Walking on the Moon

A few words about Berg’s Lindbergh bio are up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

I’ve been dragging ass most of the week because I’ve been sick, but here are some links you may care about:

• Clash of the titans
• I just love the idea that one could anonymously dump a 727 at a major airport.  Makes the TSA look downright competent.
• The underhanded C contest is a remarkable demonstration of coding legerdemain.  I mention this because the 2008 contest just started.  If you’re a believer in human code review, you may want to have a look.

My capsule of David McCullough’s history of the Panama Canal is up at Bell, Book, and Candle.

I spent some time with my CFI, Andy, today under the hood.  Usually when I work with Andy I’m trying to log a couple approaches or holds to stay current, but today was just down and dirty IFR proficiency work.  Most of the day was not only under the hood, but partial panel under the hood.  That is flying the plane not only without being able to look out the window, but with a subset of the instruments as well.  We did some holding, some unusual attitudes and an approach.  We even got to bump through some turbulence as we did it, which was even better training.

There’s always stuff to work on, but basically things went well. I can still fly partial panel, even if it’s been a while since I’ve had to deal with all the weird things a compass does when you’re turning.  Overall a fun day, and it’s always fun to fly with Andy.

The FAA has apparently upped the ante in its fight against Santa Monica.  They’re threatening to withhold DOT funds to the city unless the city council stops restricting airport access unreasonably.  In case it slipped by you, that was a threat to withhold all DOT funding to the city, not airport funding.  Stay tuned.

When Warren Ellis isn’t spouting paranoid, perhaps drug-induced, fantasies of cyborg-monkey rape gangs, he’s actually remarkably clear-eyed.  His comments on the religious overtones of the Singularity are spot on.  And I agree with him on Mars.  But what do you expect of an atheist with a moon base?

Bruce Schneier spends some time talking about the fairly obvious dangers of the You’ve Been Left Behind web site.  I assume these guys are crooks who are promising to “send documents by the email” to those left behind by the Rapture, but really are planning to pocket the subscription fees (or raid the assets of) the gullible.

“The gullible” sounds like I’m picking on people for believing in the Rapture, but I’m not particularly.  I’m picking on them for poor asset management.

Think it through. Even if you believe the Rapture is immanent, isn’t it kind of presumptuous to decide you’re going and someone else is staying?  That’s going to be a fun moment when Mom gets that “sorry you didn’t make the cut, but here’s my savings account” e-mail.  It’ll be especially interesting if you didn’t make the cut either, and you have to race her to it.

If you think the Rapture is upon us and you have word from on high that your reservation is confirmed, hand deliver your assets.

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.

Whenever I start feeling too optimistic about the future, Warren Ellis is always there to talk me down.

After some really crappy landings the last two times I was up, I decided to spend some quality time in the pattern tonight and polish back up.  I could have picked a better day for it.  It was 10 knots, gusting 15, about 50 degrees off the runway, making for some wind work.  Santa Monica’s up on a little plateau that makes for some funny up and down drafts on either end of the runway.

All things considered, I had a pretty good day.  The first landing or so was  a little bumpier than I would have likes, but after 2 or so, I got back in the saddle.  Much nicer touchdowns, and even pretty stable approaches, despite the bumps in the road.  I was much happier by the end.