Yep, I spent part of my Thanksgiving tending to a few grap bugs that have come in over the past couple months. The result is the 1.40 release available from the usual place. Consult the CHANGES file for the details of the bugs fixed. FreeBSD port to come.
I took a new guy at ISI, John Hickey, flying this week, because he was vaguely interested and I love to take people up. Another good thing is that when I take new people up something fun usually happens. This trip was no exception.
On departure we got ordered on and then off the runway as things got tight and then an IFR release came through. Not a problem for me, but it wasn’t the kind of smooth, orderly operations that you like to show a new GA passenger. John took it all in stride, but it wouldn’t have been fun for a nervous flyer, I expect.
It was a clear day, but pretty hazy in the basin itself. We took my usual tour of the basin, down towards Torrance and Long Beach, up past Anaheim and Fullerton, out as far as Chino and then back past Santa Monica. We did get to pick out a few sights through the haze – I’m grousing more than I should, the view was pretty good – and then headed out to Camarillo.
Camarillo’s usually a good choice for new flyers who like airplanes. The airport has such an active pilot community with so many experimentals and a strong CAF presence that there’s usually something interesting to see. Boy did they not disappoint today. Just getting in things were busy enough that I had to fly a modified entry – basically an overhead entry for beginners – while a flight of Lancairs departed. But the ramp was the real treat.
It’s not every day you come across a mirror-polished P-51 Mustang sitting on the flight line, even at CMA. I don’t really know where the pilot was coming from or going to, but he was going in that brilliant piece of aviation art. We spend more than a couple minutes gawking at it and taking pictures. Times like these I’m happy that I carry a camera in my flight bag!
After lunch we cruised over to the CAF hangar and had the run of the place for $5. Not to be outdone, the CAF had a spectacularly restored Corsair on the ramp that another transient pilot had parked there while he did whatever brought him to Camarillo. We got to both get a close up view of the Corsair and to hear the restoration folks chat about the details of the restoration. I never tire of hearing skilled restorers pick over a beautiful plane like this one.
The trip back was pretty boring, though we did get a nice view of the Getty Villa. If John attracts planes like that I’ll have to drag him around more often.
I was perturbed eariler by Congress voting to close the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction eariler this year, but CNN tells me that folks have reconsidered. Good.
Keith Phipps understands ABC, too.
Here’s a video from a Citation overrun accident at Bader Field in Atlantic City. This bozo’s not doing aviation any favors. Fortunately, it looks like no one was injured. You’ll have to watch until about 5:00 in to see how bad this driver’s ideas get.
Alert plane spotters from ISI forwarded this to me from another aviation list.
I just love it when things get as easy as one and zero. From CNN: Electronic voting machine fails to count any votes for a candidate who voted for himself. Of course CNN considers this “offbeat news.” Nimrods.
You can expect to see fewer reports on corruption in rebuilding Iraq. The BBC tells me that the US is discontinuing auditing of rebuilding efforts.
Our pals at the BBC (via Warren Ellis) tell me that:
With a rise in the popularity of Christian-style weddings in Japan, some Westerners are finding they can make a lucrative living by acting as priests.
Rod, Sam, you listening?
I named this blog after the Police song as a play on words about my general aimlessness here and the fact that it’s broadcast from my secret base on the moon. A much better candidate for the name has shown up and I thought I’d point her out.
I’ve handed some space here to a friend who’s much more serious about walking than I am. She’s been a pretty dedicated race walker for a couple years now and probably would have continued doing her thing and never picked up a blogging pen except for a recent unfortunate event.
Some sap made the mistake of implying that she couldn’t take on the longest competition race in that sport. In public. Now, implying she can’t do something is already a strong impetus for her to just turn around and do it, but the human in question claimed she couldn’t do it because she was born with a pair of X chromosomes rather than an unmatched set.
As Bugs says: “Of course you know, this means war.”
Now, you might say that this is tilting at a windmill. I might even say that, if I was talking about anyone else. This friend of mine, however, has decorated her home in dragon scales from the victories she’s scored over opponents others couldn’t even identify.
She writes clearly and describes her road with humor and passion. Even if you don’t care a whit about racewalking, I think you’ll find something worth reading over here. Take a look. She’s been updating regularly. If you see something you like, drop her a comment; encouragement can only help her slay this dragon and us see more posts.
I spent last weekend, as in 20-24 October, hanging out with my parents in San Francisco. Much of the time my parents arew attracted to a city because of one of the many quilting/knitting/other-fiber-related conferences that my Mom attends. but this time they just wanted to see the place. Because it’s so close we went up to see it with them. Of course this was a good excuse to fly.
The trip up was a nice easy VFR flight, scarcely worth mentioning. It seriously went very smoothly. We had considered a stop at Paso Robles to check out their restaurant, which is from all reports excellent, but a late start put us on the non-stop.
We met the folks at San Carlos Airport and after the requisite waiting for Mom & Dad to find the airport, we took off for a fun weekend.
We had a great time. The weather was unbelievably good, with several days of completely unrestricted visibilities, which made for spectacular views of the city and the Golden Gate Bridge. Between my parents and Brenda, we had a fine selection of things to see including Muir Woods, the SF Art Institute cafe, many things in Golden Gate Park, the Winchester Mystery House, and a bunch of little restaurants in Burlingame. We even enjoyed a meal with Rod. My parents are always fun to see, and we had a great time.
The return flight was Tuesday night, departing around 6:00 and I was hoping to get back to Santa Monica(SMO) before the tower closed at 9:00. Fortunately we had a good tailwind and got a timely reroute that shaved some time off our trip. We were IFR, both because I like to be IFR at night and because SMO was reporting 800 feet overcast when we left.
The flight was pretty routine. I did get a reroute, and got to hear a bunch of people shooting approaches in the Monterey area. Still, out over the Central Valley at night at 11,000 it’s quiet. The only troubling fact was that SMO’s weather had gone down to 600′ OVC. The approach bottoms out at 505′ AGL, so this was sounding a lot like an approach to minimums.
And it was, but still a really easy approach. I wouldn’t have though that made any sense, but here’s how it was. There was probably a 200′ thick overcast over SMO that got thinner as it went inland. For much of the approach we had pretty solid ground contact, and we reached BEVEY – a point about 6 miles from SMO – in good VFR over a thickening undercast. It quickly thickened up so we couldn’t see the ground, but at the last stepdown fix we plunged through about 200-300′ of clouds and popped out quickly enough to set up for a straightforward landing. Brenda actually enjoyed the approach quite a bit, and so did I, but it wasn’t a really challenging approach.
Fun flights and a great weekend.