August Ramblings and Biography Questions From The Viewers

Aloha folks and welcome to August, it's hard to believe that we are already almost through summer, it still feels like it was only a few weeks ago that school had ended and I was starting my new job. One month today, we'll be restarting school and boy I'm looking forward to it. I'll be entering my second year of Travel and Tourism and I'm not sure really what to expect with the upcoming year, sort of like flying blind into a storm cloud. But I think it'll be a fun year ahead and although some people won't be returning, our classes will be scrambled up and it provides the chance to meet a whole new round of people.

This summer has been quite an interesting one and this has been the first year where I've had a chance to get out and do some things I've been wanting to do for a while. From a new job (can anyone say tiger cubs?) to Stampede, it's been a summer where I'm doing what I want to do. I've been able to go spotting at the Airport more times this summer than I have in past years and it really helps out since I'm on a mission to try and get to 200 photos on Jetphotos.net before the end of the year (I'm currently sitting at 152) and the more photos I take on my trips, the better chance I will hit that mark. I do wish I had the chance to travel more this summer, but between work and other things going on and how expensive it is to travel this summer, it just never happened. There will be plenty of chances in the future to travel, I was more than happy to stay in Calgary for the summer. Living at SAIT over the summer worked out perfect for me since it was close to work and everything that the area has to over. I can go biking pretty much whenever I want and of course, I'm only 15 minutes away from the airport so it gives me the chance to go whenever I want. I'll be staying here once again over the school year and looking at my class schedule, it's shaping up to be another wonderful year.

Over the summer, I've worked on numerous side projects to keep me entertained including this blog. One of those things was learning the SABRE Reservation system, the same system that numerous airlines around the world use including WestJet. I decided it would be fun to learn this system and all I have to say is that it was quite interesting, but having knowledge on both APOLLO and SABRE systems will be a huge benefit to me. But one of the things I'm working on right now for fun is putting a like biography of myself together and one of things I need help with is coming up with questions for my biography. So anyone who wants to know me better and has some questions about me, my life, anything you want to know, post them right here or on Facebook and I'll include them into my list of questions to answer about myself. Examples of questions include:

Favorite TV Show:

Nicknames:

Least Favorite Food:

Questions about school, life, myself, anything you want to know about me

Enjoy the rest of your summer everybody, only 1 month to go till school (31 days to go if you are counting down like me)!

Life Advice from the Mind of a Pilot

Howdy everyone, I do apologize for the lack of posts as of late, the last few weeks for me has been quite busy between work, getting ready for school and the Stampede. This summer has been going by way too fast and it's hard to believe that August is already a week away. Soon we'll all be back at school and busy once again and I look forward to every moment of it.

Yesterday I made a trip to the Aerospace Museum here in Calgary and it was an awesome experience, especially for an huge aviation for me. They have numerous aircraft on static display including a fully rebuilt Lancaster Bomber that was used in the Second World War. I highly recommend anyone visiting Calgary who is a huge aviation buff to make a stop there. While I was there, I found a picture that was sort of like a Pilots Creed to life and while it may be aimed towards pilots, I thought a lot of them could be rules for us to live by and I thought I would share those tips to life, courtesy of Thomas Legg:

-Discover your far horizon, but embrace the sky softly, quietly so that others of your kind may follow.

-Know your limitations from moment to moment and be humble when the elements are against you.

-Accept advice from those before you, seeking out their truths

-Use your temper as a catalyst to keep you advancing, guarding it with vigilance though lest you be obliged to bite your tongue

-Leave your mistakes behind you, noting their lessons as part of your tuition for learning

-If you quit and you will want to, beginning again will be lonely

-You cannot know the color of truth unless you wear its cloth; therefore let honesty itch your mind, gleaming conspicuous in the eyes


-If you become a hostage to the fear of the unknown, challenge it with tenacity; keeping in mind however that only a fool is fearless


-Remember how lucky you are to see and touch the sky, the blind may only dream


-Be the opportunist, the forever hesitant are losers


-In each of us there is a conflict, daydreaming versus reality. May dreaming prod your curiosity but reality wield the sword.


-You are entitled to complain, use maturity if you do 


-Expect the unexpected. It will develop an awareness for Murphy's Law; If something can go wrong - It Will

The Islands Are Calling My Name: The Journey to Maui with United Airlines

So you may have noticed that this blog has slowly become tales of my travel experiences I've had over the last few years, both on airlines and places I've been to. It may sound a little weird to be talking about Christmas in June, but I thought it would be quite to have a little Christmas during summer. Our family planned a trip to Maui over the Christmas holidays in 2009. However, due to my work schedule I would be unable to join them until Christmas Eve. Nevertheless, our family would be spending the Christmas on the beautiful beaches of Hawaii.

It wouldn't be cheap to fly to Maui on Christmas Eve, but the best deal would be with United Airlines via San Francisco (SFO). It would be an early morning flight out of Calgary, but would have an afternoon arrival into Maui/Kahului (OGG). Arriving at the airport, I was quite shocked to find how long the lineup was to enter US Customs, but thanks to my handy NEXUS card, I was able to bypass the entire line and go straight into customs without having to wait in line. It was quite fun to watch the looks on some people's faces that I was able to get ahead of them. Arriving the gate, I saw our aircraft for United Express/Skywest 6389 would be a Bombardier CRJ-700, the backbone of Skywest's fleet. Boarding commenced 25 minutes to 8am and was smooth and efficient. We pushed from the gate 5 minutes ahead of schedule which gave us plenty of time to deice and taxi out to the runway. 10 minutes later we were rolling off of Runway 28 and heading south to SFO. A beautiful sunrise was all that there was for entertainment for this flight, but for a 2 hour flight that was fine with me. Legroom on Regional Jets leave little to be desired, this was likely the most cramped RJ I've ever been on. The flight was smooth the entire way and before I knew it we were flying over the Golden Gate Bridge and lining for the approach. We touched down on Runway 28L 35 minutes ahead of schedule thanks to a nice tailwind that we had most the way here. A quick taxi to terminal 3 and lots of Merry Christmases all around from the flight crew brought an end to United Express Flight 6389. Now I had 3 hours to relax and explore SFO before continuing on the 2nd half of my journey to Maui.

On approach to San Francisco Airport

San Francisco Airport is huge and is also a United Airlines hub and because of that, all of their operations are in Terminal 3, which made transferring between flights a breeze. 3 hours gave me enough time to have a bite to eat, catch up on some emails and enjoy the many planes coming and going out of SFO. Arriving at the gate for United flight 37, I saw that my aircraft would be a Boeing 757-200, a type of aircraft I haven't been on since I was a little kid. One thing I liked with United here was the use of overhead TV's at each gate to display information about each flight from weather and destination information to passengers who have cleared the standby list. I thought it was quite clever, it reduces the amount of questions that the gate agents get. 45 minutes prior to our 1:40pm departure, the boarding process began for our flight to paradise.

Flying downwind with the Iao Valley in the distance

When I booked my flight, I purchased an option for this flight called Economy Plus, its main benefit is an extra 5 inches of legroom and for a 6 hour flight to Hawaii, I thought it would be well worth it. I boarded my flight to Maui and the moment I sat down in my seat, I could already tell that it was worth the extra money. Even with my bag underneath the seat, I still had plenty of room to stretch out. Push back from the gate was right on schedule and we began our taxi under the power of our twin Rolls Royce engines. We were departing from SFO at the perfect time as it was the quiet period, so there was a minimal wait for departure. United 37 lined up on Runway 1L and began heading southwest for Maui. This 757 was an older model and hadn't been equipped with seat back TV's yet, just the old overhead monitors. Luckily I was sitting next to 2 super friendly seatmates, one with was travelling with her family from South Dakota and the other heading back home to Maui for the holidays. Of course this being Christmas time, everyone was in a festive mood; even the flight crew was in a jolly mood. They decided to have a little fun with the passengers by playing a game called "Halfway to Hawaii". Sounds simple but its harder than you think. All you had to do was guess at what time the flight would hit the halfway mark to Hawaii using the distance, speed, altitude and wind speeds that were provided from the flight deck. I gave it my best shot but I was off by 45 minutes. The winner ended up getting a Hawaiian theme prize pack, but it was fun to try though. Most domestic flights no longer provide meal service, but I decided to try one of United's snack boxes that had a variety of goodies from Pepperoni to Chips and Salsa; I thought it was good value for $5.

Sunset from Keawakapu Beach on Maui

5 and a half hours seem to pass by way too quickly, but thanks to another tailwind, we would be landing in Maui 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The whole flight was smooth minus a few bumps halfway over the Pacific. Soon we were began our decent into Maui and we were fly low enough that you could see beautiful views of Haleakala, the Iao Valley and the fields of Pineapple and Sugar Cane that Maui is well known for. We made a final sharp right turn to line with Runway 2 and with Reverse Thrusters and Spoilers deployed marked the end to United flight 37. The flight attendants and pilots wished us lots of Aloha and Merry Christmas in both English and Hawaiian, which was my signal to officially start my 8 days in paradise. Thanks to having no checked baggage, I was able to skip the busy baggage claim area that Kahului Airport is known for and head straight to an awaiting ride from my father.

 Sitting on the patio that night overlooking the ocean with a drink in my hand, I couldn't help but think about the amazing flights that I had today, what a perfect way to start a vacation off. United Airlines did everything perfectly that day and made my trip Maui smooth and flawless. Mahalo to United Airlines and their wonderful employees that made my journey to Hawaii with them amazing!

A Final Review on Cancun and the Mexican Adventure

We've talked about our flights to and from Cancun, now in the final part of this story I thought I would focus on the main part of my visit to Cancun including my thoughts on the city, the hotel we stayed at and just a bit of an overview of the trip as a whole. If you've been reading my trip posts from earlier, you can gander that it wasn't exactly the greatest trip, but in the end there were some important lessons that were learned and at the end of this post I will share some of what was learned on this trip.

So I've talked about the flights to and from Cancun, let us dive in the main adventure itself. Once leaving customs at Cancun, we were out in the open sun and feeling the warmth. Cancun airport is situated on the far south end of the city, far away from the main city centre and close to all the hotels and resorts; likely to keep the tourists from seeing what Mexico is truly like. Your first instinct upon arriving in Cancun is how beautiful and luscious the city is; from the airport and all throughout the hotel zone is filled with green lawns, huge palm trees and lots of different kinds of flowers. As our bus rolled out of the airport and through the hotel zone, me sipping on a Corona, I couldn't help but think that this is far from the real Mexico that I've learned about in Geography class. Towering hotels, condos and lots of development? This wasn't Mexico, it was an Americanized version of Mexico.

Our bus pulled into the hotel that we were staying at, the Oasis Cancun. This hotel was chosen not only for its price, but also its fun atmosphere. I was a little nervous staying here for a wide variety of reasons. The night before leaving, I mistakenly decided to go onto Trip Advisor and had seen all the horrible reviews that previous customers had left about the hotel and how much of a big drunken party resort that it is. Also, when I had booked this trip I thought arriving 4 or 5 days prior to the start of Canadian Spring Break would be a safe bet. How wrong I was on that on; the place was already packed with youngsters from all over Canada. I had a bad feeling that this week was going to really rough. We checked-in and got the keys to our rooms and soon we were on our way to our home for the week.

When I opened the door to my room, I was quite impressed with how modern it was. It didn't compare to most hotels I've stayed at before, but it was still pretty modern. Apart from my in-room safe not working, everything was in good condition. I just ended up burying my valuables deep in my luggage and checking to ensure they were still there every time I came to my room. I would find out on my first night there that my room was in the worst possible location, right next to the nightclub. The music from that place kept baring till 3 or 4 in the morning and boy it was super loud. I tried everything I could to either change rooms or upgrade to the nearby Grand Oasis Resort, but to no luck and with screaming parties in both rooms next to me, it wasn't going to be a fun week sleep wise.

Trying to get away from all the noise, I decided to go off the resort and explore a bit of the city. Cancun's bus system is fairly good allowing for easy travel throughout the city. I had attempted to find the huge market on the north side of the hotel zone, however I had missed it and ended up staying on the bus hoping that it would eventually turn around. 2 and a half hours later, it hasn't turned around and I ended up on the West side of Cancun in our of the poorest neighborhoods in town. There were quite a few times where I was scared and nervous that something was going to happen, but I made it home safe and sound. But taking that bus gave me a deep insight into what Mexico is truly like and how the people here are living in such deep poverty. If you never  venture off the resort, than you'll never know what Mexico is really like.

Back at the resort, things weren't getting much better. More people started showing up and the drunkenness and loud music kept increasing and the lack of sleep had finally caught up to me. After 4 days of being there, it was just too much for me to handle. Peace, quiet and sleep was all I was looking for and the only way that would come to me was to head for home. Thanks to the friendly reception desk for giving me access to the hotel's computer, I was able to book a flight home the next day. It may have cost me another $300 to leave, but it was necessary. Spring Break in Mexico was just too much to handle for someone who doesn't party or get drunk often. The next morning, I checked out of my room and began the journey home.

So there are a few things I learned from my Mexico experience. First, never book a trip when you've been drinking all afternoon. Do it sober and make sure to do your research, still unsure why I didn't for this trip. Looking at Trip Advisor before booking would have made much more sense instead of the night before departure. Numerous red flags kicked in when I read the reviews and might have helped me pick a better hotel in Cancun instead of experiencing the nightmares first hand. Secondly, going to Mexico during Spring Break was not only stupidly expensive, but highly not recommended if you are looking for some peace and quiet. When you get a bunch of University students who like to drink massive amounts of booze, you might as well say goodbye to the peace. Next time, I'll be going during the off season when it isn't busy and picking a resort that restricts all the crazy stuff I saw there.

But we all have to make mistakes like that throughout our lives right? We learn from them and move on and ensure we don't make the same mistake twice. If anything positive came from this trip it was that it gave me a insight into what Mexico is really like and the conditions that people here are living in. As for my next trip, it will be lots of research like I've done for all my other trips. I wouldn't mind going back to Mexico, I'm just not sure if it'll be Cancun and if it is it won't be for quite a while that's for sure.