Serial Procrastination

CriCri

2011-01-03T00:21:00.000-04:00

The CriCri is the worlds smallest twin-engine airplane. It's a single-seater with an empty weight of about 185 pounds. The two engines? 15 horsepower each. Thats no typo; 15 horses each, for a total of 30.

We may have had to drive to Michigan this weekend, but this video is more or less what was going on in my head while we drove.

Night Flight

2010-12-26T18:47:00.000-04:00

Cross-posted at Airways to Airways.

Night Flight is a small but integral part of flight training. To get a private pilot's license, one must fly 3 hours at night, including one cross-country of 50 or more miles. I did my night cross-country from Winter Haven to Melbourne and back, and since then I've made an effort to stay night current as it is handy.

Flying at night is different from daytime flying. Obviously, one's visibility is much lower, but if there are no clouds and a good moon you can get a surprisingly nice view of the world. The streets are lit up, the airwaves are quiet, and it's just you and the engine up there looking down on the grids of lights.

The view inside the cockpit of my rented C-152 at night.

Our most recent night flight was from Albert Whitted field back to Winter Haven. We had departed Winter Haven in the sunny late afternoon and flown over the suburbs southeast of Tampa, crossing the bay to St. Pete and making a ~~somewhat bouncy~~ respectable landing on the southerly runway. A nice walk past the marina, a cup of coffee, and then some time walking a rock jetty on the water and before we knew it it was dark out.

Facing east as the sun sets over St. Pete's marina. Control tower is visible.

A small high-wing plane landing at Albert Whitted.

The late-afternoon sunlight in St. Pete.

We headed back to the FBO at Albert Whitted and checked out our plane. Last time we had flown at night the landing light had been broken, which was inconvenient, but this time all the lights shone true and we were cleared for a departure East over the water by the tower.

Flying over water at night can be especially dangerous. There is not a clear visual horizon, so one can easily be confused and end up in an "Unusual Attitude" if not careful. Over Tampa Bay, there are the lights from various bridges and the suburbs on the east side of the bay, which is nice; but I found myself focusing heavily on the attitude indicator and the heading indicator.

While overflying the bay, we tried to contact Tampa Approach. The first controller bounced us to a different frequency, who bounced us to a third, who ignored us altogether. Technically ATC does not have to talk to VFR traffic (which is what we are) but usually they at least have the courtesy to tell you to go away. However, this time I simply monitored the appropriate frequency and flew on my way, saying hello to the controller at Lakeland as we flew over on our way home to Winter Haven.

At Winter Haven, we flew into the traffic pattern and completed a semicircle around the field to land. The landing was long as I had come in high, but I'd rather be a little too high than a little too low.

Looks like the next time I'll be able to fly will be January 9, almost 3 weeks out of the cockpit. I'll go solo and stay in the pattern at the airport to get my wings back, but maybe I'll have a fun story to tell you then.

It's Fun to Fly!

2010-11-15T22:49:00.003-04:00

Today I took Melissa for her third flight in a small airplane. Her first flight (chronicled here) was awhile ago, and I took her up again for a trip to Florida's west coast a couple of weeks ago. But today was a first for both of us: my first flight to another airport since getting my pilot's certificate, and her first flight to another airport ever.

We flew from Winter Haven airport to Albert Whitted, in St. Petersburg. Whitted is a small general aviation field in St. Pete that's right on the waterfront, and I had flown there before with a friend of mine who owns an airplane. There are a lot of places to get coffee or food, and the airport is a five-minute walk from several nice parks and a marina.

Airport Information at SkyVector.com

We took off from Winter Haven around four o'clock and flew West, into the afternoon sun. We climbed to 3,000 feet and flew over the Lakeland airport before turning South and calling up Tampa Approach. Melissa made a great co-pilot, looking for other air traffic as we flew along.

About a half hour after leaving Winter Haven, we turned across the bay and were handed off to the controller at Whitted. We landed smoothly on runway 25, and as we looked out the window, Melissa couldn't believe how close the runway was to the ocean. "It's practically in the water...looks like dolphins are going to jump over the runway!"

View Larger Map

I taxied into the FBO and shut the airplane down, pushing it back into a parking spot and tying it down. We left the FBO and walked down the road to a pilot shop where Mel did some secret Christmas shopping, and then we took a leisurely stroll through downtown St. Pete before stopping for a late-afternoon coffee and a snack at a Starbucks.

We got back to the airport just after the sun went down and signed out, heading out to the ramp and giving the airplane a quick preflight. Much to my dismay, the landing light--the light on the front of the plane that acts like a headlight on the ground--was inoperative. Luckily my beacon light and nav lights worked, and after a quick runup and a weather check we called the tower and were on our way over the bay.

Tampa Approach cleared us to 3,000 feet and we cruised East, looking down at the city lights and the roadways and up at the stars and satellites. It was a perfect, clear night with no clouds...great for flying. Mel asked questions about the instrumentation on the airplane and on the things that the controller and I said to one another, and I gave her a lesson on airplane instruments and communications.

Back at Winter Haven...

View Larger Map

...we landed successfully despite our inoperative landing light. Taxiing was a bit tricky as seeing where we were going required peeking out the side window and moving very slowly, but I made it to the ramp and we tied down the airplane.

Going home, Mel and I talked about the day...we flew to an awesome airport, had a nice leisurely afternoon, and then flew home. No traffic, no stop signs, no aggravation, just us and the air-traffic controllers. Flying in a general-aviation airplane, you get a new perspective on the world, seeing the lakes and the neighborhoods and the people from the sky. You get the unique combination of intense focus on what you're doing and the ability to explore whole new perspectives.

We flew from Winter Haven to Whitted in half an hour, a drive that would take at least an hour and twenty minutes even without much traffic. It was a fantastic day. Soon we'll go back to Whitted to eat at the airport diner, and we have many other flights planned out to take soon. Someday we might even get to own our own airplane.

Melissa and I in a Cessna 152, over the Western beaches of Florida.

It's fun to fly!

Summer in Florida

2010-07-31T22:09:00.002-04:00

The summer in Florida's never been my favorite season, as it tends towards scorchingly hot with minimal relief in our third-floor apartment. These last several days have felt especially cruel, and Accuweather confirms: tomorrow is forecast to be 92 with a "feels like" of 114. NOAA and Accuweather both predict similar weather for the rest of the week...this is a little warmer than my taste runs.

I'm just glad, really glad, that my job has A/C. And that we fixed the A/C in the car. And that our house has A/C, even if it's a little less icy than I'd like. And lucky for me, I get to go flying all day Wednesday on my long cross-country. If we cruise at 3000 feet or so, that'll make the flight a lot cooler...there's often a tangible "break" when you're climbing where you suddenly feel the temperature drop to a more tolerable level.

Until then...work, food, and work.

Wow

2010-07-27T23:10:00.002-04:00

Long time, no post. I've been busy, what with my flying lessons coming to a close and working to pay for the forementioned flying lessons. It's been a busy few weeks...

...tonight, Mel and I made some home-made whoopie pies! We were going to make the traditional chocolate-bun whoopie pies but then the molasses bun variation sounded delicious. They just came out of the oven a while ago, and Mel frosted them not ten minutes ago...behold:

I've yet to try one, but I believe that they will be delicious. Our homemade lasagna just came out of the oven, and so for now it's off to eat and enjoy. I'll make an effort to post some more updates on our life soon.

Solo

2010-06-21T23:14:00.001-04:00

Five Seven Victor liftoff, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

After hours and hours of landing practice, tough-and-go's, and work learning how the airplane works, I managed to solo on June 8th. Last week my instructor and I went for a flight to Zephyrhills, and tomorrow as a reward for my four-day straight stretch at work, I get to go flying again!

To make matters even better, I might get to go solo again. The first solo was simply a few touch-and-go's at the airport, but if I get to solo again tomorrow, I should be able to zip out to the practice area and practice some maneuvers...steep turns, turns around a point, S-turns, maybe stalls, maybe slow flight.

Flying solo is an odd sensation after so much flying with an instructor. The plane feels empty without another 200 pounds of humanity crammed into the tiny cabin of the Cessna 150. The plane climbs noticeably better, seems a little more zippy. And also, if you screw up...you're on your own.

It sounds scary, and it is, but it is also a powerful incentive to do things right.

The solo flights mark the transition of flight training from the mechanics of flight and learning to safely get airborne and land to the more exciting aspects of cross-country navigation and airport operations.

The next few flights after tomorrow should be cross-countries. My instructor and I will fly from Winter Haven to Ocala and back, and then a week later I'll do the same flight solo, with a stop at Lakeland's airport on the way home to satisfy the three-legged requirement of the solo cross-country flight.

Yessir, this flying thing is working out pretty well so far. Solo flight tomorrow and then beginning the cross-countries. If everything goes well, I'll have my pilot's license by the end of the summer, and then...I can go flying whenever I want to.

Exciting things are afoot. I'm quite pleased.

Long time no write

2010-06-08T15:31:00.003-04:00

It's been a long time since I wrote on this thing. The biggest news around here: I got to solo!

I have been trying to fly the airplane solo for a long time now, but things have conspired against me. I had to take a couple weeks off for financial reasons, and then I was overtired and not flying as well as I know I can. Another time I was going to solo, but the flight school has just changed their policy so that students must have renters insurance to fly solo...so I had to be waylaid again while I obtained renters coverage.

But today was the day! The weather was mild, with a very slight crosswind and mostly clear skies. It was hot to be sure, but the density altitude at the airport wasn't bad enough to severely affect the operation of the airplane. Bryan and I took off and stayed in the pattern, planning for a few touch-and-go's.

The first trip around the pattern was pretty solid. The problem came at the end, when I was distracted and let the airplane get very slow. After that, I was more careful of my airspeed, and the next few landings went well. After six landings with Bryan, we taxied to the ramp and he got out, leaving me in the airplane alone.

I was nervous, but I found that talking to myself helped. Even though nobody else was around I read the checklists aloud to myself, carefully completing each item on the list and verbally briefing myself about what to do next. I watched and listened for other traffic, and finding that things were in order, I made my first solo takeoff and flew up into the traffic pattern all alone.

I made four trips through the pattern by myself. I had planned to stop at three, but my third landing was not the best and I wanted to redeem myself by ending with a good landing. There was a very slight crosswind from the front right of the plane, so I "crabbed" the approach and then used right aileron and left rudder to swing the plane around just before touchdown. It wasn't a perfect 10, but it was much better than my third landing, and I was in a very good mood as I taxied back to the flight school's ramp.

Bryan and myself in front of Cessna N5307Q, the primary trainer I've been using.

A handshake.

Now that I've soloed, the rest of flight training should be a little more interesting. We'll start to do some cross-country, and I need three hours each of simulated instrument flying and actual night-flying. Hopefully before the summer ends I can have my private pilot's license in hand!

C-17 Globemaster takeoff

2010-05-24T23:24:00.001-04:00

C-117 Globemaster takeoff, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

I haven't put anything on the ol' Blog in a while. So, here for your viewing pleasure, is a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster cargo plane taking off from runway 9 at Lakeland Linder airport during the Sun n Fun.

The Globemaster is a behemoth among airplanes, coming in at 173 feet long with a 100-foot wingspan. It stands 55 feet tall and is capable of carrying 170,000 pounds of cargo, including tanks and vehicles; it is frequently used to carry airborne soldiers. It is pushed by four jet engines capable of a whopping 40,000+ pounds of thrust each. They make a truly impressive noise and are equipped with thrust reversers that can be used on the ground to stop or maneuver the plane, or in the air for added drag on a quick descent.

This photo was taken during a short-field takeoff demonstration; the Globemaster, weighing in at about 320,000 pounds on this takeoff, got airborne in maybe 1,500 feet.

For some perspective: the Cessna 150 that I fly, which weighs maybe 2000 pounds and puts out an amazing 100hp, takes off in about 1000 feet.

The Globemaster did a remarkably sharp climbout, turning around and flying a tight traffic pattern to return to the field and land again. When the pilots fired up the thrust reversers, a visible vortex spilled from the front of the engines and the plane stopped on a dime.

All in all, the C-17 is a remarkable, capable airplane. I was pretty impressed by the demonstration, and I'd love to see one of these babies in action again sometime soon.

New Post:

2010-05-13T22:51:00.002-04:00

I did some fun flying lately. Details at A2A.

Among the fun stuff I did: Spins! Spins are terrifying. They are lethal when unexpected. They will kill you 100% of the time at low altitude, but it's important to know what they look like in case you spin at a recoverable altitude. The guy I took my stage check with spun the plane, and had me recover it.

Here are some fun videos for you to watch.

Clouds:

2010-05-08T23:02:00.002-04:00

"A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed; it feels an impulsion, this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons. "

~Richard Bach, "Illusions: the adventures of a reluctant messiah."

Landings!

2010-04-23T22:46:00.003-04:00

Today, I finally got a firm grasp on landings. Details can be found at Airways to Airways.

My instructor also gave me some homework. He wants me to read some of the FAR/AIM, part 61 and part 91 specifically. He also told me that if I pushed myself a little, I could take and probably ace the knowledge exam by mid-May or June. Once the knowledge exam is passed, all I need to get my pilot's license is to rack up my hours and pass my checkride. Time to hit the books a little harder...I have a copy of Rod Machado's book that I'll be reviewing, and I'll be bringing my ASA study guide to work and working a little harder on that much neglected tome. If I play my cards right, and my practice exams have good scores, I could conceivably have my knowledge test passed by June. My instructor tells me I'm really, really close to soloing, and then from there it's a matter of building hours and working on my cross-country skills.

The ~~wheels~~ props are turning, and it's looking better and better! Within a few months, if everything goes right, hopefully I can be an FAA-approved private pilot!

Bomb Burst

2010-04-21T22:33:00.001-04:00

Bomb Burst, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

One of my favorite shots from this year's Sun N Fun: The Aeroshell aerobatics team doing a bomb-burst formation. Like the shot of the Thunderbirds, this was a little bit of timing and skill with a ton of freaking luck.

Not much else to report from Florida, really. I go flying Friday and again Tuesday. We might go buy a new bookcase or possibly an exercise machine soon, but until then...Mel's hitting the books and I'm hitting the time clock.

Horizontal bomb-burst

2010-04-20T20:50:00.001-04:00

Horizontal bomb-burst, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

Some good timing, a lot of luck, and an amazing team of flyers...and I was able to capture this shot of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds doing a horizontal bomb-burst.

It was a really, REALLY good airshow. The Thunderbirds were fast, precise, and worked amazingly well as a team. The planes were fast, loud, and clean. The maneuvers? Incredible...at one point, four of the Thunderbirds flew over in perfect formation, feet apart, and as the heads of the crowd turned a fifth bird flew in from behind us and overtook the formation from below. The noise made me jump, and then laugh...it was truly an amazing thing to see.

I will miss the Sun N Fun, but someday I'll be back. Maybe I will have pictures from the EAA AirVenture soon, too...

Photos

2010-04-18T19:18:00.001-04:00

Twin Bee Splash & Dash, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

"Say, Ben, have you uploaded any photos of the Sun N Fun this year?"

"Why yes I have. In fact, I have uploaded 170+ shots as of this moment with potentially another hundred coming. Why so many, you ask? Why, that's simple, my dear fellow! It's because I'm an airplane geek!"

Yeah. It's true. I went to the Sun N Fun all day on Wednesday, then to the Splash-In at Fantasy of Flight on Thursday. Friday and Saturday were sadly workdays for me, but I did go today for the closing of the airshow.

It was a bit rainy and damp here in central Florida, but I and a few hundred other die-hard aviation fans were at the airport regardless, watching the show. The Aeroshell aerobatics team performed, as well as a vintage TF-51 Mustang from the Air Force and the Red Eagles flying team. The U.S. Navy showed up and showed off two newer F/A-18 Super Hornets, incredibly capable and mean machines that fly remarkably well. The Air Force demonstrated the short-field capability of the C-117 Globemaster heavy lift plane, which despite being absolutely massive (325,000 pounds or so when loaded for the airshow) managed to make a takeoff in maybe 1500 feet.

The headliners this year were the United States Air Force Thunderbirds, who put on a completely ass-kicking show of speed and precision.

All that, AND I got to walk around and look at neat old airplanes. What a colossally excellent show!

Sun N Fun

2010-04-13T23:48:00.002-04:00

The SUN N FUN started today!

I sat on the patio this morning with a cup of coffee and my binoculars and watched the planes come in. We live just off the holding pattern that the KLAL controllers hold the arrivals in, and so every few minutes a batch of planes would fly over...Cessnas, Pipers, a few Lakes, a Mooney, maybe a Grumman (not sure.) The classics flew over; an old Cub, what looked like a Taylorcraft, and even a Boeing Stearman. I'm pretty sure I saw a rare plane known as the OMF symphony. There were several twins flying over too, and what looked like a CitationJet.

We had business in Orlando, and so unfortunately I missed the arrival of the USAF Thunderbirds. But I will get to see them doing their airshow later this week!

Tomorrow, I will be at the airfield all day, wandering the rows of airplanes and watching the planes in the sky. Thursday I have an errand to run in the morning, and then in the afternoon I'll be going to the Splash-In at Fantasy of Flight. I have to work Friday and Saturday, and then Sunday I'll be at the show all day to see the planes off.

It will be sad to see the planes leave, but while they're here, I'll have a splendid time at the airshow.

Video:

2010-04-10T19:57:00.002-04:00

A cool video from National Geographic can be found here. It's a sea lion hunting an octopus. Really neat to watch.

Easter II

2010-04-04T20:41:00.003-04:00

We made an Easter cake:

Happy Easter!

Easter

2010-04-03T19:32:00.002-04:00

It's Easter tomorrow. I can't believe how fast the time flies; just a few months ago we were opening presents and pining for snow on the ground, and now all of a sudden it's April. Holy crap.

Nothing much new has been happening around here of late. We made it back from our much-needed vacation safely. Selected pictures of said vacation can be found here. I have more pictures, but some of the family are in them and I don't want to be putting other people's faces all over the internet without their permission.

Florida has gone from "chilly" to "hot" in a rapid turnaround of the weather. Melissa and I were out doing errands and whatnot today, and it was sweltering in our little car; the A/C cut it, but only barely. I have a feeling that the summer will be a bear this year. If we're lucky we can be moving out soon enough to a cooler region of the country.

In honor of Easter, we're making a lemon cake. With marshmallow peeps on the side. How does this relate to Easter? Honestly, I'm not sure, but it promises to be delicious.

There has been a lot of neat air traffic here lately. Just yesterday I saw a few planes flying formation over the house, but not having my binoculars handy I couldn't tell what they were. And several times recently I've seen the U.S. Coast Guard's HC-130 based out of St. Pete flying over our house to do touch-and-gos and Lakeland Linder. Really neat--I've always been a fan of the Coast Guard, and seeing their plane fly over is pretty cool.

Speaking of Lakeland Linder, there is some HUGE NEWS: the Sun 'n Fun is coming to our very town in a few short weeks! The second-largest airshow in the United States will be here before I know it. I've been trying to plan what to do. Tuesday or Wednesday I will go and walk the flightline, examine the planes and so on and so forth. Thursday I will go to Auburndale, where Kermit Weeks is hosting the Splash-In at his attraction. And then on Saturday or Sunday I will have to go back again, as the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds are going to be performing with their kick-ass F-16's on those days. I can't wait!

Octopussy

2010-03-27T17:00:00.002-04:00

Last night to unwind, we watched Octopussy, the old James Bond movie from the early 80's. We rented it because we've been on an Old Bond kick lately, and it sounded too cheesy not to watch. It met and exceeded our expectations. With kickass action sequences, typical Bond-esque sexism, plot holes you could drive a truck through, and hysterically unrealistic fight scenes, it was a Bond movie through and through. Campy, cheesy, unreal, and full of socially unacceptable things, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

The trick is: suspend disbelief and just enjoy the ride.

Tonight I don't think we have any movies on dock, though we're going to add some more Old Bond to the Netflix queue soon enough. We're planning a massive Greek salad accompanied by home made breadsticks for dinner, and probably I'll try to hit the gym again to make up for the complete lack of activity on our road trip.

It's good to be home. We miss our families and the Northeast, but after all the driving and travel, it is nice to sit still just for a little bit.

Heading Home

2010-03-25T00:07:00.002-04:00

After a much-needed and thoroughly enjoyed (though much too short) trip to Maine to visit the families, we are en route back to Florida. We are spending the night tonight in Charlottesville, VA.

Unfortunately for us, tomorrow is looking like a 14-hour drive or so. The cats are already a little frazzled from the trip, and Mel and I are definitely not looking forward to the prospect of 14 hours inside our tiny little box of a car. However, the prospect of being at our own house with our own stuff at the end of the day is very appealing, and if traffic and everything moves smoothly we might be able to shave a little time off the trip.

We shall see, I suppose.

At any rate we had a blast in Maine. We squeezed in almost everything we wanted to do, and we had a good time while we were there. All that's left to do really is to relax, take it easy, and see how Mel's test turns out...and then we figure out where to go from there.

Flying!

2010-03-09T19:16:00.002-04:00

I got to go flying again today. My CFI had encouraged me after our last flight to go up again sooner than at a two-week interval because, as he put it, "learning to land is a critical phase in flying." We took an hour and stayed in the traffic pattern around KGIF, doing a total of eight patterns and landings. I noticed a definite improvement in how I performed this time. Part of it is probably being able to go so close to another lesson; part of it is probably just practice.

Bryan told me that my traffic patterns today were almost perfect: nice turns for the most part, a good distance from the field, good altitude control. He mentioned that I need to watch my airspeed while turning base-to-final, and for some reason today I did struggle with being either too fast or too slow during the turns from downwind-base and base-final. Bryan illustrated this by talking me through one of my approaches:

"The critical thing is not to get too slow on your turn to final. You're making me nervous with those steep turns in to final and you're losing airspeed. If we stall here there's no time to recover. So we're not going to make that mistake any more. See how your airspeed is dropping when you turn in? You need to either add power or drop the nose to gain airspeed." I mulled his words over as we thumped into the ground on another practice landing and revved up for a takeoff.

On the next traffic pattern, I changed my viewpoint. I have spent a lot of time looking down the extended centerline of the airplane, but the issue with that is that the airspeed indicator is on the upper-left portion of the dashboard. So instead of looking down the extended centerline, I shifted my eyes to the corner of the windscreen closest to the airspeed indicator. I found that it helped me monitor my turns, and the fact that such a small shift in vision kept my airspeed indicator in view made an enormous difference. On the last few approaches, I made that change and maintained airspeed as well as flying a better traffic pattern.

The landings themselves are still a little rough. I am having trouble with the "flare" before touchdown where you pull the nose into the air and let the back wheels settle onto the pavement first. I tend to flare too soon, and then "balloon" up into the air before floating back down. The danger is that during a "balloon" you will lose airspeed, and if you have climbed a few feet you could end up crossing the line from "landing" to "crash." Not likely to be lethal, but very likely to be embarrassing and expensive.

The key is to constantly modify your flare. When Bryan flares, he tends to move the yoke quite a bit, making constant minute adjustments to the pitch. When I flare, I tend to make grosser, more outsized movements, which are less likely to lead to a smooth landing. I improved some today, and Bryan tells me it's "practice makes perfect." Landing is scientific, but it's an artsy science, and it just takes repetition to "grease" the landings.

In summary: I feel good about today. My traffic patterns were good, my ground handling was the best yet, and the preflight/runup/takeoff have been very smooth. I did forget to check the fuel selector, but that is an oversight that I can correct next time and never miss again. The landings are still a bit rough, but they are less rough than in the past, and getting better every time. It just takes practice. Lucky for me, I love to practice. I can't wait to go again.

Flying

2010-03-08T23:26:00.002-04:00

I went flying this Saturday. An extensive overview can be found at Airways.

High Flight

2010-03-06T13:30:00.001-04:00

This poem was written by John Gillespie Magee, Jr., a pilot officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the early 1940's. Magee was inspired to write this poem while on a test flight at 30,000 feet. He was killed in action in a dogfight over Europe on December 11, 1941, at the age of 19.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds--and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of--wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Wow. On that note, off to the airport.

Space

2010-03-02T00:20:00.003-04:00

I just watched a show about the 2009 mission to space to repair the Hubble space telescope. Hubble's been instrumental in the expansion of our comprehension of the universe over the last twenty years or so, and it was really neat to watch as astronauts fixed Hubble up.

Looking at the views of the Earth over Hubble and through the space shuttle made me really want to go to space. How neat would that be?

Privatized space travel is a small but growing industry. As of right now, only billionaires can afford the massive cost of hitching a ride to space with the Russians, and even if Richard Branson ever gets Virgin Galactic off the ground and into commercial operation the cost of flying to space will be incredible.

Still, I hold out hope that maybe within my lifetime, it will be possible to experience-even if only for a moment-space.

On a related note, http://hubblesite.org/ has some amazing photographs and wallpapers from the Hubble telescope. There's some neat science and history there, too.

Rainy day

2010-02-24T17:18:00.001-04:00

Champ takeoff, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

It's an overcast and rainy day here in central Florida. It's sort of a nice change from the sunlight, believe it or not, although I will be glad to see the clouds part and the skies turn blue again, because such weather is much more conducive to plane-spotting. Just the other day I saw some neat planes; a Piper Cherokee, a US Coast Guard C-130, a few little Cessnas, and a helicopter. The back patio here at the apartment is a great place to look for planes, and it's got an excellent view of passing air traffic. I've even seen a Republic SeaBee from my perch on the porch.

When the Sun N Fun comes in April, I'm going to take a chair and go sit on the grass outside with my binoculars. The last few years our apartments have been inside the holding pattern that groups of planes are asked to fly while approaching Lakeland Linder and there is always something neat to see in the traffic coming to Sun N Fun.

On an unrelated note, we took the car to the garage today to get him tuned up for our coming road trip. They gave us a new battery, replaced the battery terminals, cleaned and checked the brakes, and examined all the fluids to make sure that our little bucket o' bolts would make the long haul North. Everything looks okay according to the car guy; "I can tell you take good care of this car" were his exact (and surprising) words. All he needs now is an oil change and some new wipers and we should be prepared for the road.

Not much else going on around here. We've been watching and enjoying the Olympics, and as I write the US and Swiss are deadlocked in an exciting hockey match.

Off to watch the violence. Ta!

Freedom through the fence

2010-02-20T20:12:00.000-04:00

Flying was awesome today. For starters, the weather was perfect: clear skies, no wind, no clouds, nice mellow temperature. It was without a doubt the most perfect flying day I could have asked for.

Despite this perfect weather, the traffic pattern at the airport was less busy than I had expected. With perfect weather on a Saturday afternoon in Florida, I'd expect tons of traffic to be aloft, but for the first 45 minutes or so in the air it seemed like it was just me and my instructor. A few planes joined us in the traffic pattern later on in the afternoon, but by and large our company in the air was courteous and not hurried--which is good as our little Cessna 150 has about one horsepower and putts through the traffic pattern at a fairly laid-back pace.

There was some drama on the radio, however. A flight student on a solo had gotten lost and was asking for directions. My instructor suggested he try to use a VOR* signal to triangulate his position, and the student's instructor came on the radio and suggested he try some orienteering, but the student saw some random field and opted to just land the flight and figure out where he was from the ground. Also of note, another aircraft announced that they had experienced engine failure and would be landing on the inactive runway, but fortunately it was just an engine-out drill. No actual emergency--phew!

We spent the day focusing on traffic patterns and on landings. The concept to grasp was the "Stabilized Approach," which is to say that while approaching for landing the view from the cockpit should be of the runway growing larger but not moving. A lot of pitch or yaw or roll to correct should not be neccesary if one's approach is solid. The first few traffic patterns I flew, approach was somewhat sloppy, and the landings a little rough. But by the end of the day, my patterns were tight, the landings had improved to a "C+" according to my instructor, and I felt that I had learned something.

All in all, a productive day. An hour and a half more in the logbook, eight good traffic patterns, and three unassisted landings that went fairly well. In aviation, any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, but any landing that you can walk away from and still use the plane is a great landing. In that light, I think that today was a great day indeed.
*VHF Omnidirectional Range, a navigation radio

Weekend off!

2010-02-20T12:53:00.003-04:00

I have a weekend off! Normally I only work every other weekend, but of late I have been picking up most Saturdays on my alternating weekends to score sweet, sweet overtime on the weekend.

This weekend I did not. Today, I go flying again, which will be refreshing as I have not gone up in weeks. My instructor wants to work on landing and on the traffic pattern some more, so I have been reviewing in my head the steps to a good pattern. I have been reviewing the preflight, the engine runup, the traffic pattern, and what I know of landing in hopes of maximizing what I can learn this time. I only get an hour or so in the air every couple of weeks, so I try to really make the most of that time when I have it.

Tomorrow, we will likely go to church and then get some food. Not the most exciting day perhaps, but sometimes a mellow weekend is nice.

We have spent a good deal of time lately watching the Winter Olympics, and man, they are awesome. The biathlon, the ski-jumping, the alpine downhill...these are my favorites. Ice hockey and the strange but fascinating sport of Curling come in close behind. Melissa has been very keen on the ice skating and I have to admit it's been fun to watch the skaters do their thing as well.

In a few weeks, we will be off to Maine! We have been wanting to get to Maine since last fall, but circumstances with the USMLE have delayed our trip by a solid six months. The test is finally scheduled, Mel has been hitting the books, and a few days after she turns in her test we'll be hitting the highway to drive North to see people.

Before that, we need to have the car checked out and sort of plan a basic route. I'm thinking we'll just shoot 95 straight up, and instead of trying to cram 1400 miles of driving into two days, we're planning to go for three this time to reduce stress and make the drive a little more pleasant.

Apart from all that, not much to report. I'm off to the airport in a couple of hours to once more experience the thrill of flight. Wish me luck!

Alton Bay

2010-02-12T16:21:00.002-04:00

There is a meeting of the Northeast Pilot's Group at Alton Bay, NH today. Alton Bay is the home of the famous Ice Runway on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, and apparently there is an ice carnival there today. Flyers from all over New England will be cruising into the ice runway, which sounds like a freaking blast. Details here, webcam (which I will be watching) here.

I Win!

2010-02-10T23:09:00.002-04:00

Last night, I drove from my home in central Florida over to Tampa for a free safety seminar hosted by the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. Safety is number one when aviating, and as a student pilot especially I feel it is my duty to learn as much as I can about safe flying.

I have been to one other ASF seminar in the past; in November or December I went to a seminar entitled "What went wrong?" which focused on the causes of fatal accidents*. The seminar hosted in Tampa last night was entitled "10 Things Other Pilots Do Wrong," and it focused on the unsafe or annoying habits of other flyers that can affect your safety and the public's perception of General Aviation.

I arrived at the seminar at about 7, turned my registration card in at the door (registration is free--no excuse not to go!), and found a seat just in time to see the beginnings of the seminar. I relaxed, sat back, and absorbed the knowledge as best I could.

Halfway through the seminar, we took a ten-minute break. As we left the speaker reminded us that there would be door prizes given away, five DVDs, three copies of 2010 FAR/AIM, and one GPS locator thingy. As I stretched my legs I thought to myself, "I bet I could win a prize tonight. I'm feeling lucky. Maybe I'll get me a copy of the FARs..."

We returned to our seats, and the speaker drew names. Five gentlemen before me won the DVD, and two copies of the FAR/AIM were passed out. The speaker drew a card from the box, looked for a second, and then spoke my name.

"Hoi!" I surprised myself by jumping up from the seat and waving at the guy passing out the prizes. What excitement! A copy of the Federal Aviation Regulations and Airmans Information Manual for 2010, all mine, for free! I hardly ever win anything, so I was very excited.

I know that not many normal people would be excited by a copy of the legislation that permits their hobby to exist, but dang it, I'm not that normal to begin with. Reading the FARs is maybe a little dry, but knowing what you're permitted to do is vital in this modern age, and the Airman's Information Manual has a lot of great material inside it.

I, for one, am thrilled with my new gift and am grateful to the ASF for handing it over to me.

*Hint: the human factor is the common denominator. Pilots who choose to fly in unsafe conditions, pilots who let themselves run out of options, and pilots who push themselves beyond the limits of what they can safely do in the cockpit tend to be involved in fatal accidents. Humility and a firm grasp on your own limitations is key in aviation.

Cross-posted at Airways to Airways.

Moths

2010-02-05T21:35:00.000-04:00

Apparently, Moths can use some sort of ingrained sense not only to navigate, but to detect and take advantage of wind currents. According to this article from NPR, not only can these tiny little marvels navigate using some kind of internal compass, but they can also detect wind speed and direction and use that information to select the altitude with the most favorable winds.

Amazingly sophisticated, for such a small animal. Makes me feel a little sad that the cats will occasionally eat one of these little silken marvels.

MaineQuest 2010

2010-02-03T17:03:00.003-04:00

It's February 2010.

Where did January go? What the heck happened to 2009? For that matter, where are 2007 and 2008?

Wow. Man, time freaking flies.

We're just holding on down here in Florida, not doing too much. We're trying to plan out our MaineQuest 2010 as best we can, but we're reluctant to make too many concrete plans as rigidly planning an event makes it much more stressful than simply letting it happen.

So far, we've elected to drive North this year rather than fly. That may surprise you, since I am an aviation buff, but the hassle of dealing with the airlines and the TSA and the other passengers and the luggage and no car when we get there and so on and so on have led us to think that, for all its frustrations, maybe driving isn't so bad. Besides, it will give us a little "couple" time, and possibly a chance to sightsee on the way up and just take in the countryside.

We have learned from past road trips that booking hotels in advance is a mixed bag. It gives you a guaranteed place to stay, but it also adds a concrete deadline, and can increase stress. We've decided to just wing it this year. I don't anticipate any issues with that but it's always the unanticipated that gets you...we'll see what happens with that. There's always another town with another hotel nearby...

Other planning? Sort of. We have some vague ideas about what we want to do. Visitation with the families obviously, maybe a day out with the siblings, perhaps a dual-family get together of some kind as well. Visiting the grandparents would be nice so hopefully we can see them sometime on our trip too.

We'll figure it out. It's still a full six weeks or so away until we go up anyway.

Miscellany

2010-01-29T13:37:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I posted here. I've been busy, though; work has been picking up, I've been reading books about flying, and things in general have been busy. I don't think I even posted on Mel's 30th birthday, which was a few days ago; happy belated birthday! Also in Mel-related news, the USMLE is on the dock, so the studying will really ramp up around here soon. I'll do my best to stay out of the way during the studying until the exam is over; it's a heck of a test!

It's been a week and a half since I've been flying. My CFI is studying for an exam for his accountancy credentials, and as such he's asked to have a couple of weeks off until he completes his CPA, a reasonable request. I could always go up with somebody else, but I like and trust my CFI and would rather have some consistency in the teaching style as long as possible. So until I can go up again, I read, think, and wait.

Work has been picking up of late. The "snowbirds" haven't been here as heavily this year which is maybe a side effect of the economy. That in mind we've been less busy than winters I've had in the past. That said it's still busier than the massive slump we had in the late summer and early autumn. The overtime has come back, and so I suppose I may as well work it while it's available...not my favorite thing to do but I guess they pay me so it's worth it to show up.

My department has also implemented a mandatory four-hour shift requirement once a pay period so that us lowly 36-hour slackers can make it up to 40 and "help the night shift from 7p to 11p." This has sparked a lot of outrage among those of us who are day shift, who are frequently busy and get zero help from nights, but I suppose they pay us. I did the first of my mandatory 4-hours on top of a regular 12-hour, making for a 16-hour workday at the H. Lucky for me my 7p-11p assignment was light. I sat around and watched TV after 8...can't complain about that. The night charge offered to let me go home after I was done my work, but I told him "They make me stay I make them pay."

Anyway.

Going through some old stuff around here, I found some old photos that I don't have on my computer. I've decided to spend part of my day scanning them into the PC. Among the photos are some old New England trips that Melissa and I have taken, plus some photos from the days of my biological father's service in the Navy. Interesting stuff! I'll have some of them up on Flickr later.

Apart from all that, not much is going on around here. Further updates as events warrant.

What a day!

2010-01-15T18:07:00.005-04:00

What a day!

A friend of mine from work, one of the ICU physicians, offered to take me up in his airplane the other day. I said that I thought it would be awesome if he wouldn't mind, and we made plans to meet at the airport this morning.

I drove out to the Winter Haven airport and found him waiting in a beautiful Beech Musketeer. I climbed in, plugged in my headset, and with a push of the throttle we were off. We chatted about flying as we made our way to the active, and then with a roar of the beastly engine, we took off and headed West.

The Musketeer has a much better sight picture than the 150's and 152's I have been flying in lately. It also is much heavier. The inside is more plush and spacious. The controls are about the same although the heavier weight of the Musketeer was noticeable to me. Compared to the 150's which zip along around 100mph, the Musketeer cruised around 130-140. This was a kick-ass airplane and I found myself thinking that I could get used to flying in such style.

We headed West and stopped for fuel at Bartow. The doctor showed me how to fuel the plane, grounding it first to prevent sparks and then using the fuel system to pump gas into the wing tanks. There was a minor incident of spillover where some fuel wound up on the wing and the ground, but such is life, and the doctor laughed it off.

We called the tower, got our taxi clearance, and made our way back to the runway. Moments later we were cleared for departure and we lifted off and turned West, flying towards Tampa. We cruised around 3,000 feet, and as we approached Tampa we radioed Tampa Approach to ask for radar following service. The controller told us no, which they are allowed to do with non-IFR traffic, and then told us to stay out of Tampa's airspace. That sounds harsh but the airspace is there for safety purposes and only encompasses certain segments of the sky. If we flew at 1,000 feet we could fly below the Tampa airspace, so we descended over Apollo Beach and then turned right and flew below the airspace towards our destination of Whitted field.

Landing at Whitted, we departed the airplane and wandered along the coast for a few minutes before stopping for lunch at a small restaurant situated next to a marina. We ordered, dined, and chatted. I took advice from him to bring home to Mel about medical school and the madness of exams, and also learned many things from his experiences as an aviator. The Doctor has an instrument rating, has flown all over the nation, and has a few thousand hours logged in his books, and so I absorbed whatever knowledge I could from him.

After lunch, we returned to Whitted and departed East, heading back towards Lakeland. We flew over the hospital, then headed slightly North and circled the apartments where Mel and I live for awhile before turning East again and heading for Winter Haven. I could see the end of one of the runways from above our apartment, and it happened to be the active runway, so we got on the radio and announced a straight-in approach. There was some other traffic in the pattern, but we managed to slip in between a Cherokee making a full-stop and a taildragger doing touch-and-go landings.

The Doctor dropped me off in front of the flight school, and I thanked him profusely. What an awesome experience to get to go flying with a friend. I saw and got to handle for a few minutes an airplane I was totally unfamiliar with, and I got to get to know The Doctor a little better as well. On top of all that, this was my first "Hundred Dollar Hamburger." What an excellent day!

Click the map to see our route. You can click and drag to move the map:

The route we flew shown courtesy of SkyVector.com

Ahhh....

2010-01-06T14:06:00.002-04:00

A perfect day here in Florida. Clear blue skies, temperature in the 40's...perfect flying weather. What more could a man ask for?

Nothing, says I.

I woke up this morning around 8 and made it to the airport around 9, just in time for my flying lesson. This is my second lesson and third flight with this instructor, who I like and who seems to like me as well. I had an excellent flight, details of which you can get by clicking here, and then came home. The day is just gorgeous: perfectly clear, perfectly cool, impeccable.

On arrival at the house I made a grilled turkey sandwich with some crayonnaise and sharp cheddar cheese. A diet soda on the side and a sugar cookie for dessert? Not bad at all, if I do say so myself. Not bad at all.

I plan to spend the afternoon rehashing my flight and reading books over a cup of coffee. Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday if you ask me.

Winter Weather

2010-01-05T15:30:00.003-04:00

"Winter Weather" has hit Florida at long last, with sustained temperatures in the 40's and 50's during the day dropping into the 30's at night. Finally I can move without bursting into a sweat; I can sit still without sticking to myself from the humidity; I can breathe without feeling like I am sitting beneath a heap of wet towels. I am absolutely LOVING this weather. The trees have even been fooled into changing colors, which is a nice splash of fall, something I've not really seen properly in a long time.

I would get outside into it more, but the hiking around here is sort of disappointing. Not much to see, really; when I lived in Maine I would sometimes hike the bird sanctuary or go to a state park, both of which offered exciting terrain and some interesting scenery. Here it is mostly flat and the only real scenery to speak of is at the beach, which is nice and all but not really my thing on the whole.

So I am sitting indoors, with the patio door cracked to let the cold air flow in over me, drinking a hot cup of coffee and reveling in the joy of cooler air. I really hope that this weather stays around for a while. While I remember the pain of shoveling out from beneath a blizzard and the dangers of the ice and the horrific road conditions of the North, there definitely is something to be said for having seasons rather than living in an eternal July. Of course, that being said, there is also something to be said for living here where the people who have to dig out from beneath their weather are intensely jealous of us at this time of year. I remember the old Mainers saying that "if you can't take the winter you don't deserve the summer," and I'm sure the old Floridians say that if you can't take the summer you don't deserve the winter. I guess it's a tradeoff.

Not much else to report from here. We continue to wait with bated breath on the ECFMG to give Melissa the green flag for testing. I am continuing to fly, and tomorrow morning at 9 I am supposed to go up with my flight instructor and learn more of the ways of the sky. Should be exciting; I'm all the way up to about 18 hours and so have a minimum of 22 remaining before I can take the FAA practical exam. Do I think I will be ready? Hard to say really; I know academically many of the things I need to know but the practical experience is absolutely invaluable. My CFI tells me that tomorrow we will continue to practice the "basic 4" of turns, climbs, descents, and stalls, and if we have the time we will try to slide some pattern work into the equation so I can try my hand at some more landings and takeoffs. Last time I was in command I took off sort of drunkenly and had a hard time taxiing on the ground as well; tomorrow I hope to be able to focus more on those things.

Not much else to say really. Time to sit back and enjoy the cool air while it lasts.

2010-01-04T13:57:00.000-04:00

New post at A2A. Check it out!

Christmas

2009-12-25T23:48:00.001-04:00

Mel and I had our first "real" Christmas together today. We've been together for a total of four of them, but this one was the first that we could relax. 2006 was a nightmare of moving and logistics; 2007 was full of travel and pandemonium and driving; 2008 was a relief that the island was done but busy with preparations for Georgia. With no travel plans and the only "cloud" over us the ever-looming USMLE exam, we were able to enjoy a little Christmas here in Florida.

We spent the day opening gifts and drinking coffee. To stretch the magic we opened our gifts slowly, over the course of many hours, one at a time between sips of coffee and bursts of the 24-hour "Christmas Story" marathon on TV. The cats got little catnip toys that they seemed to love, and we gave one another a few things and opened packages from home.

This evening we cooked a turkey. I used Alton Brown's turkey-brining technique before we cooked the bird, placing it in the brine this morning and letting it soak for a good eight hours before we cooked it. The results? Juicy and tender, with a crispy skin and nice flavor. With results like these brining the turkey is definitely the way we will be cooking in the future! We had some sweet potatoes, peas, onions, and stuffing on the side, and man it was tasty stuff.

Much as we both wished we could be home for Christmas, we had a lovely little holiday here. Hopefully we can come home for a visit soon enough.

Christmas Tree

2009-12-15T15:37:00.004-04:00

This is the fourth Christmas that Melissa and I have been married, and it's the first one we've been able to truly decorate for. The first year was the madness preceding our departure to the Island Of Disappointment; the second was sort of an odd little time-splitter between here and the North and the IoD; the third was here but in between unpacking from the island and heading to Atlanta; and now, this year, we can relax a little more. We had hoped to be home for the holidays, but complications with the USMLE process have sort of tied us down here, so we're going to make the best of it and enjoy our Christmas here.

Just the other day we put up a tree for the first time. We went and selected a smallish tree at the grocery store (trees here are much more expensive than in Maine and are apparently shipped from North Carolina; our smallish tree was $30, and a full-size one would set you back 70 or more dollars!) and then packed it into the car and headed for the apartment.

Setting up the tree stand was mechanically challenging. Putting the tree in it was even more challenging, as the tree cutters thoughtfully left several branches on the lower portion of the trunk for us to get rid of. Not having access to a big saw, I MacGyver'ed the branches off using the tiny saw attachment on my Gerber belt-mounted multi-tool. It took some time, but that little saw held up fine and sawed those branches right off, which validates my confidence in the little tool. Here you can see the freshly mounted tree, plus a pile of branches and two confused cats.

The Humans have brought the Outside in. What of this madness?

Jimmy has been especially curious about the tree. Gretel has mostly ignored it since it neither feeds nor scratches her. Jimmy has spent a lot of time pondering the water dish at the base of the tree stand, putting one paw in the water and the other on the outside of the stand in an effort to comprehend the workings of this bizarre tree-and-water device.

Decoration wise, we had no real ornaments apart from a few miscellaneous ones we'd gathered over recent Christmases. We went out and bought a little box of Christmas balls, a garland, and some tiny random decor. We topped the tree with a raccoon ornament that we received a few years back, and then lit it up and observed the end of our efforts:

Not bad at all, if I do say so myself.

Shock and wonder?!

2009-12-11T00:14:00.002-04:00

Almost a year after Jimmy killed my laptop by pouring an enormous glass of water into it...it has miraculously come back to life!

Melissa and I decided to try the laptop out before replacing it with a netbook or some such device. A few weeks ago, it came on but had no networking capabilities; indeed it didn't even realize that it had a network card. Tonight, we hardwired it to the router and it worked, and then--the wireless icon popped up.

Somehow, the laptop has revived itself. We have dubbed it Lazarus the Laptop.

Funny how that works out. The only issue is that the battery won't charge; I don't know if it's an issue with the battery or if it's an issue with the battery charger inside the laptop, but at least it works and has wireless capabilities. We may buy a battery and see if that works; if so the laptop has come through totally unscathed by a rigorous program of ignoring it. There's a saying we use at work occasionally that "some patients thrive on neglect," meaning that they get better if you let their bodies heal instead of micromanaging their physiology. I guess the laptop works like that too.

If Mel and I ever go anywhere, I can be Mr. Tech Savvy with my fancy laptop again. How exciting!

Flying!!!

2009-12-08T16:51:00.000-04:00

(cross-posted)

Logbook:

12/8/2009. GIF to GIF. Four basics, climbs, descents, turns, power off stall, traffic pattern entry. 1 landing. 1.1 hours.

12/8/2009. GIF to GIF. Four basics. 0 landings. 0.7 hours.

Grand total: 18.2 hours

I got hours! I got to fly! What an exciting day. After months of wanting to do it I was able to sit in the left seat and fly. It felt good to be reintroduced to the airplane and get reacquainted with the skies.

The view from the right seat, on my second flight of the day.

I drove out to Winter Haven this morning and managed to find my way to the FBO my instructor operates from. After some wandering around and nodding at people like I knew what I was doing, I found the front desk and completed some paperwork just in time to meet my instructor coming through the door.

My CFI is a local fellow named Bryan who has flown as an airline pilot in the past. He left the airlines on his own accord to change things up a little, and now flies as a CFI while pursuing his CPA to eventually open an accounting business. We made our introductions, grabbed our flight gear and headed to the plane. I was very excited to get to use my new headset, which I purchased at the AOPA summit in Tampa this fall, and it only took me two tries to figure out how to plug it in.

Bryan started the lesson with a vital component of every flight: the preflight. With flight school airplanes there's usually less to watch for since the planes get flown heavily, but it's important to check all flight controls and as many components as possible before getting airborne.

We began by inspecting the engine oil level and draining the carburetor to make sure no water or other impurities had accumulated in there between flights. We checked the prop and looked inside the cowling for bird nests, mice, snakes, or any other abnormal things that may have decided to make the cowling their home. Moving on we inspected the wing and the control surfaces, and also inspected the fuel tanks to make sure we had enough gas. The fuel gauges in planes only need to be accurate on "Empty" according to regulations, so visually seeing how much fuel is in the tanks is an important part of the preflight check. The empennage (the tail assembly) is checked as are the rudder and the elevators. The wheels are inspected to be sure they aren't square or flat, and the brakes are examined to be sure you can stop when you come back to earth. The remainder of the preflight is visually inspecting the outside of the plane for dents, dings, missing screws, and so on.

After a thorough preflight we hopped in and started the plane up. Taxiing was harder than I remembered and I swerved like a drunk through the parking lot and taxiway, though I suspect with practice it will become easier. Before takeoff we did an engine "run up," where you throttle up about 1/2 way and check the magnetos (magnetic coils that provide power) and the carburetor heat. After verifying that the engine was good, we taxiied into position and took off.

Takeoff was a thrill. I have not taken a plane off in almost a decade, and it was a little bit of a drunken takeoff, something I will have to learn to coordinate better over time. Bryan told me to use smaller inputs on the controls, and after a few minutes getting used to the feel of the yoke in my hands I was better able to coordinate motion. We flew North and practiced the Four Basics: Climbs, Descents, Turns, and Straight & Level Flight.

Climbing and descending is mostly about power management. In a small single engine plane at least, climbing requires full power, cruise somewhat less than full, and descent somewhat less than cruise. Takeoff power is about 2700 RPM, cruise about 2400, descent in the 2200 neighborhood. To manage your climbs and descents in VFR flight, one should find the proper position of the plane, then look outside and hold the sight picture. The horizon should stay relatively in the same position as you change altitude. We worked on power-off stall recovery, which involves pointing down to regain airspeed and trying to get power back. If it happens close to the ground, well, just aim for something flat and try to get what airspeed you can to recover.

Turns are more complex. Bryan talked about vectors of lift, which I will have to research in one of my flying tomes, but basically it is the tendency of a banking plane to want to descend. Slight back-pressure on the controls is necessary to maintain altitude during a turn. We made all turns to a heading, and did both shallow banks and banks with up to a 45-degree bank angle.

Bryan takes us through a steep turn in a Cessna 150.

Eventually the lesson was over and it was time to return to the field. Bryan helped me enter the traffic pattern and then turn, but he performed the landing after I overshot the turn from the downwind to the base leg*.

After the lesson, he took me up again as a passenger in a friend's airplane. I didn't touch the controls, as this was not a flight school plane, but it was neat to review with Bryan the proper procedures and the maneuvers during flight. And it scored me some more time in the air, observing and absorbing the lessons from earlier as we flew around.

Lined up to land at runway 11, KGIF, Winter Haven, FL.

All in all: an awesome day. 1.8 hours total added to the logbook, with the "Basic Four" and some light pattern work. I know I need to work on some things; the takeoff was a bit mushy and I was not paying attention in a descent and took us below the altitude Bryan had requested that I hold. Not too serious, but definitely a mistake I can learn from. I also overshot the turn to base in the traffic pattern, but some rigorous pattern work will help me learn that better.

On the brighter side I built confidence with some turns and some climbing/descending, and Bryan told me he thought I was doing very well; at one point he told me that he had 30-hour students who were having trouble with some of the things I was doing well with. Bryan was an excellent CFI; relaxed but in control, knowledgeable, and friendly. I look forward to flying with him again soon and building my skills!

*I will talk about the traffic pattern more in the future; basically, you circle the field in a set pattern before landing. Downwind is parallel to the landing runway opposite the direction of landing, base is a turn perpendicular to the runway as you descend, and final is the lineup with the runway and final descent.

Visual Humor:

2009-12-06T00:01:00.003-04:00

The humor in Invader Zim is wonderfully bizarre, and focuses on verbal and visual gags. This is one of my favorite visual humor moments:

Awesome.

2009-12-05T00:51:00.003-04:00

It's been cool, gray, and rainy outside today. I went to the gym to run earlier today and was surprised when I left our building by the sharp raindrops and the crisp, cool air. Were it not for the downpour I'd have run outdoors, something I have been doing less due to the painfully long Florida summer.

This change in the weather makes me miss home. Florida's an abnormal place, at least to me. It's a lot better than The Island, which was a total pit, but it's not quite as enjoyable as living in New England. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but days like today make me miss home. I miss the hills and terrain of New England. I miss the rocky coastline and the bad accents. I miss the coastal charm of Maine. I miss the trees; the foliage here is distinctly different than the foliage there. I miss the changes in weather, and although I'd never admit to it come late April when the shoveling is reaching a level of absurdity and the ice has driven you to madness, I do miss the snow.

Thorncrag bird sanctuary December '07; Boothbay Harbor August '08

Soon enough I hope we can go back and visit. Maybe someday we'll leave this latitude behind forever and move to a more reasonable climate. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

2009-12-04T16:56:00.001-04:00

These lucky folks...they've sure worked hard to get to be astronauts, and I hope they enjoy going to space as much as I suspect they do!

Santa's Helpers:

2009-12-04T16:51:00.001-04:00

General Aviation to the rescue! Volunteer pilots in Michigan will be playing Santa and flying 13,000 gifts to be distributed to children in foster care, group homes, and treatment centers. The gifts will be ferried across the state in the airplanes of volunteers, dropped off at general aviation fields throughout the state and then driven to the children. Kudos to the pilots who donate their time and their aircraft to this worthy cause!

Food

2009-11-30T22:09:00.001-04:00

Boring: brown rice.

Exciting: brown rice mixed with mango jam, crushed red pepper flakes, salt, and ginger.

GENIUS!

Who is watching Who?

2009-11-29T01:02:00.000-04:00

Gretel is watching a cat show on TV...or is the cat show watching her?

Uh-Oh

2009-11-28T14:17:00.002-04:00

I recognize all 15 of these signs. That can't be a good thing.

Soon!

2009-11-27T00:11:00.003-04:00

Soon, I will be flying again. I made an appointment with a local CFI that I have spoken with before, and on December 4 I will be going back for my first formal flying lesson in almost a decade.

I've done a lot of preparing. I've read a lot of the ground school, read some of the references, tried to understand the workings of the engine and the magic of the aerodynamics. I have read accident reports and safety briefings, because it is far better to learn from the mistakes of others if at all possible. I have learned the basics of weather and I have learned that it is not to be trifled with.

And very soon it will pay off. A few short days and I'll be back in the left seat of a small airplane. It may only be an hour, but it's actual instruction, hands-on-the-yoke, apply the knowledge instruction. It will likely be a review flight focusing on basic maneuvers such as turns to a heading, climbs and descents, maybe a stall or two. If I'm really lucky we may do a few touch-and-goes, but the CFI may want to wait until I have proven I'm not a total doofus to trust me to landing and takeoff.

I'm excited. Just a few short days!

Time to Decorate:

2009-11-15T14:58:00.000-04:00

see more Epic Fails

This should do nicely this year.

Lazy Days

2009-11-14T18:23:00.002-04:00

The weather has finally changed here in Florida for the better. It's a mellow 74 degrees out right now as the sun sets to the west, and the highest I saw it today was 79--a pittance compared to the high-90's heat indexes of a few weeks ago. This is the kind of weather that is the payoff for the miserable and oppressive heat of the summer months.

A few random notes:

Someone has set up a bed with curtains and a roof on the golf course. There's a dude and a lady talking about it in Spanish and circling it with a video camera. I have no idea what to make of this. What does it mean? Why are they doing this? It is very random, to say the least.

There is a helicopter circling the neighborhood. At first I thought maybe the Sheriff was looking for someone as they sometimes do, but it's just a random guy in an R44 who is circling the neighborhood for some reason. Pretty cool to watch though.

I made a new post at the new blog.

One of the cats knocked over the patio chair this afternoon and it created a lot of noise, havoc, hissing, and puffed tails. Perhaps they were startled by the people making the bed? Also, some kind of label marked NOTICE has surfaced in their porch litterbox, which is odd...the cat is apparently pooping out memorandums to us now.

Further updates as events warrant.

New Blog:

2009-11-10T22:39:00.002-04:00

I've decided to make another blog about my aviation pursuits. It looks like I will be able to go back to flying lessons almost full-time soon thanks to some help from my folks (thanks!), and I am delighted at the prospect of returning to the sky more frequently.

With that in mind, and given that I do have a fair amount of unfilled spare time, I give you: airways to airways. The title is a bad play on words between the Respiratory-style airways I am used to and the aviation-style airways I will be getting reacquainted with.

We'll see how it evolves. I'll still post here too, of course, but I figured this would give me a good place to channel some of my aviation enthusiasm to. Follow along and enjoy!

Belated

2009-11-06T15:30:00.004-04:00

A belated happy 100th birthday to "Mama Bird" Evelyn Johnson, the oldest female aviator in the nation. Ms. Johnson has logged 57,365.4 hours in the air over her lifetime, and while she is no longer able to fly due to glaucoma, she still acts as manager of Moore-Murrell airport in Morristown, TN.

Just for perspective, if my math is right, Ms. Johnson has spent 2390 1/4 days in the air, which works out roughly to 6 1/2 years airborne. Wow!

Not much news to report here in Florida. The weather has finally cooled some, with a mere 80 degrees today, though persistent clouds and some wind have made it feel much cooler. Melissa's transcripts have finally gone through at the new school, and so the ball is once again rolling towards the eventual completion of the USMLE, and then placement in clinicals. On the aviation front I spoke with a representative from ATP at the aviation forum yesterday and he told me he'd check their records and call me Monday to see what the delay in processing my financial aid application has been.

The cats have been unusually frisky and energetic lately. I think the change in weather is helping them as much as it's helping me; I feel more human when it's not 400 degrees outside, especially in November.

Summit

2009-11-05T21:32:00.002-04:00

The Star:, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

Today I attended the 2009 AOPA Aviation Summit in Tampa. The theme this year was "General Aviation Serves America." In todays economic and paranoid times, general aviation is under attack by those who view GA as nothing more than a plaything of the rich, when quite the opposite is true. GA pilots ferry cargo, ferry passengers, do sightseeing tours, fly medical flights, dust crops and ship agriculture. GA Pilots volunteer time with veterinary adoption agencies, organ procurement programs, and Angel flights, where ill people are shuttled free-of-charge to destinations where they plan to undergo therapy. GA pilots do a lot for the economy, but our legislators fail to see that and demand impositions of prohibitively high user fees on GA airports and ATC facilities. They demand restrictive and asinine security measures at small fields that do little to make anybody safer from what is largely an imagined threat. The whole point of the summit was that pilots and aviation enthusiasts, and the network of companies, FBOs, mechanics, and factories that support them, need to mobilize to change the way thought leaders are bashing GA.

Anyway.

At the summit were conferences, speakers, and other notables. There were equipment manufacturers and retailers, and I bought a headset for use when I continue my flight training. But the most fun for me was the Airportfest, held at Peter O. Knight municipal field in Tampa. At the airportfest were hundreds of private aircraft flown in by their owners, as well as new machines from the manufacturers who wanted to showcase their latest and greatest. Did I take pictures? Why yes, I did!

All in all, I had a blast at the summit. I learned a lot from the various speakers and vendors, and I just had an amazingly fun time walking around and looking at the various airplanes, toys, electronics, and gadgets.

With any luck, I'll be flying more consistently soon. We'll see what happens.

Halloween:

2009-11-01T21:44:00.004-04:00

We didn't dress up or party for Halloween, but we did do two festive things: we got a pumpkin and baked a cake.

Pics:

The cake has marshmallow cats along the side of it, similar to the marshmallow peeps popular at Easter time. Good stuff!

The Beach

2009-10-29T13:43:00.002-04:00

Tuesday afternoon Mel and I decided to go back to the beach. It may not have been the beachiest day--slightly overcast with a decent wind--but we figured we should go while we had the chance. We piled into the car with a cooler full of sandwiches and drinks, clicked on the GPS, and zipped off to Indian Shores.

By the time we got to Indian Shores, the sky was a little foreboding. Despite the gray clouds and the breeze we figured we'd driven all this way and dang it, we were going to enjoy the beach. We found some parking up the road from our favorite coffee place and headed on to the sand.

The first thing we noticed was the waves. The last couple of times we had been to the shore, there were waves, but they were trifling and small and the water was for the most part perfectly clear. Not so much this time. Whitecaps were cresting off the shore, swelling up to maybe four or five feet before they crashed and broke just shy of the waterline. Further out it was hard to tell what was going on, but an ominous black line was on the horizon and we could see the sheets of rain falling far in the distance. We forged ahead anyway, stowed our cooler and towel, and headed into the surf. I noticed what looked like a strong cross-current and made note to be careful.

Swimming was great fun. With the giant waves we could crash through them and ride them in to shore. The undertow gradually sucked us North along the beach, but we had a blast jumping in and out of the waves and trying to time the big ones so they didn't break before they hit us. As we swam, we noticed the sky getting darker and grayer, and eventually it became difficult to tell where the horizon was as the water reflected the sky. Suddenly, just as we were considering getting out, the sky opened up and a torrential rainstorm began. We made way back down the beach to our cooler and our now soaked towels. There was no point really in drying off, so we just splashed back to the car and evaluated the damage from in there. Towels? Soaked. Clothing? Mostly soaked. Electronics? Miraculously okay.

We stopped for a hot coffee before riding home and turned the heat on in the car in an effort to dry ourselves off. We had a blast playing in the surf, but I suppose the most valuable lesson from the day would be to check the forecast before heading out to play.

:)

2009-10-23T21:51:00.004-04:00

Eight hours after landing...

...I still feel high from flying.

Soon, very soon, I hope to be doing this part-time. And then....someday....full-time. The gears of change might turn slow, but I am glad they are even turning at all.

Flying!

2009-10-23T17:49:00.003-04:00

Today, I went flying.

It was as awesome as I remembered it.

The helm of the mighty Skyhawk.

I went through ATP's facility in St. Petersburg at PIE. I showed up a little before one and met another flight student in the office. We talked shop for a little bit; I reminisced about my old days, we talked about the facility, and he recommended it and said he'd enjoyed his training so far. The CFI, named Mark, was out getting a sandwich, but before long was back at the office. A few questions, a waiver to sign, and we were off.

The CFI elected to take a Cessna Skyhawk, a single-engined plane which I have flown in before. Because it has been 8 years since I flew, and because PIE has a lot of commercial and military traffic (the US Coast Guard was doing maneuvers at the field), and also because I am not familiar with operations at a field with a control tower, Mark elected to handle the taxi/takeoff. We ran up the engine, got our clearance, and with a roar and a scrape of wheels we were off.

We climbed to 1000 feet before Mark let me take the controls. Since PIE is within the airspace of Tampa International we stayed below the boundaries of their airspace and flew at 1000 feet for the duration of the flight. I turned West as instructed and we cruised over St. Pete and headed for Indian Shores. There was a fair amount of traffic to watch as we flew past Clearwater Airpark, and I spotted a cropduster doing a banner tow along the beach below us. We reached the waterline and headed North, then turned and flew South for a time. There were some light winds aloft, and it was challenging to turn the airplane and make the headings Mark asked me to. After a few minutes, I remembered what it was like, and was able to do some very basic flying before we turned back to PIE and Mark took control of the plane for landing.

Landing ops at a controlled field are different as well. We were directed to fly East, then turn to the numbers (turn towards the end of the runway, on which the runway number is marked) and set down on 17L. Mark eased us down, and after a smooth landing and short rollout we taxiied back to parking and called it a day.

It was too short of a flight, but otherwise awesome. I am excited that someday soon, I might get to go back and do this more often. Back when I set up the intro flight I applied for admission to the commercial pilot training program at ATP, and assuming everything goes through, it's possible I might be flying again very, very soon.

All in all? A totally awesome day. I can't wait to go back!

Flying Again

2009-10-18T12:02:00.001-04:00

196 Rollout, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

After eight years since the lat entry in my logbook I am finally going to go flying again. Thanks to a little boost from my parents, I was able to gather the resources and call a flight school in Tampa to make an appointment to go up again. Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM I'll be at the flight school; with any luck I'll be airborne around 2. They tell me they'll probably bring me up in a Piper Seminole, which is a smallish twin-engine prop plane. I am excited and thrilled and a little nervous; the excitement and thrill because this is what I have been wanting to do, and the nerves because I feel that I have just enough knowledge from reading the ground school books and thinking back on my old lessons to be dangerous. The nerves are probably unnecessary; I'll be under the watchful eye of a flight instructor, and I have been making a conscious effort not to think I know more than I know, because nothing is more dangerous than someone at the controls of an airplane who does not know the limits of their own abilities.

Nerves and all though, I am freaking excited. I may have to contain a maniacal laugh as we roll down the runway.

If all goes well, I'm hopeful that I can get some kind of financing and go back to flight school on a part-time basis. And if that doesn't work, there are other ways I can fly...I'll figure something out.

Beyond that, not much is new here in Florida. It's been cool lately, which is amazing to me. I feel human again now that it's not a million degrees outside. The heat slows me down and makes me lazy; now that it's October maybe the heat will take the hint and go somewhere else.

Tsunami:

2009-10-09T21:26:00.001-04:00

NPR has a video clip from the Tsunami that recently struck American Samoa.

Holy cow. I'm glad I don't live in an area at risk of Tsunami...

Beach Bird

2009-10-04T22:55:00.002-04:00

Beach Bird, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

I put a few pictures from Indian Shores on Flickr. Haven't uploaded much to that website in a while, but it's been a while since we did anything too exciting. But we sure did have fun today...we'll be going back.

Speaking of Flickr, some time ago I created a group devoted to the SeaBee. So far a few folks have joined and added their pictures...clicky click.

Indian Shores

2009-10-04T22:17:00.000-04:00

Today, to break the usual routine here at the house, Mel and I decided to go to Indian Shores, which is way out on the West coast, on the peninsula across the bay from Tampa.

Our first order of business on arriving there was to stop at Indian Shores Coffee Company. It's a hip little place that I saw when my mother and brother and I went to Indian Shores, but we hadn't stopped in there at the time.

The coffee there is awesome. Technically I had some frozen coffee beverage called the Black Forest, which is espresso, dark chocolate, and cherry whizzed up with ice in a blender. Manly? No. Delicious? Yes. Melissa had a chai beverage and we also sampled the baked goods.

After all that, a brief jaunt up the street brought us to one of the public beach accesses, and we wandered the white sands for a few miles and watched the birds. I managed to snap the above picture of a Pelican just after liftoff from the water; these little guys glide like nobodys business and manage to skim the surface of the water by maybe a few inches. Lots of fun to watch them as they manuever through the air and the other birds; I find myself drawn to the pelicans more than the other birds for whatever reason.

All in all? A thoroughly enjoyable day. Next time we go we'll bring swim trunks and beach chairs and camp out for an afternoon.

Kittehs:

2009-10-04T22:00:00.000-04:00

Proof that, despite the chaos, they can be cute lil' buggers sometimes.

Proof:

2009-10-04T21:55:00.000-04:00

Proof that an old cardboard box filled with tissue paper is way more fun than $100 worth of various cat entertainment devices...you should have seen the buildup to this very scene. There was the initial probing and flipping over of the box, followed by five minutes of manic digging to get all the paper out. A minor cat chase ensued, ending in a heroic dive into the tissue paper and a prolonged meditation on the destruction created.

These cats, they have the life.

Message

2009-10-01T23:49:00.001-04:00

Got an email the other day from a CFI I was in touch with about flying lessons a few months ago. He wanted to know if I ever wanted to go flying.

The answer is, heck yes I do. Unfortunately we lack the means for me to do that right now. It is very disappointing to be grounded while living in one of the most heavily aviated states in the union. Especially now that the weather is clear and the afternoon Tstorms have departed, it's just sort of depressing to sit on the porch and watch other people fly overhead and think back to what it was like. I know that someday in the near future I will be able to go flying again, but I am tired of waiting.

Just yesterday, I heard a buzzing and whipped out the binoculars to see an old Republic SeaBee circling in to splash down at Lake Parker. He circled clockwise, then dipped the wing and circled counterclockwise, checking the water for obstacles to avoid. I tracked him as he circled down and then straightened out, slipping beneath the treeline and splashing down to earth in his old Bee. There's a saying among seaplane pilots that flying a seaplane is the last real freedom left in the world, and I can certainly see how it would feel that way. Flying a general aviation airplane is a very liberating experience as it is; flying a seaplane opens up a whole new world of places to go and things to do. I have to admit, I'm jealous of the pilot of the Bee...

But until the day comes when I am actually able to go flying again, I guess I'll be here on the ground, trying to focus on reality, going to work and paying the bills. Try as I might to stay in the moment, though, I find my mind wandering and my eyes drifting into the sky...my head's in the clouds but my feet are on the ground. Such is life.

I Own

2009-10-01T14:13:00.000-04:00

I own the blog now.

Send treats and the humans will not be harmed.

Outside!

2009-09-29T20:26:00.002-04:00

I was actually able to go outside today without immediately becoming a giant pile of sweat. It was still pretty warm out, but it wasn't as bad as it has been. I decided to go running.

I've been going to the gym on and off over the summer, but it was nice to get back outside. It was interesting how a summer inside has sort of deconditioned me from my earlier buffness back in the spring when I was running the whole lake in short times, etc. Today I was able to do a 1/4 mile on and off deal for the whole lake but it was killer. Nevertheless, it was nice to be outside for a while.

This evening, we are making cookies. Nothing fancy or from scratch; we'll be making waffles from scratch later as a breakfast-for-dinner sort of deal. The cookies are a spur of the moment thing, some sort of Toll House thing with chips and peanut butter things and whatnot. Delicious!

Apart from that, not much new here at the house.

Disappointed

2009-09-26T21:19:00.002-04:00

Didn't get to go to the airshow today. Instead of watching seaplanes and skydivers, I spent my day in the Pedi ED and the medical floors watching nebulizers burble away. Peds ED is not my favorite assignment by any means, nor are any of the medical floors, so all in all it was sort of a total loss of a day. At least it wasn't negative; there weren't any screaming tragedies or whatever in the ER, so that's refreshing.

The splash-in continues tomorrow, but we're going to be short a few people at work and if I didn't get called off today when we have staff, I sure as heck won't be called off tomorrow. Sigh.

I guess it's unreasonable to be so disappointed about that, but I really wanted to go, and now I can't. It's not a huge deal but it seems that a lot of the things I want to do aren't panning out lately and it's sort of got me bummed. I was hoping to visit Maine this fall, but no dice there; we can't afford it if we're going to be moving. I was hoping to be able to resume flying soon, and if we ever make it to Chicago I will try to go to one of the schools there, but the waiting is just no fun. I was hoping that it would cool down some, but at 9:30 PM it's 82 degrees out and humid...

...So, nothing major I guess. No huge life-altering things that have sent us into a perilous crisis, no danger to our material health, none of that. Just a little disappointment is all.

So it goes.

Seaplane Show

2009-09-25T15:05:00.001-04:00

A De Havilland Turbo Otter at the Sun N Fun Splash-In.

There's a seaplane splash-in this weekend in Auburndale, right up the road from where we live. I am unfortunately scheduled to work this weekend, but I requested low-census call-off for tomorrow, so maybe if we're staffed adequately I can go to the splash-in and have fun instead of going to the hospital and working.

Not much else is new here in Florida. It continues to defy my expectations of fallish weather by being brutally hot. It's 90 degrees with a heat index approaching 100 outside right now, despite intermittent rain showers and some cloud cover. Even sitting at my desk in shorts with a fan and the A/C on I feel hot...maybe October will bring less hateful weather. I would love to set foot outside without becoming a giant blob of sweaty tissue.

Speaking of the coming October reminds me of climate and season change, which reminds me of the fact that someday we will move North. I'm excited for our eventual departure to the North. Nothing is certain but it looks like Chicago is our likely destination for the next couple of years. I understand the climate there is more or less 180 degrees from the climate here. I've emailed some friends and spoken to some co-workers who I know from the area and have gotten some good advice about relocating to the Windy City; several people have recommended using an apartment-finding service, and another outlined some neighborhoods that are good to live in. I've done some research and found several hospitals hiring respiratory therapists in the north and central areas of Chicago, and with my experience I feel confident that I'll be able to gain some kind of employment.

So for now, we're just hanging here, eating leftover donuts and doing what we do. Good times had by all.

Time to make the DONUTS!!!

2009-09-21T17:50:00.000-04:00

Yes, that's right. Home-made donuts. Apple cider donuts.Delicious.The dough is simple enough to make. Some home-made applesauce, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, and other doughy components go in, and then go to the fridge. A glaze of cider and powdered sugar goes on after a brief fry, and then a quick roll in some cinnamon sugar completes the donuts.You don't even need any special equipment to make these. Not having a donut cutter, I used an egg shaper and a beer bottle cap to shape the donuts. The dough remnants were shaped into balls and then fried and rolled, making some nice fat donut holes. The whole process took most of the day; the applesauce maybe 20 minutes, the dough making was maybe 45 minutes, and then two hours in the fridge to chill. Frying was fast at one minute a side at 350 degrees. And the results?

Heart-cloggingly awesome.

Not Much

2009-09-20T14:30:00.000-04:00

Not much going on here in Florida lately. It's still hot as hades here; as I write this it's 92 with a heat index of 101 outside, much too warm to be doing anything outdoorsy. I find that most of my activity in this sort of weather is to sit still and try not to sweat too much. We keep the house around 82 in the daytime; much lower and the A/C bills would necessitate a second job.

One thing that this sort of weather makes me miss is the fall. I love to see the foliage change, and feel the air and weather get a little crisper and cooler as fall sneaks in. It's fun to go apple picking and do other stuff outside, stuff that I took for granted growing up but now see in a different light, having lived in a totally different climate for some time now. What's that old song by that old drunk guy, changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes?

On the other hand, much as I complain about the weather, it's not all bad here. Plus changes are afoot. Within the next few months we're likely to be making a dramatic change in latitude/longitude, and with that will come changes in everything. Mel will begin her clinicals, I'll begin school again, and we'll move right on along.

I've been enjoying some time off work lately. The overtime has dried up some, and while the money from overtime is nice, the time to just be at home without it is nice too. Last week we had a nice mellow day on our wedding anniversary, and we may go out this evening to have a belated celebration date.

Still, not much else to report. The cats are lazing around and the A/C just kicked on again. Time for some coffee.

Three Years

2009-09-16T15:13:00.000-04:00

Happy anniversary Mel!

Thought du Jour:

2009-09-12T20:53:00.001-04:00

"A closed mouth gathers no foot."

Don't know the source but I like that.

Joke:

2009-09-11T21:38:00.003-04:00

We switched our GPS voice to the British version because it's somehow less grating than the flat, American voice it defaulted to. Since this voice will be guiding us on occasion, we decided to name it. While trying to think of a name, we batted around British names: Agnes, Emma, Queen Elizabeth. Mel finally hit the nail on the head though. Our British female GPS voices name?

Diana, Princess of Wheels.

Toys!!!

2009-09-11T16:38:00.002-04:00

For our upcoming three-year wedding anniversary, Melissa bought me a new toy: a Garmin 205! We got an amazing deal on it at Amazon.com, paying far less than the marked price at Garmin. The UPS man brought it to my door this morning, and I've spent hours gleefully playing with it. Since we had some errands to run I decided to test drive it in the car.

First we had to go to the Optometrists to pick up some eye supplies. I decided to try the plain old map mode first, where the display simply shows where you are. My unit so far has been very accurate and even calculates your speed; on some roads it shows you the speed limit, which is handy.

On the way home I selected the "Go Home" option. I had previously programmed our address into the unit, and it gave solid and sensible directions. The little voice was sort of not that great, but we've changed it from the Solid No-Nonsense American Woman voice to the hopefully better British voice; we'll see how we like that one next time we go out.

At home, I've spent some time playing with the icons, learning to navigate the menus, and so on. One nice feature is that you can select certain points of interest, such as food or car stores, and the device will show you a list of the nearest places matching your criteria. Select one and get your directions, and you're good to go!

All in all, a thoroughly dorky but very enjoyable little toy.

After all that, a random quote:

"When a man spends his own money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about how much he spends and how he spends it.

When a man spends his own money to buy something for someone else, he is still very careful about how much he spends, but somewhat less what he spends it on.

When a man spends someone else's money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about what he buys, but doesn't care at all how much he spends.

And when a man spends someone else's money on someone else, he doesn't care how much he spends or what he spends it on. And that's government for you." -Milton Friedman

Big Brother Cat

2009-09-05T16:00:00.000-04:00

Is watching you.

The Plague

2009-09-01T14:14:00.002-04:00

I have the plague. Apparently one of the 10,000 people who coughed at me this weekend in the ER was carrying some kind of virus, and now I'm sick, too. What a drag...sinus congestion, chest congestion, sore throat...thankfully I have a few days off to sit around and drink fluids and relax. If I'm not feeling tip top again by the time work comes, I'll probably go to employee health and take advantage of their OMG TEH SWINE FLUZ complimentary week off.

I did go out today on some local business. I remember now why I never go out in public. Maybe the illness has made me irritable, but it seems like everybody in front of me at the post office, the pharmacy, and the coffee shop was asking for some incomprehensible transaction to be done by the one cashier on duty at each place. Someone who looked a lot like the typical meth addict at the Post was trying to get some obscene amount of cash from a money order, Walgreens was filled with gigantic scary rednecks who were trying to exchange TOOTHBRUSHES and making a huge deal of it, and at Starbucks this person in front of me was apparently trying to...I don't know what she was even doing but it took forever. I had this urge to bop them all in the head with a large stick, ala-Saint Dogbert, and then go about my business knowing that the world was free of one more incomprehensible-transaction-demander.

The rest of the day will consist of drinking things and sitting still. Perhaps I will bake some banana bread later on...delicious plaguey goodness!

Bad Thought:

2009-08-27T16:48:00.001-04:00

Ted Kennedy was a remarkable person and a good senator, but my first thought on seeing all these OMG TED KENNEDY WAS TEH AWESOME headlines was: I guess he's drowning young women in heaven, now. Does that make me a bad person, that that's the first place I went to? I mean, sure, he did some great stuff, but he should have been convicted of manslaughter and instead got a slap on the wrist because he happens to have a famous last name. He facilitated the death of a young woman and got away with it.

And why are people surprised? Again, maybe I am not thinking clearly, but he was a 77-year-old man with brain cancer and a long history of substance abuse, which any clinical person can tell you is not a good picture for Happy Endings.

It seems like everyone is banging on about how great of a person he was, but this is a guy who got drunk, picked up a Young Lady Of Some Repute, and then drove off a bridge and into a river, whereupon he left her in the car, went home and didn't call the police for NINE HOURS while this young lady was drowned in his car. That sort of marks someone as having poor judgment in my book.

I know, I know. Who am I to judge? After all, that was a long time ago, and people do change. I'm sure he had some good in him too. Kennedy certainly had a long career in the senate (though that does not make one a good or honorable person, quite possibly the opposite.) But every time someone says "Wow, poor Ted Kennedy" all I can think is "He should have drowned in the Chappaquiddick."

Wow:

2009-08-25T13:57:00.001-04:00

From KSL.com, a video of a daring helicopter landing on a rock pinnacle in Utah.

As the pilot said, when one has been landing on the back of bucking destroyers in high seas for 25 years in the navy, settling down on a rock pinnacle is a piece of cake.

Ouch

2009-08-23T00:28:00.002-04:00

I would blog about doing something interesting...

...but I haven't been doing anything interesting. Just work, home, and then some more work for a change of pace. My life is boring. Ouch.

I did start building a model Cessna 172 the other day. I had forgotten how finicky and small model kits are, and this afternoon there was a troublesome incident with the glue. Some glue had hardened in the nozzle of the glue tube, and when I tried to pop it out there was a glue explosion all over the cowling of the little airplane. It doesn't seem much worse for wear except for a bendy wheel, but that glue can melt the plastic; indeed, it seems to work by melting the plastic and then fusing it together as it dries. Perhaps time will harden the bond and the wheel will become less bendy. No issues either way I suppose as the plane comes with a little stand mount...

After this one is done I may pursue another model. I have my eyes on the SR-71. We shall see.

Yeeeeeeeah.

2009-08-19T23:17:00.001-04:00

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Living the good life

2009-08-18T14:03:00.002-04:00

I may not be 100% enthusiastic about my work, but I sure do like the schedule. Most weeks I get at least three days off, and if there's no overtime I get four off. It gives me a lot of free time to read, play, relax.

This "weekend" has consisted of Monday and Tuesday, plus the coming weekend off. Yesterday was just easy; we went out for some errands, and I got a model plane to build because I am obsessive. Today we're going to go for coffee; both days I've gotten some excellent reading done.

A Doctor friend of mine at work who owns his own plane was nice enough to loan me a couple of good books to read. They're aviation-oriented and written for novices, so they've been wells of knowledge for me to read and absorb. I've learned about VOR triangulation, DMEs, ADF signals, and all sorts of other mysterious-sounding things.

The weather is still fairly miserable here... 84 with a heat index of 94 and high humidity. It's cloudy, so that helps take some of the edge off, but I'm sitting here in my shorts and sweating like a pig on a spit. My hope is that the end of the month will start to bring cooler weather, and maybe before we leave Florida for good it will become nice again and we can depart on a less sweaty note.

Thought for the day:

2009-08-13T23:19:00.002-04:00

"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."

I read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy far too often at far too impressionable of an age, but it did give me many of the tools I need to live in an insane world. Using satire to understand bizarre or absurd things comes in handy a lot more often than you'd think, especially in my line of work.

Working

2009-08-11T21:26:00.001-04:00

A lag in posting. I'm on a stretch at work and there hasn't been much to write about. Perhaps Thursday will prove more adventurous or something.

Odd Sunset:

2009-08-03T20:32:00.001-04:00

Some odd cloud formations here at Camp Lakeland:

Wonder what causes that black looking shadow thing. Very nice and pretty, but hopefully not ominous.

Need to go here:

2009-08-01T22:44:00.001-04:00

I need to go to Airventure in Oshkosh someday. Reading about the ATC operations there is fascinating; going to see the 10,000 airplanes and the shows and all that would be...just...incredible.

Thought:

2009-08-01T22:28:00.002-04:00

Food for thought from the late George Carlin:

"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist." ~George Carlin

Hmm.

Gretel:

2009-07-31T17:10:00.000-04:00

I ate a mug of Corny Poofs for a snack the other night, and the cat was quite interested in the whole process. She wouldn't leave me alone while I ate it, so after the corny poofs were gone, I gave her the mug of milk...she was quite intrigued, and first tried stuffing her head into the mug. When that didn't really work she considered the problem for a minute before dipping her paws in and then slurping the milk off of them. A slow process to be sure, but one that she seemed to enjoy that also kept her occupied for quite some time. Next time you want to keep a cat busy for a while...

Weekend Activities:

2009-07-26T00:49:00.002-04:00

Now that the family has returned to the frozen north, our weekend is a little less interesting. We have been experiencing some technical problems lately with our cable internet, but thanks to a cheap new router from Best Buy I think we’ve got things more or less straightened out.

What have I done this weekend apart from playing IT Technologist in the house? I did go to the gym, but mostly, I’ve been pretending to fly airplanes. Here is a Boeing 737 about to touch down in Boston:

And here is some foggy weather on an instrument approach to Bangor, from the cockpit (it’s a Beech Baron for any interested parties as dorky as me) and then from the tower. It's hard to see because these images are sort of small, but the glideslope on the heading indicator actually works if you take the time to set it up right. The in-game ATC will give you vectors in and everything, assuming you chose to fly ILS. They'll make you go around if things don't line up right, and the game frequently generates other traffic in line with you to ramp up the pressure while you're approaching. Again, thrilling to a dork like me but probably not to anybody out there. Pictures:

I love this game. Thank heavens I have it. It’s a blast to play, and you can set it up to be easy and free flight with clear weather, or realistic with changing weather, or anywhere in between. You can have the game generate random failures of engines, instruments, or anything else; you can fly ILS; you can alter any of a million variables and set the realism anywhere you want it. I take a lot of pleasure in pretending to fly airplanes and I’m delighted that I have this time off to do it. I’d probably have to do something productive without it.

Have A Safe Trip

2009-07-21T22:28:00.000-04:00

My mother and brother were just here to visit. We had a blast, going to the beach and visiting some of the attractions and just hanging around. Tomorrow (today) they return home. Have a safe trip guys; we'll miss you!

Close Call:

2009-07-20T22:16:00.004-04:00

The following video is of a Russian cargo plane, the Ilyushin IL-76, departing from somewhere in Australia. He's fully loaded with cargo, has full fuel for an 11-hour flight, and is taking off from a smallish runway on a hot day, which means he has a long takeoff roll. The air traffic controllers apparently decided to film it just in case it crashed:

Phew! Talk about your hairy takeoffs. I sure hope the pilot emptied his bladder before the flight, because otherwise I bet it's going to be a wet 11 hours after a takeoff like that...

...On the other hand, stressful as that is, it's nothing compared to the tension of landing a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier in pitching seas:

Those guys can fly. More specifically they can land. That has to be incredibly difficult: pitching deck, high speed, high risk, only a small patch of rolling deck to catch the arrestor cables. Holy cow!

But even though that looks hard, this takes the cake for Holy Scaryness Batman:

Crosswinds. Scary!

Health Care

2009-07-18T08:58:00.001-04:00

A fascinating article in the New York Times today talks about healthcare reform and the case for rationing. The argument can be made that we spend more in the last 6 months of life on healthcare than we do at any other point, and that perhaps that's a figure that needs to be looked at. Having spent a good deal of time providing futile care in the ICU, I can understand the case for healthcare rationing, and I can attest that we spend gobs of money on totally futile care. I can have one sick patient with a 5% chance of survival and bill upwards of 2 grand a shift; and I'm only the respiratory therapist. Factor in drugs, nursing care, procedures, physician time, the ICU bed charge, and all the other stuff? You can be looking at several thousand dollars a day and up.

So on the one hand, I can see the argument for rationing. It makes sense to send our resources to the area in which they'll be most likely to make a difference. On the other hand, I am profoundly uncomfortable with the idea of allowing bureaucracy to make healthcare decisions for people. Our government is not particularly good at making rational decisions and turning patient autonomy over to the federal government is a disconcerting prospect to me. On the other other hand, a lot of people whose only insurer is Medicare/Medicaid are already having decisions made for them based on that insurance, and they seem (based on my own totally unscientific observations) not to have terribly different outcomes from privately insured people. And there's no denying that private insurers have effectively been privateering unchecked within the system for years and years.

Anyway, go read the article. It's very interesting, and thinking is fun sometimes. Clicky clicky.

FAIL:

2009-07-16T23:08:00.002-04:00

I like this:

see more Fail Blog

I also like this:

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Want:

2009-07-11T16:06:00.002-04:00

The old Grumman Goose has been remade by Antilles Seaplanes, LLC.

All I can say about that is...

...want.

Road Trains

2009-07-11T13:25:00.003-04:00

Driving the American highway is always an experience. I've driven vast expanses of highway myself, not as much as professional drivers or people who travel on a frequent basis, but between my old job ferrying bank papers all around Maine and my recent travels up and down the seaboard, the dozens and dozens of round trips up and down from Miami, and the eight or so trips from here to Atlanta and back again I've spent a good deal of time driving long distances. I like it; there's something satisfying about moving long distances and being in control on the road that I very much enjoy. It's not all fun and games, but I do like it...

One of the most frightening things about driving vast distances on the highway can be trucks. I've had a few close calls with narrow roads and tractor-trailers, and anybody who's driven the highway has passed an unnervingly long truck going faster than you thought, been tailgated by an overtired freighter, or been passed by a trucker with a sense of reckless disregard for people in smaller cars.

However, any experience with American trucks must pale in comparison to the Road Trains of Australia. Reading "In A Sunburned Country" has been an intriguing experience, but Bill Bryson discusses the phenomenon of the road train in great detail while driving inland in the Northern Territories of Australia. His descriptions made me want to go look for myself, so here are some fun videos about the Road Trains:

Here's a four-engine (Two pushers, two pullers) road train with a 630-ton load! That's one million two-hundred and sixty thousand pounds. it's a little shaky, but holy cow that's a big road train. Imagine coming across this thing on I-95. Whoa.

One final video, taken by a driver of one of these beasts as he passes through Australia:

Wow. Just wow.

Work

2009-07-09T20:55:00.001-04:00

Kitfox liftoff, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

More work. Maybe someday, work will be more fun.

Oh well.

Sigh

2009-07-07T23:34:00.001-04:00

Route 11, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

I miss Maine.

I never, ever thought I would, but...

...I miss Maine.

From My Dad:

2009-07-07T19:26:00.001-04:00

Got this article from my Dad via email today. Poor moose! I hope he makes it out okay.

WEB NEWS: Marooned moose draws a crowd

By Rachel Ganong and Beth Brogan

Published:

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 2:46 PM EDT

BRUNSWICK — Dozens of wildlife watchers flocked to the Frank J. Wood bridge this morning after a young moose landed on the rocky island below the dam between Brunswick and Topsham.

“He’s beautiful,” said Brunswick resident Sue Hamilton. “If he came over the falls, it’s miraculous he didn’t break anything.”

“It’s crazy to see a moose out on a little island like that,” said Hamilton’s brother Jim Merritt. “I just hope they leave him alone.”

That’s exactly what officials plan to do.

Game wardens suspect the moose did come over the dam, and also think it’s the same moose sighted around Topsham during the past three months.

The marooned moose was first spotted early this morning, prompting about 15 calls to Sagadahoc County dispatch and about 40 to the Brunswick Police Department. Communications Officer Mike Carter called Maine State Police, which dispatched Maine game warden Doug Kulis of Georgetown.

Kulis said today that wardens have decided the moose is fine on the island, with plenty of vegetation to eat, and any attempt to rescue him could make the situation worse. Today, the water level was 2 feet over the dam, he said.

“There’s such a huge volume of water coming through right now, especially on one side of the island,” he said of the dam. “If we went on the island and tried to save it, and he went away from us, with the hydraulics there, he would drown. On the other side (rescue is) possible, but if a large volume of water came through, he’d end up in Brunswick and we’d have a very tired moose.”

Wardens can’t use a tranquilizer gun because the moose could wander into the water before it fell; nor can a helicopter help, because of nearby power lines.

Operators of the nearby dam and others farther up the Androscoggin River expect the water level to drop by 25 percent overnight, Kulis said, and then significantly more in the next four to seven days, even if we have a little rain.

“If that happens, the moose will be able to walk right over to Topsham,” he said. “It’s not sick and it’s not injured. We’ve seen him walking and eating. It’s just one of those moose that’s a year-and-a-half old, and trying to learn to be a moose. He hasn’t really figured it out yet. We don’t want to try to rescue him and have something go bad.”

Sue Hamilton and her brother heard about the marooned moose from friends. Like so many other moose oglers, they headed down to the bridge to watch the male moose scramble over his new rocky domain surrounded by the swollen, swirling waters of the Androscoggin River.

Word spread quickly about the opportunity to observe the moose.

“My friend works over there,” said David Johnson of Brunswick, pointing to the Topsham mill complex. “He said, ‘Grab the kids: There’s a moose on the island.’”

“I think he’s been eating,” said Isaiah Johnson, watching with his brothers, sisters and parents, Kara and David Johnson, as the gangly, brown animal clambered over the rocks and shrubs.

Isaiah’s younger brother, Henry, worried the moose might get chilled.

“I think he’s trying to get in the woods to get out of the wind and get warm,” he said.

Maxwell Powell, 5, of Topsham, spotted the moose as his mother Mandy Russell was driving across the bridge. Russell turned the vehicle around and stopped so they could get a better look.

“It go over the dam,” he said, explaining how the moose landed on the island.

For more on the marooned moose, see Wednesday’s edition of The Times Record.

Colors

2009-07-07T14:04:00.001-04:00

Vuurwerks, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

I'm just posting this photo because I like the vibrant colors. This was from the fireworks show at Epcot on my birthday this year. We got a decent place to stand near the England and Canada pavilions at the world showcase, and the fireworks show was awesome as usual.

But those were not the only fireworks of late. Just the other day on July 4th Mel and I watched from our patio as the city of Lakeland put on an excellent fireworks show at Joker Marchant Stadium. The stadium is probably only a mile and a half from our house as the crow flies, and over the last couple of years we've both enjoyed regular shows from the stadium after baseball games. However, the show on the 4th went above and beyond, at least 15 or 20 minutes of increasingly big and bright fireworks complemented by drunken whooping and smaller fireworks from our neighbors across the golf course.

Not much else in the way of excitement here in Lakeland. It's hot and humid, standard weather for central FL in the summer. Last week was epic, with heat indices in the low 100's all week. This week is stormier and so a little cooler, but it's still rather hot, which is unfortunate as I tend to weather the cold a little better than the heat. I'm eagerly awaiting a move to somewhere else from here. I like the people I work with at the H, and I like some of the amenities here in FL, and the winter weather can't be beat. But it's flat and boring, and going outside for about half the year is an invitation to heatstroke and death. I'd like to move somewhere a little hillier, a little cooler, a little less redneck than Polk County. It still looks like Baltimore will be our final destination for the next couple of years, but until it's set in stone it's subject to change.

Oh well. We'll see what happens. Until then, time to enjoy a day off and wait out the heat. Already went to the gym and did four miles on the ski-like running machine; time now for a midday snack and maybe a trip to the post office and a place with cold beverages later.

Randomness

2009-07-02T15:09:00.002-04:00

What a great day!

I slept in until 11 this morning because I didn't have to get up for work. That in itself is always a marker for an above-average day, at least for me. 11 is a good time to sleep in to, too; I can catch up on some much-needed Zs but still have a fair amount of the day to play with.

After getting up and reading some Bill Bryson, I got bored and decided to go to the gym to burn off some of the unneeded SWFR* around the waistline. I wandered over to the gym and hopped onto one of the ski machines. 45 minutes later I'd done 4.2 miles and 515 calories and decided to call it good. I may have a little SWFR but I also still have some endurance from running.

After all that, breakfast with the news (interestingly, ants are our new lords and masters) and a relaxing afternoon. We will probably go get a minor grocery run done, and stop for some coffee on the way home; this evening I may bake cookies!

All in all, an excellent day.

*SWFR = Strategic Winter Fat Reserve.

My Fake Weekend:

2009-06-27T15:30:00.001-04:00

What did you do this weekend? Me, I pretended to fly helicopters around:

Sure, I’m 25 and an old man now, but I still enjoy the more childish delights of computer games. You can even fly a USCG-marked helo….what fun, if you’re a dork like me!