An Aviation Career....

Can be yours! 

Join me at the NW Aviation Career Forum! 

February 20th!

FEB 20 | 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Showplex, Puyallup, WA
Doors open: FRI @ 8:00 AM
First presentation: 9:00 AM

I am honored to be the keynote speaker 

for this incredible event,

and I hope you will join us!

A fun filled day with many opportunities await. Life and aviation are about connections, and you will find them here. If you are looking for a career in aviation, curious about opportunities, want to meet industry professionals and ask questions to Alaska Airlines Chief Pilots... I'm thinking this is the place to be. You don't want to miss it. I'm looking forward to seeing you all! 

Click Here to Learn More 

and Register for the Career Forum!

Enjoy the Journey!

XO Karlene

Niven Sookhoo

Friday's Fabulous Flyer

NIVEN

For The Love of Flying: 

"In the mid 90's today, blue skies dotted with a few white cotton buds floating around and a gentle to moderate south-easterly wind made for a nice day in the circuits in the Southern Caribbean. Minimal traffic to contend with and some nice cross winds and thermals made for an eyebrow raising experience for my experienced student pilot! My guy handled it quite well and I'm so happy to see him reach this penultimate point of his PPL check ride. With dry lips and sweat off my brows and "headset" hair, I guzzle down a pint of apple flavor aminos/water, got his de-brief completed (with my trusty model Cessna 172 in hand) and ready to head out home. What a fantastic day!

My name is Niven and I'm a full time Certified Flight Instructor (C.F.I) and single/ mutli-engine commercial pilot at a flight school based on the beautiful twin island of Trinidad & Tobago. I was born and bred on the east coast of the island and even as a child, the deep fascination of airplanes started. I still rush out and stare heavenly whenever i hear an unusual rumble and I say in my Trini tongue" Ok that have to be huge.. that's probably a military heavy passing o somethin ". I am the eldest of two siblings, both being engineers by qualification and blessed with both mother and father being educators.

I feel so humbled and privileged to be asked by the amazing Karlene to contribute to this journey of her experiences and life in this whirl wind of a career. I am here for you as much as you are here for myself and many other upcoming pilots. I invite you to follow my experiences that brought me to this point in life and to experienced beyond the unknown.

When I'm not teaching flying, I'm either in the gym or learning something different. Whether it be quotations on Taoism, updates on general aviation or a new way to prepare a challenging entree. Every day is one that I choose to learn and challenge myself physically, mentally and spiritually. The pursuit of my gym training I translate into every aspect of my life and my flying career. 

 

Train hard, persistent, focused, 

analytical and importantly, 

smile along the way.

Tomorrow's morning is another flight and I am stoked! 

Happy and Safe Flying!"

NIVEN

Bob's Life Celebration

Join the Alexander Family...

"I have some very sad news regarding my father. This Monday the coast guard was notified of an aircraft in distress that appeared to go down in the Hood Canal. After an exhaustive search, the only thing that was recovered was a few small pieces of his plane along with his drivers license. The aircraft and my father have not yet been recovered. The cause of the crash is still not known. But our family takes comfort in the fact that he was an experienced and competent pilot. The NTSB is investigating, but with the depth of the water reaching 500' it is difficult to know if any more of the aircraft will be recovered." Curt Alexander
 

Curt and Bob

Family and Friends –

Below are the details for the upcoming memorial service in celebration of Bob’s life. Please pass this along to friends and family as we don’t have everyone’s contact information. As Bob would want, this will be a celebration of Bob’s life. How blessed each of are to have been able to be around Bob!

Date – February 5th (Thursday)

Location – Museum of Flight – Skyline Room

9404 East Marginal Way S, Seattle WA 98108, 206-764-5720

Time – 1:30 PM (Memorial will start promptly at 2:00 PM)

In lieu of flowers, please feel free to donate toward Young Life (Sammamish, Tacoma/University Place, or Hong Kong). We’ve included links below for each.

· Sammamish

· Tacoma/University Place

· Hong Kong

We have reserved a block of rooms at the Inn at Gig Harbor under the name Alexander. The room rates are $109.00 (+ tax) for a standard king or 2 queens, or they have the larger family rooms for $149.00 (+ tax) for 2 queens with an additional king in a separate room. Link to the hotel:www.innatgigharbor.com or (253) 858-1111.

Love,
The Alexander Family

If you have questions, please call Curt 425-503-8392 or Laura 253-298-7355

Project Sky Commute!

Project Sky Commute started about four years ago when I (Brian) was following the aftermath of the Colgan Air 3407 crash in BUF. After that event, some stakeholders were suggesting that commuting by pilots be banned, the U.S. National Research Council published The Effects of Commuting on Pilot Fatigue and the FAA established new flight and duty time regulations. Since then, I have talked to innumerable airline commuters (both pilots and flight attendants) and have learned a great deal about sky commuting both in North America and around the world.

The Community

It didn't take long to realize that their was a community out there. A community that would love to share ideas and strategies on commuting. Some commutes are easier than others, both on the commuter and their spouse or partner. I've been commuting for more than 15 years. Many factors have played into the equation over the years and now my sky commute is one of the most difficult in my airline's system. I've also learned that some airlines do not allow any employees to sky commute and that commuting is far more common in North America than in southeast Asia. Then, there is the expat who, for the most part commutes POS space. I could go on and on, but I hope that gives you a quick snapshot of what the project is about.

I have a cartoonist working on a caption that will put a sky commuter on a dangerous good label. Some folks have that certain look in their eye when they sky commute. I'm working on something humorous about that one too. I have several others that will appear in my book. I hope it will bring a few laughs.

 

 

I'm looking for sky commuting stories similar to the time I came back from Europe. We were about 30 minutes out from destination and the Captain asked me what time my commuting flight was. It was scheduled to depart less than 10 minutes after our arrival time and was the last flight out of town that day to my home airport. Well, when we were in-range, he radioed a "friend" at the company and arranged to have me pre-cleared through customs. I thought he was kidding when he said all I had to do was get off our airplane, walk over two gates and have a seat in J. 

 

 

He had arranged it all. Well, when we arrived, the door opened, an agent appeared at the flight deck door and invited me to come with him. The Captain said that he'd finish up and that I was to "get moving." I quickly gathered my stuff and followed the agent. No customs, just straight to my commuting flight. After I sat down in J, one of the flight attendants suggested, with a wink, that I change into my sweater. I was looking over my shoulder for a week thinking a customs agent was going to nail me for 'sneaking' into the country illegally. Lol. But, nothing ever came of it.

Want to be part of the team

And share a story?

Contact brian@iSkyCommute.com 

Brian is also on Twitter @iSkyCommute

The 12th Lady!

 

Watch the Hawks Fly to Success! 

SeaHawks Going All the Way!

Sunday morning found drums beating and horns honking as the party began at 630 here in SeaTac. Kind of fun living on the famous street for the SeaHawks! Front row seats.

Enjoy the photos of the Sunday Block party at my house. We all cheered the SeaHawks on as they drove past on their way to the Super Bowl!! 

And we have some pretty awesome neighbors! 

Patriots, be prepared to be

deflated legally!

Go Hawks!

Flight For Safety Comments

 

"Can you Handle the Truth?..

That question - loosely adapted from Jack Nicholson’s incendiary line in the movie “A Few Good Men” is an appropriate preamble to reading Karlene Pettit’s thoroughly engaging and lightning-paced new work, “Flight for Safety.” 

The truth is exactly what you get...

The truth of being a professional airline pilot in today’s stressed airline world, the truth about the major new threats to the safety of airline passengers from pilots who aren’t trained to fly anything but computers, and which political and personal agendas sometimes trump safety and sanity.
 

Can you handle the truth? 

Then this book is a must-read!"

John J. Nance 

Author, Pandora's Clock and Orbit
Aviation Analyst, ABC World News

"As a 20-year veteran of the Airbus-class flight deck, I can attest that the cockpit scenes are spot-on. An excellent follow-up to the harrowing, Flight for Control."

Eric “Cap’n Aux” Auxier

Captain-author, The Last Bush Pilots, Code Name: Dodger; capnaux.com

 

“A fast-moving aviation thriller that is ripped from the headlines!”

Chris Broyhill 

Retired USAF Fighter Pilot 

Author: Viper Contract and The Cabo Contract 

"This is a whistleblower drama where the stakes are played out with pilots’ careers as well as innocent passengers’ lives."

Captain Mark L. Berry - 

Airways magazine contributing editor, 

Author of the aviation memoir, 13,760 Feet--

My Personal Hole in the Sky

Purchase

Flight For Safety

on Amazon  
or

 Autographed copies here!