This is the blog of a middle-aged man trying to make sense of the world by dissecting the intersection of politics, science, investments and aircraft construction. My wife suggests that I lighten it up with the occasional vegan recipe or photos from our beautiful hikes on both coasts... Nah.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Flying on a rough Tuesday afternoon... Figured out our auto pilot tracks an ILS down to the runway... which is a good thing. However, intercept wasn't all that great and it would be wise to be on the localizer using the heading mode and then engage the auto pilot. Still, it's pretty neat watching the old bird track those donuts... Or would that be donut? I'm not sure but I'm getting hungry.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
My skipper's boat going into the water. Turns out my flight instructor is a awesome skipper and the boat Tantrum is not known by her name but by "That F*^#ing Red Boat" Seems that I've been asked to crew with some serious sailors and I couldn't be more pleased. Our next race is Friday and if events work the captain will be back from Ohio and it's off to the races.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
EX Wife Flys and Two Die
It's been one of those weeks...
What a weird week to say the very least. Last weekend I took my EX wife (married 21 years) to CT to attend the funeral of my EX sister-in-law's father. I know what most people would think... STUPID. Not really considering the folks in CT are really my tribe if not my siblings.
My EX really didn't want to go but like a good friend of mine told me years ago... Dave, no one remembers who came to your wedding but you will remember, for the rest of your life, who attends your parents funeral. So I offered to fly us and she immediately commented she wasn't paying for gas. LOL, nothing every really changes does it? Actually, she offered to pay the $10 parking fee which was nice.
The bad news is on the way back, I got bored and felt a need to test the recently repaired auto pilots ability to track a VOR. When I engaged the auto pilot the plane jerked to the right and I cussed OH SHIT. Seems this was scary to a novice small plane passenger. Once again my EX wife is teaching me things. I now make a point of fully briefing passengers of anything unusual and do my best to keep my verbiage more positive.
PS On a somber note, my home airport experience a double fatality about 20 minutes before we landed. A very experienced pilot was showing off his home built to his sister. An engine failure upon takeoff resulted in an attempted 180 return, stall and crash. It was a sad day for general aviation and I doubt my EX will every fly in a small plane again. The good news is I would guess she will do what ever it takes to keep the life insurance policy she has on me current.
What a weird week to say the very least. Last weekend I took my EX wife (married 21 years) to CT to attend the funeral of my EX sister-in-law's father. I know what most people would think... STUPID. Not really considering the folks in CT are really my tribe if not my siblings.
My EX really didn't want to go but like a good friend of mine told me years ago... Dave, no one remembers who came to your wedding but you will remember, for the rest of your life, who attends your parents funeral. So I offered to fly us and she immediately commented she wasn't paying for gas. LOL, nothing every really changes does it? Actually, she offered to pay the $10 parking fee which was nice.
The bad news is on the way back, I got bored and felt a need to test the recently repaired auto pilots ability to track a VOR. When I engaged the auto pilot the plane jerked to the right and I cussed OH SHIT. Seems this was scary to a novice small plane passenger. Once again my EX wife is teaching me things. I now make a point of fully briefing passengers of anything unusual and do my best to keep my verbiage more positive.
PS On a somber note, my home airport experience a double fatality about 20 minutes before we landed. A very experienced pilot was showing off his home built to his sister. An engine failure upon takeoff resulted in an attempted 180 return, stall and crash. It was a sad day for general aviation and I doubt my EX will every fly in a small plane again. The good news is I would guess she will do what ever it takes to keep the life insurance policy she has on me current.