FRACLIFE

Big Sky Airport

2009-08-17T17:25:00.000-07:00

We flew into Ennis, Montana (Big Sky Airport) last week and there happened to be another company plane on the ramp. The sunset was awesome and I had to get the shot with both planes on the ramp.

Update!

2009-06-03T18:25:00.001-07:00

I know it's been a while since my last post, so here is an update. I got married on May 9, 2009 to a wonderful woman named Melanie. I went down to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for 9 days and stayed at the five star Hilton Beach and Golf Resort.

SFO Landing

2009-04-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

I never get tired of flying into large airports such as San Francisco.
We have the best seat in the house for watching the heavy iron land
and takeoff. I took this yesterday while we were holding short of
runway 28R in SFO waiting for departure.

Laguna Seca

2009-03-31T09:40:00.001-07:00

Laguna Seca MRY, originally uploaded by Mike Lombardi.

View of Laguna Seca Raceway from the Piaggio. This was taken on final to Runway 28L in Monterey, CA.

Porsche Crew Car

2009-03-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

We flew to a nice FBO yesterday in Lexington, Kentucky called Air 51. They have great customer service, free soda fountain drinks, various snacks, and a Porsche Boxster as a crew car. As you can see in the picture, they let us take the Porsche overnight to the Campbell House Crown Plaza Hotel where we were staying.

Redmond to Rockford

2009-03-10T20:17:00.000-07:00

Today I met the plane in San Jose, we flew it empty up to Redmond, OR where we picked up two people and flew them to Rockford, IL, northwest of Chicago.

At 1398 nautical miles, this was the longest distance I have flow in the Piaggio. Luckily, we had an average of 60kts of tailwind to help us get to Rockford non-stop. We ended burning 314 gallons of fuel flying at 39,000 ft and the time enroute was it in 3 hours 48 minutes takeoff to landing, which is an average speed of 368 kts (416mph).

We could have gone much faster if we flew a bit lower and were not in gas saving mode, however this is still very impressive for a little turboprop.

Click on the picture for a larger view of the route.

Stratosphere Tower

2009-02-18T14:59:00.001-08:00

Stratosphere Tower, originally uploaded by Mike Lombardi.

I was bored on an overnight the other day in Vegas, so I grabbed my camera and took this long exposure picture of the Stratosphere Tower at night. The tower is over five and a half miles away and the light streaks you see is from an airplane landing from right to left.

Downtown Ketchum

2009-02-06T12:28:00.001-08:00

P1010768, originally uploaded by Mike Lombardi.

We had lunch at a Nice Soup and Sandwich shop (not shown) in downtown.

Downtown Ketchum

2009-02-06T12:14:00.001-08:00

P1010764.JPG, originally uploaded by Mike Lombardi.

Bald Mountain

2009-02-06T12:05:00.001-08:00

P1010763.JPG, originally uploaded by Mike Lombardi.

Bald Mountain ski resort in Ketchum, ID.

Sun Valley

2009-02-06T11:54:00.001-08:00

P1010761.JPG, originally uploaded by Mike Lombardi.

We had an overnight in Sun Valley last week, so we went out and explored the area.

MacWorld

2009-02-03T23:08:00.001-08:00

P1010174, originally uploaded by Mike Lombardi.

Testing embedded video.

Flickr Blog Feature

2009-02-01T21:49:00.001-08:00

N150SL, originally uploaded by Mike Lombardi.

I just found out that I can post pictures to this blog straight from my Flickr account!

Here is a view of downtown San Diego from the Landmark ramp at the airport. The view is awesome at night as you can see.

2009-01-18T08:26:00.000-08:00

On our way to Burbank in the back of 137SL.

East to West Coast

2009-01-17T20:34:00.000-08:00

I finally made the transition from St. Petersburg, Florida to Camarillo, CA in a Piaggio. This marks the first time in nearly four years with the company that I actually flew a plane from the east coast to the west coast. Most of the time when we get a cross country trip, it is going east and I end up flying home on an airliner. I left St. Pete on Thursday morning in Piaggio N137SL (Piaggio I)and flew to Houston,TX - Harlington,TX - Dallas,TX - Fort Smith, AR - Albuquerque,NM and ended up in Camarillo on Saturday.

The company needed a Piaggio II qualified captain in Palm Springs, so tomorrow I am catching a ride in the back of Piaggio N137SL from Camarillo to Burbank, where I will rent a car and drive to Palm Springs to take over N172SL and fly it to Aurora, OR with five passengers.

Six check complete

2009-01-14T14:08:00.001-08:00

I completed my six month check ride today in the "red rocket". This is actually one of our older airplanes that was painted in Ferrari colors. From what I understand, it was painted to celebrate the close ties between Ferrari and Piaggio ( Ferrari owns part of Piaggio ) .

I also got the chance to test out our new touch screen EFB's (Electronic Flight Bag) which are really cool. In the past we used tablet PC's with a stylus, but these are much smaller and have a touchscreen to access important information easier.

2009-01-13T21:40:00.000-08:00

I have been very busy lately with holidays and getting things done around the house, so it's been a while since I posted some pictures. I am currently in St. Petersburg, Florida at our company headquarters to do my six month check ride which is required by the FAA.

The checkride is basically the equivalent of taking your drivers license test every six months (but more difficult obviously) and if you fail, you will be required to do more training. If you fail again, then you may lose your job, so failing is no good.

The first pic is of my luggage under some interesting hotel room lighting, the second picture is from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and the third is from Kalispell, MT.

Parking brake reminder

2008-12-30T12:03:00.000-08:00

I just met up with N178SL in Van Nuys, California and noticed this
picture of a piaggio next to the parking brake handle.

I'm really glad the factory put it there so we don't forget what type
of plane we are in!

Still stuck in Kalispell, Montana

2008-12-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

The weather cleared up today and we were able to complete a maintenance run, however, the problem was not fixed so we will be here another night.

While we were at the airport, another Avantair plane flew in and dropped off some passengers. I wanted to get a shot of the plane departing, so I waited in the below freezing weather (3 degrees Fahrenheit) for them to depart. After waiting outside for about five minutes, I was able to get this shot just as my exposed ears started hurting!

More Snowy Maintenance...Yeah!

2008-12-18T19:00:00.000-08:00

We have been stuck in Kalispell, Montana for the past two days due to a maintenance issue. We where going to due a test run today, but due to the low visibility and unrelenting snowfall, we were unable to safely complete a test. We will have to try again tomorrow.

The current Accuweather Realfeel temperature is -15 F! It is 8 F with a 16mph wind. Good thing I brought my light weight windbreaker instead of my warm leather flight jacket! I think I will pack the leather jacket next tour.

Denver Snow Plowing

2008-12-05T13:15:00.000-08:00

Last night we flew the plane to Denver Centennial Airport to have some maintenance work done and it was freezing... Actually, it was well below freezing at 10 degrees Fahrenheit! I think it is time to start packing my warm leather flight jacket as I have been packing my lightweight company windbreaker up until now.

The maintenance hangar was located far off the runway in the very back of the the airport and since the maintenance personnel had already gone home, we had to be escorted by the airport operations truck with his lights on to help guide us to the right hangar.

We had a good time plowing through the 4-5 inches of snow on the ground with the plane. It really felt like we where off roading the 7 million dollar plane because we couldn't tell where the ramp stopped and the dirt/grass began. We went very slow to avoid sliding around.

I took a few pictures will we waited for the FBO van to come rescue us from the bitter cold. On the van ride back to the FBO, the driver told us how happy they where that we decided to taxi the plane all the way to the maintenance hangar because if we just pulled into the FBO, the line guys would have had to tow it for twenty minutes in the sub freezing weather to the hangar.

Flying Magazine

2008-12-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

Check out this months issue of Flying Magazine and you will see the Piaggio Avanti II featured on the cover! There is a multi-page article about the design, comfort, fuel efficiency, and speed of the Plane.

The Piaggio Avanti II is an amazing feat of engineering and reading the article made me appreciate it even more.

Click here to read the article.

Pacific Coast Sunset

2008-11-23T09:19:00.000-08:00

One of the best parts of my job is being able to witness some of the most incredible views. One example is a sunset over the Pacific Ocean a few days ago.

We where repositioning the plane from Oakland, CA to Seattle, WA and the sunset was incredible.

Here are a few pictures I took on the way up the coast looking west over the Pacific. Unfortunately, the camera is unable to capture the whole range of colors and light that made this sunset so amazing, but it give a good idea of what it's like in person.

El Dorado Buffet

2008-11-19T08:59:00.000-08:00

We ended our day In Reno, NV yesterday and we are staying at the El Dorado casino located in the heart of downtown Reno.

We were starving when we arrived, so we ate at the their buffet which was awesome.I decided to come back to eat breakfast at the buffet this morning and so far, it has not let me down. I'll try not to eat too much!

Haunted Hotel La Rose

2008-11-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

Last week we had an interesting overnight at the Hotel La Rose in Santa Rosa, CA. This historic hotel is located in "Railroad Square" and was built in 1907.

The hotel does not provide shuttle service from the airport, so they leave car at the Santa Rosa Jet Center for pilots to drive to and from the hotel about five miles away. We arrived at the hotel around around 9pm and checked in at the front counter. They had a full size replica of Rosie the robot maid from the Jetsons greeting visitors in the front lobby, which I thought was odd, but amusing at the same time.

The hotel looked like it had some history to it, so I asked the girl at the front desk if the hotel was haunted. Her eyes lit up and she began telling us about how they just had a seance a few days earlier on Halloween night and that there was definitely some spirits around the hotel.

Supposedly the story is that many years ago, there was a family staying in room 42 that where killed by bandits and the ghost of the little boy named Daniel, who was killed in the murders, rides the elevator up and down at night looking for his parents.

My First Officer, Paul, stayed in room 44 and I was lucky to stay in room 23, two levels down from the supposed haunted floor. I was a little weirded out after hearing the stories, but I actually slept very well. Paul said his room was a litle spooky, but he didn't hear or feel anything out of the norm.

The next morning, I woke up and looked out my window and the fog had rolled in, adding to the ominous feeling I got of the whole place. I was a little spooked as I was riding the elevator down alone, I had the feeling that there was someone next to me, but I think it was all in my head.

I asked the new front desk lady and the lady serving breakfast if they ever felt or heard anything in the hotel. They both said that they have heard someone call out their name and objects have been be moved around when no one is looking....

The Official Haunted Overnight 2008 Web Page

Ever wanted to be a Ghostbuster? Learn how here! How To Hunt Ghosts!

Flight Map

2008-11-10T07:13:00.000-08:00

Here is a map which shows our flights this week. As you can see, most
of the flying was done on the west coast, then we had an owner who
wanted to fly from Santa Rosa, CA to St. Augustine, FL.

I am currently in Pittsburg preparing to fly back to Philly where I
will catch a Southwest airlines flight back to San Jose.

America's Highest Commercial Airport

2008-11-05T23:24:00.000-08:00

It has been uneventful this week flying up and down the west coast, so I thought I would post a few pictures of the Piaggio in Telluride, CO.

Telluride Regional Airport sits atop Deep Creek Mesa and is North America's highest commercial airport. This is one of the more challenging airports we fly into due to the 9,078 ft elevation.

Check out this video to see what it's like to land at Telluride airport.

SFO Landing Sequence

2008-10-27T00:09:00.000-07:00

We flew five legs and worked a 14 hour day today. I took this sequence of pictures at the end of our fourth leg landing on runway 28R at San Francisco Airport. Click on the pictures to view full size.

Tina Turner

2008-10-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

We flew in from Reno and dropped off four passengers at Sacramento Jet Center at the international airport. The passengers are going to the Tina Turner concert and we have about six hours to wait until the passengers return so we can fly them back to Reno.

Tina Turner herself is on her way here shortly to play the concert.

To help pass the time, I decided to take some shots with my new Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens. This is a fun lens and I'm sure I'll be posting many pics using this lens.

San Francisco Bay

2008-10-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

We had a beautiful view of the bay this morning on the way from
Oakland to Chico.

University of Georgia Game

2008-10-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

Today we departed Nashville, Tennessee with four people who where going to the Tennessee vs University of Georgia football game and flew to Athens, Georgia, home of University of Georgia. We flew right over the stadium at which is located less than two miles from the airport and saw a sea of people wearing the color red (Georgia's colors).

After the passengers left to attend the game, we had some lunch at a local BBQ shack and came back to the packed airport and had a good time watching the game with all the other pilots. Georgia's mascot is the Bulldog and the airport had a funny looking aviator Bulldog on the lawn, so I had to take a picture of it.

Georgia ended up winning the game and we flew the owners back to Nashville.

Metrolink to Camarillo

2008-10-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was completely pointless. I dropped off N150SL in Camarillo
Tuesday night, drove an hour to LAX so I could be in position to
airline to Houston the next day to meet another airplane.

I flew to three hours to Houston yesterday only to be told when I
landed to get right back on another airline going to Burbank, almost
right where I started the day. The plane had a two hour layover in
Phoenix, so I didn't get to the hotel until past 10pm last night.

I am now on the 8:00am train to Camarillo to meet back up with N150SL.
This is the same route that that the terrible train crash occurred a
few weeks ago. I took a picture of the corner where the wreck happen
as to can see above.

San Jose At Night

2008-10-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

I started my tour in San Jose this evening and took this picture shortly after departing to the north. We are in a right hand turn to head back south towards Camarillo where the plane is going in for some maintenance.

The black rectangle you see is San Jose airport. The lights in the middle just to the right of the airport are the stadium lights from a Earthquakes game at Santa Clara University's Stadium, where the San Jose Earthquakes play their soccer games.

Truckee-Tahoe Airport

2008-09-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Here are a few images I took last week at Truckee Airport near Lake Tahoe, CA. We flew an owner in from nearby Oakland, which only took about 25 minutes. We spent a few hours hanging out at the airport and had lunch at a really good deli they have in the terminal. While we were there, two other Avantair Piaggios flew in, giving me a great opportunity to take some pictures with my Canon SLR.

Middle of nowhere: Holyoke, Colorado

2008-09-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

We flew into a tiny town in the Northeast corner of Colorado yesterday named Holyoke. After overflying the tiny town and landing at the airport, we were met a few minutes later by Phil, the Chief of Police and his Sergeant, which rounded out the entire Holyoke police department.

Chief Phil heard us fly over and being a pilot himself, wanted to come look at the plane. We told him the name of the owners we were flying out and he then reached in his pocket and pulled out the Holyoke phone book which consisted of about 10 pages of phone numbers.

I thought it was too funny not to share on the blog, so I took a picture. We hung out and talked shop for about 45 minutes until he was called away due to some illegally parked car on the lawn of the fair grounds.

Busy This Week!

2008-09-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

We have been unusually busy the last few days and I have not had much time to post. Tuesday I worked 12.5 hrs, Wednesday - 12 hrs, Thursday - 10.5 hrs, and Friday was 11.5 hrs, so I am really tired.

We don't leave until 4pm tomorrow, so I finally have time to recover from the accumulating fatigue which builds after consecutively long days.

Jackson Hole Airport

2008-09-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a view of Jackson Hole airport in Wyoming. This is a very popular destination and it is home to Vice President Dick Chenney, who we all know is very unpopular! You can see the mountains of Grand Teton National Park in the backround.

Horseshoe Bend

2008-09-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

This is a famous point on the Colorado river as it makes it's way to
the Grand Canyon.

Flying the iPhone Piaggio in the real Piaggio...

2008-09-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

Putting Practice

2008-09-14T11:20:00.001-07:00

Want to practice your putting? You'll have to wait until you get home
if you are an airline pilot, but if you are a fractional pilot, you
can practice in the FBO's!

This one is in TAC air at Denver Centennial Airport. It is electronic
and the green moves to adjust the level of difficulty.

Hurricane Hunters

2008-09-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

"We're five miles from the eyewall." announces the navigator. Heavy rain begins to pelt the airplane, and sheets of water wash over the windows. It gets darker, and turbulence begins to rock the plane. It's hard to walk back to your seat, but the loadmaster assures, "You ain't seen nothing yet!"

Take a virtual ride into the eye of a hurricane with the Hurricane Hunters. CLICK HERE

Hurricane Ike Watch

2008-09-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

I woke up a few minutes ago here in Denver and checked my Blackberry as I do every morning to see if the company added or made any changes to our trips. There two new trips for tonight. The plan is to reposition from Denver, CO to Lubbock, TX at 7:30pm, then depart Lubbock with two passengers at 11:00pm and arrive in Dallas around 12:15am.

I just completed the flight planning and noticed that the winds in Dallas are at our arrival time are predicted to be 20-30kts (23-34 mph) which are being caused by the wake of Hurricane Ike. The Piaggio handles wind better than any other plane I have flown and these winds fall well within the safety limits set for our airplane, in fact when I was flying the Grand Canyon, we would have weeks where we would routinely land in winds at least this strong.

The first image is a screen capture of our intended route (red line) from Lubbock (left) to Dallas (right). You can see that the outer wall of Ike is touching Dallas this morning, however, as you can see in the second image, Ike is predicted to turn to the northeast in a few hours.

We will have to keep an eye on the Hurricane (no pun intended) as it makes it's course over Texas.

South Dakota

2008-09-12T19:26:00.000-07:00

We had a busy day today with over six hours of flying. We flew from Chicago, IL - St.Paul, MN - Sioux Lookout, Ontario Canada - Sioux Falls, SD - Denver, CO.

I am always amazed by how much open space is in this part of the country, so I took these pictures on the descent into Sioux Falls airport in South Dakota. As you can see, there are farms and open space as far as the eye can see.

Anyone who thinks that this country is over crowded is kidding themselves, we just have overcrowded cities.

Click on the pictures for a larger view.

West Coast flying

2008-09-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

As I read the weather section this morning in USA Today, I was reminded of why I (along with nearly every other pilot I've met) love flying on the west coast so much.

The green you see on the right side of the country represents rain and the yellow represents thunder storm activity, neither of which is fun to fly in. As you can see from the picture, the entire east coast is or will be covered with rain or thunderstorms.

The northeast (New York, Boston) airspace is the busiest airspace in the world. Flying on a perfectly clear day in this airspace, you are almost guaranteed to be re-routed multiple times, put into a holding pattern, or be forced to decend more than 300 miles out from your destination (causing fuel consumption to rise dramatically) or all three of these combined into one nice "Welcome to New York" package.

On a bad weather day, you can expect airport closures, ground stops, long lines on the ground for de-icing, long holding patterns, and a variety of other fun and exciting tasks. These are just a few of the many factors which makes flying in the northeast easily double, if not triple the workload of flying out west.

Gateway Arch

2008-09-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

Last week I was fortunate enough to have time to visit the tallest national monument in the United States, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO.

I was getting hungry after hanging out at the FBO with all the cops and Secret Service guys (see "Secret Service football" below), so I borrowed the crew car from Signature and drove over to Chipotle Mexican Grill to eat lunch. While I was eating my awesome Chipotle burrito bowl (with carnitas and guacamole of course), I though that I should try to find the arch since I had the time and means to get there.

I pulled out my secret maps (secret meaning Google) on my iPhone 3G and the arch was found in a matter of seconds. I drove the 6 miles or so over to the arch and I was very impressed with the size of the 630ft monument.

While I was shooting some pictures, an older couple came up to me and asked if I could take their picture in front of the arch. They had just finished the tour which included a claustrophobic elevator ride to the observation room at the top and the lady summed up her experience by saying, "doing it once was enough for me, I won't do that again." I considered having them take my picture with my SLR, but quickly changed my mind when the old man tried to hand me his camera with it still attached to his neck.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Gateway Arch.

Line Service Art

2008-09-04T16:45:00.001-07:00

I found some cool artwork last week at our west coast headquarters in Camarillo, CA. These were drawn be the line service guys who help fuel and prep the airplane before the flight. I especially like the "Line Service Tomatos" one that says "Chemically enhanced from exposure to Prist". Prist is a chemical fuel additive that prevents ice crystals from forming in the fuel at high altittude.

Personalized Tail Numbers

2008-09-02T22:15:00.000-07:00

I took this picture on the ramp in St. Louis the other day shortly before McCain's plane arrived. This is the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Challenger jet. If you look closely at the tail number (click on the picture for a large version) you will see it is N247WE.

Tail numbers are basically license plate numbers for airplanes and companies can request personalized plates such as this one. Have you figured it out? The "N" just means it is a U.S. registered aircraft, but the 247WE means 24/7 (twenty four hours a day/seven days a week) wrestling entertainment.

Another example would be the Nike corporate jet....Tail number N1KE

Click Here to see a picture of the Nike jet.

McCain's "Strait Talk Express" plane

2008-08-31T11:45:00.001-07:00

Notice how all the bags in the first picture are all spread out on the ramp? They had two bomb sniffing dogs scan them before loading. In the second picture, the plane on the far right is his plane.

Secret Service football

2008-08-31T11:07:00.001-07:00

I am in St. Louis, Mo at Signature flight service hanging out with about 60 cops and Secret Service agents. John McCain is leaving here shortly and this place looks like Fort Knox. I'm sitting here watching football with this agent next to me. I better put my phone away before I get arrested!

Coca-Cola Light

2008-08-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

This just in for all of those who were wondering.... Diet Coke is
called Coca-Cola Light in Mexico. I took this picture the other day
in Cabo.

The Unity tour

2008-08-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

We were forced to check out of our hotel at 11:00am because the hotel was sold out tonight due to the Labor Day demand and we had 6 1/2 hours to burn until our repositioning flight out of Harbor Springs, MI to Sturgeon Bay, WI. We took one of the three taxis available to the airport to drop our bags off in the plane and borrow the crew car to get some food in town. We ate lunch at a nice place overlooking the lake and while we where eating, a huge 130 foot yacht named "Unity" pulled in and grabbed the attention of nearly everyone in the restaurant while docking at the pier.

After lunch we decided to walk down the pier and take a look at the yacht. We figured that since we were both in uniform, they may invite us on board and give us a tour. We got to the ship and the only person from the crew on the pier was a deckhand washing the side windows. I asked him how long the yacht was and he told me 130 ft. He seemed busy and not in the mood to chat, so I just left him alone. We quickly realized that because we had pilot uniforms on, many people on the pier thought that we were the crew of this $25+ million yacht and started asking questions about the ship. After explaining to multiple people that we were not the crew of this yacht, we decided to walk to the main part of town less than a block away.

On the way to town, everyone was looking at us like we just pulled in with the huge yacht. We checked out some cool shops and ended up getting some ice cream at the local parlor. While we were eating our ice cream on the bench outside the store, at least ten more people asked us about the yacht! We joked that we could make some money by setting up a table in front of the ice cream shop that read "Unity tours $10 for adults, $5 for kids". I know for a fact that we would have sold a lot of tickets! People really love big yachts.

UPDATE: Upon further research, I came across this article explaining that this yacht belongs to Elena Ford, great-great granddaughter of Henry Ford.

Labor Day weekend in Harbor Springs

2008-08-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

We landed in a one of the oldest and most popular vacation spots in the Midwest yesterday, a little town on lake Michigan called Harbor Springs. We are told that some of America's wealthiest families (Ford family, Proctor&Gamble, etc) have vacation homes here that have been past down from generation to generation. Click Here to learn more about Harbor Springs.

Line break problem

2008-08-29T17:07:00.001-07:00

If this post turns out normal, then I fixed the line breaks. I went to
my formating settings and changed the "convert line breaks" option
from yes to no. If yes is selected, single hard returns in the post
editor will be replaced with single tags in my blog and two hard
returns will be replaced with two tags.
Sent from my iPhone 3G

Aspen massage chair

2008-08-29T10:09:00.001-07:00

One of the things I love about this job is the little perks we get from parking on the private side versus the airline terminal. We just landed in Aspen and I am currently watching TV while sitting in an awesome massage chair. In the airlines, I would probably be in a terminal rushing to get ready for the next flight.

Troical Storm Gustav

2008-08-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

I woke up yesterday morning in Denver to my Blackberry alerting me of a new message. Our plan to take four people to Nassau, Bahamas for a diving trip had changed.

The winds in Nassau were forcasted to be 40+ mph due to tropical storm Gustav which would cause poor visibility and potentialy dangerous diving conditions, so the owners decided late in the night to change the destination to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

I was happy to make the change because it meant we would not have to fly in the direction of a developing category 3 hurricane and we would not have to deal with the customs guys in West Palm Beach, FL who always seem to have a superiority complex for some reason. So off we flew to beautiful Cabo on a 3 1/2 hour flight which took us out over the mainland of Mexico, across the Sea of Cortez and down the Baja pennisula. The flight was smooth and uneventful and we arrived in Cabo with over and hour to spare between our next repositioning flight back to San Antonio, TX. It was nice to chat with some of the handlers down there that I haven't seen in a while.

Not to change the topic, but as I'm writing this at 34,000 ft enroute to Aspen, a Continental airlines flight on frequency has a passenger who is experiencing a heart attack. They are currently trying to figure out which airport they will divert to to get help. It's either going to be Denver or Albuquerque. They just called back and they have a cardiologist and nurse on board tending to the 74 year old female patient. They are diverting to Denver and that plane now has priority over every other plane in the air with the exception of another aircraft with an in-flight mechanical safety of flight type of emergency. Hope everything works out for that lady.

Sent from my iPhone 3G

Pictures with my SLR camera

2008-08-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

I was planning on shooting the Piaggio, but the light was too perfect on this Learjet to pass up. This was taken on the ramp in Denver. In the second picture, we are taxiing down the runway after landing. The third picture is Mt. Hood in Oregon I believe.

Flight Tracker for this week

2008-08-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

I took this hilarious picture of my F/O Sean on the ramp in Camarillo this morning, what you can't see is everyone laughing including me. Click here to track our flights this week.

Photo for previous entry

2008-08-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

I wrote the previous blog entry on my iphone at 39,0000 ft and the picture didn't make it through when we landed, so here it is.

Change of multiple plans

2008-08-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

See the 550lb text on the screen? That is good news for us because our plans just changed....again. The 550lb's is the amount of fuel the flight managment computer predicts that will be remaining once we land at our destination.

The original plan for today as of this morning was to fly from Camarillo-Santa Barbara-Portland-San Jose-Los Angeles. Our plan was to take a leasurely lunch in Portland to help fill the two and a half hour gap between flights, but that all changed when one of our company planes in Las Vegas got a flat tire. We happened to be the closest plane available to do the recovery flight for that trip, so the new plan was that we would fly to Vegas as soon as possible to pick up the owner and take him to Denver (he was probably going to the Democratic national convention). So the relaxing lunch we were looking forward to went right our the window. We instead got the courtesy crew car and drove to a Subway and ate there to save time.

I did the flight planning when we got back to the FBO (Fixed based operator/private terminal) and determined that we would take off with just enough fuel to get to Las Vegas with a minimal reserve of about 600 lbs to save money. Jet fuel in Portland was over $7/gallon and in Vegas we get it for under $6/gallon, so you can do the math on how much is saved when we purchase over 300 gallons at a time.

So we finally got going to Vegas and we were climbing through 30,000ft when the bat phone started ringing (satellite phone). I answered and the flight followers on the other end told me that the owner decided to cancel the flight, so they now needed us to fly to Denver for a trip to Florida and the Bahamas tomorrow. Luckly we had enough fuel on board to make it without a fuel stop .

Just landed in Santa Barbara

2008-08-27T11:17:00.001-07:00

We just landed in Santa Barbara where we had to shoot and ILS
(instrument landing system approach)
due to the 900ft overcast marine layer.
We are picking up two people and flying them up to Portland.

I shot this picture from the cockpit when we pulled up. If you look
closely, you can see the reflection of the plane in the window!

Burbank airport

2008-08-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

I landed in Burbank at 4:00pm and I am currently eating dinner at Panda Express while waiting for my F/O (first officer) to land. I thought we would have a rental car set up, but I quickly learned that we need to take the 7:25pm Amtrak train to the Oxnard station where the hotel shuttle will pick us up, so hurry up and wait!

Career note: You have to be able to accept changes as they happen and really just go with the flow in this line of work. The only thing constant in fractional aviation is change.

Start of my tour

2008-08-26T13:36:00.001-07:00

This is the start of the first day of my 7 day tour. Most (if not all) of these post will be done through my new iPhone 3G which makes blogging a breeze as I can upload pictures and blogs directly from my phone without having to be on a computer. Speaking of computers, San Jose airport now has free high speed WiFi in all of the terminals which is a huge step up from the T-Mobile hotspot pay internet they had previously. They even have some nice laptop bars where you can plug in and work while you wait for your flight.

My Southwest flight from San Jose departs at 3:00 and arrives around 4:00pm in Burbank, CA. The plan from the company for now is to wait for my First Officer who will be arriving at around 5:20 pm, get a rental car and make the 45 minute drive to our company's west coast headquarters in Camarillo, CA.

Molly walk

2008-08-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

Molly enjoys running along while I ride my bike. We have a set route which takes us around the neighborhood and is a total of 1.75 miles.

Click here to see a map of the route

Sara looks bored

2008-08-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

Here is Sara in the pilots lounge at Scenic living the dream.

Piaggio Avionics

2008-08-25T22:09:00.000-07:00

The Piaggio II comes from the factory with the state-of the-art Collins Pro Line 21 avionics package. The main advantage to this all glass (glass meaning LCD screens) cockpit is reduced pilot workload and more reliable instrumentation due to no moving parts.

Fractionals 101- Vacation

2008-08-25T21:41:00.000-07:00

Want 21 days off in a row? If you answered yes, then welcome to another benefit of fractional aviation. Vacation time is based around the seven day on / seven days off schedule. Vacation bidding is usually done at the beginning of the year and is awarded based on seniority and which day of the week you start. When you bid for vacation, you are actually bidding for which 7 day tour you would like to take off that year. So you end up with a week off before your vacation week, your awarded vacation week, then a week off after the vacation week. for a total of 21 days.

Welcome to Fraclife!

2008-08-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Fraclife Blog. Here you can fly the virtual jump seat and learn what goes on with the day-to-day life of a fractional pilot.

NEXT: Fractionals 101

Fractionals 101 - Travel

2008-08-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

Fractionals 101 - Schedule

2008-08-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

Fractional pilots typically work rotations of seven days on followed by seven days off, or eight on and six off. Fractional schedules require the crew members to be on the road for more consecutive days than a typical airline, however, fractional pilots also get more consecutive days at home than a typical airline pilot.

My company has the seven and seven schedule which I really enjoy. With this schedule, I can just look at a calendar and know which days I will be working and which have off months, even years in advance.

At an airline, you will typically bid monthly for your schedule and your seniority will dictate which line you get. With fractionals, you simply bid for a day of the week you would like to start and which week rotation you would like to work (either even or odd weeks) and your seniority will dictate which day/weeks you are awarded.

NEXT: Home until series complete

Fractionals 101 - Hotels

2008-08-25T20:15:00.000-07:00

Spending nearly six months of every year on the road, you learn quickly to appreciate the quality of hotels. One of the great benefits of flying for a fractional is the ability to earn hotel reward points for every night you are out on the road. With my company, we will usually stay at Hilton, Marriott, or Holiday Inn properties. You will typically earn enough reward points over the course of a year to pay for about a week of hotel stays at one of these brands.

NEXT: Schedule

Fractionals 101 - Packing for the trip.

2008-08-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

Ever tried to stuff seven days worth of clothing into a 20" rolling luggage? It can be challenging, especially if you are unsure of what you will need and what you can do without. This post will give you an idea of what you might need for a seven day trip.

To start, you will need a high quality 20" or so rolling luggage to carry most of your items. There are many bags to choose from including many that can cost over $300. In my opinion, the best value out there is the $89.00 Kirkland Signature Costco luggage.

Costco offers a lifetime warranty on the luggage, so when it wears out, you can simply exchange it for a new model with no questions asked. I am currently on my second Costco bag. The first one was wearing a bit after 5 years and had all the zipper pulls broken. I brought it back with with no receipt and they promptly refunded my money onto a Costco cash card so I could purchase a new bag.

You may also want to consider purchasing a laptop bag to carry your laptop, electronics, and other miscellaneous items.

Below is an example of what I pack on an average 7 day tour:

-Documents-

Pilot License
Medical Certificate
Passport
FCC Radio Operators Permit
Drivers License
Company Credit card
Company I.D.
Personal cash and credit cards

-Electronics-

Laptop computer and charger
Company cell phone
Personal cell phone
Chargers for cell phones
Portable GPS device
Camera

-Clothing-

5 Uniform shirts
5 Uniform pants
8 Undershirts
8 Underwear
1 Pair of jeans
5 Pair of socks
2-3 Casual Tee shirts
1 Pair of cargo shorts
1 Pair swim shorts (Cabo!)
1 Polo shirt
1 Pair of flip flops
1 Pair of uniform shoes

-Miscellaneous-

1 Pair of Sunglasses
Hotel rewards cards
Fuel rewards cards (Avtrip, Exxon rewards, etc.)
Toiletries
House keys

NEXT: Airlines

Fractionals 101 - Airlines

2008-08-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

When you are assigned to an aircraft to start your tour, you will most likely have to fly on an airline to meet up with the airplane and the rest of your crew. This often times can be the one of the more frustrating aspects of being a fractional pilot depending on which airport you fly from.

Due to the dynamic nature of the fractional business, the company will typically purchase a last minute one-way ticket which may occasionally leave you stuck in the middle seat if you fly out of an busy airport with high load factors. In addition, the ticket will more than likely be a last minute one way, so it meets the criteria to be flagged by the TSA for "special screening".

Special screening is an additional screening process (denoted by SSSS on the boarding pass) where they search through all of your belongings thoroughly and run tests to see if there is any explosive residue on any of your property.

Most of my flights out of California are on Southwest Airlines and thankfully I am rarely stuck with a middle seat and almost never get flagged by the TSA leaving my home airport. For some reason, Rapid Rewards members seem to rarely get flagged on Southwest.

Riding on an Airline every other week also has it's advantages. We get to keep all of the airline miles or credits earned for the trip. These miles add up quickly and usually equate to a couple free round trip tickets a year which can be then used in conjunction with your free hotel rooms you will earn from all the reward points to go on vacation.

Next: Airports

Fractionals 101 - Aircraft

2008-08-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

Comming Soon

NEXT: Hotels

Fractionals 101 - Airports

2008-08-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of flying for a fractional as opposed to an airline is that fractional flying offers the variety of flying to most of the more than 5000 airports available around the country. I say most because some of these airports have inadequate runways to handle corporate aircraft. In contrast, an airline pilot is typically flying to and from central hubs and seeing the same airports day after day. NEXT: Aircraft

Factionals 101 - START HERE

2008-08-25T08:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Fractionals 101 section. I made this section for people who want to learn the very basics of fractional aviation. I will continue to add more content in the coming weeks. Once Fractionals 101 is complete, the 102 section will come and be geared more towards professional pilots.

NEXT: Packing for the trip