Off to San Fran but: I'll leave my heart in NJ...

Well April was a nice month: Lot's of family time, and some flying.

There was a time when I would have been begging for flight time. That was about 12 or 13 thousand hours ago. Now I look at my time off as treasured time. With 2 daughters and 4 grandchildren within a 5 min walk of my home I find down time as enjoyable as air time, and grandchildren as enjoyable as airplanes.

There were several flights originally scheduled for the month but things change and flights got cancelled.

I have a lot of projects going on and the April schedule gave me time to see to them.

My yard was overgrown with weeds and littered with the debris from last fall and winter. It was so bad I was overwhelmed by the thought of doing it myself. (Enter Aparicio Landscaping )

Backyard ready for a chair and a beer!

Then there are the Belmar projects: 508 13th Av was our someday beach house and it has a rear cottage.

It's For Sale.

Our listing real estate agent planned an open house on the 26th and Ronnie and I spent several days getting the place in tip top shape for any possible buyers who would stop by during the open house.

The 26th turned out to be the warmest, sunniest day of the new year. The beach was filled with sunbathers and no one wanted to waste their time looking at houses for sale. Our open house was a BUST.

The rear cottage was occupied for the past 3 plus years by a couple who were as nice as could be and never complained about anything. They moved out in January. Apparently, the shower tile had been leaking and the plumbing wasn't working as well as it should have. When I started to get the place ready for new tenants I realized how bad the bathroom floor had deteriorated. Although it was tiled the floor was spongy and had to be replaced down to and including the floor joists.

Here is the before and after picture.

So, I'm off to San Francisco(SFO), for four days. Leaving Trenton at 10AM with a stop in Burlington, VT (BVT) for a passenger. Noon departure from BVT to SFO. Headwind are going to prevent the flight from going nonstop. I've planned a refuel stop in Rapid City, SD (RAP), with an ETA of 1430 local time in SFO. Booked rooms in the Knob Hill Marriott Renaissance. Ronnie and I stayed there several years ago. It is on a trolley stop and convenient to shopping, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, and most must see spots in the city. My copilot has never been to SFO and is exciting to be going there. The weather is calling for sunny with temps in the mid 60's.

Can't wait to come back to this:

Later!

Charlotte, NC for Dinner

Back to the air today after a few days off . The boss and a couple of the senior people from the company had a business dinner. I had family to visit. It's only a 1:15 flight from Trenton to Charlotte. The FBO in Charlotte is Wilson Air Center. It was started by Kemmons Wilson, who started Holiday Inn. It does a great job providing great customer service to transient corporate aircraft. I had family waiting so they parked me up front(a nice perk).

Let me return to the start of the flight at Trenton.

A light rain was just starting to fall as I began the pre-flight of the aircraft. I loaded 250 Gals of jet fuel and with the 3600 pounds already onboard that gave me plenty of fuel for the flight and a comfortable reserve.



Clearance to Charlotte was as planned with a cruising altitude of 36,000 ft and a planned flight time of 1 hour and 16 min.

Anyone recognize the airport on the left? Picture taken from FL360 about 35 min after departing Trenton.



My sister Rita and 2 of her children live in the Charlotte area. So I e-mailed her and told her I would be in Charlotte by 3:45. (Dinner on me if she could make it to the airport.)

She made it to the airport with her four grandchildren, Lochlainn and Emma, and the twins, Mary and McKenzie. I enjoyed seeing them. They have all become older, taller and prettier/handsomer since we last saw each other.

You can tell by the smile Rita is a happy grandma, although she doesn't look old enough to be a grandma.

The girls outnumbered the boys, so when an invitation to the cockpit was offered you can see how it ended up. Three blond beauties in the cockpit. Am I dreaming?

Poor Lochlainn

The visit wasn't long enough. It never is.

There were obligations at home that prevented them from accepting my dinner invitation. Rita loaded them all into the van and we said farewell til the next trip to Charlotte.

My co-pilot and I went to dinner, came back to the airport and prepared for the trip home. I'll be in bed by 11PM.

What a great job!!!

Jersey Days

This is a most unusual flying month. I've not had a flight in more than a week. The nice thing about not flying, is the opportunity it gives me to spend time with my daughters and my grandchildren. On Saturday, we had a beautiful sunny day. Since we are trying to rent our house in Belmar, Ronnie and I went to the beach to get the house in order for our scheduled Open House on April 26th. We were able to convince our daughter Erinn(middle child)to bring her boys to the Belmar for their first visit of the season.


Ronnie and I worked all morning as did Erinn. She arrived right after lunch and we all headed for the beach. It's normal to stop at the 10th Av playground on the beach and that was where T (7) and P( almost 5) spent most of their time. They were trying to master the fireman's pole, up and down.

I headed off to the water with E and Finn.


The beach was pretty crowded and there were some kids playing in the water at knee depth. I took a few steps into the water and my feet went numb. I'd guess the water to be about 40 degrees . I'm sure it was higher than that, but not much.
It didn't take long to leave the waterline and join the boys at the playground.

Finn and I took the bench and Erinn and her big guys found the warmth of the sand and each other.

Kate couldn't make it to the beach on Saturday. Her parents had some thing to do around Pennington and even though I left my HD with her, she couldn't get it started.

So, Cate and her mom, Meghan(my first born), came with me on Tuesday. I had to make a return trip to Belmar for a real estate transaction.

I picked up Meg and Cate about 9AM and headed to Belmar. Meg wanted to stop at the Jackson Outlets to get Cate some new shoes. I didn't know she had never been there. Sorry Joe, she knows where they are now, and there are some great stores there for shoppers and their little girls. Cate and her mom found a couple of pair of shoes that fit the need.

Cate confirmed they went with her outfit and decided to wear them out of the store.

We got to the beach as the sun came out of the clouds and had a couple of hours to let Cate experience (what I think is) her first exposure to sea and sand. And, she LOVED it!

It didn't take her long to realize how much fun could have in the sand and then she found the ocean.

"How come nobody told me about sand before today?"

"Hey Check this out? A crab claw. Just laying in the sand. What a cool place"

This trip ended with a stop at the 10th Av playground. Boy can this girl swing!

"No, I don't want to leave."

"Now that I'm home, want to see my running medals?"

Cancelled Flight

My scheduled flight to Pittsburgh was cancelled for today so I had the opportunity to spend the morning with Cate. I was thinking a visit to the airport might be just the right thing to do. Her mom is trying to complete a paper for a semester course @ TCNJ so a morning at the airport would be good for both of us. It was raining when we got to the airport. In fact, it's been raining for the last 48 hours. Rain doesn't bother Cate. She's an outdoors chic. I didn't want to spend the moning walking around the parking lot so I carried her into the hangar.

She initially didn't want any part of the airplanes. If she couldn't be outside she was just as happy being in my arms. I was up for that. But after a few minutes, she warmed up to the idea that a hangar was a cool place to hang around in.

Maybe it was after she saw the helicopter and the olde airplane that she decided it was OK to walk around .

In the picture on the left, Cate is about to investigate the undercarriage of an SNJ-an old WW ll trainer.

She then asked to check out the Hawker 900 that her pop flies.

It was a good visit to the airport followed by a visit to my Corporate office so I could pick up a new computer. She was greeted with warmth and goodies by all the ladies in the offfice. and enjoyed her visit there also. I did'nt have my camera or there would be some cute shots of her checking out the offices and having a grand time. I dropped her back at home in time for a snack and a nap. She did wish me farewell at the door.

Back to Vegas April 7th

Some days at home, enough time to see how much spring clean-up is necessary but not enough time to do anything about it, and I'm off to Vegas. Have a mid-day departure scheduled. These east to west flights really screw up my circadian rhythm. A 1 PM departure with a 5 1/2 hour flight, land at 3:30 PM. The body is saying dinner, but it's a little early (local time) to eat. By 8PM local(11PM EDT), I'm in bed. Up at 03:30 to stay on East coast time. Thankfully only a two day trip. I always stay on EDT when I have less than 5 days away.
A Pleasant trip, above all the weather and normal headwinds of 70-90 MPH, with catering from Whole Foods. Everyone happy with the flight and a promise of an early departure home on the 9th. The photo on the left is Lake Meade on our descent into Vegas.

This trip I picked a Marriott Courtyard in Henderson, Nevada. Henderson is the municipality that borders Vegas on the south and east. It's about 5 miles from the strip and a world away. So normal an environment, you don't realize how close all the glitz of Vegas is.
Vegas had a cool spell during our stay and I was the only one brave enough to sit at the pool(left).
Temps were in the low 60's and wind 15-20 mph.


The motel sat on theapproach path to McCarran International(Las Vegas Airport) and in between chapters of my book, I was checking out the approaches of the air carriers. There are about 3 Southwest flights for each of the Delta, US Air, Air Canada flights.
Dinner at Joe's Crab Shack on the 7th. was interesting. Certain songs playing in the restaurant (i.e. Love Shack) get all the servers singing along in a line dance. The food was good and the beer was happy hour priced. I've passed the Joe's Crab Shack on RT 1 more times than I can count and have never eaten there. Now I'll have to check it out to see if the their staff does the singing, line dancing. Dinner on the 8th was at "ZA" a great Sushi restaurant on Green Valley Road in Henderson.

Ready for take-off on the 9th at 7AM. Too early for our normal Whole Foods catering, but for twice the price, we had half the food of the same quality from Air Gourmet Catering.

Back in my house in Pennington by 3 PM and ready to spend the next few days and Easter with the family.

City Center Vegas

After a nice one day stay in Albuquerque, I was off to Vegas to retrieve the aircraft and passengers. Vegas is a frequent destination for me. My company is involved in several power projects in the city.

On this trip I stayed down by the Strip. This is a view from my hotel's rooftop bar. It's taken looking southwest. You can see the New York,New York, the Excalibur, the Monte Carlo and part of Mandalay Bay hotels.

I don't like staying in the casino hotels. They are too crowded, too smoky, too impersonal, too gaudy, etc. I will normally try to stay off the strip. This trip I was able to get a room in the Marriott Grande Chateau. It's a time-share that books single nights when not full(common in Vegas lately).

This hotel is in the center of the city on E. Harmon, across from Planet Hollywood. It is a nice alternative to the casinos and right in the center of the action, if you need that. It's a Marriott and to me that means customer oriented. It has a no smoking policy and it is comfortable and quiet. It has everything a traveler needs. The casino hotels provide nothing so you stay out of the room. The rooftop has a bar and a pool. I took a picture of the newest Strip project. The City Center Complex.

This is a 9 Billion dollar project which will include a hotel, casino, shopping center and Condo complex. This is looking west from the Marriott. It is at the intersection of Las Vegas Blvd and Harmon Av.

An overnight and off to the airport for the trip home. Computer planning says it's a 4:06 min flight. Just our luck, the airplane landing on the runway we're waiting to use for take-off, blows a tire. Now we have a 30 min delay for takeoff while they get the airplane towed off the runway.

Bottom line: takeoff at 1235 EST and land in Trenton at 1700, 4 hours and 25 min.

Albuquerque Surprise visit

When I returned from Nassau on Sunday, I had a per diem Hawker Captain take my place for the departure that same evening to Vegas. He flew the aircraft to Vegas and took a commercial flight home to Phil. I took a day to get some personal business done and left on Tuesday via Southwest Air to go to Vegas for the return trip to Trenton on Thurs. I couldn't get a non-stop so I booked through Albuquerque(ABQ) to Vegas. My mom who turned 96 in February lives in ABQ with my sister. I haven't seen her in many months and was looking forward to a surprise visit.

I showed up with flowers and rang the bell. When my sister showed up at the door she was on the phone. I put the flowers down and took her picture. She was telling the person on the phone that a man was at the door with a flower delivery. Needless to say, she was surprised. She called into my mom and said Michael is here.
My mom was very surprised.
You would never guess she is 96. She's healthy, happy and independent. I could only spend a day with her because I had to be in Vegas for a 9am takeoff on Thursday. But I had a great visit spent the evening at the home of my niece and her husband-Jamie and Brian and their son Andrew. Dorothy who is a retired flight attendant, and widow of a 747 airline captain, is a selfless loving sister, and a fabulous aunt to Andrew. Dorothy and Andrew both have the good fortune to spend time together when his parents are at work. It also gives him some quality time with his great grandmother.

Pictured left are Dorothy, Nanny, and Andrew and below is My niece and Andrew's mom, Jamie.

It was a fun visit. Jamie and her husband Brian live in a beautiful home in Rio Rancho. I got to feed live crickets to Andrew's 2 bearded dragon lizards, see his desert tortoise and sleep with his Yorkshire Terrier-Scout. I'm not sure when the dog joined me but at 3am he was laying legs up across my neck.