• Seeing my family (dad, mom, sister Rachel, step mom Krista, step brother Mikey, Grammy Elaine, and Grandma Alice)
• Seeing a number of my friends – Justin Klein (you can read his take on our get-together here), John Medina, Jeremy Sultan, Susanna Hyatt, Chuck McGill, Ross, Davide, Madeline, etc. and talking with many others
• Flying my old airplane
• Taking some great pictures
• Riding horses with my sister and Dad up at Will Rogers’ park
• Swimming at the Brentwood country club
• Taking a family trip up to Telluride, Colorado
• Eating some In-N-Out and many other things that I had been craving
• Shopping for all the stuff I can’t find in China
• Visiting the Getty Center
• Showing everyone pictures of my girlfriend Shenqi, and seeing everyone else’s pictures
• Drinking some good Italian wine
• etc.

While all of this has been really nice, I miss China, my friends, my house, my girlfriend 申琦, and my life there. The U.S. and everyone here just seem so foreign to me now. I am having a lot of trouble getting used to the slower pace of life in general here, the MUCH higher price of everything, and, I can’t believe I am saying it, but how inefficient many things are. When I first got to China, I would have never dreamed of saying that America was less efficient, but in some aspects it is quite true. I can’t stand how long it takes to wait in lines here, shop, pay for things, wait in restaurants, etc. Having an unlimited cheap labor force really makes many things run faster in China. I had to valet my car today when I went to visit my dad’s new office, and the valet took 5 minutes to get to me, get me a ticket, and take my car. I couldn’t believe it, but it wasn’t like it was anything weird by U.S. standards. That situation just doesn’t occur in China. I then waited 30 minutes for a table, only to get served SLOOOWWWWLY by a waitress who was overloaded and couldn’t handle all her tables. It took forever to order, get our food, get a check, and get change. I missed China.

Also, making plans with people requires much more notice and planning than it does in China. If I want to meet with someone in China, it happens that day, not a week later. There is no telephone tag, schedule checking, planning, etc. It just happens. Everything for the most part is on a much more accelerated schedule.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not saying that everything about China is better. All I am saying is that there are a few things about life there that I really really miss.

I have a few more days here in L.A., and then Labor Day weeked in Las Vegas before I fly back to China. I intend to savor every minute of my time here in the states, but will definitely be happy to get back to 中国 (China).

Me flying past Mt. Shasta – 2003:

Anyway, I had not really thought about how much I loved that plane till I was flying down near Long Beach. I started remembering flying to Oregon with my buddy Justin, flying to Sun River to stay with Chuck and his family, flying around Mt. Shasta, altitude tests with Jeff Young, taking my parents for their first flight, flying to the Mooney PPP in Tucson and at the Mooney PPP in San Diego, numerous trips to LA for Laker games, numerous trips to Las Vegas to visit with my family, etc. etc. etc. All of a sudden, the song November rain started playing on my iPod and I really began to realize how much I am going to miss my baby

Me and my dad at Santa Monica getting ready to fly to Las Vegas – 2003:

Anyway, I got down to San Diego, parked the airplane, got everything I wanted to keep out of the plane, and closed it up in the hanger. I then went over to the FAA FSDO for my last San Diego Aviation Safety Counselor meeting. The Aviation Safety Counselors are a group of volunteers who work with the FAA to help promote aviation safety. We have monthly meetings and put on at least one big event a year–the Super Safety Seminar–which draws close to 600 local pilots for a day of safety-related seminars. I have been a member of the San Diego group for the last 2+ years and really gotten to know a lot of the other counselors well. I was elected to the board for a 2 year term, and was elected by the board to serve as treasurer. I have spent a lot of time with the group and I was very sad to say good bye. At the end of the meeting, the president and everyone present gave me a big thank you for my work over the past few years which made me feel very good. Thank you all very much as well for your efforts towards safer flying, and for being such great flying-buddies….I will miss you all.

I got a ride back to LA from another Mooney guy in San Diego who we will just refer to as Larry T. This was a great example of how NOT to fly. Larry T. started off as being very abusive to his plane. He tossed the keys onto the wing-walk, he let the tow bar slam into the cowl flap, and he was generally rough when handling the plane. This showed as his plane was not a good looking 231 at all.

Larry T’s 231:

The biggest thing I have to take issue with, however, is Larry T. being constantly behind EVERYTHING. He showed up 40 minutes late (and thus didn’t have the plane preflighted, fueled, or ready to go at all). He then stood around while waiting for the fuel truck only to do what vaguely resembled a preflight as they put fuel into the plane (no way to call it a thorough preflight at all). He then added barely enough fuel to make it to Santa Monica and back. He waited till we were both in the plane to clean the dirty windshield making us both get out. He didn’t have any of the charts out. He didn’t have any of the frequencies programmed in before he needed to change them. He didn’t have any backups setup in advance in case of a failure (I can only imagine what he would have to do if his GPS failed while IMC). He was behind the ENTIRE time.

He had a very nice panel containing a Garmin 430 GPS, an Apollo GPS (GX60 I think), a Garmin GMA-340 audio panel, storm scope, Apollo Comm/Nav 2, HSI, Autopilot, Bose headsets….the only problem being that he didn’t know how to use the equipment well. When we started up, my headset had good volume coming from the radios, but the inter-comm volume was low. When I went to adjust it on the GMA-340, he quickly snapped and said that he didn’t want me to touch anything in the plane (talk about an ego and not using all available resources….but I can live with that). The thing is that he then didn’t know how to do it himself and refused my help. We thus spent the entire flight in near silence as I couldn’t hear a word he said.

His actual flying wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good. He was very ham fisted and constantly jerked the plane around. Every time he looked right to adjust a radio, the plane banked 20 degrees right. He would then compensate by banking 20 degrees left. It was like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Larry T. also had problems in pitch. He only used the electric trim and refused to use the manual trim wheel. While this might work in other planes, it does not work at all in a Mooney. The electric trim is too sensitive so you get excessive pitch motions every time you flick the switch. Well….Larry T. did this throughout the flight making a not so smooth ride even less smooth.

Lastly, Larry T. just seemed to be overloaded by the plane. This was most pronounced during the approach phase of the flight. He didn’t comply with instructions from the tower. While level on base, I tried to tell him to turn off the runway towards the north side of the field so that we wouldn’t have to taxi back across it after we had stopped. This, however, was too much information for Larry T. to handle while flying. We then turned base and Larry T. flew through the final approach course. To compensate, he rolled into a 50 degree bank to get back to final. For those of you that don’t fly, executing sharp extreme maneuvers while close to the ground at slow airspeeds is not the safest thing to do.

The touchdown was average. Larry T. rounded out a bit high so there was a slight thumping down, but nothing too bad. The strange thing was, however, that he added power after we touched down. This caused us to take FOREVER to slow down to a speed that would allow us to turn off the runway. This was not appropriate as the tower had previously asked us not to spend much time on the runway as there was an IFR departure holding in position on the runway behind us.

For a pilot with over 2500 hours of Mooney flight time over 30+ years (I have around 700 hours), I would rate the flight a 3 out of 10. The flight made me thankful for the great training I received from my instructor Chuck McGill of Safe Flight Intl. It really makes a difference when you fly not just with someone who knows how to fly well, but who knows how to fly well while keeping their passengers comfortable. I made it back to Santa Monica, but it was not fun.

You can view all the photos in the Bye Bye Mooney gallery.

Meanwhile, some of the new toys I got for china have been arriving. For those of you that don’t know, I am a music addict. I constantly have music playing and my MP3 collection is about to top 60GB. I was hoping that I could replace my nearly destroyed 20GB 3rd generation iPod with a new version that I thought would be a video iPod or 80 gig iPod. No such luck….both don’t exist and it looks like they won’t materialize for a while. I thus decided to go with a 60GB color iPod as it could hold all of my current songs and a few photos. I was also so enamored with the new nano, however, that I got it as well. It is SOOOOO tiny. It uses a flash card instead of a hard drive which will make it perfect for flying / running. Hard drives have problems when used at high altitude and since my plane is not pressurized, the altitude has been an issue in the past. The new nano should solve that. Also, the flash drive doesn’t skip like a hard drive so it is a better choice for when I go running (not to mention the fact that it is TIIIINNNYYY and weighs next to nothing). But the scariest thing is that I now actually have 3 iPods (60GB on the left, 20GB on the right, nano on top):

Another stupid photo showing the difference in thickness(nano on top, 60GB in the middle, 20GB on the bottom):

I don’t know what I am going to do with my old one yet. I am still kind of amused by the fact that it has the tail number of my airplane engraved on the back of it.

I took a few photos of my little brother today…..here is a cool one of him getting a kiss from mom:

Anyway…….ciao a tutti…..u know where to find me (in bed sluggin down fluids and trying to get healthy)

We got done moving me up to LA. All my stuff that isn’t going to China is in storage and everything else is here in Santa Monica. My parents were a great help and made the day a pain instead of utter hell. I woke up at 530am, showered, drove to the airport, got weather, preflighted, pulled the plane out, and took off at 7am with Kevin Lovell for Santa Monica (KSMO). The weather was IFR so we punched through a small cloud layer to sunny skies on top. At Santa Monica, there was another low cloud layer and we shot the full VOR-A approach landing just before 8am. Kevin got his first real taste of IFR flying and loved it. We pulled up to the typhoon restaurant and picked up my dad (who was waiting) without ever stopping the engine. As Kevin taxied back to the runway, I got an IFR clearance home and we took right off. We landed back in San Diego (KMYF) just after 9am, put the plane away, and took off around 930am.

It was then back to the apartment. While we were flying, my mom picked up a U-Haul that was waiting for us when we got back. We loaded everything into the truck, loaded my car, and finished cleaning the apartment. My dad took off in the u-haul for LA, my mom dropped me off at the airport and I flew the Mooney up to LA while she drove my car.

In Santa Monica, we unloaded my car at dad’s house and got everything out of the truck that wasn’t going to storage. We then headed over to the storage unit (which just happened to be the perfect size) and loaded it up, and finally returned to my dad’s house around 8pm for pizza and much needed sleep.

The next day, we returned the U-Haul around 8am, then the limo came to the house at 9am to pick dad, my step mom Krista, my 3 month old brother Michael, and the nanny Ginger up for Vegas. Here is a picture of my dad loading their HEAP of luggage into their limo:

They of course were running late and didn’t depart until I did at around 11am. I headed down to Supermarine, preflighted the plane, and took off from Santa Monica for North Las Vegas (VGT). There was a slight marine layer so I picked up an IFR clearance and punched through the clouds to sunny skies on top and started my climb to 11,500 feet. During climb, my first failure of the day occurred. My iPod died and despite my best efforts, failed to restart. DOH!

The flight was great….beautiful clear skies, no turbulence, and almost no traffic the entire away. I landed in Las Vegas and the Rio had a limo waiting for me on the tarmac to take me to the hotel. This was really good because my cell phone had died–failure number 2 of the day. I quickly put the plane to bed and hopped in the limo as it was 100000 degrees on the ramp. When I got to the palazzo, Paul and Lee were already there, with about 14 tons of booze for the draft. For those of you that don’t know, this was the weekend of my dad’s fantasy football draft–aka 12 out of shape brokers drinking, smoking cigars, and picking some of the most finely tuned athletes for their fantasy teams. The three of us had lunch, and played some black jack while we waited for my dad to show up. Their limo finally arrived 3 hours later (god I love being able to fly my own plane ):

They unloaded their stuff into their room and the baby/nanny room and we hit the craps tables after a few pictures in our palazzo:

We had a good little session and everyone was up when we came back to the room for the order selection. All the brokers took turns picking from 12 cards labeled 1 through 12 to determine the draft order. We had s0me drinks and antipasti in the room and then a group of us headed down to Antonio’s–an Italian restaurant at the Rio. There were about 10 of us so we got our own room. I ordered the wine for the table (like usual)–a nice pinot noir followed by one of my favorite Brunello di Montalcinos. For dinner, I had an insalata caprese (mozzarella, tomato, and basil salad) followed by a vitello pizzaiollo (breaded veal over angel hear under melted mozzarella and tomato sauce). The dinner went well, but the craps session afterwards was HORRIFIC. We lost a ton before we went back to the room to meet my sister Rachel and her boyfriend Scott who got in late from Chicago (around 1130pm). Due to the big loss, we decided to call it an early night.

The next day was rather sedate. We had a family breakfast down at the cafe. Then I had a 90 minute massage followed by a steam / jacuzzi in the spa. I returned to the suite to find the guys into the draft big time. Pizza / drinks at the draft for a few hours. Then a short quick losing craps session followed by dinner at Antonio’s (again) with the family, my dad’s new partner Ron, and his wife. I had the same Brunello, another caprese, and a plate of hot antipasti. Afterwards, we got killed again at craps, dad and Krista went home, and Rachel, Scott, and I went across the street to play some low-limit black jack since Rachel really didn’t know how to play. We got cleaned out at black jack and went to bed.

Sunday morning we ordered a great breakfast into the room with the family, Ron, and his wife. We then took some photos in the suite of my 3 month old brother Mikey and us:
Michael, Rachel, and Me:

Michael smiling:

We then went for a quick swim in our private pool and had room service bring us lunch poolside:

Then it was off to a concert. Our neighbor across the street, Gordon Devol, is a singer. Music runs in the family and his sister, Luana DeVol, is a world famous opera singer. Every year, their family has a concert where everyone eats, drinks, and performs for fun. We were lucky enough to be invited. The singing was amazing and the atmosphere was unmatched. Even dad, Krista, and Rachel all took turns playing the piano. Here is a cute picture of Mikey and Krista in the elevator on the way to the limo:

After dinner, we went to Caesar’s Palace where there are more craps tables so that we could all play together undisturbed. We had a terrible session and were almost bust until Rachel took hold of the dice and threw them for about 30 minutes and brought us WAY up. The cool thing was that she was throwing a TON of doubles and all our hardway bets were paying off . Typical virgin-shooter luck I guess

When we got back from Caesars, the adults went to bed and we headed up to the 51st floor of the Rio to see the strip from the voodoo lounge. The view was awesome, but we didn’t stay long and went back to the room to watch DVDs.

Monday morning, we did breakfast in the room again before Rachel and Scott had to leave. Afterwards, Dad, Krista, and I decided to take Mikey in the pool for a quick swim:

Afterwards, they wanted to leave before 11am, but didn’t get on the road until 2pm. I had a nice long shower, lunch in the room, and then left at 215pm. The flight home was great. When I got to Santa Monica, supermarine was PACKED! There were more jets there than I have ever seen….guess the holiday weekend really jams it up. I finally parked the plane and got my car and was home around 5pm. The limo hit traffic BIG TIME and didn’t get back till nearly 10pm! (once again….I LOVE FLYING MY OWN PLANE!!!!!!)

Tuesday, I woke up VERY sick. I guess 4 days in smokey Las Vegas, drinking tons and not sleeping will do it. The crappy thing is that I NEED to study for the LSAT. I have been sick for the last few days and keep hoping that I will wake up better and can get back to studying

Until then,
I’ll be in bed

Just after lift-off:

Me geeking the camera on take-off:

Coming in for a fly-by:

Going around:

Coming in for a fly-by:

Up close and personal:

Going around:

On every trip around the pattern, Kevin would let me know how much time he needed to change lenses, change filters, reposition, etc. and I would adjust my pattern to give him sufficient time. Then on the 4th trip around the pattern, I don’t hear his usual radio call, just “Andy, I have to go.” I think to myself “Huh!?!?!” We flew in together….and you have the whole afternoon off….what do you mean “I have to go?”

Well….I look down and there is a police truck with the lights flashing and Kevin is being dragged away in the back. I start to get very worried and try to decide what to do. I don’t want to get in trouble by landing and possible having them take down my tail number or start hassling me about how I was flying. But there is now way I can leave Kevin there alone….so I land and try to figure out what is going on. I see the truck pull up to a bungalow up on the top of the hill on the east side of the runway. The guy gets out of the truck and starts talking to Kevin outside. Luckily it was just some rent-a-cop security guard and he let Kevin go after a stern talking to.

Needless to say, we left immediately and decided to head home. We hadn’t satisfied our photo craving yet though, so we were scheming on where we could take some more photos. Usually, an airplane would be a great photo platform as you get great views of the ground below. My Mooney, however, isn’t the best for taking pictures. The problem is that you really need an open window to take the pictures out of so that you don’t get reflections off the glass and the camera doesn’t have focusing problems. In the Mooney, there is only a tiny pilot’s side window. When we saw some hot air balloons, however, we decided to try and shoot of the little thing:

It worked decently and before we knew it, we were photographing everything. Here is Del Mar race track:

Geisel Library and UCSD:

Muir college / my dorm from first year / my apartment from second year:

Marigold area / my hanger at KMYF:

We finally landed at KMYF and stopped at the gas pump to fill up. The sun was just setting and it seemed like another great opportunity to take some artsy photos of my plane and some photos of me in front of it

Setting sun and the Mooney:

The Mooney on a golden ramp:

Me and my baby:

I love my baby….we get along soooo well:

Mooney and me:

You can see all the photos we took in the gallery below. I have high resolution versions of all the pictures so just email me if you want one.
Low-res gallery

After we got done putting the plane away, cleaning it, downloading the pictures, burning them to CD, and closing up the hanger, I got a quick bite to eat at CPK. My buddy Marco from Potenza, Italy called me and invited me to go bar hopping in the gaslamp (downtown San Diego) as it was his girlfriend’s last night here in the states before returning to Italy. We spent a while drinking, socializing, and dancing…….I spoke almost exclusively in Italian and convinced two Sicilian girls that I was an Italian, and then came home wayyyyyy too late. Good times

August 30th – My mom comes to San Diego
September 1st – Move from San Diego to Los Angeles
September 2nd – Vegas with my Dad, step mom, and Sister (Flying in my Mooney from Santa Monica to North Las Vegas)
September 5th – Fly back to Santa Monica in the Mooney (possibly fly back on the 4th)
***Every hour until the 1st – Studying for the LSAT
October 1st – LSAT (law school entrance exam)
***Every hour until the 17th – Studying for the GMAT
October 17th – GMAT (business school entrance exam)
October 18th – Crazy packing / tying up loose ends
October 19th – Leave for China

Lots to do ….little time ….China soon