Snorkeling in Hawaii

Hawaii is a great place to snorkel and I've been going out every chance I get. Last week near Kona we spotted a dozen or so sea turtles (honu in Hawaiian) while snorkeling. The local kayak operator wouldn't rent us kayaks due to the offshore winds so we swam out and had a great time anyway.

Grand Canyon West

This Saturday was the 21st anniversary of the opening of Grand Canyon West, the Hualapai Tribe's Grand Canyon viewing area on the west rim. My wife Pam who does some work with the Hualapai Tribe was invited to celebrate with them and I was allowed to tag along. It was an honor for us to join them in this celebration of a very spectacular and popular part of the Grand Canyon.

Pam's co-workers drove a company vehicle for two and a half hours to get to Grand Canyon West, we flew the super cub. Although the cub is one of the slowest airplanes ever built, it only took 36 minutes from Boulder City. The airport is very nice with a long paved runway and a cut out in the special use airspace.

A new road to west rim is being built and should shorten the drive considerably. It's worth the drive as the view from the rim is known worldwide for being incredible. We went out on the skywalk and had pictures taken sitting on the glass. If you have a problem with heights, there's steel below the glass on either side that we noticed a number of people walking over. We were happy to walk on the glass as it's very thick and looked safe.

A number of other tribes from around the country came to celebrate with them, some of them were dancers in full traditional costumes. Some of the dancing was very athletic and we enjoyed seeing them perform.

MDA

Just finished a stint in the mda lockup, didn't make bail but got more than halfway there. I'm a bit hoarse after running a full battery down on my mobile phone.

As someone that feels less than comfortable asking people for money, my thinking changed after meeting two youngsters that have muscular dystrophy, strength was developed to start calling for donations. Both are named Josh and were very pleasant to be with.

The worst physical problem for me is some back pain, after today no more whining about it. It would be tough to be in a body that doesn't cooperate with what we want.

Got a lot of small donations that were very generous considering the current economic climate.

The following link is to the donation page:  https://joinmda.org/2009bouldercity/lasjim

Cold in Omaha

It's winter in Omaha, Nebraska I'm visiting family for the holidays before going back to work in San Francisco the 26th. It's been very cold here, well below zero F, with lots of snow. It's fun learning how to drive in the snow and ice again. It would be great to be assigned a Hawaii trip on the 26th after freezing in the midwest this week.

I've put together a video of a sailplane flight this summer that took me from Tonopah, Nevada up the Monitor Valley, to Wheeler Peak, to Mt. Jefferson, Boundary Peak, then back to Tonopah Airport. If I had thought about the Utah boundary being so near Wheeler Peak, would have flown a little farther east so that the flight would have been over three states crossing Nevada twice. The lift was awesome that day, cloud base very high, although I've had longer flights, it was one of the most fun trips of my gliding life.

Kayaking in Black Canyon, Colorado River below Hoover Dam

The first image was taken at Boy Scout Canyon, Nevada on the Colorado River a couple of miles below Hoover Dam. The second image is at a nice camping beach near mile marker 60 a few miles below Hoover Dam.

In the winter, when the gliding is not very good, we paddle our kayaks and go on camping trips often to the hot springs on the Colorado River below Hoover Dam. The hot springs are really nice in the cool winter air and not too far from Las Vegas. Although I guide trips for Desert Adventures most anytime, our personal trips into Black Canyon are in the winter.

The Colorado River is great this time of year as there are three sets of useable hot springs within a few miles below Hoover Dam. You can easily hike to two of the hot springs, Boy Scout Canyon is most easily accessed by boat. This section of the Colorado River is an easy paddle as it's mostly flat water, many new paddlers make the 11 mile trip to Willow Beach, Arizona from Hoover Dam almost everyday. It's also a popular trip with boy scouts in canoes.

Launching from Willow Beach doesn't require a permit but if you want to paddle downstream you need a permit to launch from Hoover Dam. You can get one by calling Desert Adventures at 702-510-4746, www.kayaklasvegas.com  or email at info@kayaklasvegas.com

There is a limit of 45 boats per day at the Hoover Dam launch site and Saturdays usually sell out sometimes 6 months in advance as the park service only books permits 6 month into the future. The $13 fee isn't refundable but the day can be changed if done before the trip date.

Paddling upstream is possible and regularly done, it can be a long paddle if they're letting a lot of water out of Hoover Dam. The good news is that there are numerous places to take a break and or camp and you don't have to do the 8 miles in one day.

Soaring the Great Basin ASH26E Video

I'm in Hawaii getting ready to fly to Denver, Colorado tonight. Walked the beach for a while, tried to go paddle an outrigger but after waiting for over an hour there were no other customers so returned to the hotel to get some rest before going to work. They offered to round up some friends to go paddling but I didn't want to put them through the trouble. People in Hawaii are great.

Walking in the warm air here made me think of last summer in the great basin. So here's a short video of flying the ASH26E out of Tonopah. The clouds last summer were really high as they looked well above when leveling out at 17,000 feet to cruise.

After School

I'm in Kansas City on a layover after finishing ground and simulator school in Denver. We fly with an instructor for our first couple of trips until we both feel comfortable with the way I'm flying the airplane. The physical part of flying a new airplane is something that we pick up fast, in this part of the airline business we all have a lot of experience.

The most time consuming issues are working with customers, fellow employees (i.e. flight attendants, customer service, maintenance), air traffic control, and the weather. It seems like there's always something going on as there are a lot of rules to be followed. In spite of the many problems our employees have had they are still very professional and great to work with.

Training was very intense and it feels great to be done and having life return to normal, if an airline pilots life can be called normal. It'll be nice to spend some time at home with my wife Pam and our three dogs.

Today we fly to Denver then Seattle. I'm really looking forward to our Honolulu trip next week. I really love Hawaii, maybe a little biased as that's where my high school is. The people are friendly, the food is great, the weather can't be beat. How can you do better than that?