A blog by any other name

I just kinda threw something down for a title when I decided to start blogging, but I was wondering if there might have been a catchier name for the blog, that might have been better received.

A few ideas I had were:
Just an Otter Day at the Office
This Otter Be in Pictures
Driving the Otter Bahn

Maybe something in anotter vein: heheh jk
Flights of fancy
I spy something...
Gulliver's travels, sans Gulliver

Oh, one more, perhaps the most appropriate of all,
I Really Otter Be Working Instead

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions?

Can I get a window please?

I was told about this website recently and it's great. Most people who travel frequently can often divine this information over time, but here's a place where you can find out good info about your seat assignment before you go. If you know the aircraft on which you're going to be travelling and the airline you can get a diagram that shows seats with a little more or little less room, reclining angle, and other helpful tidbits. Try it out.

www.seatguru.com

Like a bridge over...

It was one of those things you just happen across when you're not in a hurry to get somewhere. I was on my way to Portland to pick up someone at the airport and left early to take a different way into town, up through southern Washington, rather than the shortest route. While the drive itself was pretty, along the Columbia for a bit before turning inland through the hills, along the way I saw a sign for a covered bridge site.

I turned off the main road and meandered down a country blacktop for a couple of miles and there it was.

Driving up to the bridge

My first real covered bridge. I have seen them in photos and movies, but never in real life. Not
sure of the significance of covering them, though I've heard that the covering protects the main structure and more difficult to replace parts of the bridge from the elements so they don't need as much maintenance. Sounds good to me.

Inside the bridge


Anyway, it's a pretty cool site. The Gray's River Covered Bridge was built in 1905 and covered 5 years later and is the oldest covered bridge in the northwest.


The full picture

........
Oh, and the waters didn't seem so troubled that day.

Back to Oregon, metaphorically speaking.

While I am here in Toronto I thought I would contine to catch up a bit with the rest of my Oregon trip. I spent about three weeks there and did some flying, and a lot of waiting around the airport hoping for the rain to dissapate. There was also some time to explore, some days just enough to stick close to town and find those places that might otherwise be passed by.

Let me say that I love history, particularly the Civil War and any sort of fortification.
Forts, batteries, castles(not too many of those in the states unfortunately), battlegrounds, you name it. I only managed to visit Ft Stevens while I was in Astoria, as Ft Clatsop, the fort built and used by the Lewis and Clark expedition, had burned down last Fall and is in the process of being rebuilt.
Ft Stevens was the only military installation in the continental US to come under fire during World War II. It was built to protect the mouth of the Columbia River.
Mouth of the Columbia River from Battery 245

It's sort of like a bigger version of Ft DeSoto, one of my favorite places in the Tampa Bay area.
Battery Pratt at Ft Stevens, OR

Look closely, what's that crane doing out there? No it's not more beachfront condos. They're actually rebuilding the jetties protecting the shipping channel into the Columbia River.

Pacific Coast from Battery 245


*Just in case, if you want to see a bigger picture just click on any photo, the same goes for any photos on the blog.

Slipping the surly bonds.

I was clearing out some space on my camera and found these. I thought they were kinda nifty. Who uses the word nifty anymore these days right?



Left a good job in the city......rolling, rolling, rolling down the runway.





3...2....1...Liftoff



Here's a couple of pictures of what I was told was Beercan Island in the Tampa Bday off the Alafia River. I've never been there so I am going on faith.

A little farther away.


I would like to get more shots of my hometown, and particularly my neighborhood, but airspace and my schedule makes it more difficult than I would've hoped. But one day I think I can swing it. Stay tuned.

Oh Canada!

Well I am up here in Toronto, the city with the world's longest street(1896km, Yonge St). I am sure it has many more claims to fame but I thought that was a unique and interesting fact. It was a nice weekend home, but much too short.

Toronto is the former home of DeHavilland, manufacturer of the Twin Otter. DeHavilland was acquired by Bombardier etc...anyway, I am making my yearly pilgrimage to simulator training. Fun stuff, the last time I was here the instructor literally turned the heat on to make it that much more interesting while running through various emergency procedures. What a guy!

The flight up was mostly uneventful other than the delay due to us not having a flight attendant. Lots of rain in DC though, glad I was just a passenger today, though travelling on the airlines is never as fun as flying myself, it's almost always much easier to keep a schedule.

I snapped this photo out the window over Pennsylvania, it looked a lot like popcorn or maybe I was just hungry.

What a storm

And I don't mean Ronda. I didn't have my camera handy, but it appeared that the Southbound on-ramp at Hillsborough Ave and 275 was blocked due to the embankment washing over the roadway. A fine example of when it rains it pours.

We need the rain, But....

While the rain is great for our lawns, the fire danger, the river, and reservoir, why did it have to pick today to let go. I was hoping to go the Annual Seminole Heights Picnic, but this puts something of a damper on things I think. I hope it can be rescheduled, but there's always next year too. When's the next porch party I wonder.

Welcome Neighbors.

Thanks to David at The Seminole Heights Blog I see some increase in folks visiting my page. I wish to welcome each of you, I hope you find this entertaining and maybe even a bit informative. I am open to suggestions so if you have any comments feel free to pass them along. I am an avid reader of David's blog, it's a little bit of home I can sort of take with me when I'm on the road. If by chance you haven't checked it out yet, please do so and learn a bit about my community.

Again, Welcome Seminole Heights.

Just a thought.

Ok, in the past year I have spent quite a bit of time in quite a few places, and was thinking that while you have your Fodor's and Cityguides, sometimes you might want just a bit of information with less gloss. I am no connisseur by any means. I don't really drink wine, beer is my choice. I don't dig food that is, well, as the Trib described Seminole Heights yesterday chi-chi, frou-frou, or hotsy-totsy. I sometimes find myself in places that are both on and off the beaten path. I thought, if someone somewhere happens across this blog on their way to someplace I've been, that maybe they might be able to use some recommendations about places to try or perhaps avoid. Sometimes the latter is even more important. I will only describe my own experiences, and occasionally mention something from someone whose judgement is unbiased, and try not to make any assumptions from only a single experience. Having said all that, I am still only human, so bear with me if I opine occasionally outside of those ground rules. Hence, in future posts, where appropriate, I will also try to include blurbs about restaurants, bars, lodging or perhaps some non-standard attractions in these places I visit. The one advantage of my schedule is that I often stay somewhere long enough to be something more than a tourist but not quite a local. So sometimes I get to experience the good the bad and the ugly. Hopefully not at the same establishment. Stay tuned.

Home again, for now.

Whew! It's so good to be back home even if it's just for two days. I was able to enjoy my usual weekend breakfast at Nicko's. It's the little things that make life worth living. I am going to go through some of my old photos soon and see if I can make them web-friendly. The resolution isn't going to be great, but there are some decent shots. I am off to Toronto on Monday for a week. I should have some time to post soon.

Seminole Heights: Weekend Activities

Seminole Heights: Weekend Activities

I was afraid I wasn't going to make it home in time to attend the picnic, my schedule is always changing. If all goes as hoped, I get to fly home tonight. It will be great to be home again even if it's just for a couple of dasy. I can taste breakfast at Nicko's now. Yummy.

Things to do in Denver when you're dead.

For the past week I've been in Boulder, and I have a few pictures that I will post soon. Last weekend I had some time to explore, and went to see the Body Worlds 2 exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Unfortunately, photos of the exhibit were prohibited, or I would include some here. This is a very similar exhibit to the the Bodies exhibit at MOSI. It was quite interesting, but it way too crowded to spend any quality time. I'm already planning on checking out the MOSI display when I get home. There was something strangely intriguing about them. They looked faked, but given how real artificial displays are these days it made them seem even more real. I highly recommend if you haven't done so already you visit one of these exhibitions if you can.


A view of Downtown Denver from DMNS


I head back to Tampa today, for the weekend, then off to Toronto on Monday for training. I will update as I get the chance, adding some things from Oregon, Boulder, or maybe something from the past.




Outta here(for now).

Now for something a little different

No photos this time out, I thought I would just throw out some of my favorite quotes. Not too many, but a few.

Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.

— Captain A. G. Lamplugh, British Aviation Insurance Group, London. Circa early 1930's. This famous phrase has been reproduced on posters and plaques many times, with the attribution of 'anonymous'. I was told at a book signing that André Priester (one of the first Pan Am employee's) may have said it, and decided to check this with R. E. G. Davis who is curator of air transport history at the Smithsonian and author of a book on Pan Am. Ron called me back and told me the phrase pre-dates Priester, but that his research shows the originator of the phrase was Captain Lamplugh, who was quite well known in British aviation circles after W.W.I.

If you are looking for perfect safety, you will do well to sit on a fence and watch the birds; but if you really wish to learn, you must mount a machine and become acquainted with its tricks by actual trial.

— Wilbur Wright, from an address to the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago, 18 September 1901.

Mix ignorance with arrogance at low altitude and the results are almost guaranteed to be spectacular.

— Bruce Landsberg, Executive Director of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation.

It's always better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than be in the air wishing you were on the ground.

— A fellow I met in Twin Falls, ID, on the trip to the hotel after another pilot and I we weathered in by 50 knot winds on the ramps just as we were starting to taxi, but I'm sure attributable to many.

It all pays the same.

— Jack Hart, Forest Ranger in Gainesville, FL. I used to work with Jack. He used to say this on those days when the job seemed too much or too little or just anything out of the ordinary. Given the uncertainty of my schedule, as it is very dependent on weather and experimental equipment working, I often tell myself this to remind me just how good I have it.

A ship in harbor is safe—but that is not what ships are for.

— Admiral Grace Hopper

Hey look, topography.

Next to the climate, the thing I miss the most about living on the Left Coast, is the visual relief. It's hard to go anywhere west of the Cascades and not know that mountains are everywhere out here. In some cases they virtually plunge straight into the sea. Since moving back to Florida, every once in a while I get a tiny spark of excitement when I see a cloud formation that for the briefest of moments looks like mountains, wishful thinking I know.


On our project flights we quite often started pretty close to the coastline which allowed for some beautiful views during the commute. One of the best things about this job is view out the office window.

The shot below is of an archway rock that I found interesting, but also I believe that the green area near the parking lot is the site in Ecola State Park where Spielberg and company built the restaurant prop where Mikey aligned the amulet to find the entrance of the caves to begin their adventure.




The rock pictured above is Haystack Rock off Canon Beach. It was one of the features also used by Mikey to align the medallion.



This is Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. What can I say I just love lighthouses, especially ones on islands.

Below are a few pictures of Port Angeles, WA. I worked there from Dec 2002 through July 2004 when I left to go to flight training. I lived just east of there in a town called Sequim(pronounced with the "e" silent like Skwim), *Ironically enough due to the clouds that day, I was unable to take an aerial shot.

*Side note: Sequim is also known as Sunny Sequim, or the banana belt, as the rainfall averages around 16" a year due to the rain shadow effect of the Olympic Mountains. Pilots also call it the "Blue Hole" because when the entire area is overcast as far as the eye can see you can often find a nice, big, predictable hole to get through and stay flying under Visual Flight Rules, VFR.


I did get a few shots of Port Angeles though.



Here's a pretty good shot of the waterfront. My office was at the foot of that group of piers in the middle.



This is another shot of the harbor that shows Ediz Hook, the spit that made Port Angeles a natural deepwater safe harbor that is still used by the large vessels headed into and out of Seattle while waiting for pier space. There's a Coast Guard Air Station at the tip of the Hook. Port Angeles also has ferry service to Victoria, BC. If you're ever in the area, it's well worth the trip. Victoria feels more British than London.


This is a shot of the east side of town near Morse Creek. You can make out US 101 as it snakes its way down and around the gulley. That's a Wal-mart there on the left, also doubles as a parking lot for RV's during the summer, or at least that seems like its intended use.

Not sure what my next post will entail, but I have plenty more pictures. When I get back home, I will post some "historical" photos from some of my earlier escapades. But I should have enough in my camera and on my laptop to keep going for a little while longer.

Mmmmmmm Cheeeese

I heard the funniest statistic. The most visited "attraction" in Oregon is the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Tillamook. As a devotee to all things cheesy, of course it was on my "to-do" list. The first thing I noticed after exiting the car was the smell of dairy cows. I love the smell of manure in the morning. It really wasn't all that bad, but it certainly reminded me that I was smack dab in the middle of dairy country.



The production of cheese is a pretty interesting biochemical process, with the milking, curdling, aging etc..., but not much fun to watch I imagine, so, the observation level overlooking the factory floor is just a view of the packaging area. Look at the size of those blocks of cheese, fresh out of the aging room. I almost thought for a moment that I had died and gone to cheese heaven.


The production of cheese is a pretty slow process, but the packaging of it is speedy. Just look at that cheese go whizzing by.

After the tour they offered taste samples of some of the cheddars they make and a jalapeno jack. The most interesting sample though was of the unaged cheddar curd. It was quite yummy. To top off the tour I had to stop in for a cup of fresh Tillamook Ice Cream, I was adventurous and had the Marion Berry Pie, all I can say is "Wow" It was a little scoop of paradise. If you're ever near Tillamook, I recommend a stop into the factory, let's help keep Oregon's cheesiest attraction also it's most popular.

Next up I think I will post some various photos of the coast, and maybe a shot or two of Port Angeles, WA. I used to work there and had the opportunity to fly-in for a visit.

A little about me

I probably should have posted this in an earlier entry, but I initially thought that my profile was adequate. Anyway, I was born in Tampa in the 70's, moved around the Southeast a bit, and graduated high school in the Panhandle. I spent some time as a wildland firefighter(Forest Ranger for FL DoF) in Central Florida before going back to college. I graduated USF and found the job I have now. It's been great. It's allowed me to spend time aboard research ships(I might post some old pics of those times occasionally as well), live all over the country and now fulfill my dream of becoming a pilot. I recently bought a historic(relatively speaking) bungalow in Seminole Heights in Tampa. The home was in great shape but we still have plans for restoring/remodelling. I might mention some of that along the way as well as any commentary I might have on other topics of interest. Enough about me, I will post some more about my time in Oregon soon.

Magnificent Flying Machine

One of the must-see's for any pilot has to be the legendary "Spruce Goose" built by Hughes Aviation. I had always thought it was still in Long Beach, CA. Imagine my delight when I learned that it was a short drive away from Astoria in McMinnville, OR of all places. In 1993 they dismantled it in CA and barged the pieces up the coast for restoration and reassembly in it's new home in McMinnville. Who'da thunk it. Anyway, the scale of this thing is quite impressive and no photos do it justice. I saw the movie the aviator and pictures on the Web, but was still quite overwhelmed when I drove up to the building(it fills the entire building in which it is housed) and dwarfs even the SR-71 Blackbird under it's right wing. Needless to say I was quite impressed.


The photo below was a paste of 3 photos that don't quite line up because I didn't have a stationary place to take the photo. Even so it does give a hint of just how large this thing is. And to know that it actually flew left me in awe.
.


Another thing that struck a chord with me was this print of "Rosie the Riveter"s at work. My Memaw passed away just under two years ago and it was only at her funeral that I learned that she used to work on aircraft when she was a young woman. She was petite and often worked in the more unreachable places inside the airframe. I wish I had known about it while she was still alive because I would have loved to have heard some of the stories. She was alive to see me enter flight school but passed before I completed my Private pilot certificate. I think she might have liked to have flown at least once with me.



During my flight training I had several specialized simulator sessions in a device called a GAT(General Aviation Trainer) it demonstrated several of the potential illusions which one might experience while flying in conditions where you lose visual reference(night, in the clouds, hazy horizons) and also some of the illusions created by non-standard runways(upsloping, downsloping, narrow, etc..) Anyway, it was shaped like a stubby little plane with no windows, and this device reminded me of that, its sort of interesting that some things don't change much.

Caution Anachronism

OK, this is posted out of order as it was taken as I was flying out of Astoria(I have further adventures to document on the Oregon Coast) but once I looked at it I just had to upload it . As we were eastward bound just north of Portland I had the pleasure of flying in the PIC seat (left seat) and had a great view of Mt St Helens. We were flying in VMC between an upper and lower overcast layer at 9000 ft and the peak of the volcano was punched through the lower layer and belching steam.

Welcome to Astoria

I first heard of Astoria around the time I saw the movie the Goonies. Much of the movie was filmed in and around Astoria. It's a great town with a rich history. While I didn't do the official/unofficial Goonies tour, I did manage to visit a few of the sites that were featured in the movie. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera for the visit to the actual Goonies houses. I was here about 3 weeks and for all but a few days the sky looked very much like it does above. I think I saw the sun for whole day maybe once, and a few days it broke through for a couple of hours.


Here's the county jail which was featured in the film, I inadvertently took the picture with the focus set on infinity so its a little blurry.





A dominating feature of the town is the bridge to Washington that crosses the Columbia River. It kind of reminded me of the old Skyway bridge before the barge hit it. Except it's a single span with two way traffic.

I will add more photos once I have them scaled down to a more web-friendly size.

First things first

I normally fly a DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter. Hence the blog title.





I could describe it, but here's a link to more info than I feel like typing:
Twin Otter

What this is

OK. So here's the story: I am a pilot, but not for the airlines. My work sends me to some pretty cool places and I finally bought a digital camera to preserve some of the sights and share them. Also as I get older, the memory isn't what it used to be so this thing might help me one day recapture the experience. Comments are welcome.
I will add some entries out of order here while I get my bearings. My current trip had me flying on the coast of Oregon. My next post will include some of those memories.

PS I also reserve the right to rant here occasionally, but the goal of this blog is primarily a travel journal for myself, family and friends(current ones, and those I haven't yet met.)