Back home again

I actually got to come home a day EARLY!! (Thanks Adam) I got to come home on Saturday evening instead of Sunday after sitting in Atlantic City for a couple days on standby duty. Got a round of frisbee golf in with some friends and then we have a dinner with our community group from church tonight. Did I mention I repainted our "baby room" today? Tomorrow looks like a 50 mile bike ride with a friend of mine, and eventually one more coat on the baby room. (it is a two tone green, so it is taking a bit longer, with a chair rail to come). Then my next project is the "attic" or our upstairs storage room. It is getting shelves and all sorts of storage containers to organize the whole thing now that we have gotten rid of a bunch of extra furniture that was up there (thanks Toole family). Anyways, things are really coming along getting ready for the next addition to the family.

Cristy has been doing well bearing some stomach aches and a kickboxing baby. She hit the jackpot at a neighborhood garage sale a bought all sorts of clothes while her parents loaded up on toys to keep at their house! This kid is going to have it made! Anyways, thats the scoop here!

Thank you soooo much!

Thank you to everyone who came and supported us this past weekend during Cristy's baby shower! It was amazing to see everyone and everything come together. Thanks to everyone who helped put things together. Also to everyone who bought us all this cool stuff. I was so completely unaware of all the stuff a baby could need. And, I can't forget the guys that helped us move all the furniture afterwards so that we can work on setting up our nursery. So now just some painting and organizing in our "attic" and we will be all set. As a simple thanks I hurried to post all the pictures that were on my camera, fixed up and posted. Check out my picture site on the right task bar and enjoy!! Thanks again!


~david and cristy

The Heat is On

Or at least the AC was not ON. After installing a new AC unit last year and getting it cleaned only about a week ago, our air conditioner decided it had had enough. So it froze up and our house became a "greenhouse" (lets see those global warming folks "go green" living in our house). So, Cristy escaped to Indy while things continued to warm up down here. Yet all it was was a little valve (that I could have adjusted). Luckily we were still under warranty, so we didn't have to pay $100 for him to turn a screw... Thanks to the Harbecks for letting us stay over at their place till we could get our situation resolved.

My first experience of recurrent training went fairly well. Got to do some fun stuff out of Aspen and Rifle, CO. And do full stalls at 25,000 feet. So, I am ready to get back into the real thing and do my straight and level for a while again.

Cristy is doing well, now that the house is livable again. She is working on some projects for the new arrival. We are also getting ready for the shower this weekend too. But this is going to take some rearranging so all the guys can move some furniture around. Sounds like fun. Thats the scoop so far. Thank you Toole's for watching the pup!

Reformatting Accomplished

Still kind of shocked I figured it out without doing major damage, but she is running faster and smoother than ever before and it only took me one day to get my wireless network back up in gear (with new security enhancements). So, that wasn't as painful as it could have been. So, thats all...

Good Morning World

Hello to all.

As our house is slowing filling up with baby stuff, Cristy and I are both looking forward to the end of school (1.5) weeks so we can start doing something with all this stuff. Although we did start to assemble certain things like the stroller, high chair and bouncy thingy. But we are getting all sorts of really cute outfits and other random baby necessities.

In other news, I June my schedule shifts a little so that I start on Mondays. I felt left out before because everyone always looks forward to Mondays with going to work and all that I really wanted to be part of the group. So now I will get to experience all the excitement I have been missing out on. The bummer part of my June schedule is that I go to Wichita for a couple days in the first week of the month. So, I have 7 days on at the end of May 3 days off, then 7 days back on again... Talk about a rough deal. Oh well, that is what recurrent training means, getting shuffled around and usually screwed. But that is part of the game. But I really have nothing to complain about. Work has been great and I still love every minute of it, even those long minutes in Teterboro.

Lastly, I am experimenting with a new external hard drive I just bought. I am planning on putting all my stuff on it and formatting my hard drive on my laptop to help get it back up to speed with the rest of the world. So, wish me luck and hopefully we will all survive. If you have any tips doing this with XP, give me a call. Talk soon, pray always, love forever.

~david

Baby's first Pictures

We had the ultrasound this Wednesday and have a healthy, very active little one! We do have some pictures that are now up on my picture sight! The link is on the right side of the page if you don't have it saved. The baby was moving all around and even waved at us! But everything is growing just as it should be and has a very healthy heart beat. Enjoy the pictures and if you don't already know, the gender is going to stay a mystery until September!!

Quicky

I know it has been a while but I am spending my time at home outside on the yard. But quick recap, flying, cruise, flying, home... Ok, now your caught up... Good...


Oh, and if you want to see some pictures check the pic site (should be a link on the right)... I haven't had anytime to put captions up yet... Maybe someday, if it rains or something...

Just some new sites I have stumbled upon

I have always used Quicken for keeping track of my money, but there is a pretty cool site that does all the work for you, from downloading your transactions, to categorizing them automatically and then showing you where your money is going. It doesn't have as many features as Quicken but is always improving. It is Mint.com It is really easy to use and it a great tool for a quick snapshot of your finances. And, all that stuff is already on the internet anyways... It has won numerous awards for its ease of use and security. So, worth a look.

The other site is Swaptree.com. This one is really cool. You enter all the old books, movies, cd's, and games you don't use anymore and make a list of the stuff you want and it finds people to trade with you for stuff you want! It doesn't cost anything, and all you ever pay for is shipping which they make really easy. The more stuff you put on there, the greater chance you will get something you want. I am already getting a new book I wanted and I just started. It takes some time entering in your library of stuff, but its worth it. It also compiles of list of stuff you can get right now! Pretty cool. Anyways, just thought I would pass those two along!

Home Again

I know many of you have seen the pictures of the outside of my airplane, but few have actually seen what it looks like on the inside. So, here is a quick peak of what it would look like as if you were looking back from the cockpit. I am working on a video of some footage from inside the airplane and hopefully that will be done soon. As you can see, this aircraft seats 6 (actually 7 if someone wants to sit on the potty seat). Directly to the left is the baggage closet. Directly to the right is the door (you can't see it in this picture. To the right that you can see is the galley with all the drinks, catering, and other goodies. Anyways, just thought I would share this picture. Enjoy.

Quick Recap

So, had another busy trip last week. Did more flying than I have done in quite sometime. But it was all good. I got my 75 hours so that now I can fly passengers around and not only the empty legs. The real story was trying to get back home at the end of my trip. Lets just say Memphis was not ready for over 10" of snow. Most flights canceled because they did not have enough de-ice equipment. After sitting on one plane for 3 hours, it canceled. Then I found a flight going to Indy (better than staying in MEM) and we sat on that plane another 2 hours before we headed out to de-ice, only to wait another hour while they filled the trucks back up with fluid. It was a long night, but I finally made it back to Indy and then Joe met me there and we drove to Louisville the next morning.

Then on Saturday we headed to West Virginia to do some skiing! Pictures and video's are being uploaded as I type! If you need a reminder of the link click here

We had a great time, once we got there. We were on the back side of the snow storm that hit the mid-west as we drove. Getting up the mountain was an adventure, but we made it and the next couple days couldn't have been better for skiing! It has been a while since I have put on skis but it seemed to come back to me pretty quickly. I look forward to next season to do it again!

I am not sure if I have officially posted it on here, but Cristy is pregnant! She is wrapping up her first trimester and hopefully wrapping up the sickness that goes with it. But everything we have heard from the doctors has been good so far! We are very excited and are looking forward to mid-September to welcome the newest addition to the family! More to come...

Sun and Fun

Got to go to Bermuda on my last trip. This time we stayed overnight and didn't leave until about 2pm. So I got to enjoy the sun, and consequently, the sunburn... But it was worth it. I did get a chance to take some pictures which are up on my picture site at http://picasaweb.google.com/mcardle365/Bermuda

That was the view just outside my room, not bad at all. Unfortunately my captain roasted his head pretty bad spending most of the day outside. Anyways, not a whole lot new on this trip, other than the fact that I got to stay home on day 1 because they didn't have a captain to pair me up with until day 2. How did I get the job again?? It is beyond me, but I can finally say and mean "I am living the dream" As I mention to my wife, I don't share any of the bad parts, because in the grand scheme of things, they are really no big deal, and the good parts of the job are just too good.

For some reason unknown to us, Koda has decided to mark the entire upstairs as her own. Actually 6 small locations all within about a foot of each other. Of course, we did get our carpets cleaned last month, so the timing only makes sense. Cathy, when you read this, we are going to need to borrow the steam vac again... Thanks in advance...

So my brother and I are making some impromtu plans for his spring break. We are going to go skiing! We both haven't been in a long time and a friend of ours has an extra lift ticket from his just past vacation and so we are going to put it to good use. More details later to come.

Then there is Cristy's spring break, and for that, we are going cruising!! Did I mention that I love my job? So, anyways, thanks in part to Uncle Sam for holding onto my money for me and giving some back, we have some spare cash to enjoy this time off. Needless to say, it is a nice change from being on call 24/7 all the time to be able to do these kind of things. So, lots of pictures and some good stories are sure to be on their way...

And, if you are really getting mad at me now, hopefully this will help. Saw our new dentist yesterday. And it looks like I will be seeing him again soon. Not only because I grind my teeth like I am cutting steel, but because behind every single one of my previous fillings is another cavity... Yes, I brush, floss, rinse and repeat, yet it isn't enough... My fillings have left enough room for bacteria to get in a wreak havoc. Yeah! So, anyways, life continues and so shall the blog...

The Weekly Update

So, here is the recap of the past weeks flying...

Saturday:Airline to Phoenix, yup, heading to the Super bowl. 90 NetJets airplanes there along, not counting ALL the other private jets! It was actually pretty well organized.
Sunday: after the game, pax to Washington Dulles drop some and take the rest to Teterboro.
Monday: Hang out at Teterboro backing up other airplanes...
Tuesday: Hop over to White Plains and then to BERMUDA! Not as exciting as it sounds, it was dark and we were there for about an hour... But still cool and learned how to use HF radio!
Wednesday: Hung out all day in Wilmington, DE due to broke airplane...
Thursday: Wilmington to Latrobe, PA, to Akron, OH, to O'Hare...
Friday: Last day! Ferry all the way to MIDWAY... That was fun! and then airline back to Louisville...

So, the week started fast with all the super bowl stuff but all in all it was a pretty slow week. So, now that I am home I am working on taxes, renewing my CFI, finding a roofer to replace some shingles, and all sorts of stuff around the house. So, thats the scoop...

A bit chilly

Just a quick to share our eventful week as our power was out for 2 days at home. We managed the first night fine, but after that we spent the night at a friends house while our house was a brisk 50 degrees inside. But it came on later the next day in the afternoon and we didn't lose to much of our food, so all is ok. So, now it is back to enjoying the warmth that our taken for granted electricity gives us!

The Post Trip Update

Back home again after trip number 2. Here is the rundown...

Day1: Attempt to airline to West Palm, FL via Detroit, long story short, 3 airlines later, and I am still stuck in Detroit... for the night...
Day2: Airline from Detroit to West Palm (first class, see its not all bad) then take passengers from West Palm to where of all places?? Louisville! Get to sleep in my own bed and spend time with my family and friends!
Day3: Ferry back down to West Palm to take more passengers to Bedford, MA. This one may take a while... Pax are 1 hr. late, then 2 hr ground stop in west palm, finally our turn to go and we have a mechanical issue, taxi back to the ramp, switch airplanes, unload bags and pax, reload bags and pax, get everything set up again and then takeoff... Long day...
Day4: You'll love this... Catch a cab from Bedford to Boston, airline to O'Hare, cab to Palwaukee, to ferry a plane to St. Paul... Yes it is freezing up there and we got to do a bit of de-icing.
Day5: Passengers to Milwakee, and thats it... to the hotel, oh and by the way, it was my captains last day, so he goes home!
Day6: Be on Duty at the FBO by 6am... yeah! Around 9am they send me back to the hotel... yeah!
Day7: Be on Duty at the FBO by 7am... but I end up getting an airline home and get back to Louisivlle by 1pm, not bad at all.

So, while my first trip was very standard and by the book, this one was a lot more jumbled around and impromptu-ness. Anyways the good news is that I am done with IOE and am officially a regular old second in command. So, now time to get things in order here and enjoy some time at home with Cristy and the pup... Hope you enjoyed reading the adventures... I did forget my camera so sorry, no pictures...

~david

My first Net Jets Trip

So, I just got back from 7 days of fun on my first trip. It went something like this
Day 1 - airline to Jacksonville, FL via Atlanta and spend the afternoon checking out the plane
Day 2 - ferry to Fort Lauderdale then passengers to White Plains, NY
Day 3 - ferry to Teterboro, NJ then passengers to Boise, ID (5.6 hours)
Day 4 - ferry to Butte, Montana then passengers to Burbank, CA
Day 5 - Hang out at the Burbank airport on standby, no flights
Day 6- ferry to Camarillo, CA then passengers to Teterboro, NJ w/ fuel stop in Omaha, NB then ferry to Baltimore, MD
Day 7 - Airline back home to Louisville out of Baltimore, home by 2:30pm

I got to fly three of the ferry legs and seemed to do fine. The airplane flies great and is very stable. It produces the most St. Elmos fire that I have ever seen. I will get some video of it on my next time if I can. It is pretty wild. I do have a couple pictures of the airplane on my pic site you can get to it via this link

Now its time to get things done at home. I will provide more info as more trips go by but as for now I am still on IOE (initial operating experience) and should be done by next trip. Hope everyone is having a great start to their year!

~david and cristy

Quick Christmas Update

I know it has been a while so for that I apologize. Yet I don't have much time right now, so this will be a brief brief. But things are going well and my first trip is coming up. I am pretty excited and looking forward to seeing the "real thing."

But since my last update, we had Christmas! We spent some time with my folks in Fort Wayne. Got to see all the McArdle's and a visit by Santa to round out the evening. Then we headed down to Indy to see Cristy's family and did the same with her family, minus the Santa. It was great to see all the family again. But the best part was afterwards and a 4 relaxing days down in Florida!! The drive was long but it was worth it when we got down there and could just relax. Lots of reading and lots of sleeping was on order. Well, I need to get going so I will continue later. So long for now.

First Step of Training Complete

Yes, basic indoc is finally done. I am now fully informed on company procedure, mission, policy, and all sorts of other stuff. Here are some of the subjects that were covered while I was gone:
Weight and Balance
Aircraft Performance
Hazmat
Hypoxia Training (I actually went to FL230, I have the video)
Emergency Exit Training
Ditching (We were in a pool playing with our life rafts)
Weather
Fatigue
All the 91, 91K, and 135 stuff
Emergency Procedures
Maintenance
How to use a BlackBerry
Fire Training
and a lot more stuff. It was pretty well organized and they did a good job of keeping things moving, unlike some of the other company indoc's I have been to in the past.

So back home and enjoying some recover time. Cristy is obviously excited to have me back home. She did a really good job of doing without me the past couple weeks.

We have decided that we will not be able to make it to the Smokies this year for Thanksgiving. With all my training and traveling, it was just going to be to much and we have already made plans to spend Thanksgiving Day in Indy. We are both sorry that we won't be able to see all the family that will be there, but we will both have more time during Christmas than we normally do and look forward to seeing everyone up in Fort Wayne. We hope you all have a great time and look forward to hearing the stories and seeing the pictures!

Thanks for everyone that has been helping Cristy and I while I was gone, we do appreciate the help and look forward to getting together with our friends soon.

~david

David's New Job

Most of you probably know by now, but I need to spread the word every way possible right? So, I have a class date with NetJets on November 5th in Columbus to start Indoc and then I go to systems in December for the Hawker 800XP!! Super cool aircraft. I have always loved Hawkers! They are just very sleek looking aircraft. Take a look for yourself!

Check out the Hawker 800XP

So, it looks like I will be done with each session of class before the holidays. So, as long as everything stays on schedule I should get to see a lot of family this year which is just proof that God has been in control this whole time. For some of you that didn't know, I was laid off from my previous job 3 days after finding out that I was getting an interview for NetJets. Only with His help have I gotten this far. So, needless to say both Cristy and I are excited about this new road in our lives together. NetJets is quickly becoming the place to be for a lot of pilots and I am glad to say I got my spot! Thanks for everyone's prayers and I look forward to seeing a lot of you during the upcoming holidays!

~david

A Story for you All

A Montana cowboy was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"

The cowboy looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs t o a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed andthe data stored.

He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech,miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says,"You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says the cowboy.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the cowboy says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?" You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government", says the cowboy.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a herd of sheep.

Now give me back my dog.

Little Break

Cristy and I have decided to take our own October break this year. Since hers is going to be taken up by in-service days, we have decided to just make our own. So, today we are headed up to Brown Co. Indiana for a bit of relaxation. Hopeful to get some hiking in around the parks there and check out some of the local fare. Koda will be in the loving hands of our friends the Broyles (Travis is one of my co-workers at ASI). They have a rambunctious retriever named Baxter that loves to play with Koda.

Beyond that, not much to report. Cristy is nearing the end of the soccer season and our high school youth group is in full swing. I am starting to help out a bit more at our new church in my spare time. More to come when we get back!