Coffee: How to French Press

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Sometimes I use my Hario V60. Other times, I French Press. If you needed a proper introduction to the French Press, check out the video below by Todd Carmichael.

Just remember the 1g of coffee to 17g water golden ration and you're set. Other details: I heat my water to around 196°F and use a 24 grind setting on my Baratza Virtuoso. I also have two presses; first the standard Bodum Medium Press and just a year ago Kickstarted the Espro Press which keeps it awesomely warm for continued goodness.

JetBlue Adds Apple Pay for InFlight Purchases

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With many airlines accepting only credit cards these days, I'm glad to see jetBlue getting onboard with Apple Pay. Bravo! And in a few months, we'll be paying with our Apple Watches! ^_^

Starting next week, passengers on select JetBlue Airways flights can use Apple Pay on their iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets to buy food, drinks and certain onboard amenities when the plane reaches cruising altitude. You'll be able to upgrade to available premium seats, too.

Update: Looks like a new app will go along the iPad minis too! Way to utilize tech jetBlue!

Apple Pay in the air, JetBlue will deploy iPad minis and NFC-enabled cases to more than 3,500 inflight crewmembers. In addition to the cases with Apple Pay compatibility, each iPad mini will be loaded with a custom-designed iOS app — The Inflight Service Assistant — which will give inflight crewmembers access to customer manifest and flight data to provide the best experience possible to JetBlue customers.

Hello 2015 Padres!

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AJ Preller is going bonkers! Supposedly, just a few minutes ago, we signed James Shield! If you don't know who that is, just watch some of the KC Royals of last year. Awesome pitching and offense set up for this making a huge run for 2015! Go Padres!

The signing of Shields caps off a remarkable offseason for the Padres, who have revamped their club with the additions of Wil Myers, Justin Upton, Matt Kemp, Derek Norris and Will Middlebrooks. Shields joins Andrew Cashner, Tyson Ross, Ian Kennedy and Odrisamer Despaigne in the team's rotation mix, pitching in a city in which he currently owns a home.

via SBNation

Sapporo Snow Festival Results in Amazing Star Wars Sculpture

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This is just one of many reasons to add Sapporo to the bucket list. You can always check out the Japan Guide too for a more formal introduction.

Geeks like to go all the way with their projects, and Japan is a country full of geeks. That‘s why they spent a month (and purportedly enlisted the help of the Army) building a giant Star Wars snow sculpture for the 66th Sapporo Snow Festival. And is truly enormous: 3,500 tons of snow went into making this 23 meter wide, 15 meter tall piece of geek art.The centerpiece of it all is a giant bust of Darth Vader, beckoning Luke to join the Dark Side. Vader is accompanied by three Stormtroopers and two TIE Fighters (one of them being his personal TIE Advanced).

via Demilked

Jihad vs. the Crusades

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Only because our President brought up the comparison of the current world to what Christianity did centuries ago, I decided to take it up and learn a little bit more. Dr. Bill Warner, PhD does a fabulous video on showing the many different battles between the two religious groups and explains the differences. Ultimately, Dr. Warner points out, yes, the crusades were years ago, but jihad is constant and ongoing as in today’s world.

Visit his website PoliticalIslam for more info. Also, diving further into the Crusades, check out a book by Steve Weidonkopf, The Glory of the Crusades.

Another Take on Pilot vs. Co-Pilot

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I'll add my two cents soon but for now, here's another take from NYC Aviation on the topic of pilot vs. co-pilot.

Now on to pilot vs co-pilot. I’m not sure why or how this perception came to be, but it seems that much of the general public doesn’t think the co-pilot is a real pilot or is somehow grossly inferior to the actual “pilot pilot.” To better describe their roles, let’s get away from pilot and co-pilot, because they’re both pilots, and start with the actual industry nomenclature. We have a captain and a first officer. Both pilots have ATPs and type ratings to fly their assigned aircraft. In fact, when a captain and a first officer are paired together to fly, they typically split the flying 50/50. If the pairing has them working 4 flights together, the captain will act as flying pilot for two flights, and non-flying pilot for two flights. The primary distinction between the roles of the captain and the first officer, is that the captain carries the weight of responsibility and authority. The captain, or pilot-in-command, in addition to being proficient at flying the aircraft, also assumes the role of in-flight manager. This role of authority is often more effectively accomplished when the captain is not piloting the aircraft, especially in an abnormal or emergency situation. With the first officer at the controls, the captain is allowed to widen his or her scope of attention, to be able to gather input from all available resources – from the first officer, the flight attendants, dispatchers and air traffic controllers to determine the course of action that would result in the most positive outcome.

via NYC Aviation

Men Lactating Doesn't Mean We Breastfeed!!!

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This latest ruling is baffling. Not only is it just unbelievable but crazy?!?! What is our world coming to? Nationwide is definitely not on your side.

Part of the court's reasoning was, according to Galen Sherwin of the American Civil Liberties Union, “that even if Angela had been fired because she was breast-feeding, that was not sex discrimination, in part because men can lactate under certain circumstances.”

via Slate

Tales from the Cockpit

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It's pretty awesome how a foreign carrier like KLM is able to post videos such as these that educate the public on what we pilots really do. This is just Part One of a great series. Yes, we actually do touch and play with all those buttons and switches on the panels and even some of the callouts are similar too. As you can see, even with the autopilot on, there is still a lot of continuous monitoring until it is taken back into manual control prior to landing but in this case, the Captain is demonstrating an autoland sequence.

I wish that I could share with you my personal experiences and videos. Maybe sometime in the future with permissions from the FAA, VP of Flight Ops, Safety, etc... you get the point. A lot of hoops for this kind of educational video in the US.

Dashcam Captures TransAsia ATR72 Plane Crash!

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This is a ridiculous video from a taxi cab dashcam of the TransAsia Flight GE235 that just crashed moments ago. We'll be hearing a lot more of this accident throughout the day and I'll be including updates as well. Almost surreal.

Unfortunately, today's accident takes place just less than a year after another TransAsia ATR 72-500 crashed near Magong Airport (MZG) Taiwan last July resulting in more fatalities.

Here's another view from another car further back.

Update from Popular Mechanics:

What we know: - TransAsia flight GE 235 crash landed into the Keelung River near Taipei. - The aircraft lost contact shortly after takeoff. - Reuters reports at least nine were killed.

Update, Wednesday, 12:46 AM ET: Rescue efforts are underway in Taiwan after a TransAsia flight GE 235 hit an elevated bridge and crashed into the Taipei River around 10:45 AM local time. At least 9 were killed so far in the crash, according to Reuters.

The flight had just taken off from the Taipei Songshan Airport, headed toward the Kinmen island chain. The cause of the crash of TNA 235, an ATR-72 propeller plane, isn't yet known. Dozens of passengers still await rescue — 58 total were onboard the flight. The dramatic video and pictures cropping up on social media are staggering; footage of the crash was caught on several drivers' dashcams.

Aviation enthusiasts chiming in posting their observations on twitter: 

Do You Actually Fly the Plane? →

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And a copilot becomes a captain not by virtue of skill or experience, but rather when his or her seniority standing allows it. And not every copilot wants to become a captain right away. Airline seniority bidding is a complicated thing, and a pilot can often have a more comfortable quality of life — salary, aircraft assignment, schedule and choice of destinations — as a senior copilot than as a junior captain. Thus, at a given airline, there are plenty of copilots who are older and more experienced than many captains.

One of the best paragraphs that sums up who the "co-pilot" of an airliner really is or can be. I had no choice whatsoever in my progression. It took me seven years to the day to where I was able to hold a Captain seat at my previous airline and now that I've moved on, I'm back to being a First Officer / Co-Pilot / Co-Captain / Right Seat by virtue of my hire date. It will take pilots above me leaving or retiring and / or the airline expanding with more aircraft and routes before I can hold the title of Captain again. Even at that point, it'll also depends on where I am in my life in terms of having to be away more since I'll be on reserve. More on that later.

Back to the topic, I've known Captains downgrade to First Officer due to a lifestyle change where they wanted more time at home. Some are able to afford to take the 35% pay cut but in all circumstances, their skills did NOT degrade just by switching seats or epaulets. The media needs to get this right and do a better story overall on a pilot's life. I'm starting to get rather annoying. Just my Tuesday rant.

Make sure to read the entire post via Patrick Smith's AskThePilot