Van Very Nuys

After dropping off some folks and returning home empty just a few days before, it was time to head back with lots more people for more meetings in Van Nuys. This little airplane has certainly earned its worth the past few months!

Did you say that you wanted to see another picture of the pitot tube? Well, OK then. We have three!

A little sunburst action never hurt any picture.

Well, actually, it probably has. Sunbursts have more than likely been linked to countless deaths all over the world. But in my pictures, I kind of like them!

It’s almost like the sun is photo-bombing my camera’s hard work!

And, for your viewing pleasure, the aft nacelle of the right engine on an Embraer Phenom 300.

Made your day, huh?

Yeah, me, too.

This little helicopter was working the traffic pattern today. Phoenix is a great place to do some flight training, but flying helicopters are crazy expensive!

You rarely meet a non-military helicopter pilot. Usually, people go through the military to get their ratings, then fly in the real world after their service has been fulfilled.

Had I done helicopters at UND, my students loans would have doubled. And I already think that they’re hefty enough already!

While waiting for my four passengers to arrive, another airplane pulled onto our ramp and was parked by our top-notch line guys. We really feel spoiled by these guys and love it!

During engine start, we watch the electrical page in addition to all of the engine instruments to the left. This shows the electrical page on our Multi-Function Display (MFD) just after the GPU has been disconnected.

With both engines started and people in back (not in that order), it was time to be on our way!

As you can see, we didn’t have to combat wind today.

And, as you can also see, Phil Mickelson was in town playing some golf. I think that he’s a good guy who is very family-oriented, so I’m tickled that he can treat himself to such a beautiful Gulfstream. I’m sure that he uses it a lot, too. He deserves it.

We flew over Deer Valley Airport on our way out of the Valley of the Sun today. That innocent-looking place down there houses several flight schools and is a zoo! I’m glad that we are plenty high to be above their traffic pattern today!

There isn’t a whole lot of material to photograph in the desert between Phoenix and Los Angeles. This dry river bed is somewhat of a stretch for entertainment purposes.

The miniature volcanoes are slightly better, but still pretty brown.

Sorry.

Don’t you want a drink of water now?

We passed over one of millions of busy freeways as we made our way to Van Nuys this afternoon. We arrived around 4:00 PM and will be staying until around midnight, when we bring five people home after some meetings.

Not too shabby for a work day, huh?

Hello, Van Nuys Tower! Man, it feels like I just saw you!

After we arrived on the ramp and got our passengers loaded in the awaiting car, it was time to drool on other airplanes that were prepping for departure.

Isn’t this Challenger pretty? They can go to Hawaii, so Micah Like.

Except who does brown paint any more? This isn’t the seventies, right?

It kind of makes me want a drink of water, you know?

Even with brown paint, it was a beautiful airplane.

It’s not every day that you get to see the upper body of a Phenom 300, huh?

Just a day after we left, we are back at Castle and Cooke Aviation. Fine folks indeed.

Since it was time for lunch, I decided to walk to something close. I haven’t explored around this new place very much yet, so I set out on foot to enjoy the beautiful day.

Castle and Cooke is tucked up in between some hangars on the far end of a long and rarely-traveled street. I bet this could be pretty scary at night.

If you know what I mean.

At the other end of the long street is a sign directing people where to enter for the FBO. It’s pretty hard to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for, which I didn’t.

I almost feel badly for those limo drivers…

I had every intention of walking about two miles to Sizzler. But then I saw this.

And it donned on me that I could eat breakfast for my late lunch. I really love breakfast, so it just made sense to me.

Before entering the premises, I used my phone to see if they had any healthy options. It all checked out OK, so I went inside.

My stomach was happy. It has gone hours without anything and was ready for something quick!

The menu was pretty impressive for a run-of-the-meal diner chain. I try to avoid chains, but you kind of take what you can get when walking!

I loved how easy it was to find healthy things to eat, and even additional nutritional information was next to those healthy things! Bonus!

A sandwich sounded good, and there was a nice selection of don’t-derail-my-goals options. But I was really in the mood for some breakfast now that I had seen the Denny’s sign!

I picked the Banana Pecan Pancakes with Scrambled Egg Whites and Turkey Bacon.

If you’re craving breakfast, and I usually am, then this is a great yet healthy way to satisfy those cravings!

And I didn’t even eat the whole thing (because the portion was massive), so I didn’t have to count the 720 calories that were in this whole dish! Yippeeeee!

While eating my breakfast lunch, I noticed this gal walking past with her dog. Do you think that she meant to forget getting dressed before heading outside with her pooch today? Or is it proper attire in this part of the world to be in your purple robe in public?

Cracked me up. And scared me a little, too.

It was a beautiful walk back to the FBO. And the evening sun behind any airplane is going to be a pretty sight indeed.

The FBO traffic slowed down quite a bit after 9:00 PM, so they pulled our airplane online and got it staged even a few hours before we were supposed to depart.

It was going to be a late night, but I had some pancakes in me.

We’re good.

Just before midnight, we were on our way! The haze made for a cool fuzzy picture as we left for home.

We arrived home, and I grabbed the passengers’ car keys from inside the locked hangar so they could be on their way. Then, I hung around for the pitot tubes to cool down enough for their covers to be on them.

Didn’t I just do this?!

Soon, things were all done with Gladys, and it was time to head home.

I just hope that I can stay awake for my drive!

An Italian Dinner and an Unexpected Stop

Our passengers had already left, and we were still in JFK Airport! Yesterday’s flight was incredible and not as nerve-wracking as I had expected.

The line guys had never seen a Phenom 300, which isn’t uncommon for us. Often times, we turn heads when pulling onto the ramp. Even the big Gulfstream pilots want to come peek inside our airplane because it is so new and gorgeous and awesome.

So we I stayed until the line guys had fueled us, just in case. I am usually with the airplane when it gets fueled…but especially with people who may not know what they’re doing!

Hi, New York City! I wish that I had time to explore you today!

Man, the irony. As I write this post, I’m prepping to head into New York City from the other side in Teterboro! Am I spoiled or what?!

So the three lines guys (and gal) pulled the truck up and started to fuel using Gladys’ single-point fueling panel. And then they asked how much we needed. And, after doing the math, I guessed around 675 gallons.

And then they got a little quiet. Their truck was almost empty and only had about five-hundred gallons left. Awkward!

They had another truck standing by, but we emptied their first one! Yikes!

After the minor refueling drama, we headed to grab a quick bite for dinner. Our plan for the night was to enjoy a fast dinner, then get in Gladys and fly her as far west as we could. El Capitan had friends to meet in Colorado Springs, so that was the goal.

To be honest, I was dreading such a long flight after such a long day already. But he had friends to meet, so my sleep-deprivation concern wasn’t a concern that we both shared.

I already jinxed us mentioned how easy it was to land at JFK, despite my worries before the flight. But getting off the airport and trying to find our dinner location would have been impossible without GPS!

Honestly, how did I ever survive without it?!

We went to Gino’s, recommended to us by the FBO customer representative. It only took about fifteen minutes to get there from the airport. Rush hour traffic is awful anywhere, but especially just outside of Brooklyn, New York!

This place had an Italian version of chips and salsa by bringing us bruschetta and garlic toast before we ordered. I like this idea and, thus, think that all places should do it!

This was a few days before my healthy transformation had taken place, but you can see that from my dinner selection. Healthy people don’t order fettuccine alfredo!

We got lost a few times trying to get back to the FBO after dinner. There were just too many wrong signs telling us wrong things.

I promise is was the signs and not two pilots who are skilled in the art of navigation.

Soon, we were off. And I enjoyed some gorgeous views of Manhattan as we took to the skies! We flew through some icing clouds and then broke out on top. Obviously not enough to see up there, since I didn’t take any pictures!

If you look closely, you’ll notice that this is not Colorado Springs.

Just kidding. It’s cold and snowy here, too, so how could you possibly know that we didn’t fly over four hours to get there?

About half an hour into our flight, we got a call on the airplane phone. It’s like the Bat Phone, but way cooler.

Our boss was letting us know that plans had possibly changed. The folks that we had just dropped off for a departure out of JFK may need a ride home tomorrow instead. Some of their plans had fallen through, and they were trying to reschedule other items on their trip to avoid going at all.

So he asked us to land fairly close, in case we had to turn around to pick them up tomorrow and bring them home with us. Exciting, huh?

So we checked the map, and not too far in front of us was Columbus, Ohio.

We landed there, surprising everyone and us at the same time. It was drizzly and foggy and nasty weather, but we were soon safely on the ground and wrapping up Gladys for a quick (and unplanned) night on the ramp in Ohio.

I felt so spontaneous!

This guy headed inside while I put some covers on Gladys. She always likes to be warm and protected, too. Because of the forecasted rain/snow, and because we weren’t sure how early we would need to leave the next morning, we had them put her inside the warm hangar for the night.

Have you ever paid for deicing fluid? It’s way cheaper to pay for a night in the hangar instead!

Unfortunately, their deal with the local Hyatt was sold out. That’s what happens at 10:00 PM! But $89 for a night sounded just perfect to me!

Our only option left was this Marriott. I was OK with getting some more Marriott points (especially when a few weeks later those points almost paid for an entire week at Disneyland!), but it was more than I prefer to pay.

However, it did feel awfully nice to be out of the cold rain!

So I crawled into bed, secretly grateful that we weren’t still flying another three hours to Colorado for the night. I was exhausted!

By around eleven the next morning, we had received the news. They were on their way  with their original plans and didn’t need a ride home from us after all! So we headed back to the airport to borrow a crew car to grab some lunch before our four-hour flight home.

I can handle that! Especially after a good night’s sleep!

How about some macaroni and cheese for lunch? It’s good…I promise!

Atlanta-Bound

This is going to be fun…heading to a city that I haven’t been in a while. We do lots of west coast flying in this job. I don’t make it back east very often.

So when I heard that we were headed to Atlanta for three days, I was excited!

I was back at the airport by 8:30 AM this morning after arriving home around 1:15 AM just a few hours before from our quick trip to Tucson. I was tired but was happily anticipating the four-hour flight to Hot-lanta.

Have I mentioned how gorgeous the weather is right now in Phoenix? October is the best. I enjoyed some shade while waiting for my passengers to arrive. We have two people on-board today for our trip to the south.

Once again, waiting by the gate provides me many opportunities to watch beautiful airplanes in the traffic pattern. I don’t think looking at airplanes could ever get old for me.

NERD ALERT!

Gladys was clean and ready to go. In fact, I even had time to scrub-a-dub some bugs from the leading edges of the wings and nose.

She tends to attract every bug within a five-mile radius when we are flying…but they stand no chance against her. Can you imagine playing chicken with this girl?

We were soon loaded up and taxiing to Runway 21 for takeoff. We always pass this busy FBO, which always has some enjoyable eye candy for me. I'm OK with that.

Zooooooooooom!

Here is our home airport from the sky. As you can see, we are already super high just a few moments after taking off. Gladys is a little rocket. And it’s nice to have the cooler weather in Phoenix for the better climb performance, that’s for dang sure.

I love living here! (In October).

The moving map trucked along today, and we were eventually cleared “Direct Destination.” We were given an arrival as we got closer to Atlanta, but I sweet-talked some shortcuts on that one, too.

I didn’t catch a picture of the distance from the very beginning of our flight today, but I think we did about 1,300 nautical miles to Atlanta. How fun! I’m glad that my seat has sheepskin covering and is oh-so-comfy!

We had to pass through some docile clouds on our descent into the south today. No thunderstorms, no icing. Just smooth cirrus clouds. I like shots of Gladys “in the soup,” as they call it.

On our descent into Peachtree-Dekalb (pronounced duh-cab…don’t make the mistake that I did by saying it improperly to a local), we passed a huge power plant. I love the pretty colors of the fields surrounding it, too.

You can see the clouds that we just came through above and beautiful fall-colored fields below. Thanks to it not being summer, I know that these few days in Atlanta are going to be wonderful!

It gets pretty awful hot and humid here in the summer time. Our timing is perfect for this trip. As if I have any say in the timing…

I’ve landed many a time at this airport, Cobb County McCollum Field on the northwest side of town. Look at that giant mining hole just to the side of the runway! I always hated landing here at night because of that hole…

We flew just north of downtown Atlanta as we made our left turn base-to-final for landing. I love all of the trees and greenery. I sometimes forget that trees can exist in cities!

We had a great landing and were soon taxiing to the ramp at Epps Aviation. One of the runways was closed to park airplanes while the ramp was getting resurfaced with asphalt this week. See how all of these guys are lined up on the runway?

This was not the runway that we landed on, just so you know.

A pretty King Air pulled up to park right behind us. In fact, after their passengers were gone, the two pilots came over to take a peek at Gladys.

Everyone loves my airplane! I promise that it’s not just me!

It was about seventy degrees when we landed. And, thanks to that blessed temperature, the humidity wasn’t even noticeable. This is pure heaven!

You can see the new asphalt going in behind Gladys. By the time that we left two days later, they were finished with the entire project.

Have I mentioned that we can bring kids on trips if there is room? Of course, I don’t have any kids to bring. But I got to bring Hubby along a few months ago for a wonderful time in Seattle!

El Capitan brought his youngest son on this trip so they could go see the aquarium. Fall Break is a good thing for all of us this week!

They have already moved Gladys to parking on the closed runway to make room for incoming airplanes. Doesn’t she look good out there?

She looks good everywhere, by the way.

For some unknown reason, it took the hotel shuttle over an hour to come get us. Even though the hotel was only four miles away. I found a bench outside and watched airplanes land while my luggage waited next to me.

You can see my memento from my perfect trip to Disneyland with my Mama (scroll down  to the bottom of the linked post to read all about our two-day visit to Disneyland). The memento is on the pocket.

One of my favorite rides was Soarin’ Over California, and I found this Mickey Mouse pilot wings pin in the gift shop next to Soarin’. How could I resist? I don’t usually buy mementos, but I had to make a special exception for such a wonderful time.

Now it’s on my flight bag, and I see it everywhere I go. It makes me happy.

The hotel shuttle finally arrived, and we were soon at the Hilton Garden Inn near Perimeter Mall. It’s by a mall. I will be juuuuuuust fine for the next few days.

The room was beautiful.

With a great view. Look at the changing fall leaves! We certainly don’t get that at home!

After checking in and dropping off my things in the hotel room, I went to the lounge to order some dinner. I don’t know what came over me, but I didn’t do healthy at all. Like, not even a tiny bit.

After I ordered my artery-clogging meal, I played a few rounds of Words with my sister, Charloe. She is probably beating me in this game. She’s like that, you know. Good with Words.

Soon, my mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese dishes arrived. And I wouldn’t have changed a thing! Except perhaps the calorie count, but I guess that I didn’t keep track today!

The hotel was absolutely beautiful. I loved how modern and sophisticated the lobby was. And you know that I love these colors, too!

Do you think that those chairs will fit in the airplane for the flight home? Do you think that the hotel personnel would notice if these chairs go missing in the next few days?

The Chinese lanterns in the entryway were gorgeous. I don’t think that I could hack such a look in my home, but it really worked in a giant lobby of a hotel in Atlanta.

And who wouldn’t want to grab a cup of hot chocolate and plop down next to this beautiful fireplace? I love how wide it is…taking up an entire wall in the lobby. This isn’t too shabby of a view as guests check into the hotel, huh?

Today was a great day. And now I get to work on some computer projects and enjoy a down day while on the road. How fun!