Little ol' me and an International Airport

Yesterday I managed to get two of my solo navigation flights back-to-back on the same aircraft (N268ND) - so I planned a route that would take me north up to Lake Havasu and Bullhead International Airport. It was a fantastic flight - flying over areas that were new to me, and upon reaching Lake Havasu my breath was taken away. What an awesome place, and from 4500 feet up I had a good view of the lake, the city, and the old London Bridge. For those not familiar with the tale:

In 1962, London Bridge was falling down. Built in 1831, the bridge couldn't handle the ever-increasing flow of traffic across the Thames River. The British government decided to put the bridge up for sale, and Robert McCulloch, Founder of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and Chairman of McCulloch Oil Corporation, submitted the winning bid of $2,460,000.
The bridge was dismantled, and each stone was carefully marked. Everything was shipped 10,000 miles to Long Beach, California, and then trucked to Lake Havasu City. Reconstruction began on September 23, 1968, with a ceremony including the Lord Mayor of London, who laid the cornerstone. On October 10, 1971, the bridge was dedicated.
This first photo is a view of the city and the lake as I approached from the south.

I transitioned over the top of Lake Havasu airport and continued north towards Bullhead City International. I called them up and asked permission for a full-stop landing, and when granted a straight in approach I began my descent and prepared for landing. Fortunately everything went really well, and the ATC ground controller was very nice and gave me excellent directions to the parking facility. I parked up, and while tying the aircraft down a guy on an airport buggy came over and offered me a lift. I hopped on, and was driven over to a building where I could arrange fuel, grab a drink, and have a chat with some other pilots. Once the fuel was taken care of, I got a lift back to the Warrior and got everything ready for departure. ATC were again very good with me, and in a matter of minutes I was airborne again, heading south back to Phoenix. I took a different route back, travelling down the west side of the lake - here's a pic of the lake, showing London Bridge:



Another great picture I took was this next one, it's the Colorado river as it runs south out of the lake. It's a great picture, it looks kinda like an artists impression to me - too flawless to be real. Maybe I'm just getting all emotional in my old age:



I made it back to Goodyear safe and sound and only ten minutes later than I should have been. Quite an achievement in itself that, especially as I was late leaving due to me needing full tanks.
I'm really glad now that I planned this trip - it let me take in some awesome scenery but also gave me the opportunity to do a full stop landing at a busy airport - something I have to do again to get my CPL in a couple of weeks time.

I've taken all the video clips I took and put them together into one clip, unedited. Feel free to take a look, but it's probably a bit dull apart from the view.



One last thing. The other day I was playing with Play Doh with Georgia, and knowing how much she likes my laptop I made her a little one. Her reaction shows she didn't think much of it compared to mine:

Takes after her mum

So we buy Georgia a great big tub of foam shapes to play with, and she tips the whole lot all over the floor. Fair enough, no worries. Does Clare struggle to get her to tidy them back up? Does Georgia use diversionary tactics to avoid tidying up? Does she therefore take after her mum? Oh yes... :-)

Border run

As planned, Gilbert, Toddy and I had an early morning flight this morning that took us down to the Mexican border at Nogales International Airport. I arrived in the crew room just before 5am, and started printing out the necessary paperwork: local weather reports, winds aloft data, airport data and instrument approach procedures. Toddy arrived soon after, and we set about organising everything.
After a slight delay (change of aircraft needed) - we took off from Goodyear at 06:50, and got handed over to Phoenix Sky Harbor Departures, who gave us radar vectors towards Tucson. Here's Toddy and Gilbert looking (almost) convincingly as if they know what they're doing...



The flight down went really well, and when we arrived at Nogales Toddy did a couple of test runs using the approach procedures. We then landed, parked up, and headed inside for a coffee refuel while the Warrior was also refueled (not with coffee, although it might have helped the poor performance....)
Here's a shot of Nogales International Airport main building. It sounds impressive, but I've seen bigger sheds in B&Q...



Once refueled, it was my turn to hop in and drive. I took off on runway 21, then followed the missed approach procedure before heading back in on the correct radials, then executed a touch-and-go before heading back 'oop north' towards Goodyear.
All in all it was a great flight for Toddy and me, and a great laugh for the three of us. I can honestly say I will be gutted when we move onto another instructor for twin engine training.
Mind you, the take off performance upon leaving Nogales does make me wonder if Gilberto hadn't smuggled a couple of immigrants over the border...

Grand Canyon by helicopter

As I mentioned earlier, after the helicopter flight at the canyon we got to take away a DVD of the flight. I also took my camera along, and have just hastily patched the clips together to make one video, and here it is. You can occasionally make out some of the sounds from the cabin, but the proper DVD is better as it had the intercom patched in.

A tough week

As some of my family and friends know, it has been a very tough week this week. After a great week last week, everything went rapidly downhill shortly after saying farewell to my dad on Tuesday as I headed down to the airport to do my Progress Test 1.
Without going into detail, let's just say that the test was a complete farce, and I came away from it madder than I have been in a very long time. So mad, it prompted me to compose an email to OAT's Managing Director/President, Anthony Petteford - something I had not had to do since starting the course.
Fortuntately, some of my grievances have been addressed - Anthony was very receptive to my complaints, and even phoned me at home in Goodyear to discuss the matter in detail. There are still a couple of issues that need sorting, one of which hasn't been brought to his attention yet - a matter regarding a certain member of staff and her opinion on how I manage my family/career.
A very good friend of mine recently joined us out in Goodyear, and after only a few days here he had posted an entry on his blog concerning this woman (and also one of the guys in Dispatch) - so I know it isn't just me that thinks she is a stony faced, condescending, ignorant, obtuse little oxygen thieving witch who for some reason has managed to hold onto her job despite numerous complaints.
Moving on.... with all the stress I've had this week surrounding OATC, this has also had an impact in other areas of my life. While taking the mini van back the other day I cleared all of the (numerous) pockets and cubby holes, except for one. And what was in that one? My PDA case, SD card, charger, and compact flash GPS receiver. Balls balls balls. Fortunately the guy at Hertz tracked the minivan down at Sky Harbor airport, and retrieved all the items except for the GPS receiver. I am really gutted about this - I only bought it a couple of months ago, and know I have no way of getting it back, even though it's pretty clear that someone at Hertz has pocketed that but returned the other items. I really hate myself for being so forgetful - it's not something I normally do, but this event coupled with losing my Ray Bans has really bugged me. :-(
One half decent thing was that Hertz had failed to arrange a replacement vehicle (Vee-Hick-Ull) - and all they had was a Dodge Charger - normally very expensive to rent due to the spec (5.7 litre Hemi V8, 350hp, 390lb ft etc) - but I pointed out it wasn't my fault they had no cars, so I have ended up with the Charger for the same money I was paying for the cheaper cars. With Paul Herbert renting a yellow V6 Mustang, all we need do now is organise a time to go recreate the car chase scene from Bullitt - but it looks like someone beat us to it. Review here, video here. Maybe I'll just see if I can get it resprayed to look like a modern day General Lee and get a Dixie horn fitted. Dammit, someone has already done that too!





On my list of toys to get when I have money again is a General Lee, Knight Rider KITT, an A-Team van, and possibly Street Hawk (but if I'm honest Street Hawk bike is a bit pants). I'll settle for a replica Airwolf instead then. Clare just looks at me funny when I tell her this, but I don't think it's too unreasonable, is it?



Yesterday I was due to have a solo nav flight in the afternoon, but winds in the area were gusting to 30 knots, so the flight was cancelled. I carried out the flight this morning at 6am (good old Gilbert, still getting me the prime slots) - and it was really hazy, very poor visibility. Fortunately my navigation planning worked out really well, and the flight overall was very enjoyable and relaxing. Here's a pic of the area east of Phoenix, heading towards Kearny:



Family-wise everything is still going good. The pool where we are living has been out of use for the last few days, but is ok now I believe. Clare has been extremely supportive this week, and I again feel incredibly lucky to have her on side through all of this. I really couldn't have done it without her help.
Georgia is still having a great time here. She was missing her Grandad for a couple of days, but is now happy that she'll get Grandad for Christmas (or 'Mismas' as she says). She also keeps asking for a bike, so we'll have to see if we can have a word with Santa about that. Here's a picture of her taken the other night - ready for bed but posing with her new sunglasses on. Rockstar!



Clare and I just finished watching Dave Gorman on DVD. We went to see the show live at Bolton a couple of years ago with my good pal Gareth - and even though we know what happens it still makes us howl with laughter. Anyone in Goodyear who reads this can borrow my copy if they like, and anyone in the UK (or Ireland) should go obtain a copy - it's top stuff. Mr Gorman, you owe me advertising money :-)

I have another 6am flight tomorrow - back to back flights with Toddy, which means we should be heading somewhere further afield similar to our trip to Payson 2 weeks ago. Can't wait!

Adios

Simon

Vegas, Canyon, Route 66

It's been a very hectic last week or so! After the shambles surrounding OATC it was really nice to jump in the minivan and hit the road. We had a really pleasant drive from Phoenix to Las Vegas, stopping half way for a spot of lunch, and taking in the awesome sight at Hoover Dam on the Arizona/Nevada border. We unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to stop, which was a bit of a shame.


Once we arrived in Vegas we took a drive along the strip before heading to The Mirage, where I had booked us a couple of nights. When we checked in however, we were told we could have a complementary upgrade to the Penthouse Suite if we wanted - all 2000 sq ft of it, complete with living room, bar, bedroom with motorised TV built into the bed, bathroom the size of our house.... utterly awesome, and what a result!

We had a great time charging around the suite for a while, before heading out for a look around. My dad headed into the Casino to try his hand at Blackjack (he won loads, the jammy bugger) - while Clare, Georgia and I went to get some refreshments. We all met up again a while later and headed out for a wander outside to watch the Volcano outside the Mirage, before calling into the Venetian for a wander along the canal - ending up in a mock-up of St Marks square where we treated ourselves to nice italian sorbet. We then took a stroll along the strip, taking in the awesome sights along the way - The Wynn Hotel, Treasure Island etc.
The next day we had a lazy morning in the suite before all heading out down the strip the other way, past Caesars Palace, Bellagio, New York New York. Clare and I had a ride on the rollercoaster that takes you around the Manhattan skyline - a really good trip that even I enjoyed, and I normally find rollercoasters duller than dishwater.
At least now I can say I've seen the Statue of Liberty etc, and save myself an expensive trip to the real big apple. :-)
That night Clare and I went to watch the Phantom of the Opera at The Venetian, leaving Grandad on babysitting duties. We had an incredibly time - it was an utterly amazing show that really took our breath away. We both agreed the trip to Vegas was worth it just to see that show, let alone anything else.
The next day we packed up and headed back out of Vegas and onto Route 66, for a long drive along the famous highway for 100 miles from Kingman to Ash Fork, via Peach Springs. Another 'thing to do in life' ticked off.
We arrived at the Grand Hotel, just south of the Grand Canyon - checked in then jumped back in the car to drive up to the rim, just in time to catch the sunset. I won't even try to explain it, but hopefully some of the pictures I took will save me a few hundred words of (more) waffle. Here's a picture of the three of us on the south rim, just as the sun was setting.


That night we stayed in the Grand Hotel, which true enough did look pretty grand from the outside, but wasn't really anything special inside - especially after a couple of nights in Vegas...



The following morning I set my alarm for daft-o'clock, dragged my dad out of bed and the two of us headed up to the canyon for sunrise. We found ourselves a really nice spot, and hung around for a while watching the sun rise majestically over the Canyon.
Dad and I headed back to the hotel, grabbing an early morning coffee then sat around chilling out (I whupped him at chess) - waiting for Clare and Georgia to wake up. Once everyone was up, and Georgia was dressed in her new Grand Canyon clothes that her Grandad had bought her, we all had a nice buffet breakfast before checking out and heading back up the Canyon. All four of us had a nice wander around the main sights at the south rim, thankful that the weather was perfect - and had warmed up a little from the 3 degrees it had been at 6am.
We then headed down to the Grand Canyon Airport, where we checked ourselves in for a helicopter ride with Maverick Helicopters. We were obviously all a bit concerned with how Georgia would handle the flight, but as it turned out she absolutely loved it! It was an incredible trip - so much better than just standing at the edge, and we got to see so much more of the canyon. We also got a DVD of the entire trip - multiple camera angles and sound from the headsets (Georgia making airplane noises and saying 'weeeeeeee' a lot)
Here's Georgia with her David Clark headset on, looking cool as a cucumber:


And here's a shot of the Canyon from overhead the Colorado River, 1 mile up:



More pictures to be uploaded to my website in the next day or two.
Georgia actually fell asleep in the helicopter for the last ten minutes, which bodes well for me taking her flying next year when back in the UK. My dad loved it too, and I really can't wait to be able to take him flying as well - I'm under orders to teach him how to fly once I'm qualified!

We left the Canyon at about 15:30 - heading along the top road via Desert View, then back home to Goodyear via Flagstaff and Sedona. I drove all the way back, a mere 260 miles and 4.5 hours - I guess I was still on a high from the whole trip.
One note is how Georgia took everything in her stride so much better than we all expected. She was brilliant for the long car journeys, loved seeing all the bright lights in Vegas, had a great helicopter flight, and most importantly got on amazingly well with her Grandad. All in all it was a fantastic trip, and although it was nice to get back to Goodyear and chill out by the pool, it was also quite sad to leave all that good stuff behind.

Back to reality and I had a solo navigation flight yesterday and my PT1 today. Unfortunately my dad was also due to go back today too, and thanks to crappy scheduling I couldn't take him to Sky Harbor and say goodbye there. After waiting 3 weeks for my PT1, and despite officially still being on leave, I couldn't take the risk and cancel it in case it was another 3 weeks before I got another one. As it turned out, I wish I had - but that's another story.

Dad: I hope you had a good flight home. Thank you for everything you did for us while you were here - we all had an amazing time and will miss you. See you in November.

Love

Simon, Clare, Georgia

x x x

Still waiting for PT1

It's been a while since my last entry, the delay mainly caused by the arrival of my dad - visiting here for 12 days. We've all been really busy this last week - filling our days trying to see some of the local sights, but mainly fitting everything in around my flying.
We've been up to Wildlife World Zoo again, which Georgia really enjoyed, and to a couple of Malls and the like. Today my dad and I took Georgia over to Arizona Mills, leaving Clare at home to chill out. This afternoon we all headed up to Circuit City so my dad could look at buying a new laptop (I thought the staff at PC World were useless, but these guys take it to a whole new level - but he did end up coming away with a new joystick). We then headed to the cheesecake factory - which was absolutely incredible.

I've been flying a fair bit still, in preparation for my PT1 which was booked - finally - for today at 11:30. A few days ago I found out that there had been a change to students and instructors with the arrival of AP258 - and one of the changes was that Mal and Nilay were now being paired up and changing instructor, but Toddy and myself would be paired up and staying with Gilbert. On Sunday morning Toddy, Gilbert and myself picked up Warrior N994T at 6am and headed out. We filed an IFR flight plan, heading up to Prescott, then over to Payson - where we landed and had an awesome breakfast at the airport cafe. Toddy flew that first part of the flight, and after breakfast I hopped in and flew us from Payson up to Winslow, where we got fuel. We then took off again and headed west to Sedona, flying over the Meteor Crater, getting a few decent pictures and videos on the way. I'll do a proper photo album soon, but here's a quick taste:

Toddy and Gilbert at Payson



Gilbert with his monster breakfast - flaps 25 needed on take off after this!



Meteor Crater. Huge. Just huge.



Sedona. Incredible site from ground level, but at altitude - something else.



We made it back to Goodyear at about 12:50 - 50 minutes later than planned. Oh well, it was worth it. On Sunday evening I had a night solo too, so it was a very tiring day. I've had a lot of flights cancelled lately, and this seemed to show a turn for the better. I did a brilliant solo general handling yesterday - my last one before PT1, and it went really well. Unfortunately - when I arrived at Goodyear this morning to do my PT1, I found that my flight had been cancelled. As usual, nobody had thought to let me know this, so I had wasted a hell of a lot of time preparing for it - and had screwed up plans with the family in order to fit everything in. I was absolutely fuming - it's now been 2 weeks since I was ready for my PT1, and it's going to be another week now before I can get it done as I have booked a few days off for a trip to Vegas, Grand Canyon and Route 66.
What also annoyed me was the reason my flight was cancelled - being told that the instructor was sick, yet having seen said instructor in the crew room laughing and joking with others 6 minutes earlier. This is simply not good enough, and now my performance at PT1 is going to suffer as I won't be able to have a practise flight beforehand to prepare for it.

OK. Time to start thinking about the time off I have planned. I've booked us all into the Mirage in Vegas for a couple of nights, I managed to get excellent tickets to see Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian, and have booked rooms at the Grand Hotel at the Grand Canyon. Hopefully we will all get to have a great time over the next few days.

Yours disgruntled

Simon

That's not a hat....

See what happens when you leave Georgia alone to eat a yoghurt....

Vandals attack

On the way down to the airport shortly after writing my last update, I noticed that four cars in the car park where we live had been vandalised. Each one was a white car or pickup, and each one had been sprayed with black spray paint - with choice words such as 'B*tch', 'Sl*t' and 'Wh*re' emblazened down each panel.
One of them I recognised as a friend of mine, a rental car from Hertz. When I got back from the airport (flight cancelled, shock horror) just now, the place was swarming with cops, so I went and woke up Paul and told him what had happened. Suffice to say, him and his mate James who had rented the car were not too pleased. You expect this kind of thing in Liverpool, but not here....
I'm just thanking my lucky stars I swapped out silver Impala for a dark grey Sienna. MInd you, some of the other dark cars had had their number plates sprayed also, and my car was only two cars along from theirs. I just hope they don't return with some white paint - the problem for us is that we don't have insurance on rental cars to cover us, it's an extra $25 a day for full insurance cover, which is another $600 a month on top of the $1100 a month rental.....

Lemony Snicket has nothing on me

A series of unfortunate events - pah!
Yesterday I went to the airport for an afternoon solo flight. Upon arrival I found that some goon had moved my flight from 14:45 on N686J to 15:30 on N268ND. Two problems with this: Firstly the Mass & Balance sheet I had prepared was now scrap, and I needed to do another; and secondly when I did eventually get down to N268ND, I discovered it was buggered. I did the pre-flight check, untied the aircraft, ran through the pre-start checks, started the engine - and watched as the Low Bus light came on, and the alternator output stayed at 1 amp. Marvelous. Shut the aircraft down, oack my stuff away, tie the plane down, and stomp back to Dispatch.
Back home for a good rant, then wandered down to the pool to cool off a little.

Flights for today - the solo navigation that was cancelled on Tuesday now at 6am this morning, followed at 8:30am by the solo general handling that was cancelled yesterday. Last night spent ages planning my route to Ryan Airfield near Tucson - got everything all hunky dorey as I didn't want to do the whole plan at 4am... get up this morning and it's pi$$ing down, with a massive thunderstorm thrown in for good measure.

Grrrrrrr!!!!!


I've used the winds aloft data for Phoenix and Tucson and completed the rest of my plan, just in case. I'm now all ready to go, but when the ATIS for Phoenix is showing 17 knot winds gusting to 24, it's not looking likely that I'll fly.




Time to grab some Weetabix, then head down to the airport and see what's happening...

No flying

Typical that after having Friday, Saturday, Monday off, and spending an hour preparing everything for a cross country solo today, the wind was at 15 kts when I was due to fly, therefore cancelling my flight for me. My crosswind limit is 10 kts, and the wind was 110/15, rwy 03 in use, giving a 14 kt crosswind. Bummer.
Gilbert is off work at the moment too, which means: a) He hasn't left me solo permission slips, creating a problem when I go to fly, and b) he isn't putting bids in for my flights, which means I'm not getting decent slots.
It's just sucky that I'm not flying now, when in a weeks time I'm going to want to take a few days off to go to Vegas etc. Oh well, such is life.
Still waiting to do my PT1 - doesn't look like it'll be tomorrow, so more time being wasted when I really could be moving on with things. Look on the bright side - if I end up going back to England late it's not a bad thing. Do I want to stay in Phoenix in November when it's still hot and sunny, or go back to England where it's guaranteed to be raining cats, dogs and small frogs? Tough one....
Anyway, just got back from Barnes & Noble, bought Georgia a couple of books and let her play with the train set there - and gave our new hire car a check ride - so far I'm pretty impressed.
Why Toyota don't import the Sienna into the UK I don't know, as it seems like good competition for the all-conquering Renault Espace. Clare really likes it, so it must be good ;-)

Blueberry muffins, Pioneering, Tucson, Cloggy!

Hi all

Been a bit of a break for me these last few days. I was feeling quite ill on Friday so cancelled the early morning solo I had planned, moving it to Sunday. I was already due to have Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Labor day holiday) off, so moving the flight to Sunday broke up the break... but we still had a nice time chilling out.
On Friday we stayed in while I recovered, I don't think I left the apartment at all.... but it meant that on Saturday I was feeling better, well enough to head over to Pioneer History Village, north of Phoenix. This was a pretty smart place; an old style pioneering town that had been recreated using salvaged and renovated buildings brought in from various areas in the midwest. It was shockingly hot though, and we all soon overheated - which meant a break for lunch in the restaurant and some much needed water. After a nice cooling break, we braved the heat again and saw some more of the place, checking out the mule, pigs and goats.
On the way home stopped at Walmart and got the ingredients together (read: bought a packet mix) to make blueberry muffins - and let Georgia help with the mixing and preparing. We even bought her some 'Dora the explorer' cake cases :-)
Here's a few pics of her helping mix, stealing the mix, icing the muffin, then savouring the results:








On Saturday night we were hit by another massive storm - and this one deposited a huge amount of water down on us. I got soaked running from the car to our apartment after I'd gone to the airport to see Gilbert - and when I got in Clare decided to take Georgia out in it so she could feel what it was like...



On Sunday I had my early morning solo navigation - taking me down to Tucson International Airport - my first touch and go at a 'proper' airport. I'd spent quite a lot of time on the preparation, and it paid off - my headings and timings were all pretty much spot on, which left me time to relax a little and enjoy the view. Once I was nearer Tucson things got much busier - firstly avoiding a load of parachutists falling out of the sky, then going through the procedures for contacting Tucson approach and getting clearance to enter their airspace. Thankfully it all went really well, although the landing was a touch rough - but then we haven't ever been properly briefed on the procedures for arrival. One thing that was surprising was the altitude - Tucson is 2000 ft higher than Goodyear, so descending from 5500 meant I was very close to the ground at what I thought was 2000 ft above it!
The departure went well, listening out to the big jets arriving in the area - then I managed to get Flight Following for the journey back to Goodyear, which makes things even easier as you're on radar all the way, and have someone else look out for other traffic for you.


Yesterday was Labor Day holiday here, but most places stay open so we headed up to Metrocenter Mall, just off the I17. He called in at Toys R Us on the way and picked up a pack of cards - ready for my Dad arriving on Thursday.
Just as we were leaving Toys R Us my good buddy Jeroen pulled up outside! It was great to see him, after having parted company in the UK a couple of months ago. He followed us up to the Mall, and hung out with us for a while before heading back to Goodyear with some of the other guys from AP258. Last night however I drove down and picked him up and brough him back to our place, and we all had a good time catching up on things (and fixing his laptop - fortunately I brought repair discs with me)
And that brings us up to date I think. I'll put a proper photo album together on my Website at some point, but now I have to go give Baby G some breakfast, then go swap out hire car, then plan a flight for this afternoon.... no rest for the wicked!

Adios for now

Simon

Ladybird

Just a quick blog entry - yesterday after we finished drawing pictures, we all headed down to the pool to try out our digital camera in a waterproof bag. Got a few decent pictures, but also got a nice video of Georgia playing with a lady bird...



Today we headed north to Anthem to look at Pioneer Living History Museum, which was like stepping back in time. More about this to follow...