Merry Christmas Everyone!!

To show my spirit, I put up some lights. Both at the front of my house and at the rear.

I met death again

I met death last Monday and managed to put him off. This was not the first time I have had a visit from him, but the fourth. Each time, he gets closer and this time, he was standing beside me.
The panic I felt was the most intense and scary thing I have ever been through in my life, because this time I thought it was actually the end. The other times were quick and I didn’t have time to realize what was happening. So far I’ve managed to survive.

Monday morning on the First of November, I was running late for work. I didn’t take time to eat breakfast, but would stop for a McMuffin and eat it on the way. I put my vitamins in my shirt pocket as I didn’t want to get sick by taking them on an empty stomach.

I finished my muffin and pulled into my parking spot. I unscrewed the cap on my water bottle and it shot out of my fingers, never to be found again. I drank a big swallow of water and then reached into my shirt pocket and grabbed the vitamins. Tossing them all into my mouth I took another big drink of water and swallowed. One of the vitamins got stuck sideways into my throat, and I was having difficulty breathing. I opened the door to the car and started heaving and choking. I was alone in the dark and felt I was about to die. The panic was completely indescribable. I actually thought I was going to die out in the parking lot before school started.

It subsided somewhat when I realized I could still breathe, although with difficulty. I was very scared up to this point when I figured I would not die, but still in a state of panic.
I went to the restroom and stuck my finger down my throat, and started heaving some blood with the bile. I could feel the vitamin with my finger but could not budge it.

I then decided I had better go to the emergency room at the hospital about 4 miles away. Some people had started arriving by this time and one of the teachers at the school asked if I needed a ride. Not being able to clearly think at this point, I felt it was important for him to be at class on time so I said I could drive myself. That was a mistake as about halfway there, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make it as I started choking again.

I made it to the hospital, but could not find the emergency entrance as it was not very clearly marked as which way to go. I walked in and wandered around until I could find a nurse who took me to the E.R. I was able to explain to the ER nurse my predicament and he got me situated. My blood pressure was 190 over 120 and I was asked, “Do you have a blood pressure problem?” I could say I about choked, but that goes without saying.
After a couple of hours of choking and heaving in the E.R., I told the doctor to get me a pair of needle nose pliers and I would get it out myself. They had given me a shot to relax my esophagus so the pill would go down, but it seemed that it was moving upward and a lot more painful than before. They decided to put me out and take me to the outpatient operating room where they would go in with an endoscope.

When I woke up, they showed me it wasn’t a vitamin, but the bottle cap! The water bottles you get at Walmart or the grocery store do not have the regular sized caps, but very thin ones.

My mate Fingers was figuring odds recently and I might need his help in calculating the odds that this cap shot out of my fingers and into my shirt pocket.

One thing has changed. I take my vitamins one at a time now.

ASA Fly-In Was AWESOME!!

I went to the American Sonex Association Fly-in October 7-9, 2010 in Crossville, Tennessee. Although it's not a big place it's about an hour from Nashville, which is a big place. We had 29 Sonex airplanes. This also includes the Y-X version which deviates from the standard airplane tail to one that is shaped like a Y. They are cool, but I'll take my Sonex. The green paint, the nose art and the stripes on my wings were a hit.

I did some formation flying, high speed passes and took a bunch of people for rides. It is an awesome time every year, but this year, we almost had 10% of the entire Sonex fleet at the fly-in. It was the largest showing of Sonex aircraft anywhere at any time to date. That was cool!

Here I am flying in relatively close formation with my buddy Peter and his wife Shayne. She took the picture and it's my favorite one.

There is also one with all the planes in it.

I have been warned!

Well, the FAA decided against me, but in their infinite wisdom, I now have an official warning in my file. What that means, is that this letter states I flew into Class C airspace without permission and will be in my file for two years. OK, I didn't know I had a file. Since it's not like a driver's license, I don't get points, but if I should happen to get another warning, then they may take action of making me get some specific instruction.
I've been flying since I was 13 years old and this is the first warning I've gotten. Granted most pilots don't get them, but as I stated to the FAA guy, I'm not completely at fault here. The specific phrase from the air traffic controller should have been, "I'm not receiving a proper transponder signal, do not enter class C airspace until the situation is resolved."
What I got was I'm not seeing a proper transponder signal, cycle your transponder." After a couple more back and forth radio transmissions, I was told that they had radar contact.... but still no, "Cleared into Class C Airspace".
Anyway, I'm not a threat, and was well away from JFK airport, but the pissy NY rent-a- controller needed to extert his authority and make a point.
So, my insurance won't go up and since I am not a professional pilot, the warning means nothing. That is as long as I stay out of any more trouble.
I'm sure I will.

The FAA motto: We're not happy until you're not happy.

BUSTED!!!

Well, so much for trying to do things right. I have my new panel, which is AWESOME!

Installing the new panel was no easy or fun task. I had an extender cable for my transponder antenna (the thingy that tells Air Traffic Control your altitude and position) made so I could attach it without replacing the whole thing.

So everything was perfect. Charlotte ATC could see my transponder signal and altitude, so when I flew to New York for a reunion, I landed in New Jersey to file a flight plan, get flight following and be directed to Republic field on Long Island.

That's where everything went to shit.

I filed the flight plan online. when I was leaving the airport in New Jersey, the Flight Service guy couldn't find a record of it. So I filed another one with him over the radio.

Contacting NY ATC, didn't go so well either. They couldn't see my transponder signal and I was circling and gave the guy a position off my gps.

He couldn't find that position, so I was trying to get another one off the gps so he would know where I was. While doing that, I wasn't circling anymore and went into NYC airspace.

When I landed in Farmingdale, I was told to call the FAA guy at some number, which I did, and now I'm in trouble.

After talking with the first FAA guy, I called Flight Service to cancel my flight plan, they couldn't find it either! That just inspires me with great confidence.

I should have just lied about my altitude and everything would have been OK.

So now I might get a "ticket" which stays on my license for 2 years, might have to get some additional training, might be fined or might even have my license suspended for a period of time.

I was never a threat to any aircraft navigation, was never close to JFK airport (unless 12 miles is close) and was in contact with ATC like I was supposed to.

YAY!

On the other hand the rest of the time was good flying. 1800 mile trip from home to Long Island New York, on to Maine to see a buddy and a 900 mile trip home, which was fun. Visibility was poor on the way home, but weather was pretty good the whole way.

Pilgrimage

I finally made one of the things on my bucket list. I flew my plane to the Atlantic Ocean. I was hoping to be able to see both oceans (Atlantic and Pacific) in my plane this summer, but funds and job prohibited that. So, my plan is to make the West coast trip next summer.

I went to Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers made their first powered flight. I paid my respects and headed back inland. Next summer the plan is to fly to Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles.

New Instrument Panel

I've been very busy re-doing the instrument panel in my airplane. The old Electronic Flight Instument System (EFIS) quit last summer. I sent it in for repair and it took a couple of months, but I finally got it back. It lasted less than 5 weeks and quit again. The company went out of business soon after.

I've been saving for a new one and Dynon offered a $1,000 rebate to the customers of that company if you send them your old unit (doesn't have to be operational). So for a few hundred more than I wanted to spend, I got the bestest, coolest one you could get.

Removing the old panel and redoing the wiring was a whole lot more work than I really wanted to do.

Pretty slick huh?

Now I just have to learn to use it.

4 more days of school left.

It has been a long grind these last few weeks of school. It is scary to think that these kids have no focus or direction. I am at a rural high school now and all too many of them don't realize that knowledge is power. Most of what we learn in life is not really used, but definitely keeps us from being screwed having our car fixed, or which item is a better buy and certainly getting us an edge over the next person in finding a job.
We have a new charter school opening up in a nearby county. The legislation in funding charter schools is WRONG!!! There is certain data that suggests that charter schools might test a bit better than a regular public school, some data that suggests they are worse and some data that says there is little difference.
A major part of the education of a student is learning how to get along with others. Public school is by far the best place to do that.
If this school opens in August, then our school district will have to give them about $850,000!!!! This is for a school not even in our county! Their (The state's) reasoning is that they will serve some of our students. They have a choice in who they serve. They do not have to take anyone they do not want. A public high school has no choice in that matter, but we are judged by our test scores. The exceptional children we serve are judged in the same way as our valedictorian on test scores. Granted, a few of our students who are physically or mentally not capable of taking a test are exempt from the tests, but the rest are not.
If this is allowed to continue, then these types of schools will bankrupt our public schools. Then what happens to the teachers?
Public schools have more resources, and we should not have to give them up for a school who does not offer the same types of courses or the same populations of students. A nearby school system is fighting the legislation that requires them to provide some of the pre-school funding when the charter school does not even offer pre-school. We also are required to provide Career and Technology (Federal) funds to that school which does not offer any Career and Technical Education Courses. How fair is that?

5 weeks of school left!!

Pretty cool huh??

Usually it is the last 2-3 weeks where the kids act completely stupid. They just act a little stupid after spring break, but they are 3-4 weeks early.

I'm tired, and not sure why. Maybe it's the allergy medicine. I've been going to bed early enough, but I'm exhausted.

I guess the 80 or so hours during spring break to paint my airplane got it started, and I just can't quite catch up.

Big baseball game tomorrow night, and then up early Saturday to be chase plane for a friend who will be making his maiden flight in his airplane.

I'm not complaining about the 80 or so hours as the plane looks awesome!!! I'm still tired though.

The Green Hornet!

Well, now that Spring Break is over and I've had another weekend to put the plane back together...HERE IT IS!!! It is the same color as my Honda Insight although the Insight has faded over the years. I apologize, but the pictures do not do it justice!

I have some stripes to put on and the reg. numbers, but it looks better than I could have hoped.

Oh Boy! Free Health Care!!

For any of you who aren't from the good ol' USA, we have just passed our first major health care reform. Now we get to spend 600 Billion dollars more than the trillions we've already committed to.

Don't get me wrong. I think that we have an obligation to fix a broken system. The problem I have is with our government and the way they get things done. The system and insurance we currently have is, for lack of better words, corrupt. If you have insurance and have a procedure done, the insurance company makes deals with the doctors and hospitals and after you pay your deductible, they pay a percentage of what the hospital bills you for.

If you have no insurance and are not on medicaid or medicare, then you get billed the full amount (unless you are an illegal alien then you are not expected to pay anything) and there is no negotiation of the amount.

This, coupled with the exorbitant rates that are charged for medical procedures and supplies are nowhere near fair.

Our politicians will not vote for anything unless a "deal" is made. One Congressman changed his vote as there will now be a new hospital built in his district. There are other deals made as well.

My issue with the politicians is why can't they do what is right, not what benefit they can gain for their constituents which will help them get re-elected. The other issue I have is that from what I know, the politicians will not subscribe to this new health care system.

That just majorly pisses me off.

My plan for the next several elections is to do what I can to vote out EVERY incumbant. I don't care who they are or to what political party they susbcribe.
I have never voted a straight party ticket and I will know who ALL the incumbents are. I also feel that to get to that level of politics, you have to be somewhat corrupt.

FIRE ALL THOSE PINCHE PENDEJOS!!!! (fucking assholes!)

A Touch of Grey

I am a fan of the Grateful Dead. I was a bit late to listen to them originally on the radio, but a former boss of mine was a read "Deadhead". I picked it up from him. Although I didn't get to go to many concerts, the ones I did go to were great fun.

I have a collection of Grateful Dead / Jerry Garcia ties. I have about 109 of them. The reason I say "about", is my dog Betty got hold of one and chewed the side of my very favorite one, so even though I still have it, it's not wearable.

I have been on ebay several times a week trying to find a replacement, with no results.

Jerry designed all but one of them that I have, and lately there are a lot more coming on the scene. Although he did the artwork, his estate is taking other artwork and making them into ties. There are hundreds of them now.

He was a graduate of the San Francisco School of the Arts and was very talented. He turned to painting as therapy when trying to get off the drugs.

He was unsuccessful in the long run, but produced some nice artwork. Not all of it was "Dead" related or abstract, but I like my "Dead" ties the best. A lot of them have "Easter Eggs" (Skulls or Roses) hidden in the fabric or in the design.

RIP Jerry, A lot of us still miss you.

The "Steal Your Face" Logo above is on the watch I got off ebay recently for $1.

MacGyver and I could be cousins

Today started out absolutely like shit. Fortunately, it got better although not a whole lot.
I was about a block from my house at about 6:30AM when I heard something under the car go clunk under a wheel well. The school where I work is about 30 miles away. I didn't see anything coming up to it, but something did not sound right. As I accelerated onto the highway, it sounded normal so I didn't think much more about it. I just passed the next to the last exit and the car starts feeling funny so I pull over, get out and see the left rear tire is very low. I'm in a horrible place to change a tire, so I roll back to where the end of the guardrail is and turn back onto the grass. This gives me about 3-3.5 feet to the edge of the slow lane.
I digress slightly. I have a first generation Honda Insight, and with a few minor modifications and slowing to 55mph, I typically get about 80mpg. In town it is much worse, only about 60-65mpg. Since it is a hybrid, the 12V battery is used to run the computer to control the 144V battery and the 12V is the size a Harley Davidson motorcycle uses. It is a very lightweight battery that should be changed every 4-5 years, but it hasn't given me any trouble.
I leave the flashers on, but shut the car off. I didn't even think about the headlights until after I moved all the junk in the back out of the way to access the trunk. The trunk is a misnomer as it is the size of a medium sized cooler. You have to remove the trunk which has a few items in it, then the plate beneath it to where you find the dinky spare. At this time I shut off the headlights and leave the flashers on. I change the tire, get everything into the hatch area and try to start the car. $#!%#!!!!!!!!!! it doesn't have enough juice to run the computer. Not 2 feet away from me is 144 volts and I have no way to access it. My car can be jumped, and I don't need big jumper cables to do it, just enough wire to get 12V to the computer.
A teacher from my school saw me and went up to the exit to turn around to help me. There is not enough room for him to get close enough to jump start my car without turning the wrong way on the Interstate Highway. I sent him on, but borrowed his set of dinky jumper cables. Our School Resource Officer was already on the way and while I was waiting, I thought, "How could I get 12V from his car to mine?"
I remembered that I had an extension power cord in the back of the car, but how could I hook a set of jumper cables to each end? I could cut the ends off and strip the wires back, and then it hit me. I could bend the plug terminals sideways and if I could find a paperclip, I could cut it in half and put the pieces into the receptacle side to hook the other set of cables to. Lo and behold, there is a paperclip in my console! The SRO stopped and was backing up and appeared to be waiting for an opening to turn around. I ran to his car and said, "I think I have a solution so you don't have to turn around." I just backed him up to a few feet from my car. I hooked everything up and the computer came up and car started. It doesn't sound or start like a regular car, and he said he didn't know if it was running until he saw the engine vibrate.
I unhooked everything and still made it to school before it started, although I was about 40 min late than my usual time.
Usually when a tire gets too low at speed, the sidewall is too damaged to use again, so I went online to see if I could get another tire. Of course MY car has to have special tires that are ONLY made for that kind of car. The last time I ordered them about a year and a half ago, I had to wait almost 6 months for them to come from Japan. I went to the website I got them from, and they showed 1 tire in stock. If that is correct, It will be here on Thursday.
I'll see if my buddy will let me borrow his classic Camaro with over 400 horsepower and then some.
Of course I won't get much fuel economy, but our hot secretary says it was her favorite car of all time....then she asked what color? Red. I wanna ride!!!

Fun!!

The first picture was taken by a buddy as we were flying over Asheville, NC at about 8500' and 180MPH heading home.
The second one is me showing out at a Fly-In in Tennessee. (I'm quite a ways from the camera.)

Cops, Robbers and Betty

I live in the South Eastern part of the USA. Where I live, crime is much lower, or I would expect it to be much lower than most other parts of the USA. Still, I am paranoid of being ripped off. I have an alarm on my house, religiously double lock my doors and make sure I lock the car. Except for last night.

Let me digress for a minute. Quite a few years ago, after a crooked business partner and a couple of poor business decisions, I ended up a homeless person in New York from October to March. If you are homeless in the winter, you definitely want to be in Southern California or Southern Florida, not New York. Of course me being me, warm weather was nowhere to be found. Sometimes life sucks, but I never robbed anyone of anything and I was able to work a few odd jobs and got to drive a limo for a while until I had enough money to get back somewhere where I could start over.

It was about 5:35 AM Tuesday morning and I was putting my clothes on to exercise a bit before getting ready to go to work. I had my short pants, T shirt and one shoe on, but not tied. Betty, my little dog who sleeps in a "crate" at night because she will pee and poop all over the place when she is unsupervised was growling. My roommate, Desiree, was on her way back from the bathroom to her room said that she thought I had been out there as she heard something.

I turned on the light and saw that things weren't quite right. I opened the car door and saw that it had been rifled through. We ran out to the street and saw two people running down the street. We started out after them. It took two blocks to catch them, but we did, and I got all my stuff back. My left foot was bloody and my ankle was swelling, but I was glad I got the stuff.

I don't run....it's not that I just don't, I can't. I had a head on collision 10 years ago when I was living in the Bahamas and broke both ankles, a knee, my pelvis, my hip socket was in 7 pieces and my sternum was split. Other than the bump on the head, I was ok. I was pretty happy that I was able to run down the perps. Until I realized they couldn't run very fast because of all the crap they were trying to carry. They were a homeless couple...and drunk. I was still pissed, but they took off after I got the stuff, but I would not have been able to go after them anyway with my ankle and hip starting to ache.

The police came, 3 cars worth, and rode around the neighborhood, but didn't see any one. One of them took a report and basically said they couldn't do anythign about it. All they had were descriptions and I didn't lose anything so findiing a judge who would take out a warrant without names, addresses or not missing anything.
Whatever happened to breaking and entering was a crime??

They also chastised us for going after them. What if they had been armed? I said how do you know I wasn't? She looked at my feet and said it looks like you've used up half your ammo, noting that I only had one shoe on. I then said my aim is impeccable, and that's how I got my stuff back.

While this was going on, the police car overheated and wouldn't start. It was in my driveway behind my car. So I got to wait for the wrecker. Still, I was only 15 minutes late for work.

I'll be gimping around for a few days, but I locked my car last night.

I love my plane and my car!

I'm going to paint the plane the same color as my car.
I'm not looking forward to the amount of work to paint it, but it's too nice not to.

As time goes by, the memories fade...

I won't forget that day 8 years ago. It used to be that I would get tears in my eyes when I saw movies or images from the 9-11 attacks. Now, it seems I only get tears when I see videos. Still images don't have the same effect. It does not diminish how I feel, but I'm still very sad as we all lost something that day.
I was going to write more, but I think this says it all.

School's are nice places when nobody is here.

We have just finished our 5th full day of High School. You would think that by the time the kids get here to 9th grade, they would have just a minuscule amount of common sense. Not so. For the most part, I have been dealing with bus issues..."What bus do I ride?". Then I have to ask, "Where do you live?". I have talked to several 9th graders who do not know their own address.
I've talked to parents who want their kid dropped off at work (the kid's job, not the parents) and it happens to be out of the county.

I'm old, and I can get to any classroom from any classroom in less than 5 minutes. Parents call and want the time extended so their little darling can get to class on time. I explain that the class change time is for getting to class on-time and there isn't much time for talking to their friends. "My son goes from class to his locker and on to the next one and simply cannot get there on time. So I walk from the kid's class, to his locker, pretend I'm opening it with a couple mistakes and change out what I need and walk to the next class. The next day the kid makes it on time. It's a freaking miracle!!

I've taken bets (figuratively speaking) from teachers and other administrators to see which kid is most likely to get suspended first. It's amazing that almost everyone picked the same guy. I would hate for every student to be just "another brick in the wall", but it certainly would simplify some of the things I have to do.

Pictures of the trip

Little puffy clouds over Illinois

White Knight II flying demonstration. I was amazed at how quiet it was.

Long EZ planes look like they are grazing when the nose gear is retracted for tie down.

Very nice and very expensive paint job. It probably cost almost as much as my whole airplane.

As far as you can see in most directions are airplanes.


On the way home flying between some of the clouds we aren't allowed to fly over.

Airventure 2009

In April of 2000, my friend Eric and I attended a workshop for hints and skills to build my plane, a Sonex. It was there we decided to fly to Airventure when I finally finished my plane. Airventure is the largest fly-in in the United States and might even be the largest in the world. Having taken the long road to finish my Sonex via a master's degree, a move and trying to save money to buy the things I needed, I finally finished my plane last October. "Finished" is a loose term, as it is unpainted/unpolished and still needs some detail work.
Eric flew out to South Carolina from California a couple of days before we were to leave to meet up with a couple of buddies and fly as a group of 3 planes. My Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS)had taken a dump 2 months earlier and I finally got it back the same day that Eric arrived.
We installed it that night and test flew it after I got off work the next day (Thursday). Everything seemed to be OK.
We left on Friday to fly to Clarksville, Tennessee to meet up with Robert and Frank, but stopped in Crossville to have lunch with another friend John.
The weather was not looking too good on Saturday, so Robert and Frank decided to drive. Eric and I felt that with the speed of the 3300, we could make the narrow window between two weather systems before they closed so we took off at 6am. Weather was not bad, although we did have to fly over some clouds. The ceiling was not too good at Rantoul, IL, but it was scattered enough to be able to land without difficulty. I called another friend Dan, who was planning on meeting us along the way, and he was still stuck in Columbus, Indiana with rain, so we left to face the traffic at Oshkosh alone.
The clouds were all gone as we got about 70 miles North of Rantoul. It was smooth flying to Juneau, WI for fuel in case we needed to hold over one of the lakes. Fortunately there was little traffic and we had become pretty familiar with the arrival procedures over the last few days.
Following a much slower plane, we were told to speed up on final and the plane behind us (a WWII fighter) was asked to slow down if possible. I landed on the dot after getting beat up on a bumpy windy final and got the hell out of the way. In Oshkosh, you can't really tell what the wind is doing as all the wind socks get blown away on a normal day as a blustery day is considered calm there.

We taxiied all over the place and finally arrived at Sonex where Jeremy said we should go over to Sonex Homebuilt parking and we would all taxi over together in the morning for the open house. He was able to lead us in his car which saved about a quarter million miles of taxiing.

We had an absolute blast. Neither of us had been to Airventure before, and we saw less than 1/10 of what was there. We might have seen as much as 1/8 of what was there, but I spent too much time talking about my little rat-rod airplane.

After 4 days there, looking at the weather, we decided to leave a day early. I didn't want to go home yet as there was too much to see and do, but to be able to get home in time to get Eric back on the plane to California was necessary.
We were number 3 to depart Wednesday morning at 6AM and it was absolutely beautiful flying until a bit South of Chicago.

Not too far from Chicago, we ran into more clouds, but the wind was behind us and we were making pretty good time.
Looking for holes in the clouds, made the arrival at Grissom, Indiana a little edgy, but once we got down through the hole, it was business as usual.

I called John to see how things looked at Crossville and in Spartanburg, and of course there was some rain, but it looked like it would be gone by the time we got there.
It had just finished raining when we got to Crossville and had lunch again with John to kill some time while we waited for weather to clear at home.
Heading South over the Blue Ridge mountains, we had to go to about 10,500ft (3200 meters for those of you who don't do feet) to clear the clouds, and when we turned East, and going slightly down hill with a tailwind groundspeed was between 180 and 200mph for the last 90 miles. That was way COOL!
Total time for the trip was 13.1 hours (including taxi time) and I'm still smiling.
It was nice to see old friends and meet some new ones who are all there for the same reason. We like airplanes!

We had the best time on this trip, and I hope we can do it again.