The Big Apple

Well, it was an interesting start to my New York City adventure. En route, we were advised of some thunderstorms in the New York area. We got about three circuits into our 45 minute holding pattern when it was decided that it would be more feasible to land and wait out the storm. So I got a trip to Pittsburgh at no extra charge! Fortunately, they let us off the aircraft to get something to eat in the terminal. After two hours on the ground, we reboarded and flew the remaining 50 minutes to Laguardia.

Paola and her roommate picked me up in a car they borrowed from a friend. We drove around the city to look at buildings and attractions which took us over the Brooklyn Bridge. We then picked up the owner of the car and went to eat at Paola's place of employment.

Monday, we got up early to fit in all of our sight seeing. Paola and I took the subway to where they were constructing the ground zero memorial. We walked around and saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance, which was good enough for me. Next, we stopped at the Merrill Lynch Bull for a photo op. We walked through Times Square, past Radio City Music Hall, Rockafeller Plaza, then on to the Ed Sullivan Theater where the Late Show with David Letterman is taped. Paola had to go back to work for a meeting, so I took a nap at her apartment. We went back out later to go up in the Empire State Building. Quite an amazing view. We went back to Times Square to find something to eat. I had never been to a Hard Rock Cafe, so we decided to eat there. The wait was too long, so I just grabbed a souvenir t-shirt. We hopped on the subway to find a place to take some pictures of the skyline. By now, dark had fallen and it gave me a great opportunity to take some night shots. I didn't bring my tripod, so I had to set my camera on the railing of the pier. We got back on the subway and headed home. On our walk from the station to the apartment, we grabbed a slice of pizza at a small shop around the corner.

I left NYC the next day at 1pm. I planned a long layover in Minneapolis so I could sleep in a little, but at the same time avoid missing the last flight out of New York. I took the opportunity to reunite Alli and take a tour of downtown Minneapolis. She picked me up at the airport and we took the light rail system from the mall to downtown. There we met her friend Sara and together the three of us walked around to look at more buildings. We ate the the Hard Rock Cafe, but I forewent buying another shirt and just took a picture instead. After dinner, we hopped back on the light rail to get back to the mall. Because of a Twins game, we had to change trains at the Metrodome. Alli dropped me off at the airport and I had plenty of time to relax before the flight back to Dubuque.

It was a great and much needed vacation after working almost non-stop since the beginning of training with Mesaba. I was fortunate to have friends in both cities to show me around and spend time with. The next trip will be in a couple of weeks to Kalamazoo for a family reunion. After that, I'm thinking about either Seattle or San Fransisco.

See all my pictures at Photobucket or Facebook 1 and Facebook 2. The pics at Photobucket are better quality, but they are out of order. The pictures at Facebook are lower quality but in order. Take your pick!

Birthday Party

Didn't get a chance to take a ride with the North American Trainers. I served my time at the airport, but due to poor weather conditions in Dubuque, there weren't many planes going in or out.
Jacob and I had an enjoyable day on Saturday together. He got to Dubuque a little after 1100. We played some Guitar Hero, then went to a matinee performance of The Dark Knight. Although somewhat long at 2 hours and 40 minutes, there was sufficient action and suspense to keep us on the edge of our seats. I was reluctant to see the movie at first, because I'm not much of a Batman fan. However, I would recommend it to older viewers who like a good action flick. I would also agree with many that Heath Ledger's final performance was award-worthy.
After the movie, we grabbed a bite at Ponchero's. I had never been to one, but enjoyed it enough to return when I am in that area of town. Then we went down to the Dubuque Racetrack and Casino to get a taste of greyhound racing. I picked the winner in the first race we saw, but when it came to placing a real bet, I was pretty much clueless. I had better luck at the penny slots. I won back two of the dollars I lost on the dog track. We called the night pretty early because of my early departure for New York. It was good to see Jacob and all in all it was a good birthday.

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Hope the title didn't sound too narcissistic, but today is my birthday! Since this will be my first birthday spent away from home, I thought I should let you all know what I'm doing. For the third year in a row, I will actually be working on my birthday. 21 and 22 were spent and Pizza Ranch and this day will be spent at the airport. Kind of a gift in itself if you think about it. Yesterday and today I volunteered at the FBO for the North American Trainer's Association (NATA). This organization gets together once a year to practice before going the EAA Airventure Airshow in Oshkosh, WI. This year we expect over fifty T-6 Texans in Dubuque. As a volunteer, I helped park the planes and get the pilots from their plane to hangar safely. With airlines right in the middle of the ramp, we have to keep the pilots out of that area for security reasons when there's a Northwest or American plane on the ground; something I'm used to already. I work all morning and then about 12:30, I head over to Mesaba to change clothes and grab a quick bite to eat before I start working there. I got a nice nap in between my afternoon and evening shifts last night. Hopefully I'll get a ride today. Maybe the fact that it's my birthday will be a good bargaining chip. I signed off of work through Tuesday. Jacob will be coming to town tomorrow to spend the day with me. We'll play some Guitar Hero and grill out and maybe see a movie. Sunday morning I'll be heading to New York to spend a couple days with Paola, a friend from high school. I'm looking forward to a grand tour of the city and doing it right with someone who knows the area. I'd like to see the statue, around lower Manhattan, the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, Times Square, a couple of the bridges, maybe Ground Zero, and whatever else Paola has planed or that we have time for. I'll probably look like a tourist with my camera out the entire time, but oh well. I'll take an afternoon flight back on Tuesday and do an extended layover in Minneapolis. I engineered this break in to maximize my time in New York, but make sure I didn't get stuck or miss the last flight of the day, because I have to be back at work Wednesday morning. On my layover, I plan to take the light rail in to downtown Minneapolis to meet Alli Linn for dinner and see what we can find to do downtown. I already hit the Mall of America when I was there for training, but didn't get to explore the downtown area. Alli moved back to school (Gustavus) yesterday and said it will take about an hour to drive into the cities. After a night on the town, I'll hop on the 9:30 flight back to Dubuque and should get in about 10:30 or 10:45. I'll let you know how it all goes. I'll probably post pictures of NATA later today or tomorrow. Thanks for the cards and birthday wishes!
(In case you're wondering, I bought Dora the Explorer cupcakes at Hy-Vee last night for my co-workers. I had my picture taken with her at the Mall of America when I was there for training, so it's an inside joke, but now you know.)

UD Accepts 2 G1000's

Had a pretty fun day "off" form work yesterday. I worked in the morning, but we're usually done by 7am, so its basically like having the day free. I traded my afternoon shift so I could fly down to Independence, KS with the chair of the UD Aviation Department, our aviation maintenance manager, and a flight instructor from UD. the reason for our mission was to accept (close/beggining of delivery) two new Skyhawks with Garmin G1000 Avionics. These are glass cockpit aircraft as opposed to having the old steamgauge instruments. Essentially they are two computer screens that display all the information you need to fly including flight instruments, traffic, terrain, and weather. The new systems increase a pilot's situational awareness in all phases of flight. We're really excited to finally have these at UD. Once we arrived in Independence, we were treated to a delicious buffet lunch by Cessna. Afterwards we went with two of their pilots on an acceptance flight to test the new Skyhawks for functionality of all their systems. We then signed some paperwork and headed back to Dubuque in the Navajo (UD plane). The flight instructor that went along stayed for training and will bring back one of the planes on Thursday night. The other Skyhawk will be flown up to Dubuque over the weekend by two of Cessna's training pilots. 6 UD instructors will have training next week in Dubuque on the systems and operation of these new G1000's. UD will take delivery of three more Skyhawks with G1000's on the 6th of August.

Today was an interesting morning at the airport. Upon inspection of the rear cargo compartment, I found that one of the access panels was damaged and loose. I reported to the Captain and First Officer and after calling maintenence control, it was determined that we would have to wait for an engineer to draw up a schematic of how to properly secure the pannel and then have someone from maintenence on Dubuque's field to perform the maintenence. This led to a delay which forced us to rebook passengers and retag all their bags for the new connections they would have to take. Our 6:50AM departure finally left at 10:01AM. Needless to say the passengers were pretty unhappy about getting to their destinations hours past due. We did the best we could, and I think everyone working today realized that it was out of our control, so we didn't have anyone freakout or break down. Other than that everything is going well.

Stop Oil Speculation

I know I just posted late last night, but I wanted to get the word out about this. Last week, I received a company email asking for our support to stop oil speculation. If you drive a car, oil speculation has a big impact on you. It also effects my job as an employee in the airline industry, so I appreciate your support as well. Please follow this link
http://www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com to send an email to your senators and representatives. You can simply send the pre-formatted email or you may write your own comments. When the page loads, enter your zip code to select the appropriate legislators to be emailed. Fill out the form and send. It's that easy! I did it. Now it's your turn. Thank you!

Find a Penny, Pick it Up...

I had a late night last night at work. I was paired with one of the newbies so I could sign him off on the overnight cleaning and search of the aircraft. It took us a little longer than usual to clean because we worked together instead of splitting the duties in half. This morning I had an appointment to get repairs made on my car. I set my alarm to get up at 6:30, but when it went off, I couldn't remember why I set it. I was about to fall back asleep when I remembered and made myself decent enough to drove over to the mechanic. I didn't have a chance to arrange a ride with the roomies, so I decided to take my iPod along and walk back for some exercise. On my way home, I found a penny heads up. Taking the advice of Grandma Erickson, I picked it up and pocketed it for the rest of the day. Thus far, it hasn't been an especially lucky day, but nothing too bad has gone wrong either. My muffler did get fixed and is so quiet, I now have to look at the tach to know when to shift. Gas prices went down a few cents in Dubuque. 87 is now at $3.95/gal at most stations. Work this afternoon went fairly smooth. We had an inbound delay from Minneapolis because of thunderstorms in Minnesota. Dispatch was pretty late with getting our paperwork to us. Probably because they had to reroute a bunch of other aircraft. I'm not exactly sure how long it took to turn our plane around, but the delay went to dispatch. As long as it's not a station delay, we're happy. I have the evening off, but Matt is at work until 9 and Tad spends Thursday nights with his fiances family. I'll keep myself busy working on my lesson plan for tomorrow morning. The topic is aerodynamics and load factors. If I don't get completely done, I can work on it after I work the early shift tomorrow. I'll probably pack a lunch so that I can save a trip. After my lesson, I'll work the afternoon shift and then have the evening free. Looks like the thunderstorms are making their way through the area now. Hope it doesn't block out the satellite.

No news is good news?

Well not necessarily. I haven't been able to write for a while because worked 41.25 hours (3hrs at a time) last week at the airport and drove back and forth between Galena to house/dog sit. I believe that's more than I ever worked at the Pizza Ranch or the Pella airport in one week. I haven't lost my sanity quite yet, but I am awfully tired. I'm glad to have the extra money though. I got a flat tire last week and had to fork out money for that. My muffler has been noisy for quite a while too and I will finally be getting that fixed. I've also been busy studying and writing lesson plans for my flight instructor rating. It's going really well so far, but my instructor says I need to share some more personal examples to keep the student interested. I think I've had the experiences, I just have trouble recalling them from memory. I didn't have to work today or tomorrow, but went in this morning to help because we had 30 passengers on the list (our biggest load yet!) Nothing else too monumental happening in Dubuque this week. I hope to get a haircut tomorrow. I'll also continue searching for a roommate to replace Matt, who will be leaving at the end of the month. He graduated from UD with me this spring and will be attending Hawkeye CC to study his passion of photography. I'll miss coming home and unwinding with him and will always remember all the jokes and interests we shared while we lived together the past two years. I need to give him a shout out this week for letting me use his car several times while my spare tired sat on my car. The other day he dropped me off at the airport so he could keep his car. Before he left the airport, we spent a few minutes ogling a Lotus that I noticed had been sitting there for a couple days. I went back yesterday to take some pictures of the car during the day. Matt has been a very generous roommate. He has let me borrow his camera on several occasions and we've each shared food until the other could get to the store. We also had fun trying new recipes and cooking for one another. The night that he dropped me off there was some weather around the Minneapolis airport and our plane was delayed getting into Minneapolis which pushed back the arrival time into Dubuque. He ended up waiting for me until about two in the morning before I got done with work. Matt's been a great friend and I'm glad I got to know him.

Happy Fourth of July

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Fourth of July. I've just been taking care of a few things around the apartment that need attention. I celebrated Independence Day a day early this year with the rest of Dubuque. I worked in the afternoon yesterday, but had the evening off to take in a free airshow and fireworks on the river near lock and dam 11 of the Mississippi. I biked down to the riverfront to avoid the traffic afterwards and to get some much needed exercise. I've been working the upper body lifting bags at the airport, but the legs don't get the same workout they used to.

I'm also excited to share that I bought a used laptop from a friend/classmate who had switched to the dark side of the Mac world and no longer had a use for a PC. I spent some of yesterday and today getting all my settings the way I want. It's somewhat large and heavy being that it's four years old, but at the time of purchase, it was top of the line. The specs are still comparable to my desktop computer, but it's much more mobile. It will come in handy for typing lesson plans between shifts at the airport thereby saving me a trip home. More good news to go along with that. I heard from an instructor this week about my CFI rating and it looks like we'll be able to start next week. Not sure if I'll be ready to go by the first day of classes this fall, but I will be working hard to finish as soon as possible. UD is in desperate need of instructors and I will be in need of more income. The job at Mesaba isn't going to cut it in the long run, but the travel benefits and connections I'm making are a big bonus.

Tuesday, I will leaving Iowa to become a temporary resident of Galena, IL. One of my co-workers will be attending a wedding out of town and needs me to watch his three dogs while he is away for one week. Unfortunately, this means a longer commute to the airport and picking up extra shifts, but anything to make a little extra money.

I'll leave you all with some links to more of my pictures and a link to some web clips covering the "Third/Fourth" in Dubuque. I believe these are direct links to the videos, but if they don't work, there are related videos to right of current video. I recommend "July 3rd Celebration", "Golden Knights", and "MX-2 Airplane."

My Photo Album (Fourth of July):

http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b393/jonny396_99/Fourth%20of%20July%202008/

THOnline Multimedia:

http://www.thonline.com/multimedia/index.cfm?id=1475&srow=1

http://www.thonline.com/multimedia/index.cfm?id=1469&srow=1

http://www.thonline.com/multimedia/index.cfm?id=1467&srow=1