Exercising THE Civic Duty

Hi all (well, both of you who read this, to be honest...)

Anyways,

So in my running around today, I voted early.

I am really of two minds about this (alert... political talk of a sort.)

I love the convenience of early voting, especially with my job. I always hated filling out the absentee ballot, because I know it will not be counted in Illinois unless X% + something ballots are cast, and an election covered by those ballots is decided by a number related to that.

So knowing when you cast your ballot that it will probably not be counted really sucks.

Laws differ from state to state, but that was the law last time I voted absentee. As a pilot, particularly with Eagle coming out with schedules when they do, I just don't know far enough ahead of time if I will be around to vote in person.

So, I can vote early... I will be at home SOMEtime in the week window that I can vote inside. Sweet.

The problem with it was well described in a National Review article a few days ago, though (I cannot find the link): I am not necessarily voting for the same 4 candidates (presidential ticket, including Libertarian and Green) that the people on Election Day will.

Information could come out between when I cast my REAL vote when when the election comes around, that would make me change my mind about someone (Like Romney did something I found non-vote worthy, or something secret that Obama has done in office to undermine the USA, or whatever...)

Some people have early voting that started a month ago. (Same article, wish I could find it.) Before a single debate happened! Why would you want to cast a vote before the candidates had at least come face-to-face with each other, instead of their talking heads speaking for them, and actually... well... SPOKE.

Anyways, I am of two minds about early voting. I think it is great, but I pay a great deal of attention to politics, know the candidates and most of the issues, read what I can, and make an informed decision.

So Thomas thought voting was cool (he liked the touch screen.)

He asked what we were doing there ("What are we doing here, Papa?"

I said

Thomas, this is where we go to exercise one of the single most important rights we have as Americans. What we should try to do, is become familiar with the candidates, know their agenda, and understand what they are trying to do. Then, we think about what we really want, what is best for us and for our country, and then we decide our vote based upon that. That is what I do, and that is what all these people do, too (I voiced under my breath..'I hope.')

So Thomas got to see daddy vote, just like my mom took me when I was knee high to a tadpole (I remember the voting machines; big metal enclosures with a curtain across the front, all these knobs and levers to flip, literally. Then, when you were done, this large metal rod that you slammed to the side to tally your vote and clear the levers for the next voter.)

So... even for y'all who do not vote-- you make a choice. I hope everyone makes the choice seriously and takes that charge that so many people, brave men and women,

We Mutually Pledge to Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor

 died to give us. When people die for something, to give you something, we better honor that. I honor it by voting in every election since I was 18.

Cheers!

Scott

Frank Lloyd Wright 5K and a Personal Best Run Time!

Hi all!

Well, Today was 5K #2 out of 2 this weekend.

The 36th (wow!) Annual  Frank Lloyd Wright 5K/10K was my run today, and it was excellent.

So I am trying to run more, since that is by far my weakest event segment. Remember, eyes on the goal-- "Go Long," see how far I can actually get.

So I am looking for more events to run. This was a double weekend. We had the Run the Runway yesterday, and today I was going for best time.

Conveniently, they had a timer at Mile #1, so when I went zipping (for me) past at 8:04, I knew I was running way faster than I have yet.

I walked through my water station, and then started up again. I could feel my thighs from running yesterday, so I think that may have slowed me down a little bit at this point. I do know at mile #2 I was starting to feel a little muscle soreness, and at mile #3 (just shy of the finish,) I was starting to feel my knee. Not a terrible sign, that is why I am in PT, after all, but still, I was hoping that I would not feel it on this run at all.

I could see the timer from the turn to final, and it was at 27:00... Not only did I know I was going ot have my personal best time, but I knew my goal of breaking :30 was going to be breaking :29, at the least... and is it turned out, 28:07. Just slightly faster than the 10:00 pace I try to keep in general when I run/jog. If I can maintain, that that will be best for me.

So, how did I do?

I placed 21 out of 50 in my age division.
283 out of 835 overall.

I've never placed OUT of the bottom 10%, and here I am top half of my age group, and (benefit of the doubt,) leaving off... let's say... the bottom 200 as walkers, top 50% overall. I've never done that well in a race.

So I feel really good about that....

I would like to add a 10K to the list, now I have to find one I can do. Ideally, I would also like to add a few trail runs to my practice, since they are easier on the old knees and heels, less jolting because I would NOT be landing on concrete all the time.

So more to come, in the meantime, I did my best today, and it felt great.

Cheers!

Scott

Back on Track

Aaahhh.... just what the doctor ordered.... vacation.

Took a little extra time away from the blog, too, but now we're back on track, and ready to roll.

Did a 5K run today; The Run the Runway at O'Hare, benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project, one of my favorite charities. The last 5K I did was the run the runway at O'Hare.... 5 years ago. lol. So, I was not nearly trying for a personal best; someone I had seen in the registration line waved me over and asked me to take a picture of her in front of the United 747 parked there... We had probably spent all of 3 minutes waiting to come out of the chute and start, so what can you do about time, ya know?

So, I finished in 33:31, which put me 68 out of 87 in my age group, and 996 (I think) out of 2500 or whatever the number was. Not too shabby for barely trying.

Tomorrow, on the other hand, I am running in the Frank Lloyd Wright 5K in Oak Park, near my home. My goal for this is to run fast; preferably a personal best time.

The reasoning behind this, is my PT and I want to load up my knee and see how the therapy is working so far. If I can get through 2 5Ks in a row, and then add some distance, I should be coming along well in the healing process.

That is how the story goes, at least.

I am planning on running quite a bit more; it is certainly the area I need to most work on.

Although I did a 500yard swim today, after 3 weeks of no swimming laps, and I could really feel how slow I was. It felt like I was dragging severely! Gotta stay in the water longer, certainly swim more frequently, even in the off season.

Lots more to come, just glad to be back on track, getting back in the groove...

Had a checkride last week, and it kind of threw everything off for me. All is well, now.

Back on track.

Scott

Anatomy of a Delay

Anatomy of a Delay

So, there we were, enjoying our 3 hour sit at New York's JFK. We had just flown in from Raleigh-Durham (RDU) and were waiting to leave for Baltimore (BWI) and then on home to Chicago (ORD.)

When we landed, we saw that our plane was already on the gate, but we knew with a 3 hour sit, there was a good chance they could steal our airplane for a different flight, so better to keep our bags with us or drop them in the crew lounge than go set up house in an airplane only to have it taken away.

About 40 minutes before departure time, paperwork in hand, we head down to start setting up the airplane and get ready for our flight.

We get to the bottom of the jetbridge, and we notice that the airplane has been left on (most likely the entire time.) Great... everything will be warmed up.

Warm indeed. We unlock the cockpit door, and get hit with a Mid-August Texas style wave of heat. It is at least 110F in there. Oh, and one of our computer screens is out.

Specifically, the center one, the EICAS (Engine Info, Crew Alert). Great. So my FO starts doing a little diagnostics on the screen while I call maintenance out. We power down, power back up, still nothing. Then we use a 'reversionary' mode to have the computer 'print' the screen's information on a multi-function display on the FOs side. Works fine.

So we most likely (95%) have a dead tube.

Maintenance appears about departure time (we held off boarding... nothing like having mechanics haul important electronic bits back and forth in front of the pax.. kind of unnerving.)

Our mechanic does a quick check "Yup... got a problem with the screen." (btw, not a Texas drawl... this was JFK, after all... hear Brooklyn when you hear those words in your head.)

So, I go up to the gate to tell the agents we're going to be a little bit.

Here are the possibilities in order of ease to difficult to repair.

Screen is 'confused,' so swapping the screen out with the one next to it could work.

Tube is blown... Easy to fix, unless you don't have a tube. We have a fix we could do with that, though... we could swap it out and the FO would fly looking at my instruments, basically.

"Monster under the hood." There is something wrong with the line between the computer generator and the screen. This could take all night to fix.

Mechanic says "Give me 10 minutes, you'll be all set to go."

10 minutes turns into 20... then into 45... It's not the screen; they swap the screens out, and it works just fine. So, it is the Monster Under The Hood. Great. They're going to have to chase sparks down wires to fix the problem.

Now realize, the gate agents don't know what is going on, and the passengers want as much information as possible. "When are we going to board?" "When maintenance has the airplane fixed" "How long will that take?" "They don't know." "Why not?" "Because it is a mechanical problem, they have to diagnose the problem, correct the problem, and then see if their correction actually fixed the problem." "So when will we arrive in Baltimore?" "About an hour and 15 minutes after you leave here.""So why don't they know how long it will take to fix?""Because Nostradamus neglected to add aircraft delays to his book of prognostications.""So why haven't we boarded yet?" <bang> (Gate agent shoots herself.)

For my non-airline friends------

Please realize.... There is only so much information that anyone has at any given time. The mechanics are busy repairing the aircraft, if we keep bugging them "Are you done yet?" It will take longer. IF we have no other information to give... well.. you can ask us 100 times, but if the answer is still "We don't know" and you have not seen anyone come up and say "Here is how long it takes" nor have you seen a phone ring and the agent say "Ah, ok, so it will be done in 10 minutes and we can board," Then the odds are there is no new information to give anyone. Round about your 15,000 passenger asking you roughly the same question rephrased over and over, you've had enough. Most agents get to deal with a half dozen (sometimes more, sometimes less) flights in an 8 hour shift, many times alone, many times boarding 120+ passengers (mainline flying here) for each one, with special needs, wheelchairs, missed connections, medical issues, screaming kids... yadda... yadda... yadda... If you want to know why the agent seems like he or she is looking right through you, the answer is because most likely, they ARE.

I call our routing department (part of the Systems Operation Command/Control) to see if there is an unattached airplane coming in to land at JFK that we can steal while they are working on ours. Here is what I find out.

We have no spares in the Northeast (not a surprise, spare airplanes have gone the way of the Dodo bird and Carrier Pigeon.) but they do have an aircraft that is overnighting at LGA. If they don't have an airport ready (standby) crew, they can cab us down from JFK to LGA )at 9pm,) we can fly the airplane that is just landing at LGA up to JFK, and then we can continue to BWI and ORD.

Holy crap, that sounds like fun! (sarcasm, a literary technique I was told of once.)

So we hang up, and I look at my FO, and he tells me that going to LGA might be an adventure... "think of the stories!" I say; however, things never work out that way.

It would take 3 minutes to fly between the two airports as the crow flies, but with the runway arrival and departure configuration they were using, we would probably have to fly out over the Hamptons to get back in... and they were running pretty good delays in and out of LGA... sssooo... it would be easily an hour, hour+30 flight. Then we would be looking at going illegal in BWI. All we wanted to do was get home, really (The pax can come for the ride. When I hear passengers talk about the 'crazy chances' pilots take, I usually fire back with "You know, I'm a father, and I just want to get home to my wife and son. If I land safe, you land safe.")

Finally, they find us an airplane that happened to be landing at JFK. It was planned to go to Toronto, but the Toronto crew was going to have to wait for the ready crew at LGA to fly an airplane up for them (yup.. they did it.)

We left a good 90 minutes late.

Funny moment right towards the end-- We were loading our gear on board, and a mechanic came to me and said he wanted to take the dimmer panel off of my plane to use it to test the one on the broken plane. I told him to get off my plane and find another one... you're NOT taking apart my perfectly good plane when we are about to board an hour and a half late, even if it is for only "10 minutes and I'll be right back, honest."

Been a while since I did a proper aviation post... there ya go.

Cheers!

Scott

1/2 Ironman

This is my goal for 2013.

There, I said it.

So far, my knee has been holding up well. I have not been able to go to PT this past week, since I was on vacation, but I have been doing my homework, strengthening my hips, and I have been biking and running consistently every day. So far a little soreness, but none of the sharp pains that I used to get when running. Also, I have been doing a bunch of exercise bike work to load up my knee, and then doing 5k+ runs; same result... no pain, a little soreness, but no real pain.

I ran today in Raleigh, was looking for a trailhead that would let me get some trail running in, but no dice... bummerz! Running on concrete hurts for other reasons... lol.

So, the Half.

A 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13 mile run.

I have already pretty much done the swim. I know I can do the bike, but the run will be the challenge. I am doing Don Fink's method of running 5 minutes, fast walking 1 minute, and doing that continuously. I am pretty sure I am ready for 6/1 times, but I forget my little workout timer today. so I kind of had to abandon that idea... I just ran, and did a little walking at various points.

Why go long? I don't know... maybe it is because I am finally in the best health of my life, maybe it is because I had done my bloodwork, and found I am pre-diabetic, so I need to exercise anyways to give my body something to do with my elevated resting blood sugar.

Either way, it will be an interesting ride.

Cheers!

Scott