Today, May and I are in Santa Barbarba, CA to attend Rachel & Todd’s wedding, at the beautiful Montecito Country Club. Wonderful place, perfect organization, and many friends to share the fun with, while May’s parents are taking care of Neige. It’s the first time our little flake has to spend a night away from both mom and dad. Mom is dealing with separation anxiety pretty well, and I’m sure Neige will be fine as well. Enjoying the moment…
I completed my high altitude training today. Eliot and I flew N423SR to Beale Air Force Base to attend the Aerospace Physiology Training organized by the FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI). On my way there and back, I had the privilege of carrying a former captain who flew on Boeing 747 for Cathay Pacific. The training program was absolutely fascinating, to the point where I almost passed out in the decompression chamber (sorry, no pictures…). Definitely an eye opener regarding the risks inherent to high altitude flying. We also got to see four U2 planes, including one doing some pattern work at incredibly slow speed, and a couple of Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which definitely are much bigger in real life than they look on pictures. Overall, a fantastic trip, which added 2.2 hours of SR22 experience onto my logbook and completed my transition to Cirrus SR22 GTS Turbo transition, for both G2 and G3 models. Awesome!
The ish+may family is back home in Palo Alto, CA, right on time to learn more about the new Perspective avionics developed by Garmin for Cirrus. It’s now an option for the SR22 and SR22 Turbo, replacing the good old Avidyne Entegra. Cirrus Perspective is based on the Garmin G1000, integrates Synthetic Vision Technology, Dual AHRS, Yaw Damper, and a convenient Target Fuel Flow indicator that should dramatically simplify operations when flying the Turbo model. Prior to this upgrade, I preferred the Columbia 400 (now Cessna 400) to the Cirrus SR22 because of its superior avionics. The only advantage the Cirrus had over the Columbia was a redundant GPS (Garmin GNS 430). Now that the Cirrus SR22 comes with Garmin G1000 and Dual AHRS, I cannot think of any reason to look for something else. Aircraft ownership envy…
Today, Teddy and I rented a Cessna 172P (CGGSN) with Victoria Flying Club and flew over to nearby Vancouver, BC. We left Victoria International Airport at around 7:30 PM, and this wonderful 1.3 hours flight took us over Vancouver International Airport, Vancouver Harbour, and Gabriola Island. Our instructor Tristan had been flying for less than a year, and had about the same amount of flying hours as I did, without any instrument rating. Quite refreshing! Now, I really need to get my seaplane rating…
We’re in Sitka, AK today. May is sea kayaking with her brothers and Sarah, while Neige and I are visiting this cute little town, marveling at the totems that can be found at the Sitka National Historic Park. Sitka is considered Alaska’s most beautiful seaside town, and Neige seems to agree, as can be seen on this picture.
We’ve reached Hubbard Glacier today, marking the Northernmost point in our itinerary. The weather is absolutely gorgeous, and the place quite extraordinary. At this point, I really wish I could fly a helicopter or seaplane in order to take an even closer look…
The entire Chang family is out for a week-long cruise to Alaska. We left Seattle, WA half an hour ago, and are en route to Juneau, AK, aboard the beautiful Holland America Line’s ms Oosterdam. I’m sitting on our suite’s balcony, connected to the Internet using my Sprint 3G wireless modem, marveling at the Seattle skyline. Awesome!
Last week, I started my turbo transition on Cirrus SR22 GTS Turbo, alongside training for my high altitude endorsement. I now have 3.9 hours on type, including a flight to FL 250 (25,000 feet). I expect to be done with the whole program in a couple of weeks, following completion of the Aerospace Physiology Training, a 1-day training course organized by the FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) at Beale Air Force Base and other participating military facilities. More on this very soon…
Neige is only 14 months old, but she never ceases to surprise me. Today, she picked her mom’s iPhone up, turned it on by pressing her little left thumb on the top button, then unlocked it by sliding her tiny right index across the bottom of the screen. In and by itself, such a feat is quite impressive, and is testament to Apple’s intuitive user interface. But what amazed me is that she did all this while standing up on the sofa, using her upper body to balance herself on this uneven and soft surface. And she only has three weeks of upright walking experience under her belt–or diapers shall I say. Neige: you’re making daddy very proud.
This blog is almost three years old now, and a new design was long overdue. After much considerations, I opted for something very clean, turning the sidebar into a footer, and using colors only for pictures, which were added for the first time a couple of weeks ago while May, Neige and I were in Oʻahu. The new design is based on the DePo Clean Theme and is gracing a brand new instance of WordPress 2.5 migrated from Yahoo! to 1&1, thanks to Pascal’s help. Home, sweet home!
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