Flight 3

We had company over last night and i got to enjoy some of the local food. I think back home they'd call it sushi? But over here they call it PuPu ..which is another name for aur dourves or appetizer.

It was raw Ahi (a fish) and smoked Marlin. With some other raw fish concoction wrapped in a jungle leaf. That actually wasnt bad. Best way to describe its taste and look would be to imagine a seafood salsa. heh

I did fly yesterday, for an hour. The Instrument training over here is intense. We simulate IFR conditions with me wearing a hood that limits my visibility to just the instruments. To simulate being in clouds or real IFR (or IMC) conditions where visibility is nearly nothing.

But for training we HAVE to fly VFR (visual flight rules) or where we can see at least 3 miles and the clouds are at least 1000 ft above the ground. So like i said, we pretend we're flying in IFR conditions by making me wear this visor. Though it does its job at straining my brain you can still see out the bubble enough for your brain to figure out a horizon, so you don't get same feeling as you would if you were in a cloud, white out, zero visibility.

Right now the VOG is reallly bad. Visibility today was 9 miles, at ground level. But the clouds were lingering at 1900ft. The closer you get to the clouds the hazier it gets, the humidity is intense right now as well. All of the instrument training is performed over open water and today we were about 10 miles off coast.. off the south shore of the island. The conditions were as close to IFR as you can get without it actually be declared IFR conditons. Visibility was easily around 3 miles or less. And over openwater you only see blue oblivion so I REALLY rely almost entirely on the istruments to fly the aircraft.

It really forces you to work hard. It's intense.

Hopefully when the sun comes out soon I'll get up and tour the island and do some mountaineous training and off-airport stuff. Go get a first-rate aerial tour, the one the tourists dont get cuz they're not pilots =p

********

I was going to go to Maui for 3 days to visit Shaylea next week but Hawaiian Airlines just hiked up their fucking rates today an insane amount. Coach was $73 from Kauai to Maui then it was 85 and now its 134!!! ... the highest first class rate ive seen till today was $109 LOL .. isnt that stupid?

sorry Shaylea, have fun!

Cleaning Time

Nothing to exciting to report about yesterday. I watched more of The Office! That was sweet.

Today I got up early and went and helped Hank and Deanna clean a few condos. For a couple of reasons, first is obvious and thats cuz I wanna help em out, but equally important its something to do! Besides its a chill job, i mean...cleaning next to the beautiful ocean. c'mon. lol

I took some pictures from the first condo then I stumbled on a spider here at the house.








ugly fucker. Well actually its kind of pretty but it was ugly when i looked up and found it above my head under the eve outside. theres nothing to really scale the guy in the picture but he's EASILY about 2" in diameter. each leg is at least an inch.

Saturday...

Sooooo

today was real chill. I got up around ...no woke up around 9:30. Got some cereal and got on the pc. Chatted for a bit with Leah and browsed the web. Then I mosied outside and sat in the sun for a bit reading my Instrument Flight Hand book for... a few hours. Really I didnt do much between the time i got up and around 2ish i think. Just browsed the web, listened to music and read my aviation books (good reading).

Deanna got home and she took me over to a BBQ. Good food! nice people and free beer! Cant pass that up! Folks here are really nice! Such a contrast from Olympia where everyone has an opinion about everything and attidude about anything. No ones laid back, back home. Here everyone is really chill and just cool with life. Like me! I surely don't miss the assholes I used to serve at Bayview. They all need chill pills... no the whole town needs to be gassed with Chill Gas... Something more powerful than weed =p

hehe

Maybe something more exciting will happen tomorrow? We'll see... if not, im cool with chilling, relaxing and reading more aviation review. =D

Cancelled flight

Todays flight at 1pm was cancelled. If this is any indication of how the rest of this trip is gonna go then im in for a headache. It was IFR at the airport with 1 mile visibility, low ceilings, haze and lots of rain.

It's been raining nonstop since about 10 am this morning. Right now its a steady drizzle that reminds me of washington.

I also heard it was sunny back home. Go figure. Next flight isnt till Tuesday so i have the weekend to fill with what i dont know. I can only study so much before i get brain snarf.

In the meantime for today, more episodes of The Office (season 2) are in order.

Rain makes it feel like home

It's about a half hour before I need to leave to the airport and it's been raining for about the last hour I'd say, and very heavily. Thats the thing about this island though. It might be raining monsoon style up here in the hills but the beaches and or the airport could be under blue skies, hot n dry. The weather station is reporting no rain down in Lihue but that could also be wrong. I'm gonna head down anyway since I've really got nothing else to do today.

Rainforest style rains for sure.


Just a random flower I found. Just trying to keep my mind occupied.

I can only take so much studying before my brain starts shutting down. Studying the Test Prep isn't the most brain stimulating stuff. Hundreds of questions formatted legal style.. Like reading a report done by a lawyer.

First Flight

I spent most of today down at the flight school getting everything arranged. Lots of paper work and stuff to sign. Everything went awesome and the people seem to be pretty chill. My CFII seems like a cool dude who really likes what he's doing. I didnt sense an ego which is so rare in this business. I guess being chill comes with living on Kauai tho? heh

The R-22 IFR ship is OLD, i mean it's a rust bucket which im not used to at all. The birds back home are spotless and these heli's have seen a lot since their departure from the factory =p Tho still plenty airworthy just lots of surface rust in all the nooks n crannies. Thats what happens when your stuck outside next to the ocean.

The flight was great despite it being a pure test of my abilities. I didnt get to enjoy any beautiful scenery, just the instrument panel and the deep blue ocean below. We got out to 17knm off shore and practiced our IFR manuevers out there which was a new experience for me. I've never been over open water like that before. We wear life vests and a gps beacon incase we go down so maybe the coastguard will find us before the sharks do!

I was rusty, like the helicopter but overall I did ok. As I get more comfortable with the terrain and weather here (windy!) along with the instructor I'm sure I'll get better. I have lots of reading to catch up on which is ok since i have LOTS of time.

Now figuring out if i can get a car. I hate putting the transportation burden on Deanna and Hank. rather just have my own set of wheels, crappy is ok to.


backing up a bit, I went a long to a birthday party last night. I was the youngest by like 15 years hahah but it was still fun! Free boo's can't beat that! Thats it for today. I guess i should go find something to do for the night.

First day on Kauai

I made it. Im finally here. Awesome! ... i hope.

To start out, heres the view from my window. Since its so bright outside and darker inside the camera kinda confused itself and really underappreciated the colors. There actually was blue-sky out there.

Tell you the truth it hasn't reallly sunk in yet, but the same quote does keep playing in the back of my head. "2 months" .... It's gonna be tough entertaining myself because I don't do good sitting around. 2 months sounds so long to me, still. I keep comparing it to the last 2 months and how I feel about how long those 2 months were. It's not really that long of a time period but when you're alone it can seem like an eternity.

I hope I can get a car so I can go off and do things, what i dont know, but at least the freedom of having the option will be nice. Last time I was car-less... well transportationless I was everything but happy. I'd rather not go back there.

My flight over was long and boring, but uneventful and nothing to really complain about. The plane was literally half full so i had no one around me which was sweeet!.. I was afraid id be stuck next to some fat women with stories to tell but nope, just an empty seat in all directions..so nice.

My layover in honolulu was nice, i went to the bar and got some pizza and a massive budweiser then sat around since the flight over to kauai was delayed.

Weather is nice as perdicted. It's hot n muggy... tho not to hot.. 75ish.. but really it feels a lot hotter, especially now with my laptop roasting my nuts. Always a breeze here and the clouds over the house im staying at are pretty much constantly hanging over.. the island makes its own weather around the old volcano and the clouds never really letgo of it either. This house is up closer to the volcano so it lies under the cloud layer... if you get down to the beaches its blue skies and warmer

I went and met the folks at the flight school here to. Seem nice enough, but transportation there and back is gonna be bad if i dont get a car. its not like my old school where you could hang out. This place is big enough for a few people!! o well, atleast its near a huge shopping area so maybe i will find other things to do while i wait for my rides...

In the mean-time I have nothing but time on my hands. I hope things pick up after i start flying and meeting people. despite all this time on my hands, ive yet to really relax.. im still nervous and anxious about everything but i guess thats normal when your tossed into the unknown so far from home?

Im going to a birtday party tonight, not sure whos but everyone is nice here so i bet ill mingle fine. I'll have to scout out the boo's for support =)

take care, ill probaby be upating this way to often!