Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Our son Ben has long dreamed of being an airline pilot.  He made that decision when he was 7 years old, after his first flight experience on a family vacation to California.  He graduated from the Purdue University Professional Flight program in 2013.  Even with that degree, he still had to find a way to amass 1000+ hours of flying experience before he could apply at an airline.  He took a job with Air America Flight Services for about 18 months, doing aerial surveying and imaging.  When he passed the 1000 hour mark, he left AA to apply for a pilot job at Republic Airlines.  He was hired in June, and spent the weeks of late June and all of July in specific training in Indianapolis and St. Louis.  He is now certified to operate an Embraer 175.

In this hangar in Indianapolis, Ben was introduced to this Embraer jet. He is now a First Officer on this model of regional-sized (75 passenger) jet, which he flies for Republic Airlines.

On Monday of this week, Ben began his work as a pilot.  He began his day in Pittsburgh, and the first flight took him to Miami.  Subsequently, he flew to the Bahamas and back to Miami to end the day’s work.  What a day’s work, huh?

He is the “First Officer”, and under the direction of an experienced Captain.  This Captain supervised Ben as he performed the take-offs and landings.  Ben will continue many months as a First Officer, gaining the necessary experience before he can be promoted to Captain.

Here is Ben as he prepared for his first day of flight. If you happen to see him in an airport, be sure to say ‘hi’ to this farm boy.

Ben is now living his dream!  Congratulations, Ben!

In farm news:

John is out this morning, flying the Phantom 2 to check on  the uniformity and health of the nearby corn fields.

John sends the drone off to scout the corn fields

Looking directly into the corn, looks pretty good, at least in this spot.

Here, from 70 meters up, we get a more accurate picture of the health of the field. We see many things. At the bottom of the picture, we see the yellow, stressed corn. Ross says this corresponds to areas that were a bit too wet at planting time, and stayed wet throughout much of June and July. In the upper portion of the picture, you see very healthy corn. At the left, the white streak is a rock chute that takes water from the waterway and gently lowers it to the ditch.

I have plans to mow today, but we had some sprinkles this morning.  Hopefully, it’ll be dry by afternoon.

I have been doing some cost analysis of 2016 wheat production.  It is a necessary step to determine if we will plant a wheat crop next month for June 2016 harvest.  We will compare our cost per bushel to the expected price.

Yesterday, it was an afternoon to run the bush hog to make some roadsides look better.

Here I go, along East Wheatland Road, trimming the roadside and highlighting the beautiful corn field.