Last night I had the pleasure of attending The Claraty Arts Project Gallery Opening in Santa Cruz. The Claraty Arts Project is a visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art. And last night the gallery was packed by with patrons purchasing these nine artists’ works. From the beginning, The [...]

“Space… the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before.”  I must have heard this line a thousand times as I was growing up. And it was always [...]

Flying to me is like being a kid and wanting to go out and play. At first you are allowed to open the door and stare outside, BUT you can’t actually go outside. This was the first few days of my training. I read the books, sat and starred at the airplane, but it was [...]

As the sun set, I did a final check of my supplies. Flight plan, sectional, watch, headlamp with a red bulb, bottle of water and a granola bar. And tonight I was going to have dinner at 3500 feet with the twinkling lights of California below me. FAR 61.109 requires private pilot applicants to have [...]

After 22 hours of flying around the skies of Palo Alto and it’s various neighboring airports, I was nearing the end of the first major phase of my flight training. Looming off in the distance was the oh so imposing “Solo” flight. Webster’s dictionary defines the noun Solo (So•lo) as “something undertaken or done alone.” [...]

Every year the Hiller Aviation Museum holds the largest all helicopter airshow on the west coast to much fanfare and celebration. In it’s 9th year, the event was as strong as ever, with helicopter performances from the California Highway Patrol ASTAR, the California Department of Forestry UH-1 Huey, and a California Army National Guard CH-47 [...]

“Hurry up and wait.”  A phrase in that I have become intimately familiar with this past 9 days. Today was the day where we repositioned the entire Operation Southern Partner Team to it’s next set of islands. Our C-130J from the California Air National Guard was all fixed up and was ready to take us [...]

After three days of working closely with the Trinidad & Tobago Defense Forces building relationships and sharing information, it was time for a bit of a break. Our last day full day on the island ended with an invitation to the Military Sports and Family Day. This would give everyone a chance to chat with [...]

A few days ago, when our CA ANG C-130J from Channel Islands broke down in Guyana with engine and brake problems, I thought our trip was in jeapordy. But the mission commanders of Operation Southern Partner made a few calls and got the “Fighting 5-0″ to step in and help us continue the mission. The [...]