The Road Less Traveled

This poem by Robert Frost always inspires me and has accompanied me in the life's ups and downs:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages
hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

In the past several months, I have discovered things about myself that I wasn't aware of and a courage and a will that I had forgotten that I had. I am a better person for knowing my pilot and I am grateful...

Pictures from Pier Crabbing

I went to pier crabbing again this past weekend near Golden Gate Bridge. It was beautiful with no fog and cloud. Here are 2 pictures of day. Can you see the picture with a crab holding his (yes, it is "he":-) baby, we felt so bad to take them home, instead we "returned" them back to the Bay.

During the 2 hours we are at the pier, I saw several planes/helicopter passing by. It made me think about my own flight training -- I am wondering if I shall get back to my training...

Denver Airport and John Denver

Everytime I am at Denver airport, I think about John Denver and his songs. I met him when he was the first artist from the West to do a multi-city tour of Mainland China, in October 1992. I remembered someone told me at the lobby of a hotel that the person I smiled to and who smiled back to me was John Denver. I knew his song "Country Roads,"... I later heard he was very surprised that the song was famous in China.

So I was in Denver airport yesterday and I thought about John Denver again. And this song:

It is funny how you sound as if you're right next door
when you're really half a world away
I just can't seem to find the words I'm looking for
to say the things that I want to say
I can't remember when I felt so close to you
it's almost more than I can bear
And though I seem a half a million miles from you
you are in my heart and living there

And the moon and the stars are the same ones you see
it's the same old sun up in the sky
And your voice in my ear is like heaven to me
......

Wave -- the Song in Me Now

So close your eyes for that's a lovely way to be
Aware of things your heart alone was meant to see
The fundamental loneliness goes whenever two can dream a dream together
You can't deny, Don't try to fight the rising sea
Don't fight the moon, the stars above and don't fight me
The fundamental loneliness goes whenever two can dream a dream

When I saw you first the time was half past ten when your eyes met mine it was eternity
By now we know the wave is on its way to be
Just catch the wave don't be afraid of loving me
The fundamental loneliness goes whenever two can dream a dream together

Pilots on AA 11 and 77, UA175 and 93 -- We Will Never Forget You!

American Flight 11
(North Tower of the World Trade Center – 8:46AM)
Captain John Ogonowski
First Officer Thomas McGuinness

United Flight 175
(South Tower of the World Trade Center – 9:03AM)
Captain Victor Saracini
First Officer Michael Horrocks

American Flight 77
(The Pentagon – 9:37AM)
Captain Charles Burlingame
First Officer David Charlebois

United Flight 93
(A field near Shanksville, PA – 10:03AM)
Captain Jason Dahl
First Officer Leroy Homer

Fog Over SF

It is not a secret that San Francisco is covered by fog often, esp. in summer. I love fog esp. when they are over Golden Gate Bridge or over the mountains. In a way, I have been "lucky" that I am not in the fog ALL the time as I live in the sunny side of the City. But in the past week or so, I have noticed more fog in the evening/night.

Like right now, the downtown is completed covered by the fog and I can not even see any tall buildings. Talking about tall buildings, there is this glass building that my pilot likes. It looks different during the daylight vs. nighttime. I have paid particilar interest to that building and it is also complete in fog now. Whenever there is fog, I think about my pilot, wondering how the weather looks like wherever he is...

Tomorrow is the 5th year anniversity for 9/11. This is the 1st time I am not in the air on 9/11 since past 4 years. I have made a point to fly on that day in the past either for business or for pleasure... But not this year. I will be thinking about all pilots though, and of course the world since 9/11. It has changed my life in a way no less singificant than the "event" on June 4th, 1989 in TianAnMen, Beijing when I was young student. Both "events" changed me as a person forever and to this date, my tears would come out whenever I am thinking about those two days...

Some Good News (1 Not So Good) for Pilots

Southwest and UPS Raise Pilot's Hourly Rate

In the span of two days, Southwest and UPS both raised the bar for pilot hourly pay rates. Southwest pilots received a 4% end-of-contract pay raise, while UPS pilots ratified an agreement that positions them as industry leaders in pilot hourly rates over the course of their 5-year deal.

It was a rare feat in the pilot industry in recent memory: two large airlines, already at the top of the heap in pay, pushing the bar even higher.

The industry since 2001 has been turned on its head. With the severe losses the legacy carriers sustained since September 11, pilot unions were forced to give concessions to help save their airlines. Now, slowly, pay raises are happening at some of the airlines as contractual pay bumps take effect, and contracts are being reworked.

Southwest, already the industry leader in the passenger narrowbody pay category, received their final pay bump in the current agreement (amendable Sept 2006) on September 1st. Today their top hourly rate is $198.

UPS pilots, meanwhile, with their unique one-size-fits-all-aircraft pay scale, ratified an agreement that gave them double digit pay raises. By 2012, a senior captain at UPS will be earning $262 per hour, while a 2nd year first officer will draw a respectable $149 per hour.
FedEx will likely join the group in the positive trend in upward wage movement in the next few months, as they will be soon voting on a tentative agreement that roughly matches that of the UPS deal.

Not to be forgotten, the current top hourly pay rates in the industry still belong to ABX Air (formerly Airborne Express) of Wilmington, Ohio. A B767-200 captain there tops out at $239 per hour.

All in all, the industry is still facing a serious challenge with oil at stratospheric levels, the chance of the economy softening, and the ever-present possibility of another successful terrorist strike on aviation. But there was one short stretch of positive news for pilots, and we hope this happens more frequently in the future.

On "Not So Good" news, Delta seeks to end pilot pensions and a fedearl bankruptcy judge approved it this past Tuesday. I am sorry to hear that...

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

All my bags are packed,
I'm ready to go,
I'm standing here, outside your door.
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye.

But the dawn is breakin',
it's early morn',
The taxi's waitin',
he's blowin' his horn,
Already I'm so lonesome I could die.

So kiss me and smile for me,
Tell me that you'll wait for me.
Hold me like you'll never let me go.
'Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane,
Don't know when I'll be back again.
Oh, babe, I hate to go.

......

Every place I go, I think of you;
Every song I sing, I sing for you;

......

This song is in my head. Though I know my pilot loves flying and won't mind leaving on a JET PLANE:-)

A Poem Written by My Pilot:-)

May You...
Hold My Heart Ever So Gently

I asked myself aloud, "How have I fallen so deeply in love with him?" There was one answer but not of mortal understanding: infinitely they have known one another.

COME! Let them take a stroll, ensemble, you and he: becoming one, forgetting there are two individuals, knowing they have become, become…

She has lost thy other, her other true self when were, were one only to discover how empty thy is without her complete self...

I ask myself, "If I stand still shalt thy world bring me closer to a dream or closer to my love? Or shalt it rotate time only leaving me alone in my infinite temporal second?"

To love takes guts while to live merely takes the ability to breathe. To love takes courage, turning loose his heart-emotions-letting his pure heart live completely for thy other self while to live is awakening each day only for himself.

If this be a phase of which may pass, dreaded, the finalemente due to thy love affair with life, yet when the wind is exact... grasp, hold-gentle, yet grasp with meaning, permitting the breeze to take thy to thee true love.

I plea of thee.......May you hold thy heart ever soooo gently.

Note that the poem starts with a female and her thoughts, then a male and his thouhgts. At the end, they are one of the same ones as "thy"?