December 2014

New Year’s Eve.

Earl and I, along with Jamie and Phil, are stationed at a Hampton Inn in Danbury, Connecticut this evening. We made the drive down to celebrate New Year’s Eve at our friends Kevin and Brian’s New Year’s Eve celebration. That’s what one does, celebrate at a celebration. We are looking forward to this festive activity this evening.

I drove us down here and during the four hour ride I let my mind wander a little bit. Don’t worry, I was still paying attention to the road and swearing at other drivers like I usually do, but I was able to think about 2014 in general and I decided that it was a pretty good year. I think 2015 is going to be even better, but 2014 wasn’t bad, not bad at all.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year’s celebration and a great start to the New Year.

31 December 2014 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 2

Moments.

I haven’t made any resolutions for the New Year in several years. I’ve been pretty happy with the way life has been going along and while I have accomplished a few goals I had for 2014, I didn’t really resolve to accomplish those goals, I just did them. I figured this was a good approach and it must have been, because I feel that I have been successful.

However, the idea of making a few New Years Resolutions has weighed on my mind over the past couple of days. Since I consider myself to be a work in progress, it isn’t surprising that I want to improve some aspects of my existence. I’m never satisfied with my health as I have dreams of becoming some sort of middle-aged superhero, apparently powered by mid-life crises or something. I consider myself a good-looking fixer-upper of sorts, I suppose. I started making the typical list: lose some weight, regain perspective on my career, take the next step in my aviation adventures, etc. But then I decided that I needed only entry on my resolution list:

Live each moment as if it was your final moment.

Living this way inspires me to be at the top of my game all the time. Am I happy? Am I productive? Am I contributing more than I’m taking? Am I doing something in that moment that I would want to be part of my legacy?

So instead of making a list of resolutions, I’m going to do my very best to do one thing in 2015: live each moment as if it was my last. I have a few goals that I will strive to achieve and few things I want to do and I few adventures I want to experience, but they will all be a string of moments.

And I will make those moments be the very best they can be.

30 December 2014 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

Flight.

So this morning I headed to the airport for the weekly class, which I call our “safety briefing”. Once a week, every Saturday morning, the members of our local flying club get together for coffee and donuts and an hour long presentation on various ways to better ourselves as pilots. The vibe is wonderful and similar to the events I remember from growing up around airplanes and flying clubs when I was a kid.

Right before the end of class, my (former) instructor told me that the student scheduled to fly right after the briefing had canceled and he told me I could take the airplane out earlier if I wanted to, since no one would be using the airplane. I had originally scheduled the airplane from 2:30 to 4:30 pm for Earl and me to enjoy a flight this afternoon.

After chatting with a few other pilots, we all decided that it would be fun to take three airplanes to a field about 50 miles away for lunch. We decided to go to Fulton County Airport (NY0) near the city of Johnstown. The airport in question is about three miles from where I work. I had never flown into the airport but I had been by the field many times.

I called Earl and asked if he wanted to fly with me per this new plan. It took some convincing; he was still in sweats and hadn’t showered for the day. I told him none of this mattered, because we would get to fly! He finally caved to my hints and met me at the airport 20 minutes later, just as I was finishing up the pre-flight of the club Cherokee 140.

Since this was a spontaneous flight of sorts, I didn’t get the chance to do hours of preparation like I had during my training. I knew where I was going and I knew that I was fully capable of the flight, but it was a weird yet exciting feeling to be doing this. We needed to fuel up the airplane; the others left ahead of us by about 15 minutes. Fueled up and ready to go, Earl and I made the flight. It was a little hazy and I was a little nervous about all these new elements that I hadn’t experienced before, but overall the flight to Fulton County was quite enjoyable. Earl asked me many more questions today. He’s really intrigued by this General Aviation thing and he seemed to be having a great time. Fulton County doesn’t have a control tower, it’s “pilot controlled” in that we watch for airplanes that might not have a radio and we announce our intentions all along the way to landing. I made my radio calls and before we knew it, I made an excellent landing on runway 28. Our fellow pilots were waiting for us and let us know that the restaurant was closed. Ack, no food after all.

Earl and I took a selfie, something that we’ll probably do at many airports over the coming years. Earl then took a photo of the group of us.

While we were there shooting the breeze, another pilot based at the airport went up and practiced some touch and goes and then various stunts. If you look closely, you can see his yellow airplane in the gorgeous sky.

Afterwards, we all departed, one right after another and flew to our home airport. Earl and I were in the Cherokee 140 while the other two airplanes were Cherokee 180s, so they had a few more horses to play with, but we brought up the rear and was able to watch one of the other airplanes land just as we were arriving at the airport. Another excellent landing and it was time to put the airplane away.

Days like today are the reason I became a Private Pilot. The adventures have just begun.

27 December 2014 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

First Passenger.

I took Earl for his first flight with me as Pilot-In-Command. We decided that it would be a short flight and that we would highlight just a few things in the immediate area. We flew over the house, flew over Earl’s work and I showed Earl a couple of landmarks around the house. It was a great way to get him acquainted with flying in a single-engine airplane and with his husband as the Pilot-In-Command.

Earl had a wonderful time and took quite a few pictures. The flight was smoother than he thought it would be and he was impressed by my landing skills. He wishes airline pilots could land their airliners as smoothly as I landed the Cherokee 140.

We took this selfie at 3000-feet. He’s not sitting in the backseat, but rather just with the seat all the way back so he had plenty of leg room.

26 December 2014 by J.P. Fly. 0

Merry Christmas.

There’s no snow on the ground, the winds are howling at over 30 MPH, but there’s warmth and happiness in our home this Christmas morning.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a joyous day, no matter what you are celebrating today!

25 December 2014 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

Destressed.

So as I mentioned briefly in yesterday’s blog post, yesterday I passed my checkride with an FAA Examiner and I am officially a licensed Private Pilot. My license allows me to fly a single-engine, land based aircraft (vs a seaplane) in VFR, or Visual Flight Rules conditions. Basically, I have to stay out of clouds. I can go above clouds, as long as I can get back under the clouds without passing through clouds to do so. I can also fly at night and I can carry non-paying passengers.

I think I’ve had some amped up, self-inflicted stress during my whole flight training experience, with the stress levels being especially high since I passed my oral exam in November. Normally, the oral exam and the checkride go hand-in-hand, but flying in Central New York at this time of year is a roll of the dice when it comes to weather. Thankfully, yesterday turned out to be a good, yet challenging enough day, to keep me on my toes with the examiner.

I’m still struggling with the idea that I have my license, because honestly, for the past 46 years I have dreamed of becoming a pilot and it seemed unobtainable at times. Flying airplanes is a thing that great people do, at least in my understanding of the world, and I feared I wouldn’t be great enough. This added to my stress. This was a needless addition.

I hadn’t slept very much between the oral exam and checkride so I thought for sure that I would sleep like a rock last night. Surprisingly, I didn’t. I would startle myself awake, probably from my body just letting go of some of the stress I had piled onto my psyche. I have a headache this morning and I know it’s from my mind trying to relax; I’ve felt this way only a couple of times before: after nailing a particularly challenging exam in college and after getting through my first role with speaking parts in one of my high school musicals. It’s a high and a crash at the same time.

So now that the realization sets in that I can fly the airplane when I want, with whom I want and wherever the airplane will take me, I’m starting to daydream about some things that I want to do as a pilot. I’ll be starting up classes again next year so that I can fly in the clouds if I need to. I want to get my commercial license so I can fly around aerial photographers or whatever. But more importantly, I want to get in the sky and enjoy doing what I have learned how to do and to continue to share that joy with as many people as possible.

And for that reason, the stress melts away and the smile lines are reappearing.

22 December 2014 by J.P. Fly. 0

Accomplishment.

So today I became a licensed private pilot. I am now able to fly with passengers in a single-engine airplane. After 65 hours of practice time in the air, countless hours of studying on the ground, two written exams, an oral exam and today’s checkride, my first flying goal of becoming a private pilot is a reality.

I still can’t believe that I successfully passed my checkride today. I am beyond excited.

21 December 2014 by J.P. Fly. 0

Scared.

Sony announced yesterday that they are canceling the Christmas Day release of “The Interview”, a comedy starring Seth Rogan and James Franco. Their decision came after threats were made against theaters that would be showing the movie. The threats alluded to 9/11 type activity and this made key people nervous enough to cancel the release of the movie.

If you’re not familiar with the movie “The Interview”, it’s basically a comedy (and I’m sure I’m using that word loosely) about two journalists traveling to North Korea. Before going on their jaunt, they are contacted by the CIA with the request to assassinate North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. No fictional country or leader was named, the movie focused on the North Korea we all know and their current leader, who is often in the news for various reasons.

Setting aside the obvious political, social and economical differences between the United States and North Korea, I find it astonishing that this movie was actually conceived, scripted, filmed, edited and ultimately readied for a wide-release throughout the United States on Christmas Day. A lot of people had to have signed on board this whole concept, and it just seems wicked stupid to me that this movie was even made. Am I worried about offending North Korea? No. However, I find the use of real political figures in this manner to be quite tacky. Sony is really scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas and the inclusion of real political figures in this manner in the plot. What on earth were they thinking?

That being said, canceling the release of the movie after spending millions of dollars on it, hyping the hell out of it and then getting scared because of threats is rather cowardice. It shows that they absolutely do not have the courage of their convictions. When an organization can make threats against our country and then get a movie they don’t agree with canceled, it’s just another example of how scared our country has become. The United States has a scared population. At no other time in recent history has our population felt more terrified. It makes me angry that the execs can’t find the courage to stand up for what they believe in. You made the “art”, stand behind your “art”.

Unfortunately, “The Interview”, whether it’s ever released or not, is going to be in the forefront for a while.

Perhaps this is the real threat that we should be concerned about.

18 December 2014 by J.P. This Ain't No CNN. 0

Fresh.

Jeb Bush formally announced yesterday that he is actively exploring the possibility of running for President in 2016. I don’t know much about the former Florida Governor; all that I’ve seen thus far is that he’s not convinced that Global Climate Change is a thing. Honestly, to me that’s like a frog saying that he’s not convinced that the water around him is boiling, but that’s just my spin on it all.

With Mr. Bush’s announcement of actively exploring an official announcement someday, I have to admit that I find this all disheartening. I thought that the choices for both the 2008 and 2012 Presidential Elections were tepid at best; with Hillary Clinton always hinting that she may run for President in the next election, the idea that we may have a Clinton v. Bush Presidential choice in 2016 irks me.

Is this all we have left? Are there no bright up-and-comers inside the Beltway? How about outside the Beltway?

I can’t help but think that if we have a Clinton v Bush election in 2016 that voter turnout will be mediocre at best. I can’t be the only one in the United States that would find this choice too mundane, too much of the same same same. Do you know what happens when voter turnout is low? The crazy people make the decisions, because they’re too crazy to realize how crappy the choices are and they go out and vote and vote crazily. They vote on things like “who believes the Earth could be flat”, “who was there when Jesus was celebrating Christmas” and “who will make laws so the government can prevent me from burning my nether regions with coffee in the McDonalds drive thru”.

At one time I was rather worked up about the possibility of Hillary Clinton becoming President. Given the choice with what’s being bandied about right now, I’d probably vote for her, but honestly my gut says she’s been around too long and is way too entrenched in the political machine.

I know that my ideal candidate will never run, but I’d love to see some up-and-comer come in, be broad minded about social issues, be really conservative about fiscal issues and be super sane about world and national policy. My ideal candidate would the person that believes in a strong work ethic, that you earn what you get and that your life is your own business. Government would be small. Focus would be on the future, not the past, and we would double down our efforts to rebuild our country (infrastructure, etc) and then build from our rebuilt solid foundation.

I don’t think we’re going to get that with more of the same old, same old.

17 December 2014 by J.P. Political BS. 0

Odd.

Earl asked me to pick him up a quick supper as I was heading home from a pilot’s club meeting tonight. I stopped in at the drive thru. There were a couple of cars ahead of me, one at the pick up window and another at the speaker where you order. I put my window down because I figured the person in front of me knew how an ordering window worked and I would be up to place my order momentarily.

This is where it gets a little odd.

Even in the darkness of night I could see that there were three people on the car ahead of me. The driver was yelling into the speaker with what I assumed to be her natural voice, which was really shrieky, kind of like a mix of Fran Drescher and Rosie Perez over the racket made by your standard vacuum cleaner while it was running and someone was scraping the handheld vacuum wand across a chalkboard while alley cats yowled in heat at a nearby corner.

She was asking for separate checks for each person in the drive thru. Basically, she was placing three separate orders and the attendant was getting them all confused.

The hassle continued for 126 seconds. Then the shrieky woman went in another direction with the dialog, asking for assurances that she would have fresh fries, pickles on two of the three burgers, etc.

I jumped out of line, parked the a Jeep and went inside. I placed my order at the counter, paid and got everything to go in your standard amount of fast food time. I was headed back to the Jeep when I noticed that the same car had progressed from the speaker to the window but no farther. There was shrieking in progress. A line of vehicles has stacked up behind the car. I waved to no one in particular.

Who in their right mind creates such havoc at a drive thru window? It has never even crossed my mind to place separate orders under those circumstances, let alone place special orders.

Some people need to get out and walk.

16 December 2014 by J.P. Why. 0

December 2014

New Year’s Eve.

Moments.

Flight.

First Passenger.

Merry Christmas.

Destressed.

Accomplishment.

Scared.

Fresh.

Odd.

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