Next week, May and I are supposed to fly to Los Angeles with me as pilot in command. In order to get a sense for what a long flight feels like, we decided to fly from San Carlos (KSQL) to San Luis Obispo (KSBP), make a fifteen minutes stop, then fly back to San Carlos. The 360 nautical miles flight took 3.9 hours, and even though I was a little bit tired toward the end, I think that I should be able to fly from San Carlos to Camarillo (KCMA) in one go.
After getting lost one time too many for an important meeting, I have decided to get a portable GPS. And because my new phone runs the Pocket PC operating system and supports Bluetooth connections, I went for a TomTom NAVIGATOR 5. It’s extremely small, weights almost nothing, and has the best user interface you can get today. It is not certified yet for the Cingular 8125, but I had no problem installing it and getting where I wanted to go for dinner tonight. Outstanding! Many thanks to Dave and Hugues for recommending the brand.
Mac OS X is a fantastic operating system, but I cannot use it for accessing our corporate bank account at work, nor for synchronizing my contacts between Salesforce.com and my phone. My past experience with Virtual PC was enough to convince me than any solution other than a native one would be the shortest path to ultimate frustration, so I finally decided to get a Windows laptop, and because I might have to carry it alongside my MacBook Pro, I opted for something very light: the Sony VAIO VGN-TX790P. At 2.76 lbs with standard battery, it’s really hard to beat.
When we moved into our new apartment, we thought that we had gotten rid of most of our junk. Problem is, we seem to attract an undescriptible amount of useless gear, tools, and toys, and the more we get rid of, the more we collect back. We must have bought something like 60 shoebox-sized plastic containers from the Container Store, but it does not seem to help. Time has come for a good Spring cleaning. Junk beware!
Following a Bay tour with Ken — an old friend of mine, I had lunch today at the Sky Kitchen restaurant located at San Carlos Airport. If you like omelettes, make sure that you give this place a try, for they have over 40 of them on the menu. The staff is extremely friendly and the food always cooked to perfection.
Management books are usually boring. Most of the time, they revolve around a single idea that might deserve a press article or a white paper, but certainly not shelf space in bookstores or libraries. One exception to this rule is the work done by Patrick Lencioni from The Table Group. Patrick’s books are written like novels, can be read in two to three hours, and taught me some of the most important management rules that I am using in my work today. Most importantly, they never fail to entertain, as any good novel should. Patrick just published a fifth book called Silos, Politics and Turf Wars. I received a copy today and cannot wait to read it. Many thanks to Frederic for the heads up.
I have not set foot on skis for over 20 years now, and May has had more time on a snowboard than its twin ancestors this last season. The sport is said to have been invented sometime back in the ’60s, and a good retrospective is presented in First Descent, a great documentary staring Shawn Farmer, Terje Haakonsen, Nick Perata, Hannah Teter and Shaun White. Their rides in Alaska are breathtaking. And the shots of their helicopter taxi really made me want to learn flying rotary wing aircraft at some point in the future. Not to be missed!
When I prepared for my private pilot license, most of my homework was done with the Jeppesen GFD Private Pilot Textbook. For the intrument rating, I am studying with a similar textbook, but I also added the excellent video training from John and Martha King. My training being done on a Cessna 172S NAV III Skyhawk, I am using the Cessna Cleared for Approach course and the Cleared for Flying the Garmin G1000 course. Watching the videos and getting quizzes at the end of each lesson makes the learning process a much more rewarding experience than just reading a book. I am also preparing the knowledge test with the Gleim Instrument Pilot FAA Knowledge Test and the Gleim FAA Test Prep. This should be quite a lot of fun…
Flying in the mountains is a lot more challenging than flying at low altitude over flat lands. Less air density means lower aircraft performance, and mountainous terrain makes it more difficult to perform an emergency landing in the unlikely event of an engine failure. This is the reason why the FAA requires pilots to get a special endorsement for mountain flying before heading to the peaks. I got the ground part done with Eliot today. I should get my endorsement once the weather improves and we can finally make our flight to Truckee (KTRK). I am also reading the excellent Mountain Flying Bible from Sparky Imeson. If you manage to read past the first ten pages where the author repeats himself endlessly in order to bring a couple of critical points home, you will find in this book an amazing wealth of knowledge on the subject.
I recently developed a new addiction for chicken, this time in its Kung Pao form. My local supplier is the P.F. Chang’s restaurant in Palo Alto. Quick-fired with peanuts, chili peppers and scallions, it’s to die for.
I got a chance to fly on the right seat of a Cirrus SR22-GTS today. This 310hp plane is equiped with Avidyne avionics and the owner had added a portable Garmin GPSMAP 396 for redundancy. Nice setup! We flew from San Carlos (KSQL) to Hayward (KHWD). I had been advised by other Cirrus owners that the plane is quite slippery, and I could definitely feel it, especially at slow speeds. That being said, it’s a very sweet aircraft: clean, simple, and fast. Now, I need to get a ride on a Columbia 350 to decide which plane I like best (good comparison here). Many thanks to Curtis for letting me ride along!
From time to time, parts of the airspace will be restricted and prevent VFR flight at certain altitudes within certain timeframes. This is called a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR), and this website is a good place to find out about them before you head to the airport. There was such a restriction today near Pacifica, which prevented flight along the Coast from San Francisco to Half Moon Bay because of explosives being used for some road work. Fortunately, it was suspended just before my friend Peter and I left for a short Bay tour at lunch time, and we got to enjoy the coastline part of the flight instead of getting an other transition into the Bravo on our way back to San Carlos (KSQL). Friday, President Bush is coming into town and the whole Bay Area is under a gigantic TFR. I do not have my Instrument Rating yet, so I’m going to stay on the ground for once.
I have been flying for a year and a half now, but I just realized what I really like about it: the privilege of gifting a first flight to someone who never set foot in a small plane and will get the opportunity of seeing a familiar location from a completely different viewpoint. The happy grin on the face of passengers after an hour-long flight over fabulous sights such as the City of San Francisco or the Golden Gate Bridge gives any pilot a feeling of satisfaction that’s unlike any other. I got this privilege again when taking my friend David for a Bay tour today. He was a little bit apprehensive at first, but all fears went away as soon as he got a view of the San Francisco International Airport terminal from 1,500 feet. Thank you Dave for trusting me to take you up there. I very much look forward to flying with you again very soon.
I did my first Bay tour with two passengers today: Jacques and Any. We did the usual Bravo transition over San Francisco International Airport (KSFO), flight over the City and Alcatraz, cruise alongside the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific Coast, landing in Half Moon Bay and flight back to San Carlos (KSQL) just before the wind picked up. I’m starting to get the hang of this flying thing…
Yesterday, we celebrated Easter with dinner at Jacques’ and Raphaele’s. This gave us an opportunity to see Jacques’ parents again and to spend some time with Amarine and Aurelia. Amarine now speaks both English and French and can name pretty much any animal in either language. Her younger sister Aurelia started walking last week. Both really liked the candies May nicely put together into cute little baskets. Today, we headed to The Mountain Winery for an Easter brunch and the celebration of Kim’s birthday. Good food, yet slightly expensive, but we had a ton of fun playing with plastic eggs. Happy birthday Kim! And many thanks to Any and Xavier for the chocolates, they are delicious!
I was supposed to fly to Half Moon Bay (KHAF) today, but the weather was not cooperative, so I went there by land instead. It was a good opportunity to buy a new battery for the HOG and get it out of the garage for the first time of the year, after an unusually rainy winter. Thrilling!
My friend Arnold invited me and a group of about 20 acquaintances for a game of hockey yesterday: San Jose Sharks vs Vancouver Canucks. The Sharks won 5-3. It was my first game at the HP Pavillion in San Jose, and I must say that I was very impressed by the quality of the venue. Our host had reserved a suite on the Terrace level, and made sure that we would get enough food and drinks for the whole duration of the game. I got to meet some old friends and a young couple with a four year old daughter. The baby girl gets to hear only French from the dad who was born in France, English from the mom who was born in Singapore, and Mandarin from the Chinese nanny. Pretty cool if you ask me… In the meantime, many thanks to Arnold for yet an other fantastic event.
Some business people travel with their golf clubs and deal on the course. Others simply carry their pilot license and do it in the air. I’ve never played golf, so I cannot really say anything about the game, but it seems to me that I will fall into the second category more than the first. I had lunch yesterday with a customer who I had not met for more than two years. At the end of our meal, I asked him what he was doing for fun, and his answer was: “I fly”. As it turns out, the guy has a Commercial pilot license and owns half a share on a Cessna 421. With about 374 BHP on each wing, he can fly from Denver to San Jose in about three hours. Not bad… The weather was exceptionally good today, so we decided to take his New Zealander business partner for the now usual Bay tour, with a short stop at Half Moon Bay (KHAF). If only every business meeting could be like that…
I joined JATO Aviation for my IFR training today. The company provides advanced pilot training and mentoring programs to pilots, as well as flight operations and guidance services to aircraft owners. April D. Gafford and her team have put together a very impressive syllabus, and I really like the idea of having a secondary Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) available when the primary one is not. Eliot will be my primary CFI, with Shane acting as secondary. Training will be done on a Cessna 172SP G1000. I got my Cessna training kit today and will subscribe to Jeppesen’s NavSuite tomorrow. I cannot wait to try it out.
I am at work and just read this Fortune article that May sent me. It explains why founders usually make better CEOs than hired ones. I personally worked with two professional CEOs and I agree with the author. Founders have a vested interest in a company’s success that transcends short-term capital gains. The interests of long-term shareholders are usually better aligned with the ones of a founder, and unless she really cannot do the job, I tend to think that no one is better qualified to lead a company on the long run than the person who started the company at the first place. At least this is what I learned the hard way.
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