Keepin' it real

Here's to my hard-working CFI friends, my freight dawg buds, to my fellow 3-stripers of the turbo trash & RJ kiddy variety... Some words of encouragement from Mr. Lover himself:

When I was young I use to dream of being rich
Have alot of houses and cars - couldn't know which one was which
And finding me a chick and getting hitched, living the fairy tale life perfect without a ditch
You think that this would bring me happiness, if at the end of every rainbow, there was a treasure chest
Sometimes having more is really less, so take a look inside yourself - you'll realize you're really blessed
No matter how inside you're blue, there's always someone who has it worse than you
Sometimes you gotta pay your dues - so don't worry just push on through.

Keepin' it real - gotta big up all my peoples who be working on the future, though they know they gotta struggle
Keepin' it real - to all my homies working on the 9 to 5 and doing right to keep themselves up out of trouble
Keepin' it real - although sometimes I know it seems impossible, there ain't no need in drowning in your sorrows
Keepin' it real - If things are as bad as they can be, you can be sure there'll be a brighter tomorrow

All the harsh realities appears to come into centuries
Don't worry cuz there'll be a better day
One thing I can promise you, just keep on keeping on
I swear to you there's gonna be a brighter day

--Shaggy, "Keepin' it Real"

Lakeside Blog Roundup

I'm currently in Rosholt, SD, at my parents-in-law's new place on the shores of Lake Traverse. Getting here was a little interesting. After getting back from flying 6 hours on Sunday, I jumpseated PDX-DEN-MSP on United, with a few delays out of DEN thanks to monster thunderstorms that had everything backed up. The next morning, those same storms had caught up to MSP and delayed by MSP-FAR flight. I didn't get bumped off any flights though, thanks to a Skywest jumpseater who wrote himself a pass rather than take the jumpseat (United only takes one jumpseater regardless of the number of open seats, although this policy is changing in September).

I'll have pictures to post once I'm home, but in the meantime I have nothing very interesting to post. So...let's see what else is going on in the flying blogosphere.

Dave's daily life as major airline captain involves making decisions that impact a lot of people. There used to be a time when a captain's decisions went practically unchallenged, for better or worse. It ain't so today, and there's a lot of CYA involved. Read about one such situation at Flight Level 390.

Glenn Calvin recently passed his sim ride at SWA, and is beginning IOE right now. To paraphrase N.D.: "Jets! Major airline! SWA! Lucky!" Oh yes, get a screencap if you're his 1000th visitor.

Aviatrix is recupurating from an unfortunate auto accident while studying away for her upcoming class at "Ichneumon Airlines." What a coincidence - the ichneumon is my very favorite burrowing mammal of all. Actually, not really. I'd never heard of it prior to reading Aviatrix. Thank you, A, you've broadened my horizons in the burrowing mammal department.

John, freight dog extraordinaire, ruminates on maintenance, Part 135 rest regs, and the coldsoaked coffin with wings that is an iced up Caravan. Check it out at Freight Dog Tales.

Yellowbird has gremlins hiding in her transponder system that have been positively vexing her owner. They also attacked the transponder of an Archer I used to instruct in, but they were very clever at hiding from maintenance personel. They'd typically show themselves only when I was in busy airspace with SoCal Approach. Read about the Gremlin Hunt at Yellowbird.

Speaking of SoCal, Hamish at YAFB recently took the 172 to Santa Monica with some friends of his. Cool pics abound, and his artist chick friend is pretty good looking, too...

Last but not least in the GA department is IFRPilot, who is but weeks away from embarking on a big trip to Alaska. He just got all his charts for the trip. I don't even want to know what all that costed. At least he's going VFR, Jepp charges an arm and a leg for their stuff. When I flew full-time for AMF, I had to buy my own subscription. One year for the Western US only: $300.

Did I mention...

...how much I love SMF layovers? Lounging by the pool with our FA's, Morgan & Coke in hand, soaking up those wonderful California rays...



...and yeah, witnessing a somewhat drunk Southwest FA perform a sexual act on a SWA Captain in the pool when they thought nobody was looking. At least 4 people were looking, and are now scarred for life. Needless to say, I didn't go back in the pool after that.

PS: Glenn, you might not want your wife to read this particular post!

Northwest Volcano Tour

Well, I remembered to bring my camera on this trip; unfortunately, I don't have any legs that go into Seattle, therefore no North Cascades tours. Between yesterday and today, though, the weather was good enough to get some pictures of the major volcanic peaks from Ranier southward. The best pics are from a VFR-on-top tour we did of Mt. Hood this morning.



This is Mt. Ranier, the largest and (in my opinion) prettiest mountain in the Cascade Range. This view is from just south of Yakima, so you're looking at the south face - Paradise Lodge would be on the left side of Ranier and Sunrise on the right side. The classic climbing route goes up the left side of the mountain.



Above, steam rises from the crater of the not-so-dormant Mt. St. Helens. This is a pretty average day; lately, eruptive activity hasn't been much more exciting than this. The new lava dome inside the crater, however, continues its growth unabated.



12,276 ft. Mount Adams, with Mt. St Helens visible behind. The area around and between these two volcanoes comprises the majority of wilderness area in Southwest Washington, including Mt. Adams and Indian Heaven Wilderness Areas, and the Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.



This picture was taken this morning while VFR-on-top about 5 miles south of Mt. Hood. At 11,245 feet, Mt. Hood is shorter than its neighbors to the north (Adams, Ranier, & Baker). Its close proximity to Portland makes it a popular destination for hikers, climbers, and skiiers.



Here, the upper reaches of Mt Hood Meadows ski area can be seen at lower right, and Timberline Lodge & Ski Area is on the far left. The Palmer Snowfield - dba Palmer Glacier (left side) - enables Timberline to offer year-round skiing. Nothing like topless skiing in July!



Mt Shasta: second largest peak of the Cascades, crown jewel of Northern California, sacred ground to past native peoples, and endless source of "positive engergy" for countless Bay Area hippies and new agers. I can't count the times I've been bumping through rain clouds in Southern Oregon, when suddenly: The clouds give way, and there's Mt. Shasta, standing guard over the great bright expanse of Sunny California beyond. No wonder the Indians held it sacred: it seemingly has the power to keep the bad weather in Oregon.

Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be good enough to get some good pictures of Oregon's Southern Cascades from Mt. McLaughlin to Mt. Jefferson. Once I get back, I'll be flying to MN to join Dawn; later next week, we'll be driving the Blazer home from MN. Blogging may be light, but I'll post roadtrip pics & updates when I can.

Livin' da vida CRJ...

I had a 5:25am report time for a 3-day trip this morning. I woke at 4am and did all the requisite showering, packing, and dressing. I was about to head out the door when crew scheduling called. "We've had an equipment substitution on your first few legs. Your new report time is 12:51pm."

Whaaaaattt? An equipment substitution? I DO fly the MegaWhacker, after all. We do all the equipment subs for the CRJs, not the other way around. Suddenly I'm blessed with 7 more hours of freedom...to sleep, to eat, to post to my blog. What bliss! So this is what it's like to be one of the anointed few that we at ABC Co. call Jet Pilots. I could get used to this! Lounging around while the less fortunate minions of the company do all my flying for me! Sign me up!

The Bachelor Life

Dawn just began the long drive to Minnesota, so I'm on my own for a few days. Here's how well she has me trained: I just did the dishes, even when I had clean dishes left to eat on, and when she won't be back for a week! Hmm, it's not quite like college-era bachelorhood.

Anybody stopping through the Portland area in the next few days is hereby ordered to contact me for hiking, samurai movies, hottubbing, and/or having a few beers at McMenamins.

Touring the Cascades

I just got back from a four-day Helena-Edmonton-Billings trip. The first two days were gloomy and rainy, both at our layover cities and everywhere we flew. Thankfully, the last two days were absolutely gorgeous - severe clear VFR. It gave us the opportunity to do something very cool: scenic tours.

When the weather is nice and the route starts or ends near a scenic area, my company's pilots will sometimes request VFR-on-top with deviations from course, and stay low to give the passengers a tour. It's a neat thing that most people really enjoy... we get a lot of compliments as passengers deplane after a scenic tour. It's also something to differentiate us from the competition: you'll never get it on Southwest, and I've never heard Skywest requesting one.

On Sunday, we descended early on our return from Edmonton and toured the North Cascades to Glacier Peak, which we circled before continuing the GLASR6 arrival into SEA. When outbound to Billings, we stayed low on departure and deviated over the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, particularly the Enchantment Lakes near Mt. Stuart. Yesterday, we had numerous legs into and out of Seattle, so we had the chance to tour the Alpine Lakes and Cascade Peak areas again, as well as a stunning low-level circle around Mt. Ranier.

The bad news in all this is that I forgot to bring my camera on this trip. I'm sorry! I promise it won't happen again! The trick is to get a good weather day on a trip that I bring the camera along...

*****

Dawn's brother, Paul, is in town right now. He's never been to the Pacific Northwest, so Dawn has been showing him the sights while I was gone - Cannon Beach, Mt. St. Helens, etc. Yesterday, after I got back, we drove to the Columbia River Gorge to do a short hike at Multnomah Falls, Oregon's single most popular natural feature.



I figured it'd be less crowded on a Monday. The good weather, however, apparently coaxed a lot of people out of work early. Even the trail to the top was fairly crowded. I hadn't hiked it before for this very reason, and was surprised to find that the whole thing was paved. I pity the poor sap who had to haul asphalt up 800 feet of cliff!

The top of the trail (well, the top if you're not continuing to Larch Mountain) features an overlook perched on the precipice of the falls. Multnomah Creek gurgles gently along the last bit of trail, then slides over a small waterfall before cascading over 620 ft. Multnomah Falls.



The overlook features a nice view of the lower Gorge:



After Sunday's pollyanna-ish post praising man's brilliance as exemplified by the modern aircraft, here's a little something to bring me down to earth: several idiots, having bothered to haul themselves up the hillside, having taken in the peacefulness of the creek and the beauty of the overlook, thought it would be cool to throw their cans and/or bottles into the creek.



Neathandrals.

After Multnomah Falls, we drove back to Portland via the historic Columbia River Highway, and stopped off at Vista House, which always provides memorable views of the Gorge.



Dawn's going to be driving to Minnesota starting on Wednesday. Anybody wanna be my hiking partner while she's gone?