FOG Trip - Monterey for Dinner

Last night I met with a couple of other pilots that are part of the West Valley Flying Club Fly Out Group (FOG) to fly someplace for Dinner. We ended up going to Monterrey for Dinner. It was a great flight - there were a few clouds, but still a great sunset over the Pacific.





We had no problem getting into Monterrey - not to much traffic and they were landing both runways.

We decided to park at the Monterrey Jet Center, since they usually have crew cars available. We noticed the plane parked next to us has the US Seal - we could not find out who was in the plane, but our guess was that it was someone from Obama's staff.

We found a place near the water and had a great dinner - sea food of course. We had a great view of the harbor and found a fairly local place on the commercial pier (vs. the Tourist Pier and Wharf).

From Left to Right: Jason, Dan, Marc, Jude

On the return trip we flew into a couple of other airports to keep up our night flying experience. We flew into Marina airport (KOAR) and landed, but the lights were not that bright - took a second attempt to get lined up correctly. We then dropped in the Santa Clara County (E16) and then returned to San Carlos. Even with a few clouds - it was a great night of flying.

For the list of photos - still need to add a couple.

EMEA Trip - Day 4 - Walldorf to Munich

Another light coating of snow – the trail I went running on last night is now covered in Snow. I had to go outside since my room was in the basement – must not be on the frequent stay program with Holiday Inn (just what I need is another card).

From 2009 - Feb - Germany 3 Days

Sunrise over the SAP campus.

From 2009 - Feb - Germany 3 Days

This is the main headquarters – started here in this farm town in Germany and now has 55,000+ employees, it’s own futbol team, a work out facitility that would make most Olympic stadiums jealous, several bars, a bus service and a couple of restaurants.

Another long day of meetings – these trips would be so much more fun if I wasn’t working (then again, I probably wouldn’t choose Germany in February – unless I was going skiing). The day went well and it only took 4 hours to drive back to Munich this evening. I followed my GPS – bad idea – it doesn’t understand the concept of the Autobahn – much better to drive an extra 60 km (at 180 km) than drive 120 km through small towns and traffic lights in the dark.

Tomorrow is a travel day - I've only added the pics from above the Germany Album – looking forward to being home. Hope all is well with each of you.

Travel’n Jay

EMEA Trip - Day 3 - Munich to Walldorf

Starting the day with a light snow storm in Munich

From 2009 - Feb - Germany 3 Days

I had a morning full of meetings. Not much fun to report, I finished up in Munich around 2 PM and then took off for Walldorf. It’s a 300 km trip that takes about 3 hours (sometimes a bit less). I’m not sure driving 200 km/hr (124 mph) is a good thing for a brand new car, but it sure is fun. I did learn that at speeds over 150 km/hr (93 mph) that the wind shield washer doesn't work very well - it just blows over the car.

The town of Walldorf where SAP is Headquartered (there are 5 Walldorf's in Germany) is a small town - it doesn't cover the space that the SAP Campus does. It was a nice sunset.

From 2009 - Feb - Germany 3 Days

I took a chance to spend some time in the Sauna to warm up before dinner. We had dinner in an italian restaurant that is in the middle of SAP's sports complexes and their own football (soccer) team that is doing very well this year.

I've got one last day before heading home. I've updated the Germany Photo album. Looking forward to some rest.

Travel'n Jay

EMEA Trip - Day 2 - Paris and Travel to Munich

After a solid nights sleep thinking their metro trains were a bit noisy, I learned that was actually very strong winds making the noise and keeping the airport closed. The group I was with last night had to take the train this morning because the flights were continually canceled and pushed.

A good day of meetings and chance to wonder a bit on the way to the train station to catch my flight. There were 2 things that caught my eye on the way to the Metro. The first was a a scooter with 2 wheels on the front.

From 2009- February - Paris Day 1.8

Leave it to the French to get training wheels on backwards – evidently this helps on loose sand and dirt – when someone grabs the front breaks – it makes it less likely for the bike to slip and tip (not sure why they don’t just use the rear breaks – probably a law against it or something).

The second thing to catch my eye was an advertisement - I'm not sure what this is calling out, but as a pilot I will think about where I park my planes.

From 2009- February - Paris Day 1.8

I do wonder what type of Pilot Jimmy is (was)?

I also did a self portrait with the Eiffel Tower to prove that I was there.

From 2009- February - Paris Day 1.8

It was another cold wet day - looking forward to even colder weather in Germany.

I've updated the Paris Album with a few more photos.

Getting into Germany was no problem - I picked up my rental car - brand new VW with only 12km on it - I tried to take a short cut out of the garage.

From 2009 - Feb - Germany 3 Days

JUST KIDDING - Another advertisement that really catches your attention.

I'm in for the night - here is the link for my Germany Photos - look for future updates.

Travel'n Jay

EMEA Trip - Day 1.8 - Paris

After waking at 6 AM on a Sunday morning to catch an 8 AM flight, I arrived in Paris at 6:30 AM on Monday – yup – whole day gone with only remnants of a few movies that I caught between naps, 4 airline meals, and lots of dry air (maybe even a bit of a cold to boot). The 21st century sky warrior – fortunately I was upgraded to Business Class so I at least had great service.

I’ve arrived in Paris and it’s cold and rainy. Not a huge deal since we have a day packed with Meetings. Not going to bore you with the meetings, but a couple of interesting observations always add a new dimension to any trip. First, we went to a Lebanese restaurant for lunch and had wine, what else would one need with a large meal, Jet Lag, and lack of sleep to keep the afternoon meetings interesting. The interesting point was that our wine was from Lebanon also – so much for only drinking French wine in France. I guess they are getting over the importing issues.

After dinner tonight I had a chance to go for a quick walk (only rained a bit) and came across a second interesting point – electric bicycle automated rentals. I’ve take a picture of the machine and the bikes – you drop your card – pick a bike that has been charged and off you go – return it and you’re done. I’m curious about how long the bikes last between repairs and how well the electric bikes handle the excessive humidity (aka rain).

I picked up a couple of perspective shots of the Eifel Tower and the city through out the day. Here are the photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/jason.fiala/2009FebruaryParisDay18#

Hope all’s well.

Travel’n Jay

North Carolina Trips

I am running more and more behind on these, but figure I’d drop a line. I’m back from the second trip to NC in the past 3 weeks and I must have the magic touch – no snow this time, but a couple of the days the temperature didn’t get over 30 degrees. Ruling NC out as a place to live – too cold! The meetings were good – blah, blah, blah, blah.

I had a couple of hours before catching my flight so I took a quick trip down to the auto show in Raleigh. I somehow manage to be traveling whenever the show is in SF. Nothing too significant on the photo front, but I did take a couple. http://picasaweb.google.com/jason.fiala/2009NorthCarolinaTripsJanFeb#

I’m not going back until it warms up – appears to be any week that I don’t go there. Hmmmmm…….

Super Bowl Sunday 1/2 Marathon

To start the season off, I did a ½ Marathon yesterday. It’s a good way to start a Sunday morning with 5,800 other people in Golden Gate Park. It was a great day for a run, sunny and not too hot. Temperatures stayed in the 60’s and 70’s all morning. We started in Golden Gate Park near the Tennis courts where Terry plays. Here is the course info.

I finished in 1:48:09 which is an average of 8:15 per mile. I’m happy with the time – would like to figure out how to get down to around 1:35. I finished 191 out of 517 in my age group. (1384 overall out of 5816). The results are posted here

If you don’t want to scroll through the results – you can always search here:

Fiala is enough for the search or bib 1302

Always looking for good news – there was only 1 person over 70 that beat me and 1 person over 70 that tied my time. Good thing I have a few years to get better at this. Not planning on getting the 1:04 or so it would take to win the event.

I’ll post the pictures once available – last year they didn’t get any pictures of me.