students and the place was packed! Pretty nice college if you ask me. Well, back to work!

London in 28 Hours = No LAX

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This stinks...during a spontaneous trip to London, my sim partner and I who were very excited to get the new LAX base found out that ASA was closing down its LAX operations this June. Looks like I'll be stuck here in Atlanta. It's not really that bad of a thing, but I was really looking forward to handing out with some old friends and just getting back to a normal West Coast Lifestyle. This is the airline industry though eh?

Here are some pix from the 28 hours that Eric and I spent in London. International Business to and from London! Now that's the way to travel. 6 course meals and everything. It was the royal treatment. It makes you feel guilty for what you get. Because the original plan was for San Diego, that's what I packed for. I wasn't ready at all for the colder weather in London, so first thing was the find a store with a sale and buy a sweater. I ended up with a gray cardigan from Espirit. I guess if I was to do some shopping in London it was the right choice since the US doesn't have too much brand influence from these guys. Ironically, my sweater says New York on the left upper arm. Eric and I had some curry fries which just proved to be the best food for a quick snack.

Next trip is to Amsterdam or Copenhagen. Hopefully I'll run into some friends from a past life. It was an awesome choice but way too expensive. The dollar just under-performs the pound making it all too hard to "vacation" in London. But, you have to give it up to them for keeping it up there.

I miss you babe! I really really do. I wish that I could have come see you this past break.

Sim V and fatigue

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I was tired today. For some reason unknown to me, I just felt tired throughout the entire day. I can admit that it hampered my learning and performance a little bit today while in sim training, but it didn't necessarily downgrade it all too much. I thought that I did okay. It was the first time that we went through a full flight up to altitude and back down via emergency due to an APU fire. That was good stuff. I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow's lesson and learning more. I think that these next two days off, I'll need to just hide out somewhere and study for 10 hours or so. Anyone been to the library at Emory? I think that I'll try to hit that up or something. We also practiced quite a few crosswind landings today. We went overboard a little bit and I have to admit that it was my first red screen where I added too much aileron correction. I'm definitely improving and getting it down. I can't wait till the moment that I can stand up and say, "I'm awesome!" That'll be a while, but man...I can hope and imagine that feeling right?

Had some awesome Hot Jalepeno Spicy Talipia again today from Johnny Carino's after mass. It was the bomb! All you can eat salad and bread too. So, I had two salads, saved half of the second, ate a lot of bread and saved half my entree and now I have a great lunch for tomorrow. I'm a little excited.

I noticed that there was a press release today by CAPT that states that they are lowering their program cost to the first 50 people. I hope that they are able to attract a few peeps. I have a house down in that area that is in dire need of renting out to students.

Alright, well, its a little later than I would like it to be and I need to wake up early too. Better get some rest. Goodnight!

I really don't like how Obama is against the Iraq War. Don't get me started, but that is definitely a downer. Chargers look like they are setup for 2007 at least almost. And...yeah...that's about it! Western Digital finally released their NAS (Network Attached Storage) External Hard Drive. I'm excited to pick one up and hook it up. I'm dying here without any form of extra space since my last disk failure. 2GB Flash drives are on sale at Best Buy for $29.99. That to me is a little cheaper than before. Almost so awesome that I wanted to buy one but I thought of all that awesome cash that I don't have and resisted. I think that I'm going to give up, what I like to call spontaneous-rogue spending, for Lent. Should prove to save me a couple cents here or two. Hopefully...