Directions to the farm

N to JVY go north past 2nd quarry.
Veer left (before Memphis) and travel up that "valley" to Greenville. US60.
Hang a left before the lake.]

PS. I have just found out that winds "veer" to the right and "back" to the left. This leads me to think that my directions are inaccurate, as you would "back" to the left before Memphis.

BUT, that is actually wrong. When a wind veers, it is the direction the wind is coming from that changes to the right. So perhaps the wind, from its own point of view, is veering to the left.

Looking at an airplane in motion as similar to air in motion being a wind, shouldn't an airplane "veer" when it is changing direction to the left? I guess the directions to the farm stand uncorrected.

Airport Extreme Update. Whoo Hoo!!!!!

The other day I clicked thru on one of those automatic updates from Apple. One of them must have spoken to our Airport Extreme (wireless router).

This morning, I noticed that the pre-Leopard flat-panel iMac (which I just moved from the back room to the living room) had an active wireless icon on it. It was online with the wireless!!! I told Frank he could put his drill away, which he had out to drill holes in the hardwood floor to string ethernet to the living room.

THEN, I went and pulled out our Fujitsu tablet computer (running Windows 2000) and IT found the Wireless as well!!!!

So, now I have the imac flat panel in the living room. It can display family photos and play music through those wonderful speakers, AND we aren't deprived of the necessary internet port.

The tablet computer is again going be available for StumbleUpon, which makes it a wonderful interactive, portable magazine.

Comfort!!

Mima's oatmeal cookies

2 eggs, beaten
2 c light brown sugar (subst. 1/4 c gran sugar)
2 sticks butter, melted
1 c raisins
1 c black walnuts
2 c flour w. 1 t baking powder & a pinch of salt
4 c oats
1 t soda dissolved in 1 T warm water

375º for 10 minutes

Dear Oprah, Barack, Bill, and Rush

Let's encourage everyone to gift themselves, their families, the country and the world with a gift that keeps on giving. The Gift is 80%.

As we all cut back on unnecessary and un-productive consumption, we can cut the prices we charge and/or the hours we expect to work to 80% of our current (recent?) level.

Bingo. Prices are back where most people can afford them. All of us have more time to improve quality of life. No need to lay off people.

Life is good. There is plenty of work to be done. Of course we can do it.

(And let's get a move on health care reform.)

Video of Private Pilot Oral Exam

Go figure

PSYCHOLOGY: Don't Get Even, Stay Mad

Gilbert Chin
Declarations of unintentionality ("I didn't mean to hurt you") often suffice to defuse tense situations and to reduce or eliminate vengeful responses to a harmful act. But does the reining in of aggressive behavior reflect deliberate and effortful control of those impulses, or does the claim of a lack of purpose serve to dissolve one's anger?

Using a social evaluation setting, Krieglmeyer et al. obtain evidence linking the attribution of intention to a conscious overriding of impulsive aggression.

They presented students with positive or negative ratings (from an unseen partner) of their ideas for naming a new energy drink; half of the students who had received negative feedback were then told that their partner had mistaken the high-low direction of the rating scale and had in fact intended to assign them positive marks.

When assessed specifically for anger using an implicit measure and for behavior by means of the same rating scale, this set of students displayed a lower level of aggression as compared to the students whose negative assessments had been intentional (although they still exhibited a higher level of hostility than the students who had received positive ratings initially).

In contrast, learning that the negative ratings had been delivered in error and that the actual intent had been to send positive feedback had no effect on the levels of implicit anger. -- GJC

J. Exp. Soc. Psych. 44, 10.1016/j/jesp.2008.10.003 (2008).

Colin Powell and good sense. Watch the video!

Exactly! Right! Don't just read it, watch the video linked to this title.

constant-speed propeller

The short-and-sweet version, as per Jim:
Different settings for climb, cruise, etc. will be in the POH.

Remember, going uP, Prop first; going down, throttle first.

Once airborne, RPM becomes your prop reading and manifold pressure becomes your throttle reading.

To lean, you really have to use a Engine Gas Temperature gauge. Trying to do it by manifold pressure is just not good.

PS.
BJ passed his private pilot test. Ka-ching!

Fwd: Amy& Cayuse reunion

pax,

Maggie

http://randomlight.blogspot.com

"The difference between one and more than one is all the difference in the world.  Indeed, it is the world."  --LeGuin

Begin forwarded message:

From: Maggie Hettinger <mhettinger@mac.com>
Date: August 19, 2008 11:09:17 AM EDT
To: Beth Peña <bethpena9@hotmail.com>, Amy Hettinger <amyhettinger@gmail.com>, Laura Hettinger <laurahettinger@gmail.com>, Natalie Hettinger <natalie.hettinger@wku.edu>, Frank Hettinger <iueclou@bellsouth.net>, Marcella Herde <maherde@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Amy& Cayuse reunion

pax,
Maggie

http://randomlight.blogspot.com

"The difference between one and more than one is all the difference in the world.  Indeed, it is the world."  --LeGuin

Dad is heavy into research. Loves the Internet.

parachute usage

Do I need to wear a parachute when doing aerobatics in my homebuilt?


Parachute usage is covered in 14 CFR 91.307. Section (c) of this regulation applies to aircraft during aerobatic maneuvers. It states:

"(c) Unless each occupant of the aircraft is wearing an approved parachute, no pilot of a civil aircraft carrying any person (other than a crewmember) may execute any intentional maneuver that exceeds --

(1) A bank of 60 degrees relative to the horizon; or

(2) A nose-up or nose-down attitude of 30 degrees relative to the horizon."

Note that this regulation states that, during aerobatic flight, all persons in the aircraft must have a parachute whenever people OTHER THAN CREWMEMBER(S) are carried. Therefore, when the only person on board is the pilot, and no others are carried, a parachute is not required. However, when a passenger is carried in an aircraft during aerobatics, all persons on board INCLUDING crewmember(s) are required to be wearing parachutes

PSYCHOLOGY: Socialized Learning

Gilbert Chin
The ventral and dorsal neural streams that mediate the visual processing of objects have been described as specializing in what and where, respectively; that is, information about object identity flows through a different channel than that about object location. A related distinction applies to object perception for the purpose of action (where my car is parked) as contrasted with the purpose of recognition (my car is green). Yoon et al. demonstrate that pre-verbal infants (9 months old) form object representations that exhibit a similar dissociation between location and identity--and that the mode of information transmittal dictates the channel of reception. Introducing an explicitly social teaching context by having an actor point to an object while speaking to the infant biased the infant to remember the object's features such that a subsequent presentation of the same object at a second location did not evoke surprise (as assessed by looking time), whereas displaying a new object at the original location did. Conversely, reaching toward an object while verbalizing in an impersonal fashion primed the retention of where information rather than what. Adults, of course, have no difficulty in retaining and retrieving both types of representations, but the nascent neural processing capacities of infants appear to be influenced by social context as well as visual fundamentals. -- GJC

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 13690 (2008).

Patrick's piano lesson

Parallels Fix

I spent all morning trying to fix a problem with Parallels (or the WinXP hard drive file) or whatever. In the process I learned a lot about Time Machine (but not enough to reinstall Parallels).

The actual fix (crossed fingers that it's complete) I came upon by accident. I had been reinstalling Parallels from CD, but something was still missing from drivers or something. Looking for tech support, I tried to figure out what version I had, and for no reason clicked on Upgrade (or was it update?).

The update (to version 3) downloaded, installed itself, installed ParallelsTools, and seems to be working fine. Whew!

I leave this note to remind myself to Reinstall from the web next time instead of going back to the old CD's.

I have to have Parallels to run XP to run Ground School and AOPA Flight Planner.

Michelle & Patrick's big shoes

IMG_0287.JPG

 

???????

IMG_0296.JPG

 

Kim (from girl scouts) and Caleb

Kim recognized me at the grocery.  Caleb is 13 months old.  They live in Shepherdsville. Kim and Sarah R and one of the other girls from our troop still hang out together.  We should get together.

Obama: What you didn't see at the Republican Convention.

(My response to video above. Click title to see video.)

Dear Senator Obama,
Thank you for your amazing effort.

We are heartened to hear your support of Unions, union goals (regarding healthcare & benefits), also (I'm assuming) your understanding that much of the work a union does is fight to maintain standards of safety and healthcare for the members. I also hope you understand that this particular fight anchors the safety and healthcare standards of all workers at the same time.

We would be very heartened if we heard these concerns and commitments expressed to other-than-union audiences. I have had my belly full of politicians who "tailor" their message to the audience to gain their approval, but don't hold that same message for the general public.

Give us a sign! ...ummmm, maybe more than one.

Sarah Palin: Reigniting the Culture War

Clearly the pick of an anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-science extremist wrapped in a folksy hockey-mom package has fired up the base in ways that even McCain's pledge to pack the Courts with right-wing judges has failed to do.

Lima beans for soup tonight

Acrobatic cat

Awake, now.

Dad's "helper" finally ran out of steam

Dad fixing the seat belt

Beth & "Pipa", Beth & Juan, Across the mountains

Barack Obama in Berlin

Laura is there, waiting to enter the building. She says,

"Wow! It's like thousands of people all walking in the same direction for this!"

I think that says it well.

"politically lunkheaded"

I'm going to remember this one:

"politically lunkheaded"

as in....

"Details of Obama's speech got buried in the wake of General Wesley Clark's politically lunkheaded comment about John McCain that, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president." But over the Fourth of July weekend, it might be appropriate and enlightening to take a few minutes to read or watch the whole thing."

Amazing what convoluted thinking passes for reality in the political world, and what truths are not able to be said. At least now I have a phrase to distinguish between things that are true but shouldn't be said, and those that are true but need to be said.

Maybe.

I'm going to go listen to Barack's speech.

Easily Deployable Weapons for use against rogue states that sponsor terrorism.

http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/search/cardimage.php?iid=24552

Spit

Carmel reminded me of this:

Life before 50 is kinda like spit. While you're there, while it's part of you, it's just fine, everything is as it should be.

But once you get away from it, it's like spit that's spat. No way are you going to take it in again.

Passed my instrument written.

FAA instrument exam flight adventure #2

lesson learned #1--copy all the figures, especially the DP and approach plates. There is NO way you can figure this out while flipping thru the book.

Whenever I try to create the formula for figuring the distance travelled in an arc, I get half what it should be.

circumference = 2(pi)r
distance for one degree of arc = (2(pi)r)/360
distance for so many degrees = degrees * (2(pi)r)/360

Substituting 1.5 for pi, I get degrees * 2*1.5*r/360 = degrees*3r/360 = degrees*r/120

It's supposed to be degrees * r / 60

FAA instrument exam flight adventure #1

Notes:

Copied: 2 of each Flight plan figures & trip log pages.

Flight#1 Grand Junction Walker Field to Durango-La Plata County and back

I see that this information is given in the questions, so I copy it to my planning notes.
FT 12,000 18,000
FNM 2408-05 2208 -21

Total usable fuel on board 68 gal.
Average fuel consumption 15 gph
wind & velocity at 16000 2308-16


Answer to number one:
Groundspeed. Those are winds aloft numbers. There will have to be an interpolation for the altitude. In real life I usually have to interpolate between different winds aloft forecasts, too. I wonder where FNM is in relation to my route. Checking AirNav.com, I can't find KFNM airport. OK, it makes sense to assume these are winds aloft in the area of the flight.

I go to the flight log to fill in groundspeed, distances, times and fuel.

The times that they have inserted in the flight plan are double what I'm figuring. 35 miles at 174mph ground speed is 12 minutes. Right? Right??! Why do they have ::24:0 in the box??? I'm penciling my times in the box for the time being.

When I do the times on the return flight log I get the 14 1/2 minutes for the first leg, which matches the time inserted in test version of the flight log. BUT this doesn't include taxi & climb-out. What are they thinking here? And how do you figure time for the descent? Missed approach? This looks like something I should know, but I don't. I'm noticing that the test flight log has put 18 1/2 minutes for descent to Durango and 12 minutes for descent and landing to

There's an answer only one minute off from my answer. OK. I'll take it. I'm not checking my answer with the test. I'd like to work through all seven and then check answers. It's pretty obvious I'll have to refigure it all when I do.

Question 2
Question 2 gives a scenario about not being able to land at the Durango destination, how much time can I hold before returning to the starting point (as the alternate airport). Well. That's going to depend on the time it took for the first one. Without checking any answers yet, I can see (from the information they give in the problem) that at least we're on the same track about one thing. The interpolation I used for wind speeds is the wind speed and direction that is given in this problem.

I'm taking my times from the flight logs I filled out. I assume that what has already been used is the amount I'd figured for enroute--15 gallons. Now I add the total figured for the return trip. Enroute, reserve, missed approach is 37 gallons, and subtract all that from my starting fuel of 68 gallons, which should give me 16 gallons to spend holding at Durango. At 15 mpg the whiz-wheel says I can hold for 65 minutes.

Looking at the possible answer for the test, the book has 1 hour 33 minutes, 1 hour 37 minutes and 1 hour 42 minutes. (Sigh). I look back over my numbers above, checking for simple addition & subtraction mistakes. Nope. It's got to be in HOW I figured all that time and fuel. I glance at the rest of the test questions and decide to slog on before getting help. I record the closest answer (since on the FAA test it's better to put anything than nothing), but I know if it's right it's only the luck of the draw.

Question 3 What fuel would be consumed on the flight between Grand Junction & Durango assuming the avg fuel consumption is 15 mpg? Well, I do have an answer for that, and it's only one gallon off from the least answer on the test. I mark it down.

Question 4 This is a map interpretation question about the highest MEA. There's a flag at Grand Junction for the crossing altitude, but that doesn't apply, and I don't see any other hard-to-notice notations, so I'm taking the number beside the airway. (not the starred one, which should be obstruction clearance). It is one of the possible answers.

Question 5
A scenario for lost communication wants to know what radio frequencies to attempt to contact Denver Center. I look on the En Route Low-Altitude Chart segment provided with the test and find two frequencies in the info box for DENVER ARTCC. One of these is one of the answers on the test. However, isn't that the frequency that had been in use and was lost? I see from the nearest VOR there is an underlined frequency, which I interpret to mean you can listen, but transmit. This would be a possible frequency to try next. So is the emergency frequency 122.1. I'm choosing the answer that says transmit on emergency and receive on the nearby VOR. Whatever aviation strong points I may have, radio navigation is NOT one of them, so I really want to see how this turns out. But not yet.

Question 6
This is easy. It just wants to know where the changeover point is. Whew!

Question 7
MOCA? Minimum obstruction clearance altitude. That's the starred altitude that I looked at before. Ka-ching!

All right. I've spent 2 hours on all of this, which is similar to how long it takes me to plan a VFR trip in a familiar area. I could have looked it over and learned the answers in a much shorter time. I feel really SURE about only three of the answers. I expect three of them to be wrong. But now I'm ready to check my answers and read the discussion. I have a lot of questions of my own to answer, and hopefully the discussion will be enlightening.

Putting on my peril-sensitive sunglasses, I go to check my answers and.....I have gotten questions 1 and 5 wrong, and the others correct.

Question one is the one about time enroute. It's not a difficult question to answer if you just take what's given already, figure the one part that is missing. They have given the first and last leg legs (which I questioned and decided to do myself). OK. I'm not going to find out the answer to HOW they figured the climb-out and descent. All I need to know for the test is that they did figure it. What I needed to do was take the wind direction and velocity, convert it to magnetic, figure ground speed and time enroute for that middle leg and add it to the time enroute they'd already figured. I'll do it now. " 230º at 8 kt becomes 216º magnetic. Airspeed is taken from the flight plan filed, course from the flight log, distance from the enroute chart. There it is. Simple answer. "Piece of cake," as Martha says.

Now I'm going to work question two again, before I look at the answer discussion. I got it right by luck, since my figures weren't even close. I work it again, even with what I've learned, and I still get close to the same answer. By my figures, I can hold for a little over an hour. By theirs, it's.....an hour and 33 minutes. Checking with Dr. Gleim, I've got flight logs filled out for both trips, and he has laid out the figures in his discussion. The difference is....

...I had added some time for a missed approach. Dr. Gleim and the FAA do not. I am surmising now, that this is not necessary for planning, but there is a box for it on the form. Missed approach must come out of the reserve. I'll see what they do with the other scenarios, I guess.

I check the other questions, even the ones I got correct, because I might have done it by luck, right?

The second question that I missed was the scenario about losing contact with ARTCC. The correct answer would have been the first one I considered and discarded--to contact DENVER CENTER on the Denver Center frequency. I'll be able to remember that one for the test, for sure.

Thinking through the scenario, though, it's interesting to see what other things I erroneously considered possible. The emergency channel sounded plausible, and even though I've never used it, if I was not able to contact the people I needed, I'd do that, I think. What Dr. Gleim explains, though, is my complete misconception about the underlined frequency on the VOR information. I was thinking that the underline would let me receive on the VOR channel and transmit on another. This is NOT the case. The underline means there is "no voice capability, i.e. there would be nothing to receive." This is a detour I'm happy to take here on the ground rather than in the air.

I'd love to work these kinds of questions with an instructor and other students, but that's not a situation I find myself in. I consider it time well spent. Now I'm going to review the approaches and departures, fire up X-Plane on the computer and see whether I can fly this baby.


Sim notes: I'm probably 10 nm short of MANCA, but I'm hitting Pause on the sim to regroup.
I transferred my flight plan to an IFR Flight Plan that one of my instructors gave me. I figured for current winds

I got a Piper Malibu PA-4630P that I thought would be fast, but actually it's not much different that a C-152 on speed. I've not flown it before. It's got good instrumentation for this work. HSI (which I've never flown before, but I like). VOR, DME, ADF.

I love X-Plane, but there's one feature I can't get a handle on, and that's the pitch trim. I spend 85% of my attention trying to get some semblance of trim for pitch, bounding around up and down most of the time. Other people don't seem to have this problem, but I can't figure what it is that I have set wrong. At least I know a real plane is MUCH easier to fly than this. I was constantly having to fight to gain altitude, which might have been authentic, as this is in Colorado, 15,000 ft.

I did check my groundspeed after crossing the 2nd fix, and updated my plans accordingly.

The flight plan doesn't have a clear space for your fix information, and I made a big mistake that I tried to correct while flying. I neglected to write in the VOR frequency that defines the other end of the V187 segment that I'm following. Little detail. Ordinarily it would be on the chart, but I'm flying from a testing copy ("not for navigation" ) and that bit of information must be off the edge.

So I'm parking the sim, finding out my information, and checking my flight path, and while I'm stopped I'll review that approach some more. Not ready for prime time, here. I don't know how to ident in X-Plane, and I'm going to see if I can't find that out before I resume.

FAA instrument exam

When I started cramming for my FAA Private Pilot written test, I followed some pretty good advice and after doing each Gleim Test Prep chapter once or twice, highlighted the answers to just read them to learn the correct answers. That was really good advice for about half of the test--but I was sorry to have done it for those things that I didn't understand and needed to work on for understanding. Once you mark the answer, you can't make yourself do the logic like you can with it unmarked.

So this time, for instrument, I'm not highlighting yet.


I've been slogging thru the chapters, going through once doing each question, looking checking answers every page, then going back the next day (or that evening) to do the whole chapter of questions again, several times until I know all the answers and understand that chapter. Score of below 95 means do it again.

I just got to the last chapter of the Gleim Instrument Pilot Test Prep book, and I am surprised by what I found. There are six instrument flights on the FAA test to plan out and answer questions about. Since there's so much I don't know, and learning it in flight or with an instructor is SOOOOOO expensive, I'm going to take the best advantage of this that I can. I'm copying off the figures for planning sheets (they are partially filled in), and I'm going to take the information and plan the trip. THEN I'll see what the Q&A on the test will be. I'll have Dr. Gleim's discussion to review. I'll do one trip at a time. THEN I'll fly the trip on X-Plane.

Amy graduation

Master of Arts in Community Arts Education

snippets from Harvard Comencement speakers

Tuesday

About endowments:
Accountability.
Endowments carry forth the wishes and evaluations of the past. They probably ought to conflict with the political present

Endowments have created a system of higher education that is the envy of the world.

"custodians of civilization"

Families of students with incomes of less than $60000 will not be expected to pay any of the cost of tuition at Harvard. (partial payment for incomes somewhat higher)

---------
JK Rowling

video here: rtsp://128.103.142.142:80/qtmedia/Media/0605-JKRowling.mov
(link from mugglenet.com)

nervous. Just pretend it's a great big Gryffindor reunion.
2 things: Benefits of failure and benefits of imagination

Failure:
Parents wanted her to do something practical, but she escaped into classics.

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction. The moment you take the wheel you are taking your own responsibility.

Poverty is not an ennobling experience. It is ennobled only by fools.
Failure is a stripping away of the inessential .
Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt.
Life is difficult and complicated beyond anyone's power to control.

Imagination:
Worked at Amnesty International

The willfully unimaginative see more monsters and are more afraid than others.
Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

Last hope: friends
Seneca: As is a tale, so is life. It's not how long it is, but how good it is that matters.

pilot's logbook

Now, this is more like it! Two Sundays in a row.

5/24/08 Pa-28-121 EKX-Hoopin Holler--EKX First time the two of us have flown over home and taken pictures or anything like that. Air was like glass and it was Frank's first time in the Warrior.
5/1/08 LOU BAK LOU First PIC trip in a C-172. Everything worked, even radios. Straight&Level to BAK. Biscuits and gravy (next time just dessert!). Quick trip home. Few cumulus clouds. Spiraled up above the layer to travel at 5500 ft. Then up to 7500 to get over a little row of them. We must have been moving fast up there, because immediately we were in sight of JVY and Bowman. We spiraled down (next time it's a sideslip). No issues with anything. Nice trip. Reminded me of Mike B. days.

Online articles--Instrument rating

AOPA's instrument rating page has a bazillion resources.

Iron man? No, Rocket Man.

tips for instrument checkride

Brief approaches on the ground before takeoff.
Get weather from ATIS or ASOS before entering the approach.
If you "peg the needle" (fully deflect) on approach, you MUST abort.

-Jim G

Classroom activities in meteorology University of Illinois

song

What is is that we do when we're writing songs? Eight tones in a scale, comfortable chord patterns, moon-June-croon rhyming? Shouldn't all the combinations have been used up by now?

How is it? So many thousands (millions?) of songs have been written and shared, and yet each time a song is written it is an intensely personal, intensely public expression of a particular here-and-now. Each song dances the yin and yang of individual struggle for understanding, for notice, for meaning, for life.

Is it just happenstance that the majority of songs are love songs? No. Can't be. Biology, which humans rightly suppress for its violent tendencies, asserts its fundamental right to evaluation here. In a love song, "what is best" is crystalized through the lens of discernment of survival of the fittest. Isn't it this crystallization that forms the foundation of dreams & hopes--valued for its clarity, returned to in memory for guidance when vision becomes murky and tangled again?

Songs are always a link to the past. The distilled voices of humankind contribute to the form, shape, and content of a song. And, true to its most ancient function as a medium of storage and transmission of information, each song adds to the web of long-lasting communication in which all members of culture swim.

Future sense is present as well. By its public nature, by the innate understanding that it will be sung for an audience, even an audience of oneself, song invariably carries hope. There WILL be a future for which the message has meaning and importance. At least that. At the very least.

At most? How far can it go?

The ancient psalms celebrate civilization and the city interchangeably and indistinguishably from God. Twenty centuries of hymns document the transformation of a distant God who can be addressed only with hope and faithfulness to a proactive understanding that "we are God's hands" within the personal interactions that form and maintain community.

Strong as the symbol of the natural world remains, the promise of life's potential is hard-pressed to fit in nineteenth-century-style paintings of religious entities surrounded by clouds and rays of the sun. In century twenty-one, the elemental forces of energy that hold stars in their courses are being stolen from their work to snapshot bits of ourselves and all that we value and love. In an explosion of communication, older linear progressions of knowledge are being reformed by the breaking of finite bonds of material transmission--all to enable the ability to encapsulate these cherished bits of humanity-turned-digital.

Each photo and blog entry stores an evaluation by one person that THIS is important right now. Of all the directions I can point my camera, THIS one is the one that matters. Of all the issues I can comment on, THIS one is the one I choose. Of all the songs floating around the audio world, THESE are the ones that speak my message. From the state of my heart, this is my song.

Time is that human invention which enables memory and vision, but its power comes at the expense of trapping humanity in its linearity. To the practical mind, time is a fundamental limiting factor, but thank goodness humans are not always practical. To the poet, songwriter and scientist, time is not immutable. In fact, the, the linearity of time has been constantly challenged by exploration, by love, by religion and by hope. This challenge is sung as the promise of new life, of undying love, of resurrection and redemption. As the challenge grows, the promise grows.

And the medium for the promise has grown. Song, while retaining at its core the intimacy of the lullaby, has amplified its reach to the concert hall, to top-10 radio, to mass-produced CD's to vibrant internet musicfile-sharing.

As Flikr and MySpace evolve into a fluctuating primordial digital soup, can anyone predict the new life that will coalesce from the myriad time-linked, people-linked photos, observations, and reminiscences? Could there have been any advance prediction that the tiny sea-creatures of Earth's ancient seas would be carried forth (long after the seas had changed their composition and their inhabitants otherwise extinct) as the blood and lungs of a newborn infant letting loose his first cry?

Will the life-force of the future recognize the humanity of its roots? How can it not? Perhaps someday instead of elemental particles of neutron, proton and quark, the qualities of the world will be labeled "cherish," "melody," and "kinship."

It's a given. From a currently-unattainable but foreseeable position outside the infinity of time, Alpha and Omega share a point in space-time. Resurrection, just like love, just like community, just like hope, exists where it always has, in the singing of the song.

Boeing 777 being built

Ed Williams' BASIC programming for aviation

This link has aviation formulas and calculations in BASIC.

I found it when I was looking up information on pressure-pattern navigation.

KBRY, Bardstown, KY

I was on the phone with David Hall, who started reminiscing about the airfields in and around Bardstown, KY. Dave's dad ran KBRY in the 60s. He remembers his first flight, at age 3 or 4, and being in his daddy's lap.

Dr. Steely had a Navion. He had adventures: Taking off quickly, raising the landing gear immediately, not being in flight yet and skidding on down the runway. Came to the end of the runway, rolled up between some cars belly sidewards, left wingtip 6 inches from the ground. Also travelling at 200 mph across the tops of the buildings in town.

The area used to have a number of airports. The original Bardstown airport was about 500 ft off Dixie highway, on the Colesburg Rd.

There was a grass field on Boston Rd.

Short Combs had a strip on his farm.

After WWII, Donald (?) had 25 airplanes and a hundred students, doing flight instruction in PT13s and PT26s (offshoots of P51s).
In 1962 the current Bardstown airport, KBRY, was built, largely to the efforts of the Coca-Cola company. Green County parachuters were at a different grass strip near there (maybe). They used C180s and DeHaviland Beavers.

pilot's logbook

Holding Patterns:
1. Find intersection
2. Where am I? (put a dot on the map or chart)
3. Where will the pattern be?
4. Always turn the shortest distance to the outbound course.

The first turn to the intersection or nav-aid can be direct to the intersection (not necessarily follow the racetrack shape if it doesn't make sense to do so."


Listen to the radio calls, writing them is a distraction.

C (clearance)
R (route)
A (altitude)
F (frequency)
T (transponder)

Sunrise & Sunset times for any date

I just found this website that has sunrise and sunset times for any day. One hour before sunrise is "night," requiring that the pilot be have 3 takeoffs and landings to a full stop at night within the past 90 days in order to carry passengers that early in the morning. This could make a difference in planning departure times and/or needing to take night currency flights.

Four thousand American soldiers have died in Iraq. This is the true story of how one of them came home.

This article starts with my longtime business (funeral liturgy), looks like it is going to be about my new business (aviation), and then turns out to be a close, intimate portrayal of everyone's business if they/we are aware of who we are in this world and the far-reaching effects of our lifestyles.

Pilot's logbook

4/30 C-152 N69011 LOU LOU Out to Six-mile, low ceilings and haze, back to LOU, T&G. 6 lndgs, 1.0 hr. Frank

According to the weather forecast, it would have been a good day to go to Clark County and practice cross-wind landings, but I was afraid we wouldn't be able to get back, too much moisture in the air, so we headed back to Bowman for the touch & go's. Frank enjoyed going around and around. The procedures and the radio interactions were making sense to him, so that was fun. I enjoyed it.

Centigrade to Fahrenheit conversion. Simple. Really.

[note: I'm not satisfied with this, yet and will continue revising. There's something simpler that I'm missing, maybe just in the explanation. I'd LOVE!!!! to get feedback from somebody willing to sit down for 15 minutes and try this stuff out. You'll invest your time well, and maybe figure out what I'm missing.]

The almost-simple way to mentally convert Centigrade to Fahrenheit is to double the number, subtract 1/10, then add 32.
Ex. 5ºC = 5*2=10.
10 - 10/10 = 9.
9+32=41ºF.

Sometimes, though, if a conversion doesn't come quickly, the brain just stops and moves on to other pressing issues. This is the dreaded plotz. Rather than risk that, it's worth learning how to get a reasonable estimate quickly and then, if needed, an accurate conversion.

For quick and simple:
Double the number and add 30.

This gets us really close enough for most situations that aren't conducive to picking up a pencil. It only requires two steps.

To convert 5ºC to Fahrenheit:

5*2=10.
10+30 = 40ºF.

How accurate is it?

Anywhere between freezing (0ºC, 32ºF) and shirt-sleeves weather (28ºC, 68ºF) this rough result is within two degrees, being 2º low at freezing, 2º high at shirtsleeves, and absolutely correct in the middle (10ºC, 50ºF).

Getting away from 50ºF in either direction, the rough answer creeps more and more off. At 0ºF and at 100ºF, it's 5 degrees off.

So, if a closer figure is needed, two additional steps makes it accurate to the nearest whole degree.

Remember, 50ºF is the center.

If that rough result Fº is higher than 55ºF, it needs to be pulled back in one degree. If the rough result was more than as 65ºF then two degrees back. If it was more than 75, subtract three. If more than 85 subtract 4, etc.

To let the procedural part of the brain handle this (not the plotz-prone intellect), use fingers. Count the tens from 50 up to the rough estimate (but only count the last ten if the final digit is > 5). Pull the estimate back down by as many degrees as counted on your fingers.

23ºC= 23*2+30 gives a rough result of 73, which is more than 55, so it has to be pulled back down.

Starting at 50, count one. 60 is two fingers. 70 does not count, since 3 (in 73) is not more than 5 .
73ºF (rough estimate) -2(fingers) becomes 71ºF (accurate)

On the colder end of the scale, if the rough result is as less than 45, extra degrees have to be added to pull it back in toward the center. It's a finger count of the tens going down, starting with 40. Count the final ten ONLY if the final digit is < 5.

Example:

3ºC= 3*2+30 gives a result of 36, which is lower than 45.

Starting with 40, we finger-count one , but we do not count the 30, since the last digit of 36 is not <5.

36ºF (rought estimate) -2(fingers)= 34ºF (accurate)

(If there's trouble remembering whether the final digit needs to be greater or less than 5 to be counted, think if it as being closer or further away from the center (50ºF). For warm temperatures, count if it's >5, for cold, count if it's <5.)

With a little practice, this should be easy to do. Much easier than explaining it.

For about 5 minutes, practice getting a rough estimate. Take each number below, double it and add 30.
2ºC 1ºC 10ºC 4ºC 6ºC 13ºC 20ºC 5ºC 9ºC 11ºC 33ºC 3ºC 15ºC 25ºC 49ºC 35ºC 40ºC (start over if it's not been 5 minutes)

For 5 more minutes, practice converting a rough Fahrenheit estimate to an accurate conversion.
50ºF 66ºF 78ºF 96ºF 106ºF 92ºF 62ºF 104ºF 58ºF 70ºF 48ºF 52ºF 44ºF 30ºF 34ºF 38ºF 46ºF 78ºF 88ºF 66ºF 42ºF 102ºF

For 5 more minutes, do a rough estimate, then bring it in to accuracy.
2ºC 1ºC 10ºC 4ºC 6ºC 13ºC 20ºC 5ºC 9ºC 11ºC 33ºC 3ºC 15ºC 25ºC 49ºC 35ºC 40ºC 10ºC 11ºC 8ºC 20ºC 22ºC 11ºC 25ºC 30ºC 12ºC 5ºC 9ºC 2ºC 8ºC 1ºC 0ºC -2ºC

For optimum retention, do all this again later in the day.

After a little practice converting Cº to Fº will be easy, but to make sure it sticks in habit, practice twice a day for two more days, then at least once more later in the week. This can be practiced while driving by taking any numbers in sight.

Part of the strategy here is that in order to multitask as pilots are always expected to do, the intellect determines the need for some cognitive work, but can assign that work to other faculties,freeing the intellect until the result comes back for more evaluation. Cool, huh?

The spreadsheet version of this information is here.

Engine startup procedure for 16T, revisited

Ye gods. How can anybody remember this stuff? I’ll just…

remember my instructor,

full of it, full of it.

THROTTLE FULL, MIXTURE FULL

Adding fuel to the fire

FUEL PUMP ON

show’s he's master. What a git!

MASTER SWITCH ON

Once he gets a reaction,

WHEN FUEL GAUGE JUMPS

then he can turn it off,

TURN FUEL PUMP OFF

(but needling and prodding

are something he’s fond of.)

It’s just idle conversation.

MIXTURE IDLE

You could throttle him halfway,

THROTTLE 1/2"

but go ahead and turn on

TURN KEY

the ignition anyway.

As soon as the engine purrs,

WHEN ENGINE STARTS

then we’re rich, mixture rich.

MIXTURE FULL RICH

A thousand bucks would get us

ADJUST THROTTLE TO 1000 RPM

to the moon without a glitch.

But big money comes from oil,

CHECK OIL TEMPERATURE

from pressure on the green,

CHECK OIL PRESSURE

so the ending to this story

is yet to be seen.

The first section of this drivel is fondly reminiscent of the instructor who checked me out in 16T. He can be annoying. I think he considers it an art. The last section heads off into one of his favorite subjects--the fossil fuel issue.

Anyway, the ditty is more memorable than that list was, but for what it's worth, the procedure isn't daunting anymore.

I think what this procedure accomplishes is first to prime the engine, and then to start it from an engine-flooded configuration. When I asked whether this was cold-weather startup, he said it should be used all the time. Was he jerking my chain? Who knows?

He flies a mean plane.

Plotz Prevention for a fledgling pilot

plotz

v. An old Yiddish word, used here to describe what the brain does when part of it gets tangled up under stress and sits down on the job, refusing to function.

Every student pilot talks about being "overwhelmed" with the sensations and requirements of flying the plane. For me, the most persistent causes have to do with numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers. How much of flying airplanes has to do with numbers? An awful lot.

Two big stumbling blocks have been my inexperience with visualizing the 360 degrees of the compass as meaningful directions and the appalling difficulty I have doing mental arithmetic quickly and accurately enough under stress. Even though I recognized these inadequacies at the beginning of training, I didn't know any good-enough ways to get past them.

This week, while it's been too rainy and windy for flying, I worked out a set of paper-and-pencil exercises which seem to be making a difference, though it's too soon to know for sure. The idea is to take one of the exercises for fifteen minutes twice a day for three days, and then move on to another.

I'm posting my working list as Plotz Prevention and I'll keep working with it as long as it works for me.

(One other thing that HAS made a difference is lumosity.com which I can recommend whole-heartedly, even though it's not pilot-specific.)

The Cessna Citation that took Jake Green and Robert Hawkins to Texas.

Jake Green finally made it to an airplane again. I always pictured that he'd figure out a way to get his grandfather's old cropduster to work (maybe its instrumentation would have been too primitive to get fried by the EMP, like a lot of the planes we all fly).

The storyline this season went differently, as Jericho got a lot of attention from the Cheyenne government and got power and a lot of normalcy back. Still, I was glad it finally happened.

Exercises for new pilots

Here are some more rainy-day practice missions.

Weather and wind: Print off a page of metar/tafs for local airports. Go thru with a pencil. Convert all the times to local. Figure X-wind component for landings on 2 runways there, best and next-best. (Sketch wind and runway angles.) (Look up and translate any unknown weather codes.)(Check airport & other pertinent information, ie. very short runway, obstacles, bad approach.)

Compass turns: Roll two dice.
Die one mod 3 = first digit of heading, die 2 =second digit. Third digit = 0.
Roll again to get a new heading.
Just figure out the answer to one question. Do you turn L or R?
Do it again. And again.


Compass turns: Roll two dice. Die one mod 3 = first digit of heading, die 2 =second digit. Third digit = 0. Do as a simulator exercise to turn, time, figure rollout. Or do it on paper. (L or R? Number of degrees to turn? Number of seconds?)

Pilot's logbook

3/26 Check-in ride with T.

Beautiful day, perfect weather, surprisingly, since rain and TS had been forecast.

We should have sat down and talked first. T was with another student, so I went on to preflight. Also, I didn't bring my computer bag with all my books, flight plans, etc. so I wouldn't have had what we needed, anyway.

First time in 011 in several months. Only the third time in any plane in 6 or 7 weeks.

Preflight-I saw T flip a little toggle switch (one that I never use, guess what? it's radio.). Then when I tried to get myself on the headset, it didn't come in. It was the switch. Now I know that switch.

Taxi OK. Runup OK, just don't check the carb heat. Stay with the checklist.

Takeoff ok. Tower didn't specify right turn, and I took it anyway without verifying. It's what we usually do. Should've checked.

At some point we figured out that T thought we were recreating a cross-country, and I wasn't. I didn't even have an older one since I'd just reorganized my kneepad stuff to keep having junk that might fall out.

Clearing turns. I'm still not used to them.

We were doing slowflight exercises, and I couldn't get it right. I wasn't always sure what he was asking me to do. Usually I'm pretty much on the money with slowflight. I am NO GOOD at flying with somebody else in charge. I'm trying to figure out what they're getting at, and tuning in on the wrong things, I guess. Need to get a fool-proof pattern established (for all my planes) for each of the standard check-ride procedures.

Then T tried to save the day with an engine-out exercise right near Lee Bottom. I knew we should take the airport. I couldn't see where it actually started, and aimed for a point that turned out to be about 1/2 mile north, with trees between us and the threshold. I certainly didn't make any radio calls. T had the throttle. We went too low, I should have told him we needed to pull up.

Coming back, it was hard to see Bowman field. Then, when we finally got to 6-mile, the radio wasn't working right so I embarrassed myself by not being able to hear Tower (or anybody else) and not seeing Todd in 16T or a bird.

Landing was cross-wind, and I let the wind push us. T offered to fly with me one day to just do cross-wind landings, and it would be a good idea. Probably. When I first got my license, I had practicing cross-wind landings at the top of my list. It's still there. Why can't I null this out?

I didn't call in for touch-and-go, so we had to full stop. Off at Kilo, and there's that runway hold-short line that you have to not cross.

So, a good time was had by all.

Also. I still don't have a permanent copy of my license. FAA thinks I'm still a student. Peyton has more than one that are "lost." He says the FAA people can just print me another temporary, and they will. Still, it has to be mailed. I'm calling him again tonight.

Pilot's logbook

3/24 N16084 EKX-2I3-EKX Flight review for rental of C-150 2.3 Jim G.

Collect key, POH and clipboard.
Pre-flight the plane in the hangar, then go in for last weather check.
Hangar door: open partway, about 6 in. from the cable, pull out. Leave tow bar in the hangar beside the door or in the plane.
OK to turn on master switch and set radios and LORAN before engine start.
Ask for radio check before taxi. "Elizabethtown Unicom, Cessna 16084, radio check. Elizabethtown"
"Elizabethtown traffic, Cessna 16084 ready to taxi to 05. Elizabethtown."
Keep a close eye on heading indicator.
"Tower" between E-town and Rough River is a green silo-thingie near a tall red-and-white tower.
At Rough River it's best to use runway 2, since there are mountains at the approach to 20. If you must use 20, stay right of the white cliff.
Use short-field landing.

Coming in to E-town, there are two water towers near the airport.
There are two towers to the left. The leftmost of those is Vine Grove.
Pull up to gas pumps, leave the plane there, then check in and pay.

Want to do T&G's at E-town, then take Frank to Rough River.
Next time, TRANSLATE in writing the times on the TAF.
Want to go with Jim to Vine Grove.

Aviation education sponsors and opportunities

federal Credit Union
Matt Miller--A World inMotion: materials, program, training and partnership with volunteers from industry. STEM (science, technology, engineering & math). Balloon cars. Gliders.

NASA Smart Skies. ATC-related setup. Gr. 5-9. Fly By Math. Line Up With Math.
www.atcsim.nasa.gov Needs Internet access, demo is standalone.

Rol Murrow (Wolf Aviation Fund)
National Coalition for Aviation Education
www.avuationeducation.org
Index of Aviation Ed organizations

Judy Rice Careers in Education

FAA.gov/education

Girl Scout:
V Daugherty see contacts

San Diego desert blooms

Traveling

I'm in Chicago O'Hare airport. San Diego is next. We just got here by American Eagle. This is the first time I've flown airline since I've been flying. It's even more interesting. We flew overtop Bowman Field. I couldn't see anything going on or anybody out flying. We also flew over Clark Co. and the two airports at Columbus, Indiana.

The plane to San Diego is running about an hour late. I'll call Bill when we actually get on the plane.

pencil flying holding patterns practice

Holding patterns -- just draw the holding pattern

Hold West ABB std turns
Hold North 030º ABB VOR std turns
Hold East ABC VOR
Hold West ABC VOR non-std
Hold N ABC VOR std
Hold SE ABC 2 mi. legs
Hold South ABC
Hold NE 300º ABC VOR non-std turns
Hold SE ABC VOR 150º non-std turns
Hold SW ABC VOR 230º
Hold W ABC VOR 285) non-std

Draw holding pattern, label radials and headings, mark entrance areas (direct, parallel, teardrop), and draw teardrop.
Hold N ABC VOR, 360º radial
Hold E ABC VOR 090º, non-standard
HOld S ABC VOR 180º, 2 minute legs, non-standard
Hold W ABC VOR 270º std turns

5 T's & Holding Speeds

For holding patterns:
Turn
Time
Twist (OBS to inbound course)
Throttle
Talk

Holding speeds:
MHA-6,000 200 kts.
6,001-14,000 230 kts.
14,001-^ 265 kts.

Re: Zach

Amy and her music

Amy has posted some of her songs. I like them.

Like her, too.

Learn Morse Code

An interactive page for learning and practicing Morse Code.

Marvelous Photo--Senator Obama visiting Somalia

For some reason this photo is seen as "discrediting" Senator Obama. Because he is wearing the clothing of the people he is visiting?

????!

Well, perhaps they think it's not "presidential." I have to admit I can't imagine the current president doing it.

What a refreshing person Barack Obama is.

YES!

Engine fire C-152

Something's burning. Engine's burning!
Look out! Checklist out!
Mixture, fuel, master, cabin heat,
100 knots. Put 'er on the ground.

To the tune of Scotland's Burning.

Compass error rhyme

Variation, deviation, magnetic dip,
Acceleration, turning, jiggle & flip.

MIT Problem Solving Seminar

Pilot's logbook

2/18 C-152 N89933 LOU-BWG-LOU Flight plan. Standiford. Mystic. BWG. EWO. Hill with towers. Shelby. Crestwood. Landing 28kt. 3.1 hr.

This is a detailed list of "shoulda, woulda, coulda's."

I chose my route according to the weather, going to Bowling Green. Ceilings were expected to be 4200 - 5000 and winds 12kt. Just as I left, the wind at Bowman picked up to 14G22, and Dane said something to me, but I didn't think much about it. I'd driven up from the south, and what I'd seen matched the weather report: the last hurrah of the windy/precip was passing thru. There were more low clouds than the weather people had said, but I decided to go anyway.

As it turned out, the weather wasn't a factor except for staying below the clouds. (Not until I got back to the Louisville area, anyway.)

I got a lot of experience out of this flight. Some of it I'm still puzzling out.

I filed a flight plan, which I've never done before. The flight plan specified LOU-EWO-BWG. BUT I asked for Radar service to BWG and the controller routed me 220º @2500 maintain VFR. He then sent me across Standiford and then 240º thereafter. (now I'm wondering whether the wind blew me off course. I followed the heading they gave me.) Some miles west of there he asked me if I had a course to BWG. That surprised me since I thought he had my flight plan and would put me on it. I told him I'd have it in a minute, and decided I could turn South and go from there. The most obvious landmark was an airport to my left (SSE). Guess what? Fort Knox. ATC suggested I hang a right. I did. I said I'd go Mystic VOR to BWG, which I did uneventfully.

I am NOT getting in a plane again until I have a chart that shows north AND south of Louisville on the same side of the chart and I can see the whole picture. Oh, and the second stupid thing I did was start off with the second page of my flight plan on top and not realize it. And the other annoying thing was the sun visor that wouldn't stay up and the digits on the radios that you can't see worth squat.

I tracked my times and positions from Mystic to Bowling Green on the map. The only surprise there was seeing Bowling Green sooner than I expected. I also noticed that the hour hand on my big watch is not accurate. (This problem came up later, but I didn't catch it.)

At BWG I couldn't tune in the weather or get an airport advisory, so I flew over midfield and got a windsock view and watched to see what the other traffic was doing. Landing was uneventful, but I looked at the time and decided not to take the time to go inside. (I should have refueled.)

I took BWG VOR FROM and then New Hope VOR TO. Somewhere at the point of passing over New Hope I started doing something wrong that I still don't understand. I DID see Elizabethtown on my left and decided to go ahead and turn north even though I hadn't seen the flag flip over. I remember thinking I'd wait until I knew where I was (on that northward section, perhaps Shepherdsville, before contacting Louisville Approach.). I remember NOT being sure where I-65 was, and wanting to make sure I was on the right of it. I remember looking at something (probably the Gene Snyder) and not being able to tell which expressway it was. I remember wanting to go higher to get a better view, but not wanting to bust C airspace. I remember trying to contact Louisville Approach and not getting a reply. I remember checking my frequency, switching radios, trying read those stupid invisible digits. I remember trying to get the Louisville VOR and not being able to read it. (I might have been too close. Or not.)I remember reading my watch and thinking that I wasn't as late as I had thought. I remember seeing that Bowman VOR was becoming to the west, but thought I was reading something wrong. Then there was a big patch of clouds and snow. I had to just beat an immediate retreat. After that I saw the funky hill with the antennas all over it that lies somewhere between Shelbyville and Frankfort, but who could believe I was there? Shortly after, there was a Shelby water tower. I was still wondering if I could have been idiot enough to cross the river and be up in Indiana somewhere. A Crestwood water tower convinced me to just go back to believing the VOR to Bowman. Maybe the wind was enough to be blowing me way east all the time. (Todd noticed afterwards that if I hadn't seen the flag switch over on the VOR, I'd have been about where I ended up. I don't know).

At some point I called tower and told them I was a few miles from the airport. (I had Kaden Tower in sight, finally) and they asked me if I was 6 miles NE. I guessed that was right, so I had a straight-in clearance to land runway 24 and they said they'd cancel my flight plan, which they'd gotten phone calls about.

THEN the really weird wind and turbulence hit. I was fighting a big headwind to the runway--250@28 kt. Everything felt strange and mushy and unpredictable. Even though the VASI said I was above glide slope, I felt like we might fall on the trees. It wasn't so much a flare as a powered effort to keep flying the plane as long as possible. The wind was so crazy that I realized there was NO WAY I was going to go around. It had to be down.

Tower said, "Good landing."

I think I left the beacon switch on.

When I got out of the plane, there were 2 gallons of usable fuel in the gauge.

So why didn't I just tell Bowman Tower that I needed help?

Todd sat down with me afterwards. He reminded me how one thing snowballs into another. Now I think I should have been scared. I wasn't. I was concerned. I wasn't as aware of my fuel situation as I should have been. Definitely. Talk about hazardous attitudes.

$359

(I forgot I had my phone. I could have tried it, or the faux-GPS on it. My original plan had been to see whether that worked in the air.)

Well, I know what my next trip will be. I need a lot more practice on this route.


PS

*132.075 not 132.75
Maybe I was trying to put 132.75 into the dial.


*My mental picture as I was coming up to New Hope VOR was seeing Etown as if I were approaching from the southeast and needing to make a right turn to intersect the 360 radial north. Actually I was SW and needed to turn left.

*Tony and Dane got Zach and me in the boardroom to talk about cross country planning, weather briefing, fuel, ATC, etc. Tony wants me to go with him to do crosswind landing practice.

PPS The watch is going back to Sporty's. The hour hand is off by 1/2-hour, so on the first part of the hour it reads an hour slow.

Pilot's logbook

2/11/08 C-152 N89933 LOU-JVY-BRY-IKY-EWO-LOU 2.6hr

This morning I flew to Clark County, did T&G's, then to Bardstown, did touch&go's at the airport, circled over people's houses & St. Joe church, flew on to springfield, went inside and talked to the girl who works there, bought a snickers bar, flew back (circling over our house and our neighborhood and looking around), and then back to Bowman. It's the first fun flying I've done in weeks. Woohoo!

Now it's snowing!!! Inches already. I felt like Alaska coming home.

Notes:
Great conversation with the weather briefer (a 45-year veteran). Forgot to file the flight plan, nevertheless.

Runup: Waited forever for the oil temperature to get in the green. (Outside temp was what, 30º?) Maybe not long enough, but I swear I saw it start to move. Then when we're taking off, it looks like its not there yet. I'll ask about it. The engine didn't die.

On takeoff, the door popped open. Same old 933 despite her new paint. Really cold with the door open today, though.

Radio issues. Transponder not relaying. Couldn't hear myself. Couldn't get to Com2, and I know which switch is supposed to do it, the one with three settings. You use it to transmit, and you should be able to hear both of them if the toggle is set to Auto, which it was. Sheesh.

Flight following and radar service thru SDF airspace worked just fine. Class D is another story.

Carmel's house is beautiful from above. So is ours. I think I've done too much Google Earth, which I enjoy, but this is SOOOOO much better. Dave Hall wasn't home, I guess. I tried to get him out if he was. Morgan said she saw me circling around her school.

2.6 hrs flight, 9.5 gal. gas remaining when we got back, so we used 13.5 gal. 5.2 gal per hour.


Neil: Radio: Auto ON. Com 1 or Com 2 to transmit, Both toggles down on PHONE to listen. I wrote it in my checklist.

Todd: Oil temp if the gauge is starting to rise it's probably hot enough. You want it to be hot enough to melt any ice that has formed in the system. .1 or .2 Hobbs or 6-12 minutes should be enough.

Neil: Check out Southwings "Conservation thru Aviation." 423.383.1536. & Ilovethemountains.org. Needs pilot (and plane) volunteers to take sightseeers to mountaintop removal. Taylor (director), Caroline (flight coordinator).

Neil: Get the movie: "Go Further"

I bought cycling gloves. My driving gloves didn't cut it for this trip. My "Herde girls" toboggan from Mom fits under my headset, though.

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimbel in the wabe

And, as every student pilot pondering the true significance of pendulous vanes on gyroscopic precession knows, the gimbels are still gyring, despite GPS threatening to make them obsolete.

;)

Some of the instrument flying is starting to happen. During Foggle time in the Warrior today, Zach was crowing that I was doing several things at one time. At which point I started screwing all of them up. Still...

Later, there was the steep turn to the left that I did absolutely correctly--right angle, perfect power correction, no altitude loss, and the freaky thing was that I was having no sensation of being in a turn. I was completely focused on the instruments. I could have been flying X-Plane at home at my desk (except that I don't control the X-Plane sim that well). And then we noticed it, and I lost it. The immediately following turn to the right was SOOOOO bad. I was completely disoriented, like, which side of the line on the attitude indicator were we supposed to be on? About that time, Zach pointed out that we were only in a 20º bank.

BUT BUT BUT, it's starting to come together.

KLOU ATC was having a hard time today. Too many people maneuvering and touching and going and such. They resorted to sending people home.

Tomorrow was going to be my last day with Cherokee Warrior N8916E. The forecast weather looks like today was the last day. Zach won't miss her, but I will.

Alaskan Pilots' Short Takeoffs & Landings

Pilot's logbook

1/23 PA28-161 N8316E LOU LOU Slow Flight, Power on/off stalls under the hood, unusual attitude recovery procedure, VOR 24 approach. Zach. 1.1 hr sim instrument 1.0

Not scanning yet.

Unusual attitudes, I recover quickly.

I need to practice stalls before we do it again. X-plane will do.

VOR approach 24, I didn't get it at all. I was spatially disoriented. I mean, where were we? We'd been wandering out in the practice field doing turns and such. None of those numbers or dials translated into anything I could grab on to. When Zach asked me to figure VOR intercepts, he suggested going the wrong way, and I took his advice. From the time we started on that, I never got the sense of where we were, and where we were going.

Afterwards, we talked about it. Next time, I'm taking the VFR chart. If I were flying for real, I'd have it, and I'd know where I was supposed to be, anyway.

We're following the Jeppesen syllabus, so I can prep better.

Also, I'm studying with Martha King. She's good.
I made my reservations for San Diego Women in Aviation Conference. Flight will cost $400, conference $300-something, and I'll go ahead of time to visit with Bill and Sinman.

Skitch

Skitch is a new program that I downloaded. It's for annotating things on your screen and sharing whatever it is you're looking at and marking up. I found another use for it.
Now I've got a new icon for myself. Mike's turned out pretty good, too.

Finer Points Excerpt: Clearing Turns

Thinking hard about safety, here's a transcript from one of Jason Miller's weekly "Finer Points" podcasts. Click the title above to listen to the audio as you read it. (http://cdn.libsyn.com/jmiller/clearing-turns-jason-miller.mp3)

Here's Jason:

...In this episode, I'm going to lay out some procedures that I recommend for clearing turns.

One thing that will help you become diligent about this procedure is to do it the same way every time.

Now, the FAA gives us a choice about clearing turns. You have to turn 180 degrees, but you can either do this in one turn, or you can turn 90º and back to your original heading. Either way, here's a procedure to help you become diligent.

Always start by first turning to the left. Remember, if there's any aircraft overtaking you, they're going to overtake you on the right side. So always begin your clearing turns with a left turn.

If you're in a high-wing airplane, remember to lift the wing and clear the blind spot before you turn in that direction.

During the turn, make sure you're scanning the air using the FAA-recommended technique of scanning UP and DOWN columns of the sky, then move over 10º and repeat.

If you're lucky enough to have windows in the back of your airplane..., make sure that you're using them. Put your head on a swivel. Turn your head and look through all those windows and make sure that there IS no traffic in the area.

When you reach the 90º point, reduce power to the setting required for the maneuver. This will allow your aircraft to slow during the rest of the turn, whether you continue on a 180º turn or if you go back to your original heading. This will keep your airplane in the vicinity of the airspeed you just cleared.

You do have to divide your attention and make sure you're not losing altitude.

Once you're back on your original heading, it's time to do your flow check, perform the maneuver, recover, and fly away safely.

If you're a student pilot, adopt this technique.

If you're a private pilot, we all have biennial flight reviews. Make sure you don't forget the clearing turns.

I hate hearing about midair collisions. And I hope that you'll all adopt this technique to prevent ever having one yourself.

----The Finer Points Episode #47, "It's Severe Not to Clear." Jason Miller

Pilot's logbook

1/16 C-152 N89933 LOU JVY LOU

Preflight:

Frost. Frost? OK? Not OK? Scraping off the windshield? NO, it's plastic. Brushing off with a snow brush? Seemed to work, but it was new paint on the plane. Was that not a good idea? Probably the best would be to put it in the hangar the night before. I'll have to add that to my list.

Preheating, how long does it take? I think I was waiting for the guys, and they were waiting for me, and it doesn't take that much. But, she did start right up :).

First trip with Amy. Checked out the houses in the quarry. Flew up the river a little.

Looked for the farm. Missed it, knew I'd gone too far, didn't turn back until seeing the Ohio river loops. Looked again. Decided to call it. Then looked again at a lot of ravine-type stuff, decided to make a circle over it for one last try, and found the farm. I tried to take a good look at the distances from Louisville, the hole in the hills, etc. We were at about 7,000 feet at the time. [ JVY go north past 2nd quarry. Veer left (before Memphis) and travel up that "valley" to Greenville. US60. Hang a left before the lake.]

We flew 1.8 hour. The driving distance to Boston is 1000 miles. Comparing the two, it doesn't seem like a bad idea to travel to Boston in a plane. Of course, there are mountains.

Pilot's logbook

Up until this past week, I hadn't been flying much since I got my license. I've been involved in family issues that have me spinning my wheels, and maybe I can blame some of it on the weather. I spent some time getting checked out in the 172's, but then Dane nudged me into trying the Warrior, and I like it, so that's where I've been lately. I haven't done any cross-country yet. I REALLY REALLY like flying that plane.

Mike helped me a LOT just by tossing me the challenge of getting instrument rated by April and CFI by August. Todd sat me down to figure out the hours and cost to get Instrument/professional. I've been up with Zach twice now in the Warrior, working on scan, vertical-S's, VOR tracking...Saturday we were supposed to do a heads-up approach, so I spent some time with Josh getting familiar with JVY18. Saturday was the first day of sun in a week, & JVY was way too crowded, so we did the Bowman Field 24 VOR approach instead. My respect for the CFI's & pilots went up another big notch. I'm determined to do it tonight on the computer until I get the hang of it.

Flying. How to to more of it?

I want to fly Frank to Frankfort when he goes there for meetings, which is 4 or 5 times a year, just for the practice of trying to do something that's scheduled.

I can afford about one lesson a week and some other flying but not a lot IF I have to pay full price. I have friends who say they want to fly, so I'm trying to plan some kind of cross-country trips that are interesting enough that some of the people I know who have cash will be interested. (How mercenary is that??)

I have a friend who's a meteorologist who asked me whether I could fly people around to take pictures of tornado and storm damage--after the fact, not while it's happening. Do you suppose there's a way to call that "incidental" to the business of forecasting the weather?

I met an older guy the other day--Ed O. He owns the Piper a few tiedowns down from 16E. He came over to talk while I was preflighting to go up with Zach. I enjoyed meeting him, but I didn't figure out 'til later that he is looking for someone to fly with. He's got whatever diabetes they cancel your license for, and needs to take another pilot along anytime he goes up. I'm interested. I guess I'll go over and look at his plane with him.

Mike says:

Personally I think that the Cessna after all these Hundreds of hours in both is a MUCH safer plane for the new pilot. Here's plane and simple why:
1. Fuel valve has both setting
2. Better power off glide distance
3. Gravity feed fuel / no fuel pumps required

But I enjoy a good running healthy Piper low wing any day[...] Also while you are learning something new its good to train in the same aircraft you are familar with. No sense in learning two new things at once. And a lowing does fly and react to controls differently through out the entire flight spectrum ( stalls to short field landings .)

Flying How To Do More of IT!!

You have several options here, depending on how aggressive you are.
1. Safety pilot: Acting as a Private Pilot for a IFR candidate student who is wanting to practice flying under the hood. Where do I find them? ALL flight schools have IFR students, including yourself. You both fly and each take turns shooting approaches, tracking or just basic maneuvers under the hood. Each pay 50% of cost and sign each logbook. Be Looking out.

2. Finding pilots who have medical problems or just enjoy flying with others. Safety can often come in numbers, or at least thats what our minds feel. Problems with this, you will need to think logically about who you fly with that does not have a medical!!!!! Heart Attack? Epilepsy? Narcolepsy?? You get the picture, an hour is only worth SO MUCH! Also you will need to really beat the streets to find these guys and gals. Be Safe.

3. As a private pilot you are required by FAR 61.?? to pay at least the pro rata share of all operating cost ( fuel, rental, oil )...etc.. However, 50% gratuity can come in other forms as food...etc hotels maybe depending on personal definitions here ( IE...Very Gray Area ) Remember where you are who you are dealing with when considering this rule. Be Smart.

4. If you want to take some friends flying to see some accident spots for weather, then thats great they had their cameras with them.

5. Lastly, consider joining a flight club! There are several on the field at Bowman and they are all great. My favorite was Wings Flying Club. They have a GREAT Running Warrior N40015 and its IFR certified and I have a friend Gary Thomas who instructs with it. Also Louisville Pilots Club is a great one. There are monthly dues but at the very least you have easy access to a plane for large amounts of time, great maintenance, easy scheduling, and covered by insurance with only monthly premiums and discounted flight time!!!

Pilot's logbook

PA-19E? LOU LOU T&G's, Emergency airport ops, .8, TH

Starting in the cold. Runway 14. Beginning takeoff roll, hear our call sign, another plane is down at the other end with its tail in the air. Airport closed. "Taxi back at your own risk." Checked out the instrument panel, played with the parking brake. Why didn't we bring popcorn? Fox on the runway.

Finally three touch-and-go's. Pattern is tricky on 14, just because I'm not used to it. OK on Warrior controls, radio controls, which have been a challenge.