GATOR ON NEW YEARS EVE

Well, I finished my last trip of the year at 0100 this morning. Maria and I headed back to Hollywood around 1100. As we drove past a small lake next to the hotel, I spotted a small alligator enjoying the warm sunshine. Maria thought it was a log until I tossed a small pebble in the water and the gator headed right for it. I think this little guy was probably around 3-4 feet long (1 meter or so). In the bottom photo, you'll see the little guy in the lake just below the shrubs reflection and between the two trees. Just goes to show you that even in town, you'll see wildlife hanging around. Pretty neat, I must say! Since today is the 31st of December, I'll wish everyone a very Happy and Prosperous New Year! Thanks for checking out my blog. See you next year!!! karl

CHRISTMAS LOBSTER

Well, what better way to spend Christmas than with your girlfriend and unlimited lobsters???? Yep, that's what I did!!!! Maria came up to Orlando (MCO), and spent the last few days with me since the flights to Madrid (MAD) were all oversold. What a nice Christmas present!!! We found out that the Boston Lobster house was just around the corner from the hotel so out we went, and boy were they goooooood!!! I think Maria loved them as much as I did too. Here's a couple of shots of us with the "Lobster mobile". One looks like the lobster is "interested" in the car, doesn't it? Pretty neat though, I must say. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I know I did!

IN BOSTON AFTER THE SNOW

Last week before I went to Houston for my annual check ride, I was stuck in Boston (BOS), during the major snowstorm. I waited almost EIGHT hours for my flight to depart.......ugggghhhh! However, all was not lost when the storm system finally passed over Boston. One of the most beautiful skies graced the horizon for a couple of minutes. Here's a shot of the sunset from the BOS terminal. This would have been a great picture if the catering truck hadn't decided to jump in. Oh well...................such is life.

AN INCREDIBLE SIMULATOR!!!

Well, I'm in Houston (IAH), and just finished my two days of annual simulator training. The first day we practiced engine failures, emergency procedures, low visibility approaches (CAT IIIa -- or literally such reduced visibility approaches with "auto land", that a human doesn't have time to react to land the plane, hence the airplane lands itself!!!), and instrument approaches with one engine out. The second day is a "LOFT", or line oriented flight training session (a real-time flight scenario, with an abnormal procedure thrown in to see how we handle the situation). It's definitely a "stressful" time of the year for pilots when they come to do their annual checkride. Our instructors were superb and made the experience a very enjoyable one for us. Here's some photos of Continental's newest simulator, which has only been operational for a couple of weeks. It was INCREDIBLE! The visuals, the "flying", and the realism of this machine was nothing less than IMPRESSIVE! Any person getting in this thing would think they were in a real airplane. Click on the photos to make them larger. Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. At least I can breathe easy once again!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

Well folks, unfortunately this will probably be my last post for this year. I'm leaving on a trip tomorrow, then head to Houston for my annual check ride, and then head to Panama City four times on my next trips.....with NO breaks in between. I won't be done till 1 January. Sooooo.....Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. Thanks for checking my blog and check back again soon. karl

"FAKE PARASAILERS"

Went to the beach today..........and it was gorgeous as always (30 Celsius, 86 Fahrenheit!!). Not many folks out enjoying the warm weather though. Even the folks riding the parasail were fake today. Click on the photo and see the "dummy" getting a nice free ride. Hmmmmmmmmmmm, must be tough to make money flying this guy around. :-)

BOB'S SENSE OF HUMOR

Last week during one of our flights, our flight attendant, "Bob", stopped and put his head up against the jet way. We didn't really understand what he was doing until he stuck out his arm and pointed to the other signs by him. I HAD to get a shot of this for you. It's certainly nice to fly with someone with a great sense of humor!

WHERE DO MY PHOTOS COME FROM?

So...........I'm finally showing you a shot of ME taking some photos (in St. Maarten of course), for not only my blog, but my website too. I get told a LOT, that my photos must be fakes.........but, after watching me take a few, people change their minds. My girlfriend Maria thought it was easy to take an airplane picture........until she tried to do it. She now lets me take the airplane shots.......LOL. By the way, Maria took this photo of me, and since I wasn't moving 160 miles per hour like a plane, it turned out pretty good. :-)

BEAUTIFUL SUNSETS

While flying to Houston (IAH) last week, we had two sunsets that caught my eye. I've downloaded them so you can enjoy them too. The "duller" one was taken as we were passing through the "snow clouds" that had just visited Houston, and the other was the next day. Hard to believe something so far away can generate such a beautiful site for us. Enjoy!!

NEAT CLOUD FORMATIONS

Finally home for a few days.........whew!!! The good thing is I have a week of vacation. The bad thing is that we're trying to move into our new home and I'm laying hardwood floors and cleaning up, so I'm not getting a vacation. :-) Anyway, here's a couple of shots of some incredible cloud formations that we saw flying from Miami (MIA), to Houston (IAH) last week. It was strange that this was the only small area of high winds which creates this "wind blown" look. My first officer and I couldn't get our cameras out quick enough. Luckily, mine is super fast and here's the result. Hard to believe the winds were almost 130 miles per hour at this altitude!

FLYING THROUGH A CONTRAIL

Here's a neat shot of what it looks like to fly through another planes contrail several minutes after the plane has passed by. Usually a contrail will fall approximately 3-500 feet or so, but this contrail held its altitude pretty well. We were flying at FL370 (flight level 370 or roughly 37,000 feet above the earth's surface) when I snapped this shot. Every now and then while flying through a contrail like this, we'll experience a nice "bump" or jolt in the ride. Ahhhh......all in a days work! Well, tomorrow I'm off to work for four days. I'll be back on the 6th........so see you then!

SANDBLASTED IN ST MAARTEN

While Maria and I were having lunch in St. Maarten last week (SXM), the daily KLM B747-400 was getting ready to depart. As you can see through the trees, our hotel (the Sonesta Maho) is VERY close to the end of the runway. That's one of the neat things about this place........location, location and location (the famous real estate saying). A minute after taxiing into position for takeoff, the throttles come up and the windstorm starts. Check out all those "daring" tourists getting the sandblasting of their life...................(we've all done it once just to experience it). And once is all they'll ever do it.....because it hurts like the dickens, and you'll be cleaning sand out of every crevice and cranny on your body for the next month. LOL Click on the photo to get the "big picture".