Up, up and away

[figmo]

I did my first training shift for airborne traffic reporting. Wheee!

I flew with Kelly O'Farrell in "Air 4" as we circled the whole bay area. Trying to recognize highways from air is tricky, but I mostly did okay. Before the shift I got my share of razzing about air sickness from some of the current and former regulars (including my boss, who'd been an airborne reporter for over a decade before taking his desk job) -- lines like "We'll see how well you hold your popcorn there!" and "If you feel warm, it means you're starting to get airsick." Yeah, right -- with three people cramped into a Cessna 172, anyone is going to feel warm.

It was fun, though. The bay area is beautiful from the air. It'd been years since I'd been up in a small plane, and I enjoyed it very much. After a while I stopped looking at the maps and tried identifying the exits based upon a book I had containing all the highways and exits, my existing knowledge of bay area roads, and what I saw. I was doing pretty well for a neo, IMHO.

I can't wait to go back up.

Comments

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! That's *awesome*!! :)

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

oh oh oh oh oh!

I had no idea you got to go in the airplane! w00t!

[figmo.livejournal.com]

You kinda-sorta have to ask, because not everyone wants to be an airborne. It's one of those things folks either love or they hate.

You can tell how I weigh in on the issue. :-)

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Are you a licensed pilot, and if not, have you ever looked into flying lessons?

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

(Because, ya know, rfrench teaches. ;) )

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I'm not a licensed pilot. I dated one for several years and concluded the amount of $$$ it would cost me to train and keep up flying wasn't worth it.

Flying the plane to me is okay, but I find it stressful. There's that extra dimension you have to worry about when you're handling a plane, and I don't trust myself to be a good pilot because of it.

[harpwolf.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an incredible trip. For some reason I thought you went up all the time. Freeways seem easy to me, but I'm not looking for particular exits. Railroads are tougher :)

Have you ever met CJ Smith?

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I haven't met CJ Smith AFAIK.

[johno.livejournal.com]

Coolness!

Sounds like you are becoming the Jill-of-all-Trades at Metro.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I'm trying. :-)

Besides, the more I can do, the more shifts for which I can fill in.

The one area where I'm notably weak is sports. Unfortunately, I don't think there's anything that can cure that.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's an area where mere scholarship is required; it's fairly easy to learn the memes and metaphors, particularly insofar as the number required for news-style reportage is limited. (In-progress/play-by-play has a MUCH wider required repertoire, and varies far more greatly between sports than does score/highlight reporting.)

Getting up in the sky sounds Way Cool. I note that you did a plane rather than a helicopter; is that the standard, out there?

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I note that you did a plane rather than a helicopter; is that the standard, out there?

They use both, but IIRC KGO pays for the JetCopter_TM. Metro pays for the Cessna 172s (much cheaper).

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Whee, how exciting! I adore airplane geography, and once found my house in Fremont at 2 am returning from Chicago in a giant airplane. That was a thrill. Sounds great!

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Cool! You can become our very own "Jane from Coupling" - but with a brain! =:o}

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Heh.

I was amazed at how much brains it does take to be an airborne. Memorizing all the exits helps. After you've been doing it a few years you tend to have them memorized anyway, but I'm not quite there yet.

Note to self: Start memorizing exits.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Way cool!

Now we just need to get you to jump out of a plane as well!

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Now we just need to get you to jump out of a plane as well!

No way!

[cat-herder.livejournal.com]

Airborne shift sounds like a lot of fun. I have been in a small plane a few times and at 7000 feet, you see a lot going on down there. Now it would be *really* cool if you got to take a copter ride!

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I was originally supposed to go up in the copter that afternoon, but I was needed at "base" to fill a shift in the middle of the day.