OIL, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL AND MY PHOTOS.

Today we flew from West Palm Beach, FL (PBI), to Houston Intercontinental (IAH). Nice flight, but WOW.....fuel is going to kill us!!! $3.98 per gallon for jet fuel, and when you're burning one gallon per second in the climb for the first 7-8 minutes you can see how expensive this aviation stuff is getting. But today we not only had high fuel prices, air traffic control (ATC) decided to take us off our route SEVEN times for "spacing" into Houston. The wouldn't let us slow down or speed up, so we wasted hundreds of gallons of fuel GOING THE WRONG WAY!!!!! Amazing......... I'm sure if the government had to buy our fuel, they'd invest some money in updating our "third world country" air traffic control system, which seems to be stuck in the 1960's with it's outdated technology. Pretty sad in my book. The flight from IAH to San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU) was nice. We got to ride as "dead headers" (another term for crewmembers riding in the back to reposition for their next flight). I was talking to the flight attendants after they had completed their service when the topic of "favorite trips" came up. Mine, no questions asked, has ALWAYS been the small island in the Netherland Antilles, St Maarten (SXM). It has got to be one of the friendliest places I've been to in my life. Everyone LOVES being there! I also get to enjoy one of my hobby's and passions-----PHOTOGRAPHY! Taking shots of airplanes landing over the Maho Beach area in St Maarten is incredible, especially when some are as low as 15 or so FEET above the beach when they pass over your head!!! A lot of people think my photos are fake, but believe me, I'm not technilogically sophisticated enough to doctor my photos THAT good. :-) Besides, why doctor them when the real thing will do???? The beaches there are incredible too, as are the sunrises and sunsets. I LOVE THAT PLACE!!! I did show a few of my photos to the flight attendants working the SJU flight, and before long not only were they wanting to buy them from me, but the passengers in first class wanted some too. I've been handing out a lot of business cards lately, so I guess some folks like my work. Always nice to see someone want your "art" and act like it's the best they've ever seen. What an ego boost!!!
http://www.photosbykarl.net/