captbrando's log

I’ve been spending a lot of time in Chicago this year. I love the city, but freaking hate the cold. I’ve broken my rule twice already, and am preparing to fracture it a third time this week¹. Regardless, thanks to the new and improved Blue Line from ORD, I have become a public transportation junkie (in almost every city I visit).

Once in the city, there are some rare occasions (especially in sub zero weather) that I need to take a cab to go twenty blocks. Small luxury, but I bet those cabbies make a ton of money on $10 rides during cold weather.

In early February I was downtown for a corporate event and took a cab from my hotel on E. Wacker to S. Wacker. I took the time during the five minute ride to chat with my wife. I was wearing a suit, and had my elbow resting on the door handle while I chatted. I arrived at my destination, hung up my call, and tried to pull my arm away to reach into my wallet. My arm did not move.

Panic.

The door handle was broken and the metal piece that holds it together was exposed, and now through my suit coat.

DAMMIT!

A dime sized hole! I paid the driver, got the cab number and made some phone calls. After working diligently to find the right person (it’s amazing what happens when you ask for the president of the company’s name and mailing address), I was able to get to the claims department. I filled out my form, and am PROUD to say, I received the full reimbursement for my tailor’s bill on the reweave!

AWESOME!

No, my suit will never be the same, but unless you know exactly where the rip was and what to look for, you will never find it, and you will never see it by looking at me in a meeting. The total amount to fix it was minimal, but I am grateful to Yellow Cab of Chicago for standing behind their company and their product!

1. The rule is that I do not travel north of the Mason-Dixon line between November and March [↩]

Long posts would take forever!

Time to work on those landings! Yes, I now have 214 of them, but the last several flights I have noticed that I am not maintaining the center line very well. In fact, I typically am drifting to the left side of center.

Garrett was bummed that he did not get to go flying with us last time, so I got him loaded up and we went up in a 172 to go practice landings. We did all of our work at Alliance on 16L and 16R. I think this is just one of those things that if I pay attention to, it solves itself. Every landing was spot on (except the last one which I bounced a bit).

As we were executing our turnout back to 52F, the Diamond that was practicing on 16L asked the tower to light up the Christmas tree. That’s what pilots refer to the pretty lights you see in the picture (Picture credit to Ben Orloff). I never thought to ask if they could do it during the day! I’ll have to ask that if the airport is dead calm the next time I am over there.

Overall, nothing too exciting. Ceiling was at 3,000 feet, so that made for low flying. Thankfully, Alliance is only about seven miles from 52F. Quick flight-only .8 hours. But I did log six more landings and I did get to fly!

For the record, when I was on Jury Duty, I never did this.  My phone only turned on outside the actual courtroom.

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