May long 2012!

What a fantastic weekend! Relatively great weather, filled with flying, flying and more flying. Three days of it actually!!

Saturday we were gliding out of Vulcan. It was a little bit of a cold day with lots of low hanging cloud and a good clip of wind. Around the time we packed up and finished for the day the big ball of bright light in the sky finally showed up to the party. Seriously- I spent the ENTIRE DAY in my winter flight jacket! But we got all of the cadets flown, and that's all that matters.

On Sunday, I got to put my power fam upgrade to use! I flew 5 cadets in two shifts that resulted in 2 hours of free flying time!! We flew from Okotoks to High River and to AJ ranch and back. The weather was absolutely great in the morning and then come afternoon the convective activity had increased and it was a little bumpier. Man I wished that I had of been gliding! Once I was done power flying for the morning, I found my way to Vulcan to do some trailer driver training. I was a little bummed, because I was expecting to be tested in order to receive my trailer endorsement on my military drivers licence........I didn't do so hot however...in fact, I had never even DRIVEN anything hauling a trailer before! AND THIS WASN'T NO DINKY LITTLE TRAILER! This was a 30 something foot tin can! And Greg (the examiner/instructor) decided it would be best to go into town and make left and right turns on basically one way streets......needless to say I was hyperventilating a little... ok, a lot..... I may or may not have broken down into tears. Only after I drove the tin can back to the airport though.... I fought back the urge to call it quits DURING the trip though. Or, I also thought about just pulling over and making Greg drive it back. I got better though....apparently. I eventually stopped hitting the curbs.... Not before town-folk got their comments in..."you know the airport is THAT way right?" or "You folks LOST?????"......yup.....that happened..... So then I went back to practice backing up with said 30ft tin can. That too got better and better. Eventually I got the trailer backed up 90 degrees, unhooked it and then hooked up the "DINKY LITTLE TRAILER" I mentioned earlier. That too took a few(x10) attempts, but I did get it backed up 90 degrees too.  That escapade concluded the day.

TODAY! I went out to the Cu Nim gliding club. This was all in prep for our Chics Take Flight event this summer (http://www.chicstakeflight.ca/). I've never previously been to a civilian gliding club before. Back home, there were only ever two in the region, both of which were/are in Nova Scotia. So I never got to fly anything other than the 2-33. Today, that all changed!!  I bought a tow ticket and got towed to 2000' in the ASK-21with an instructor strapped in behind me. It was the first time in God knows how long that I've flown aero tow- so that was a little on the weak side..... And then we thermaled! It was great. It was the first time that I've ever really done any amount of thermalling. We don't really encourage it in the air cadet gliding program because it doesnt really go hand in hand with an efficient operation. So this was an awesome experience. I flew the K-21 from take off straight through to landing it!! They were even working on me pretty good to take up membership there and come out to fly...we'll see!

Here's a picture!

All in all, it was a great weekend filled with flying, flying and more flying and I loved every minute of it!!!

Up to speed...

Well hello again! It's been almost a year since my last post.  As it turns out, I had been just about to build Noah's ark due to the ridiculous rain during the writing of the last post, and right now I'm beginning to collect supplies for a second year in a row in preparation for the impending flood...seriously! When is it going to stop raining???  It hasn't been all bad though! I've been super busy lately and the weather hasn't been bad THE WHOLE TIME!

Here are some updates from the land of Ashley to get you up to speed...

Spring has sprung, and so has spring gliding operations. We're back operating out of the Vulcan municipal airport this spring, although the field has been a little wet, and our staff has been a little short to actually get a launch off. In the mean time, our staff has been up at the Netook gliding center getting current and proficient so that when we're up and running in the South then we'll be GOOD TO GO!

In Jan/Feb/Mar I did weekend courses completing my Captains Qualification course! FINALLY! It's only the third time that I've been loaded on the course (couldn't attend the other 2 times). So I finally have all of the prerequisites to get promoted....all but one that is. I need to assume a position requiring the rank of Captain- which I will step in to come September.

In October I applied for a grant through the military in order to time build on my private pilot licence. This grant would help me get up to the required time for doing power familiarization flights in the Air Cadet program. I only found out that I got it on Jan 13th, and my first flight was on Jan 30th.  All flying had to be completed by March 11th. THANKFULLY I completed all of my training flights and am now eligible to do power fams!! I have my first job lined up already with my home unit, 187 Foothills RCACS.

At the end of March I traveled to Gimli, Manitoba with the Commanding Officer (CO) of my gliding site to attend the Regional CO's conference and Field Supervisors Seminar. It was a great conference and provided me with the opportunity to network and meet new friends and place faces to those in the program that I have either only heard about or had the privileged of speaking to on the phone. We had some great guest speakers come in as well from Ottawa and Winnipeg. Unfortunately we didn't fly when we were there, because we got winded out :(  Suited me fine though, because I had basically been on my death bed prior to travelling to Manitoba and felt better, so I left my drugs at home (unable to fly with them) only to regress and hate life for the few days that I was in Gimli. Although I'd like to blame it entirely on being sick, I have a feeling that the sleep deprivation, dehydration, excess liver work out, close to 3000' elevation difference and extreme change in humidity also played a factor.

Just before leaving for Gimli, I found out that I had been picked up to attend a national Flight Safety course in which upon completion I would be certified as a Basic Investigator capable of conducting aviation based crash investigations. I just got back from Winnipeg last week, where I had spent the 2 weeks previous, attending the course. It was a lot of fun! Again, I made a lot of new facebook friends! and gave my liver a work out, all while attending classes from 8am to sometimes 5pm. Three meals a day. Lots of grease. Lots of hockey games (damn you Pens, Boston, Ottawa, and Van). Lots of laughs. I look forward to the challenge that being a member of the flight safety team brings, and although I sincerely hope that I never have to use my new found skills, I know that I have been taught well and will be able to apply myself when the time comes.  Hazmat suits, interviewing, media relations, impounding...oh my!

Thanks to my friend Cherie Andrews of Chinook Honey, I have been helping to organize a Women in Aviation (WIA) event that is being hosted at the CuNim gliding club in Black Diamond, Alberta. It's called "CHICS TAKE FLIGHT". I just KNOW that it's going to be a great success! We've been meeting regularly and things are progressing really well. Check out the website for the event: www.chicstakeflight.ca
I've even made contact with Capt Riel Erikson from the Discovery Channel show "JET STREAM". She's going to be one of our special female guests for the event!  Unfortunately though, she won't be bringing her CF-18 in to the airport....a little tough to take off on the grass :)

This weekend is our 70th anniversary and open house/grand opening of our cadet building in High River. I'll be in uniform all day :( I already know my feet are going to hurt.... Right now the forecast is calling for rain on Saturday, so although I SHOULDN'T be happy, if we don't fly because of the weather, then I won't feel bad for missing it for the 70th :) Good rationale, right? 

No for non-aviation related news...

I tried my darndest to get Garth Brooks tickets...but apparently they sold out in 58 seconds  (and in entirety in 36 mins). I had no chance in hell...But apparently neither did any other Calgarians! People are P***ed off! And he has no intentions of doing another show. Not only that, tickets were 62$, and a max of 6 tickets per person! So those that got through, bought them all, and are now selling them on kijiji for 4500$!!! NOT EVEN LYING!

I'm playing slow pitch again this summer with coworkers. Should be another fun filled experience. I feel I could only have improved after last year....

Spent Easter in Camrose visiting with my lovely family.

My mom is coming out here this summer for 2 weeks.

Moved into a new apartment in January. My coworker Charlotte moved down to Oklahoma to attend graduate studies at Oklahoma State University. She's coming back this weekend though to spend the summer here, working PT for FHMS and PT doing he graduate research. Im super excited for her to be here!!

And although there are definitely a few other things that I can think of right now to mention, Im not. Im going to go to bed instead . I don't generally function well on less than 8 hours of sleep..... that too is a story for another time.

With so many exciting things happening this summer though, I think I'll try to update my blog a little more frequently than once a year.....

Toodles for now! And remember, check out www.chicstakeflight.ca and keep the blue side up.

-A