Puerto Rico Airshow 2007

I just uploaded these pictures from today's fun trip to Aguadilla for the Puerto Rico 2007 airshow...look for captions and stuff tomorrow.

Flying, Airshow, and Argentina...

Well, time for another update! Yesterday I finished four horrible (but fun) days of flying. I say horrible because everything seemed to go terribly wrong...all the time. It ended with my takeoff to St. Kitts two nights ago, during the takeoff roll (in heavy rain by the way) we felt some unusual thumps and both decided it was safer to continue the takeoff rather than do a highspeed abort in the rain. Turns out we lost a tire! So we spent the ENTIRE next day in St. Kitts stuck. The company chartered a plane to bring mechanics and a new tire over, and told us to arrive to the airport at 1030am (versus our scheduled 655am departure). We did this and the airplane was not ready until about 230pm. What a horrible day in the airport terminal in St. Kitts...

Two days before this I was landing in St. Lucia's Castries airport and here is what went down...

Our airplanes have what is called a pitch connect mechanism, basically it connects out control yokes to the elevators, it is relatively common for this to fail upon landing if you go into deep reverse with the nose wheel still off of the ground. Every ATR in San Juan has a "pitch rearm" button to press incase of a pitch disconnect. However, one ATR has the button but nothing "beneath the button". This was our airplane!

So we find ourselves on day two of four landing in St. Lucia and whenever I land there I try to land soft, but if you are not going to land soft you "just land" to make sure you don't go off the end of the runway. My landing was not horrible, but somehow when I did go into deep reverse with full braking, the pitch disconnect happened...in our airplane this equals stuck the entire afternoon in St. Lucia! Not too fun...so in the end I was supposed to fly 96 hours this month, and after being removed from one day for my captain to give training to a new first officer, and after these two MTX problems I am flying like 64 hours and getting paid for 97 or 98 hours this month.

This Saturday I am going to my first Puerto Rican airshow!!! Blue Angel #7 will be doing solo performances, there will be a B-2 flyby, and sounds like lots of other cool things. It will be at the Aguadilla airport on the northwest coast of Puerto Rico.

I will be in Argentine from May 1st until early on May 5th...it should be a good time and I will upload lots of pictures after the trip. I will fly from SJU to Miami on an American 757, then from Miami to Buenos Aires on an American 777 overnight flight...9 hours south from Miami!!!

My day in a few sentences...

1) Pants ripped in front of passengers...
2) Broke airplane in St. Lucia, made 54 honeymooners miss all their connections...
3) Flight attendant tried to help me and stuck the stitching needle into my leg...
4) Two missed approaches from heavy rain and no visibility...
5) Only had one meal...wanted to throw it up from chocking on a chicken bone...
6) Because of rainforest "bruises", I can't sleep or use seatbelt without severe pain...
7) i'm sure something else bad has to happen today...

More Travel and More Caribbean...

This is yesterday on the way home from St. Kitts, seeing the top of the volcano with no cloud cover happens like 2-3 times per year so we buzzed the top to get some pictures!!! Sorry FAA...

I didn't quite get it, but at the very bottom is a small lake that is a really light greenish-blue.

On the way in to Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport, St. Kitts.

Before I learned to put the camera closer up to the windscreen...

Monserrat Volcano is getting mad again! YES!

Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, Yes Runway 10-28 is still closed, only one year behind schedule...but in Puerto Rico things like this are normal...

On the way out of Princess Juliana Internation Airport, St. Maarten, French West Indies.

New York City! I was here for a couple days over the long Easter weekend, I had a great time with my friends from Columbia University! Thanks Vika and everyone! I learned how to use the New York subway system and I find it absolutely amazing! Some of the best talent in the world is playing music below the streets in NYC.

Atop the Empire State Building! It was snowing in April! Ouch.

No more World Trade Center thanks to Islam...

Happy Easter...

Yes, I'm still alive! My internet is barely working so no pictures right now, plus I'm on my way out to the beach! I had a great time with my cousins in Puerto Rico and I just got back last night from a great time in New York City for a few days! I'll make blogs soon about both of those experiences! I have just finished about 5 weeks of straight spring break due to visitors...I'm almost dead and I'm going to take a major break from everything for the next couple weeks...more soon!