The Cup Runneth Over

I’ve often wondered how magical it would have been to take my Dad flying.  Pay him back for all the airplane stories he told me when I was a boy.  Sons secretly crave their fathers’ pride.  He is long gone, so I will never find out.
Or so I thought.
  
  
  
  
I’m am only son, third in a line of eldest sons.  [...]

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Besieged at Baler

Even today, Baler remains besieged … by weather, mountains, the biggest ocean in the world.  But with weather wisdom, terrain awareness and the patience to turn back and try again another day, you can break the siege.
And remember, the Crispy Buntot is delicious.
 
  
  
  
   
There are three routes across the Sierra Madre mountains to Baler.
 
Short and Fast
Through the Bongabon-Baler pass.  Short [...]

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Like Father Like Son

I was struggling to match Carlo’s poignant Fathers Day article, filled with deep and subtle messages.  I’ve given up.  Tail end of a four-city business trip.  Too many meetings, hotels, overhead bins, airport check-ins, swine flu scans.  Too tired.
Too many things to say.
So I’ve taken advantage of the power outlet and LAN port in this [...]

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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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Ilocos

For two years now, Carlo and I have had a tradition of Flying North during long vacations — Christmas, Holy Week, Thailand’s Songkran.
This year we crisscrossed Luzon – Pampanga, Zambales, Pangasinan, Benguet, La Union, Ilocos, Nueva Ecija, Aurora.  Always looking for the best food, the friendliest people, the most spectacular views.
The verdict?
  
  
  
I first discovered [...]

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Flying North

Every Christmas, Carlo and I miss some family reunions to fly beyond our Central Luzon backyard.  I figure that if I get a heart attack and lose my Class II medical, then I can go to all the family reunions.  

  
Last December’s plan: 
1.  Baguio to scavenge childhood memories
2.  Beaches.  La Union!
3.  Stunning coastline to Vigan, Ilocos Sur
4.  Home for New year
   
We’ve done this for two years now.  Four days together, talking about [...]

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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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King David

He is named David Gabriel, because he was born so small, and because he is a messenger from heaven.
I call him Gino, the name I always wanted to give him, but also because it’s easier to yell at your son if his name ends in a vowel — GINO-O-O-O-O!.  Kinda hard to sound stern with, DAVID-D-D-D-D!
He is now a big, strapping man, [...]

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Loafing Off Loakan

  
  
  
  

  
It’s fitting to end the Baguio series with this departure story.  It could have been our last flight at Baguio — “the departed”.  
It turns out Carlo shot a video.  The “scary video” I’ve promised here.  After I saw it , I became a believer — there is no lift at Loakan.
  
  
   [...]

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Real Hazards and Imagined Terrors

My earliest Baguio memories are of annual vacations as a child.
Kiddie trikes and sailboats at Burnham.  Real fog.  Panicky asthma attacks from the cold.  Star Cafe congee, Good Shepherd strawberries.  Mario’s.   
At night, My Dad parked his 1948 Chevy at the safest spot in town — City Hall police station.  Then he stealthily pocketed the distributor rotor (remember those?) to [...]

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High Road to Baguio

It’s time to share our explorations beyond our Central Luzon backyard.  Easily the best place to fly to in Luzon is Baguio, high up in the Cordilleras, the summer capital of the Philippines.
  
Baguio’s Loakan Airport is intimidating.  High density altitudes, forbidding terrain and a lack of lift due to the black hole in the sky that spews anti-matter, ghosts, [...]

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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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The Family Jules

I had three sisters and wished for a brother all my youth.  My penance is to have three sons.  Now I treat them like the brothers I always wanted.  The upside is they need to do everything I say.  The downside is, they get their allowance from me.
But this isn’t a “Fatherhood” site, so I’ll stick [...]

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Last March Tonet took a Supply Chain Management course at IMD, the executive school in Lausanne.  Carlo went to Switzerland too.  Graduation gift.
Carlo took his Dad to school every morning.  He then toured everywhere, even taking a train all the way to Zurich, at the other end of Switzerland.
  
  
No matter where he went — Geneva, Zurich, Bern — Carlo was back [...]

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The Film Club

Once in a while, a book comes along that you wish came 20 years ago.  “If only I had known… .” 
On a flight to Amsterdam, that book hit my heart like a hammer.  I was going to post another article here about flying.  But I must get this hammer off my chest.  If you read but one book this year, do this one.  Warning:  Dads with [...]

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My Secret Lives

    
I was a World War II pilot.  I flew P-40s with the Flying Tigers in China.  I survived bombing missions over Europe, in Avro Lancasters and B-17 Flying Fortresses.  I tangled with Zeros in Wildcats and Hellcats in the Pacific.
I also flew F-4s Phantoms over Hanoi and F-14s over the Med.  And biplanes, in World War I.
These were [...]

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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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Julio and The Level 3 Thunderstorm

This was a reply to Jerry’s comment, and a co-worker suggested I post it as an article to make it more accessible.
The pictures were actually taken during the flight.  The Powerpoint screenshots were taken from the executive presentation.
       
   
   
   
I’ve used a flying example only once during a presentation at work.
We had a meeting of the 100 or so [...]

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My Dad And His Delicious Airplane Tales

My Dad was in High School during World War 2.  He lived in Paco.  He was shanghaied into working for the Japanese at Nielson airfield.  The runway at Nielson later became Paseo de Roxas Avenue.  The large ramp became Ayala Avenue.  You can see a history of Nielson Field here.
Dad was put to work helping overhaul Mitsubishi engines [...]

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