That´s a negative ghost rider, the pattern is full
Girona, ESP
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
2:06 PM España, 5:06 AM Pacific NW, USA
I´m getting the itch to get back on the bike, it´s kind of an addiction, but I guess if you stopped going to work for a couple days when you felt you should be working you´d feel as though something were amiss too.
I´ve been thinking a lot about what I´ve found elusive since the beginning of the year and It´s so apparent and absolutely necessary... I need to win. I need to win something, anything... just to win. I guess not anything, I´ve already won ¨something,¨ but perhaps something that people actually have heard about, would be nice. I guess this is what the plan´s always been though.
I´ve been forgetting to tell ya´ll about something, that I´ve found quite interesting, entertaining & all together life threatening. It´s RyanAir, similiar to King County Metro, but with wings. The fare is similiar... okay maybe not, but in relative terms it is... $20 if you book the flight a couple months ahead of time... for a ¨swift¨ride on the bus from North Bend to Bellevue and back it´d be around $4-$5. They (ryan air) use old millitary bases for their airports and receive funding from the little towns located a short jaunt from the nearest big city for the proceeds provided by lingering tourists... i.e Girona is to Barcelona as Issaquah is to Seattle (If you think about it, it´s an excellent way to bring airfares down, but the budgeting doesn´t stop there.) They use only 737s, so the aviators have only to be trained in the piloting of 25 year old 737s. Security exists but it´s so swift that you can arrive 45 minutes ahead of your flight and make it with plenty of time. Seating is Southwest style: first come, first serve. And the seats aren´t leather, and there is no foot room. It´s like riding a bus that has seat belts, the bus is a bit smoother though... But here comes the best part of all.
If you go to drivers ed and are trained on an automatic, yet are book smart on a manual... does that mean you can drive a manual? Uhh... yes? It´ll just be a real bumpy ride... Welcome to Ryan air. The take off is absolutely full throttle, no waiting around for air traffic control to give the go ahead, it´s all systems go from the get-go. Elevation 0 to 40,000 in 15 seconds. Unfortunately the take-off´s not too different from the landing. The pilot comes over the intercom and lets everyone know that we´ll be landing in 15 minutes... of coures this doesn´t mean we´ll be starting our descent now, it means in 15 minutes we´ll both be starting our descent and our landing. After 15 seconds of free-fall the pilot is usually having exceptional trouble getting the nose straight, so he lands it slightly to the left or right with one wheel before bouncing a dozen times and wrenching on the e-brake... at which point the nose finally straightens out. Everyone´s prayers are answered and the passengers break out in applause. After substantial skidding and a near miss with the runway the plane comes to a hault and everyone jumps up to fight for position euro-style.
Ryan Air... aka-pilot training school.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
2:06 PM España, 5:06 AM Pacific NW, USA
I´m getting the itch to get back on the bike, it´s kind of an addiction, but I guess if you stopped going to work for a couple days when you felt you should be working you´d feel as though something were amiss too.
I´ve been thinking a lot about what I´ve found elusive since the beginning of the year and It´s so apparent and absolutely necessary... I need to win. I need to win something, anything... just to win. I guess not anything, I´ve already won ¨something,¨ but perhaps something that people actually have heard about, would be nice. I guess this is what the plan´s always been though.
I´ve been forgetting to tell ya´ll about something, that I´ve found quite interesting, entertaining & all together life threatening. It´s RyanAir, similiar to King County Metro, but with wings. The fare is similiar... okay maybe not, but in relative terms it is... $20 if you book the flight a couple months ahead of time... for a ¨swift¨ride on the bus from North Bend to Bellevue and back it´d be around $4-$5. They (ryan air) use old millitary bases for their airports and receive funding from the little towns located a short jaunt from the nearest big city for the proceeds provided by lingering tourists... i.e Girona is to Barcelona as Issaquah is to Seattle (If you think about it, it´s an excellent way to bring airfares down, but the budgeting doesn´t stop there.) They use only 737s, so the aviators have only to be trained in the piloting of 25 year old 737s. Security exists but it´s so swift that you can arrive 45 minutes ahead of your flight and make it with plenty of time. Seating is Southwest style: first come, first serve. And the seats aren´t leather, and there is no foot room. It´s like riding a bus that has seat belts, the bus is a bit smoother though... But here comes the best part of all.
If you go to drivers ed and are trained on an automatic, yet are book smart on a manual... does that mean you can drive a manual? Uhh... yes? It´ll just be a real bumpy ride... Welcome to Ryan air. The take off is absolutely full throttle, no waiting around for air traffic control to give the go ahead, it´s all systems go from the get-go. Elevation 0 to 40,000 in 15 seconds. Unfortunately the take-off´s not too different from the landing. The pilot comes over the intercom and lets everyone know that we´ll be landing in 15 minutes... of coures this doesn´t mean we´ll be starting our descent now, it means in 15 minutes we´ll both be starting our descent and our landing. After 15 seconds of free-fall the pilot is usually having exceptional trouble getting the nose straight, so he lands it slightly to the left or right with one wheel before bouncing a dozen times and wrenching on the e-brake... at which point the nose finally straightens out. Everyone´s prayers are answered and the passengers break out in applause. After substantial skidding and a near miss with the runway the plane comes to a hault and everyone jumps up to fight for position euro-style.
Ryan Air... aka-pilot training school.
posted by Tom Peterson @ 5:04 AM
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