Memorial Day Postscript

Memorial Day. It's a great chance to relax, go see a parade, maybe go camping as I did; an unofficial kicking off of summer fun. While enjoying the day's recreational possibilities, however, it is worthwhile to remember why the holiday exists: to remember the sacrifices of those who've served our country, and those who continue to do so.

To be honest, I sometimes regret that I never served in the military. I don't have a great desire to risk life and limb in some godforsaken hole in the Middle East, but I have great admiration for those who do so. In many ways they represent this country's greatest qualities. Everytime I hear about another serviceman dying over there, something hurts within me. Until recently, my own brother was in Baghdad, and I see him in every GI killed by a suicide bomber, RPG, roadside IED, and helicopter crash. I can feel the anguish suffered by every parent, sibling, and friend - to say nothing of the men serving alongside him.

This has been played out many times through our country's history, from the Revolution to WWII to Vietnam. This is, however, the first time we've suffered casualties in the thousands in almost 35 years, and it brings home the sacrifices of the brave men throughout history who've helped bring about the nation we live in today.

Clint over at The Outer Marker makes a good point about people here taking their carefree lifestyles for granted; it's ironic that the reason we can do so is because of men and women who gave up that lifestyle to face death on a windswept beach, a foxhole, a jungle, or a wadi. To those who've served, those who came back and those who didn't, those who gave their sons and daughters, those who fought out of patriotism or for pure survival or for the man next to you: Thank You. There are many here who do not take you for granted.

Where am I *now*??

Not in an airplane, that's where. Not within sight of an airplane. Not within earshot of an airplane. Not even thinking about airplanes. And loving it!

Dawn and I took a little camping trip over Memorial Day Weekend, making a loop through the Washington Cascades. On Saturday, I got crew scheduling to release me early (once again, Janine, you are a babe!), & we headed for Mount Ranier. The day was clear, providing us with some spectacular views of the mountain.



Unfortunately, all the campgrounds in the area were full, so we continued eastward towards Yakima. We ended up camping at a very beautiful, though primitive, spot alongside the American River.

Sunday, we broke camp early and drove east to Yakima, then north via I-82 & US-97 to Leavenworth, Washington's own "Bavarian Village." We were hoping to camp pretty far up Icicle Creek southwest of Leavenworth; given how busy town was, we weren't sure there would be any sites available. It was a pleasant surprise, then, to find that few of the masses bothered to actually take their Expeditions and Xterras off pavement to camp along the most beautiful stretch of Icicle Creek.



After setting up camp, we took a short (3.5 mi) hike on the Icicle Gorge Trail. It features some great views of the river and surrounding valley, as well as a closeup look at the changing ecosystems in the area.



Dawn and I arrived back at camp shortly before a thunderstorm moved in and soaked everything. After napping the storm away in the tent, we built a campfire & used it to cook one of the best meals I've had in a very long time: lemon-breaded salmon & seasoned red potatoes. We spent a few hours just gazing at the fire & the brilliant stars over hot chocolate before heading to bed.

This morning after breakfast, we took another short hike, this time on Icicle Creek Trail. This trail, used heavily by backcountry backpackers, goes deep into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. We did a quick 3 mile roundtrip to French Creek and back.

Once we got back, Dawn and I relaxed by the river for a while before breaking camp & heading home.



Apparently we headed home at the same time as half the population of Seattle. I know...monday afternoon of memorial day weekend, didn't take a genius to figure that one out, eh? We found outselves in stop & go traffic on Hwy 2 from Steven's Pass until Monroe - about 60 miles.



Oh well. It was a great weekend. Since Dawn is a school teacher and will have the summer off, we hope to do a lot more camping the next few months. I love living in the Pacific Northwest.

Back to work tomorrow.

Where am I?

Extended into Infinity

As usual at my airline, the MegaWhacker crews are running ragged to pick up the slack left by the jet. I just looked at a comparison of reserve utilization between the MW vs the CRJ; it's like 80% vs 30%. This whole week, we've had both MW spares running jet routes.

Two routes that've been covered all week are a Portland-San Jose roundtrip and a Portland-Spokane roundtrip. Now, it's been fairly evident to the company that these routes would need to be flown by MegaWhacker crews; still, crew scheduling for some reason doesn't like to notify us until the last minute. Both wednesday & yesterday, I got a 4:30am wakeup call to fly to San Jose. I knew the reserves were flying these trips, so I asked about it the night before. "Nope, nothing on your line yet," I was told. When I'd query whether they had someone slotted to fly to San Jose the next morning, crew scheduling acted like they didn't know what I was talking about. C'mon, you've only called out crews for it this entire week!

So I get the O-dark-thirty wakeup call from crew sched saying - surprise! - they need me to fly San Jose. I shower & dress & drag myself to the airport by 6am. The passengers are often unhappy to find they're on a turboprop vs a CRJ. On Wednesday, one guy angrily demanded "to get the 737 back on this route!" Sure, sir, if you can find 150 friends to go with you every day. Once underway to San Jose, I make a PA about the weather and route, & explain that "the good news about the aircraft swap is that this airplane has more legroom and comfier seats. The bad news is we'll be 15 to 20 minutes late."

Both days I did the trip, the Captain called crew sched from San Jose to see if we had anything else on our lines. Each day, crew sched said there was nothing, yet by the time we got to Portland, they'd extended us to do a Spokane roundtrip that was already one hour late. C'mon, is there absolutely no foresight here or what!? Yesterday, we got done with the additional Spokane roundtrip only to be extended again, this time with a roundtrip to Seattle that was also an hour late. We had happy passengers all day, let me tell you.

So basicly an easy two leg, 3.5 hour day turned into a 6 leg, 7.5 hour grueler. That's okay, I got paid more. But it'd be nice to think that crew scheduling knows what the game plan is in advance, and give us on the front lines a bit of warning.

*Rant Concluded*

Oh yeah, Melody & Janae in crew sched - I'm not mad at you, you're my babes!

Flight Level 390

FL390: America from the flight deck

Cool blog from a major airline pilot living in PHX.

Still a CFI

Well, I renewed my CFI certificate today, with 7 days to spare. I'm now good through 31 May 2007. As I did in 2003, I used American Flyers Flight Instructor Renewal Clinic online. It's a pretty pain-free course & one flat fee lets you renew your CFI through them for life. Pretty nifty.

Mind you, since coming to my current airline I've used my CFI exactly once. But I still want to keep it current to instruct friends & family in the future, and to leave options open should something happen to my airline career (ie massive furloughs, etc).

Of course, Ameriflight hasn't been using me a lot lately. Maybe I should pick up a student or two as another side gig. Anyone in the PDX area wanna learn how to fly? Leave a comment!

I love craigslist

Not just because I can sell stuff I don't need without paying ridiculous amounts of money to The Columbian where nobody apparently reads the classifieds. Mainly I love craigslist just because perusing the ads is wonderful, cheap, time-wasting entertainment unto itself.

The Avacado Conspiracy

Hah! Even better!