pilot's logbook

XW T/O, Landings, steep turns. Turns around a point. Wind correction.
(I'm making these notes way too late. It's actually Thursday night the 26th. Gotta do better, maybe before I go anywhere else after the lesson.)

* I made sure my hair was our of the way of the headset, and that made a big difference.

* Better control of the plane today. At least one of the 360 degree turns was right on. There wasn't a clear horizon line, so I watched the inside controls a more, but I'm looking forward to a clear day.

* It does help that I figured out that to hold a particular airspeed you nose down to make the needle go down and pull up to make the needle go up (on the right hand side of the dial where I am anyway). Along with that, Mike says the actual airspeed doesn't matter that much as long as it's within a range. (pretty much in the green)(?)

* Joy! I suddenly understood how easy it can be to keep track of the wind direction by looking at the numbers on the heading indicator. If the wind is from 180 deg, you just see how 180 relates to the graphic of the airplane. (Mike's scratching his head here. Actually, he doesn't give much away in the way of reactions. Maybe being a CFI teaches you to be really laid back.)

* When we were talking about avoiding other traffic, Mike told me about his friend Chris (who I actually met when I was at Clark Co. Airport with Barry last week.) He complimented Chris, saying he was an excellent pilot. I think I asked him in what way, and Mike said Chris was the kind of person who really knows everthing there is to know about piloting, and if you ask him a question he doesn't know the answer to, he'll dig until he finds it.

* Mike says he (Mike) is different. He's ok with saying "I don't know," he'd rather be flying the planes. I like that.

* Thank goodness I hadn't eaten breakfast. We were considering setting down at Clark County. Annoying.

* Insight after the fact: that cockpit is really small. It's way too easy to be in somebody else's space and not realize it.

Like the picture of our plane? Google has everything.

Alex

Know what I'm doing right now?  I went to Google images and dragged every image of an altimeter I could find over to a word processor page, and spread them all out so that I can practice reading the damn thing.  Maybe even just finding it.

Ah, give it another week. <grin>

pilot's logbook

AM: Barry sent me a volunteer opportunity. Go help out at the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation booth for Day-Before-Thunder-Over-Louisville. I met Carol & Mike Brady, Bonnie, Annette (works at Air National Guard), Laura (from Ohio), Lee (pilots the big green plane that they all came in), J___, piloted the Huey I rode in, Leia (works for nursing homes, Jim Shaeffer (part owner of planes and/or other at Air Center One), and a lot of other people whose names have already slipped out of my head.

We had a great spot to watch the air show (probably a complete rehearsal for Thunder). F-16, A-10 Warthog/Thunderbird?, P-38? Thunderbird?, Navy Seals. The AAHF had Hueys, Cobras and Apaches. Riding in the Huey was amazingly smooth.

Lesson with Mike:
Taxiing, climbs, descents, steep turns, stalls, slow flight, landing.

When I came in, Mike was upstairs with a student, and Dane asked me whether I wanted to go ahead and preflight the C152. OK. I had plenty of time to do it, because Dane forgot to tell Mike that I was there, and he was waiting inside for me. oops.

I'm glad it worked out that way. I felt like I knew what I was doing for the most part, and the things I didn't know were:
Fuel strainer (pull the white gizmo beside the oil checker, while reaching underneath to check the gas that comes out.)
Carborator air filter (down under the nose, check it for debris)
Avionics cooling fan (still don't know about that one)
Avionics off. Switch (down or up? It's the silver toggle switch that's not marked)

So, that's one section of this stuff that I feel confident about. It's not this big confusing list anymore.

Flying was more difficult than it should have been. I wasn't "multitasking" well at all. Half the time the flight instruments seem like they work backwards of what I expect (direction-wise). And while I don't have any problem with nose up=pull back, nosedown=push forward, adding one more step, ie. "hold airspeed at 70 knots" means I'm watching the airspeed indicator and forgetting how this chain of thought works to keep it correct. (Figuring this out, to bring the needle down, take the nose down. This only works on the right side of the dial, but if I get the moves there, I'll have it. ). Now, if I could just do the same for the altimeter. It doesn't speak to me yet. Maybe some altimeter flash cards. If it works to teach 6-year-olds how to tell time, it might work for me.

I kept losing altitude on my turns, and coming out of them late. Think about how far 100 feet is from the ground, and then think how easily you lose that much in the air. Mind-boggling. I hadn't thought of that until Mike mentioned it.

At one point, Mike asked me whether I was scared of what might happen so he showed me a little more what the plane will or won't do. I don't think I'm scared. I just don't feel it yet, and I'm used to doing things by feel. Also being good at whatever I do. Talk about being out of your comfort zone!

Even though I was using Barry's headset, I was still having problems hearing thru it. We ended up ditching the headsets and just shouting. I'm going to check prices on the David Clark headsets and the AvComm200.

I asked about when you decide to use the throttle to make a difference in altitude, and when you use pitch. Ans: big changes (more than a couple of hundred feet) probably raise or lower the RPM. We did a sideslip. That's cool.

Looking back at this, it almost looks like it wasn't a good lesson. But actually, it was. Even though it took me most of the evening to get in the groove at all, I felt a lot less uptight. (I give Mike a lot of credit --he handles that well.) I scheduled three lessons next week. Mon Wed & Fri, all in the morning. Maybe that will be enough to get us over this particular hump. After that, it will just be fun.

Frank and I talked about all this. He was being really convincing that he not only doesn't mind me doing all this, but really, really, wants me to do it and do it well.

pilot's logbook

I spent this morning with Carmel and her friend, Steve, who is a tree farmer in Henry County. Carmel wants to know more about managing the timber at the farm. Sounds good to me.

Flying lesson # 4.
Taxiing, climbs, descents, XW, T/O, landing, steep turns, wind correction, pilotage.

First we talked about landing. Mike gave me the V airspeed info for our C152. I went out to do the exterior check. There actually was something in the gas--it looked like worms in the tester. Mike says oil. I also had a hard time seeing the gas level in the wing tanks, and that's because there wasn't much in there.

"Bowman Ground, Cessna 69011 at Air Central One information Victor to depart runway 32. " Something like that. What?

Takeoff with a cross-wind: hold ailerons all the way into the wind on the runway. Let them level gradually on (before?) rotation. More attempts at straight-and-level, climbing and descending, medium turns and steep turns, setting the trim correctly. It was a beautiful day. Mike had me glide, and we made an attempt at a run-through for an emergency landing in a field. I practiced following a road, having to crab the plane into the wind to do it. Coming back, he had me figure out how to get home, and it's really hard to see the airports. But there are two breaks in the trees, and one was Bowman and one was Standiford.

As we were coming in, there was another plane near us, and I understood the radio telling us that, but I never saw him. Mike did, eventually, and he was right under us. Gotta work on that!

Good session. I was bushed at the end of it. Mike did say one thing that made sense. What if he were trying to learn the flute, and had spent 5 hours at it? How far along would he be? That's telling.

I want to remember to print off the info for that pilot kit and take it to Mike.
Also it occurs to me that all the time we were practicing using headings, I guess with the wind, we weren't actually moving in the direction of the compass. I'll ask Mike about that. Also, I want to spend a little more time just watching Mike fly. He's good.I know how my brain works. I'll soak it up more smoothly if I do that.

During the night the Standiford Field traffic woke me up. They must have been flying base right over our house, one jet every two minutes, for at least a half-hour. Then it stopped.

Southern Indiana Airports

Barry invited me to go flying. He has a beautiful plane, a blue and white 1972 Piper Cherokee 140E.

I met him behind Hap's at Clark County Airport on one of the first nice sunny warmish days we've had for a while. Lots of people had the same idea. We flew to Seymour Airport where he was checking on some Civil Air Patrol planes that are in for maintenance.

Next we flew to Madison Airport. I didn't know these neat places existed. Barry introduced me to at least a dozen interesting people. There was lots to watch, listen to, and talk about.

Jericho

A storm came through and knocked out the internet and cable just about the time Jericho was supposed to come on. Rats!

Medical exam

I got my second class medical certificate today. Dr. Glen Stoutt was great fun to talk to. He must love flying, and he sure likes talking to people.

My blood pressure has never been high until the last couple months, when it's crept up a little bit. (Why now?) The second time he took it it was within limits, but I'll have to work on that. Too close for comfort.

I'll have to stop taking phentermine. Hopefully it got me started on the weight loss, and I'll be able to continue.

The eye test was close, too, but it's past time to have my glasses checked. While I'm at it, I probably need to make my current pair into sunglasses, since I don't have any bifocal sunglasses. Or maybe I should get the automatic tint glasses. If I'm wearing sunglasses and need to read something on a chart, will I be able to see it with the tint? Gotta think this one thru, too.

I'm reviewing and reading.

Next lesson I plan to:
Spend as much time as it takes to get the headset right. I'll get with Barry before Monday and take the one he offered to lend me.
Start echoing back to Mike what he has me doing. That way maybe I'll remember more of the details and also get more used to the terminology.
Use better rudder & trim.

Questions:
The handbook goes into a lot of detail for different degrees of turn. It says that for a 30-degree (medium) turn you should use ailerons, elevator and rudder to set the turn, then relax the ailerons and rudder, but hold the elevators. The plane is supposed to hold its bank. Then to get out of the turn, you apply the controls in the opposite direction. I don't think that ever happened when I was doing those 360degree turns. I had to hold the controls the whole time. I think.

Check some of my flash card answers with Mike. Landing procedures, optimum speeds,

Since I only had one lesson this week, maybe I can get in three next week. Debbie just called and said they had made a mistake and underpaid me by $50 a month all year. It's a sign--more practice. I'll have to thank Sherry for the windfall.

pilot's logbook

C-152 N69011 LOU LOU Preflight, Taxiing, climbs, descents, straight & level, T/O & landing, steep turns. 1-1/2 hr.

All right! This is possible. Without all the wind of the last two flights, we had an entirely different experience. I was worried. Now I'm not.

Preflight is starting to make sense.
I pretty much followed the yellow line when taxiing, which is a HUGE improvement over last time.
Takeoff makes sense. Mike was telling me what to do, but it doesn't feel difficult. The plane does all the work.
We flew over Indiana today. Lots of practice trying to hold a 30-degree bank and keep level, also practice climbing steadily. It's not steady yet, but at least I'm starting to feel it and to know what it all looks like when it's right. This time I was looking outside for most of the verification, and checking with the instruments. The amount of bank you have to do to show 30 degrees on instruments looks a whole lot more like 45 degrees out the window.
We worked on maintaining airspeed by changing the pitch.
I learned how to set the trim.
At one point, Mike had me take the plane up to 5,000 ft and head back S toward the river, about 15 miles. We pulled the engine back to just idle, so essentially we were gliding. Now THAT was interesting. The plane just hangs there, moving along, doing its thing. Coming back in, Mike had me take the river to 6-Mile Island, then hang a left toward Kaden Tower. Bowman Field is on the right. Now I can't remember how the last turn(s) were. Did I just hang a right and go in? I don't remember.

Looking forward to next Monday!

Pilot's logbook

4/6 C-152 N69011 LOU LOU Taxiing, Preflight, straight & level, climbs, descents, XW T/O, Landing. 1 hr.

I went up, and it was a beautiful day.  Gusty winds, again, but a cloud of snow that Mike had me go into just a little, which was beautiful.  But I barely noticed that, because I was so busy torturing that little airplane trying to keep it steady and such.  

A number of useful things happened.  At one point, Mike complimented me on how I handled a big bump of wind.  I told him I didn't do it, the plane did it herself, which was worth noticing.

He had me flying straight-and-level and making turns.  At one point he told me it was like we were in a "big parking lot." 

That helped.  And MIke ran the throttle the whole time, which was better than me doing it.  I think I need to get a better sense of what is normal, how the plane sounds and feels when it is right instead of all the individual details and instruments and stuff inside the cockpit being separate and confusing input.

After the lesson, I asked for homework and Mike assigned me to read the FAA chapter on straight-and-level flight and turns, and as soon as I turned to the page, I saw the piece that I've been missing.  It's  under "Integrated Flight Instruction" on pg. 3-3. 

This means the use of outside references and flight instruments to establish and maintain desired flight attitudes and airplane performance...

The airplane's attitude is established and maintained by positioning the airplane in relation to the natural horizon. At least 90 percent of the pilot's attention should be devoted to this end, along with scanning for other airplanes.
90% of the time, the pilot's attention should be outside the cockpit.  No more than 10% of the pilot's attention should be inside the cockpit...

If the airplane's performance, as indicated by flight instruments, indicates a need for correction, a specific amount of correction must be determined, then applied WITH REFERENCE TO THE NATURAL HORIZON. The airplane's attitude and performance are then rechecked by referring to the flight instruments. THE PILOT THEN MAINTAINS THE CORRECTED ATTITUDE BY REFERENCE TO THE NATURAL HORIZON.

The pilot should monitor the airplane's performance by making numerous quick glances at the flight instruments. No more than 10 percent of the pilot's attention should be inside the cockpit. The pilot must develop the skill to instantly focus on the appropriate flight instrument, and then immediately return to outside reference to control the airplane's attitude.

Level flight, at first, is a matter of consciously fixing the relationship of the positions of some portion of the airplane, used as a reference point, with the horizon ... maintain a light grip on the flight controls ... learn to associate the apparent movement of the references with the forces which produce it. ... develop the ability to regulate the change desired in the plane's attitude by the amount and direction of forces applied to the controls without the necessity of 

To establish the desired angle of bank,the pilot should use outside visual reference points, as well as the bank indicator on the attitude indicator.

The best outside reference for establishing the degree of bank is the angle formed by ... the lowered wing of high-wing airplanes.

This sounds like what I WANT to be doing, anyway.   I'll read and visualize this chapter as much as possible, and then show it to Mike and ask if he'll work on it with me Monday.

I 'm going to go to Google Earth and look at Bowman Field and at the area between there and Shelbyville.  I think I'll print a copy and ask Mike to help me mark on it where it is we fly.  He told me, but I want to be a lot more clear and set myself things to look for.

Barry sent me an article on how to taxi.  I'll read it next. I'm not even going to go into how badly I move that airplane on the ground.  It's really humbling. 

It's probably good for me as a teacher.  We have a story that we sometimes snicker about--when Beth was driving, but hadn't been doing it very long, and she got into the car and said "Gas on the right, brake on the left."  Whoever was riding with her about had a cow.  Well, that's where I am with these controls.  I'm saying aloud: Push in, go forward.  Pull back, stop. I'm looking at a directional indicator and asking myself, do I go right or left to get to (whatever heading)? I might see all my piano students in a different light when we start up after spring break.  

I'm also determined that if I can make a cranky old pipe organ behave with finesse and class, I can do this, too.  Ha!

Jericho--"One Man's Terrorist"

I didn't get to watch Jericho at its regular time, so I got the next edition from iTunes on Thursday. "One Man's Terrorist" was pretty powerful. It came together with the Holy Thursday mass, how it plays out the idea of service, loyalty, conviction, and the conflicts that develop from those values. The other thing that you noticed with this episode was the tension caused by the availablity of weapons and acceptance of violent methods in service of those values. Simply because weapons were available, the situations could, and did, veer into catastrophe at any point.

Very American.

Holy Thursday Morning Prayer St. Joe 6:30 AM

This morning Fr. Bill presided at morning prayer. He introduced it beautifully as the beginning of the Triduum. There were about 35 people who came. Sharon and I were doing the song leading. I could tell Sharon was a little nervous about being by herself on the other side of the church, but she did a fine job of starting everyone on that side and keeping them together when we sang antiphonally. I did record, so maybe I'll have something worth keeping.

Practical stuff: We needed more choir. We defaulted to me singing solo and the people in church singing the alternating verses, which is actually ok, but not what we had intended. I recruited Pat and her husband to come on my side and sing tomorrow, and Bill will be there with Sharon, so that should fix it for tomorrow.

Also, I ran over Fr. Bill's reflection by starting the Gospel Canticle. Habit, I guess. How often do I ever attend MP with a priest as the presider? Almost never.

This is just nit-picky stuff to remember in facilitating next year. It was a beautiful service. Someday hopefully someone will want to do it more often than two days of the year. We sing again tomorrow--Good Friday.

Pilot's logbook

4/4 C-152 LOU LOU Taxiing, Preflight, Straight& Level, Turns (30 degree), T/O & landing, XW
I had my first lesson today. AirCenterOne is located at Bowman Field (KLOU). My instructor is Michael Bingham, CFI.

At first we were going to cancel because the weather was "marginal"-- clouds and gusty winds. I suggested we spend the hour doing Q&A and informational stuff. After I got there, we decided to go up anyway.

Mike walked me thru the pre-flight inspection. Then we got in and I was introduced to the rest of the procedures. Most of it made sense, but there was an awful lot of it. Sensory overload. The Cessna C152 is going to be fun, but actually I didn't feel too much fun today. There's a huge difference between riding and trying to be in a position of understanding and responsibility for what goes on. Also, by the end I was feeling a little green around the gills.

So far, I suck at taxiing. Were we ever on the yellow line? I guess I crossed it several times.

All the moves are things I am not at all used to. To taxi, you drive with your feet (for direction) and one hand on the throttle for speed. Brakes are at the top of the rudder pedals. At first you basically run the machine with one hand on the throttle. That's seemed to be the operative issue from ground to some kind of cruising state, and it gets adjusted a lot during that time. The other hand is on the wheel in charge of ailerons and elevators. I never got any feel for that, either. I'll blame it on the winds. Mike was basically flying and I was messing him up, I think.

I'm learning a lot from Mike, and not just the aviation stuff. He's a real go-getter about the flight instructor business, and that's useful in itself. I should apply his example to my music lessons. I'll have to if I'm going to pay for all this. $176 today.

Some things he does:
* talk it through, talk it through, and keep on talking. What we're doing, why, how it works. I don't know how many times I'll have to hear it all before it clicks, so I'm glad he doesn't just leave it at short explanations.
* he's assertive about getting my business.

Takeoff was about like I expected, but landing surprised me. First of all, how you can ever get in line for that runway (but everyone learns how, right?) Interesting was how slow it felt when we were coming in for final approach. It's like the plane stops and hovers and hangs and then sinks. (I doubt it will seem slow when I have to do it, but that's how it felt today).

We're going up again on Friday.

The owner of Air Center One is Tony, and I met about 8 other pilots and instructors. Do I remember any names? No.

I talked to the people at Bardstown Airfield (Honaker Aviation), also, but I think I'll wait 'til down the road to get in any contact with them. Eventually I'll want to, for proximity and networking, at least.

I also sent an email to (and heard back from) a local person who is willing to be a mentor. His name is Barry, and he looks to be interested and interesting. He flies his plane out of the Clark County Airport, but I think he actually lives in Shepherdsville.

So I'll have local advice to add to Amy's friends Alex and Julie.

Alaska Wednesday

This morning we got up a little late.  We called Alex Roesch, who is Amy's friend who flies cargo planes.  (Today he goes to Nome and somewhere else, I forget).  We met him for breakfast before he heads out. Alex flies old cargo planes, like from the 40's.  He loves it.  He's also serious about learning guitar.  And he's an artist.  We talked about flying and music and the coffee delivery business he's trying to get started.

After breakfast we walked around downtown, bought some wool (kiviat) made by a cooperative of native villages from musk ox hair. It's supposed to be 5 times as warm as other wool.  I'm taking it to Mom to see what she wants to do with it.

We went to REI to look for socks and gloves for Amy, but she didn't find what she wanted.  We came on home to check whether Gmail Chat works on Macintosh, and once we were sure it would, we went back out:   to the Mall, which is six stories tall around an ice-skating rink, and then to CompUSA to buy a computer, which we didn't buy but instead came home and ordered online.   Wheeee!!

Supper of more asparagus & noodles, then over to Jenny's house for a piano lesson. She's a really nice, comfortable person, and I would have liked to get to know her, but if we started talking there wouldn't have been any piano lesson.  While they played piano, I walked in her "back yard," a long path around a frozen lake, which I could only go about a fourth of the way around.  Then I went with Amy to choir practice at St. Patrick's church.  She works with the children's choir, which is preparing for Easter.

Home again, Amy is knitting while I write.  We might watch a movie or something.  maybe.

blog  http://randomlight.blogspot.com

========================================================

"It is necessary for us to realize that we have moved from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights. When you deal with human rights you are not dealing with something clearly defined in the Constitution. They are rights that are clearly defined by the mandates of a humanitarian concern."

 - Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated April 4, 1968.

Alaska Tuesday

Tuesday already!  Time flies when you're having fun!

Yesterday, after that long day on the water, we decided to skip eating out and just do the peanut-butter bagel & apples and cheese thing. We had time to sit around and talk and chill.  After dark, Amy went up and spent about an hour in the hot tub (outside, surrounded by tall fir trees and mounds of snow). She said it was really quiet.

 This morning we ate another great breakfast with Sheila and Al, played their piano and sang a little, then left before 10:00.  We checked out the Resurrection Cafe (a converted church), where Amy bought a print by Rockwell Kent.  We went to the library for a while, and while I finished downloading my flight simulator, Amy walked around.

Lunch was fresh fish sandwich and barley beef soup. 

The Seward Sea Life Center is a real jewel.  It's a research facility and museum that was set up by the money collected after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and it's a beautiful place.  It's not crowded with stuff, and the displays all make sense.  The first amazement was a tank of jellyfish that had to be just about the most beautiful creatures you could imagine, floating and swirling thru the water.  The best "displays" are the two-story tanks of seals, ducks, and sea-birds.  You could sit all day watching them swim, which you can do from below or above, indoors or out. There were very few people there, so we had the museum staff pretty much to ourselves, and the interpreters went out of their way to teach us what we were really looking at.  There were hands-on tanks of starfish and sea anemones, who didn't mind being touched ("gently, with two fingers"), and we got to watch a crab being fed to an octopus.  

The drive back to Anchorage was just great for listening to music and watching the scenery.  It doesn't get any better. Supper was noodles & asparagus & mushrooms, and then we went to Flattop to watch the sun go down.  We went after that to two places Amy likes to hang out:  hot chocolate & chai at the TapRoot Cafe, and then hung out at Open Mike at the Golden Lion.  I met Justin, Erin, Lisa, Ian, Gary, Scott and Angela.  Amy talked to everybody, and arranged a pot-luck supper at her house on Friday. It sounds like it will be a full house.

Tomorrow I get to meet Alex.

blog  http://randomlight.blogspot.com

========================================================

RESPECT RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SPIRIT AND MATTER.

Consider all aspects of human settlement, including community, dwelling, industry and trade, in terms of existing and evolving connections between spiritual and material consciousness.

--Hannover Principle #3

Alaska Sunday

On a Wonderful Day like today....!!!!!!!!!

Amy wishes I'd quit singing that song,  but it keeps coming back.  We're at the Treehouse Bed & Breakfast near Seward, Alaska.  It's a beautiful two-room suite in a house in a subdivision (kindof like our subdivision at home), but with a black-rock creek in back and steep mountains behind the creek and 5 to 10 feet of snow everywhere.  We just got back from a snowshoe walk back the creek.  The sun is shining and we were in our own Sierra Club Calendar.   In a little while we'll go into town for supper, and then maybe come back here to use the hot tub.  I hope the stars are visible.  We're pretty far from any city. Somebody saw Northern Lights night before last.

Catching up....

Amy's interview was interesting.  She thought it was for radio voiceovers, but it was probably for TV.  You'll have to get the description from her.  I piddled around most of the day. Upgraded the RAM in my Mac.  We ended up going for a walk with the dogs in a frozen bog behind a middle school.  Crooka was my lead sled dog a few times when we had to take steep hills or get thru drifts.   There' s a pathway where people have walked, and as long as you're on it, you're ok.  But if you stray just a hair to the side, down you go into the snow, and it's knee deep or more. We ended up standing on the score board at a ball field on the top of a hill overlooking Anchorage.  I think the ground is a lot lower in the summer.

When we got back, we got with Jane and went to Chili's (St. Joe's treat), since the people in Jane's favorite TV show hang out there.  It was interesting, but not great food choices if you're vegetarian, especially since they were all out of salmon, halibut or tilapia.  Which left shrimp.  I had a mushroom swiss cheese burger which was good but overwhelming.

This morning we packed our stuff and headed down the southern highway toward Seward.  The entire drive was sunshiny and stunning.  Mountains on all sides--360 degrees, with the icy water to our immediate right.   Majestic, snowy.  Think of the Tetons and then raise it a power or two.  We spent $7 ea. to go in a wildlife animal rescue area and walk around and see caribou, buffalo, elk, moose &  bears.  Kindof like the Wolf Park.  These are animals that are rescued from some kind of situation, then rehabilitated and relocated.

Driving on, the road was lined with trucks and trailers of snowmobilers.  The snowmobile tracks were interesting--looping up the mountainside as far as they dare, then back down.  Kids are pulled behind the snowmobile in a plastic boat.

 We stopped in a little store in Moose Pass for ice cream.  We plan to go to Hope on the way back.  We're looking for handmade knives and Beluga whales.

The whole drive was like being in National Geographic. It called for a little helicopter-ride-style music, but Amy's CD player and radio conked out, and my laptop speakers aren't loud enough to do the job.   I tried singing John Denver, but I don't think it had the same effect.

See y'all!   Keep warm!

maggiemom

blog  http://randomlight.blogspot.com

========================================================

SEEK CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT BY THE SHARING OF KNOWLEDGE.

Encourage direct and open communication between colleagues, patrons, manufacturers and users to link long-term sustainable considerations with ethical responsibility and to reestablish the integral relationship between natural processes and human activity.

--Hannover Principle #9

Alaska Monday

I hear it's in the 80's at home.  Here, we're surrounded by chin-high snow piles wherever we go. We're having a hard time getting to internet connections, so you guys may just get all these messages all at once.  It might be a little better than getting postcards, which always arrive after we get home.

Today is Seward's Day, and we're in Seward, so we hoped there might be some special festivities going on, but there aren't. The most notable effect of Seward's Day is that the library is closed, so we can't get to the internet.

Last night we borrowed our host's snowshoes and went plowing along the top of drifted snow that covers a running creek.  We barely saw the creek, and the snow we were walking on covered the tops of small trees.  Snowshoes are easy to get tangled with each other, but they do work well as long as you think a little pigeon-toed. A gorgeous walk!

This morning we  had a beautiful breakfast of yogurt & sourdough pancakes with berry jelly, which was our main meal of the day.   At noon we were on a boat (the Chugach) heading out Resurrection Bay.   Steep mountains jut straight out of the water on all sides, which makes it a fjord.  We weren't even out of the harbor when we saw two humpback whales swimming together.  At one point they were right next to us.  We watched them for about 15 minutes.  We saw bald eagles nesting, a colony of sea lions, choppy waters and a snowstorm coming in from the Pacific, sea otters and glacier ice.     The glacier ice is a blue (aquamarine) jewel color, which comes from the density of the ice. It kindof  glows. People are friendly, and we're finding plenty to look at and do.  

We would have stayed in town for supper if an internet place was open, but since we couldn't find one, we came on back.  Amy's reading a journal by Rockwell Kent, an artist who spent a stretch of time in a cabin on this shore with his 9-year-old son. She knows his artwork from the museum she volunteers at.   I'm reading my aviation books, so we're happy even when we're not out in the snow or the wind. 

Supper was peanutbutter bagel, cheese, bananas, pistachios& salt-water taffy.    Tomorrow we have tickets to the SeaLife Center, then we'll head back to Anchorage.

love y'all!

Maggie Hettinger

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle, maybe worse than your own."

Alaska Friday

What a great day!

Yesterday I spent the middle of the day at Borders' Books. I ordered a chai and sat down to use the internet.  One thing following another, I started looking up "Learn to Fly"   and Pilot and such.  I clicked on a flight simulator to download it, not realizing that it was about a gigabyte of program.  While it was downloading (a couple of hours,and not finished yet), I looked in the flight section, and found a couple of really interesting books on piloting:   "Taking the Short Approach" and "FAA Airplane Flying Handbook."  I couldn't choose between them, so I got them both, and lucked into a 25% educator discount this weekend. Then I went outside in the snow, hit the button to heat up the back window of the car, realized I'd hit the flasher button instead of rear defrost.  Guess what? The flashers wouldn't turn off.  Pried and poked for a while, then called AAA for the nice young man to jimmy it out with his pocketknife (which took a while, even for him) and then disconnect the wires.  While I was waiting I sat in the parking lot and downloaded more flight simulator from there.  Sweet.

(maybe I could have done it myself if I was carrying my pocketknife, but I don't carry it on trips anymore just so I don't risk losing it at the airport.  How bizarre.   It's like the opposites I used to look for when I was doing the philosophy thing.  Opposites are the pointers to the key important points)

Drove downtown, wandered past the museums and other interesting places, but ended up looking for more of the coastal trail, and found it in a neat (and probably very expensive) neighborhood that's within 5 minutes walk of downtown and 3 minutes walk of the trail and the coast.  I walked for about an hour, turning around at a lagoon where people were ice skating.  (It's the place where Amy skates.).  

When I got back, I saw Amy's florist shop--very pretty, lots of classy arrangements and stuff, met Annie and the lady at the desk whose name I didn't catch.   We went to the computer store, then home to snack on apples & cheese with Jane's friend Jenny (?) and looked for places to stay in Seward. 

Today (Saturday), Amy has an interview at the radio station (voiceovers and such), so that's the big item for the day.  Tomorrow we hope to go to Seward and spend a couple of nights.   

Love youall!

Mom

Maggie Hettinger

CIA Veteran Michael Scheuer: "Every time we interfere in Muslim countries, they get more support. In the long run, we're not safer, because we're still operating on the assumption that we're hated because of our freedoms, when in fact we're hated because of our actions in the Islamic world."

good morning! ALASKA!!!

I'm sitting at Amy's countertop. The snow is outside, and at 8:00 it's been light for a while.  Grey light, so I don't know if it's overcast or just the sun comes up slowly.

Last night we went walking on the Coastal Trail.  The snow is packed there, and lots of people were cross-country skiing. There are two continuous ruts for the Nordic skiers, and a wider path for walkers and skate-skiers. We passed lots of happy people and happy dogs.  It's a path thru birch and fir trees, just beyond the airport (under the flight path), following along the water, which is rushing by full of ice.  It seems so purposeful, all that ice, going somewhere.  The sun, on the other hand, doesn't seem like it's going anywhere. When we got there, it was low in the sky.  We walked a pretty good clip, then turned around and came back, but the sun seemed as if it was in the same place.  I think it moves sideways instead of down.  Eventually it did go down, and we had lots of time to watch the purples and greens come up in the water, and the reds and pinks hit the sky.

Amy made a great squash pie while we listened to piano music, and we ate it with Jane, then hit the hay. I slept really well, warm and comfy.

------------

What have I done this morning?    I had a nice breakfast in Amy's kitchen, then dropped her off at work. 

I drove around the corner and saw CompUSA, so I went in there to see if they have Macintosh stuff. They do. I bought a RAM upgrade for my computer, since I really like having lots of cool programs running all the time. At the checkout the RAM scanned at about half the price I expected, which was already a good price, so now I'm going to decide whether I can replace it myself, or if I should have them do it for $45. I'll take Amy there to shop.

I went across the street to the Salvation Army store.  Found a $5 pair of boots size 9 and a $2 pr. of long underwear and a $1.50 sipper cup.   I had  a bit of a first when I was leaving and asked someone looking at wedding dresses if she knew how to get to K. Brothers (for wireless internet).   She/he was a surprising person under all that long red hair, but nice enough. Then I had another first when I turned the corner out of the parking lot and drove in front of a really big moose picking his way around the snow heaps, deciding if he/she was going to cross the road, I think.  My only other adventure was helping some 4-year olds pull up pants and wash hands in the restroom in John Myers, or whatever.

On to the next!   I'm heading to the Coastal Trail for a long walk.

blog  http://randomlight.blogspot.com

========================================================

ELIMINATE THE CONCEPT OF WASTE.

Evaluate and optimize the full life cycle of products and processes to approach the state of natural systems, in which there is no waste.

--Hannover Principle #6

War Ethics

Funny how easily we confuse "The Military" with "the troops." As a Catholic Christian, should I support the United States Global Military Complex, that gargantuan, weapon-spewing, violence-dispensing machine that all too often negates the humanity of its enemies and its members alike?
Or should I support those Americans whose patriotism, youth, and/or economic need are being taken advantage of by violence profiteering?
Jesus gave a direct answer to his followers. When confronted with a violent situation, he healed the attacker whose ear was cut off by a disciple, even though his own existence and the existence of his fellowship was threatened by a crowd with swords and clubs. Jesus stopped the disciples from violent retribution. Jesus actually protected the "enemy" with his Word.
If Jesus says "No violence" even to protect himself (Son of God), what values should we be presumptuous enough to say are worth "protecting" by violence?
Support the troops. Bring them home.
Support God's children. Put away the sword.

CLIMATE SCIENCE: Overturning Ocean Circulation

RESEARCH ABSTRACT:
CLIMATE SCIENCE: Overturning Ocean Circulation
H. Jesse Smith
It has been suggested that Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC; the northward flow of water in the upper kilometer of the north Atlantic Ocean and southward flow below) could be affected by global warming, in turn substantially affecting the climate of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in Europe. Observations of the strength of the circulation, taken over ~1-month periods in different seasons of each of the years 1957, 1981, 1992, 1998, and 2004, have been used to argue that the MOC has slowed by about 30% over that interval. Searl et al. have now analyzed simulations of the MOC from the HadCM3 climate model and found no significant trend in the strength of the MOC over the period in question. Furthermore, variations in the MOC as large as 30% were very unusual.

The discrepancy between the model and measurements may be due not to inherent limitations of the model, but rather to the small number of observations, short-term variability of the MOC, and measurement errors, which together inhibit accurate estimates of multidecadal trends from the data. Indeed, after taking all such factors into account, the HadCM3 results are fully consistent with the observations. To determine with confidence how the MOC may be changing on interannual and seasonal time scales in the warming world, continuous monitoring of water transport appears to be needed. -- HJS

Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L03610 (2007).