Wednesday, June 27, 2007

I'm back after a week of slack. I won't do that again. I have a few minor stories to tell, so let's get at it.



This is a beautiful P-51 Mustang. I took this in Winnipeg last week; I only had the chance to take 1 pic before a line guy ran up to me and told me that no picture taking was allowed on the ramp for privacy reasons. I boggled him by asking if I was allowed to take a pic of my own plane; after a lot of internal debate, he told me I was allowed to take a pic of my own plane as long as I had permission. From myself, I guess.


A couple of weeks ago I got to sit in the back of one of our jets. I took a video of the landing. Turn the sound down, 'cause the audio is obnoxious. I mostly like the landing rollout - it seems like we are doing a thousand miles per hour on touchdown.



Now last but definitely not least, I took this short video last weekend in Toronto. At the Pride 2007 parade, which is the second-largest gay pride celebration in the world. Lisa and I had never been, so we checked it out. It wasn't nearly as over-the-top as I had expected; I was sort of hoping to go and see something that shocked me but to no avail.

Until this, the gay pilot float.



This is a good pic which I shamelessly stolen from Miss Hell, a friend of mine. In my defense, she uploaded it to facebook and said that I was in the float, so I figure she had it coming ;)




Hey, it ain't that bad...I have seen worse paint jobs on real airplanes, and I bet you have too.

I know a few gay pilots, and each one of them has told me that discrimination because of their sexual orientation hasn't been much of an issue in the aviation community. The idealistic part of me says that that it's because we are enlightened enough to know that who a person loves is their own business, not anyone else's. Or maybe the actual answer is a little more pragmatic; the average single pilot sees a gay pilot and says "Awesome, now when I wear my epaulets to the bar tonight, that's one less guy who will be competing for the babes".

Yeah, I'm being silly.

There is a lot going on at work right now, and I find it really frustrating that I can't relay it on my blog - Toronto Pearson is actually a really small community and unfortunately some of the people who read this blog work for competing companies, so I have to keep my mouth shut. It's not a real big deal; I started this blog to tell my mom (link goes to her yoga studio) about my life in Ontario, and when I encounter good stuff that I can't talk about here, I just drop her an email or a phone call to let her know the latest gossip and scandal at the north end of Pearson. If you work there, she has probably heard about you ;)

Tomorrow we are heading east, to a land where they have a different word for just about everything. I'll bring the camera and try to get some shots for you, dear reader.

3 comments:

SkyCaptain said...

You're going to New York? Massachusetts?

Anonymous said...

I am willing to parlay slightly edited versions of the scandal and gossip at the north end of Pearson for a photo-shopped picture of Sully on the float with that exquisite little airplane and the enthusiastic and aerobic pilots.
His Mom

Aviatrix said...

Hi Sully's Mom!