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Showing posts from September, 2010
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DJ and I met in the Berkshire Mountains this past weekend. I had a meeting in Boston Monday. I noticed that Delta spelled backwards is ATLed. How appropriate. I have to face it. Delta is my new airline. They do good with their marketing with upgrades and so on. The Atlanta airport really is quite a marvel. It is the world's busiest airport measured by the number of passengers. There are 5 parallel runways. When I am walking out to my car it is normal to hear more than half a dozen planes in the air around the airport all the time. You are almost always landing or taking off with at least one other plane next to you. It is a busy place. I am getting to know the subtle tricks getting around in there. Private pilots and corporate jets don't come close to this place. PDK (Peachtree Dekalb) is even too close for most private pilots. There are a lot of corporate jets in and out of there. I spotted a doodlebug in a junk yard in MA. They are Americana at its finest. Unfortunately t
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I have a quick trip up north for a couple of days (leaving tonight). The first couple of weeks in Oct I will be in Europe. I am planning a weekend in England. I'm not sure what I am going to do, but I will have a car. This will be my first right-drive car experience. I will also be going to France and Finland. I am getting in the air in a couple hours with a new instructor. I need to finish up with my license before all the prereqs start expiring.. Its all about the tractors. The open window pic needs a clever caption.
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I am a bit home sick this week. The lows at night in Duluth have gotten into the 60s. It is still touching the 90s in the afternoons. I like the picture of guy working on the mega mart sign. I don't know why. It says something though. How big is big enough? The other pic captures a guy in a pickup with a flasher behind a cop. I am not sure what the whole story was. It was just weird to see a cop getting pulled over by a guy in a pick up. Weird.
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Just a few weeks ago I was telling a friend that I would never go for a ride in an old Ford Tri-motor. Today I did just that. I decided to go down to the Gwinnett county airport and bum around. The pilot's lounges are nice, people are friendly and it sure beats sitting around. Unknown to me the EAA's Ford Trimotor was there offering rides at the airport today. No waits; no hassle. I also met some ham radio operators giving an HF demonstration. They got a big kick out of my former callsigns, KC4AAA and KC4USV. I just couldn't resist going for a ride. My only regret was not jumping at the opportunity to sit in the right seat. The slight hesitation cost me the opportunity. The plane was built in 1929, has (3) 450 HP radial engines and cruises at 87 knots. The pilot's window was open the whole flight. There is a lot more legroom than there is today's airliners! The plane only holds 9 passengers. www.flytheford.org
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I am in Atlanta back from Hampton VA. It looks like I might need a new computer. The keys aren't always working so well. I plan on being in Atlanta mostly for the next couple of weeks. I do have a trip up North in there. Then it is back to Europe for a couple of weeks. With my new watch I can measure cabin pressures in commercial airlines. Here are some of the pressures I have measured on some recent trips. 7228 ft. Airbus 320 6913 ft. Airbus 320 6850 ft. CRJ700 5200 ft. CRJ700 5200 ft. CRJ200 4000 ft. CRJ200 3652 ft. CRJ200 6168 ft. Airbus 330 7136 ft. Folkker 100 3832 ft. 767-400 6526 ft. MD88 6135 ft. MD88 There is a pic of my senior management team from 3 continents, 7 countries with operational responsibilities in at least 12 countries.
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I am in Atlanta. That I am sure of. I read "Adaptive Leadership" (I read one to two business books a year) on the flight. I also got my car back from the paint shop. It looks good. Next I am getting some treatment for the wheels and the windows tinted. On the flight from Munich to Atlanta today (10 daylight hours) we flew North of Iceland (way North of Great Circle considerations) and across the middle of Greenland because of favorable winds. Amazing. I remembered a story. At a previous employer, I got a phone call from the legal administrative assistant. She said "Your *Technical Journal* arrived in the mail down here by mistake. "I said, "OK." She said, "My boss said he is going to keep it, he wants to bone-up on this stuff." I said, "OK." In my retrospection, It really wasn't OK hijacking my mail. It is kind of a basic thing. I have to check what time my flight is out of ATL tomorrow. I really do enjoy working for a global
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I don't know how it happened, but I have a few minutes to blog. I am in Bavaria Germany. The weather has been a bit rainy so I cannot appreciate the view of the alps. The food has been outstanding. I started thinking about the different places I have been staying each night. In another week I will not have spent more than two days in the same bed for weeks. Most places it it is one night. It is nomadic. It does get to you when you walk out in a hallway and just plain do not remember which way you are going and to go where? I am having a good time. I head back to Atlanta for one day and then up to Hampton, VA. for a meeting for a few days. This is what a wind turbine looks like at 200kph (125 MPH) on the autobahn. No, I wasn't driving.
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I'm in Berkshire for a couple of days. Of course I got a cold. At least I was nice enough to do it on a holiday weekend (huh?). In Kansas, in public places, a sign is required (shown below) to indicate that it is NOT ok to bring a concealed weapon inside. Also there is a pic of my office. Some airports have these nice work stations. They really are nice. DJ and I were in Rochester and went to a comedy show that was fun, then to Skaneateles on the way back to Berkshire. My mentor and I took the plane out and washed it. That was fun. I have noticed how much more relaxed I am in the air. The pic shows Greene NY airport on downwind 25 and then on final. See the open hanger. The grass next to the hanger is the runway. Tomorrow I am off to Europe again.