Wherein I do my best impression of a TV talking head due to a lack of footage and photos from our 5 nights in San Ignacio, we attempt to rebuild Brad's bike in a small town far from anywhere, and we have an incredible encounter with two very friendly Gray Whales.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Baja Video Blog - Episode 3
Wherein I go an entire day on dirt without dropping or somersaulting my bike, we stay on a ranch and discover where beef comes from, and Brad's Big Red Pig suffers its most serious breakdown yet.
Also, I realize that Google Maps' coverage of Baja is quite scant and it's difficult to find many of the places and routes I've been talking about. I modified the GPS routes we used for navigation to reflect the routes we actually took, converted it to a KML file, and uploaded it to Google Maps. Because these are off-road GPS routes, each leg won't follow the trail or road we took perfectly, but each turning point should be pretty close to right on our route. You can access the Google Map of our entire trip here [new window].
Also, I realize that Google Maps' coverage of Baja is quite scant and it's difficult to find many of the places and routes I've been talking about. I modified the GPS routes we used for navigation to reflect the routes we actually took, converted it to a KML file, and uploaded it to Google Maps. Because these are off-road GPS routes, each leg won't follow the trail or road we took perfectly, but each turning point should be pretty close to right on our route. You can access the Google Map of our entire trip here [new window].
Monday, March 18, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
Back from Baja
I got back from my two week dirt bike trip down Baja California on Thursday to find a letter from the FAA waiting me, approving my special issuance medical. Now I'm waiting for the company to come up with a return to service plan for me, but expect I'll be flying again very soon.
In the meantime I'm having a little fun with the photos and film from the Baja trip. This was one of those trips that didn't go even remotely as planned, sometimes to the point of extreme frustration. Through it all, we met many fantastic people and had amazing experiences we never would have had if everything went according to plan. In short, it was a real adventure.
Partly because I got so much GoPro footage, I decided to try something different in how I report the trip on this blog. Rather than doing a lengthy writeup, I'm putting together several documentary episodes - video blogs, really - about the trip. I expect the first one to be ready shortly. In the meantime, I put together a short (4 minute) music video featuring some of the best action of the trip. Enjoy!
In the meantime I'm having a little fun with the photos and film from the Baja trip. This was one of those trips that didn't go even remotely as planned, sometimes to the point of extreme frustration. Through it all, we met many fantastic people and had amazing experiences we never would have had if everything went according to plan. In short, it was a real adventure.
Partly because I got so much GoPro footage, I decided to try something different in how I report the trip on this blog. Rather than doing a lengthy writeup, I'm putting together several documentary episodes - video blogs, really - about the trip. I expect the first one to be ready shortly. In the meantime, I put together a short (4 minute) music video featuring some of the best action of the trip. Enjoy!
Monday, February 11, 2013
Not Entirely Grounded
It's been an interesting winter, with a pronounced lack of deicing, snowstorms, holding, divert fuel calculations, or icy Saskatoon layovers. Of course, being on medical leave also means I haven't had any nice sunny San Antonio layovers to help cope with the Minnesota winter doldrums, either. I've been able to stay surprisingly busy - medical treatment, chasing down paperwork for my special issuance medical application, a few weekend trips to warmer locales like LA and Alaska, a few paid writing assignments, and the various duties of a hausfrau haven't left too much time for moping. In two weeks I leave for a long-awaited dirtbike ride down Baja with my friend Brad, and I expect to get an answer on the medical shortly after I get back.
I'm looking forward to it. I've started to really miss flying - hassles and ennui of modern button-pushing regional airline flying included. I miss being part of a crew, I miss being useful, I miss going places and having some variety in my week. I miss just being in the air.
At least I have the Cub to fly. It falls under Sport Pilot rules, so I don't need a medical to fly it - only a driver's license and self-certification that I'm fit to fly when I take it up (my medical wasn't denied or suspended - don't worry, I checked with EAA Legal to make sure I was ok first!). Mind you, Minnesota winters aren't quite the Cub's element - if it's not snowing or blowing stink, it's usually too cold for comfort - but I've been able to sneak in a few very enjoyable days aloft. I think I'm actually the only club member that has flown it since November!
A few days ago, I took my friend and fellow NewCo captain Dan up in the Cub to try his hand at taildragger wrangling. I brought along a GoPro Hero HD camera I recently scored off craigslist for the upcoming Baja trip, and a roll of duct tape to secure it to a strut. The footage came out pretty decently for my first effort, and I made an amusing little video on iMovie out of it. Enjoy!
I'm looking forward to it. I've started to really miss flying - hassles and ennui of modern button-pushing regional airline flying included. I miss being part of a crew, I miss being useful, I miss going places and having some variety in my week. I miss just being in the air.
At least I have the Cub to fly. It falls under Sport Pilot rules, so I don't need a medical to fly it - only a driver's license and self-certification that I'm fit to fly when I take it up (my medical wasn't denied or suspended - don't worry, I checked with EAA Legal to make sure I was ok first!). Mind you, Minnesota winters aren't quite the Cub's element - if it's not snowing or blowing stink, it's usually too cold for comfort - but I've been able to sneak in a few very enjoyable days aloft. I think I'm actually the only club member that has flown it since November!
A few days ago, I took my friend and fellow NewCo captain Dan up in the Cub to try his hand at taildragger wrangling. I brought along a GoPro Hero HD camera I recently scored off craigslist for the upcoming Baja trip, and a roll of duct tape to secure it to a strut. The footage came out pretty decently for my first effort, and I made an amusing little video on iMovie out of it. Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Grounded
"What would you do if you couldn't be a pilot?"
The question was first posed in one of my aviation classes at UND, and has stuck with me since. It was always rhetorical, based on various imagined hazards ranging from a family history of diabetes to an industry meltdown rather than any specific, imminent threat. Early in my career any outcome seemed entirely possible, as did my imagined alternatives: Become an air traffic controller. Go back to school. Go into architecture or law. As I aged and my career became more established, both the prospect of not being able to fly and the chances of pursing an alternative course seemed increasingly remote, and the doomsday scenarios faded from my mind.
Yet here I am, in a sterile medical office, staring blankly at an anatomical poster on the wall and trying to understand what the doctor is telling me while the red master warning bell in my brain is blaring deafeningly. I wasn't expecting life-changing news today. I had a sharp pain on the right side of my abdomen last night, and grudgingly made a rare visit to the clinic on the off chance it was appendicitis. I dutifully drank some foul-smelling liquid and lay down for a CT scan, and figured worst-case scenario I'd be getting my appendix taken out laparoscopically before the day was done. And now this doctor is telling me that I have an inflamed ileum, he thinks it's likely Crohn's Disease, and I need to see a specialist to find out for sure.
I didn't know anything about Crohn's except that Dawn and I have two acquaintances with the disease, and their lives have been a living hell of torturous pain, ineffective medicine, failed surgeries, withered bodies, stunted careers, and strained marriages. I knew it was incurable. If I have Crohn's, I thought, it must mean the end of my flying career. The doctor was telling me that many Crohn's cases are mild and controllable with medication and diet, but I scarcely heard him. What am I going to do now? I thought. I looked across the room at Dawn. Despite her forcibly calm demeanor, I could tell she was thinking the same thing.
That was five weeks ago. Since then, I've gone to a gastroenterologist, consulted with several Aviation Medical Examiners, undergone a MRI, and had a colonoscopy. Crohn's is a tough disease to diagnose with certainty, and on the advice of ALPA Aeromedical, I continued to fly while the diagnosis was uncertain but I remained asymptomatic. I flew my trips in December knowing they would probably be my last in a while. And then, just before Christmas, came the final word: I do indeed have Crohn's, albeit a currently mild case. Based on past symptoms, I have probably been living and flying with it untreated for around ten years. Now that it's official, though, I'm grounded - for the time being.
The good news is that my diagnosis isn't nearly the death knell for my career that I initially imagined. Nearly 2,000 pilots currently hold a first class medical despite having Crohn's or ulcerative colitis. Most of the medicines used to treat Crohn's, including the one my gastroenterologist is putting me on (Remicade), are approved by the FAA and require only a short test period to make sure there are no severe side effects. Assuming that I don't have any, and the FAA has no objections to my case and their case load isn't more backed up than usual, I should be able to get a waiver by April or May.
Nevertheless, Crohn's is a somewhat mysterious and unpredictable malady, and despite my relatively mild symptoms thus far, it could take a turn for the worse at some point and end my flying career. I have a few things to occupy my time during my months out of work, but inevitably I'll return to the question: what will I do if at some point I can't be a pilot? I really don't know, right now. Aviation is my first love and has become such a large part of my identity that it would be very, very hard to give it up, even if I had to continue in a non-flying role. I guess I can consider the next few months a sort of trial run for an earth-bound existence. Fortunately, I have a few tailwheel-rated friends who can tag along in the C170 or the Cub when that old flying bug gets restless and starts biting again.
The question was first posed in one of my aviation classes at UND, and has stuck with me since. It was always rhetorical, based on various imagined hazards ranging from a family history of diabetes to an industry meltdown rather than any specific, imminent threat. Early in my career any outcome seemed entirely possible, as did my imagined alternatives: Become an air traffic controller. Go back to school. Go into architecture or law. As I aged and my career became more established, both the prospect of not being able to fly and the chances of pursing an alternative course seemed increasingly remote, and the doomsday scenarios faded from my mind.
Yet here I am, in a sterile medical office, staring blankly at an anatomical poster on the wall and trying to understand what the doctor is telling me while the red master warning bell in my brain is blaring deafeningly. I wasn't expecting life-changing news today. I had a sharp pain on the right side of my abdomen last night, and grudgingly made a rare visit to the clinic on the off chance it was appendicitis. I dutifully drank some foul-smelling liquid and lay down for a CT scan, and figured worst-case scenario I'd be getting my appendix taken out laparoscopically before the day was done. And now this doctor is telling me that I have an inflamed ileum, he thinks it's likely Crohn's Disease, and I need to see a specialist to find out for sure.
I didn't know anything about Crohn's except that Dawn and I have two acquaintances with the disease, and their lives have been a living hell of torturous pain, ineffective medicine, failed surgeries, withered bodies, stunted careers, and strained marriages. I knew it was incurable. If I have Crohn's, I thought, it must mean the end of my flying career. The doctor was telling me that many Crohn's cases are mild and controllable with medication and diet, but I scarcely heard him. What am I going to do now? I thought. I looked across the room at Dawn. Despite her forcibly calm demeanor, I could tell she was thinking the same thing.
That was five weeks ago. Since then, I've gone to a gastroenterologist, consulted with several Aviation Medical Examiners, undergone a MRI, and had a colonoscopy. Crohn's is a tough disease to diagnose with certainty, and on the advice of ALPA Aeromedical, I continued to fly while the diagnosis was uncertain but I remained asymptomatic. I flew my trips in December knowing they would probably be my last in a while. And then, just before Christmas, came the final word: I do indeed have Crohn's, albeit a currently mild case. Based on past symptoms, I have probably been living and flying with it untreated for around ten years. Now that it's official, though, I'm grounded - for the time being.
The good news is that my diagnosis isn't nearly the death knell for my career that I initially imagined. Nearly 2,000 pilots currently hold a first class medical despite having Crohn's or ulcerative colitis. Most of the medicines used to treat Crohn's, including the one my gastroenterologist is putting me on (Remicade), are approved by the FAA and require only a short test period to make sure there are no severe side effects. Assuming that I don't have any, and the FAA has no objections to my case and their case load isn't more backed up than usual, I should be able to get a waiver by April or May.
Nevertheless, Crohn's is a somewhat mysterious and unpredictable malady, and despite my relatively mild symptoms thus far, it could take a turn for the worse at some point and end my flying career. I have a few things to occupy my time during my months out of work, but inevitably I'll return to the question: what will I do if at some point I can't be a pilot? I really don't know, right now. Aviation is my first love and has become such a large part of my identity that it would be very, very hard to give it up, even if I had to continue in a non-flying role. I guess I can consider the next few months a sort of trial run for an earth-bound existence. Fortunately, I have a few tailwheel-rated friends who can tag along in the C170 or the Cub when that old flying bug gets restless and starts biting again.
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