Situational Awareness...I GET IT!!! (I Think?)

I can clearly remember back to what my sky diving instructor told me on my first jump, "Elijah...you're going to gain more situational experience as we continue this."  I was like,"Sure," not knowing what the heck he meant.  That first jump rocked!  Weeks later, I jumped a second time scaring every ounce of courage I had left in me.  The entire time, I was wishing I was on the ground and scared for life.  I thought I would never do it again!  It was only then that my body told me what I was really doing.  The third jump took away those nerves and I enjoyed ever minute of it.  I can't proudly say that I ever finished the course to jump #10 but it's something that I still want to do later in life.   Back to the story...situational awareness. During the first few months of flight training back in 2005, we were taught and embedded within our minds an idea about the ever expanding "situational awareness" that we as young aviators would develop along with the accumulation of hours.  Flying in and out of clouds, new airports, different scenarios, terminology, aspects of flying and meteorology, even history began to paint the larger picture that our instructors kept on talking about.  I started to slowly understand, specifically within the confines of aviation, leaving all together life as a whole.  It was rather easy to tell you the truth since I was comfortably placed enabling me to focus on training.  My first actual line experience in April of 2007, after seeing a myriad of moves and learning experiences at a failed cargo airline, brought together the "end picture."  At least what I thought was the end picture.

Three years have gone by, rather too quickly, and things in my aviation career couldn't have been brighter (looking at the brighter side of life not from a 3.5 year first officer with upgrade a long ways away). Of course, not to mention the things back in my personal life have been rather exciting as well.  First off, I'm engaged, planning a wedding that is taking me a little out of my element, contemplating life's stresses which include the money factor, housing factor, where to live for the next few years factor, work, commuting, taking care of an additional home body (hi babe!) and dealing with LIFE.  The most stresses have come from these past few months because it feels like I'm not in control of things or certain aspects which I swore I use to pwn (master).  My tech life is still going strong with one project on standstill and yet another about the launch.  Slowly but surely, I'll find my niche, and of course everything else will fall into place?!

Yesterday after mass...I yet again realized I have gained more SITUATIONAL AWARENESS points.  Count me in at a level 4 geek of life!  There are certain times in life where it seems like everything is automatic and then when it slows down, one curls up into fetal position and "wishes" it keep on going.  I found those times the hardest because it wasn't how I operated normally.  Things were accomplished, taken care of and *poof* onto the next thing.  Now, knowing that I'm making the personal choices in EVERYTHING that I do, I have to learn to CRUSH IT EVERYDAY!!!

I use to call it "the Funk" or "tele-porting"  but now I know, it's just the growing inside my head that is distinguishing certain moments or pinnacles in my life.  Don't let your body control your spirit, have your spirit control your life!  I love it!

more on tele-porting: it's like when you think you're somewhere one moment then the next, you're somewhere else and your mind isn't keeping up with your body.

We're Tourists in SD...Whale Watching...

Once again, the last two two weeks have come and gone a little too fast. Starting with a bit of fun, Adelle and I celebrated good times on a San Diego Whale Watching trip on the 17th after a failed attempt on the 16th. We initially thought we were going to just cruise around the bay but found out that our tickets, that were so graciously gifted to us by Adelle's brother and sister-in-law, were also valid for the Hornblower Adventure Whale Watching Cruise. This forced us to postpone for a day which worked out just right after eating an awesomely large hamburger from a local place called Waterfront Bar and Grill. Waterfront Bar & Grill. The meal was perfectly awesome. I was pretty much dreading the boat after that burger! The next morning, we headed out early for some Jamba Juice Oatmeal, and even had pops come along with us! I haven't been Whale Watching since the third or fifth grade and the day was forecasted to be awesome. The sun was out, the weather was beautiful, the seas were calm and we saw whales! Here are some pics!

Funking it up...#WTF?

My new WTF = What the Funk!!!  Over the past few months, tasks after tasks, lists upon more lists, items to check off but yet more to add...it really just piles up and I curl up into a ball.  It's really not necessarily just that but I feel like it is detrimental to my health...mental health.  After long bouts of random work schedules, 4 days on with a late duty out causing me to hang out in Atlanta for 3 days in a row followed by an early duty in for a 3 day, then a 2 day  followed by a day line then onto San Diego???  I just freaking veg'd out once again being a complete waste of humanity.  To mention it, the homily last Sunday the 7th of March, was all about being useful with an emphasis on not useless.  I took a dive into the other direction.  When it comes down to it, I decompress HARD!  How do I just keep it going? I'm finally back to being the tech addict, insomniac, laptop internet hungry person, ideas floating around my head...etc.  it's good to be back once again strong, but how they hell do I keep on going?  Maybe it's my diet?

goodnight from Omaha

Qik Videos + Swamis Pics

After two weeks of Atlanta weather, northeast weather, and flying to other cities around midwest plus Canada, I finally made it back home to San Diego. With all the snow, freezing temperatures, rain, sleet and ice, I knew that I was missing something in my life! I've been Qik-ing from my iPhone for a little while now if you haven't noticed and today's video was just so awesome that it needed a separate entry. It captures the beauty of San Diego (actually taken at Swamis) and the gorgeous weather that we have.  If you need the direct links to my Posterous or my Qik Profiles, they are to the right in the Personal Links.  Those profiles are usually easier to update as you can tell.  But I'm still here...still alive on elijahnicolas.com Check out the pictures and Qik Video!

Various Shots from Work + 1 New Guy Named Jakob

The beginning of this year brought on an onslaught of weather to the eastern seaboard and of course, I got to fly into it, around it and enjoy the flurries.  I really can't admit that I it was all joyous work, but it's all in the job description.  It's what we are trained to do and must do to bring you safely from Atlanta to who knows where.  Here are some shots; one with snow, one at night w/ the moonlight + Venus, and two others one of Atlanta Downtown followed by the Atlanta airport at night viewed from 11,000 feet. All these shot below were taken in the month of January.

Since I was fortunate to have two awesome flight attendants with me during a 40 hour stay in Allentown, Pennsylvania, we rented a car early morning and ventured out to three different vineyards, a chocolate factory as well as the local mountain to check out the slopes.  The vineyards were quite awesome, friendly and the various ambiances' were definitely different from the traditional ones here in Southern California.  For one, we don't have Ice Wine nor a freezing lake next to a cottage.  Peep these.

Sometimes, when I'm sitting in the back of a plane, non-revving, I'm able to snap some awesome up close pics.  Here is the airTran Atlanta Falcons themed Boeing 717 and one of Delta's newly modified 767 with winglets!  What do you think of these?

Something even more cooler...two of my very good friends, Kurt, who happens to be one of my groomsman and also shares the same birthday, July 28th, had his first child, Jakob with his lovely wife Krysti. Check out the happy father and son!

Two Months Later...the Facelift is Complete!

Since the New Year's, I was finally able to pick up my car, meet a new friend named Jacob and take more pretty cool pictures using my Canon S90.  We'll go in chronological order. If you don't remember what I did to my car last November, you can refresh yourself with some "before" video recorded by Qik on my iPhone.  Of course, I posted an "after" video of the finished product because it was just about 2 months since I've driven the beast and I was excited to take delivery!  Summing it up, I got what I wanted on my BMW 5.28iT Sport Wagon; an upgraded BMW E39 M5 Front bumper paired with Xenon Fog lamps as well as updated Angel Eye Headlights w/ clear corners!  It all couldn't have been possible without the awesome help of Todd at Performance Auto Collision (company website / kudzu review) in Alpharetta, Atlanta who kept me up to date with the entire process and prevented Geico from using shady/cheaper third party parts, Umnitza - who provided the parts but I can't say it was without hardship in communication and transaction and of course Manoj who dropped me off to see my finished product.

Check it out the video and the pics!

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A Random New Year's (yes I know it's already February)

I know that I haven't posted in a while but I might as well start with the randomness that New Year's Eve brought. I spent the day with my fiance having a great breakfast / lunch, took some pictures around the area (Solana Beach, San Diego, CA) and just hung out knowing that we wouldn't be with each other that night. It would be the first time that we were not able to spend the midnight together since we have been with each other. She was working, I happen to be off that night, but it ended up working out just right! I called up a friend and was invited to hang out! It was great...the randomness = new friends, old neighbors, good company, great food and the random bar that apparently was throwing a New Year's Eve Party for a different breed. Needless to say, we were the only Asians around (not that that matters) and we missed the flyer describing the party as a lesbian night out! =) Good times though! We each donated food cans taken out of Jerome and Joyce's pantry used to discount the cover charged, enjoyed the night then went back to their place and play some quiz games on the PS3...and of course, enjoyed more food! Here are some pics! [gallery link="file" columns="2"]

I have quite a few more pictures that I'll be posting here too in the next few days!  Stay tuned!

4 on, two off, 4 on – part 2 / my printed schedule after the fact

When I say after the fact, the schedules below depict the times that the aircraft recorded once meeting certain parameters e.g. brakes released or set & passenger door open or close.  These were not the original scheduled departure and arrival times but in fact, the true record of my legs or "flight time."  I guess you can say that the times in bold represent the time that I actually "fly."  The difference between the "Block" and "Credit" is that we get paid for credit while "Block" is the time I'm recorded to be in the aircraft.  It doesn't represent the time I spend in the cockpit in between flights or before flights (which is actually represented in the another bold header "Turn"), or the time I'm at the airport on a layover.  I'll further explain these "pairings" below in this blog post but for now, here is a picture of a 4-day typical schedule.  It's not like there is much to figure out.  It's pretty much cut and dry.  Following along the on the first line: The first line on my pairing "OSA A7470C" is Flight number 5548/ Originating from ATL (Atlanta-Hartsfield) / Destined to DAY (Dayton, Ohio) / Departed at 14:58 local airport time / Arrived at 16:16local airport time / TailN761ND <-- which is the registration number of the specific aircraft / A/C type being a CR7 (Canadair Regional Jet 700 Series) / Block1:18 (1 hour & 18 minutes flight time) / Credited 1:33 (in other words paid for 1 hour & 33 minutes) / Pax(passengers) on board 70 / Miles from ATL-DAY432 / BurnAv4423 (average fuel burned enroute measured in pounds / Turn 0:44 (time on ground to have the passengers get off, clean the aircraft, cross seatbelts, stock the galley, clean the bathrooms, refuel, input preflight measures, walk around the aircraft for a visual inspection, remove bags, add bags and passengers and close the door) 42 minutes.  That's line 1 in my pairing.  Pretty much going down through the day, I end up at Little Rock, Arkansas for a layover of 14:26 (14 hours & 26 minutes) where it includes the van ride from the airport to the hotel, the ride back to the airport in the morning, and any sleep that I get in between.

Screen shot 2009-12-24 at 07.04.33 AM

If you take a look on Friday the 18th, I was lucky to actually have a 28 hour overnight in Portland, Maine where I enjoyed some of the world's best known Clam Chowder from Gilbert's Chowder House. (yelp review here)

Everyday, I have a Report time which, and depending on how long the ride is to the airport from the hotel, we leave usually around 15 minutes prior to duty in to ensure ample time to get to the aircraft.  Of course, the means I also usually wake up about 1 hour prior to the Report time giving me enough minutes to accomplish the morning routine, throw the uniform together, pack up, eat breakfast and board the airport shuttle or taxi.

There isn't much more to explain really except for the Totals: line telling me that my initial Report time that I have to duty in at the company computers in Atlanta is at 14:00 on the 17th / and I'm Released at 16:46 on the 20th.  For those three days, I will be able to log 18 hours & 47 minutes of flight time, get paid for 20 hours and 48 minutes plus my per diem which is calculated by the TAFB(Time Away From Base) 74:46 74 hours & 46 minutes multiplied by our current rate of $1.65 / hr.

At my current rate of 3rd year pay $39.55 /hr * 20.8 --> I pull in around $822.64 + my per diem ($123.36) giving me a total of $946 for this entire pairing.  Granted I was away from my family the entire time, it didn't include the time I fly back and forth from San Diego to Atlanta and whatever else you want to add in.  I'm not whining really, but this is a sample of just a week in the life of a pilot.  Now, the missing link in this bigger picture is the amount of duty time that I put in between flights that I didn't get paid for.  In other words, I was actually working or at work whatever, for about 32 hours and 2 minutes total during these three days; in my uniform, and not resting.  Keyword being resting.  That's clearly a deficiency of 12 hours just hanging around the various airports.  <-- Not fun.  (Add up the Duty on the bottom ride side of each day to get the total figure)  Now, why is that pilots are only paid for block / credit time, it started long long ago during the birth of the industry and hasn't changed since.  It's a mixture of corporate greed (if that's what you want to call it) and FAA regulations governing flight time in a given period for pilots.

I usually have 4 of these trips a month, sometimes only 3.  Hope you enjoyed the explanation.  Any questions?  Please leave a comment below.

(if you are interested any further, many if not all US airlines' payscales are available to the public listed under each airline profile at http://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/)

LogTenProBanner2008

4 on, two off, 4 on - part 1

and "we're back!" All in all, twelve days total of “work” transpire. If you wonder why twelve instead of ten, it’s the added day of commuting and getting reacquainted with Atlanta the days prior to my 4 day trip that kicks things off. This is without mentioning the quick trip to Las Vegas the three days prior which included driving in the rain and snow along the CA 15 Freeway.

Back on December 9th, I boarded a red eye flight from San Diego at 10:50pm to Atlanta, arrived almost an hour early around 5:00am, and was lucky to get to my apartment around 6:30am. I shut my eyes and got as much horizontal rest as possible. During this short journey, I was accompanied by another fellow employee on a similar schedule, who also happens to be my flatmate therefore, I have to admit that my plight is shared amongst others and am in need of no singular sympathy. Just listen, err, “sit back and relax and enjoy the flight”, err, read the blog.

Because of my unfortunate mistake a couple of weeks back (link), I was forced to get a ride back to the Atlanta Airport and pick up my other roommate’s VW Jetta that he so kindly lent me enabling my accomplishing of errands. Once completed, I rested at the apartment in preparation for what would be a freezing schedule.

Back to back overnights in Toronto followed by another in Akron, Ohio, two nights in Atlanta, one in Little Rock, Arkansas and then two more in Portland, Maine was what laid ahead of me and thinking of it all just made me tune out. Sometimes I refer to this as teleporting, but only a handful know what I’m talking about. If you care to chime in, let’s do it over coffee and an open mind. ^_^

I found myself, once again, lost in my mind, so to speak. It’s been a rather difficult last couple of days only because the blur that is my life feels less and less controllable, but then again, I can reason that it is otherwise.

A few of my closest friends recognize the misty eyes or absence of me, but the character that I normally am temporarily disappeared. Slowly drifting back into the calm, I find myself in desperate need of my comfy bed at home in San Diego, the lively bodies that inhabit my house on Classique and the warmth of the season. I can’t wait to get home.

If you can't tell here in this photo, my captain took this of me when I was "chilling" on the ground in Little Rock.

Whirlwind of Work

This post is brought to you by:It's been a crazy tour of duty / flying the last couple weeks. From jumpseating almost every week back and forth to San Diego, taking care of the honey who caught the flu bug, food tasting for the wedding and the latest drama with my car's battle against a pole traveling at 5MPH and don't forget doing some work for my podcast, peak interest, I'm a little over-worked. I'm loving every minute of it without a doubt but my personal time has been limited as of late. I'm just glad that I'm able to use some inflight WiFi brought to you for FREE by eBay, Delta and gogoinflight! Thanks guys!

Here are some pictures from work over the last few days. (make sure to click on the pics for a larger / full photo)

I finally had some time and configured an affiliate link to introduce you to Coradine's LogTen Pro for Mac and iPhone! If you plan on buying it, it'd help me out if you used the link below. Check it out! It's the best in the ENTIRE industry. I'd even recommend that you buy an Apple / Mac computer just to use this awesome piece of software and an iPhone to pair it with for immediate logging of flight time!

Pound FAIL / #FAIL!

Leaving work today, I failed...miserable. I thought that my E39 5.28iT could talk on a pole, but I was rudely awakened by the feint reality. This is of course after the fact. Tomorrow, I'll know more about the costly damage as it ruined / totaled my hood, left-front fender, bumper and headlight.

I'm alright thank God but my pocket is going to be severely drained either directly or monthly via my increase in insurance premium. Stay tuned

The Last Month

The month of September ended in a whirlwind of vacationing, moving and surviving the slew of mosquito bites that I suffered both from Nicaragua and Atlanta. The last week in September was dedicated to moving, but after a great night of splurging at Taco Mac with some good pilot buddies, my roommate and I still hadn't made a final decision on where we would end up. Eventually being forced to move out of our apartment because the management ended up renting it out to a couple of college girls, we were lucky to be able to negotiate for a "non-upgraded" 2 bedroom, two bath for even cheaper than what we were paying in the same complex! The non-upgraded tag once specifies that it has black appliances rather than white ones, but you can't tell the difference at all anyways. We now have a pool view, and a 1-year lease for $818/mo (that's actually $750 + their fees for water / sewer / garbage, etc). I think we definitely scored as we're also closer to the front of the property making it so much easier to access the huge trashbin, Starbucks across the street, my favorite Cuban restaurant Coco-Loco, as well as Best Buy and the MARTA. I'm happy with the place and I'm just happy that my roommate, Mark Russell and I have a place that we both like a lot. Dealing with Comcast in trying to get the cable line activated was a little bit of a cluster, but apparently, it was disconnected within our apartment!? I guess it would have made sense for them to send out a mechanic guy to our apartment rather than just assuming turning it on from the outside was all they would need to do.

I finally made it back to San Diego by way of ATL-PHX-SAN and the last leg was great. Southwest is always just really friendly, but I have to admit that the two Delta pilots were great company for the 3.8 hrs in the jumpseat. Thanks for the ride guys!

For now, I'm just excited to be back home but there is so much to do when it comes to cleaning up my desk space, taking my bike out for a ride and hanging out with my favorite girl!

In the meantime, check out my new favorite drink at http://elijahnicolas.posterous.com/favorite-new-drink-and-turtwig-on-a-couch-at and the relaunch of the "peak interest" podcast at www.peakinterest.net or via iTunes.

Los Cardones EcoLodge and Surf Resort, Nicaragua

After a few weeks of postponement, I hopped on an American Airlines 737 aircraft from ATL to MIA, arrived and satisfied my breakfast hunger with Cuban sandwich along with Cuban coffee. After being delayed for 2 hours for mechanical issues, I finally took off to MGA in an American Airlines 767 (paid $80 for my ZED fare because I cannot jumpseat on American Airlines internationally unlike other domestic carriers), rode a KIA branded taxi for 1.5 hours and arrived at Los Cardones.  Granted this was another solo adventure but the purpose was to scout out the place and more importantly hang out with great company.

A few weeks back, I recently found out that one of my high school gal-friends, took up a 6 month gig to work as managers for the "resort." Whatever the cost, I had to go visit and hang out.   As most of you may know (or not know), I'm always down for anything.  Upon arriving at the resort dressed inappropriately in business attire, I was greeted by her, taken to my cabana and changed.  I was steaming and my wool pants had to come off!

Thoughts of picking up a surfboard and hitting the beach right away were lingering especially after watching Chris hit the waves, but I was feeling more of a mellow tone.   After a while, I decided that it was going to be just a day of rest. The night simply concluded with a wonderfully prepared dinner by Adam and chatter of what the next morning would bring.  It was a long day for me and this is exactly what I needed.

Through the next few days, I would eat 3 meals a day which were prepared VERY well, surf in the morning then just hang out the rest of the day. I didn't do that much except for the random hike around the facility, sleep in an awesome hammock for a few hours, talk it up with friends and just pass the time. It's been a while since I actually got to feel the second hand tick as the minutes at the resort lagged on by. Being "unplugged" was a great feeling, but sometimes I felt like I was missing things. Time was therefore just standing still at certain times but it was a good thing.

Some of you may not realize, but I've been minimal-izing my life as of late. Coming down from an awesome high, I'm loving it more and more. Sometimes I'm tempted here and there, but simplicity and happiness is where it's at. This vacation made me realize it once again that with an ocean, good friends and food, life can be truly gratifying.

Videos and more pictures after the jump!

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I uploaded little tours of the resort to my youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/enicolas and you can watch the videos there or right here down below! The first one is of the resort and the second is of my living quarters. Check them out and leave a comment here or on my youtube page!