What I've been up too...
Over the past few weeks I have been doing some flying, some studying, and having some really good times. My schedule in the month of July has been great. I am in St. Thomas every Wednesday and Friday night. We stay in a very nice Holiday Inn on the harbor front and at night I can walk around and watch the cruise ships leave out into the Caribbea Sea, in the morning I can see the seaplanes flying in from San Juan and St. Croix. St. Thomas is a beautiful island. During the day this month I travel to the island Martinique, Punta Cana, DR, and the island nation of St. Lucia.
Up until Thursday morning I have been studying for my 3rd "PC" or proficiency check in the ATR simulator. My first was at the end of my new hire training, last year was to get off of probation, and this year was my first real experience at a normal PC. It all went great. I took off out of Memphis, TN and did a GPS approach to a missed approach due to an airplane taxiing out in front of me before touchdown, then did some holding and returned to Memphis with an engine failure. After that I took off again and had a "V1 Cut" which is an engine failure at the very initial point of liftoff. After that went as procedures say it is supposed to go (lots of reading, pushing buttons, sweating, getting mad, and then returning to the airport), I did stalls and it was fun time! I had passed my PC and it was time to land the ATR on an aircraft carrier in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was so fun...but each time I feel off the forward end of the carrier into the bay. Since this simulator is full moving, it really feels like you are falling. At the very end I did a low flyby of the Statue of Liberty and at 250 knots I pulled up into a loop, however the tail broke off near the bottom half of the loop and I spiralled into the water. It was over and I was good to fly for another year! woohoo! I do have a sad realization that it was probably my last time in the ATR simulator for quite awhile. I really don't know what is going to happen, but the next time I will fly it (assuming there is a next time) will be during my captain upgrade training which should be sometime in the next 1 to 2 years if things continue to go well.
The American Airlines Flight Academy is an amazing place to visit. It is so awe inspiring to think that every AA and AE airplane that is flying anywhere in the world has a pilot who has been through this training sometime in the past 6 months. The facility is huge. There are 777 simulators, 757 simulators, MD-80, ATR, ERJ-145, SAAB, and Airbus simulators in two huge halls. The hotel that we stay at is a five story hotel with hundreds of rooms and an awesome pool. The neat thing is that it is entirely contracted to be an American Airline and American Eagle pilot hotel. The pool is filled with old and young guys and some women with their "red books" out studying for that days training. Each person has a totally different life and could live anywhere in the world. It is really neat to hang out there and talk to people.
Crazy Events
Well, each day if I get bored I walk out of my door to the beach and either go boogie boarding, swim, or just walk on the beach. When I feel really adventurous I drive down to the beach called Aviones and boogie board the big waves underneath the airplanes that are departing from the airport...hence the name "Aviones". I guess I have not put this story on the blog...A few weeks ago I went by myself and the waves were great...between 5-6 feet and consistent...which made it super hard to get out past the break. Well, there were only three locals out that day (which now tells me something to be careful of), but I took it as a good sign since this place is normally packed with surfers running over boogie boarders and then getting into fights over waves. I observed the other locals taking waves and then quitting halfway in towards the beach. I assumed that since many people here are lazy that they just didn't want to swim too far back out to get the waves...so I rode a wave all the way in..."stupid locals...watch how it's done".
To tell the truth, the reason that they were not going all the way in was because if they had, the wave will deposite them onto the top of a coral reef that is covered with sea urchins. I found myself in 6 inch deep water, I could not swim, and it was going to be a disaster to walk out. After laying there on my board for awhile I literally got scared that my nice new board was going to get destroyed and I walked the 15 feet of reef that was between me and a shallower pool area near the beach. It hurt SO BAD! I got out in severe pain with hundreds of urchin spines in my right hand and both feet. I sat on the beach for about an hour trying to figure out what to do as I pulled the large enough to grab ones out of my swollen foot. I made it home and then to Walgreens to buy pins and tweezers, after another hour of myself destroying my foot I asked my friend to help and she spent anther two hours, so after about a whole afternoon of mutilating my foot I was in decent shape to recover. I probably still have 50 or so in my right foot, but only once in awhile they hit a nerve and a sharp pain jolts me...otherwise just a few little foreign objects in my foot, "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger".
Thoughts on the future...
These past few days I really realized that I sure love what I do. I love the freedom in my life. It is absolutely amazing to be in an airport like DFW in Dallas, TX and look at the flight board and realize that you could be anywhere in the world in just one flight!
I chose to go to Houston, TX to visit my friend Josh from College, I had a great time in Houston and then flew back to Puerto Rico on a brand new Continental Airlines 737-800.
The world of aviation is so exciting with so many opportunities...I will write more about these soon when I come back from going outside...more later!
Next month is going to be great as well, I just got my schedule and I will be off each week from Thursday at 5pm until Monday at 530pm...with a 18 hours break to come home on Tuesday nights...
