The Sound of One Hand Clapping

June 15, 2005

The weather this weekend was crappy so I did not get to ride my motorcycle as planned. Also, on Sunday morning the command surprised us with a three hour class on Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). The class was intended to familiarize us with how to recognize and defeat roadside bombs, car bombs, booby traps and the like.

The class was actually pretty interesting. It was taught by a retired special ops soldier who is now a contractor specializing in hunting for and defeating these notorious weapons in Iraq. Brace yourself for some irony because it is coming up. The instructor -- are you ready for this? -- had one hand. That is right, we were taught a class on explosives by a one-handed man. Does that mean that he had valuable experience to pass-on or does that mean that he is exactly the person you DONT want to learn from? I dont know because he never mentioned how he came to be one-handed and none of us had the guts to ask.

I spent Sunday evening hanging out with Maltby and his girlfriend, Sarah. I was a little puzzled by their insistance that I come over for dinner but I couldnt resist a free meal. It turned out that the dinner was a pretext for a little belated birthday celebration. Sarah made a yummy cake that went very will with the beer and crab legs we had for dinner. She only put seven candles on the cake. I guess I have finally reached the age where people dont want to make the substantial investment needed to accurately reflect my age with candles. Oh well. It was a good cake and a nice thought.

I flew in the simulator on Monday. I did not fly at all on Tuesday or Wednesday. Rather, I took some of that time to stock the fridge and some to plan a route to fly on Thursday. There is so much going on right now that I doubt I will actually fly on Thursday.

Wiggling the Sticks

June 10, 2005

It is funny that, during flight school, the academics were easy. The hard part was "wiggling the sticks." I found last night that the mechanics of flying have come back to me much more quickly than the book work. I had a nice four hour flight entirely under night vision goggles. Moreover, I flew from the left seat. This is not the usual seat from which I fly. Despite the NVG flying from the left seat, I flew well. I felt like I could not, however, remember a single thing I learned in my classwork at Rucker. I answered question after question with a wild guess, a confident (but wrong) answer, or silence. When the flight ended and we were sitting in the pilot office, the IP nicely urged me to "stay in the books". "This should be easy" he added, "you were a lawyer." Without skipping a beat another pilot chimed in: "He must not have been a very good one - look where he is now." I know he was kidding but ouch.

Despite my aeronautical amnesia flying was the best part of my birthday evening. The bad part came after we landed. It turned out that I had been assigned as the "Staff Duty Officer" for the night. That meant that I had to sit from 0300 to 0900 on June 10th at the headquarters building, behind a desk, just in case an emergency occured. This was after arriving at work at 1600 on June 9th to prepare for my flight.

When 0900 arrived I was dragging my tail rotor. I could not go to sleep, however. I sold my motorcycle last week on ebay and purchased a lighter one for trail riding. The buyer was scheduled to arrive the morning of the 10th to pick it up. He arrived as scheduled and I said goodbye to the KLX650, my very first motorcycle. I am already planning a ride on my Suzuki DR Z400S for this weekend. Hopefully I will have some photos to share.

Watching and Waiting

June 9, 2005

This past week has been characterized by watching and waiting. Despite my instructor's promise to "fly me until my eyes bleed" I have not been in the air at all since my last flight one week ago. Rather, I have hung out around the hanger watching other pilots plan for flights and waiting for my turn to come. I have also, of course, continued to keep the fridge stocked with sodas and junk food in addition to taking out the trash, cleaning-up after the other pilots, and studying. This is the glorious, adventure-filled life of a new aviator.

In addition to watching and waiting, I am staying up all night so that I can "reverse out" with the rest of the company. Everyone else is flying at night and sleeping during the day. Even though I am not flying the powers-that-be decided that I should keep the same schedule. That means that I am usually sitting at home or at the hanger all night, bored, while everyone else flies. Exciting.

On the bright side, I am scheduled to fly tonight. If the weather stays good and no one else suddenly needs to take my slot I will be in the air from 2200 - 0200. Keep your fingers crossed.

I took some pictures of the planning session last night. You will see the pilots preparing a chalk diagram on the hangar floor for a dress rehearsal of the mission and another picture of them sitting in the briefing room. It is a relatively interesting procedure to observe. It would be more interesting to actually be part of it.

More Southwest complications

June 8, 2005

Earlier I posted about problems with Southwest. It turns out the day was just getting started. I arrived in Chicago with the rest of the of the folks from Las Vegas. We all headed down to the baggage area, the bags came up, and people set out on their journeys. Well, that is, everyone whose luggage arrived. I spent the time in the baggage service office and filed a report. They scoured the area and found nothing. The helpful clerks suggested it would arrive on the next flight an hour later and that they would deliver my bag to the hotel. Having waited most of the hour anyway I decided to wait for a colleague on the next flight. Then, 20 minutes before the next Las Vegas flight, the bag appeared on the carousel.

Janet, Southwest and funny people

June 8, 2005

Good morning from McCarran airport. After a frustrating time dealing with Southwest airlines I'm parked comfortably at the gate. Another hour will pass before the flight boards. However, a wayward passenger made a trip too close to the wall and now all the early-birds with their "A" boarding passes are standing for the foreseeable future.

The Southwest problems began when I arrived a little over two hours before my flight. Standing in line for an hour before any agents came to check in bags was frustrating. Then they arrived and said that although I'm allowed 150 pounds of luggage it has to be in three seperate bags or a $25 per bag sur-charge is imposed. So the extra books for boys state will end up costing an extra C-note unless I find another bag along the way to put five pounds of luggage in. Bah!

Dawn was making its way down the hills to the south of the valley as I arrived at the gate. There is always something spectacular about both dawn and dusk in the desert. It is a beauty that is unrivaled and unless experienced first hand is hard to imagine. The runway has been quiet as I write with the exception of a Janet Airlines jet.

It goes without saying that when I went to get a cinnamon roll Cinnabun was closed but Pizza Hut was open - at 5AM. This is going to be an interesting day.

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