Dan made it back from LA, safe and sound on Wednesday night.  His flight back like his flight out was uneventful.  Now that he and KW have both landed safely, I can say that this week, the House has overwhelmingly passed a bill that all airline pilots must be licensed (as airline pilots) by the FAA.  Someday it will be the law, today it is not.  In the past the airline industry relied upon their ability to hire former military pilots with thousands of flying hours of training and experience.  Today, the commuter airlines hire way less experienced pilots.  What Congress is trying to do now is regulate the minimum amount of experience required to pilot an airliner.  So for Dan and KW who only flyto the coast, this law should have no effect.  You are not going to put the yoke of a multi-million dollar airplane in the hands of a twenty-something year old.

Dan visited both Claremont and the University of California San Diego (SCSD), on Monday and Tuesday respectively.  Claremont is actually a consortium of smaller schools.  He was not that impressed with their facilities, but liked their atmosphere.  SCSD was originally just an after thought, after Dan’s visit there it rocketed to his number two school.  They are selective, but if selected he would get full support.

In between visiting the five schools that he visited, Dan managed to fit in a few extra curricula activities.  With Dan being based nearer to San Diego than LA most of those activities were in San Diego.  He visited the model Train Museum in Balboa Park that we had taken him, years ago.   He visited the aircraft carrier Midway, which is now retired and just a tourist attraction.  At one time though, his Grandfather John refitted this ship for the Vietnam War.  Originally it was a World War Two era boat.  It’s wooden deck was replaced with steel to accommodate jets.   Saturday night he attended his first “Hollywood” party.  He attended the birthday party for the lead singer of the band, New Found Glory.