Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Ask Josh The Pilot, Vol. V, Day 2: How We Met, and football

Ruby Rose said...

Continuing with the Australian theme: JTP - when and where did you guys meet?

I have come latterly to Blonde Champagne and so despite diligent searching of archives, the first mention of you I can find is when you took MB up in a plane and nobody got killed.

Sorry if that's a bit nosy, and treating your actual personal relationship like a movie I just found channel-surfing and decided to stay with, but....? :)

Oh - and how true is Pushing Tin? (There - a PROFESSIONAL question.)

Alexandra, it’s nice to know someone cares enough about us to search through the archives looking for when we first met. We first met at the end of October 2004, when she was living in Orlando and I was living in Daytona Beach. I had been reading Blonde Champagne for a while and I knew I really wanted to meet her. We talked on the phone a couple times and arranged to meet after I went to Orlando to vote in the general elections that year. Needless to say, we hit it off quite well, and the next day she came up to Daytona Beach, I took her flying, and three weeks later we became an official couple. Fittingly, I asked her out when we were at a small racetrack (cars, not horses) watching my old boss’s nephew drive in a big race. She’s not a car racing fan, but she likes me enough that she was willing to go to a race with me, and said yes when I asked her to be my girlfriend. :-)

Regarding Pushing Tin… I thought it wasn’t too terribly inaccurate, but it obviously contained dramatic license. It did for air traffic control what Bring It On did for cheerleading. Pushing Tin did not show the years of training it takes to become a controller. Unless you’re Billy Bob Thornton, you can’t just show up to a facility and start working traffic. Even someone who was a controller at another facility has to spend a lot of time learning the airspace and local procedures for his/her new facility. Another obvious inaccuracy was the whole wake turbulence thing. Number one, you can’t stand on a runway, that’s why there’s a fence around airports. If someone was standing on a runway, the tower would shut it down. The main point is if someone where standing behind a 747 as it was touching down, they would not survive being tossed around like that. Period.

Jcat2323 said...

What's your fav football team, college and NFL?

College would be the Air Force Academy Falcons, because I went there before transferring to the University of Airplanes. I also like the Miami (FL) Hurricanes, mainly because I’m sick of the whole Florida/Florida State nonsense, but also because UM was the only school out of the three to send me an application when I was in high school.

My favorite NFL team by far is the Carolina Panthers. I’ve been with them from the start, and to this day I still despise the New England Patriots for robbing my Cats of their Super Bowl championship. Lately I’ve become a Cincinnati Bengals fan, too. I’ll let you figure out why…

Down! Set! Hike! at: josh_hunter04@yahoo.com

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

How did you find Blonde Champagne? Are you sure you aren't a stalker? :-)

Josh The Pilot said...

Speaking of the general elections, we met on a website for President Bush supporters. If you haven't figured out we're both staunch conservative Republicans. I liked the way Mary Beth wrote about her thoughts and opinions, and she referred me here so I could see more of her writing. The rest y'all know!

Anonymous said...

You said "College would be the Air Force Academy Falcons, because I went there before transferring to the University of Airplanes." Just to clarify... You were a cadet at the Academy?

Josh The Pilot said...

No, I was the janitor, Chief Janitor to be exact, and then I realized I wanted to fly more than I wanted to mop floors, so I transferred. ;-)

Anonymous said...

JTP, sorry about the Pats and the Cats, but I was at that game (the biggest thrill of my life to date, I highly recommend it!! even though I was surrounded by aqua and black) and they really gave that game away.

Anonymous said...

OK, I know after months of faithful readership, I really should have figured it out by now but (as long as you're answering questions), um . . . what is the University of Airplanes?

Anonymous said...

Sorry Josh, but I seriously, robbed? Its not theft if the other team gives it to you on a platter. Go Pats!
I still love you though.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure you are Republicans? Bush supporters? Can't you just leave me with my illusions (delusions) and tell me that we can blame it all on dangling chads?

Seriously, Republican or Democrat (or wherever your convictions lead you), it's all good as long as you vote. Hey everyone - there's not much time left to register in time for election day. Don't forget!

Anonymous said...

He's right. Billy Bob and John Cusack would have been atomized. Here's what TWO engines of a 747 can do to a CAR.


I think you should invite the President to the wedding, considering he (and the fortuitous fate that you were an hour's drive away) got you together.

Josh The Pilot said...

Patsfan and Ryan, we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

Kredin, after re-reading my post, I realized I may have come across as overly harsh and sarcastic. Yes, I was a cadet at USAFA. Need any further clarification?

Rachel, here at Blonde Champagne we don't like to name institutions by their exact title, lest we be accused of name-dropping and/or promoting one over another. Send me an email and I'll give you the rundown on my alma mater.

Monica, what makes you doubt us being Republican? If it will make you feel better, we're not entirely thrilled with everything Bush has done, but nobody's perfect, and it's hard to argue against not having been attacked again since 9/11.
That's enough about politics, though. MB used to be all about debating elephants and donkeys, but she's decided to move away from that, at least for awhile, so I won't delve anymore into the subject.

Josh The Pilot said...

Thanks for the video, Mike! I saw a similar video in one of my flight training classes in college. Jet blast is nothing to mess with.

As far as inviting the President, we've considered it, but there's no way we're going to shell out the money to feed all the accompanying Secret Service agents at the reception. lol

Ruby Rose said...

Dear JTP

Aww - aren't you sweet not being freaked out at someone looking through archives for the Magic Moment of Meeting. The explanation being that I have no personal life at the moment, so to compensate I am overly interested in everyone else's. Two of my friends have been a couple for ten years and I have decided they should get married because I want to go to a wedding.

And at least you know what your political stance is - most of the people I know are annoyed with ALL the pollies (mostly with Little Johnny, but the rest of them are Not Inspiring Us Any), so taking a political stance beyond "Can't we get someone who isn't, you know, a complete and utter pain in the behind and doesn't go around embarrassing us in front of the rest of the world and knows how to run things without relying on scare tactics?"...well, then I got nothing.

Dammit - you mean John Cusack can't just stand there and say "I got 'em lined up like Rockettes"?

Alexandra

Anonymous said...

JTP - "overly harsh and sarcastic"? I'm not sure there IS such a thing. I wouldn't say it was overly harsh and a bit or sarcasism is always appreciated. :) I also spent some time at USAFA and sometimes thought I was the janitor.

Anonymous said...

I guess another thing that should have been answered about the movie Pushing Tin, is that if it is true that all flight controllers tend to become "control freaks" as portrayed by John Cusack. I know the stereotype of the anal-retentive architect portrayed in Sleeping with the Enemiy is quite true, because I work for one. My boss tends to divide the world into two groups: people that think like him, and the dumbasses (Me, I try to be the exception that confirms the rule)

Anonymous said...

JTP - I liked you a LOT better before you bashed my PATs....now, you continue to throw insults around and I am going to have a "discussion" with MB about who she gives admin. rights to....

Josh The Pilot said...

Kredin, please send me an email. I'd like to know what class you were in and why you left. It's therapeutic for me to get other former cadets' stories so I know I'm not the only one who liked the Air Force part but not the Academy part of that place.

Alexandra, I promised MB I'll never say "I got'em lined up like Rockettes" but at some point I will sneak in "Welcome to my airspace"!

RPJ, some controllers turn into control freaks, mainly because it's our job to control everything. So far, I've done a better job of separating my job from the rest of my life. However, yesterday one of my instructors here at Controller Boot Camp told us that to be successful controllers we have to a--holes when we work traffic. Even if I do turn into one, I'm sure MB won't have a problem mellowing me out when I'm off-duty. ;-)

Anonymous said...

JOSH, Just to let you know. You will turn in to an a**hole when working. But a cute, sarcastic, witty one! At least that is what Dan the other controller is turning into. I sometimes have to remind him that I am A: not a pilot and he cannot tell me where to go and B: not a coworker so he cannot suggest places for me to go, but rather I am C: his loving wife who will smack him with a reality check and then give him a smooch. I dare say MB is up to the challenge. ;)

Alexandra, BTW that business in Pushing Tin about not getting with other controllers wives. That is pretty acurate. Controllers are VERY protective of their sources of nookie, as, like JTP says, we are their means of staying in touch with reality and deflating of the egos. :)

Josh The Pilot said...

Thanks for checking in, Kelli!

Jenib said...

WTG on the USAFA and Panthers choices! I have been a USAFA Falcons fan since my brother attended there. (I was in the stadium at the 1993 graduation and the view is impressive. No, not the view of 900+ male graduates...LOL...)

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