Happy/Merry (insert your holiday here) and a Happy New Year!

I only had 3 days of flights this past week, mostly practicing approaches and landings.  On Christmas Eve I flew across the country to San Diego with my eyes peeled out the window for any sign of Santa and his Reindeer making their global trek.  Its been nice being back in San Diego, even though it is a bit on the chilly side, even for San Diego its kinda cold.  Ive always said San Diego weathermen have the easiest job in the country... They must be working overtime with this stuff.

I would like to wish everyone a Merry/Happy Christmas, Festivus, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and a very Happy New Year.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready for this year to be over.  Hooray for 09!  See you all there!

Modern Day Nomad

1 Personal Victory and 2 Quirks

I hope you all enjoyed last week’s travel tips post.  I enjoyed hearing from you all about some of the things you haven’t heard about before, such as seatguru.com, and the no beep belt.  I’ll be putting them all to the test again this coming weekend as I fly back home to San Diego for a 4 day holiday break.  Call me twisted but I really enjoy travel days.  And as hectic as the holiday travel season is, I just can't get enough.  They remind me of the days I was young traveling with family and friends around the world.  When we would go on vacation it was normally during the summer or Christmas break.  I really would like to go back over the list of places I have spent New Years.  One of the most memorable was in Chile, in a park square singing songs with the Chilean Navy drinking the local beverage until midnight, then taking EVERYONE back to the hotel and "sneaking" in about 2 dozen people into our travel group's practical joker's room who was sleeping. Only to wake him up with Auld Lang Syne sung in 4 different languages. Imagine sleeping soundly in your room and waking up to 2 dozen people singing, and the guys in uniform up front! GOOD TIMES!

Lets shift back into flying gear...  

The last two weeks I’ve been shooting precision approaches (ILS) and practicing GPS approaches.  One evening we took off from Sanford (SFB) heading to Melbourne (MLB) to practice more instrument procedures and landing approaches.  Even though I had my hood on to prevent me from seeing outside for a simulated instrument conditions I could see down the left side of the plane at the communities we were flying over and all the homes with Christmas lights that  ignited the ground.  Not that long into the flight my instructor startled me with a loud “OH SHIT” statement.  I looked up at the panel and saw the low oil pressure light lit up.  I immediately pulled out my emergency checklist to see if this situation was on there.  As I was looking to see what to do, my instructor was already informing ATC we needed to divert to Titusville.  When I found the checklist all it stated was “Land Immediately.”  As we approached Titusville my instructor said “THIS IS FUN!”  And I had to admit… it WAS!  A little excitement was good.  We touched down at Titusville and pulled up to the Jet Center ramp.  It turned out they were closed.  My instructor called DCA to talk to a mechanic.  As he spoke I looked across the field and saw my old stomping grounds when I was with Zero G.  And there she was.  794AJ otherwise known as G Force 1 sitting happily on the ramp at her home.  I smiled remembering the good ole days that plane produced for me.  It was a bitter sweet moment.  My instructor called for me to get back in the plane.  After a bit of troubleshooting the mechanics declared it was just a faulty sensor.  We got back in the plane, took off, and went back home to SFB.

The last few days of the week were a special challenge for me.  Learning how to take off and land on short runways and soft runways or grass runways.  I think I like the soft field take offs and landings the best because in essence you are trying to do a wheelie in the plane as you go down the runway to keep from damaging the grass runway for other planes.  Basically you pull back on the yoke from the start and try not to lift off before your take off speed.  With short field takeoffs you hold the brakes, and throttle up to full power then let off the brakes to speed up more quickly and have a shorter distance to takeoff speed.  Practicing these were quite fun.  Of course you all may have heard me say in the past that I have a difficult time with landing the plane.  Every time my instructor provides some pressure on the yoke to get me safely on the runway.  We kept flying the pattern and coming in for landings.  After about 4 or 5 touch and goes I came in for another, we actually landed twice, but when I got her on the ground, my instructor informed me I had done it without any help from him. I was a bit astonished but the feeling I got was incredible.  I felt more free and in more control of my flying than ever before.  A weight lifted off my shoulders and a feeling of having drunk a Red Bull came over me.  I pushed the power lever full forward to take off again… I want to do THAT again!! 

I was having trouble with soft field landings.  My instructor asked me if he could show me one.  I of course agreed.  We came in and bounced in for a landing.  He laughed and said “That’s NOT how it should have been.”  Then as we took back off a few perplexed sounding words came from my instructors microphone and into my headset.  When I asked him what was up, he said to look at the power lever gauge.  0%.  I looked at the lever itself and it was full forward.  At minimum it should have read 100% power.  A call was made to Sanford Tower for a full stop.  The lesson was done, even though I would have liked to have kept practicing my landings.

So the last two weeks had some interesting quirks.  Nothing life threatening, and even if they were, it would not dissuade me from flying.  They almost make flying more interesting for me.  A challenge that would not normally offer itself to be practiced yet at my stage.

This coming week will be short due to Christmas.  I have one more lesson before I go up for a stage check.  Yet another oral exam, with a check ride after its completion at a satisfactory level.  Ground work with my instructor has been kicked up a notch.  Acronyms are being memorized and airplane systems are also put to memory.  I doubt I will get this out of the way before leaving for San Diego, which means I may have to study a bit during my holidays.  But that’s okay.  It’s becoming more and more fun as I achieve these small personal victories.

Holiday Travels

The holidays are here, and it’s the season for busy airports.  I will be flying to San Diego to be with my parents for Christmas and I thought I’d change pace and share with you all some of the things I have discovered along the years that have made travel easier, more efficient, and much more enjoyable for me.

Most people know you can make your flight much more enjoyable the moment you book it by having the freedom to choose your seat in the airplane.  Whether it’s the aisle, window, or emergency exit row you enjoy the most, most of the time you can get your preference if you book early enough.  Also it’s usually a crap shoot when trying to figure out which seat will have a plug to power your laptop, or which seat is best to watch the movie.  www.SeatGuru.com takes the guess work out of these questions.  When you are faced with choosing your seat, I usually open a new window in my browser and head straight over to seatguru.com.  Choose your airline, and type of aircraft (usually found on the same page you just left).  These guys make it almost too simple to pick the perfect seat.  A perfectly laid out cabin with color coding to know which are the best seats (green), and the ones to avoid (red) and the take heed seats that may be too close to the bathroom, or are in a colder area due to an exit door, or for some reason are narrower than usual, down to the “these don’t recline seats” (yellow).  Seatguru has really taken everything into consideration.

One of the most annoying things on the rise are the fees for checked baggage the airlines are now charging.  Here’s a trick I’ve picked up from some of my pilot friends who fly standby a lot to go on vacation.  Since they aren’t sure which flight they will get on, they try to avoid checking luggage all together.  If that’s just not possible check to see how much the cost to ship your luggage to your destination is.  Whether it be a family members home or the hotel you will be staying.  I’m not saying this is a perfect solution, especially if you are going more than one place on your travels, but think about this.  Not only are you protesting the fees the airlines are charging, but you have less to worry about when you get to your destination airport.  Leave everyone behind to claim their luggage while you will be the first one to get in line for your rental car or in the cab line.

TSA…  Airport Security… or as I have heard some people call them… The Airport Pigs.  It’s a necessary evil, and yes sometimes you get the one guy that just wants to be a pain in your ass.  So let’s try to get through this quickly.  My first rule to go through security is to never wear lace up shoes.  I only wear slip ons or flip flops.  Easy on… easy off.  Second Rule:  Get a “no beep belt.”  I hated taking my belt off at security and thought to myself it couldn’t be that hard to make my own belt.  I found myself at a camping store buying webbing and a plastic clamp style buckle usually made for quickly securing straps.  Not once in all the business trips I have endured had I ever had security ask me to remove it.  As a more stylish alternative, I recently came across Beep Tech Inc.  Leather belts with the option of changing buckles.  They offer the no beep buckle as well as a nickel buckle.  I personally only got the no beep version as I have another secret weapon of a belt buckle I use on non travel days. More on this second buckle later.  Rule three:  Everything goes into my carryon.  I mean everything.  Just after showing my i.d. at the check point, I take everything out of my pockets, including wallet, and put them in my bag.  Watches, sunglasses, keys.  The only thing I keep in hand is my boarding pass and i.d. just in case they want to see it again.  As soon as I step up to the xray belt, I put my shoes in a bin, pull my laptop out of my bag and put it in its own bin and follow it up with my bag in this order.  I walk through the scanner, and on the other side, shoes come out first, which I slip on, grab the lap top and place it in the bag and I’m off.

The next gadget I absolutely love is inside my blackberry.  Worldmatelive.  Whenever you book a flight, hotel room, rental car, or train online, and get a confirmation letter via email, you forward it to your worldmate live account, which can then read the info and create an itinerary.  You can access all the information via your phone right down to the gate number your flight is departing from.  You will never have to stop at the tv monitors to find out which gate to go to next if you have a connecting flight.  Just turn it on when you land, and you are off.  This isn’t my favorite feature though.  If you had to check luggage, this will tell you which carousel to expect your bags to come around on.  Many times I’ve traveled with friends who will stop to look at the tv’s to see where to go to claim luggage.  No need for that anymore.  Worldmate live has other features that are helpful.  Global area code directories, up to date exchange rates, world clocks, flight schedules, flight status, and world weather to name a few.  Recently they have added the ability to book a hotel room right from their application on your phone.  This is by far one of my favorite gadgets in my arsenal.

Next thing I want to talk about is the traveler’s new national pastime.  Searching for a power outlet in the airport.  I’m sure if you haven’t done this yourself, you’ve seen people doing it.  Most people have found a science behind knowing exactly how to hunt them out.  But what happens if you find a place to plug in but they are all being used?  I pull out my Belkin surge protector.  3 jacks and two USB power ports.  I have never had a problem asking someone to unplug for a few seconds while I put this guy to use, so we can share the outlet.  This thing is great for many reasons.  First, I never have to bring the full power cable for my gadgets anymore.  I bring the USB cables for my iPod, blackberry, and camera.  Normally I don’t have to power all three at once, in fact it’s usually just my iPod.  Secondly, it’s a great way to meet people at the airport.  Regardless if I have the outlet to myself I always use the surge protector, so if anyone else comes by, I am more than happy to share the outlets.  And third, this thing comes in very handy in hotel rooms.  Hotels are finally getting the idea of putting several outlets in a convenient location.  But some still are in the stone ages.  Plug this in and you should be set.

Let’s talk about these power cables.  They used to be the one thing I hated most about going into my bag for.  Not anymore! In fact, I get a kick out of reaching for these.  I mentioned in the paragraph above that I don’t bring the power cables anymore and just use the USB port cables.  How many of you keep all the cables in the same place only to have to undo all the knots even though you neatly wrapped them up in your personal patent pending fashion?  I’ll let you in on a little secret, most of those cables, come in a retractable style and can be found online or at your local electronics store.  I found mine at Best Buy.  This not only reduces the big ball of wire in your bag but makes it neater and much smaller leaving room for more stuff in your gadget bag.  I have one for my iPod, my BlackBerry (YES it DOES charge and data transfer) camera (same as the blackberry) and I even found retractable headphones.

Whew… you finally made it to your destination and can relax… unless you are on a business trip… in that case get back to work.  Some of the traveling I have done has taken me to some places where I have NO idea about the neighborhoods or how safe they are for travelers.  This is where the previously mentioned additional belt buckle comes in very handy.  When I find myself in a new part of the world or country that I am unfamiliar with, I have this belt buckle just for a little extra peace of mind.  It’s actually pretty useful for things other than protecting yourself.  I won’t go into too much detail as I feel the link to the website will explain why this is a pretty cool thing to have with you.  Just please remember not to use this ON your travel days when you know you will be dealing with security!

Last but certainly not least is my mobile phone.  It is becoming more and more common for international travelers to take their mobile phone along with them.  I’ve read an article about one particular phone that trumps them all when it comes to international travel.  The Tmobile BlackBerry Curve.  And this is also my phone of choice…  Why?  It has wifi capabilities.  Ok ok… other phones have this I know.  But can you make unlimited calls over the wifi without them deducting from your minutes?  I’m not talking about a voip service on your phone.  I’m talking about getting a wifi signal and placing a phone call as if you were dialing with normal cell phone coverage.  Better yet… when you are traveling, you can turn off the radio signal receiver and have your phone ONLY work when it has a wifi signal.  This will avoid those huge per minute charges when dialing from another country.  Pretty sweet huh?  This feature is just an additional 20 bucks or so on your bill.  I think most of us have wifi at home.  So in the long run you’ll be saving money by going to a smaller minutes plan.  When I worked for Zero Gravity I had wifi at work as well.  I had the smallest minutes plan, and barely touched them.  Recently I convinced my parents who are going on vacation soon, to a place with free wifi to get the Curve.  And don’t worry about password protected wifi either.  The setup is easy and allows you to enter the password when you get it, to access the signal.  No more buying unlocked phones and swapping out sim chips.

There you have it.  These are my best travel tips.  There are a few things out there I still want to try, such as ScottEvest clothing, among a few other things.  But right now, this is all I need to make traveling a virtually stress free enjoyable experience.

Do you have a gadget or tip for travel that I didn’t talk about?  I want to hear about it.  I am always looking for ways to make traveling more efficient and fun.  Please comment below or email me at Nomad@TheModernDayNomad.com

FAA Private Written Exam

10 days was going by quickly.  I was on track with my studying, and was quite happy.  I walked by the Learning Center where our FAA proctor can usually be found tutoring other students or helping them out with mock oral exams for stage checks.  I wanted to confirm the test was tomorrow, Wednesday.  I'm glad I found her!  Even though 10 days would have put the test tomorrow, it was scheduled for Friday.  So I have an extra 2 days to study.  

I kept plugging away, and depending on the questions I randomly was assigned by the Gleim on CD ROM I got anywhere from 70% to 85%.  Not great... but passing.  As I heard someone say while passing them in the hallway "Anything over 70% is wasted effort."  I couldn't help but laugh.

Friday at 8:58 am I walked into the exam room, and handed over my passport and D.L.  I signed in and took a seat at the computer assigned to me for the next 3 hours.  It will only take me about 30 minutes, but its nice to know I can take my time.  As soon as everyone was seated we confirmed the information on the screen to be ours.  SSN number, spelling of name, mailing address, and which test I was to take.  All looks in order.  I click next, and watch the screen go bluish white, with the letters LOADING... while the dots increased in amount and would disappear after 3, just to start back up again.

And it loaded.

and loaded..

and loaded...

and loaded

and loaded.

and loaded..

and loaded...

This cant be normal.  I looked around the room and saw other students doing the same thing.  I questioned the proctor who then started checking things out.  A call was made to the I.T. department and we were all asked to leave the room until this could be resolved.  I headed for the computer lab to put in a few more practice tests under my belt until we were called back in.  An hour and a half later the story was the FAA computers were down, and therefore we could not take the exam until they got their end up and running.  UGH!  What next?!?  The rescheduled time given to us was Monday at 13:00.  

The weekend went by quickly and it was test time again.  All the same hurdles and hoops were jumped over and through.  For once there were no computer glitches and the exam went smoothly... The end result was a passing score.  WOOHOO!!  Hmmm... I wonder what wonderfully evil things I will do to my Gleim books.

Besides studying throughout the week I was also flying with my instructor.  Mostly practicing the different types of approaches to land at various airports in the area and practicing going around or as its called when flying Instrument going missed.  One clear night while flying over Lake Apopka, my instructor started teaching me steep turns and practice more stalls.  YES back to stalls.  I'm a bit more confident with the plane so stalls were only a touch less annoying to do.  What I did really appreciate is being able to see a gorgeously bright moon with Venus and Jupiter brightly lit below forming an upside down frowning face.  What a great way to see a planetary conjunction.  Unfortunately I did not have my camera to record the event.  Yeah I know... I'm still kicking myself for that one.

So now I will be flying my heart out and studying for the next stage checks coming up.  I'm still now quite sure when I will solo... but I'm pretty sure that will be after I master landing the plane.  In the mean time... I'm happy I passed my exams and am looking forward to a little bit of down time.