This was our excitement this morning, an ILS to minimums, in this case 200' ceiling and 1/2 mile visibility, somewhere in Texas. For maximum coolness, set the video to 720p and full-screen it (it may take Youtube an hour or so after I post this to process the video to 720p). At 2:02 you can hear the other pilot start to say "And minimums" when I interrupt him and call the runway lights in sight - we were about 1 second from going missed approach when we saw the runway, so hooray for us!

I cut about 5 minutes out of the middle of the video - it was boring - you can see the jump around the 1:50 mark when the clouds get a lot darker.

We did an ILS in Arkansas before this one, I'll post that later on today when I'm done flying. We still have another leg to go, we are heading west for a few more hours before we stop for the night.

This will bake your noodles. Go full-screen, then use the mouse to look around.

It's part of an ad for a high-end fly-in fishing resort in British Columbia. I don't know if I'd pay the big bucks to catch a fish, but I do know I like the video and the technology behind it.

As a side-note, the song is "Hallelujah", written by Canadian poet Leonard Cohen. It was part of our wedding ceremony when Lisa and I got hitched.

We did this last night. Coming home empty, we were over the field at 6,000' when ATC said "I can put you number one for the runway if you can keep it in tight. Can you keep it in tight?". After giggling a little, we replied "Yes, yes we can". The landing worked out pretty good too, I get lucky once in a while :) I wish my camera was better at night, but for $150 I'm not gonna complain too loudly ;)

Picture frenzy! These pics have been accumulating on the iphone for the last couple of months, and it's time to post them in no real order whatsoever!




Spiritual warfare checklist found in an FBO in Nassau.






Some random gorgeous islands in the deep Caribbean. I can't get over how clear the water was - you could see all the way to the bottom from 38,000'.




Turks Head beer, quaffed in the Turks and Caicos.




Instrument panel found in a Supercub in Lebanon, New Hampshire.



Appetizer platter in Deer Lake, Newfoundland. Served to you in an actual kitchen sink.



Magazine cover in Halifax. I'll try to remember to follow up on this one.




Pad Thai in Montreal. Yummy!



At an FBO, a couple of ramp attendants were wrestling in the coffee room while I was making some hot tea. One of them pushed the other one into the wall. They then both asked me to forget either of them was around, and fled into the nearby hangar.




On the beach in Punta Cana, feeling quite pleased with myself.




Same place, watching a Russian couple. She was thirty years his junior. Most days she wore high heels in the sand, but this day she was barefoot. She wrote in the sand with her feet - just her name though.



Some caterers shouldn't. We ordered a 'veggie tray' for our customers. This is what arrived. Yummy tomato slices and whole lettuce leaves. You don't wanna know how much they charged us for this...



Bacon-covered steak at '29 South' restaurant in Fernandina Beach, Florida. One of the best restaurants I have ever had the pleasure of dining in.



Sure they forgot to fuel us and we ended up being late, but hey, free cookies and ice cream! All is forgiven, Signature FBO in Miami.



Check gear down.




I told the other pilot not to order a Caesar salad at a sushi bar, but he insisted on it. Serves him right - who does that?




A lobster corndog with vodka horseradish ketchup. This is what love tastes like.



We explored an abandoned gas station in Georgia. If anyone who views this is in a band and wants to use this as a CD cover, I'd be honored. Because I think this looks like it could be a CD cover.



A sign you won't see in anywhere in Canada.



Watching the prairie give way to the desert, west of Kansas and east of Arizona.




Random incredibly beautiful view from 38,000'. Snow in the mountains!



This hotel room featured an ever-stocked beer fridge, snacks and free pornography. I blurred the picture to hopefully a PG-13 rating at most.



I took this while doing a checkride on a guy in a PC-12 recently. He was upgrading from First Officer to Captain. He was nervous as hell but did just fine on the ride. You never sleep more soundly than the night after a successful checkride.



Random skeezy bar in the Caribbean. In a stunning reversal of normal rules in the Caribbean, food was dirt cheap but beers were $9 each. We won't be back.




Catching up on current events during a 4-hour cruise portion.



Duck Wellington in St. Louis Missouri. Much better than the Missouri coconut shrimp.



Sweet old Mercedes crew car in Lebanon, New Hampshire.




Checking out Fort Clinch in Amelia Island, Florida. Lots of dressed-up people who stayed in character the entire time. Pretty great actually.



I imagine this is the house beverage in Hell.



Fantastic breakfast in Montreal.




Attending a friend's wedding. Me being blurry, Lisa being gorgeous.

This video was posted on Liveleak, the date is December 11th, 2010. This is a cockpit view from an ILS approach to runway 06 in La Havana, Mexico. It's a scheduled airline flight, the airline in question is Click Mexicana. I *think* the airplane is a Fokker 100. I *know* they landed in a thunderstorm and I also *know* there's no way in hell I would have continued the approach, not with the thunder and the lightning and the strong possibility of low-level windshear and whatnot. Maybe I'm getting cowardly in my old age - I'm totally cool with that.

First of all, Happy New Year! Lisa and I celebrated with some of our friends in a pub nearby Goderich, and the night was typically epic and bizarre, much like going on a roller coaster ride in an abandoned and condemned theme park during an earthquake (I took pics, but I'm not sure I can post them). Our Twilight-Zone experience aside, I hope that your 2011 is healthy, happy and prosperous, and that your New Years eve party wasn't nearly as disorienting and terrifying as ours was :)

Anyway, this is what the Turks and Caicos looks like, in 720p glory. Today (Jan 2nd) we took a Bravo to MBPV, Provenciale International. It was just before dark, but the water still had some pretty amazing colors.

Along the way we stopped in Nassau for some gas, and it ended up being a total gong show - the radar was out and they were doing 10 minute spacing between all IFR traffic, which resulted in us sitting on the ramp for a couple of hours before we were allowed to get airborne. Good thing for us we were flying empty, heading here to pick up some folks and bring them back to the Great White North. After we arrived here our pax called and changed our itinerary for tomorrow - I'll certainly take some videos of our flights tomorrow because they should also be pretty stimulating. More to come!