Blizzard

So I was "lucky" enough to have to fly through one of this year's snow storms.  Not only that, my flight was one of the only flights to land in Charlotte during the great cancelfest, as well as even depart for Austin, with only a deicing delay.  I wouldn't be surprised if my flight was the only flight that day to do so.  Here are a few pics.

Just pulling into the gate.  Just prior to landing we were under our landing minimums, so we held for a bit, and nearly had to divert to Knoxville.

An Airbus A330 covered in snow.

Thick flakes at Charlotte-Douglas.

Approaching white-out conditions.

I was one of the few, lucky, unaffected flights to arrive and leave.  SAV - CLT - AUS - PHX with minimal delays, and light loads too.  And Phoenix was sunny and warm, as always.  The airport was a ghost town because of the inbound cancellations.

At one of the deicing bays.  All the planes were dripping with green glycol.

A few more from the deicing bay.

Finally our turn.  It was freezing rain at this point, so whatever fell that was wet instantly froze to the plane, so deicing was thick and took half an hour per plane.

A US Airways A319 gets the glycol treatment.

Deicing an A321.

Apparently Charlotte ran out of glycol the next day, meaning the entire airport was shut down.

How to cook a steak, and other gastronomic concoctions

So aside from travelling, coffee, and all of the other things I've written about, I seem to have an interest in cooking as well.  It started with trial and error when I was young, with an emphasis on error.  I would cook and throw in whatever spices I had, eventually learning which flavors went together, by learning more often than not which flavors didn't.  Bachelor cooking is easy once you know the basics, and have a few basic supplies; a good chef's knife, cutting board, heavy duty wok, small saucepan, large pot, and a few basic seasonings and herbs.  Sea or kosher salt, peppercorns, garlic and onion powder, etc.  With only a few ingredients and knowing which flavors and herbs go together, you can mix and match for weeks with only a few ingredients.  I rarely cook the same thing twice, and I almost never cook it the same way.  Every meal is a learning experience, and the next always has a few tweaks.  I rarely use recipes, instead I draw on past experience.  I've also found that presentation is key.  You can take a gas station taquito from the rollers that sit all day (which are a guilty pleasure,) cut at an angle, spoon a cream sauce on the side, and it looks like a $10 appetizer.  Like my $3 TJ's terriyaki burrito.  Plating matters.  Below are some of the things I've made recently, with an approximation of ingredients and cooking methods.

South African Smoke Chicken and Rice.

Smoked Paprika Chicken and Rice.  Aka last night's thrown together dinner.  Wok simmer two boneless chicken thighs (way underrated and better than breasts.)  Shred when tender.  For the rice, cook in a separate pot (one shot glass basmati rice to two shot glasses water, salt, seasoning, and a few drops of oil.)  Once the rice is done, combine, sprinkle on whatever seasoning you want.  It can be curry, peanut sauce, cajun, asian, anything.  Chicken and rice is an empty canvas.  I used Trader Joe's South African Smoke.  Wok simmer on high heat for a few minutes and there you have it.  Here's the same recipe, only I didn't shred the chicken, and served it with a peanut sauce I picked up from the local Asian market instead of the other.

This morning I had Gordon Ramsay style scrambled eggs, over a toasted whole grain pita, slice of ham, and a homemade béchamel (technically mornay) sauce made with Havarti.  I substituted coconut oil for butter with everything, because, you know, cholesterol.

Crispy Shrimp Tacos.

Crispy Shrimp Tacos.  Battered fried shrimp, peeled and de-veined, wok tossed with Thai sweet chili sauce, served in a pan toasted corn tortilla with shredded cabbage.  Super simple.

Cran-apple sage pork steaks.

Cran-apple sage pork steaks.  Apple goes great with pork, and cranberry goes great with apple, and sage goes great with pork too.  It would make sense to throw these ingredients together.  For the steaks, I used two very thick pork steaks, boneless.  I seasoned with salt, pepper, and liberally with dried sage.  Then I cooked those just like I cook a beef steak (see below.)  Start with high heat in a skillet, preferably cast-iron, and throw the steaks in to sear over smoking high heat with a little oil.  It's important to let the steaks rest to room temperature before cooking.  Cook until both sides look like the picture.  Serve with cran-apple compote.  Apple slices (I think I used honeycrisp,) dried cranberries, a dash of honey, pinch of cinnamon, pinch of sea salt, and a pat of butter.  Simmer with a little water until soft.  Serve steaks on top, or thin slice the steaks, and pour compote over.  I forgot to mention, after cooking, always let steaks, whether it be beef or pork rest.  They will continue to cook.  If you slice too early you'll lose juices.  It also lets them break down a bit and become more tender.

Vietnamese fried rice.  Not pictured.  This is another recipe I discovered by accident.  I call it Vietnamese because it tastes just like pho.  Cook white rice, and sauteé it over very high heat with Chinese five spice, fish sauce, and any meat or vegetable you choose.  Adding a cooked egg works well too.  The texture and feel of fried rice, with the aroma and flavor of pho.

I don't want to bore you all with a crazy long update, and I've got tons more pictures and recipes to share, so I'll save them for another update, but not before how to cook a steak.

How to cook a steak.  When I cook a steak, I usually go for a NY strip, cut really thick.  The first thing your have to do is let the steak sit, for at least an hour, until it's room temperature.  If the steak is sitting in juices, take it out (I'm talking about un-marinated steaks.)  Get a skillet, preferably cast-iron, and get it smoking hot, with a high flash point oil.  The pan should be very hot because you want to sear the steak.  I season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.  I season with the salt right before cooking, but apply the other seasonings when the heat isn't as high, or they'll burn.

Right, so the pan is smoking and ready, now using tongs, sear the edges of the steak.  I tilt the pan towards the handle to move the oil to the edge, and hold the steak upright, searing all four corners.  Next, throw on the steak.  Since the pan is so hot, it doesn't take very long to sear.  How long?  No clue.  I always guesstimate.  Then I turn down the heat just a but.  Once that side it done, I take the steak off, crank the pan up to full blast again, and throw it on the other side, and repeat.  That's it.  You MUST let the steak sit for at least ten minutes before cutting or serving, for reasons mentioned above.  That's enough time to make creamed spinach from scratch.  If you're wondering, the sauce is milk, AP flour, garlic powder, and onion powder.  I keep some in my fridge for thickening stuff.

Room temperature steak, seared on all sides, on a pan that's hotter than the surface of the sun.  If the smoke detector doesn't go off, you're doing it wrong.

Smoky and seared on the outside, but...

Oh yeah, let it rest.

...but tender and juicy on the inside.

Served with a little homemade creamed spinach (that I screwed up,) and drizzled with whatever sauce you please.  This, by the way, was a FOUR DOLLAR steak from Basha's.  It doesn't need to be expensive to be prepared well.

Enjoy the food porn I have given you, but be careful.

Coffee

I was supposed to go to do a Santa Barbara round trip today, then have a two hour airport sit, then fly back to Santa Barbara tonight, but the SBA round trip was cancelled due to maintenance, so I'm now sitting at home, with freshly cut hair, in Uniform, waiting on my flight at 9PM tonight.  I don't mind, considering I get cancellation pay for maintenance.  I'm enjoying my loose leaf English Breakfast tea with cream, honey, and cinnamon.  Not a bad trade off.

Most pilots and flight attendants need their daily intake of shitty airplane coffee.  I don't touch the stuff because it tastes like burned wood chips.  I'm one of those coffee (and tea) snobs who prefers to make their own via either pour-over, French press, or some other method, with fresh roasted beans ground right before brewing.  My local coffee of choice is Cartel Coffee Lab in Phoenix and Tempe, AZ.  In addition to amazing, in-house roasted, single-origin beans (their Ethiopian, fruity and amazing,) they make each cup at a time, via either pour-over, Aeropress, or other methods.  Their teas are also quite good.

Making some Ethiopian Yergacheffe at home, courtesy Cartel Coffee, Tempe, AZ

So being able to fly for free has it's perks, like when I want good coffee, and I have the day off.  So that's what I did last week.  Portland is known for Stumptown coffee.  I wrote about it on Reddit and my little adventure got me the top post of all time in /r/coffee.

Oh no.  Out of coffee.

Clearly the only option is to go get some more.

Wide open both ways.  Score.  Row to myself.

Departing Sky Harbor.

Crater Lake, Oregon.

After a brief light rail ride from the airport, I've arrived.

Cargo has been secured.

Exit row to myself for the ride back.

Mt. Hood, Oregon.

Home.

Testing out my new(ish) toy

So a few months back I decided to buy a GoPro.  If you haven't heard of them, they're small camera that shoot high definition still pictures, videos, and make time-lapses.  In addition to their small size, they're highly shock resistant and come with a case that makes them waterproof.  In short, they're arguably the best action camera on the market.  Whenever you see those action videos of people surfing, skiing, skydiving, etc., and wonder what type of camera they used, it's typically a GoPro.

Because of the small size, it's perfect to pack in my flight bag and take on trips.  I've done everything from getting a time-lapse of the sunrise over L.A. from the 16th floor of our Burbank hotel, to strapping it to my head, renting a bike, and biking around San Luis Obispo.  There are tons of ways to mount this thing, ranging from helmet mounts, to suction cups, to tripod mounts, chest mounts, etc.  If I'm deadheading on a flight and the crew doesn't mind, getting a time-lapse of the flight can be interesting.  Here is my setup.

Over Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Doing so can create some pretty cool results.

This is the first video I made the day I bought it.  It's a stupid little video of me driving to work.

And then riding the train into the terminal.

It's also fun to stick to the roof of a car and drive around, like Portland, Oregon.

Or here in Phoenix

Or through rural Arizona

Or even around Hawaii

Or getting a nice shot of the sunset over Phoenix.

Cold

Greetings from Austin, Texas.

I'm here for a 30 hour layover, which I tend to get in either A.) boring locations, B.) places where the weather is awful, or C.) all of the above.  Austin is a fun city, however our hotel is right by the airport instead of downtown where all the fun is.  Luckily the city bus runs by the hotel.  Yesterday was spent lounging by the pool in 70 degree, sunny weather in Phoenix.  I worked a night flight in last night.  When we arrived, it was raining here in Austin.  It rained throughout the night as the temperature slowly dropped, so this morning, the city is covered in a layer of ice.  The morning flights were cancelled here today, since there is apparently no deicing fluid, so the pilots ferried the plane back to Phoenix empty last night, and the FAs stayed here in Austin.  I awoke to my heater spewing ice cold air rather than heat, so after finally pulling myself out of bed and into a lukewarm shower, I got dressed, printed out a bus schedule, and decided to head downtown.  I'm usually the one who likes to explore cities on layovers, however, after standing at the bus stop for five minutes, all while being pelted with freezing rain, I decided a "fuck this" was in order.  I walked next door to Starbucks, and now I'm in my room.  Oh well.

Yesterday.  Slightly different weather than today.

Airline Terminology

I notice I use a lot of airline terminology when talking to people not as versed in airline lingo as myself, followed by having to explain what I meant.  Here are a few in-flight words and phrases we use regularly:

• Base/Domicile:  Where an airline operates flights in and out of, where crew members reside or commute to.  For example, I'm based in Phoenix.  I can also say my domicile is Phoenix.  While we may operate flights to and from Austin, Austin isn't a base, it's an outstation.
• Outstation:  Any airport that isn't a base.
• Deadhead:  Any crewmember, pilot or flight attendant, who is riding as a passenger, and not working the flight, but is flying on company business in uniform, for the purpose of working a flight from another location.  For example, someone calls in sick on an overnight out of base, they would deadhead someone to the outstation to work that flight back.  Deadheading is different from commuting or non-revving, as it is considered working.
• Repo flight/Ferry flight:  Moving an airport from point A to point B, without revenue passengers, for the purpose of getting that aircraft to another location.  Common reasons can range from maintenance to weather.  For example, an aircraft breaks down in Albuquerque, and per FAA can be flown with maintenance issues back to base, but isn't passenger worthy as per FARs (Federal Aviation Regulations,) it will be repo'd (repositioned,) or ferried back to base.
• Non-rev:  Non-revenue.  As in non-revenue travels.  Airline employees and guests of airline employees can fly for free, or at a reduced rate, either domestically or internationally.  Non-revenue passengers fly standby, meaning they only get on if a seat is available.  Employees can see how many passengers and employees are listed for the flight, and how many seats are available.
• Flight benefits:  Ability for employees. family, and friends of said employee to fly for free, or cheap for non-employees to fly on the airline said employee works for, for the purpose of vacation travel or commuting.
• Jumpseat:  The ability of pilots and flight attendants to fly on other airlines for free, for the purpose of commuting or pleasure travel.  Jumpseating doesn't necessarily mean sitting in the jumpseat, which is the extra seat in the cockpit, however pilots can sit in that seat if there are no seats available in the cabin.
• Buddy pass/Companion pass:  Employee get a set number of reduced fare, standby tickets each year, that they can give out to whomever they please.
• Layover/Overnight:  When a flight takes you to a location out of base where you end up spending the night in a hotel paid for by the company.  Crews generally stay in the same hotel in each city, and per contract, certain amenities and guidelines have to be met, such as free wifi for the crew, a business center with working printer, an inward facing room not on the first floor, shuttle service to food and entertainment, etc.
• Sit:  Any time between flights that isn't a layover or overnight.  If I fly to Tucson from Phoenix, arrive in Tucson at 12PM, but don't fly back to Phoenix until 2PM, I have a two hour sit.
• Turn/Round Trip/Out and back:  A turn is a flight from point A to point B, then back to point A without an overnight.  If I fly from Phoenix to San Antonio, then right back to Phoenix, then that is known as a San Antonio turn.  Generally most turns you don't even leave the aircraft.
• Loads:  How full a flight is in terms of passengers.  Commonly you hear "how are the loads" when travelling standby.  Or, "loads were too high to non-rev following that storm," or "Loads look good today, let's go to Hawaii."  Cancellations and weather affect loads greatly in a domino effect.
• Standby/Listed:  When you "list" for a flight on standby, that means you or your registered guest books that flight, either at the ticket counter, gate, or online with the employee travel site for each airline.  It's important to see how full a flight is, and how many employees are listed, and where you stand as an employee in the non-rev hierarchy.  Examples below.

Can I fly to San Diego from Phoenix today?  Let's see, there are 34 seats available in coach on the next flight.  Wonder how many non-revs are listed.

Nine non-revs for 34 seats.  Loads look good.  Shouldn't be an issue flying standby on this flight.

Can I fly to Charlotte direct today?  The next flight has been cancelled, which means everyone (for the most part) on that cancelled flight will be "rolled over" to the next flight, filling it completely full  (and more than likely oversold,) if it wasn't already full.

That flight is full, and there are 6 standbys listed which won't get on.  If there were 5 seats available and 10 standbys, I could check to see where I am on the standby list, which is based on seniority and status (employees have higher standby priority than buddy passes, but are they same boarding priority of they are flying together.)

• Clear:  When a standby is given a seat on a flight, they are "cleared."
• Redeye:  Any flight, generally west to east, that starts at night and ends the next morning.  Called that because after the flight your eyes are red from not sleeping and dry airplane air.  A flight that leaves LAX at 10PM and gets into JFK at 7AM the next morning is a redeye flight.
• Standup:  Working a late night flight, then an early morning flight the next morning.  You're considered on duty throughout the entire night, so you start your shift before the night flight, then end your shift after you get back the base the next morning.
• Shift vs. Line:  Each month, flight attendants and pilots do what's called "bid" for their schedules.  There are two types of schedules, hard lines and reserves lines, or "lines" and "shifts."  Whether or not you are a line-holder or a reserve is all based on seniority.  Hard lines let you know where you are going to be each day, and are month to month.  You know each flight you will be working each month, and you bid which line you want.  Reserve lines are basically shifts.  With reserve bidding, you bid days off and shifts you want.  I usually bid noon to midnight shift, and the shifts that have the most days off in a row.  The sacrifice is working six days in a row usually.
• Ready reserve/Hot reserve/Airport reserve:  There are two types of flight attendants and pilots.  Reserves and line-holders, as mentioned above.  When you are on reserve, you go where you are needed, and can be called out on a moment's notice for a trip or flight, or can be given a trip a few days in advance.  Ready reserve is considered working.  Ready reserve means being in the airport, in uniform, ready to do a flight in a moment's notice, for instance, in the case of a last minute sick call, fatigue call, a crew gets stuck somewhere out of base because of maintenance or weather, or any other reason they need someone to work a flight or deadhead somewhere.  Tonight I'm on ready reserve from 7PM until midnight.
• Regular reserve/Home reserve:  This means being ready to be called to a flight, trip, or ready reserve, but you are on call, and have an hour and a half to get to the airport.
• Crew tracking:  The people who monitor flights and take sick calls, who call reserves and assign them to trips.

Any other terminology I've left out, or any other questions, feel free to ask.

What's New

As promised the other day, I'm going to get back to making regular updates to my travel journal.  A lot has happened since I last updated regularly.  The biggest is relocation.  I've relocated to Phoenix, and have had an apartment here near downtown for about two years now.  I love this city.  The lack of humidity, the mild winters, and the proximity to the rest of the west coast via airplane, minus the high cost of SoCal, SFO, SEA, etc., make it a great place to live.  I can deal with the heat in the summer too.  I'm an avid hiker and outdoors type, so living in the desert is exciting to me.  Right now I'm in Phoenix, in my apartment, sitting on reserve.  I flew in from Tucson this morning, and due to a maintenance delay, we were about two hours late.  It was a fiasco.  The entire flight for the most part had to be rebooked, so my job was crowd control and keeping everyone semi-happy, and as informed as I could.  Never a dull moment.

I'm going to be posting some pics from previous trips over the past two years over the course of the next few updates, until I get caught up and travel more.  Unless crew tracking calls me out today and screws up my 30 hour Austin layover the day after tomorrow, I'm going to a retirement party of a really great Captain in Tempe.

It's been a while...

Recently I was asked on a post on Reddit why I'm not a travel writer.  Expect more updates in the coming days.  A lot has changed since I last updated.