The road to my wings
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| Date | 24-12-2009 |
| Location |  |
| Message | (Thursday 1055) Just a quick message to wish you all a merry Christmas. Best regards GEA |
| Date | 22-12-2009 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 1720) We spent another day down at the beach club. I went for a, what turned out to be, long walk to a bay down the coast. I had seen some pictures of it on the internet and it looked stunning. So I had to go and see it for myself. What I didn't know was that it wasn't accesible by land, just like many other bays in the area. When I got there, the closest road was at the top of the cliff so I had to find a way down or turn back. I hadn't come all this way for nothing, so I found a passage where the water runs when it rains and followed it down. It was a bit sketchy at times and to be honest I was more cautious about the wildlife than anything else. You never know where those poisonous snakes are hiding. When Christopher Columbus landed on the first Carribean islands he said that it was the most beautiful land on Earth. That's because he didn't land on this beach...and maybe because he had been away from land for so long that he was getting desperate, but anyway. This beach was really beautiful. I was the only one there. I had it all for myself. Fortunately I had my camera with me so I've got a few pictures and a bit of video of it. It was well worth the hassle. Later on I did some snorkling and the marine life was so unbelievable. You don't have to go to coral reefs to see those colourful and strange looking fish. They didn't seem to be afraid of me at all. I wish I could say that the feeling was mutual but it wasn't. I was terrified of them, especially this big Manta Ray that was in the sand just under me at one point. I think I watched too many "Jaws" movies when I was a kid and they have their effect now. Tomorrow we'll be going to the mountains to see the water falls and swim in those pools under the falls. The water will probably be ice cold, considering that it's coming from the mountains so I'll probably play it safe and be the camera man for the day. /GEA |
| Date | 20-12-2009 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Sunday 1640) It's funny how you hear the same Christmas music, no matter where you are in the world. Some songs might be translated to Spanish but the melodies are the same as always. It's hard, however, to get into the Christmas mood when it feels like a hot summer. But I guess for the locals it's the way Christmas has always been. We went for a long walk today and enjoyed the local landscape along the coast. We walked by a Naval military base and the guards were armed with automatic weapons and bullet proof vests. The same's with the police when you see them. They're always fully armed and protected. I do wonder why, whether it's perhaps because of the drug wars. Anyway, so far we haven't seen any signs of crime but I guess with so much security around, one would be foolish to try to commit any crime. That's it for now. One of the next days we plan to take a cruise along the coast and another day we'll go on this tour to the mountains with water falls and crap like that. As they say; happy wife, happy life. Don't misunderstand me - I would like to see the mountains and the waterfalls too... /GEA |
| Date | 18-12-2009 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Friday 2205) So here I am in Mexico. First impression of this place is very good. Huatulco, as it's called, is not the usual tourist venue with a bunch of hotels, a beach and nothing else. It's rather unspoiled and very new to tourism. Everything is new and in contrary to many other tourist places, it's very efficient and the service is great even though most people still have a hard time speaking English. The village up the hill, on the other hand, should be very old fashioned and very "Mexican" so I really look forward to seeing it and getting a first hand taste of a traditional Mexican village. I thought I had made a good deal when I bought the vacation on the internet but it turned out that I made an awesome deal. What I wasn't aware of was that the vacation included all the food and all the drinks! So it was a good deal indeed. Perhaps it's great that I'm here with the family. Had I been here with some friends we'd get wasted every night and return home as raging alcoholics. It's such a big shock to go from -30C to +30C. However, none of us complained about it. Going back home will be the hard part. It's going to be painful stepping out of the plane back into the ice age. That's that for now. Tomorrow morning at 0800 there's an intro meeting by our guide and then it's time to have some fun and chill. /GEA |
| Date | 17-12-2009 |
| Location |  |
| Message | (Thursday 1340) The weather outside is just beautiful. The temperature is only just below freezing and the sun is shining brightly. You can tell that it's not too cold when Canadians drive around with their car windows rolled down (crazy bastards!) However, nobody is flying. The problem is that the snow and ice clearing equipment cannot keep up with the slippery stuff on the asphalt. Apparently the very mild temperatures combined with the frozen ground are a bad cocktail that simply cannot be beaten. As soon as they clear a runway, any moisture in the air freezes directly into a thin ice layer and makes for very slippery conditions so they're fighting a lost battle. According to the last met brief it's most probably going to stay like this the rest of the day and also tomorrow. For me it doesn't make much of a difference tomorrow but I was hoping to get at least one flight in today. Worse is for my friend, the hamster, who only needs one more flight to complete his course and move onto the Hawk. The problem with him is that tomorrow's the last chance for him to get the flight in before everyone goes on Christmas holidays. Then when he returns in January he's supposed to start the Hawk course on the very first day. If he doesn't make it in time, apparently he'd have to wait until March for a new start date. /GEA |
| Date | 16-12-2009 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Wednesday 2000) Yesterday I briefed my flight shortly after I wrote but we never got in the air. There was weather moving in and about half an hour later it was snowing heavily. Today on the other hand, I got two flights in. First one was a formation trip, where we practised the usual wing work, flat turns, fighting wing, fluid maneuvring, and mostly double attack. I also did a bunch of leading when we were in lead and it was all good fun and a great learning experience. Last time I had a dual form trip I did my first formation landing, which I think I forgot to mention. Today we led on the way home so I didn't get to do one. Then in the afternoon I had a CH flight where we practised the usual aerobatic sequence and then Barrel roll, vertical roll and vertical 8. From there it was home to do some PFL's from the pattern. The pattern wasn't fun to be in. There was a very bad wind shear, the nastiest I've ever seen. At times it was actually scary and I almost got us killed in one of the PFL's where I was late to decide to abort and overshoot. I think my instructor was pretty shaken after the incident too. By the time we landed they had shut down the pattern because of the windshear and the very slippery runway. I thought the braking action was good when I landed but then after taxi and shutdown we could hardly walk back to Ops because the apron was so slippery. The temperature rose from -30C to about -5C in a few hours and maybe that's what created the nasty windshear and the very slippery conditions. /GEA |
| Date | 15-12-2009 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 1230) By the looks of it I'll be doing a formation trip in an hour or so. The weather has warmed up a bit and the wind has calmed down so it's all good. This morning three of the Danes left for Denmark where they'll be spending Christmas. It's way too expensive to go to Denmark or Malta for Christmas for three people so that was ruled out shortly after I checked tickets and prices. Apart from that you "waste" a couple of days travelling and then you're pretty jet-lagged when you get there and when you get back because of all the time zones. However, a trip South eliminates all of those problems, especially if it's ordered "last minute," and I don't want to get stuck in this shit hole. So I did a search on the internet and found a cheap vacation (flight tickets, hotel and food) for all three of us to Mexico. So I booked it for Friday! So this Friday we go to Mexico, spend Christmas there and then come back late in the evening on the 25th. It's great because we fly from Regina, one direct flight and basically same time zone. The only thing I don't like is that it's a five and a half hour ride from Regina which is going to bore me to death and beyond. My only concern right now, however, is how well I'm going to perform on the formation flight later on. I think my brain is already quite switched off, thinking about holidays. /GEA |
| Date | 14-12-2009 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Monday 1910) The temperature has warmed up a bit since the weekend, however the wind has also been on the increase. This morning the wind chill was at -46C, which is well over the -39C limit. As the day warmed up and the temperature rose to almost -26, the wind was getting stronger and gustier so the windchill stayed at about -40C. At 1400 the control tower announced that they'll close down for the day as they weren't anticipating any signs of improvement in the weather, so none of us got to fly today. The planes didn't even make it out of the hangar. I was supposed to fly CH23 and then the solo CH23A later on but the whole programme just got postponed to tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will co-operate more. With all the wind we had, there was alot of drifting snow. It looks so awesome. From a distance it looks like fog but once you get close you can clearly see the snow drifting on the ground, especially across highways. If you look at it long enough it makes you dizzy because it litteraly looks like the ground is moving. That's it for weather bitchin' for now. /GEA |
| Date | 12-12-2009 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Saturday 1025) Yesterday was a hectic day. I had two formation trips before noon. The second trip was supposed to be a solo trip but because of the deteriorating weather, no students were allowed to fly solo missions so I got a "supervized solo" which means that they put an instructor in the back seat "just in case." He told me before the flight that he won't say a word and I should just pretend that he wasn't there. He didn't say a word or interfere at any point but it's still not the same as being completely alone in the plane. In short, it sucks to get a supervized solo. However, as you know, I really enjoy formation flying, so a couple of form flights was the perfect way to end the flying week. After the second flight we had the Bandit flight Christmas party, where we went downtown and played Curling. Most of us had never played it before - and I honestly doubt how many of us will play it again. I'll try anything once. After Curling it was time for the Officer's mess Christmas party with the famous Christmas draw. I had only bought for $25 of tickets myself. There were prizes for over $26,000! All the money from the draw go to the prizes, and on top of that the mess added $10,000 for prizes so the odds at lotteries simply don't get better than that. I won a $100 gift certificate to an electronics shop, so I got more than I had gambled for I guess. Have a good weekend. /GEA |
| Date | 09-12-2009 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Wednesday 1325) I had my IF pre confirmation ride yesterday evening and it was a gong show. Remember what I mentioned at one point about how simple things become so difficult when it's so brutally cold? Well, yesterday confirmed all that once again. I went out to the aircraft at dusk, did the walk around and started strapping in. By then my fingers were completely frozen even though I had two pairs of gloves on. Then I couldn't get the oxygen hose connected. The ground crew came over to help me and said "just blow on it and then plug it in." I thought he was joking but it actually did the job. Anyway so we got the plane started and getting the GPS programmed among other things was real hell, not being able to feel my fingers and all. We got in the air and I couldn't get the plane trimmed out properly, again, not being able to feel my fingers. Then I get close to Swift Current airport and ATC comes on with the usual long clearance and my pen wouldn't write. It was simply frozen solid. I tried to scribble somthing to get it to work but it just tore the paper into pieces instead...all this was happening while ATC is blabbering with an average of ten words per second like there was no tomorrow. I felt like crying. Instead I just listened as good as I could and tried to read back everything without mistakes. It worked. I did my approach at Swift Current and starting heading back home. Then I did a hold South of Moose Jaw and asked the IP to turn the heat up but it was already in "full hot." That's just great. So I did my high approach transition and landed. After landing the Nose-wheel steering (NWS) wouldn't work and we got a PMU fail light. Then after a couple of minutes of taxiing the NWS suddenly started working. I thought the torture was over but as I was coming out of the cockpit I almost fell on my face as my bunny pants got stuck on the side rail of the cockpit. I think that watching me was like watching the Coyote in the Road Runner show. Oh well, I passed the flight and passed the confirmation ride today, which means that I've flown my last IF trip in the T6! /GEA |
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