Stijn!!

[ted]

After the last track test we had dinner and back to the hotel to clean up.
About 10:30 I decided to pack up and head to the hotel parking lot for a 5 hour drive home.
2 hours after we left the hotel my buddy's Ram 1 ton that was parked next to mine at the hotel was stolen.
He got it back a week later and they caught the thief.
Good intuition leaving the hotel early that night.
Race car turns and stops very well time for the engine upgrade.

[GH85Carrera]

Today is mow the yard day once again. The grass is dry, blow dry. It is windy today. Texas is really sucking today. Fortunately Kansas blows enough to keep us with more air to send to Texas.

[GH85Carrera]

Whew, done mowing the yard. It was not just Kansas and Texas sucking and blowing it was Missouri, Arkansas, New Mexico, and Colorado, blowing and sucking as well. All the states bordering Oklahoma must have been helping. The wind was not from any one direction, just every direction. I don't know how that is possible. Just walking along mowing and the wind would change to blowing on my face to blowing on my back, then each side and back to my face. It was weird.

I wear a large "sun hat" with a flap on the back over my neck. It keeps the sun off my head and neck. It has a string under the chin to keep it in place and there were a few times I thought it was gonna choke me or take me for a ride like the flying nun. I went to blow any grass off of the sidewalk but the wind beat me to that task.

[ted]

Glen wind makes people crabby.

The Navy has a runway in El Centro and this time of year the wind can be a steady 30 knots down the runway.
The approach end of the runway has a painted and lighted carrier deck and Fresnel lens landing system with an LSO giving trend calls as Navy pilots practice touch and goes on the simulated carrier deck.
Those were good memories of windy spring days as a Navy air traffic controller in my 20s with F4s, F14s, A6s or S3s in the pattern practicing carrier night landings.
Later as an ACLS controller on the USS Ranger.
Happy memorial day to all the Vets.

[GH85Carrera]

Right after we started our business, we had a client that wanted a site flown every single Tuesday and Thursday if at all possible to get in the sky. My business partner was busy flying another big project we had in Pennsylvania so I had to hire a pilot, that was an instructor pilot to fly me to the site, and I ran the computer to get the project captured.

Only a thunderstorm with lightning would ground us, or just heavy rain. We flew many times on windy days and it is kinda exciting in a rented Cessna 172 taking off when the crosswinds are high, and near the limit of safety. We would rotate, and instantly I was looking down the runway out my passenger window. We were crabbing into the wind and climbing out slowly.

Bump around like a ping pong ball in a dryer for the flight to the site, and get it captured, and get back on the ground. The wind made us bounce up and down 20 feet and the pilot had told me to not talk to him as we get on final. He got us on the ground safely and no hard landings. We had cheated death again.

I had to zip home and get the sites processing. They wanted data that evening, or before 8:00 AM in NYC via FTP. It was a good paying gig, and it more than payed for our camera system, and big part of the cost of our Cessna 182T down payment and equity.

An aircraft landing would be a real experience.

[ted]

When I rode jump seat in the cockpit of air carriers the rule was no talking below 10,000 feet.
30 years as an ATC at the busiest single runway airport in the country.
Repeat daily...
Departure..."taxi into position and hold traffic 3 mile final expect immediate departure".
Arrival..."Caution wake turbulence 737 departing just prior to your arrival wind calm".
Always needed to have a plan B.
It's as close to flying as you can get without leaving the ground. lol

Never pursued my pilots license, prefer to do my flying on the ground.

[GH85Carrera]

When we were doing that one client's project and flying constantly, the guy I hired as an instructor and he could do a ground school for me for a few hundred bucks, and then teach me to fly as we were doing the project, so it would have been very cheap to learn to fly and get a license. I was starting the study part and that project ended because the folks in NYC that wrote the checks had a big internal fight, and the money men left. They loved our service, but it was over.

My business partner is an instructor, and he could teach me as well. To ever fly the airplane and run the computer requires a commercial pilots license. My business partner does it all the time, but it would be years, and many thousands of dollars before I had enough time to be a commercial pilot. At my age, it just ain't worth it. It would be a job, and not a fun hobby I want to pursue.

I have had enough air time in the air to know it is just not something I dream of. I will stick to my cars as my hobby.

[ted]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I have had enough air time in the air to know it is just not something I dream of. I will stick to my cars as my hobby.

9/11 changed commercial flying, it use to be more fun to fly.
A junior pilot will fly short legs and may do many take offs and landings a day.
A senior pilot gets his hours on long flights, less work enroute but also a little boring.
That's flying hours of boredom and with moments of sheer terror.

We had investigations every week, tapes pulled and transcribed.
As we would say, No good comes from any investigation.

[GH85Carrera]

This is the cockpit of our 182. The Garmin G1000 setup.



A rather cloudy day on the way to project. We were really lucky that day, the area we were going to was just outside all the cloud cover. The cloud shadows makes for horrible imagery that no customer wants. And that is assuming the clouds are high up enough to let us fly under them. We sure can't fly a project with clouds in the way.

It is always funny when we get a request for imagery and they are used to dealing with a satellite company that only promises 80% cloud free. We are always 100% cloud free imagery.

[Noah930]

Well, the run is over. Maryland beat my alma mater, Cornell, 9-7 for the national championship in lacrosse today. My college coach, Richie Moran, passed away last month. He led Cornell to 3 championships during his coaching years, but as a young man he played for Maryland, so I suppose he was smiling from above, watching this match up.

[GH85Carrera]

The wind died down enough yesterday afternoon that I put my flag back up. In high winds it really stresses the pole, and beats up the flag itself. It is a high quality, sewn together flag made in USA, but like any flag in the wind, it gets a beating in the wind.

[ted]

Tropicana grows like a weed.
Leaves like stained glass.

[flipper35]

Still 30mph winds here.

Ted, we used to live close to NAS El Centro and a good friend was a couple miles east of the runway. Got to see the Blue Angels practice a lot.

Speaking of ATC, when I was flying my first cross country solo in a C152 I was flying into Cedar Rapids, back in 1987 and I was on downwind when the controller came on and told me to fly short final behind the DC10 and in front of the 737 making a straight in approach. I made it very short so I could land long after where the DC10 touched down. I don't mind being upside down in an airplane, but I do protest at being upside down at 30 feet altitude!

Upgrading the engine in the race car will just continue the cycle of upgrades! Not that there is anything wrong with that.

We attended a funeral today of a friend and neighbor. He was 60 years old and he bikes 20 miles a day, rode his adventure bike to work unless it was less than 26* out and was a member of the Ski Patrol for 25 years. His kids have stayed over at our house with our kids. I guess you never know, no matter how healthy you are. A good friend died at 41 a few years ago when he had a heart attack.

[ted]

Originally Posted by flipper35

Still 30mph winds here.
Ted, we used to live close to NAS El Centro and a good friend was a couple miles east of the runway. Got to see the Blue Angels practice a lot.

I was at El Centro 78' to 80'.
The big event was the earthquake that collapsed the big city building downtown.
The population was less than 30k back then.

Yeah wake turbulence requires a long landing like you know already.
A good controller would of told you the wind and caution wake turbulence and that the heavy jet nose wheel touched down at whatever thousand feet it was down the runway.

Rule was never rush or tell a heavy jet immediate anything.
A controller had a DC10 crossing the runway rather slowly with a small aircraft on short final.
The controller told the heavy jet to cross without delay, the heavy jet poured the coals to it just as the small plane rolled out behind it.
The DC10 jet blast flipped the little plane over on the runway.

On departures we had to give 5 miles in trail 737 following a heavy jet for turbulence.

Back at El Centro the Blue angels were flying A4s back then.
Twice a day they did practice air shows for 3 months.
Twice a day the solo A4 pilots would take off and do a barrel roll under 100 feet one dirty one clean (gear down and gear up).
My buddy got some of the blue Angel paint and painted his sports car blue angel blue.
That paint was so thick and heavy looking, like blue candle wax on a car.

Another story, it was a slow night at Navy El Centro airport.
An A6 reports 10,000 feet overhead for landing.
Nothing going on so we cleared him to land.
Time goes by and we don't see the A6, we didn't have radar in that tower.
So we get on the line and call Imperial airport next door and ask them if they have seen an A6?
They said he was on short final to Imperial.
The A6 was about to land at the wrong airport on a runway that was 4,000 feet to short.
So we told him to go around and he did and then landed at Navy El Centro.
The next night just before closing the pilot visited the tower with 2 bottles of jack in the black.
Good old Navy days nothing got reported no investigations.

Funny to me story.
Friend was working at Carlsbad tower a couple miles from Oceanside airport.
A small AC pilot reported 4 mile final over the flower fields for landing.
The controller told the pilot he was lined up for Oceanside not Carlsbad.
Pilot was adamant he was on final for Carlsbad.
So the controller told the pilot to report the Drive in theater.
Pilot reported the Drive in theater.
So the controller told him OK now you are on a 2 mile final for Oceanside, Pilot then agreed.

[GH85Carrera]

At a former job, we would go to eat at the Wiley Post Airport, (PWA) for lunch often as we kept the company planes there. They have the restaurant in next to the tower, middle of the runway, and lots of pilots land small aircraft there, park on the ramp, and walk in for a good meal.

One day a guy was practicing his touch and go short field landing in a STOL aircraft with huge wings. He would touch down, and roll 25 or 30 feet, turn off, and go around to take off again. As we ate our lunch we saw him land a few times. Then a 152 came in to land. He almost hovered in the headwind, touched down and rolled a foot or two. The lunch crown all roared with a cheer. He taxied up, and ate lunch.

We kept a Cessna 206 with the 500 pound camera system in it for the nadir photos, and a Really nice Cessna 182 for the obliques.

[ted]

We worked a lot of photo flights in downtown San Diego.
One in particular was very good and we would let him circle on a 2 mile final.
He would report every arrival in sight and we would tell him to maintain visual separation and advise the arrival of the plane circling on a 2 mile final.
It was textbook separation made easy by the photo flight pilot.

[GH85Carrera]

Yea, we have flown a lot of projects and we email and discuss with DFW Tracon our plans. When we fly some projects in Dallas invariably they are close to DFW. Those guys are jerks, and have told us to just go away. We have to go home, and come back the next day. OKC ATC is great to work with. We flew a place you are familiar with, the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center headquarters for the FAA. We had to fly right over the FAA, and the airport and had zero issues with ATC.

We are flying a project in Colorado tomorrow that our client is a drone company. The project is just right at the edge of the airport. They can't get permission to fly it themselves.

We really love the ADS-B information. It took a long time for civil aviation to adopt it, but it is comforting to see the display of everything in the air even it they are 30,000 feet above us.

[GH85Carrera]

We have some real calendar slippage today. It is 67 degree and gentle rain falling. Typical April showers, in June.

[pete3799]

Was mid 80's yesterday so far today high is currently 53*.

[ted]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

When we fly some projects in Dallas invariably they are close to DFW. Those guys are jerks, and have told us to just go away. We have to go home, and come back the next day.

DFW (doesn't ****ing work?)Maybe understaffed and prefer to open another controller or coordinator position when you are a factor.
Even as you should, call ahead can't always give up any airspace at anytime.
Photo flights are an additional service, weather and traffic permitting.
happy landings.

Preparing the track for a Slot car test and tune.
Saturday morning 12 new iroc cars are being delivered and tested.