The Midway

After a considerable amount of time avoiding hotels, I seem to be finding myself in them quite often these days. In the past couple weeks, I have been in San Diego three times. This most recent one, however, actually occurred during daytime, so I could go out and explore a bit. I elected to check out the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum. At over $20 admission, it isn’t exactly a steal, but there are only so many aircraft carriers one can walk around on, so I caved. Unlike the Intrepid in New York, which displays any kind of airplane they got their hands on, the Midway stuck strictly to its Naval past and the only aircraft that could be found on board were those that might have actually flown from its decks.

 It wasn’t too crowded, fortunately, because there’s nothing worse than narrow hallways and corridors filled with hundreds of sweaty tourists. After walking around the flight deck, I waited in line for about two minutes to take a tour of the ship’s island. The guy leading the small group was a former colonel who kept using, “in that aspect” after every sentence. After the 30th time (no exaggeration), I was losing my mind. I honestly have no idea what else he was saying, though occasionally he switched to “in that regard.” After about 15 mins and a thousand aspects, the tour of the island ended. I continued a self-guided tour below decks to the crew quarters, briefing rooms, and radar room. I was the only one roaming these parts. There were a few more former naval servicemen in these rooms to educate people as they passed through. The guys I ran across must have been real bored, because they came at me at 1000 words a minute. I can now tell you how to operate a Naval SPS radar system, what the different symbols on the screen mean, and how different sources such as an E-2 aircraft flying overhead can feed data to the system. Maybe someday this information will be useful.

Following this, I headed off deck and back through downtown to the hotel. It was an interesting museum, and far more accessible than other carriers that have been converted to museums. According to its Wikipedia page, the Midway underwent multiple deck and stabilizer conversions to adapt to modernized aircraft and the changing times. One of these proved rather unsuccessful and it was nicknamed the “Rock n, Roll carrier.” The pictures were unsettling. It is best that the Midway is permanently at port now. As I once famously said to a Naval recruiter at age 17, “I don’t like boats.”    

Back in the Saddle

After much training and learning, I am finally out of Denver and on IOE (Initial Operating Experience). I've pretty much just been running the West Coast shuttle between Seattle, San Francisco, LA, and San Diego. As a whole I like the new plane. I feel like it gets more respect based solely on the fact that it looks bigger. You will note I modified the masthead of this blog to reflect the recent changes. The transition has been very easy coming from the CRJ. In any event, I now find myself in San Diego.

It was a warm and sunny morning, so I walked to Balboa Park. I had forgotten how large it is. It was also very crowded since it is Saturday. On my way across Cabrillo Bridge, I spotted an F-list celebrity jogging the opposite direction - Farrah from Teen Mom. We can all thank Nicole for exposing me to such a terrible MTV show. Who is this person, you ask? Her most notable accomplishments were getting pregnant at 16, undergoing lots of plastic surgery, and/or publicly releasing a sex tape. Perhaps in South Beach, that's just a Tuesday, but most people tend to think she's a bit . . . off.

Farrah was far from the last unusual thing I saw in Balboa Park that day. A man in an electrical wheelchair made a beeline for me and muttered something about Jesus and my sins while trying to give me some sort of biblical literature. I politely raised my hand to say no and walked by. Just meters away, was this little tent display that offered visitors a chance to ask an atheist a question.

There were also other groups trying to generate signatures for petitions or donations for other causes. I felt like I was in the movie, Airplane! I couldn't shake them all. And when you thought you'd seen it all, there was Santa Claus. The question is - would he have been more inclined to ask the atheists a question or talk to Jesus/Sins man? As someone who studied history, I should state that the Christmas lawn displays that show santa at the manger, are historically inaccurate. It is now generally accepted that Santa was a communist party leader. Just look at him. He's as red as they come.

After meandering around the park and deciding not to actually spend any of my money on museums, I wound my way back toward the hotel. Perhaps next time I will be more willing to pay the admission, but today I'm feeling cheap. I have to save up for my next trip, which is tentatively scheduled for October. And I know what you're thinking . . ."Didn't he just finish training? And he wants vacation already?" Yes. I don't understand the problem with this.

Until next time, and welcome back to the adventures of  Flyin' Brian.

Memorial Day Weekend in San Diego

My San Diego overnights are typically short, arriving in the evening and departing early in the morning. During this last four-day trip, I finally had a San Diego overnight of respectable length. Nicole even decided to join me by taking the short hop from LAX on American... in first class. Pretty swanky twenty minute flight for her. I was flying for Delta and coming in from Las Vegas, where I have been running shuttle flights for the last few weeks. I'm not too keen on that airport or its clientele, but that's for another blog post.






We both arrived around noon, and after checking in to the hotel, we began walking around downtown. It's about half a mile from the hotel to the bay, where we found large crowds.

We walked by the USS Midway and all the various charter boats and fishing vessels before reaching this statue entitled, "The Unconditional Surrender." Look, clearly she's not into it. I feel like I read that the photo that inspired this statue was actually staged, which makes it more confusing. She knew there was going to be a picture taken and still was like, "No, I can't even pretend. Not into sailors. Just not feeling this at all. Is it over yet?"


Anyway, from there we cut back in near the gas lamp district, where we encountered more crowds and slow walkers. We walked by the Padres stadium and then back out to the bay. We used the bathrooms at a Hilton near the convention center (sometimes a good bathroom is hard to come by) before relaxing for a bit at a nearby park.

There were various workout stations throughout the park including balance beams, pull up bars, and hanging rings. I impressed Nicole with my Olympic caliber performance at each station. We slowly worked our way back to the hotel, which was a little over a mile away at this point. We stopped briefly at a rooftop bar called Altitude on top of one of the hotels. We didn't stay long. We took in the view and called it good enough. Some of the folks on the roof were quite loud and obnoxious, and we are basically old people who are no longer amused by such things.

We got dinner later on in Little Italy. I had fish n' chips. If that seems off, it's because Little Italy was packed. Waiting two hours to get a table was far less desirable than going to a pub owned by some kiwis. You see, people feel obligated to eat Italian food in Little Italy, but as the area is not yet called Little Auckland, we lucked out. Tomorrow is Memorial Day and both Nicole and I are hoping for an easy nonrev experience back to LA. I'll be heading back from SLC since my deadhead isn't for almost four hours after we are scheduled to land. Hopefully it all goes smoothly.

Iran meets San Diego

Today marked the first day that I flew the CRJ-700, the larger, more airplane-like version of the CRJ-200 I had been flying for the previous couple weeks. I had heard much buildup about how it is more difficult to land etc etc, but after my first landing in the plane ever, the passengers commented on the nice landing on their way out. On my second landing in Seattle, the flight attendants stated, "Nice landing, whoever did it." On my third landing back in LA, the captain said, "Ok, you have the landings down." Honestly, despite what everyone else says, the CRJ-200 is harder for me to land because it makes no sense. You fly the approach by pointing the nose at the ground until the last possible second. It feels very unnatural, but I guess it's been working out for everyone else, so I'll have to get used to it.

Today also marked the first time I was in Seattle, or Washington state in general. I was on the ground there for a whole 45 minutes. I saw the space needle, Mt. Rainier, and what I can only assume is typical Seattle weather. Mist, overcast clouds, and a balmy 50 degrees. Naturally, this post cannot be about Seattle as I barely even left the airplane. The last stop of the day was San Diego, where our long day ended around 6:30pm. I felt exhausted, but also hungry. I yelped "cheap dinner," and picked the closest one -- this happened to be an Iranian restaurant 4 blocks from the hotel.

Darband Fifth Avenue may sound like a high-class jewelry store, but it is where I acquired a chicken kabob and rice that went on for days. The term cheap dinner was a bit misleading, as this meal cost me $16. However, I was pleasantly stuffed and I was in the middle of downtown San Diego so "cheap dinner" might be relative. I know it was authentic because I was the only white guy walking into the place. Everyone else appeared to be at least 40 and smoking cigars and drinking tea. If you're ever looking to visit Iran, this is apparently all you would have to do to fit in. After I brought my meal back to the hotel, I noticed it had some peppers on the side. These, however, were not the kind of peppers that you find in a Papa John's box. I took a large bite out of one and promptly exploded. The water I had saved from the flight was not enough to douse the flames. Fortunately their was some kind of cucumber yogurt dip that calmed things down long enough for me to actually taste the rest of the meal. After polishing off the last bit of rice, I rolled myself into bed at 9:30 and prepared myself for a 4:30am wakeup call.

And the title of best bbq in Lindbergh Int'l Airport goes to . . .

No doubt at some point in your life, you have experienced a significant flight delay -- most likely due to weather. After an early arrival from LAX to SAN, we were immediately notified of a ground delay in effect for our next leg from SAN to SFO. San Francisco has notoriously foggy weather and someone had evidently sneezed and the fog rolled in. When this occurs, it increases the workload on controllers, who are now limited to just 2 of 4 runways and aircraft are forced into holding patterns.

Meanwhile in San Diego, we were held to a ground delay with at least an hour until we would be given any updates. While perhaps frustrating to a passenger, this gave me an opportunity. It was originally supposed to be a quick turn of the aircraft of just 30 mins. Now I had some time to at least find a bathroom and even feed myself.

While I did my post-flight walk-around of the aircraft, the captain and flight attendant went to get food of their own. The aircraft cannot remain unattended for more than five minutes, so I babysat the CRJ until they returned. This gave me time to snap a little cockpit selfie sporting my pink tie for breast cancer awareness. When the rest of the crew came back, I went into the terminal to see what my options were. Immediately I saw a bbq place . . . and continued to walk down the terminal. I walked passed a stand serving the famous donuts from Donut Bar from a previous adventure. As appealing as this was, my mother's voice echoed in my head on how donuts are not an appropriate lunch.

I nearly walked the length of the terminal and nothing was appealing to me, so I doubled back to Phil's BBQ to give it a shot.


While I do enjoy a good bbq, I tend to be a bit particular about where I get it. The San Diego Airport terminal didn't strike me as the place to get fine bbq, but maybe they can surprise me. I ordered a bbq chicken sandwich with potato and mac salad on the side. I returned to the plane just in time to hear clearance lift the ground delay. Passengers would be boarding in five minutes. I looked at my massive bbq chicken sandwich and dove in.


Fear struck in. Passengers were mere minutes away from loading up and potentially seeing one of their pilots welcoming them onboard with a cocktail of potato salad and a bbq sauce all over my face.  I polished it off with not a minute to spare. How was it? Alright. Flavorful. I honestly don't even remember it that well. All I know is that all of my speed eating efforts were in vain. After half the passengers had loaded, clearance gave us another call telling us that there was another delay of about 45 minutes. Alright, everybody back out! I could have enjoyed the meal after all, but now all I was left with was indigestion.

San Diego

The estimated time between my checkride and my IOE (when I actually start flying the plane) is three weeks. By my best guess, I figure I won't start for another week or so. That being said, I've been out of the simulator for over a week and since I don't really have anything to do during the day other than bike, run, or hang out by the pool, I thought it would be a good idea to ride in the jumpseat and do some observing to stay fresh with all my procedures. Also, the water was scheduled to be shut off at my apartment between 10 and 3:00 today - coincidentally the exact same amount of time I intended to be gone.

I decided on a flight to San Diego because it was short and busy. The cockpit is quite small and I didn't want to be breathing on the Captain and FO for any longer than was necessary. It was a unique experience to look forward on a passenger jet. The view on the approach to San Diego is unreal. It is crazy how close the downtown high rises are to the final approach path.

I could have simply exited the plane, walked a few gates down and hopped another flight back to LA, but I felt that was not taking full advantage of flying down to San Diego. Instead, I hopped on a city bus to downtown and walked to a place called Donut Bar. One cannot go wrong with that name. This fine establishment prides itself on having unique flavors. I settled on nutella, oreo cake, honey bourbon, s'mores, butter beer, and a normal sprinkled cake donut to round out my half dozen. I needed a place to eat said donuts, so I went to the waterfront. Unfortunately I chose the muggiest day of the year to go on a 2.5 mile walk wearing a full uniform and holding a box of donuts. There was a light breeze coming off the bay which offered a slight reprieve from the heat while I enjoyed the normal sprinkled donut and part of the Nutella one.

As this was the first time I wore my uniform, I found that it has mysterious effects on people. One, and unknown to me, is that I am now an expert on everything. "Where's my gate?" "How do I get to terminal 7?" "Why is my flight delayed?" Contrary to popular belief, I do not have all gates memorized, and often one's best bet when locating terminal 7 is to follow the giant signs with the arrows pointing to "Terminal 7." While walking by the waterfront, people now thought I was some kind of sailor or ship captain, so I got a whole new set of nautical questions. Who knows what kinds of things are going to start happening once I actually wear the hat too.

Second, when you're in uniform and carrying a box of donuts, it's open season for being approached for casual conversation. The most memorable encounter, however, was from a salty looking man with a beard who appeared to be involved in selling tickets for harbor cruises...or was homeless and happened to be standing next to a place where tickets for harbor cruises are sold. In any event, he decided to tell me a joke... "Have you noticed the gulls in the bay?," he inquired. "They're not seagulls. They're bay gulls! BAY gulls! BAGELS!" . . .

For the flight back to LA, I was on one of Skywest's newer aircraft, the Embraer 170, so no benefit for me to jumpseat. Instead, I got offered a seat in first class. This was very unexpected, but it is after all, a twenty minute flight. Nevertheless, the gesture was appreciated, and it gave me more room under the seat for my box of donuts.