Here are a couple older pictures, 2004, from right before we moved onto the 36-foot Skagit Chief custom wood-hull trawler. We spent two full years living on the boat with it’s on-demand water heater, killer diesel stove, and 300 gallon fresh-water tanks. Those were the days.
We never took the boat out on our own, but we enjoyed the thought of it… that’s for sure. Living on a boat is an entirely different world.
I spent the last week with my great friend Earl from Juneau, Alaska. We enjoyed some incredible food and great sun. Check out a couple of the pictures :).
March 15th, 2009
On my way to pick up my friend at the Orlando airport, the space shuttle launched from the Kennedy Space Center. I was pretty close to the launch area (20 miles… I think) when the rocket took off.
Here’s a quick video. Audio is an archived MCO feed from LiveATC.
Press “HQ” to view it in high quality =)
One of my buddies here at Embry-Riddle did an instrument cross-country flight and I got to tag along! It’s a great way to learn more about the pilot’s end of the frequencies. We talked to ten different controllers ranging from Daytona Clearance Delivery to Miami and Jax Center! It was a great trip!
Huge thanks to Brad and his instructor for letting me tag along.
Here’s a video from the 3.7 hour flight in Riddle’s Cessna 172.
Wow! I received a great letter from the National Society of Collegiate Scholars this weekend! It’s a great, prestigious, nation-wide honor society that offers a lot more than just a line item on my resumé.
The best part about receiving this nomination is that it really gives me a lot of motivation to continue to do better! I’m incredibly excited. There will be an induction ceremony in the fall; it should be great!
All of my classes are going well. My humanities class is really demanding a lot of studying… I guess that’s not something I’m very good at. My computers class is terrible… I can’t wait for it to be over.
Wow! What a great weekend!
For the holiday weekend, I took a road trip to Atlanta, Georgia to do a limited job shadow at the Atlanta air traffic control tower (check out their NATCA website).
I checked into the Best Western hotel with a room that had a great view overlooking the approach ends of runways 26L and 26R and the control tower. I could really see a lot of action!
I ended up spending about six hours in the tower. A huge thanks goes out to the nice guy that got me into the tower and let me plug in and watch everyone work. I saw and learned a lot, if you have any specific questions… please ask! Here’s a small video and a photo gallery to check out. Thanks!
I was overly excited as I sat down near the front of the classroom, waiting for my first air traffic class to begin. The room was filling quickly… it was a much larger class than I had pictured it to be! Mostly Air Traffic Management majors spiced with some Aeronautical Science majors, everyone seemed excited to be in this class. It wasn’t one of those required classes that nobody wants to be in; this was a real class. A real chance to learn.
I am partly joking/serious when I say that my teacher related controlling air traffic to having sex. He was trying to prove that this career really isn’t that stressful; that it’s all really a huge misconception that was created during the PATCO strike in 1981. The teacher also had some valuable insight into the ATC career, disproved other misconceptions (dentistry is actually the career with the highest suicide rate, not ATC), and a lot to say about the Federal Aviation Administration.
It’s easy to tell that this teacher is very knowledgeable in the air traffic control industry and has definitely served his time working as a controller. “I can’t offer advice to anyone about work, because I’ve never really worked a day in my life. I love my job,” the professor had only great things to say about his career. I’m very excited to learn from him and the other professors in the ATC department.
All of my other classes are going much better than I had thought they would except for what should be my easiest class, IT 109: Intro to Computers and Applications. It’s proving to be more of a pain-in-the-butt only because the teacher is the worst I’ve had since freshman year in high school. Oh well, right? Another challenge to face.
On another note, I’ve got my visit to Atlanta-Hartsfield’s control tower lined up for Martin Luther King day (5 days left!!). I’m hoping to write about it next week and maybe post some new pictures! Wish me luck!
Here’s an old recording from 2005 when my friend, Lee Reynolds, and I rented a drum set and jammed all night. This was entirely improv… it’s pretty neat! Enjoy.
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Finally, back to Florida. I almost didn’t think I was going to make it back! I had a great, busy time in Juneau and I loved being there, but I’m glad to be back in sunny Florida.
My flight out of Juneau was in a ground delay for about two hours… but I still made it to Seattle in time to make my Orlando flight!
Here are some pictures from my two Alaska Airlines flights as well as a video and some audio clips below. Check ‘em out!
Here’s a video, with ATC, of our approach into Seattle’s new runway. The video quality is a little poor, but you can see the American Airlines 737 that flew an approach for the parallel runway 16L. Thanks to Rae for editing the audio from liveATC.
Here is audio from our Alaska Airlines flight 10 from Seattle to Orlando. Thanks to Rae for editing the audio from liveATC.
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The Silverbow, where I’m currently spending my holiday vacation, is closed for renovations until January 2nd, 2009. Here are some cool photographs of the renovation and the cool people that I get to work with. I’ll add more photos to this post later, so check back (I won’t make a new post)!
Here are some new pictures after the end of “phase one” remodeling at The Silverbow. There are a few more changes to make, but we definitely got somewhere! I wish I could say I did some of the work, but I didn’t have a big part in it. Anyways, check it out!
Hey!
I had a great trip from Orlando to Juneau that remained nearly uneventful. My early morning drive was scattered with deer, but the rest of my day was relaxing. I was able to bump my flight from Seattle to Juneau to any earlier time, but I was still very tired when I finally arrived into Juneau. Tired and cold.
The weather in Seattle was fairly marginal and decreasing, but the pilots and controllers did a great job.
Here is an audio recording of my flight, Alaska 9, from Orlando Intl. Airport to Seattle-Tacoma Intl. Airport (Thanks Rae!) as well as some pictures from the flight and Juneau.
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