Prado del aire

ROAD TRIP… Portland, Yakima, Olympia, Mt. Rainier,...

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:52:02 -0400

ROAD TRIP… Portland, Yakima, Olympia, Mt. Rainier, Astoria, Kelso, and back to Portland.

mah ruckus, before i got it mudded-up

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 12:50:33 -0400

mah ruckus, before i got it mudded-up

Photo

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 12:49:03 -0400

flight deck of a USAF C-17 Globemaster

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 23:53:15 -0400

flight deck of a USAF C-17 Globemaster

Photo

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 23:45:11 -0400

burners lit

a shit hot departure

the overhead brake. vapors!

F-15s returning to base.

howdy folks

C-17 taxiing with the ramp down.

C-17 high-performance climb

the C-17 flight deck

Oh magical, holy Pho, deliver me from these cold germs.

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:57:55 -0400

Oh magical, holy Pho, deliver me from these cold germs.

retard internet

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 13:56:39 -0500

holy shit… I get to think in English for a minute. Internet here blows goats, big time. retard speed, never free. Hence, no pictures. Even if I were connected to wi-fi… it would take days to upload photos. I’ll try again and hope for better luck later.

2nd day in Colombia… maybe it’s my 3rd… I’m losing track.

I’d like to say we walked from one end of Bogota to the other, but in reality, we only saw a small part. Leaving the house at 7am, we walked all over the city and got back after midnight. Salima’s parents are super nice, so is her brother in law - cracking jokes in very poor English but he was having fun making the effort. I met her sister, too.

I think we overdid the walking Bogota. 5 blisters on my feet, the likes of which I’ve never seen, and aggravated a recent running injury (thank you, dog - thank you, squirrel) to the point I had to ask to stop several times as, at times, one or both of my knees were at about a 8.5 on a scale of pain from 1-10. I hated that, I don’t tolerate complainers well… so it took brutal, tear-inducing pain for me to overcome my stubbornness and ask for a break.

unbelievable, and such poor timing to have knee issues.

We arrived in Cartagena yesterday, saw the sights, and today played in the ocean in front of the hotel. We both got massages on the beach… It was lovely and much needed.

For the most part, there hasn’t been too much of a language barrier, though a few times I’m asked a question very quickly, and I don’t get any of it and have to look to my friend to the rescue…often times she will repeat what was just said more slowly, or fill in a word I don’t know.

Off to lunch.

I’m a millionaire!!

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:30:00 -0500

I’m a millionaire!!

My next leg. Crossing fingers for a stiff tailwind.

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:37:56 -0500

My next leg. Crossing fingers for a stiff tailwind.

Just as I sat in my seat and buckled up, the overhead compartment above the row in front started...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:30:10 -0500

Just as I sat in my seat and buckled up, the overhead compartment above the row in front started leaking on a lady.

Everybody was WTF? The flight attendant got paper towels as a passenger was getting his bag to better seal his water bottle.

They asked if that’s ever happened before. Unfazed, she said “oh yeah, but it’s almost always liquor”.

Sunset over the rocky mountains, as seen at cruising altitude in...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:44:35 -0500

Sunset over the rocky mountains, as seen at cruising altitude in N33292, a Continental Airlines Boeing 737-824.

This 737 rolled off the line in 2004. Didn’t catch the...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:55:30 -0500

This 737 rolled off the line in 2004. Didn’t catch the registration as I was the last person aboard and hurrying.

Photo

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:54:00 -0500

Waiting for the train. 4:10am

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:53:34 -0500

Waiting for the train. 4:10am

Why fly looking like a bum? Prado flies in style (even if...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:55:15 -0500

Why fly looking like a bum? Prado flies in style (even if I’m in coach).

“Negative, ghostrider, the pattern is full” about to...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:29:36 -0500

“Negative, ghostrider, the pattern is full”

about to buzz the tower at Sea-Tac at 330 knots in a widebody 787… (this did not end well)

Sleep, why have you forsaken me?

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:30:15 -0500

Sleep, why have you forsaken me?

"A runway is closed at Portland International Airport after a F-15 fighter jet blew a tire while..."

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:24:24 -0500

“

A runway is closed at Portland International Airport after a F-15 fighter jet blew a tire while landing.

Crews are cleaning up tire debris but commercial air traffic hasn’t been affected, said Kama Simonds, a spokeswoman for the Port of Portland. No injuries were reported.

The 142nd Fighter Wing of the Oregon National Guard is taking part in F-15 night-flying exercises this week, the Oregon Military Department said. They began Monday and will last until Thursday.

”

- Kate Mather, The Oregonian 12/07/2011 6:47 PM

While I should be sleeping, considering I need to wake up around...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:00:24 -0500

While I should be sleeping, considering I need to wake up around 3am, I couldn’t help doing some touch-and-go’s in a 787 simulation.

In this photo, I’m on the short-final into KBFI, Boeing Field, in Seattle… and United 747 decided at that moment to roll forward for the hold point to cross right in front of me.

Instead of a go-around, being very low on fuel, I shot the landing anyway, and greased it with half the runway to spare.

seasoned traveler

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:42:48 -0500

I was taking pictures of a Boeing 777 paint-ferry leaving Portland one afternoon, and noticed an old man watching the runway, as rapt as I was.

Out of the blue, I went over to talk to him, wondering if he was there to see the 777 departure too, but he didn’t know about it, but lit up like a christmas tree.

We talked airplanes for a good while, and before I left, he left me his card. Adron F. Hall, Oceanographer, retired. He asked me to email him photos of the incredible sierra hotel departure the Boeing pilots made, and since then, we’ve exchanged a few emails.

This afternoon, just before my first flight to South America, I received this email from him about his tabulated flying data:

I have flown 303,380 miles on 368 flights. Airplane tally is 46 different types on 35 airlines. 68 flights have been on B-737s, the first in Dec. 1968, Fayetteville, NC, to Wilmington, NC. I had invited a nursing major from UNC-W to take a flight to see if she wanted to be a stewardess. She did, but never did follow thru!

Also, I have landed/took off at my hometown airport of Wilmington, NC (ILM) 36 times, the first times in Piedmont Airlines Martin 404s and a DC-3. My greatest # of flights have been in/out of MSY (New Orleans)=95, and PDX (Portland, OR) 43 trips.

Recently I landed/departed my 100th airport, ABQ (Albuquerque, NM) on Southwest Airlines enroute PDX-MSY.

I guess the most incredible flight was Washington, DC to LAX to HNL to Guam to Okinawa to Taipei, Taiwan…was 29 hrs on TWA Flt. 2, their round-the-world flight. TWA Flight 1 went the other way, i.e., clockwise around the globe!!

And lastly, Delta has flown me on 50 flights and United 38. But an interesting # is a combined 99 flights on Piedmont and US Airways (Piedmont was taken over by US Air….about 4-5 years ago, US Airways adopted Piedmont’s color scheme for their aircraft - - made me feel quite good for my first little airline there in NC…it started up in Winston-Salem.)

My first flight was on an Eastern Constellation Raleight-Durham, NC to CHI to attend Navy boot camp.

Flying is fun, except the 10-hr. treks across the Pacific and the Atlantic!!