New Bookstore Website

You guys are either going to think I've gone off the deep end or that someone else is now handling all my blogging for me, yet believe it or not, I have more news to share. Got an email today about the new University of Dubuque Bookstore website. Looks like you can buy books and gear over the net now and have it shipped to you around the world. I'm sure that you will find more selection actually in the bookstore, but this is just another step forward for this growing university. Still not wild about the colors of the site, but then none of UD's websites thrill me. Just thought I'd share in case anyone desired some Spartan attire!

http://bookstore.dbq.edu/home.aspx

Cold Conditions

It was quite nippy in the northeast today; northeast Iowa that is (not to be confused with my travels of last week). In fact, it is 40°F as I write, but with the high winds and winds advisories today, it feels much colder. Believe it or not, we actually got some snow this afternoon. It was short lived, but sure enough there was white stuff blowing across the ramp. I would turn my back and the sun would be shining. I would turn again and here comes another wall of snow. It didn't amount to anything of course, but it was unexpected. (The picture above is borrowed, but it gives you an idea what we can expect this winter when deicing aircraft.)

Our last agent will be on board tomorrow for her first day of OJT. This might mean a slight reduction in hours for me, but it should allow me to zip through my CFI if the weather cooperates.

I have an eye exam scheduled for Tuesday this week. My prescription is out of date and my last pair of contacts was opened long ago. I also might take the opportunity to get extra hydrated and try donating plasma again. Last time didn't go so well. I felt my mind was over the "fear factor", but my body just said, "not today!"

No Halloween plans yet other than work. I'm trying to find a costume that might be work appropriate and practical, but with being inside and outside, I don't know if that will happen. I did get a bag of mini Snickers to munch on, as well as my personal favorites: Reese's peanut butter cups and dry roasted peanuts & candy corn. Can't wait til they go on sale for half price!

No cross country for me this weekend. The team will be going to Storm Lake for conference, but several people had asked for vacation time at work so I will be stuck manning the station.
Time to call this one quits. I have the opportunity to sleep in somewhat in the morning and I want to make the most of it. All you doobies be sure to bundle up when you go outside, wash your hands, and drink plenty of water.

Bah-ston!

I don't think I developed Boston accent in the 36 hours (give or take) I was there, but it certainly is fun to say it that way. I didn't have any problem with the flights out there. I arrived at Logan Airport about 10:15pm EST Monday night. Karl was there waiting for me. It took about an hour in the car to get back to his apartment in Portsmouth, NH which gave us ample time to catch up and share the latest pilot B.S. we had heard or seen. We had a snack and planned out the following day before crashing for the night.
After a bowl of oatmeal we were out the door by 9am. We drove around Portsmouth for bit before driving across the bridge into Maine. We were going to get gas but didn't see anything, so we turned around and filled up in New Hampshire before heading down to Boston. We took the very scenic highway 1A south along the coast. Along the drive we saw the fall colors I was looking for as well as some surfers, which I was not expecting.

We parked at the hotel next to the airport where we planned to stay that night. It would be much easier for both of us than driving back again in the morning for my 8am flight. From there we took a shuttle to the nearest train depot and took a fare to Chinatown for lunch. We ate at the China Pearl Best Cafe. I had the Kung Pao Chicken and Karl had the General Gau's Chicken. They were both much larger portions than we were expecting and by the end of the meal, we were stuffed. Good thing we had a lot of walking to do.
We made our way back to the subway/train ("T" for short) and made a couple line hops en route to the Samuel Adams Brewery. We took the free tour and it was well worth it. We first learned about the history of the brewery, then we were treated to a free tasting and got to keep a souvenir glass.

Next we went back downtown to walk the Freedom Trail, a historic journey through downtown Boston marked with a large red line. We saw such sites as the burial site of Samuel Adams, the State House, Old City Hall, the South Meeting House, the site of the Boston Massacre, the Faneuil Hall, Union Oyster House (the oldest tavern in America), and Boston Harbor. We backtracked a bit to visit the Bull Finch Pub, more famously known as "Cheers." This pub was the original inspiration for the TV show.

After a couple glasses, we walked up to the North End to Little Italy. We joined the Freedom Trail again and walked past Paul Revere's house, and the Old North Church before eating at the Florentine Cafe for dinner. After a seafood and pasta dish, we had some gelato at Gigi's Gelateria. We took the T back to the Hilton by the airport watched a little TV before falling asleep.

Overall I would rate Boston as great city to explore. It's not too busy or loud like a Chicago or a New York, as one might expect. We only saw a small section of the city, but it was packed with history. We didn't get a chance to the Green Monster at Fenway or the campuses of MIT or Harvard. Perhaps on another day trip.

No problems getting back to Minneapolis. I did have a long layover, but had I missed the first flight for any reason, there was still another flight that was scheduled to arrive at MSP before the flight to Dubuque departed. Fortunately, I didn't need it and it gave me the opportunity to hang out in the observation deck and take some pictures.

The pictures are out of order again due to multiple sessions of uploading. Do your best to follow my narrative and the pictures place throughout the post to make sense of the rest of the images. The pictures have captions, but if you have questions about anything, feel free to email me or comment on my blog. (Hint, hint!)

Photobucket Album

Uh oh!

This Sunday, Dubuque operations experienced it's first cancellation of service for Northwest Airlink since it's return on June 20, 2008.
My morning shift had gone really well. There were only two of us working and we had a few passengers listed on the afternoon flight show up to fly standby. I had never helped accommodate anyone in this fashion before, but I learned quickly that it wasn't as hard as it first appeared. We got the flight out and I felt a good sense of accomplishment. After a quick nap, I attended the morning church service at the Bridge. We had a visiting pastor since our ministering pastor preached his last sermon the week before. He and his family were moving elsewhere to continue ministering. After church I wrote up my previous blog and headed back out to work.
We were working shorthanded again and I considered calling in for re-enforcements, but decided that those who had the day off deserved it and it would be difficult to convince anyone to come in on such short notice. Working quickly, we got everyone off the plane and into the terminal and the next bunch onto the plane. With the engines started, my day was almost over until a look of concern came over the captain's face. I went inside to talk to her on the radio. She explained that they were having a problem getting the oil pressure in the right engine to reach the normal operating range. After a few minutes of troubleshooting and talking to dispatch in Minneapolis, she decided to have the passengers deplaned while she further diagnosed the problem.
We performed a run-up but it resulted in the same outcome. Without going into too much more detail, after about 20 minutes and still no definitive answer, the captain with the advice of dispatch and maintenance control decided to cancel the flight. I had to call our station manager on his day off to advise him of the situation and ask for his assistance in re-booking our passengers. Some passengers decided immediately to drive. Others were rerouted to American Airlines through Chicago. The really unfortunate ones, who couldn't make any connections to their final destination that late in the afternoon, had to stay overnight and go out on our first flight Monday morning. Only one gentleman required a hotel stay. The remaining passengers were either staying with relatives or had a residence in Dubuque.
Being relatively young and resilient, I volunteered to come back that evening to make sure everything ran smoothly. Minneapolis would be sending a mechanic down on our late arrival to try to fix the problem. This meant we would have two aircraft on the ground at once and the movement of passengers had to be controlled over a longer distance across the ramp. The flight crew from the afternoon flight went to the hotel to rest for a while, not knowing exactly what the course of action would be taken if and when the aircraft was fixed. Again, to make a long story short, the crew and I ended up waiting around until about three in the morning while the mechanic worked on the engine. Despite being extremely exhausted, we had fun passing the time and I made two more contacts in the Mesaba network of pilots.
Because the pilots had exceeded their allowable time on the clock and the problem wasn't completely resolved, they couldn't leave immediately and a second mechanic had to be sent in the morning. The crew and mechanic went back to the hotel to get some more rest. I got about a half hour of sleep at home before heading back into work at 5am for my scheduled shift. We sent the good plane out that came in the previous night as usual. I got to go home and sleep some more while the second mechanic worked on the engine. He determined that the cause of the problem was a broken lead somewhere in the engine. He was able to repair this in a fairly quick manner and the paperwork to reposition the aircraft to MSP was begun. I arrived for my next scheduled shift at 1pm and the crew from yesterday showed up shortly thereafter. We said our goodbyes with the expectation that we would see each other again soon, but under better circumstances. I worked the normal afternoon flight without incident before getting on to head out to Massachusetts. It was a long day and a half, but the vacation I had been looking forward to and the extra hours to cover my time off made it worth it.

Jon's Fall Folly

I know that an entry is long overdue, but it will have to be a short one today so that I can have time to eat and make it to work this afternoon. Ugh... where to start? This week was UD's homecoming. I was relieved to not be as involved with the planning as I was last year. I made it to the volleyball and soccer games during week. Yesterday I took the cross country team up to La Crosse, WI through quite a bit of fog. We made it safe and sound though. It was a big meet so the posted results may not be indicative of our team's performance in relationship to our goals. We had several PR's on the day and the music before, during, and after was quite entertaining. Our men and women were also quite pumped up from the pep rally the night before and the various other spirit building activities that took place this week. Several runners commented that this was the most fun meet yet and to those that had run the Dr. Tucker at the soccer complex in Dubuque in previous years, this was a big improvement. So, I didn't get to go to the football game, but we caught the end of the fourth quarter after the Iowa (vs. Wisconsin) game and once we were in radio range. I attended the homecoming dance at the Masonic Temple with last year's homecoming queen, Christine Roller, to crown the 2008 king and queen. We're hoping this will become a tradition. 

Flying is going well. By my estimation I will be on track to finish by the end of the year. I'm hoping to get standardized at the University after earning my rating and be ready for a few students next semester. 

This week I'm taking a couple days off to fly out to New Hampshire to hang out with my former roommate Karl Biermann. He is currently living near Manchester and flying Pilatus PC-12's for a company called Plane Sense. I don't know much about it, but I'm sure you could Google it. The flights to BOS look better so I'm planning on using that airport. Karl said it's a 45 min drive either way you look at it. 

I may have missed some newsworthy items in my rush to finish this and I don't have pictures to include, but I may go back and edit this later or make a new post. Hopefully there will be less time between this and my last post.