Flyin' Brian

Hot in the City

With Nicole in tow, we left Los Angeles last night for Tucson. It was a cool 97 when we touched down. Since I had a long overnight in Tucson, Nicole decided to rent a car. The following morning we drove east of the city to the Tanque Verde Ranch, the shooting location of Nickelodeon’s Hey…
Track Town, USA

Eugene, Oregon is one of those places I have been to probably a dozen times before, but never left the hotel. That is because I have only ever done standups here and until today hadn’t even seen daylight in this city. On the van ride to the hotel, one of the flight attendants casually mentioned,…
Brian’s Whimsical Thoughts on Air Traffic Control

I’m here at the hotel near San Francisco International watching planes fly over the bay from the window. SFO is an interesting airport operationally since they typically land completely perpendicular to the departing traffic. This means that airplanes taking off share the same piece of pavement just a minute before a plane landing crosses that…
Turning Japanese and Swapping Canadians for Brazilians

Yes. The CRJ-200, a 50-seat passenger jet that changed the regional airline industry will no longer be flown by me in about two days. I don’t think I’m going to miss it. In July I am training to fly the Embraer 175, a completely new jet, and from what I hear, far superior to what I…
Memorial Day Weekend in San Diego

My San Diego overnights are typically short, arriving in the evening and departing early in the morning. During this last four-day trip, I finally had a San Diego overnight of respectable length. Nicole even decided to join me by taking the short hop from LAX on American… in first class. Pretty swanky twenty minute flight…
Wheelin’ & Dealin’ in Reno

Yes I am still here. I didn’t have many overnights in April or May and also took 3 weeks vacation in between, so there hasn’t been anything to really blog about. I just received my line award for next month and despite entering virtually all of the same parameters as last month, I ended up…
It’s . . . well . . . complicated.

The airlines have been making the news lately, and not in a good way. Being on the inside of it, so to speak, gives me perhaps a different perspective on things than the average person who just wants to mash their fingers onto twitter in a rage. Here’s the thing: and this isn’t just about…
SLO-ing Things Down

I went immediately from my last 3-day trip into a 2-day trip. I had about 9 hours at home before turning around and going right back to the airport. Fortunately, it would be an easy day – one leg from LAX to San Luis Obispo, basically a 30 minute flight and we were done by…
Muffins on my Mind

And I find myself once again with double Santa Barbara overnights. There are certainly worse places to be. After arriving late in the evening last night, I walked across the street to Von’s and set out to find some breakfast since it is not included at the hotel. I saw a box of 4 muffins…
Brian’s Long Journey to Jimmy John’s.

First there was Amerigo Vespucci, then Lewis & Clark, and finally 20th century contemporaries such as Amelia Earhart, Tenzing Norgay, and Neil Armstrong. But as far as I know, none of them have embarked on the adventure I undertook this afternoon. We touched down in Redmond, Oregon before noon and would not depart until the following morning.…