*-)- welcome aboard *-)-
just me. my current interests and stories for the interwebs.
Not in stone is it yet, but as of today,the date stands to be Friday, April 7, 2006. Start buying your plane tickets now folks! I will hopefully have finished my DC9 Type rating with the 25 hours initial operating restriction type certificate along with all my current ratings. It's going to be a fun and arduous next three months but I'm looking forward to it. This is where it counts!
And we still aren't going to make the playoffs! Isn't that just the rub! I have never been so excited over a win, but still with last week's disappointing play calling, the season might as well be worthless. I hope that I can just bite my tongue and wish for the best, but to have the Steelers lose as well as the Jags and we win the last two...its going to be a tough one. Beating the Colts was freaking awesome! I wish that I had watched it, but it was pretty good on radio and internet. Wasn't that bad at all. I guess that I might have to succumb to DirectTV NFL pass next season if things doing get better.
Go Chargers!!!
Now on to studying a lot! I got a final on Thursday as well as a Weather Presentation. Can't wait for this week to come to an end.
This is a picture of us in Jet Transtion Class Day #2. Expect us to either start to lose a lot of weight and gain large bags around our eyes in the following months. We already have out next week panned out for us with a final exam prior to us leaving for Christmas Vacation. Yipee!!!
We are all officially three stripers as of this morning! Congrats Forrest!
(from left to right, back row: Ryan Nay, Forrest Foust, Greg Farlow, Kevin Lubic front row: Kurt Buffington, Laura Pigott, Elijah Nicolas, Manoj Osuri)
This is probably one of the greatest links in regards to "flying through" a jet engine. It is a flash animation and I want everyone to check it out! http://www.rolls-royce.com/education/schools/journey02/flash.html
Well, today was the first day of Jet Transition. More specifically, we actually started CAPT 502: Jet Transport Systems. It is official, I am almost there. I can't see the light just yet, but supposedly, I have about another 120 days of the CAPT program remaining which includes the Christmas break and weekends. It's all so surreal. That means that this blog is almost 1 year old. Laura and I were remembering when we first met which was just about a year ago from this week at our initial interviews. It's amazing to see how far we have come in the program.
My class, AB05-01, has been combined with AB05-02 along with two other students who started at the Commercial level. That brings it to 8 of us all in all. It's going to be a great class I know it! Laura, Manoj and I have decided that we would wait to ask for our three stripes until our other classmate finishes. We are just a crew like that!
Driving to Daytona is just going to be a pain now since that we will have to leave approximately 45 minutes early to find parking and walk to class. And then when the Daytona 500 and Bike Week come along, its going to be such a mess. I do look forward to the King Air Simulator, but more so, the MD-90. Some words of encouragement from Mr. Dan Barnes (a Jet Instructor Pilot), "Our job is to try to kill you everyday, but your job is to prevent just that from happening." Good stuff eh? It's going to be an exciting time.
Well, after yesterday's accomplishments, Manoj, Matty P, Laura, Greg Farlow and his wife Stephanie, and I decided to head out to Cancun Lagoon where they have flip it Tuesdays. Let me explain. Every time you order a drink, the waiter comes by and tosses a coin in the air. One side is labeled, "FREE," while the other is just plain. If it lands on the "FREE" side, then your drink is absolutely free. No gimmicks! Of course, the entire first round with the bartender tossing the coin up wasn't free, but then after we sat down and got a table, I intervened with the waiter and asked if I could flip it myself. I managed to flip it and scored drinks for all of us. The waiter and I became good friends just as I was finishing up my 3rd beer. Yup, you heard it, I drank more than my normal one and half. 
I ended up having 4.5 beers (my shirt kind of got a quarter of that half) and a shot of something that Laura got. I kept on flipping some good stuff. I think that all in all, we had four beers each, if not some of us even had 6, and our tab came out to be... $3.71. Yeah you heard it! Freaking three bucks! That excludes the first four that we had to pay for at the bar prior to sitting down. But seriously...that place was fun! I know that I had a lot of fun. Here a picture of me, Manoj and Matty. I'm actually hanging on...You guys remember the UPS man on Mad TV?!!? Yup, that was me... and Jojo and Anh, I was once again running around the car! It was great times! Look at my eyes, they are actually wide open!!!
Yeah that's right, I am now an official Commercial Multi-Engine Rated pilot with Instrument privileges. This is Mr. John Castronover to which I had the opportunity to have for my FAA Designated Examiner. He was by far, one of the most experienced pilots that I have flown with. From all his various type ratings to years put in with Eastern Airlines and retiring with his last leg in San Diego, I had a good chance to see how happy ones life can be in aviation as well as how bitter one can feel about certain airline companies.
Well, not to brush my nose off or anything, I was given one of the best compliments I have ever been given in my aviation career. "Elijah, you had the plane eating out of your hands. You are definitely one of the best students to come out of here. Your commanding presence in the aircraft is definitely what will make you well qualified to sit left seat." Okay, so yeah, I won't let it get me cocky or anything, but to have a 33,000 hour pilot say that to me, a 231 hour pilot, really makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I have no other way of putting it. It was great and I felt good about the entire ride. The confidence factor and the lack of anxiety (well, not as much as I normally do) really helped me out a great deal. Whatever the next picture with me will be will have me standing with 3 stripes! Bring it on Jet World! Yeah, no time to break people, I have jet class day 1 tomorrow!
I was able to not only finish my in house oral exam and the checkride but the Adv. Meteorology course today! I didn't do as well as I would have liked in AWX but I was able to score above a 90%. Very low in my books, but hey, I completed all three qualifying events in one day. Take that for some thought.
Tomorrow morning at 0900 EST, I will be beginning the DE (Designated Examiner) Oral Exam and Checkride. To be a Commercial Multi-Engine Pilot or not to be...that is the question. Stay tuned!
If all goes well, I will be making the transition to jet systems very, very shortly! I also go home next Saturday!!! Not this upcoming one, but the following on the 24th. So you know what that means, I don't have any time to buy presents because I'm booked till I leave. Sorry guys! Definitely next year when the inflow starts happening again!
Too early in the game, we took chances that helped us lose. The two turnovers and just plain awful secondary helped contribute to what we could call the end of our season. With the schedule ahead of us, it looks very unlikely, unless a miracle can happen, that you would see this awesome team in the playoffs.
It's also 2:19AM and I'm still working on some flight planning. Call me a slacker, but I want to rock on the oral exam tomorrow! I don't even know what time I go in.
Today was a great flight before my Commercial Multi-Engine End of Course. It was the preride check and I was able to perform my maneuvers per PTS if not just a little off. I'm sure that I'll have it down before the actual ride this coming Monday. It was a stress free flight. It was also the first time that I got to fly into Ocala Airport. For all of those who do not know, Ocala airport is near the Private Strip called Greystone. This of course is where John Travolta lives. We flew over his house while I snapped some pictures. Check it out on the trelijah page. It was a really enjoyable flight.
There were a few things that I need to practice but I will try to do my best. My roommate Jeremy came along for the ride and his debriefings were very thorough. It was great to now only fly with another pilot monitoring but as well as another instructor to keep you up to date on your check line items. Good stuff.
I had a huge hamburger over at the Tailwind Cafe on Ocala Field. It was great! It was about the size of a hand and as thick as and inch or so. Damn good meal I tell ya! Almost on par with Islands in San Diego.
We took off and headed back to X47 and decided that my steep turns from the previous flight were sufficient! :-) Its on for this upcomming week! In house Checkride and the FAA ride this week. Wish me luck!
John Travolta's house! Check out the 707 and the other private jet, the Gulfstream 4.
A true college, matty p style dinner. Hot dogs cut up in some Cheesy mac and cheese.
Yes, a lot has been happening. With Manoj and I trying to "catch up" through multi-engine commercial phase, we are flying our butts off. Not only are we in the air for about 6 hours, but we bust duty days like they never existed. I mean, we are on track to finish on time but this is without our personal safety zone of performance being reached. What I really mean is I am confident of my skills, but not for testing purposes. We aren't even techincally behind the rest of the group. They just had better oppurtunities to fly out west and double on lessons where we were just doing one a day. Is it our fault that the date for jet was set without them knowing where we were in the course? I am not at all bitter because it is how the game goes. I am determined to finish and move along, but I do wish that I had more time to brush up on things. Being rushed and/or pressured is never a good feeling.
Over the last few weeks since the Asheville Entry, we have been to Peachtree, Georgia (near Atlanta), Pensacola twice with different instructors, Tallahase over again and just about anywhere else we could build time. It's been a great ride. We were 1 out of the two crews that were unable to go out west. I really wish that I had the chance to do just that. The stories I hear about what the cadets learn are just amazing. Makes me jealous.
I am also sorry for not being able to fly that one day. To everyone who does not know, I did go home for Thanksgiving because my mom really sounded like she wanted me home. I mean, come on here...it is a Holiday that pratically everyone takes off. Being that most West Coast flights depart early, I had to leave Wednesday morning which then caused me to miss a flight. I felt really bad that I let down a couple of people, but for reaching a finish date with the sacrifice of family? There is a thin line. Don't put words in my mouth either that this program isn't a priority. This issue was coming and was forseen weeks in advance and the one day that most people have off to travel, I get dinged?
Luckily, I was able to change my flight from December 23rd to the 24th without that much punishment. It only cost me $7.00 because of the refund due to ticket pricing changes. Good stuff. But with that being said, please don't expect any presents this year. I am copmletely broke!
My friend Andy is doing really well in China. I am really proud of how much he has learned and the website that he is maintaining. You're doing a great job Andy! I've been listening to my language CDs and speaking to my mom a little bit. I'm still in the pre-beginning of things and dialogue, but I think that I am actually getting somewhere. ^_^ I can't spell things, but pronouncing is a different story.
Go Chargers! Last night's game against the Raiders looked like a joke. We just need some key events to take place and we're in!
Well, you can see that I'm wearing a sweater in the plane and I'm just being a little tourist while still being a good pilot monitoring. The trip planning to Asheville, NC was awesome! I mean, I was definitely on top of things. I was made aware of a departure procuedre due to the mountainous terrain nearby as well as the temperature and dew point spread. Basically, we landed and the recorded temperature reached 1 degree Celsius. It was freezing cold!!! Being at an airport with an altitude that was 2165 feet really changed the way we briefed the approach. Also, with the weather being cold and gusty, we really had to sit down and just prepare for the flight. It was a great trip. We even got a crew car and headed of for some local North Carolina BBQ. It was pretty good too! Here's a shot of some terrain. The airport lies within a small valley surrounded by mountains. It was pretty exciting.
Well, today was a very good day where Manoj and I got to double up our lessons and somewhat catch up to the others. We went to Tamiami once again followed by a trip to Marathon. To get there, we took an east bound departure from Tamiami and headed towards Key Biscayne. We were VFR the entire time at 2000 feet so that gave us the opportunity to just use the Florida Keys and the US 1 Freeway to guide ourselves straight down. We didn't get to Key West today which is the southern most point in the US, but oh well...we have quite a few more lessons to try to make that shot down there.
On the way there, we encountered quite a few rain clouds and some other various cloud build up. Through all that precipitation, I was able to take a picture of double rainbows around the Orlando Area. Take a gander. Doesn't look like you can make out the one to the left of the vivid one.
It was an overall very productive day but we weren't able to get any food anywhere. We then just went for the vending machines at the Falcon Trust Air FBO and I had two bags of chips and a strawberry shortcake popsicle. How nutritious huh? Of course, on the way down, I had a nutrigrain bar and granola bars. I didn't get a chance to eat a good meal till around 19:30 EST after an entire day of flying. Oh well, I guess its all about busting our butts. Hopefully, I'll be more prepared tomorrow.
Oh yeah, also on the way to Tamiami, we got a chance to be about 3 miles from a Delta Boeing 757 jet. Looked a lot closely than it really was. We were passing right beneath him as he approached Palm Beach International.
Flying to Marathon was a great experience. Just overlooking the water and everything (sight-seeing) just made it really worth while. There was also a retired military jet landing there who was giving tours around the area. I have to tell you though that the entire time I was trying to land, there were some pretty good gusts of wind. It was reported at winds 100 at 14 gusting to 21. That always adds a little excitement to my crosswind landings. Runway was 7 at KMTH, so it wasn't that bad, but single engine maneuvering for final and touchdown is a task. :-) I had fun.
Here's one more picture of what winds in a hurricane can do to your aircraft while its on the ground. I wish the owner the best. This was taken while on the taxi way in Tamiami headed in to Falcon Air FBO.