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16:15
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Cockpit Conversation 
I've been sent to pick up an airplane that has been waiting idle for me. I've paid my parking fee
(a suspiciously symmetrical $100: I suspect they just pulled the number out of thin air), finished
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8:16
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Cockpit Conversation
I took this picture last year, but it's still a pretty accurate depiction of my life on th
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18:35
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Cockpit Conversation
In Canada, flying activities are governed by the
Canadian Aviation
Regulations, generally called the CARs, pronounced ju
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7:02
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Cockpit Conversation
I go places on short notice. When I'm at home, I get an e-mail or a phone call saying, "Go to such and such a place," and I put my computer in my already packed bag and I go. It takes me maybe 20 minu
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19:03
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Cockpit Conversation
Heading south again. Another border crossing. This one Canada to US, on the airlines. Another
customs declaration
car
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18:57
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Cockpit Conversation
I have a friend who doesn't want me to get a job with Air Canada, because then, for solidarity's sake, he says he'd have to stop complaining about them. I don't work for Air Canada now, so I'm going t
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18:21
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Cockpit Conversation
I'm waiting in an FBO. I do more waiting than flying. I've figured out which local newspaper carries the New York Times crossword puzzle, and so I ask if it's available. It's not, but they offe
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11:26
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Cockpit Conversation
While I don't go through passenger screening X-rays on the way to my airplane, the US is introducing screening with radiation detectors for private aircraft. My information comes from
June 24, 2008
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11:30
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Cockpit Conversation
I described a flight test recently and what I didn't include was a measure of the artificiality
of the flight test scenario compared to real life IFR. While there are some pilots who are making
ve
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21:41
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Cockpit Conversation
There was e-mail today from Bilby Flights, the company I interviewed with last. I always tell them e-mail is the best way to contact me, so the medium itself says nothing. And it has an attachment. Is
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15:00
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Cockpit Conversation
After my PPC ride I had some time to kill before going home, so I went to see the air museum that was visible from the run up area. When I arrived they were only open for another hour and a quarter, s
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19:06
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Cockpit Conversation
The flight test is early the next morning. I don't feel ready for the in-air portion. I'm still getting in finger trouble with the autopilot, but I've become used to minimal training.
I prepare all t
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17:32
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Cockpit Conversation
A specific instance of tracking is doing an instrument approach. For this, the pilot wants to intercept and track a VOR or localizer signal towards the runway, and, if the approach is an ILS, intercep
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19:19
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Cockpit Conversation
Doing company annual paperwork sends me back to reading the CARs and the ops manual to answer all those questions again. I have read the below rules dozens of times, can pretty much recite them by hea
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15:44
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Cockpit Conversation
While flying in at a constant heading and altitude is just great, pilots often prefer to be on a
constant track, that is following a straight line over the ground, even though that means turning
t
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16:22
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Cockpit Conversation
A two-axis autopilot has capability to control pitch as well as roll, which means
that it can be used to hold altitude not just heading. There are different ways this is
implemented.
The b
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15:07
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Cockpit Conversation
I'm advised that I'll be doing my much delayed pilot proficiency check this week. That means that if I get the job I'll have two career-critical flight tests right after one another. Lovely. This one
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20:51
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Cockpit Conversation
Do I have any readers in Salt Lake City, Utah? I'm stopping over here for a couple of days, and all I know to do is walk down and look at the big salty lake, and wander around downtown.
Edit: I did
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17:25
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Cockpit Conversation
The day after my interview I get e-mail from a woman looking for a ferry pilot, with a link to a picture and specs on a cute, tiny, airplane. I'm not even sure it counts as an airplane under Canadian
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14:43
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Cockpit Conversation
I'm all dressed in my suit arriving at the airport before my interview. A woman in the
arrivals area asks me if I'm a member of a certain profession. I look at her startled. I was
one of those once
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18:52
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Cockpit Conversation
It's official almost summer, so for me this can only mean one thing: annual ice awareness
training. Yeah, my company training is out of sync with the real world. It's just the way it is.
Instead o
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14:33
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Cockpit Conversation
On the road, I eat in restaurants. If you go out for a restaurant meal once every couple of weeks with your friends, you look it over and order something that seems tasty, without a lot of regard for
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17:53
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Cockpit Conversation
I work closely with airplane mechanics (often called engineers, although they
don't actually hold engineering degrees) to keep my airplane working, so this
blog entry from an aircraft maintenance
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15:31
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Cockpit Conversation
It's been less than a month since the jet job interview I couldn't attend, but they
called me again to say that they have more interviews scheduled this week. And this time I
can attend. It
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14:44
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Cockpit Conversation
Fairly frequently I'm asked to leave an airplane parked somewhere and to take
an airline flight to somewhere else. I'm reimbursed for the airfare, and I can't
be too picky about fares when I buy th
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15:33
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Cockpit Conversation
FBOs typically monitor the ground control radio frequency, so that when you
request taxi to that FBO, they know you are coming and can be ready to wave you
in. Otherwise they just see you trudling
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17:07
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Cockpit Conversation
I'm aware that I keep blogging about "FBOs" but I'm not sure I've ever
explained exactly what one is. When I'm talking to people outside of aviation, I
sometimes substitute the words "airplane gas
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6:34
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Cockpit Conversation
Here's
a story
from Australia (on p.7 of the PDF) about how one pilot's attention to checklist
procedures saved the air
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14:41
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Cockpit Conversation
I just saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and this blog entry
constitutes a ridiculously long description and critique of the movie, at a level of detail
you almost cer
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14:01
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Cockpit Conversation
I had a new thing happen on a flight today. Not amazingly exciting; not even a little bit exciting, really. Just a matter of "heh, never saw that before." I guess the world never runs out of
things
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15:04
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Cockpit Conversation
Out of Lincoln I planned for a five and a half hour flight to Florida. The
forecast showed that I should get pretty much a direct crosswind for the first
part of the flight, and then a little bit
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15:04
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Cockpit Conversation
It's minus one and snowing lightly at dawn next morning in Montana. I'm glad I had my lined jacket for the walkaround inspection. The wind is still blowing, not nearly as strongly, but enough to keep
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8:39
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Cockpit Conversation
Depending on where or for how many years you have travelled by airline, you may or may not have seen a paper airline ticket. I'm not talking about a boarding pass, or the e-mail you print out from you
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15:46
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Cockpit Conversation
Many airports have a historical "Something Field" name in addition to their official "Something County Regional Airport" name, with the field being named after a local aviation here, sometimes simply
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15:42
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Cockpit Conversation
I've taken off from the Canadian prairies and am heading south. My take-off
was six minutes after filed, which will affect my arrival time at customs. They
told me on the phone, rather fiercely, t
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10:52
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Cockpit Conversation
Waiting in the departure lounge for a flight, I hear the CSA radio to ask
someone to bring her a bottle of hand sanitizer. A while later someone calls
back and say they only have a large 500 mL bo
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13:35
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Cockpit Conversation
I have a blog to recommend to you today. It's called
Where the Hell Is Phil and is the hilarious and illuminating adventures of a young man working
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5:03
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Cockpit Conversation
About the time Blogger autoposts this timestamped entry, and if the surface winds are low, a man named Michel Fournier is riding a balloon-lifted capsule, preparing to jump out 130,000 feet above sout
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14:02
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Cockpit Conversation
One area where both aviators and drivers can have fun with customization is in their paint schemes. Most of the airplanes I have ever flown have had boring paint jobs, or paint inspired by the fashion
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22:25
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Cockpit Conversation
One of the most common complaints about security is the rudeness of the
screeners. I typed out a whole lot of theorizing on customer service in the
US and Canada, southern USA hospitality, the Bri
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14:47
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Cockpit Conversation
So of course to go to work I have to get on a commercial flight. And to get
on a commercial flight I have to go through security. Ahh, security. Everyone
besides people who intend to blow up the a
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17:24
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Cockpit Conversation
This pretty much stands on its own.
An airline pilot was found hiding behind a shed wearing only flip-flops and a wristwatch as a nighttime romp in the woods with a flight attendant ended with both u
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13:17
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Cockpit Conversation
I believe I've blogged in the past about the insanity that is Flugtag. It's a shameless corporate event dreamed up to publicize Red Bull energy drink, I guess playing off their slogan, Red Bull Giv
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13:05
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Cockpit Conversation
Next morning the weather in the Toronto area and across the lakes is already
fine. No fog. I call Canadian customs with my arrival report. It always
irritates me that it's called an arrival "repor
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10:37
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Cockpit Conversation
Leaving Rapid City, I overfly the famous South Dakota Badlands. This
reminds me that I want to set up a cross country iPod load that has all
the songs that mention parts of the country come on at
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21:56
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Cockpit Conversation
This blog should probably not be read over lunch.
The only thing lofty about this blog entry is the altitude I'm
discussing. I was trying to find a bodily functions post I remember, by
May 17, 2008
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17:58
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Cockpit Conversation
I realized after I made the early morning pick up arrangement that I
had been going east, so that made my pick up an hour earlier by body time,
but it still gave me legal rest, so I'm glad I did i
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11:54
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Cockpit Conversation
I'm supposed to go to Toronto next. I find this out while sitting in the hotel lobby, so I fire up the laptop but while it's booting use the USA Today method to determine this will take me twelve hour
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10:55
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Cockpit Conversation
Lately I've been using the free version of Voyager navigational
planning software, from
Seattle Avionics.
It's impressive. You tell it the
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2:46
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Cockpit Conversation
So
it seems a drunk guy managed to wander onto the runway in Dallas. That's quite a trick, getting onto airside, crossing th
