Reading assignment

Yesterday Mark walked up to me handed me a book and said here is your reading assignment. Haven't had one of those in close to 10 years, unless you count medical information, I was a little taken back and slightly confused until I saw the title....THE HOBBIT. Mark loves this book and is very excited for the movie, to help me enjoy the movie more (or I am assuming it's to help me) I have been given a reading assignment.
I love to read, usually mushy love stories and lately a ton of books by Marcia Lynn McClure...another post entirely but if you like love stories and your library carries lds authors check her out. Anyway back to the reason of my post, I am now on page 10 of my assignment and have already giggled out loud, excited to see where this adventure that Bilbo Baggins is about to begin takes me and thinking maybe I should get out my usually genre of books more often....well maybe I mean who doesn't like a good story about love and silly romantic things.
Off to read more of this hobbit adventure, what reading adventure are you on?

McAllen, Texas

Early on the morning of September 26 we loaded ourselves in the car &  set off for the airport. We arrived on time, which was surprising since we only had about 3 hours of sleep. We walk up to our gate, it's looking like we should make it on the flight. Over the loud speakers we hear "is there a American Airlines mechanic on this flight" Mark looks at me smacking his forehead and giving me a here we go look. No mechanic responds, next announcement "Due to a mechanical problems this flight will be cancelled." We wait patiently while other passengers are taken care of. During this time we begin chatting with the flight crew & one of the flight attendants says that this happens all the time and than they will uncancel the flight and you'll end up being on the flight with hardly any other people. We hoped this would happen but came to the realization that most likely we would be hanging out for 5 1/2 hours waiting for the next flight that had room for us. After playing on the moving sidewalk with Noah for awhile we head back to our gate. I smile at the flight attendants as we walk up she give me a huge smile, thumbs up sign and mouths "we're a go" Could have cried with happiness. Entertaining Noah at the airport was becoming a challenge since they took out the play area's to put in express Spa's....not a smart choice Salt Lake, not at all. Happy moment the flight was a go! There was an 8:20 departure that was booked full with passengers, they offered us seats but couldn't place us by each other deciding Noah wouldn't do well not sitting by us we declined the seats and waited for the cancelled flight be uncancelled and us to board. We had seats on the uncancelled flight, there were 11 passengers. This was fantastic, Noah was able to be load and not really bother anyone because there wasn't anyone sitting around us. On American flights first class passengers are always given a meal, there are 16 first class seats. If you are good at math you just realized that there were fewer passengers on the entire plane than there are first class seats, why does this matter? FREE BREAKFAST! They had the meals, they shared the meals with EVERYONE on the plane instead of them just sitting there. Noah thought it was pretty great so did we!

We made our connection in Dallas to McAllen without problem. The best part of the Dallas airport is the train that goes from terminal to terminal, Noah was in heaven and would have spent our entire vacation riding around in circles. Noah was so tired he didn't even make it to the runway in the airplane before he was out cold, Mark & I might have made it to take off. We landed in McAllen called Heather to let her know we were there and wandered out wait for her. I have been to humid places before, but this humidity was different. Mark's Aunt Karin once said that humid air gave you hug each time you walked outside. This air was giving bear hugs & I wanted it to let go :)
After waiting outside for a few minutes the humidity wasn't bad. We loaded up in the car and headed to meet Brett who had just got off work. Starving from a long day of travel we headed for a local Texas BBQ joint, delicious!





Thursday morning we loaded in the car and headed for the gulf, South Padre Island. I love the beach, I have always loved the beach I think I inherited that from my Grandma and Great-Grandma. The Gulf was unlike any beach I had been too. It was WARM, so much better than the cold pacific. We played in the water for hours. Noah never once shivered, this never happens when we swim...not matter how hot it is outside. It was an unusually wavy day in the gulf, which was a blast. Noah loved playing in the waves, he actually spent most of the time not holding hands with anyone. We had a nice picnic in the beach pavilion, they have some very determined birds on South Padre. They actually ripped on a sealed bag of Cheetos, it was a feeding frenzy and a little freaky to be around! After lunch we wandered out on what we decided must have been an old pier. There were lots of people fishing. I was kept freaking out because Noah wanted to walk not holding hands, it was so deep around and the rocks were uneven. He survived but I might need Xanax if he is going to do things like that. Noah got tired of not being able to play in the water around him so we headed back to land. Brett & Heather went out a bit further and were able to see a baby shark someone had caught. We did learn from some nice fishermen, after Noah tried to become the catch in their net, that to catch crab you fish with raw chicken. Who knew, not me! We spent a while longer playing in the waves and than headed out to drive around the island. Noah was awake for all of 5 minutes in the car. We spent time searching for souvenir sweaters, funny since it was over 90 degrees, while Noah slept. We ended our beach day with fresh seafood at Dirty Al's. Noah even loved it, he was downing the calamari. We had calamari, shrimp & flounder. Oh my mouth is watering as I type this. SO GOOD! We stopped at a giant souvenir shop after dinner, sadly it was closed. We took fun photos outside, they are on my phone and I don't want to deal with the transfer. I did give you lots of other photos to see :)



Family Photo on South Padre



He wasn't freaking out, promise, he loved it.



See why I was nervous for Noah walking!



Noah fell in love with Heather & Brett right away.



Baby Shark



There open side made me giggle and the painting was to fantastic to not share

Wonderful place, can't wait to visit again!

 

Boarder patrol

 

Friday we spent the morning at the outlet mall, bad place to visit....especially when you have kids they had way to many kid stores! After a very successful shopping trip we headed for a picnic. Now we didn't just go to any park, we headed to a park on the USA & Mexican boarder. It was interesting watching the boarder patrol speed up and down the Rio Grande while we hate our sandwiches and drive around the park. I imagine they wondered what the heck  a bunch of white people were doing picning on the Rio Grande. We could see & hear Mexican children playing not even a football field away. For some reason this entire scenario made me a little sad. Not sure why but it did. After eating and standing on the dock for photo ops we let Noah play at the park. The playground equipment seemed to be new an well take care of as were all the tables, maybe it was just an off day and that is why we were the only people there. Noah had fun playing with his Dad & Brett on the slides and climbing the chain ladder. He did it all by himself multiple times. He is growing up so quickly!

This is when Mark got an Ant bite



Boarder fence

 

Brett took us on a tour around the boarder, at one point while driving down a dirt road we were being followed by the boarder patrol. I won't deny it I was worried we were in trouble. Brett was right we weren't, they turned around and we continued our "tour" We ended up in a small town that I commented looked like what I image Mexico does look like. Brett said it pretty much was and that he had just done a new story (he is an news anchor man) on how this town was trying to get running water. 

We finished our day swimming in Brett & Heathers neighborhood pool. This pool was built for kids, it had an entire section just over a foot deep and never got deeper than 3 1/2 feet, Noah was in heaven. He even floated on just his water wings without us holding him, not sure he agreed with us doing that to him but he did it!



Love this friend of mine, college roommates 8 years ago!

 

 Due to flight cancellations we had to be at the airport at 5 am to catch our flight home, we did & made it on our flight.

 

We had a wonderful trip  look forward to many more family trips visiting new places.

Please forgive spelling & grammar errors, in attempt to actually post this before Noah tried to help I was working very fast.



Family

Sunday Mike & Jessie came over after church to have lunch and hangout before they visited their beautiful girls at the NICU. We went for a walk, Noah brought his bike to "ride". He informed Jessie it was her turn so she got on and he proceeded to push her. This is what I call an awesome aunt!
Also i have to shown off my cute nieces, they are getting so big. Can't wait till they get to come home!

Where did summer go?

I have not been very good at blogging our summer so we'll do some catch up. Today we'll cover July, it's basically going to be pictures so enjoy!

First time parent moment

For the first time as parents we watched out little Noah get taken in for surgery yesterday. He had his tonsils & adenoids removed. He has had trouble with them for the last year and when he got tonsillitis this summer the specialist said lets take them out sooner rather than later.
The doctor said his tonsils and adenoids were so big his wrist got tired trying to get them out. We are guessing that is big. The anesthesia was hard for him to come out of, he is very much like his mom in that aspect. He would forget to breath just like his mom always does. He was gone from us less than 40 minutes, there wasn't even time to catch a quick nap.
Yesterday and last night were rough with no one getting much sleep but today seems to be better. I observed him sleeping with his mouth closed today, something he has never been able to do because of enlarged tonsils and adenoids.
We can't thank our Moms enough for there help with Noah so we could sleep a little and eat a little. Here's hoping tonight is better and we can all get some sleep.

And you thought your work day was bad...

I've decided to try and write more often about my job.  I know I have an interesting job but it seems such a mystery to people on the outside.  Since I was involuntarily transferred to JFK airport in New York, I have not been flying nearly as much.  I did get quite a bit more flight time this month than I did in July, though.

A few weeks ago, I was coming in on an approach to Memphis.  It was my turn to fly the leg and everything was running smoothly.  The weather was not perfect, but was manageable, so I was flying an ILS approach, which consists of using electronic navigation to follow a pair of needles to get to a point where you are close enough to the runway to actually see it and land.  We broke out of the clouds at the legal minimum height (200' above the ground) just in time to see a FedEx plane getting on the runway in front of us.  Not wanting to make the national news, I executed a go-around.  This is a maneuver we train for regularly so it was not a problem... at first.  I advanced the thrust levers to get the power we needed to climb again and pressed the TOGA (take-off/go-around) buttons which provided me with electronic guidance to keep me on the published missed approach path.  All airports have a pre-determined and published path to keep us from flying into buildings, mountains or other aircraft in the event we have to go around, so it is critical to maintain this path. 

We climbed back up into the clouds and I was again completely dependent upon my instruments for guidance.  As I had the captain retract the flaps and landing gear to allow for better climb performance, I noticed the airplane start to drift to the left.  Normally, airplanes like to go straight.  It takes something acting upon the airplane to make it turn, and a yawing turn (like when you turn in your car) is especially unnatural.  This was a yawing turn to the left.  I used the rudder to counteract the turning that was going on so as to stay on the missed approach course, then a quick review of the engine instruments made the cause of the turning clear...

THE LEFT ENGINE WAS SPOOLING DOWN.

This is bad.  This is what we, in the aviation industry, like to call an emergency.  The vast majority of jets operating as revenue airlines utilize two engines, so the loss of one does not mean you are doomed, but it does make the job of the pilots a LOT harder.  Imagine if you are driving and suddenly your transmission stops sending torque to the left wheel.  You probably could drive, but it would be a lot harder.  Unfortunately, you can't stop a jet.

This is another thing that we train for regularly.  So, using the right rudder and other controls I kept the plane under control.  We have to memorize the first few steps of our procedure in the event of an engine failure, so I started to recite the steps so that the captain would perform them.  "Number one thrust lever," I said.  The captain then put his hand on the #1 thrust lever and repeated, "Number one thrust lever."  I then said "Idle." The captain then said "Idle" and slowly brought the thrust lever for the #1 engine (left engine) back to the idle position.  We used the same dialogue to turn off the engine power and pull the fire handle.  This procedure is designed to be used in the event of a failure or fire in the engine and cuts off all fuel, oil, hydraulic supply and air going to or coming from the engine.  After letting the air traffic controllers know we had an emergency and requesting some space, the captain pulled out the manual and began following the procedure for diagnosing and fixing a failed engine while I focused on keeping the airplane under control.

Long story short, we could not restart the engine and chose to go back to Memphis to land again.  We turned around and, with air traffic control's help, got the airplane aligned with the proper runway again.  The weather was still not great so we were going to need to fly another ILS approach through the clouds to get down to the airport.  I have not felt so much pressure on me to perform in my life.  We began the descent.  Things get particularly tricky doing an approach to a landing with only one engine in a two engine aircraft. 

When your only engine that is producing thrust is off to one side, it generates a yawing (turning) tendency.  This tendency can be neutralized by adjusting the rudder and with an extra control we call trim (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_tab for more info if you're curious).  Once the adjustments are made, flying on that single engine becomes very much like having both engines running, although the airplane is much more lethargic.  This is only true, though, as long as the power coming from said engine remains the same.  To get the airplane to safely descend to, approach, and land at an airport, it needs to slow down drastically, which requires large power changes.  It becomes a very delicate dance with the rudder and engine power to keep it under control when you have just one engine and are slowing down, extending flaps and landing gear, and descending.  When you are in that position, it is amazing how focused you can become.  The human mind can block out everything except what it needs to perform a job properly, if the stakes are high enough.

Finally, the aircraft broke out of the clouds and we were in line to land.  I was not at all concerned about making a smooth, soft touchdown.  This was a time to just get the plane firmly on the ground and stopped, as soon as possible.  After a jolting landing and hard deceleration, the aircraft came to a stop.  

Then the instructor behind me patted me on the shoulder, said "Good job, Mark," and the screen went blank.  We were, in fact, not in Memphis but were in Fort Worth, inside a simulator and I had just completed my probationary check ride.  There were no lives at stake, just my job.

As a first officer, I will be forced to relive this scenario at least once a year for recurrent training and proficiency checks.  I had been through it when I was initially qualified to fly the airplane and will go through it again and again.  We practice these things over and over again so that, if we are unlucky enough to have it happen to us in real life, we are prepared for the worst.  I also had to perform a set of stall recoveries, an encounter with severe wind shear, and a V1 cut, which is when the engine fails at the worst possible time during takeoff.  This involves it quitting suddenly at the point where we no longer have enough runway left to safely stop the aircraft and are forced to take off with a failed engine, including the reduced power and turning tendency.  It is also very tricky but, with the proper training, a completely survivable event.  As a captain, I will have to do all of this twice a year.

I love my job.  I understand the risks that go along with flying.  Fortunately, US airlines have the training and equipment in place to keep people safe.  This was obviously a simulated event, but in the course of my trips I have had things happen and stories to tell, and I will try and share more of these stories with you all.