California days
When Charisma and I talk about my job, we agree that sometimes it's not as tough as many other jobs even though they pay less than my own. She likes to poke fun at me a little that she feels "so bad!" for me because i'm spending a weekday alone in a comfortable hotel room reading a book or pecking blogs and letters on the keyboard...and getting payed for it. For example: presently, i am writing a blog at 3 in the afternoon on Thursday when i ought to be out flying and helping transform millions of dollars of client resources into a marketable product in the form of aerial photos. However, a low pressure system is sitting next to the Pacific coast and transferring moisture to the sky above us on a day-by-day basis. The weather is... bleak. So what's a captain, his first officer (yours truly) and three clients to do? Sleep in, go to breakfast together, have a late lunch at In-N-Out Burger, and take a nap in the afternoon as we await our next endeavor out to eat. No flying means hangout time for the guys, wedding planning with Charisma, and free time for me to sit and type away at my computer in peace and quiet, and to enjoy the nourishment of my delicious and frothy In-N-Out chocolate milkshake.
Did i mention i'm getting paid for this too? 8 hours a day plus the best per diem of any project yet: $61
I do feel guilty now because I know that my beloved is working for $6.50 an hour for 6-8 hours a day, and i'm here making free money, and lots of it for doing what's only fun and enjoyable. Charisma acknowledges that I worked hard in school for this, so that redeems my conscience ;-)
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The proejct The project i'm working on this week involves flying our camera-equipment-outfitted KingAir 80R over a certain military base in California. (A lot of what we do at Dynamic is confidential until the customer authorizes us to publicly announce where we are and what we're here for, so i can't say anything besides generalizations.) The mission should take only about 11 hours to complete once we get there, but right now the weather isn't permitting us to even get out there and do anything profitable. So we've been stuck here in Salinas doing some calibration and experimental flights and hanging out with each other. Now, we have profited from the time to some extent. Tom Anderson (Captain) and i programmed our GPS with 96 GPS points between which we'll fly for our photo shoots. We've also familiarized ourselves with the customer's pilot display which tells us where we are and the area that the cameras have captured along the sortie (mission). Hopefully i'll get an update on here or on Facebook when we finally have gone on a sortie.
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I'm simply relishing my time in California! Despite the overcast and rainy weather, the mountainous terrain and fertile land gives me the impression of an Edenic environment, while the proximity to the coast makes me feel in some exotic little place on the country. From the air, this area is particularly gorgeous. The sun glistens off the rippling sheet of the Pacific ocean water, and the craggy coast accents the lovely teal waters hugging broad, white beaches. I hope to drive out to the beach for an afternoon getaway (and make sure to get my seashell this time), but for now i'm appreciating my privileged position from 3,000 feet up.
The acclaimed California restaurant In-N-Out Burger is a mile from our hotel, and it's just as good as advertised! It's a unique burger joint in that everything is fresh and never frozen before it's cooked and served. They slice up raw potatoes into fry-sizes with a special hand-operated machine and cook them in trans-fat- and cholesterol-free oil and sell the product for $1.20, so i felt good about eating restaurant fries for once. Even their sandwich bread is preservative-free. and the chocolate shake i'm still sipping on is SO good!
more later on my little vacation in California!
Did i mention i'm getting paid for this too? 8 hours a day plus the best per diem of any project yet: $61
I do feel guilty now because I know that my beloved is working for $6.50 an hour for 6-8 hours a day, and i'm here making free money, and lots of it for doing what's only fun and enjoyable. Charisma acknowledges that I worked hard in school for this, so that redeems my conscience ;-)
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The proejct The project i'm working on this week involves flying our camera-equipment-outfitted KingAir 80R over a certain military base in California. (A lot of what we do at Dynamic is confidential until the customer authorizes us to publicly announce where we are and what we're here for, so i can't say anything besides generalizations.) The mission should take only about 11 hours to complete once we get there, but right now the weather isn't permitting us to even get out there and do anything profitable. So we've been stuck here in Salinas doing some calibration and experimental flights and hanging out with each other. Now, we have profited from the time to some extent. Tom Anderson (Captain) and i programmed our GPS with 96 GPS points between which we'll fly for our photo shoots. We've also familiarized ourselves with the customer's pilot display which tells us where we are and the area that the cameras have captured along the sortie (mission). Hopefully i'll get an update on here or on Facebook when we finally have gone on a sortie.
---
I'm simply relishing my time in California! Despite the overcast and rainy weather, the mountainous terrain and fertile land gives me the impression of an Edenic environment, while the proximity to the coast makes me feel in some exotic little place on the country. From the air, this area is particularly gorgeous. The sun glistens off the rippling sheet of the Pacific ocean water, and the craggy coast accents the lovely teal waters hugging broad, white beaches. I hope to drive out to the beach for an afternoon getaway (and make sure to get my seashell this time), but for now i'm appreciating my privileged position from 3,000 feet up.
The acclaimed California restaurant In-N-Out Burger is a mile from our hotel, and it's just as good as advertised! It's a unique burger joint in that everything is fresh and never frozen before it's cooked and served. They slice up raw potatoes into fry-sizes with a special hand-operated machine and cook them in trans-fat- and cholesterol-free oil and sell the product for $1.20, so i felt good about eating restaurant fries for once. Even their sandwich bread is preservative-free. and the chocolate shake i'm still sipping on is SO good!
more later on my little vacation in California!
posted by Radar | 3:17 PM
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