I’ve been dragging ass most of the week because I’ve been sick, but here are some links you may care about:
I spent some time this weekend keeping IFR current with Mark Zorn on Saturday and then having lunch Sunday with our respective sweet babies.
Saturday was a good day for IFR procedures. We shot the ILS into Chino and then did the hold on the missed in VFR conditions. The place was fairly packed with people up doing the same sort of thing, but we were able to get our stuff done. The only real downside for the day was that I managed to wind up way high on the ILS and chasing the glideslope from above. Not good procedures, but an interesting control challenge for training.
We broke for lunch at Maniac Mike’s Cafe at Upland’s Cable Airport. The cafe is a fun place to hang out, with good inexpensive food. Mark and I talked airplanes and flying all lunch and then stopped off to see 8-10 Ford Model A’s that were parked off the ramp. Apparently the local Model A club was having a get-together. I’ve seen these guys before at Camarillo, but it’s always neat to see the beautiful restorations. We also ran into this plane on the ramp. Just what the world needs: a flying boat produced by an Italian motorcycle company.
After lunch at Mike’s we shot the VOR-A back into SMO, and Mark got to see some of the excitement that is daily operations at my home field. A 360 on final to squeeze a departure out is surprising to some people, but I like the fact that there’s never a dull moment.
Sunday morning we were hoping to go up to Santa Maria for lunch with our SO’s, but the weather was somewhat uncooperative. Low ceilings in the morning and forecast high winds in the afternoon kept us closer to home. Off to Chino again for food at Flo’s Airport Cafe.
Flo’s has good food and Chino’s airport ambiance is tough to beat. I finally got to see Mark’s new Bonanza – which is gorgeous – and the pilots at Chino kept me entertained. While we were there we saw a flight of Texans, an old bomber (I think it was a B-25), and a couple one- or two-seat jets go out. Another fun day. Brenda took some pictures and I’ll put some up here when I see them.
If you’ve been trying to call us and not getting an answer or answering machine, try again. Our phones were down for a few days.
A few weeks ago I got a nice note from a fellow named Jeff Barlow who’s still making Twin Tier Tier in Elmira run. I’d posted some pictures from there when I was in Elmira for my 20th high school reunion and it had seemed like the place was closed. Jeff pointed out that the location had closed, but the business was still going strong.
That’s good news. Twin Tier Tire was my first real job, and the first time someone who didn’t know me from school paid me to make a computer work for them. I also changed tires, and stacked tires, and did other stuff that;s good for one’s soul. It was a good place to work, and I’m glad they’re still around.
Apparently the Santa Monica city council is continuing to try to block category C&D jets from using the airport. The FAA remains unamused.
I was at SMO today and saw some sizable jets depart. They didn’t have labels indicating their approach speeds, so I can’t be sure that they were illegal in the estimate of the Santa Monica city council.
I’ve got to say, 3 significant figures of accuracy on a 29 year projection is pretty impressive. Or something.
For an administration run by a uniter (not a divider), it sure has a penchant for building walls.
Mmmmmm. Frivolously suing lawyers makes for good fun (from BoingBoing). Best quote:
Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it.
The Monty Hall problem remains confusing to people (from SlashDot).
The Santa Monica city council is trying to regulate jets at SMO, and this perturbs the FAA.
Here are a few links and other stuff I’ve been meaning to pass on:
One Day I’ll Kill You – delightfully exploitive golden age comics.
Elfquest is on line now. Some seminal early 80’s independent comics. I’ve read them all once, but don’t have copies.
Wondering when we’ll see Gustave Whitehead in Doktor Sleepless.
William Safire’s take on waterboarding.
More free seminal comics: Alan Moore and John Totleben’s “The Anatomy Lesson” from their unbelievable Swamp Thing run. All of Vertigo started here, IMHO.
Warren Ellis‘s photo recommendations aren’t always awful.
Oh, and we had a critter stop by.
My instant messaging (IM) system of choice is Jabber, the IETF standard messaging protocol. Of course, many folks don’t use Jabber, but that’s mitigated by the ability to use gateways to other IM technologies. My Yahoo gateway’s been down for a while, but I think I’ve restored it. If you know my old yahoo ID, look for me on yahoo messenger. If you know me and don’t know my yahoo ID, send me mail and we’ll try to connect.
Thanks!
Nice excoriation of the stupid over at BoingBoing from Xeni Jardin.
I spent my morning driving fence posts into some very hard ground. You’re all welcome.