I'm a flight instructor and former airline pilot, currently working for your tax dollars as a developmental air traffic controller at the Washington ARTCC in Virginia. This is a personal blog, though as my archive will divulge, my sordid career in aviation leaks through quite a bit. I'm enjoy baseball, snark, and most recently the Big Sky Theory.
This blog is in no way affiliated with the FAA whatsoever. All content, opinions, etc., are mine unless otherwise noted.
Heading west on my last turn before a week off.
The tranquility of a delay at 6am.
Sometimes when that alarm goes off at 3:30am, literally the only thing that gets me out of bed is thinking, “Maybe today I’ll get a pretty sunrise shot for the ol’ blog.”
Crowded Fox alley for the dusk time push.
Getting ready to push in White Plains
Evening climb out from Madison, Wisconsin.
A guy I lived with in my old crashpad in Houston was at Intercontinental today to get shots of Comair’s last ever departure. He was a Comair furlough before he got to Colgan (in hindsight, bad run of luck regarding his airline choices as both now cease to exist). Anyway, he got some unexpected shots of the first United 787 arriving from Seattle, so I shamelessly stole this from his facebook.
GPOYW - For what it’s worth, after a long day, I say a hit of pure oxygen is even better than a cup of coffee.
Sunrise over northern Wyoming from FL330.
Holding short of runway 19 at DCA with the Washington Monument and Capitol in the background.
Sunrise and tulips in Kentucky.
Two nights ago around 10pm in the skies between Denver and Memphis I reached the quiet but important milestone of 1500 hours of total time operating airplanes. The flight itself is just another line in my logbook but the number is significant because it satisfies the final requisite of the only type of pilot certificate I have yet to earn; the Airline Transport Pilot certificate, or ATP. Currently an ATP is required to act in command of a commercial aircraft (i.e., sit in the left seat as captain). Recently Congress passed a law requiring an ATP of all first officers as well by August 2013. I won’t actually take my ATP checkride until my next recurrent training in a couple of months, and while the upgrade to captain is a function of seniority more than anything, meaning mine is still years away, it’s still an important milestone to me personally.
The trip I just finished was a bit more challenging than average and consequently a great learning experience. It along with this milestone got me to thinking about all of the invaluable lessons I’ve learned over the last 1500 hours. If anything, the more I learn the more I realize how much I have yet to learn. As my career progresses I find that the best pilots I work with are the ones who realize that this job means you never stop learning. Every leg, every day, every trip, both good and bad, brings something new and worthwhile to add to the bank of experience stored in your brain.
Anyway, I compiled this Google map of every single airport I’ve personally operated an aircraft into or out of over the last 8 years and 1500+ hours of flying, from my first lesson as a student, through my years as an instructor, to my most recent trips in the jet. Feel free to click through and explore. I thought it was pretty interesting and perhaps you might as well.
Finally headed home for a few days. The Airbus is a funny aircraft and no matter how many times I ride up front I just can never seem to wrap my head around it.
“You guys like the bus?” I asked the crew.
“Oh sure,” the captain replied, “you get used to it. Though that depends. If people junior to me ask, I say it’s great, come on over. If you’re senior to me, I say…well, it can do some pretty odd things sometimes. You should probably stay away.”
Seniority, man.
Spotted this Antonov An-225 (the only one of its kind!) taxiing out from across the ramp in Calgary today (or apron, as the Canucks called it). It can only be described as stupid huge. For reference, that van is probably a few hundred feet away from the airplane in the foreground. Its tailspan alone was astounding.
