Florian Hollender | floho.com » travel

Up in the Air – flying in the very first row!

Florian — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:29:51 +0000

20100525-P1020036.jpg, originally uploaded by floho.

Sometimes, fortunate things happen to you when you least expect it. This morning for example.
After the AMAZING week in France (pictures and updates might be coming), the alarm clock at 5:30am to catch the first flight out was surely not the most anticipated thing in the world, and the shower that seemed to insist on digital operation (scalding hot or freezing cold – your choice!) did not make it better… so I expected this to be another dreaded tired and long morning commute. I called a cab, got outside, looked at my phone…

there was a new message from my best friend’s buddy Micha.

“Say, are you about to fly to Amsterdam?”

… well, yes, I am – but how does he….? Wait a minute – it trickled through my brain. He is a first officer for Lufthansa CityLine. My flight today is with a CityLine jet…

“Yep! Are you my captain?”

How exciting! I’ll be able to shake hands with him after the landing and I’ll be able to tell all my friends that a buddy flew me to Amsterdam!

“No, your FO. Wanna ride in the cockpit?”

Ha-ha, very funny Micha. Everybody knows that is forbidden in the post 9-11 world. Or is that only true for the US? Could it actually be that he is NOT pulling my leg? Is he super cruel or super cool?

“Are you kidding? That’s possible? Of course I want to!”

You’re not gonna get me, but if there is a chance – if there really is a chance for me to sit in the cockpit – I won’t miss it for my life!

“Then tell the Stewardess who you are at boarding. Which seat are you booked for?”

OK, this either is the real deal or he wants me to emberrass myself a LOT. But who cares, I’ll bite.

“9F. OK, I’ll give her a heads up.”

And that, my friends, is how it came to be. I made sure I was amongst the last people to get on the plane (limiting the potential for others to notice me making a fool of myself), spoke up to the FA, and sure enough: She greeted me with a smile, took my bag and my jacket, the cockpit door opened, and there I was – front row, big time.

After a quick hello to the captain (left) and Micha (right), I got settled in: The jumpseat gets pulled out from behind the captain, so I sat right behind and between the two with my back to the cabin door. Micha showed me where the oxygen mask was, in case of a loss in cabin pressure (they do not drop from the ceiling in the cockpit, and they are full-face masks that also have headsets installed). I strapped in to the five-point harness (feeling like a race car driver), and Micha gave me a headset, so I could talk to the two during the flight and listen in to the radio chatter. Wow!
With a huge grin/smile on my face (that did not vanish until long after the landing!), I shut my mouth and let them do their job, which is quite busy: From closing the doors to take-off, there is a number of checklists they work through, they talk to the ramp agent and the tower for take-off clearance, and of course before they had already familiarized themselves with the flight plan and fed the onboard systems with all necessary information.

Off we went – and let me tell you, it is so much more exciting from the first row of the airplane! Thankfully I have been reading up a lot on how flying a commercial jet works in “whoops there are two hours reading time gone before you know it”-awesome thread of a Delta pilot who encouraged people to ask him all sorts of questions about being a pilot and flying in general, so I could make sense of most of the things the two did without asking too many stupid questions. Most of the time I was enjoying it way too much to talk in useful sentences, anyhow

If you want to know more, I’ll be happy to talk at length about the rest of the trip – just say so in the comments! For more pictures of the flight (including a very happy Florian with his headset on), click the picture of the middle console (which I was sitting directly in front of), or click here. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to grin from ear to ear a bit more.

Busy times, good times!

Florian — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:34:08 +0000

Folks,

these weeks have been packed with exciting stuff. On the first weekend of August I visited Tine in London (she did an internship with WFW). It was awesome! We loaded the two days with all the sightseeing you can imagine, and then some – but all in a relaxed fashion, so it stayed fun. If I could convert them RAW pics on my work machine I would have uploaded them all ages ago… but there were some JPGs, so I can give you a short preview already…. ahhh, no. Uploader doesn’t work probably here. I’ll check that later in the hotel and update the post if possible.

On the work side of life, my project in Zurich is in its final week, and we close it with a big bang – a two day workshop with almost 100 people involved in Lucerne. We spent over a month in preparation, so I am really looking forward to it. With lots of fun comes a lot of work, too – so I’ll spend the Saturday on location to help finish up the documentation and will get back to Hamburg on Sunday, just in time to pack new clothes and get ready for the next week. What’s next? Well, nothing certain yet, but interesting projects on the horizon.

Gotta run, catch you later!

On the way to world fame

Florian — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:25:39 +0000

well, not really. Still, I am a little proud to say that yours truly and his suitcase can be found in the current edition of ZEIT Campus, on page 52 and 53. If you always wanted to find out what a consultant takes on a regular week – or if you just want to see me in a suit – this is your chance!

Apart from that, I am well under with work in the last weeks, and it seems to be getting more, not less. I am currently located in Zurich during the week, so if any one of you happens to be there or in the area, give me a shout!

“Where the Hell is Matt?” 2008 video is out!

Florian — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:39:35 +0000

I canâ€™t stop being fascinated by this hero of Internet fame. After the initial â€œwhere the Hell is Matt?â€ dancing video, he made a second, and now â€“ he is back!

This wakes all my urges to go out, see the world, and have fun. I know youâ€™ll like it too.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Denmark trip – photos are online!

Florian — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:14:17 +0000

IMGP0757, originally uploaded by floho.

Hey there,

I was lucky to get two days off last week, so I could join Tine and the Lawyer gang, who were on vacation in a lovely house on the danish cost for a week. And even if it was just two days, it sure felt like a long time – it was SO GOOD! We went to the beach, had BBQ, went Bowling, played games until late at night – even had fun like little children with balloons – and on the day when we returned, we found that huge trampoline-like thing which Mareike, Tine, Konz and Alex are enjoying in the picture.

You can find the whole set (including many more jumping happy people!) here on Flickr.

Arrived in the outback

Florian — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:31:15 +0000

Now this is the real deal, I guess.
So I took the travel arrangement I told you about at length… in Frankfurt I got a cute car, a Seat, which does sound like a tractor, but it goes quite well. It even has a little Aux-in plug for the iPod, definitely a plus. The hotel is bad. Not really bad, but I got something ten times better for almost the same money in Berlin. The bathroom is not really clean. The curtains are dirty. The floors are dirty. The WiFi does not work. Oh well, I was spoiled in Berlin. Next week: Different hotel.

Workshop with the customer was great fun. It was like in real life! Really, it felt very different from what I experienced with only internal staff. Different topics (obviously), different meeting behaviour. I could not add much value today, as I got to know the topic on the fly, but I learnt a lot. Tomorrow, I hope, I will get some work assigned – not knowing what I will spend my time with over the next month really makes me anxious. Until then, I try to figure out what to do with my free time – come on, it is not 8pm and my colleagues are already in the hotel. Well, they are still working there. And well, it is a great hotel…. you feel my envy? I’ll search for an Aldi now and get stocked on diet coke.

Now that is a plan!

leaving the Institute – new logistical challenges

Florian — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:11:34 +0000

Things have moved faster than I anticipated them:
I will be leaving the Institute one week earlier than planned, as the opportunity arose to join a project in its beginning. So from next week on, I won’t be working in Berlin anymore, rather in the greater Frankfurt (Main) area. Greater does mean that I do not simply hop on an airplane and go to Frankfurt, but I then have a one hour trip to the hotel in a rental car…. finishing with another thirty minute commute to the client site from the hotel. In other words: Logistics have just become more challenging.

To start it off, I’ll be attending a client workshop (my first client workshop! Yippieh!) on Monday. Monday morning 8:30. Which means taking the flight on Sunday evening. Which sucks. Fortunately, this is not a regular timeslot for workshops, so that I should be able to leave Monday morning most of the time.

So I will leave the Institute, which makes me a bit sad, I have to admit – because the people here are great, and the general mood is so upbeat, although everybody is working their a** off – I mean, come on, it is past 3am and I am still in the office). Before that, of course, the current assignment has to be completed (this is why I am still awake). Back to work.

Getting and staying healthy on the road

Florian — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:49:22 +0000

Fitness and nutrition have not been that much of a topic for me most of my life – and it was not a problem until right about now. These days, I see the effects of my lifestyle right in front of me, where my belly starts trying to jump over the waistband of my trousers – and this is a strict no-go zone for bellies. So?

Eating healthy
This is tough, as I have only a basic idea of what to eat and what not to eat, and how much of it all… but I got myself some simple advice that I can make work. It does not get easier by eating out every day (staying in a hotel from Monday to Friday), but fortunately almost every restaurant and fast food joint has something that is ok to go for.

Exercise
This is even tougher. I love indoor climbing, but that is way too time consuming for weekdays. I have an hour lunch break, sometimes time at night and no time in the morning (that would mean to wake up early!). What’s left? Jogging. Did that yesterday, will do that tomorrow. Hotel gym? There is a gym, but it is in another building, and at night I just don’t have the energy to even go there… so maybe a hotel room workout is the right thing for me? I even brought a skipping rope, but if I try that out in the hotel room, I am quite confident something will break. Maybe take it jogging? Wow, I’d have to be really far from the office to try rope skipping in public

First post in 2008

Florian — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:52:11 +0000

New Year’s Eve was a blast – we enjoyed the fireworks from all around the place, watching them from our balkony with some good friends, and of course watched “Dinner for One”, played games and had a good time until late.
Now it is 2008 – almost surreal still – and I am optimistic that it will be a good year. Let’s see how the blogging thing goes – I hope to be able to write more often, and more substantial posts, but no promises are made.

When it comes to travel, and where I can be met: Look me up on dopplr.com, my username is floho, and share your itineraries with me, maybe we are in the same place at the same time!