The New Year...

2006 is Over!

Happy New Year!

This year has a been a wonderful year for me. I met a wonderful girl on the beach, had some amazing experiences in the air, traveled around the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, passed my probation checkride at American Eagle, and many other wonderful things happened to me. I am very fortunate!

I hope everyone has a great start to the new year. I'll post alot more pictures when I have time.

No entiendo nada porque soy gringo...Felicidades!

Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish everyone or nobody (whoever reads this) a very Merry Christmas!

My Christmas will be spent in Barbados on a short overnight. It seems like almost all of our overnights are short these days. The only two good ones that I can think of are Canouwan Island and Nevis. Those are the only two islands that I really enjoy on our ever increasingly "efficient" schedules.

For example, last night I arrived at the airport at 7am. After a full day of flying, we took off a little late at 530pm for our three hour flight to Trinidad. So at 830pm we landed, by 900pm we were through customs and waiting outside for the taxi. After a 30 minute taxi drive we were finally at the hotel. It is now 945pm and I am walking down the road to a Long John Silvers for my highlight of the evening...crabcakes fast food style. Well, after I find it is closed for a company Christmas party I get a Strawberry shake for dinner at a little ice cream store and go to bed. At 5am my phone rings and it is time to get up...25 minutes to shower and get dressed, 30 minutes in the taxi and then three hours over the ocean...

Maybe you could understand now why pilots take off on wrong runways and make mistakes sometimes...do this kind of schedule for a few months and you are TIRED.

Goodnight and Merry Christmas from San Juan, Puerto Rico! Tomorrow I am up early for the "ping pong". We take off early and here is what we do: SJU to Santo Domingo to St. Maarten to Santo Domingo to SJU.

A sunset depature from San Juan

I guess it is time for an update!

Hello Loyal Readers,

I have been very busy with other stuff for the past month I guess! Anyway, I have so much to talk about that today I will skip sleeping/waiting while stuck in Culebra, microburst adventures while flying, car troubles, great fun times, and taking my inflatable raft out to an island and hitting coral...and partially sinking. What I will talk about is....flying...(and all the loyal readers just stopped reading).

Today and over the past few weeks I have had some moments up in the air where many feelings and emotions go through my mind. I never really talk about this to the people in my life that I really care about, but I want to try to explain why I will fly airplanes until something like jail or death stops me.

Flying makes all earthly problems go away...

The other day I woke up early for a two day trip and I was tired and not feeling too well. When I got into my car I found that in all the heavy rain the night before my window had leaked and water was all over the inside of my car. When I started the engine there was water or something in the gas line and it took a long long time to make it to the airport on probably one cylinder. I had two choices...have the engine quit or floor it and go fast, which is the only time the engine really worked as it should. Anyway, after all this and then the even bigger hastle of the incompetent TSA people at the airport it was finally time to fly.

We lifted off into a nice Caribbean morning, scattered clouds, light winds, and the whirr of the two turboprops in the background...suddenly I had no water in my car, no engine that didn't work, and was not mad at the security people...they didn't exist to me anymore! The only thing up there is your thoughts and voice in your head, clouds, easy procedures to depart the area that are now so routine my body just does them, and the blue sky.

Nature is more beautiful from the air...

Sometimes I get tired of seeing litter or things that are run down...as soon as I am airborne there is no trash, just mountains, clouds, sun or moon, and ocean. Today I flew into Dominica, usually I just see a monkey or two jumping or sitting in trees as we fly down the ravine toward the runway...imagine looking left or right and only seeing awall of green. This is what is is like, ocean ahead with huge waves splashing into the rocks at the end of the runway, a banana farm below, mountains to the right, and lots of trees to the left...with monkeys. Well, today I was fortunate enough to see even more! I saw two whales off the coast of the rocky island! It is amazing to me that right now as I type all this nonsense that there are thousands of whales and huge ocean creatures in the seas doing there things that they do...they don't care about us...we don't really ever think of them. But it is all happening...all the time.

Life could always be worse than it is...

Somedays I am around people who hate life. They hate Puerto Rico, they hate the company, and they hate people. Sometimes it is tempting to agree with them and get into the mood of criticizing everything and doing nothing about it.

When I fly to Dominican Republic and see a BEAUTIFUL countryside I am amazed to think that people will risk death by boating to Puerto Rico, or even try to jump into the landing gear wells of airplanes! All departures from the DR in large aircraft are escorted by a truck or dirtbike until takeoff...just to keep people from trying to jump into the aircraft! How can we complain about our life if people are willing to die trying to leave what I (and you would too) consider a beautiful country?

Also speaking of "life could always be worse" today I came home for a two hour break in flights. I ate some breakfast then went onto my computer just to waste some time. I found a website with cockpit voice recordings and NTSB movies of air disasters. One in particular struck me. I watched the AA flight that crashed out of New York shortly after 9/11. It showed me how in a split second everything that we are worried about or mad about can mean nothing. There was a guy I knew a little in Canouwan Island in the Grenadines who worked on the ramp for American Eagle. The other day he got into an airplane called an Islander to catch a ride to St. Vincent...his home. The plane disappeared in deep water somewhere in the approximately 30 miles between Canouwan and St. Vincent. Neither he or the pilot were ever found.

No I am not a new philosopher or anything crazy like that. I just wanted to share how I felt today with the internet (since I have no idea if anyone actually reads this garbage). Until next time...

Four days of flying...

I am enjoy a few days off as we speak. I had a rough four days of work that just ended. First, a three day trip that flew 21 hours and 56 hours away from base, then about 6 hours at home in my bed then a day trip that had four legs and almost 7 hours in the air. This kind of schedule relaly makes you tired. I work "three on, four off"...the three on is what I get four off. We do 16 legs in the three days, the first night a St. Croix overnight then the second night in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

The pictures are first of the SJU International Airport. The picture was taken from 20,000 feet enroute from St. Maarten to Santo Domingo, D.R. The flight is called the "Ping Pong". You take off in the morning from SJU and go to Santo Domingo. From Santo Domingo you fly across PR to St. Maarten, then return to Santo Domingo, then from Santo Domingo back to San Juan. The whole sequence of flights takes about 9 hours away from home.

The second picture is of a Russian Antonov 124. It is a huge airplane! I saw it parked on the ramp in Port of Spain in the morning of our departure. The third picture is taken from 1,500 feet going 250 knots into Tortolla, BVI. The island in the forefront is Jost Van Dyke. The only thing there is a very famous bar in the caribbean called the "Soggy Dollar Bar". There are always lots of sailboats in the harbor. In the background is the island of St. Johns, USVI.

Well, I am going to go finish up some laundry and house cleaning....adios!

Mi Casa en Puerto Rico

La playa está acerca de 30 pies fuera la puerta. Vivo 5 minutos del aeropuerto. Tengo a dos compañeros de apartamento, sus nombres son Doug y Matias. Nuestra casa tiene tres espacios y tres cuartos de baño.

More Pictures

Happy Daylight savings time! We do not celebrate that here in the Caribbean, so I will still have light late...




Well, I am little mad since I just spent a long time on a blog update and then it failed to save and I lost it all!

Anyway, I am posting some more recent pictures from flying and also a few older pictures that I never got around to posting. The pictures are of the volcanic island Monserrat. I fly over it about once per week on the way home from Guadaloupe. This time I could see the old destroyed town and the old pier. It was really cool...we could smell lots of sulfur even up high.



* I plan to finish my review of Caribbean islands soon, look for an update below, it will not a new posting.

A brief overview of the islands that we fly to...at least what I see of them.

This post is a little change from the usual propoganda that I post about how my life is the greatest and try to make all of you jealous. So instead I will post more propoganda about what I think about some of the islands. I sometimes have the feeling that no one in the Unites States really knows what it is like to live in the Caribbean or even what islands make up the Caribbean. I will try to give a brief overview of what I have found out so far through my experiences. It is a little late and I have a 6am sign-in tomorrow so I may cut it short and continue later. I will only include the islands that I have been to.

Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo: The capital of the Dominican. I dislike flying here because it is usually the 6am showtime like I have tomorrow. Otherwise a great place to experience everything from extreme wealth to extreme poverty. Great hotels in Boca Chica and the all-inclusive options make it really fun. Great highways leading around the coastline but otherwise all roads are dirt.

Santiago: Flew here today and it is always bad weather due to high terrain on both north and south. People are very nice and today a ramper tried to sell me his sister or something. They really need money and are hardworking great people.

Punta Cana: Flight will be full of annoying (and drunk) Puerto Ricans on thier way from one party (PR) to a bigger party (Dominican). On the very eastern tip of the Dominican and about 50 minutes away in the ATR from San Juan. All other passengers are teenage girls trying to be kidnapped or something.

Puerto Plata: I love to fly here due to a runway just on the water and high terrain very close to the airport. I can see extreme poverty on final approach and always look at the dolphins in the ocean. Not so far from Haiti and at this airport you will have a heavily armed man from the Dominican army provide security to the plane at the airport. Sometimes he is riding his dirtbike on the taxiways.

La Romana: Halfway on the airway between Punta Cana and Santo Domingo. Here we overnight at a resort that costs the average person about $300 per night. It is amazing to see such wealth from europe and the americas leaving the airplanes for thier vacations. Usually rich snobs.

St. Thomas, USVI

We have lots of daily flights (30 minutes or less of flight time) between SJU and STT. Basically you take off, fly over Fajardo, PR and then abeam Culebra and then land. I would say that the local people in St. Thomas are very unfriendly to outsiders. The whole island is a mountain sort of and the higher that you live, the more money you have in the bank. We all love the overnights in STT though because we can use cell phones, no customs, and the hotel is only about 2 minutes from the airport. I enjoy it here.

Tortolla "Beef Island" BVI

WOW...I really hate tortolla. I love the island from the air, it is so beautiful! But when you land you have government red tape, incompetent workers, and usually a weight restrcited airplane due to the very short runway...which sometimes leads to late departures and furious people left behind.

I can't just say I hate the island and leave it like that. There are widespread problems with water being available and no good options for hotels. I avoid overnights there now, but in the past I became accustomed to sleeping with a few animals in my room flying around or walking around. I think that the reason this island is popular is because of the sailing...and only sailing.

Anguilla

An island for rich people only! Very close to St. Maarten, in fact you can see it from the hilltops in SXM...to the north. This island is a good place for us to sleep in a nice hotel. Great beaches and a nice european environment. They (europeans) are always cleaner here in the Caribbean it seems.

St. Maarten

I am in love with this island. Absolutely in love with it. Perfect beaches, nice people, cheap prices and lots to do. Maho beach is one of the most famous beaches in the world since it is just feet from where large aircraft land at the Princess Juliana airport. The island is split north/south between the Netherlands and France, the french side being to the north. Both sides are equally nice and there is no border. I have spent many days here and driven around the island a few times.

If I don't stop now I could go on and on about how much I love it there. A great place! I love to stay high on the approach to Maho beach and then dive towards the people on the beach. I know first hand that from the beach it appears you will die and the airplane will crash.

You can fly on WinAir in islanders to the south and the island of St. Barths. It is really for rich people and I love it there too.

Antigua

This island gets an "ok" from me. Nothing too special and nothing horrible. We used to overnight in a mental hospital turned hotel so that a little freaky. A HUGE facility, I used to wonder if some crazy person was murdered in my bathtub since there were stains that looked like they could be blood. The airport is named VC Bird and they controll a large portion of the northern caribbean airways.

My main thoughts about here is that I love taxiing in to the ramp in the ATR and parking next to the British Airways 777.

ok, I am getting tired but I will continue my Caribbean rating/evaluation from a crewmembers viewpoint soon. Next to come is:

St. Kitts
Nevis
Guadaloupe
Dominica
St. Lucia
Canouwan
Barbados
Aruba
Bonaire
Curacao
Grenada
Trinidad

And I will end with flying out of Miami to the bahamas.

Adios

The last two weeks

Sorry once again for the lack of updates, I don't know why, but this blog is turing out like me reading a book. I always start and almost always fall behind with it. The past two weeks have been amazing, I have done it all, from four wheelers in the countryside of the Dominican Republic to riding my bike today for four hours straight along the beaches of Puerto Rico.

I am enjoying work more these days since there is usually less of it. I am so fortunate that I left the University of North Dakota when I did. If I had delayed my decision by a month of two it would have made a huge difference in my schedule here. I would probably be still on reserve instead of holding 18 day off schedules and decent overnight locations.

Since I am already to the point of being bored of typing, I will talk about the major event since the last update on this blog...the trip to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Keyra was going to be there with her family for the long weekend, so I had an open invitation to come over and do some things. Employees of airlines have access to a website called Perx.com that allows us to get great deals in hotels all over the world. I went there and got a room in the all-inclusive "Coral Hamaca, by Hilton" for $59 a night. I think I ate that much money of food by the time breakfast was over.

I was really amazed in the Dominican Republic, there is absolutely no middle class. People there are either very rich and most are very very poor. I was stopped numerous times by poor people asking me to buy whatever they had to offer since they had nothing. They would go for any price that was offered. Keyra and I went behind a guy in a boat on a banana thing for only $10. He was just patrolling the shoreline looking for people who would take a ride. Everything purchased there is on credit too, they trust that you will pay and just give you whatever you purchase.

The most fun thing that I was able to do was with Keyra. We decided to live dangerously and go on a four wheeling guided tour through the wilderness to the northeast of Santo Domingo. The tour included a taxi ride for about 45 minutes to the start point and then 4 hours of non-stop four wheeling. The group was 2 guides and 5 tourists. One guide was on a fourtrack and the other was on a dirtbike. We saw things that were amazing to me. Naked children by the side of the road waving high, to immense fields of sugar cane with no buildings in sight. The paths/roads that we were on were usually very rough and the going was slow sometimes. And even one time the whole group had to come to a stop when the only gringo in the group broke his four wheeler. I somehow drove it too hard and broke the connection between the steering and the wheels. After awhile it was decided that I would take the leaders fourtrack and he would ride on the dirtbike while one guy stayed behind to try and repair the fourtrack. I had no idea that all the other fourtracks had been "toned down" in horsepower so when i went full throttle it was great! All the power made me feel great! It only took a little while until they took it away from me and gave it to Keyra which made me mad! The guy said in spanish that "he will kill himself if he keeps it". It was really a great experience.

Here are a few more pictures from the past few months as I continue once again to post the pictures that I have. There are lots more coming soon. Tomorrow I am off to Hewanorra, St. Lucia for an overnight. I will be home in SJU on Tuesday night and then an overnight in St. Croix on Wednesday night. On Friday I will be overnighting in St. Maarten. Next month I have a good schedule of being off from Friday afternoons to Wednesday afternoons. It is a good schedule called "three on, four off".

ok..pictures are not working now, i'll try again later.

Adventures of the last 24 hours

Yesterday I arrived at the airport for my hard day of work. A 2 hour flight to the island of St. Lucia with a 13 hour overnight. I was surprised to find out that at our regular airport of Castries, the fire and rescue was on strike so we would be overnighting in Vieuxfort, on the south side of the island. I was also mad to find out that our hotel would be an all inclusive resort. When we arrived it was sort of bothering to explain to the rampers how everything has to be done with regards to an ATR. The hotel was nice, but the food made me a little sick. I had two bowls of seafood soup...it was soo good! Until it started to come out of my body at will.

The pictures are of the Pitons, we got a nice view last night on the way in. The other picture is of a turbine powered DC-3 that I just saw land in Santiago, Dominican Republic. I never knew those existed! Pretty neat to see.

Going to work again...

Well...after a great weekend of no work, today I have to spend two hours in the cockpit on the way to Castries, St. Lucia. TLPC is a great airport...an approach over the water with the "Pitons" to the right, a mountain ahead, and resorts to the left. I will be there from 4pm today until 630am tomorrow. When I return off to Santiago, D.R. right away then off again! I'm still not done with the best pictures of the last year...here are a few more:

The past year in pictures...continued

The past year in pictures...continued

The last year in pictures...continued

The past year in pictures...continued

The past year in pictures...continued