Catch up in Aspen

In my last post I was in recurrent training. I got kind of busy there. Training went fine and I got home on the 26th of June. I had three days at home before I left for two days to visit two of my kids in Florida. They were going through a two week "boot camp" in preparation for a six week mission trip to Zambia.

It was good to see them. I had missed both of their departures because of work. The month of June I spent 19 days in hotels. Eight of those days were because of training, which does not happen every month, but I was still gone. So much for all the glamor of flying an intercontinental business jet. I do get to go to some interesting places but there is a heavy price to pay.

On Wed July 2, I had a trip to Aspen, Co. We are here until Monday the 7th. In my previous job of seven years flying a Lear 35, the owner had a home here in Aspen, so I have spent a lot of time here. The mountains are always pretty, but the people who come here are snooty, the food and lodging overpriced, and there are better places to stay in Colorado. So we are staying in Glenwood Springs about 40 miles north of Aspen.

The area is is very nice and a lot more friendly. Did a little driving around in the mountains yesterday. Today I am just going to hang out, maybe walk around town some. The other pilot I am flying with on this trip, wife is coming in today. So I will just hang by myself the rest of the trip. He has been gone for over three weeks, and has not seen his wife during that time.

I might get into some political musings in my next post.

Recurrent Training

Today I start a week of recurrent training. I will be in a one day recurrent International Procedures course, then tomorrow I start G-IV recurrent training. I will also being training in HUD(heads-up display) and EVS(enhanced vision system). Basically what that means is our aircraft has a HUD which lets you see all of your flight instruments through a display that lets you see through the windscreen, and the EVS system lets you see through the clouds and fog using an infrared camera.

It is a little more complicated than that, but that is the short version. I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

St. Maarten

I fly a Gulfstream IV for a company in Texas. We flew to New York last Thursday to get into position for a charter to St. Maarten. This is the island famous for it's airport that is right next to the beach. There are plenty of you-tube videos of airplanes, B-747's and other large passenger jets landing right over the beach. Less than 50 feet.

You will then see videos of the same aircraft taking off, holding their brakes and running their engines up to full power before releasing them. It seems to be a great sport for the tourist to stand on the beach and get knocked over by the jet blast. It is unreal. I did not believe it until I saw it for myself. I got a little sandblasted taking some pictures.

Anyway, we got down here this past Friday, and are leaving tomorrow back to New York. I will then catch an airline flight home, and another crew member will replace me. This same crew will then turn around and come back to St. Maarten, fly back to New York next Sunday and then leave for a ten day trip to Europe.

I will be attending recurrent training while they are gone.

It has been a lot of fun down here, however, it is not the same without my lovely wife being here. A lot of my non-flying friends kid me about going to all of these exotic places, and yes it is fun. But being away from my family is not enjoyable. I missed Father's Day, yesterday. I missed sending my daughter off for a summer missions trip to Africa yesterday. Next week I will miss sending my son off on the same trip My daughter left early for leadership training.

So it has it's benefits, but it is not as glamorous as it may seem. This is an unusual trip that we get to stay in one place for five days. Sometimes we are in a different city everyday for a week.

I had better stop for now. I have to finish packing to leave tomorrow. I will write more about trips as I get time.

Work In Progress!

This is a work in progress. I will discuss my travels as a corporate pilot, and my travels as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not sure where it is headed, but we will see.