Friday, May 16, 2008

Blowing out the Candle

Today is one year since I joined the FAA and was sworn in Oklahoma City. I was going through some old photos and decided to do a "Year in Review" type-thing. Things have come a long way since then...

Videos and Media

Me on the radio








Red Earth Festival - June 2007, Oklahoma City


Club Rodeo - June 2007, Oklahoma City


Makarov Pistol Demo Video - July 2007, Oklahoma City


Blue Angels Homecoming Show - Pensacola, November 2007


Photos

OKC Tower Class: May 15, 2007 - July 6, 2007

The tabletop labs in full swing.
Me working ground in the big tower sim.

The entire class at Club Rodeo.

The unique sight of Club Rodeo's dance floor... and bull ring.


Going shooting with my friend Kelly. This became a near-weekly occurrence.

One of the rare pictures of me out in OKC (I'm usually the one doing the photographing!)

OKC Terminal Radar Class: July 6, 2007 - July 31, 2007

The STARS labs
The ghost pilots Carli and Liz going at it in Wii Tennis Beer pong, the official sport of Oklahoma City ATC students Rob trying to nail a split
Arrival at Pensacola TRACON - August 2, 2007

Pensacola TRACON:

The new office:


Getting to know my quarry: flocks of T-34s at Whiting NAS
And here's the airspace they live in

The Blue Angels homecoming show
Our new home (and slightly patchy/weedy lawn)

8 comments:

r9s said...

congrats wicked(?). we get some t-34 here in MAF too but mostly t-1 and t-38 (untill recently). the seasoned controllers refer to the t-34 as "tweets" for the way they sound over the radio... so what happened to the "wicked" - i see that you are the flying penguin now.

JG said...

Congrats! I've been reading for a while, great blog. Again Congrats!

Mark Rossmore said...

Thanks guys!

@r9s: So you get to have fun with the Military trainers too? We have other, more, err, "colorful" names for the T-34s. :) And I'm still Wicked - I just changed it from Pinguino Malo since not everyone speaks Spanish.

How's your training going along over in Midland? My family's actually flying out that way later this month for a friend's wedding. Mary and I can't go because, well, Mrs. FAA Payscale had an argument with Mr. Bank Account and, well, you know how that goes...

@jg: Thanks! I've checked out your blog before as well. It's definitely interesting seeing the OTS side of things. I've referred a couple of my friends who are applying OTS to it so they can get the inside scoop on the process.

JG said...

Wow, I didn't know anyone other than a few friends and family members were reading my blog. Cool! Just curious, how did you come across it? Google search? It's nice to know other people may be reading it.

cl said...

Ok, I gotta leave you a comment here-- I actually bookmarked your site a few weeks ago because it had some good info on OKC.... ON top of that, for the last 12-15 years I always named my sports teams (in those situations where i was naming teams, i.e. Madden 2000,01,02...etc..) the "flying penguins" since I thought it was a clever and appropriate metaphor for overachievers. (thus, "flying" penguins).

I digress. I just now realized you're in p-cola which struck me as really cool. (seeing as I am in pcola)

I don't know where i'm going with this comment, I just felt compelled to write it, seeing as we are somehow distant kindred spirits (in a very definitively non-gay way), and more importantly, I'm really bored-- waiting for the FAA to hurry up and pay for my 3 month vacation to OKC.

Anyway, keep the blog going, it's great info. And if you havent lived in Pcola very long, let me give you some advice-- Don't go to the beach this weekend. Trust me

Anonymous said...

great blog, can you post your email address, i have some questions to ask you about P31...

Mark Rossmore said...

@cl: Don't worry, I'm staying away from the beach this weekend. I keep hearing the stories. My weekend excitement will probably consist of the wife and I going to see Indy IV. :)

@anon: I can be reached at mark.rossmore at gmail.com.

Flygvapnet said...

Awesome Blog! I was just selected for my PEPC in November, and I was placed in Pensacola. I was googling information about the airport to see what it was all about and stumbled on this gem. Thanks for all of the great information and experiences that you share, look forward to working with you soon.