Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all, and I hope you have a wonderful new year too.

I've been blessed this year, with friends, a new home, a job that holds great prospects. So, I'm thankful tonight. I wish I were spending the evening with my children, but that's not in the cards. Maybe next year.

Thanksgiving weekend the motorcycle decided to quit. Five full working days, a bunch of time on EBay, and a whole new relationship with my neighbor, and I had it back working. Sort of

The windstorm that took out power for one million people in Seattle got my house too, and it was five days before it was back. But, fortunately, I'd purchased a generator years ago, and when I moved here I asked my friend Mark to bring it back from his summer home where it's been resting for the past few years. So, it made it to Ballard on Wednesday. I didn't pick it up then, and really hadn't been paying attention to the weather forecasts, so Thursday lost power, and Friday, trying to pick it up in the van, was the day the van decided to quit working.

Not to be denied, I took the now functioning motorcycle and loaded the generator on it, and survived the next three days in better form than a whole ton of other less fortunate persons. But, no shower, so I did stay with my friend Rob, and I owe him a vote of thanks for that.

Got the van towed back to the house, since it’s not worth paying a shop to fix it, and besides, I need to know about auto mechanics before I die…..served a firelight dinner to my friend Thom and his wife Mona who helped tow it back, then got up the next morning at 4:00 am and rode the bike across the mountains to Port Angeles, caught the 8:00 ferry and spent the day with my beautiful daughter Jillian on her 18^th birthday. We had lunch in a restaurant that used to be a hangout of mine when I lived in Victoria many years ago, then I toured the University which she attends, then caught the ferry back to Port Angeles for another night-time winter motorcycle ride back to a freezing cold home……

Got some fairly nice photographs of Victoria. And some of my daughter.

Anyway, life’s an adventure, and the past six weeks have just been one of those things, stuff breaking down, getting fixed, and moving on. Glad to be alive, can’t wait to see what 2007 has in store.

Regards,

Jeremy

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Well, I started to write a post about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance this morning, on my laptop. It was even fairly cleverly written, but being done directly on the Blogger screen. So, when this flaming piece of shyte from Microsoft crashed again, for the n’th time in the past week, I was pretty pissed off.

But, of course, the whole item was about the lessons being taught by machines. Apparently I’m in dire need of a lot of lessons these days, as life is full of machines malfunctioning, and personal relationships from the past that I’d love to repair that seem beyond salvage.

Speaking of salvage, I’ve got a 1978 Honda Goldwing that up until a few months ago I loved with all my heart. Now I look at it with wry affection.

Robert Pirsig wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in the sixties I believe. It achieved the same certain sort of success that the Motorcycle Diaries movie did recently. It wasn’t at all about motorcycles, but that was the framework of his book.

One of my brothers is a journalist, and he’d interviewed Pirsig. I’d read the book, and thirty years later the only thing I can remember is that he was working on a BMW, and the front forks needed a shim. You could buy it from BMW for high cost. It was aluminum, of a certain thickness. I think it had a knurled top on it. Or, you could carrot-top a beer can and, as it happened, that was precisely the same materials and dimensions as the BMW part.

Form over function, or function over form? Which part would YOU choose.

Now obviously, if I’m riding a thirty year old bike, it’s possible that I’m just an afficianado, or it’s more likely that I ride it because that’s what I can afford.

So, when my daily commute goes awry because the bike malfunctions, I’ve been faced with some decisions. Put the freaking thing away in the bottom of Puget Sound, maybe by pushing it off a ferry late some night? Or, get down into the guts of the thing and figure it out.

That's all well and good, but have you ever been in a carport down on your knees with wrenches while it's a howling blizzard? I moved my old woodstove out there for psychological support, because it surely doesn't contribute any heat, but at least the snow's not on my head....

More to come, gotta run

Happiest Fireside

Finally, a home to love.

This fine chilly October evening I'm sitting by the fire in my beach shack; ok, it's not mine, but it's mine to use and live in.....

Waterfront. I lived there once, many years ago, when my children were young. And, so was I, for that matter.

And now, again, the same place, but different. This time, Port Orchard Washington, instead of North Vancouver British Columbia. But, there's the same knotty pine interior, a front porch with a fabulous view, a never-ending marine scene, in this case the US Navy, including aircraft carriers, and the Coast Guard, moving right past the front door, and my spiritual totem, a Great Blue Heron, the eminence grise of my former life.

And here's me, alone, but happy. Motorcycle in carport, van in carport, tools in toolshop, photo studio about to be set up in the spare bedroom, and wireless access on my laptop courtesy of my Blackberry.

And the kayak's out on the brick side patio waiting for spring, and the boat plans are posted on the shop wall.

No nosy neighbors, no fire engines, no traffic, a dead end lane, and I LOVE IT!!!!!!

More, much more, to come.

Decisions, Decisions

The best memories are the ones you can't refresh by looking at a photograph. I'm sorry to say that that's true.

Sorry, because last night I was able to create a fresh new memory that I'd swear is going to last a long time.

It's of course an aviation memory.

Unexpectedly, a customer needed to get down to Bend, OR, and he chartered an aircraft from us. That aircraft, a Beechcraft Bonanza, has a large enough passenger load that the charter pilot, who also happens to be my instrument instructor, asked me along, so that I could get some instruction in the real world of IFR on the way home.

So, I sat in the rear on the trip down, while the customer flew and my instructor helped him, as he too had never flown that particular type, though he has many hours in similar aircraft.

The trip down was delightful, and uneventful. We stopped off for a sugar fix at the FBO, filed a return flight plan, and took off.

This was my first Bonanza flight, and sitting left seat I'd spent about fifteen minutes making myself familiar with the panel. I've spent a lot of time in a simulator with this instructor, and it is, though not identical, a similar layout, with similar equipment. I was actually perhaps a bit more current with the GPS, but I think that's just my vanity talking.

Anyway, to the memory. All flights are wonderful, but this one in particular was great. We climbed to 11,000', then asked for VFR on top at 11,500'. Below us was a perfect white cloud layer, about 9000' Heading north to the Olympia VOR, I had the great pleasure of being faced with two choices.

To my left, the Pacific Ocean, with a brilliant red sun setting behind the cloud layer. And to my right, a perfect full moon rising behind Mount Rainier. At one moment the moon was perched perfectly right on top the mountain, like a shining white ball balanced on the tip.

And my cameras? Left behind for weight and balance considerations for the trip south.....

Ah well, the images are burned on my mental flash drive.....

Changes in Latitudes

It was all to do with a motorcycle ride.

I needed to get it fixed, and one of the guys I'm lucky to have as a resource lives on the Peninsula. I of course slept in late the morning I was supposed to have gotten my butt over to his house, and, arriving at the ferry just as it was leaving the dock, and failing to have his phone number I really had blown it. He really had set aside a limited amount of time, and I'd not shown up during that window...

However, I asked him to recommend a good ride, and the net result was that I found a great little house that I'm going to move into.

Now, my good friend Mark has advised me that I'd be best to discipline myself, and not choose the house.

Thanks Mark, I tried to listen, really, I did....

Instead, I'm moving in a few weeks, and am excited as hell. In order to make the move, I've got to generate more income, and that's going to take a lot of my time. But, I've started, and some of the photographs I've been taking recently may hold the key to it. In any case, here's some photos of the house, and the view, and in the winter I'll be spending a lot of time getting the workshop ready, and getting the kayak ready to push off the front lawn and into the drink.

I'll be back in touch.

Righty Then, Take Out The Camera Jeremy

So, it turns out that the motorcycle trip was not at ALL what I'd planned. What a surprise....

In any case, in some ways it was even better, but the damndest thing happened. My impatience got the better of me, and I didn't stop at all to take photos, even though I had the camera in a wonderful little backpack in the luggage carrier.

You see, I was either riding the bike, enjoying the scenery rushing past at near-light speed, or I was flying a kite, or wandering down the beach with a kite in my hand, or sitting at a restaurant, or setting up my tent, or doing my laundry, or......

So, the only photos I got were of the tall ships at Westport. Here.

And, later, after returning to Seattle, some delightful photos of fine young ladies playing volleyball on Labor Day.

The story? Well, it all starts in a fog really...

Volleyball Labor Day

It's a hard thing to resist, photographing beautiful young girls. Sorry, know it's not appropriate to say that in some circles, but there you have it.

Here's a group of people who were playing at Golden Gardens one Labor Day, and whom I finally contacted through one of the players when I met him at Alki another day. He's not stupid...

Off Motorcycling

Going to be doing a bit of a ride in the next few days/week or so. Have decided that, given my incident of last weekend, and given that I'd already booked next week off, I'm going to jump on the old Goldwing and head down the Oregon coast.

I think I'm going to pack a tent, some camping gear, a few nice cameras, and maybe this laptop, plus a full selection of Prism kites, and then head for the beaches. Top that off with some suntan lotion, a few pairs of shorts and a bathing suit, and I think I'll be set for the week.

Will probably do a loop, heading inland in Southern Oregon and then coming up the two states inside the mountains, in the high desert country. That will give me an opportunity to stop off in the Horse Heaven Hills and photograph the Mustang II, talk to the farmer who might deliver it over to Seattle for me, and do some measuring and analysis.

Can't wait, and will try to make some postings enroute.

It Had To Happen Some Day

Well, it finally happened. I bent some aluminum.

As always, with any accident/incident, there's a number of causes. Fortunately, it did NOT happen in the air, nor did it happen with an engine running, or the aircraft moving. It happened when my foot slipped, and I slammed to the ground while mounting/dismounting an aircraft on display at the Museum of Flight.

It was last Saturday, and I'd been there all day, working at the Aerobatics day. Getting off the right wing of the Zlin 242 I slipped, and slammed down full body weight on the right flap, tin canning it immediately.

Our sheet metal guys tell me that it's not damage that can't be repaired. And, there's some issues with re-rigging the flap, so on balance I got off pretty lucky. And of course, there's insurance, so I won't, fortunately, have to write a massive check. But I'm still mortified, and have replayed the incident over and over and over again in my mind.

Wish I could say that it hadn't happened, but it did, and that's that. And thank you to all the people who immediately asked me how I was, whether I'd been hurt myself. No, just my pride.

In The Pits

What a weekend, starting with hanging out with the Blue Angels for a morning breakfast Friday,
through working in our company booth, taking part in a flyby, and watching the hydroplane races and air shows from the top of the control tower, a place so secure you have to have about seventeen different levels of pass, plus a degree of chutzpah, just to get to.

I'm going to let the photos speak for themselves, as writing about this is not nearly as good as just seeing what it was.

Suffice to say that I'm not really happy with my photo skills, but some of them came out well, so that's progress.

Speaking of Angels

Thanks to Karen Santa of Windermere Real Estate for arranging a pit pass for me Sunday at the hydroplane races. She's a sponsor of a boat, and graciously allowed me to do some photography that I otherwise would not have been able to get. And, in return, I took these photos of her.

The Deep Blue Sky, Full Of Angels

OK, they're here, at Boeing Field, for the next four days. The US Navy Blue Angels, and what can be more exciting to a pilot than to be able to watch those guys from close up.

Take A Deep Breath and Plunge In...

Through the immense generosity of a group of aviation friends, I have come to begin a new stage in my flying career, that of "aircraft builder".

With luck, persistence, and cash, lots of cash, I should at some time in the future have a hand in completing a kit-built Mustang II. The project is currently sitting abandoned in a barn in Eastern Washington, where we left it two years ago when I first saw it. At that time I took some cellphone photos of it, and as soon as I track down the hard drive they reside on I'll forward them on to this blog. However, here's a link to some photos I took of a Mustang II a few weeks ago at the Arlington EAA airshow. This is what my pile of airplane parts might look like after I put a lot of sweat and a lot of cash into the mixture, liberally dosed with a lot of time.

In the meantime, the plan is as follows:

Do the documentation with the current owner, releasing he and his heirs and successors from any and all liability pertaining to my further messing with the project.

(Addendum) Went to my local EAA meeting last night, found a resource, a gentleman who had a copy of a presentation given a few years ago by an aviation liability lawyer. My source also has copies of the contracts the lawyer drew up for him when he sold (that is, when my source sold) his own plane (sorry, collection of aircraft parts...)

(Addendum) Found the hard drive tucked away, and bought an external cover for it, powered it up, and found the cellphone photos from so many years ago. Here they are. Each needs some comments. The workmanship on the cowl is so poor that it's a full reject. So too will be some of the other cosmetic work, but the basic assembly workmanship is at least passable, at best good.

Steve's Farm

Nov 27, 2004 - 13 Photos

Haul the aircraft, the parts, the plans, and the dust, over from the dryland farm country to a storage area as yet to be determined. I hope that storage area is somewhere near my place of employment.

Start with a clean sheet or two of paper, an A&P or two, an afternoon or twenty, and review the work that has been completed so far. This analysis will lead me to one of two decisions, which are, of course, proceed or abandon.

If proceed, then I'll be making myself MUCH more active in my local EAA chapter, of which I'm already a member (just in case this project came to pass....).

And, I'll be scrambling for the cash of course....which is sparse to say the least....

But, over the horizon and out there somewhere, God willing and weather permitting, an airplane, a sweet little two seat semi-aerobatic ride, will be mine for the asking....and what's not to like about that?

Way, Way Behind The Airplane

I am way, way behind the airplane. Which, as all pilots know, or are sometime to learn, is NOT where you want to be.

Since last I wrote, there’s been a significant number of aviation adventures. And misadventures too……

First, there was the EAA Northwest Fly-In, or more commonly, the Arlington Airshow.

My company takes part as a major sponsor, and we brought a lot of airplanes up for the show. That of course means that somebody has to fly them up, and I’m pretty much the kind of a guy that will drop anything to go flying, particularly if I don’t have to pull my own Visa card out at the end of the flight.

It was the fourth of July, and we had been griping a bit in the days prior to that, because none of us really wanted to have to take time away from our all-important holiday to do something as mundane as ferry brand new sophisticated airplanes up to a grassy field where there was nothing but aircraft idiots by the dozens……

When we finally got our flight together, there were seven of us. For me this was a first. It wasn’t like the formation flying ride I had bummed last summer, with the Red Baron biplane team. This was ME flying the airplane in a very loose formation. So loose in fact that we had little if any visual contact, but still, we were all occupying the same airspace, and there was something special about firing up seven airplanes and taxiing to the runway for takeoff clearances…..

We’d agreed to monitor 123.45 (which yesterday I discovered is NOT intended for casual air-to-air conversations, but is instead a test frequency for avionics manufacturers…..who knew…?) so shortly after liftoff we were chatting back and forth….. a little bit of “where are ya?” and “didja see that….?” and so on. The high point was that it was, frankly, scud running, with a ceiling just barely legal, and conditions were somewhat less than my (previous) personal minimums. There was, of course, peer pressure, even though it was unstated……..and just as I was about to exercise my PIC right to turn around and run for the barn, a hole opened up over Lake Washington, and I could see that beyond the north end of the lake there was much improved conditions.

Now, we were flying two Diamond 20 C1 Eclipses, (VFR only, but with Garmin 430’s), three Diamond DA40’s with Garmin G1000 glass panels, a Diamond TwinStar (diesels, G1000, soon-to-be-certified for known icing, and a Columbia 400 (G1000 as well). So, there was a lot of avionics horsepower there, and it’s only a thirty minute flight from Boeing Field to Arlington….so there was little chance of anybody getting lost. Which is why when one of us said “hey K….., where ya at…?” and there was a long pause, then a “ummmmm, …….” we had to all bite our tongues to stop from laughing out loud, because if you can’t figure it out by looking out the window, you’ve got a half-million dollar computer screen in front of you with a little picture of an airplane over a moving map……

Anyway, we all got there safe and sound. And, set up our displays, and jumped back into the TwinStar and the Columbia to blast back to Boeing and get on with the fireworks and the partying later that night.

So, for the next five days, I had the distinct pleasure of being left seat in the Diamond TwinStar as we commuted to work at Arlington each day, from Boeing Field. And I now feel a good deal more comfortable in that particular airplane than I have a right to expect. What a sweet ride she is….

The weather was lousy for the first two days, so the crowds did not materialize, and the show was disappointing, but the TwinStar was the star, that was for sure. There was always a pile of toothless pilots gathered round, chucking their chins and tilting their heads to one side and finally sidling up and asking “Is that them there damn diesels……”

That particular group of pilots have been, disparagingly and impolitely, nicknamed by one of our previous co-workers as “whistling gophers….” because they walk up to a brand new airplane, scratch their chins and their receding hairlines, then ask “how much does that there damned airplane go fer….?” and when we tell them they purse their lips and go “Weeeeeoooooooohhhhhhh………”

On the third evening, heading home, four on board, me on the stick, the PIC (for I have no multi-engine endorsement) suggested that this takeoff we might just level out at 20’ or so, and retract the gear, and fly it down the runway in ground effect…….

Just as I was about to pull back on the stick, since the available runway was coming to an end, the airshow temporary tower controller, who had been VERY interested in the TwinStar, came on the radio and said something like “So, I see the TwinStar doesn’t climb very well with four on board…….” and that was the moment that the airspeed had reached a good deal more than was necessary, and I pulled the stick back into my crotch and as we screamed up into the sky the tower came back on the radio and all he say was “Oh…..!” and that felt pretty good.

Anyway, Arlington is a blast, and there was some serious aerobatic behavior going on each day. I spent some time with my camera pointed at the sky, but my long lens doesn’t have image stabilization, so I’m disappointed with the results, but still, it was fun.

On the last evening of the show we only had four pilots available to fly those wonderful airplanes back home, so we had to do two trips and commute back up one time. It seems that I’m developing a habit on the last evening of Arlington, which is that, even though I’ve flown AWO direct KBFI dozens of times, I seem to get lost heading home on the last flight of the weekend…..and I always find myself noodling around in the skies up above the Skagit Valley, which I what I consider to be a tiny bit of heaven. So, I celebrated another great Arlington by twisting a DiamondStar around the sky for a while, then headed home just at sundown and moonrise….for yes, it was very close to the full moon. A perfect weekend.

And since it’s bedtime, I’ll stop here, but there’s more coming, and it’s called…

It’s True, Blondes DO Have More Fun!

An Orcas Adventure

Had a lovely flight up to Orcas Island yesterday, with my friend Molly. We dropped into Decatur Shores to visit with Mark and Chris, but they had not yet arrived. Wandered up the path and introduced Molly to Ken and Diana. Diana was trapped in the treehouse, Ken using the ladder for work on the new deck, but Diana laid claim to the Rapunzel tactic......but she didn't actually let her hair down.

Orcas had a summer fair going on, and we were able to wander around there a bit. Had a camera with me, and noticed that I'd lost my lens cap. Backtracked looking for it, couldn't find it, cursed myself for losing it, and finally let go of it, figuring it was gone forever. It was of course at that moment that two young men wandered up to me holding the lens cap, making gestures to see if it fit.....when I asked them, they said they'd just found it a few minutes earlier, and had then been looking at all the people wandering around with cameras, looking for the missing cap. It was slightly miraculous. A lesson in letting go, as Molly pointed out.


There were some very interesting crafts going on at the fair, including some blacksmithing. It's quite the chore, that hammering on metal. No freaking wonder most of us like keeping our soft little hands on computer keyboards, or airplane controls.......

Had a lovely lunch, wandered around the drop-dead gorgeous Episcopal church on the point, and flew home. Got a text message from Mark just as I was flying overhead, over Decatur, inviting us down for tea, but we had to make it back to Boeing, more's the bad luck.

I'll be attending the Northwest EAA Fly-In at Arlington, WA, all next week, and should have piles of new photos and comments...can't wait.

What's So Special About This Guy?

Much as I hate to admit it, there's a certain panache about having your own 747 available, let alone swarms of police officers and security details, when you arrive at any airport. And, to hear the tower controllers on the radio say "Air Force One, cleared to land, the airport is yours......" is not something that I hear when I fly into Boeing Field.

So, there's been a visit to Seattle this morning, and here's some photos we took, from behind the windows of course, as there were MANY secret service types scowling at us as we shot these.....

But, what the heck, what else would we spend the tax dollars on? Education? Health Care? Nah....let's spend it on airplanes..... that's MUCH more fun......

Anacortes Fly-In Saturday

I’ve been thinking what a special privilege it is to be so familiar with the airports around the Seattle area.

Yesterday I went in to work, and unexpectedly the front desk customer service person asked me if I’d grab an airplane and fly one of our flight instructors up to the Skagit Valley, to pick up one of our aircraft which had been having a one hundred hour maintenance overhaul. So, ten minutes later I was ready to go, but the weather just crapped out, just as the briefer had said it would on the phone moments before. But, half an hour after that, again, just as the briefer had predicted, the line of thunderstorms had passed through, and I was airborne heading northbound out of Boeing Field.

It’s nice to fly with an instructor when you’re not actually paying for instruction, as he feels free to comment on your flying, but you don’t have to listen…..you’re wise however if you do. So, Keith, who’s done some significant development work for NASA, gave me an intensive lesson on leaning the engine mixture, for proper fuel consumption.

Half an hour later, I dropped him off at Bayview Skagit, which is Mount Vernon Washington, and had a nice chat with the maintenance manager at the business there. He’s trying to encourage my company to expand to his facility, so it was one of those meetings where he was putting on his best face and I was doing my best to be non-committal. But what struck me was how nice it was to know somebody at that airport, and how fortunate I am that that’s the case.

Had a nice flight back home, twiddling knobs on the panel practicing my IFR procedures, in the middle of which I find myself…..that is, I’m in the middle of my instrument rating, and I take every opportunity to fly as if I were inside the clouds. So, 1.3 hours on the company nickel, and I’m grateful for it.

Today, we flew three airplanes up to Anacortes Washington, which is the gateway to the San Juan Islands. They were having an airport fly-in, and one of the organizers had invited us to bring some planes up to display them. We anticipated a few dozen planes at most, and a barbeque, and maybe a smallish crowd….instead, it was about fifty or sixty planes of all descriptions, a few hundred people wandering around, and a beautiful sunshiney day.

You couldn’t have asked for more fun if you’re a pilot. There were taildraggers, weird birds from Eastern Bloc countries, amphibians, military helicopters, Cessnas, our three Diamonds, including the TwinStar which was the star of the show, and lots of other eye candy.

The organizer is the owner of the airplane I flew a few months ago which wound up on the cover of a flight training magazine, and he had been unaware of that, so it was fun to show him his airplane on a national magazine. There were women with diamonds the size of Manhattan Island wandering around. Anacortes has become a refuge for people from California, Oregon, and Washington, who love it for the access to the San Juans, and the fact that the sun shines significantly more often there than in Seattle or Bellingham to the north.

The burgers were free, the pilots were bullshitting each other, and the wives looked lovely, including those who were themselves accomplished pilots. And the kids were having a blast, playing airplanes and dogfighting.

I ran into an acquaintance late in the afternoon, who had dropped in looking for members of his Civil Air Patrol squadron, to pick him up at Arlington Airport, to the southeast, and give him a ride home to Seattle. I volunteered to do that, as his squadron had already packed up and left an hour earlier. So, I flew over to Arlington and there too ran into somebody I know who’s the main organizer of the Northwest EAA Fly-in and Airshow in July. We had a lovely chat, standing around her hangar, watching the various gliders being towed into the sky, to land on the grass a few minutes later.

Then it was a short hop home, arriving at Boeing just in time to hang out with the staff at the flight school, and give my new friend a ride on my motorcycle back to where he’d parked his car, at the northeast parking area. When we got there, my friend Ken was working on his Glastar, so we had a chat. Finally I tried to leave, but going out the airport gate there were two attractive young women walking towards a Piper Cub. One was my friend Mark’s wife Chris, who’s taking her private pilot checkride next week, and the other was Alison, who flies float planes for Kenmore Air out of Seattle. So we chatted for a while and finally I made my way off the airport.

Aviation has brought me so many new friends and such joy. I’m astonished at what a community it is, and how I’m beginning to be a part of that community.

It Takes Two To Tango Charlie

N180TC, or November One Eight Zero Tango Charlie, holds a special place in my heart. It's the aircraft in which I earned my tailwheel endorsement, and that makes me a "real" pilot in the eyes of many, perhaps even including myself.

She's a lovely bird, a Cessna 180 Skywagon, which is basically the pickup truck of the airports. There's more Skywagons flying around with great stories to tell than you can shake a stick at, though she doesn't need a stick shaker to tell you that she's about to stall....

My friend Tom is a CFI, (Certified Flight Instructor) and he decided one day that I was competent enough to fly his airplane, and that I was even competent enough for him to endorse my logbook saying so. But the real story is how I got to that day.

My good friend Mark is the person who got me flying. If you're interested, I've written a bit about him in a posting called "It All Started At A Forty Watt Radio Station in Saskatoon", but Mark is partners in a Skywagon with our friend Steve, and because of that, and because Mark and Steve are both my aviation mentors, I've spend tons of time in the right seat of their 180. Neither is a CFI, but the hundreds of hours I've spent haven't been wasted just looking out the window.

I've been so fortunate. There's Rob too, who owns a 140A, is a CFI, and learned how to teach by teaching me some great tailwheel training, at his expense, for hours and hours. Each pilot has shown me many things about their plane, so that the day that Tom agreed to help me get my endorsement, it was mostly just a matter of showing him that I knew where the rudders were located, that I could perform an emergency landing in a crosswind, and that I could do it with enough skill that we could re-use the plane each time.....

Without these friends, I'd still be sitting somewhere hoping and praying that some day I'd be a pilot. It's what this great community of aviation is all about, friends helping friends, sharing their joy at the privilege of flight. I promise to do my utmost to continue the tradition.

Gee One Thousand

There's a terrific new piece of avionics out dominating the market these days. Garmin has taken over the general aviation cockpit, and transformed it into a spaceliner flight deck.

There's only one hitch of course......it's complex and takes a good deal of time and energy to learn. But the rewards are fantastic, I'm told, though it's just now that I'm beginning to buckle/knuckle down and apply myself to the task of actually learning it instead of just talking about it.

The company I'm lucky enough to work for has developed a course to bring pilots at lightning speed into the twenty-first century, and today I attended the first day of a two day ground school. Given that I'm just a low-time VFR pilot, I'm intimidated, even though, of the class of five, there's three of us working on our instrument ratings and two high-time pilots who fly turbine powered heavy iron.

Tomorrow is the real test, where we put into place what we learned today, which was basically a familiarization tour of the two screens.....it was functionally just learning button-pushing. But tomorrow? It's all about real-world IFR experience, how to use the fabulous capabilities of this toy to actually get somewhere when the weather's a challenge.

Can't wait. It turns out that I'll be one of the first people at our flight school and even one of the first people in the nation to take a full instrument rating on the G1000. It's going to be an accomplishment to be proud of, ranking right there with my tailwheel endorsement and what I hope to have some day which would be an aerobatics capability....

More of course to follow, but now, to bed....

Lights, Camera, Satisfaction

It never ceases to amaze me the reactions people have to the world of aviation.

Today I shepherded a film crew around the flight line where I work. We were entertaining many guests from around the world at the same time. Or, should I say, one of the Seattle "names" was entertaining his guests, and they had all arrived by executive jets, many parked on our ramp.

The film crew was doing work for that "name" company, doing a spoof on the highly popular TV show "24", wherein our intrepid hero finds himself piloting a business jet, with the need to subsequently abandon ship to save the world........

Meanwhile, I was surrounded by terrifically attractive intense women with a great company name doing creative work, while I was acting the part of an officious and sanctimonious twit...a part which, by the way, comes naturally to me...but a safety briefing is a safety briefing, and the world's a dangerous place, and the more so around spinning propellers and jet blast..

These film people were extraordinarily generous, and attentive, doing everything they could to put to rest any fears I might have had about the privacy of our other customers....it was just a ton of fun to be working on a bright sunny day surrounded by other people as passionate about their own work as I have become about mine.

OH, and the government saw fit yesterday to grant me clearance to pursue advanced flight training. This, because I'm an alien, and need to jump through a large number of hoops to assure the citizens of this country of which I'm a resident and guest that I'm not a threat.....

So, another banner day around light planes and beautiful women.....dang, I'm sure that this too shall pass, but bring it on Lord, and thank you.

Follow Your Twin Stars

Was blessed twice in the past 24 hours.

Yesterday by appearing on the cover of a national flight training magazine, and today by having my first logbook entry flying a twin-engined aircraft.

For being on the cover of the magazine, I'd flown a Diamond 20 doing short field and soft field landings for a professional photographer doing the visuals for the article. It was on Wax Orchards, a private airstrip on Vashon, with flowering cherry trees lining the runway. A dream come true.

And today, I flew a Diamond TwinStar, the newest aircraft in our fleet. A total dream to fly...twin Mercedes diesel engines, Garmin G1000 glass panel avionics, and the sweetest ride you can imagine.

Had to ferry a Diamond 20 from Bremerton up to Arlington, and the aircraft salesperson allowed me left seat on the ride home in the TwinStar. We did advanced maneuvers, engine-out procedures, and I even greased it down on the runway at Boeing Field coming home. Got to descend at 80% power and 182 knots reporting Safeco Field on final approach, then drop out the gear and two notches of flaps and poof, I'm heading downhill at 88 knots and stable on short final......

Now, if that means nothing to you, I'm sorry, but it can, and if you'd like, I'll show you how.

Get in touch with your aviation soul!

New Years Eighteen Months Later

Here's the first blog posting I made, New Years Day, 2005. It's on another blog, will figure out how to repost that here, but for the moment......

Morning all, and thanks for stopping by here.

Here's the list. You know the one I mean. The Resolutions.
1. Fly an airplane at every possible opportunity.
2. Be sure that somebody else is paying for that.....
3. Find a marketing job in the aviation community
4. Let somebody else pay for my instrument rating....
5. Lose those sneaky ten pounds that you've regained since August
6. Stay away from the dating websites.....no more kid in the candy store....

And here's the update.....

1. Flying about once or twice a week
2. Mostly somebody else is paying for it....
3. Got the marketing job eight days into the New Year, and only now am coming up for air to update this blog....
4. And, two weeks ago, got the go-ahead to complete my instrument rating as a benefit to my company, making me a more valuable employee....
5. Gained all the weight back, and more, now back down to neutral, and working hard on that......
6. Found a new girlfriend, lost her, am back to neutral there too.......

Four out of six is acceptable but not great, right?