Flyin' Brian

Seasons Exist!

Today I had my first reminder that not every place in America is 75 degrees and sunny. We landed in Boise, Idaho late last night. Unlike my previous overnight here back in March or so, we were put up in a hotel that is more centrally located by downtown. Just as before, I decided to…
Salt Lake for Two

For some reason when building the schedules, the airline ends up creating these very long layovers — always in Salt Lake, and always saves them for me. Since I had almost an entire day in SLC, I invited Nicole to follow me there from LA. In fact, she rode in the back while I was…
Last Day in the Great Plains

It was drizzly today. It was in the 30s pretty much all day, so time outside was limited. As we drove back into South Dakota, we made a stop in Deadwood, the town known for its lawlessness — now home to tacky tourist shops selling confederate flags and t-shirts with Donald Trump riding a motorcycle.…
Off to Wyoming!

We woke up this morning in our cabin in the middle of the Badlands. I did a little research on visiting an old ICBM launch facility and found out tickets were first come first serve, so we drove just outside of the park to get our tickets for the afternoon, and then headed back into…
Wait . . . You’re Going Where?

After an uneventful flight up to gloomy Seattle and back, I was overdue for another quick vacation. South Dakota it is! Most people did not readily understand this decision. The Uber driver taking us to LAX was a bit confused. The fact of the matter is, the area around Rapid City has a surprising amount…
36 Views of the Utah State Capital

As a pilot, one must submit for a medical exam once a year. It’s nothing too involved — checking eyes, ears, stable pulse etc., but you always hear crazy stories about someone going in and losing their medical due to some rare heart condition. As a pilot on the go, it’s sometimes difficult to acquire…
Sully — the movie, myth, and the man . . . and some other guy who was flying with him.

Prior to flying for the airlines, I was a flight instructor flying light aircraft around Southern California and occasionally other locales. When visiting Nicole’s family in New Jersey, I would sometimes takeoff from Caldwell Airport to fly down a special flight area that encircles Manhattan. I had lots of experience on the radios in busy…
Surprisingly No Rain Today

We were expecting today to to be a complete washout, so when we woke up to the natural light seeping in through the window around 7:30 this morning, we bounced out of bed and went out to take advantage of it. We weren’t sure if it would soon storm again or not, so we figured…
Well At Least We Have Yesterday

Today was overcast and rainy the entire day. You can’t win them all, though. We were fortunate to have some unexpected sun throughout most of yesterday, so I suppose it’s fair. It wasn’t particularly rainy in the morning — just very grey, so we borrowed some bikes from the hotel and rode over to the…
First Full Day on Turks . . .and Caicos Too

Fully expecting to wake up to rain, we were surprised to find the sun poking through some cloud cover. After a breakfast of bagels and donuts purchased from the grocery store, we went out to the beach in front of the hotel. After a bit we decided to go into the water. It was a…