Early to Rise

I finally remembered to bring the camera for my flight to work. It is going to be a perfect day. Sorry they are so grainy, but in low light the camera doesn't work too well. It was so nice that I don't mind getting up 20 minutes early to be able to fly.

This is shortly after takeoff and everyone is just starting their day.

The next picture shows that you can see where the river goes. When it's cool, the fog stays near the water. As you can see, the sun is just starting to come up.

It's great to be able to look down on the cars and trucks that usually pass me on the way to work. I drive slow so I can keep my highway mileage around 80 mpg...that's right 80mpg! I have a Honda Insight and by driving 55 mph, I can get that kind of mileage. It's necessary as I drive 50 miles each way to work.

Well, the sun is coming up and I'm ready to land. Gotta put the camera away and pay attention to what I'm doing.

Hope your day is as good as mine started.

Wiring Woes

I've been up to my neck in wiring the plane way too long. It's been weeks of a lot of staring and getting not much done.
I finally made enough progress to have the intercom and radio working. This has been way too much trouble, and I let myself get away with the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid!
Well, it's not simple, it's too fucking complicated for my simple mind, but it's too late to simplify it. I wanted a cool looking panel to go with my cool looking leather interior, and I will have to admit, It is very cool! To make it simpler, it would cost another $3000-4000, which I don't have, but I'm spending money like it's going out of style anyway on it....
This is the last plane I plan to build and I'll keep it until I can't fly anymore, so what's the big deal? I'm getting cheap on myself.
If I can just get the intercom to work right, and I think it's an internal problem, I can make some headway. I'll order another one (this one was used and sounds good for a few seconds, then sounds like shit) and keep on wiring.
Imagine a plate of spaghetti without sauce on it. Each end of a noodle is like the end of a wire that has to be hooked to something. Hook them all up and then make it look nice and tidy. Yeah right.
Oh well, if I get it done soon, then I can install the fuel system (Much more my kind of task) and then I'll be able to crank 'er up! Maybe next week. Then the first flight will only be a month or two away!

The reflections on the panel make it look funny, but it's real carbon fiber (well veneer anyway). this pic is missing a couple of switches, but sexy, no?

Nothing New

I wish I had something funny or profound to say, but it's just the drudgery of normalcy. Saturday was as perfect a day as you could ever want. High 60's, which for February, is almost unheard of. Clear skies, no wind.... Makes for a perfect flying day. Did I partake? Hell no! I was to involved with the wiring of the plane to take a chance of blowing off the whole day. Ran the errands I needed as the stores I went to close at noon on Saturday. Did I fly then? Nope.

Did I get enough done to justify the day? No. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I could have flown, and then stayed up later doing the wiring. I'm just intimidated by it all. So I scratch my head, and/or my ass and wonder what to do next. I'm slowly getting it, but days like Saturday just don't come very often. I thought I'd fly Sunday, but you couldn't see across the street for most of the day because of low flying clouds, fog and rain.

Summertime will bring crappy visibility. The picture was taken last summer coming home from work, and was a couple of miles away and you can barely see where I am going to land. Cooler weather makes for better visibility. I should have gone Saturday. Next time.

Drug Runner?

I sent a letter to the lawyer, and he emailed me back with more info on my dad's plane. He put an ad in Trade A Plane, and within a week, he got a call from someone in Mexico who was interested in buying the plane.
When it was learned that it had long range fuel tanks, he said he would take it (sight unseen). The lawyer went on a business trip and when he got back, his secretary said there were two Mexican gentlemen waiting in a motel and had been there for 3 days. (The secretary couldn't get hold of the lawyer for 3 days? WTF?)
The one gentleman was a pilot and the other was buying the plane for his son who was a traveling physician. The plane they had now need $50,000 worth of updates, so they were looking for another one.
After looking at the plane, they paid the lawyer $52,000 cash in 20 dollar bills. It took the lawyer, his partner and accountant several hours to open the duct tape cylinders with rolls of 20s and count them.
I guess doctors in Mexico are paid in cash with American 20 dollar bills. That's the way it is here isn't it?
The plane was never registered in Mexico, and not re-registered here.

I got the registration for my plane Saturday. It's official 806MB. Now if I can just get the wiring finished (what a pain), fuel system in and the cowling finished, I'll be ready to fly the dang thing.

I looked at paint chips to see the colors to paint it, and I found some really cool paint. It's called Kameleon Kolors by House of Kolor. They actually change colors! I thought that would be perfect until I found out it costs $2250 per gallon (retail)!! I can get it for $1900 a gallon, but that is definitely 10 times more than I planned to spend. I guess I'll go for more traditional paints and colors.

N222EE

The fate of my fathers plane will be unknown, and probably forever. It was owned by a moron lawyer in Salem Oregon for 6 years, and sold in 1999 to a "John Doe" in Arizona somewhere, or as the official documentation states, Nogales Mexico.
I will never be in a position to be able to afford even an older Cessna 182 like that, but it was the nicest specimen of a 1967 C182K in the country.
There isn't much you can do with an airplane to customize it, but dad had all the legal speed modifications available and a special FAA approved Camshaft in the engine. I rebuilt it for him one summer when I was off from school, and it would cruise at 172 mph and burn 9 gallons per hour. That's almost 20 mpg! I know it doesn't sound like much, but it would hold 4 people plus luggage, and better mpg than most SUVs get.
Although I couldn't have afforded it, a buddy of mine would have bought it and I could have flown it whenever and wherever I wanted.
Now I'm on hold with the FAA waiting to be able to reserve that number. I just registered my Sonex with 806MB. 806 kind of looks like Bob although I would have rather had 808, but it is taken, and MB (Mike Bravo in international alphabet) stands for Margarita Bob, since I make the best Margaritas ever. It took me years to perfect my recipe. Mike Bravo would have been a good name for the main character in a couple of detective novels my dad wrote but never published, so it fits. I might change someday to 222EE if I can, but maybe I'll get another plane someday.
I didn't sleep much last night.

Getting healthy

Since I can't come up with something clever, I thought this post might be appropriate. It was sent as a forwarded email, so I can't give credit to who wrote it.

Answer Doctor

Q: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true?

A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... Don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.


Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?

A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.


Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?

A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up!


Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?

A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.


Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?

A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain...Good!


Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?

A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!! .... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?


Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?

A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.


Q: Is chocolate bad for me?

A: Are you crazy? HELLO Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around!


Q: Is swimming good for your figure?

A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.



Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?

A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape!



Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

And remember:
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride"

AND......

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION

Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

I'm back at work

I have been negligent in blogging, but it is increasingly difficult to be funny. I now know why comedians end up having to go through rehab....
When I was on the pain killers, my imagination was going crazy, and it was pretty easy to formulate a funny story out of reality.

Needless to say, I'm back at work, and I could be retired in a minute if I could afford it. I'm on my mission to finish my plane in the next few months, and I spend several hours a day on it when I get home.

When I had all the trouble with the "after surgery recuperation", the rash was some of the worst times. I'd get in the shower and turn the water on full hot with the shower massager and try to burn the itch away. There was one spot halfway between the top of my crack and where my belt rides that as soon as I would hit it, it would make me pee. It didn't matter if I had to go or not, I'd go even if it was just a little bit.
WHERE WAS THIS WHEN I HAD TO HAVE THE CATHETERS??!?!?!?!!!????

I just thought it was funny, and didn't give it much thought until one night in my sleep I must have scratched that same spot. OMG!!! Scratching it has the same effect. Fortunately I didn't wet the bed, but I did have to change my underwear (yes I took a bath first). Mental note: Don't even touch back there!

I'm glad that's all over, but sometimes I still get itchy. I hope that all goes away forever soon.

I guess my next update will be on the plane. It's getting exciting!

Ring of Fire

Yes, I know it's been over 2 weeks since my last post, but it is difficult for me to try to be funny. Friends at work say I'm pretty entertaining, but that's in person.

Well, I thought I would have to go to N.A. meetings to get off the Lidocaine. You know..."Hi, I'm Bob and I have a drug problem." "Hello Bob!" (I don't know why there is a big gap in the text here, but it won't go away)
As it turns out, the problem took care of itself. I developed a reaction to using it. When I was in itching hell, I'd put on some more lidocaine. It would take about 15-20 minutes for the itching to subside, and I'd be good for a couple of hours. Well, I got this rash, and it itched like hell too, so I thought, "I'll just put some on it too." Within a couple of days, I had the worst case of rash on my ass that I could imagine, and the itching was worse than ever. On my side, I'll bet my ass looks like a hippo mouth with chapped lips! I'm still only getting about 3-4 hours of sleep a night because of the itching. Not only that, but I have rash starting where I've never used lidocaine. I have an itchy ring around my belly button! WTF is up with that?!

Went to the doc today, and I now have a cream for the itch part of where the sugery was..., one for my cheeks, and another one for the other independent rashes. He says it looks like I've developed a mild infection. Great, just fucking great! The good part of all this?
In between hot baths (3-4 a day), and itchy spells (more than 3 or 4 a day), I can't sit long because it irritates the itch, so I go out to the garage and work on my airplane. I'm hoping to be able to crank it up sometime next month and fly soon after that!

There's a ton of work to do on it, but I'm on a mission.

Star of Bethlehem

I'm realizing that my recovery is taking as long as the doctor said. I figured I would be back to normal in a few weeks. Although I have periods of normalcy, this itching is about to take me down. I've become a lidocaine junky. It says on the tube to use every 6 hours. HA! After 2 hours it was itching so bad, I was almost wishing for the intense pain I woke up to. So I was using the lidocaine as needed.

Well, the swelling hasn't gone down like it should, and the redness is getting worse. After one of my tub episodes, I was bent over looking in the mirror and thought, "My ass looks like a Christmas ornament, it could almost be the star on top of the tree". Upon furthur inspection, the way the swelling is and how the redness is making a halo around it, I decided instead it looks like the Star of Bethlehem.

Mind now going into overdrive... how could this be marketed on ebay? Not many guys can say their ass looks like a heavenly object. I do know quite a few women that have those, however. It would be easy if it looked like the Virgin Mary, or Jesus himself, I'd even take Willie Nelson or George Bush, but this isn't a piece of toast or pancake that I can sell. Pictures probably wouldn't sell very well as most people would think they were photoshopped. Being in the true Christmas spirit, I thought about standing on top of the house with a nativity scene below, and a spotlight on my ass hoping that it would inspire some wise men to lavish my humble abode with Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

Alas, one of the neighbors would probably call the cops and although it probably wouldn't be proven to be indecent exposure in a court of law it could, however, be considered at that point a career limiting move. Besides it's cold out there.

No matter what, it's not a pretty picture.

"Are you suffering from that painful, rectal itch?"

That was an actual line from a Preparation H commercial some years ago. I have a new definition of rectal itch. It will wake you from a dead sleep, and you jerk the covers off and get to the bathtub as fast as you can. The doctor prescribes water as hot as you can stand, which lights the itch into afterburner. It seems to me that when you have swelling, you should have cold on it, but what do I know.
So, I have this little step stool I perch an elbow on, put my feet on the sides of the tub (one side is almost non-existent, however) hold my nutsack up and feel the painful rectal itch go into overdrive as the hot water rises. After 15 or so minutes of this, the itch subsides, and you use your foot to hit the drain.
If you accidently slip with the nutsack, the commotion is similar to a quarterback fumbling the ball on the snap. It's all assholes and elbows and sounds like you are trying to land that 400 pound tuna into your little boat and there is a shark feeding frenzy going on.
This itch can be worse than the pain, and the demerol does nothing for it.
My new daily routine:
Bath, try to get really dry as I'm afraid I'll get athlete's foot, jock itch and the equivalent of diaper rash. Don't sit too much as it'll get the itch going sooner. about 2 hours later repeat the process. Day and night. Sometimes I just want to run a curling iron up my crack. I've been thinking about trying to find a drug dealer for some coke suppository. Somehow I don't think my prescription plan is going to cover that one. I'd go to the witch doctor if I thought it would help.
I hope you all are having a better time than me.
Dr. appt. tomorrow. For once I can hardly wait.

Piss Bag Hell

I'm alive 1 week after surgery. That's the good part (subject to change).

I was more than a little apprehensive about this whole thing to begin with. I go in for surgery and wake up an hour and a half later in the most incredible pain imaginable. They ask you how much pain you have rated 1-10. With 10 being you feel like you'll pass out. I'm no stranger to pain, but this was the most intense pain...I think most of the other times I was in shock, which helps.
Being a fan of the movie, "This is Spinal Tap" , I say 11, but you'd think the tears running from my eyes might be a little hint.

Big shot of morphine...20 minutes later, no change in pain. Another big shot of morphine and still no change. The Dr.s and nurses are looking at me and can't believe I'm not floating. Now a big shot of Dilaudid. Finally the tears stop.

If a doctor says we have to operate near your tailbone, rectum, colon, or anything like it down there, say thanks, but no thanks. Goto the nearest costume store and rent a dog costume. Put it on and see if you can find a vet that will put you to sleep. That is the only humane way to do this.

I don't know what they are called, but they go on the hand mixers to mix cake batter etc. Those metal 4 bladed twirly things. They have a small version of one of those and that's how they do the surgery...just run it up until they get what they want.

After I get home, I have to sit in a hot tub of water. That works out pretty well as the demerol is wearing off, but the hot water makes it not so bad waiting for another dose.

I'm home, and can't pee. I try everything cold water hot water straining until my whole insides were going to fall out my ass and NOTHING! Not even one dribble.
I go to the ER and get a catheter. Normally I don't mind pretty nurses fondling my crotch, but I was in pretty bad shape Since none of them wrote their phone number on my hand, I guess they weren't very impressed. Mild depression starts in after that little episode.

2 days go by. Awake for an hour asleep for 3. Everything is going to schedule, except for the catheter thing, until I forget to close the drain valve. Get out to the garage and drag the shop vac in to try and get all of it out of the carpet. Finally get it all cleaned up, like I really needed to do all that. 'Bout 15 minutes later a buddy comes by to check on me, feed the cats and dog . PERFECT! Why couldn't he have been here in time to at least bring me the shop vac. He did get me more water and carpet cleaner and put the vac away for me.

Day 3. I have become an enemagician. There ain't no way in hell your body will let you take a dump. The put sponges, tools, rivets, scotch tape, and a large briar in there, and no stool softener in the world will touch that. Doc says fill the bag up with warm tap water, then fill you up and wait 30 minutes. 30MINUTES?!?! I couldn't wait 30 seconds. Every thing came out but the briar. Back in the tub to get over the trauma.

Day 4. The Briar has got to go, but after some more enemagic I find out it's not really a briar, but a large orange traffic cone, and it's coming out square end first.

Day 5 I get the catheter out! YAY! I'm not tethered anymore! 10 hrs later I'm back in the ER for another catheter.

Now I have a low grade infection, and feel I have to pee all the time, but it's a direct line out. Doc says that'll go away soon. Not soon enough.

A normal adult bladder holds about 750ml before it'd pretty painful. They got 1930ml out of me. You know there is something up when the nurses tell their cohorts to come by and see this. It was about 2 shot glasses short of a 2 liter bottle.

Catheter comes out this Thursday. The Doc wants ME TO DO IT!!! I have to do it early so if there is a problem, I can get there withour another trip to the ER..... I just might have to find that dog costume.

This is probably way too much info, but I'm thinking about doing this every vacation.

Well, gotta go deal with another traffic cone.

UPDATE: The traffic cone is about the size of a candy corn.... I don't know what they did down there, but from now on I'm on a smoothie diet.

TIP: Hamburger smoothies just don't cut it.

I have a chromosomal translocation

In other words, an abnormal growth near my tailbone. It's been there for a long time, but after a misstep on a ladder, I fell backwards on it and it got bigger and very sore. From the size of my pinky fingernail to bigger than my thumb.

Having surgery on Monday the 5th, and they tell me I'll be out of work for 6-8 weeks!!!!

I have plenty of sick time built up, but I'm not excited about it.

A buddy told me "People have been telling you they were going to ream you a new asshole, and finally someone is going to do it."

yay


The hospital is going to ream me one, the doctor is going to ream me one and I'm sure the anesthesiologist will ream one too.

Not that I'm a prolific blogger, but I'll probably be down and out for a while. I do hope I'll be able to keep up on reading my favs.

Kansas isn't in Kansas anymore

Here goes for the second try on this post....

A buddy I work with is the penultimate Kansas fan...you know, Kansas the band. Yup, they are still around and are as good or possibly better than ever. Back in the Late 70's-Early 80's I lived in Atlanta, and worked with a guy who built street rods, etc. He hired me to help him with a 1937 Chevrolet coupe. We were building a hot rod for Dave Hope, bass player of Kansas. Those were the days. Dave would come by and we'd hang out, and I'd get to go to parties and hang out with the band.


Marty said we were going to the Kansas concert in Greenville, SC, and although I'm not a fan of crowds, I went. Had a great time. I mentioned to him that the band just wasn't the same to me (of course I hadn't seen them since probably '82), and I miss the original guys.
















Dave was very proud of the fact that "Kansas is the only big name band that has all the original members!"....Dave left about a year and a half later. I understand why he left, and if I had stayed around Atlanta (had to go racing), I'd have needed to leave too. Way too much partying. It's amazing to me that any band can stay together for the long haul anyway. Too close, too long, too much.


The musicianship is, as always, amazing. Although I still miss the original band, this group is very "tight", especially considering how difficult their music is to play.

I sure would like to talk to Dave again. He is an ordained minister now. I'm glad he has his life together and I wonder what happened to the coupe. I never took a picture of it, but it sure was fun driving around in it.

Billy's (the guy I was working with) girlfriend, one time called me "Mr. Coupe", and Billy corrected her, saying it's "DOCTOR COUPE". The name stuck for quite some time, and The Monolith album (before public releasse) was signed; To Bob, "Dr. Coupe", thanks for your help on the car. Best Wishes from Dave Hope. It was also signed by Ehart and Walsh. That album was stolen along with several hundred others along with my stereo and car.
I'm still bummed about that.

I looked at a picture of Dave on the internet, and damn if he didn't get old. I guess I had better go look in the mirror. Fortunately, I'm not as old as him and look much much younger...no, really!

I just try to regain some of my youth sometimes, and that concert was one of those times. It brought back memories of the band getting ready for a tour, and Dave would come by and say, "We sound like a garage band trying to do Kansas songs." It would only be a couple of days later that he would say they were starting to sound like Kansas again. It was only after that, the practice sessions would be open for viewing (unless you were special, like me).

Blue Skies

Looking out the window today reminds me of the sky when Ferris Bueller looks out and says "How could you possibly go to school on a day like today." Today's sky doesn't even have that one cloud yet.


It is much better than Friday when I went to the Sonex Fly-In in Crossville, TN. I had a blast. Although my Sonex isn't ready to fly yet (still a long way off), I flew in the Cessna 152 Texas Taildragger. The sky looked ominous although Crossville was clear and about 15 miles west of me was reporting better ceilings. I took off and found a hole in the clouds to go through. There were a total of 5 different layers of clouds. It was pretty amazing, well amazing after the scary moments. I was going to fly direct, but there were build ups of clouds that went through the layers. I was at 4500 feet and had to go around a few of them. One, near Asheville, was particularly large and I ended up in a white out situation. Thinking I'll break through in a second, ok maybe any time now, OK maybe now, Ummm maybe I should turn around, one more second...Ok turning around. I came out where I went in and headed around the other way, and they were everywhere.....so I headed Southwest towards Georgia. It would add a little time, but the mountains I'll have to fly over are lower and they are reporting better weather there too. I found another hole in the coulds and went up to 6500 feet and when it got bad, I went up through another layer to 8500 feet. It was not really bumpy at all, and the little rain I hit washed the bugs off the windshield.


The lower layers stopped at the mountains and I could finally see the ground sometimes. It was a little more relaxing so I could get a picture or two. Coming out of all the weather, I wasn't far from my destination. It was a fun and exciting 2 hours.




I had a blast, and one of my friends had painted part of his plane with Kandy Tangerine. I have a new favorite color now. I think painting the whole plane this color would be too heavy, but it sure looks nice.

It was nice renewing old friendships, having cocktails at the motel with my buddies, and I was a camera plane for the Saturday morning Dawn Patrol. I hope all the pictures of the other planes flying by turned out.

Now back to work on my plane full speed ahead. I'll have to fly less so I can buy some more of the things I need to finish my plane. Might even have to save up for a Kandy Tangerine paint job.

Crappy Weather

Well here I am at work, working...no...really. I looked outside and we are under an ominous cloud cover. What's that? Blue sky! There is a hole in the clouds!
Maybe, just maybe, I'll get to fly to Tennessee tomorrow to the fly-in there. The weather doesn't have to be perfect, but where I'm going is reporting 6000 foot ceiling. As long as I can get a couple thousand feet over the ground without being in the clouds, I'm good to go.

This year there are some workshops that I hope will be very informative for me. Canopy and cowling fitting as well as an electrical workshop are offered. I'm just at the point where I will be fitting my cowling, then the canopy and of course the instrument panel (electrical).

So I hope I don't have to drive there. It's so much more fun to fly and less than half the time.

I just hope when I retire, I have good enough health and enough money to fly.
I need to make a coast to coast trip in an airplane I built with my own hands to honor my father. In high school, we would go from coast to coast in his airplane over the summer just before school started, and I always wanted to fly alongside him in my plane. I couldn't muster up enough money or drive to do that while he was alive so I'll go it alone. I'm sure there will be tears along the way as I fly to and over some of the same places I remember as a kid. All in all we made 7 trips across the USA (no not all of them were when I was in high school).

I have to make at least one more trip.

Triple Tree Aerodrome Fly-In

I flew to the First Annual Triple Tree Aerodrome fly-in last weekend. It was great. I took off Thursday to go, and would have taken off Friday, but had to work. This is an unbelievable place just South of Woodruff, SC. There is a 7,000 ft grass runway that is lighted, a huge hangar with some really nice big model airplanes as well as a couple of antique airplanes. It's a nice facility with a patio and outdoor fireplace, showers for those camping and even has a control tower for the fly-in. Way cool! There were 150-200 planes there on Saturday, and a pretty big crowd.

Next weekend I'm flying to Crossville, TN for the Sonex Fly-In. I went last year and although I'm not flying my Sonex (since it's not finished yet), I will fly there. An hour and 45 minutes in the air is a whole lot better than 5 hours driving.

It'll be nice to see the friends I made last year and catch up on all the new technologies and tips from the other builders. Plus, I only will work 4 days this week too!

Flying above a carpet of cotton

This morning I checked the weather because it was supposed to be clear, and it said few clouds at 1 thousand three hundred (above the ground).

I looked out the window and it looked relatively clear (even though it was still dark). So I decided to fly. On the way to my friends house to get the plane, I noticed some thin fog in the valleys. Not really a problem, so I called a bud to get a ride from the airport to work and got the plane ready to fly.

It was just getting light and the sky was just gray. Again, not really a problem. About 500 feet above ground, I was in the clouds (the plane is equipped for visual flight, not Instruments only flight). Snap decision...do I continue or turn around and land? I'll be out of them in just a second and the destination is pretty clear. I focused on the instruments and kept climbing. Sure enough a minute or two later I was above the clouds. Still can't see much as the sun hasn't officially risen. I climbed higher than normal and followed the GPS track towards work. 20 minutes into the flight, I still haven't seen the ground. I was beginning to think I'll be flying around a while... Once again, not a problem as I have 4 hrs of fuel before I run out.

I see a little bump in this beautiful but boring layer of a cotton 'carpet' which must be the mountain about 10 miles from where I'm going. On the other side, there is a big hole in the clouds so I know I can at least come back there and go under the clouds if I need to. I know where the airport is, but still can't see it. I can eventually see parts of the ground and find another hole and circle down through it. I'm running late and haul ass towards the airport. Dump all the flaps and get slowed down for a nice touchdown and turn off.

A little excitement to start the day.

That was FUN!!!!

CAVU

This is the kind of day we are having here. It's not my picture, but I didn't have a camera with me this morning.

I got the new starter installed in the plane on Saturday. It was a royal pain. Of course it just didn't bolt in like the old one. It's finally in and it ROCKS!! I also installed the new igntion switch and door lock so all the keys match now. Out of all of it, the door lock was the worst, but it's done.

I flew to work today and it was CAVU. Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited. When I took off, the sun was just starting to rise, and you could see that the cars still had their lights on, a little fog in the valleys, and I could see the tall buildings in Charlotte as the sun rose. That's over 60 miles away!

There was a little wind, but not too bad. Not a cloud in the sky, and I had to turn off all the vents as it was a little cool. It is a perfect day to fly, and a perfect description of why I fly.

Friday

It's Friday! The best news, is that the airplane starter should be here today! I wasn't expecting it to be shipped until next Thursday at the earliest. Soooo I can put it in tonight and go flying tomorrow cause it's supposed to be nice all weekend.

I've made some friends on Blogger, and I read them every day, so it has inspired me to post some more. I'm not very expressive, and am not a very good writer, but I made this blog so I could post a response to a couple of others. Sometimes it's good to vent though.

Since I started posting comments on other sites, I've had over 130 views of my profile in the last few weeks (up from 5 for the last year)

I would link to other blogs, but I don't know how, and I would like to get a counter, but don't know how to do that either. I looked, but I haven't spent much time or figured it out. If it's simple, please let me know. If it's complicated, never mind. ;-)

October 4-6 is the Sonex gathering in Crossville, TN. I'll be flying the Cessna to this one since I have not finished my Sonex yet. Maybe next year.

I like the paint job (second one), but I've been struggling with ideas for my paint. I want something colorful, and I was going to primarily be yellow, but all the factory planes are now being painted yellow and I think there are too many. So I'll probably go with white, but I want some stripes and such, but am not artistic enough to come up with something cool. Since Dad was in the Flying Tigers (not as a pilot though), I thought about having shark teeth on the front, but don't want it too lame. The one at the top is not toooo lame, but borderline.

I Remember

I still have trouble seeing images of the World Trade Center without getting tears in my eyes.

A relative of mine was on Flight 175 and my heart goes out to her family and the rest of the families who have to deal with this on a daily basis, not just once a year like most of us.

I borrowed (stole) the image from Indian Chris at Right Wing & right Minded