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!