2009 Philippine Blog Awards

Our blog is a Finalist in the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards!  Carlo and I are immensely PROUD!
  
  
We would have celebrated this with a dozen stories by now.
Except that Carlo’s home was devastated by typhoon Ondoy, which flooded great swathes of Manila last September 26. 
The whole house was completely submerged in floodwater and mud, above the roof line.  In four [...]

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A Message from a (Newly) Adult Son

Carlo flew his first solo on Fathers Day, 2006.  As far Tonet can remember, Carlo’s enduring dreams were of commanding the Starship Enterprise.  He wasn’t the type to fly an X-Wing down an abyss into the Death Star.  More a strategic Captain who backed up his diplomacy with proton torpedoes.
As Carlo and Tonet flew on downwind at Omni today, a taxiing US Air Force C-130 came on the [...]

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The Reinvention of a Cessna Pilot

Cessna Pilot (n)  [sess-nah | pahy-luht].  1.  Straight and level  2. Flat-footed– use of rudder optional  3. Fifteen-degree banks, gingerly, 30-degrees maximum, 45-degrees death wish;  see also,student pilot, wimp, pre-Meynard neophyte.
     
        
       
  
  
  
  
  
The Cessna 152 is a sweet little thing under any circumstances, but a climb prop, upgraded engine, in-panel GPS, and other little goodies make flying it even [...]

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I Acquire an Unusual Attitude

Carlo continues his story of flying with Meynard.  Over the course of two days, he is bombarded with new epiphanies on the theory and practice of flight.
   
  
  
  
The g-forces squeeze me into my seat as Meynard takes us through a loop, an aileron roll, a spin, and a hammerhead.  I follow him on the controls, trying [...]

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And We Haven’t Even Started Maneuvering Yet!

Carlo continues his story of flying with Meynard for the first time. 
In two days he learns more about aerodynamics than most pilots do in years.  He is in a fabric-covered aerobatic airplane, yet his best lessons have nothing to do with maneuvering flight.
  
  
  
  
There was a large, yellow, thing in the hangar.  It was a spindly, [...]

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The Invisible Important Thing

In January 2008, over a year ago, Carlo finally flew with Meynard. 
How time flies!  I remember every moment — watching him taxi away in the Decathlon with Meynard, and again in the Cessna 152.  And then watching him taxi back, cool as a cucumber, both times.
Carlo wrote about it four months later, April 2008, in Bangkok. 
It is [...]

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Our Beech B-25 Baron Bomber

Carlo’s first instrument flight.  At night.  In IMC.  In a multi-engine cockpit.  Left seat.  It doesn’t get more pressure-laden than that.
     
    
   
     
I’d had my turn.  Two runs.  It was time to give the other Captain a shot at it.
On the takeoff video, Meynard never stops teaching, even as Carlo accelerates to rotate speed.  Meynard [...]

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Reflections on a Year of Crosswinds

  
  
  
I’ve been had.
–  Tonet
  
  
  
  
Well, I have to say that my plan worked perfectly.
Even before he became a pilot, I always knew that Dad would make an amazing writer.  An amazing storyteller.  It was an easy conclusion to come to, as I have been his most rapt audience since before I could [...]

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Diary of a Cross-Country Flight in February

The head of my flying school once told Dad that I would mature by five years in six months when I learned to fly.  I think that’s true, although any claims of maturity on my part inevitably lead to debate, roaring laughter, and the occasional wild party.
What is certain is that my flight training in was a [...]

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“You Can Be My Wingman Any Time”

  
  
  
Carlo was born when the movie Top Gun first came out, in 1986.  Hard to believe that 22 years have gone by.  Crocodile Dundee, Sigourney Weaver and Aliens, Mr. T’s A-Team and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera were terrorizing  audiences worldwide.  Chernobyl and the Shuttle Challenger were the real-life horror stories.  CD [...]

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It’s DONE, baybee!!! – One Year Later

What a difference a year makes.  It’s now a year and a week since my original “It’s DONE Baybee!” photo essay!  Here are a few glimpses of what’s transpired.
 

In the three years since I took a leap of faith and switched to English Literature, this lovable bunch has gone from a bunch of enthusiastic strangers [...]

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Our Flying Date With Two Sisters in Zambales

Carlo continues his narration of the flight around Zambales.  We explore two exquisite islands and the site of a WWII sea battle.  Carlo reflects on our journey from 60 feet under the sea to 2,000 feet above it.
  
  
After Pinatubo, we fly over the jagged lahar ridges and chasms in the Bucao river valley,  and nose west to the South [...]

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It’s DONE, baybee!!!

How auspicious that the endless paperwork for my license should finish on the first year anniversary of my Father’s Day solo!  I finally got to fulfill my dream of taking Tonet flying, with me in the left seat!  (Pictures coming with his post – he’s the one with Picasa!)
 My new lucky number is 07P181.  I’m a Private [...]

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In Life, Two Things are Certain…

Carlo came to Bangkok and brought this curious story, written in longhand on a McDonald’s paper placemat, in his handwriting.  
He wrote it as a stream of consciousness.  Direct.  Only a few crossed out words.
Picasso paid for his cafe bills by casually sketching masterpieces on the back of table napkins.  One day this story will become a collector’s item. 
And I (who [...]

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Megacyles, Apartment Life, and Ulysses: A Portrait of the College Junior as a Young Pilot

Ladies and gentlemen, I have bad news.
Carlo is dead.  Nearly.  Si Carlo’y malapit nang mamatay.  At last, the endless charges of brainlessness spewed at him by his opponents have come true, for in an effort to simultaneously review for both his Private Pilot License examinations and a test on James Joyce’s Ulysses, Carlo’s brain suffered from a [...]

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The Cross Country Carlo

I was 6,000 miles away in San Francisco when Carlo did his first solo cross-country in the Philippines, a month ago today.  He called me before setting off from Omni Aviation at Clark Field in Pampanga.  I gave him some encouraging words that were really meant to calm my nerves.
This is the second-clumsiest person I know, who [...]

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