Recurrent training

Hello friends,
Well, here I am back in Dallas for recurrent training. My annual training wasn't due until June but the company wanted to take advantage of my copilot getting married and since they gave him 10 days off in early May, they wanted me to go and get the recurrent over with so we could get back to flying as soon as possible.
I took advantage of this trip and again flew into Los Angeles so I could visit with my son and daughter-in-law and, of course, baby Sadie. After a short visit, I went to big D and did the training and then immediately flew back to LA. I was certain I was going to miss seeing my daughter Shayna this time because she was gone with her husband Keith on a cruise for the week.
While in Southern CA I went back to my old church in Garden Grove, where I used to pastor, and paid a visit. I was happy to see that my old friend Dan Smith from Andrews University days, was there and rebuilding the church program in a big way with lots of excitement. It was strange to see my old office and first church job after finishing my theology training at La Sierra in 1976. A couple of years have slipped by. But I saw old friend Steve Zeller from La Sierra days and we had a great catch up conversation. I remember Steve because he had the first Honda car I had ever seen. It was about 1974 0r 5 and this car had a two cylinder motorcycle engine under the hood. They have come a long ways, that's for sure.
I had received an email from my company back in India that they wanted me to extend my stay and also go back to Citation CJ2 recurrency. This would be with FlightSafety in Orlando or Wichita, so I started working on that and now it ended up that I got to fly up to Portland, see my daughter's white coat ceremony in Optometry from Pacific University in Portland before heading out to Wichita, Kansas for the CJ recurrent. The timing was just perfect and I was so happy to be able to do all this.
I called one of my pilot buddies back in India to find out why I am suddenly able to fly 2 airplanes again and I guess the Indian DGCA has changed their rules again and I can now fly 2 separate airplanes for two separate companies again after the 1st of June. So, it's 2 refreshers this time and then from Wichita down to Houston, where I can reconnect with my Emirates flight back to Delhi via Dubai. I can't wait for that wonderful business class travel segment again, that will really spoil you for good.
Shayna had asked me about attending her white coat ceremony when I came to America but I didn't get a positive response from my company about it so I had told her it was off. The whole thing about adding the CJ refresher training was what opened the schedule up because they couldn't fit me in until Thursday so I had three free days to go up to Portland and that's exactly when her program was. I am still amazed and so pleased that it worked out.
I haven't done any training in Wichita since April of 2000 when I first got certified in Citation Excells. I used to go there quite frequently for my training but have been using another company or another location for a long time. It will be interesting to go back and see what has changed.
You can see from my picture on this post what the Simulator looks like from the inside. Just exactly like the airplane. On the outside it looks like something from outer space. But, it keeps us flying safe and that's what its all about.
Karen is all alone in India for these two weeks but is doing great and has her cats to keep her occupied. She will be coming to America in June for a family wedding and to try and take care of more of our Pennsylvania stuff. She should be back over in a month or two. She won't miss much in the HOT Delhi summer. Many folks are gone during that time of year, kind of like Phoenix, where I used to live.
Take care,

Dan