I'm in Teterboro, New Jersey today. It's the corporate jet airport that services New York, and is a lot less busy than La Guardia or New York's JFK airports. Our clients can hop into a limo and be in downtown Manhattan in 25 minutes, which is definitely more convenient than the major airports, even though they are geographically closer to Manhattan than we are.

We arrived at 10am and checked into our hotel rooms to get our mandatory crew rest before our 9pm departure back to Pearson tonight.

I had a long nap which was delicious, especially as I didn't sleep very well last night. Sometimes the brain refuses to shut down and relax, and last night was one of those. I had a recent kick in the ass that I'll be dwelling on for the next day or two. It isn't a shot to the engine room or anything - I'm not losing my job, and I'm not losing Lisa, but damn, do I ever hate stress that I can't do anything about.

Now I'm contemplating which restaurant to have supper at, and watching the cumulonimbus clouds start to form in the heat of the afternoon. Our route home is dotted with them, but we aren't departing for a few hours yet, so I'm hoping they fade away as the sun traces the arc toward the west, and nightfall. If the cumulonimbus clouds (CB's, we call 'em) get big enough they will form thunderstorms, which I am NOT a fan of. If they get really big, then they can also spit out all manner of nasty things, like hail, tornadoes, poisoned winged monkeys with swords that shoot lightning, etc. Well, I'm not so sure about the last part, but take it from me that a mature CB cell contains everything bad.




The radar images show areas of precipitation; the red parts within the areas are the most intense, and they would be no fun at all to fly through. Fortunately with a jet we usually have the option to climb above them or fly around them. Unfortunately, for a trip this short (it's only an hour home to Toronto from Teterboro) we can't get up as high as we could on a longer trip before Air Traffic Control makes us descend.

It'll be interesting to see the radar images around 9pm when we depart. If I have time, I'll add the updated one to this post. If I have time ;)

Fortunately for us we also have on-board radar as well as my beloved tablet PC that has a satellite link to all the radar stations across the US and Canada, so even if there are some CB's out there when we depart, we'll be able to weave through them with relative ease.

It blows my mind that people flew in this weather for decades with no radar at all. I am not that trusting.