What a Weekend!

Yep. Good weekend. Too bad it's over so soon when you're having fun....

Saturday was great because I got some flying in. I don't know about anybody else out there, but most pilots I know agree: a bad day flying is WAY better than a good day... doing anything else. I dunno. All I know is that if I've flown, I feel much, MUCH better about how my day is going overall. All I did was hop in the plane with an instructor and fly down to Binghamton to do some crosswind practice (which went really well, FINALLY. Crosswinds have been a thorn in my side for some time now), but after that, the day was just great. I was satisfied. And I even had a headache and stomach issues after eating some leftover Chinese food for lunch. Seriously, I should just give up Chinese food altogether; it just seems to cause problems for me.

I know, I know. TMI.

Sunday was the East Hill Flying Club picnic at Myers Point Park in Lansing - beautiful park, if you've never been. I almost didn't go, because I didn't know what kind of food I could bring to contribute, and I'm not a terribly social person to begin with, but it worked out. One of the members had his boat there, so I went for some boat rides. Went once just to tool around and relax, then again to watch three other guys waterski. Now, if you know me, then you know what condition I'm in now (sunburned. Duh.), but it was worth it. I haven't been out on a boat in forever - much less a motorboat. Canoes or kayaks (flatwater, thanks very much) are much more my speed, but even so, it was just fun to hang out on a boat and watch the water go by. Plus, we couldn't have asked for nicer weather: some scattered clouds, bright blue sky, bright sun, little bit of a cool breeze... ah. That's the life.

Although, before I enjoy too much more of it, I'll have to buy stock in Bullfrog or Coppertone or something.

Also checked out some great movies. First was Stranger Than Fiction, the Will Farrell flick about a guy who hears someone narrating his life. Really funny, really poignant movie. I might buy it. We'll see. The other movie was Peaceful Warrior, based on a book with a similar title (just add "The Way Of The..." in front, and you've got it). Wow. Deep. Very interesting, and, I daresay, inspiring. In retrospect, it's kind of trite stuff about life and whatnot, but I think that kind of gives credence to what it's saying - a lot of different sources agree on these principles, so there's got to be some truth to it. Anyway, it's about a college gymnast who's in line for the Olympics and a mentor he meets who really gets him to examine his life, his priorities, and what's truly important. Naturally, it turns the kid's life around. Not that he had a BAD life to begin with (as he says, "My dad's got plenty of cash, school's a breeze, I get straight A's, and I never sleep alone unless I WANT to."), but it's hollow. He's not truly happy, because he's constantly chasing something external. If I got the idea right, the concept is more or less summed up with the phrase, "Everyone's looking for answers outside themselves. The only thing you'll find outside yourself is more questions. The only answers you'll ever find are WITHIN yourself." Like I said, kind of trite, but still deep. I feel like I need to go back and watch the movie again, only this time, take notes.

Or I could just get the book. That works, too.

That's it for me at the moment. I'm on long days, now - Sherry (the other secretary where I work) is now on a two-week vacation, and I'm still going in to the liquor store, on top of that... so I'm looking at 12.5-hour days, at least until I'm caught up at the liquor store. Wish me luck!

Well, This Should be Fun

You'd think that I, as a pilot, would be more attuned to weather forecasts. Nope. I walked to work today, and have to go work at the liquor store after this. Did I check the weather? No, of course not - until about a half hour ago.

Thunderstorms and heavy rain, starting at around 8 p.m. I get off work at 9.

Did I bring an umbrella? Of course not! Umbrellas are for wimps!

This should be a really fun walk home... :-)

Ayup...

Yep. Another slow day at work.

Well, my streak ended. I had a post a day going there for a while... but all good things must come to an end. Mainly, I had nothing to report yesterday, and we were actually kind of busy at work - at least in the morning. Kind of annoying, really. People were in and out, making all kinds of requests (some of which really seemed low-priority to me, but to them - oh, man, it's gotta get done NOW), and there were the usual, every-day tasks to do, too. I was getting extremely frustrated with things yesterday. But that brings up an interesting thought to me: I'm getting annoyed because of all these random tasks to do, but that is my job. I think maybe I've just gotten spoiled with the summer being so slow around here. I've gotten used to not having to do much, and now that I've got to actually do things, I get cranky.

I probably just need a good, solid vacation. But first, I'd like to get my private pilot certificate. Any suggestions on places I should go, once that's all done?

I've also been called in to work in the liquor store again. Yay, bottle shots (no, it's not a way to get drunk, it's referring to photography). Even cooler is the fact that now they've got me doing their collection of magnums. One-point-five liters of winey goodness, baby! And man, oh man, do they have a lot of the things. I know I probably sound like a wimp ('cuz I am), but those suckers get heavy when you're shoving one after another into a photo cabinet. Oh, well... I've been wanting to get more exercise!

Oh, the gig in Homer went well, despite my having left my sunglasses on the bandstand. I've found out one of the trumpet players was kind enough to take them with him, so I'll get them back at rehearsal, but still - that was not the best way to end my otherwise-amazing day. I knew something was going to have to happen. Karma, y'know - the whole day had been amazing, so something's gotta go wrong to balance it all out. I'm just thankful it was "lost sunglasses" and not "hit a deer on the way home" or anything. That would have REALLY put a damper on things.

Tonight - movie night at the airport, on the ramp! The flying club's setting up a screen and everything, so I think I'll head up there and check it out. Sounds like a reasonably fun way to spend a Friday night - after another night at the liquor store... whee!

No Frustrations to Report Today!

Nope. No problems today. Today's been a good day. I finally got in that third solo cross-country flight: Ithaca (KITH) - Canandaigua (D38) - Wellsville (KELZ) - Ithaca. Put 2.6 on the hobbs, baby - that's all me!

O'course, my bill just went up by $200... oh, well. There's always a price to be paid, right?

Pretty darn beautiful day. Clear skies, for the most part (on the last leg, I started to get a little close to a pocket of clouds... but not to worry, I just dropped from 5,500 to 3,500 and kept on cruisin'), good visibility - a little haze, but no real problem, and very little traffic to contend with. Nice FBOs, too - the lady at the front desk in Wellsville was very friendly. Ma'am, if you read this - you rock! Thanks for making a student pilot's first impression of your FBO a favorable one!

Wellsville was also just a pretty cool airport - almost like an aircraft carrier, being that it's on a plateau above the city. You're probably around a thousand feet above the city when you're just sitting on the runway. You take off and the ground drops away in front of you. There's enough of a safety margin there, though. It's not like the end of the runway is the edge of a cliff or anything, but it's still pretty neat!

Anyway, other highlights of today's flight:

1) Nice views of some Finger Lakes - Cayuga, Seneca, Canandaigua, Honeoye, Hemlock, the little one next to Hemlock (Canadice?), a distant view of Keuka, Lamoka, Kayutah (does that count as a Finger Lake?).... Saw a lot of boaters out, too, and that's just a really groovy thing to see from the air.

2) Flew right over Taughannock Falls State Park. That's one of the first views I got of a gorge from the air, back in September of 2005, when I took my discovery flight. At that time, the falls were dry. Today, there was at least some water going over - just a trickle, but impressive nonetheless.

3) Being able to recognize some of my landmarks from previous trips. Seen 'em a couple times. They're getting to be like old friends.

4) Watkins Glen State Park - can't see much beyond a beautiful, dark green strip of trees, but it's awesome to know it's there.

5) Watkins Glen raceway - never attended any races there, but it's still a pretty big deal 'round these parts. Having never been there, I thought it was ROUND. Apparently, I'm not a big enough racing fan (translation = I never watch the stuff) to know these details. Oh, another fun bit - at least one car was running on the track. On the Western side of the track, heading South, about to hit the turn. :-)

6) Flew right over Burdett, the town our head custodian at the church lives in. Never seen it before, but now I've seen it from the air!

7) Very nice landing back in Ithaca, if I do say so myself!

All in all, a great flight.

Now, I get to prepare for a concert in Homer, NY tonight. I'm playing with the Ithaca Ageless Jazz Band for a community concert on "the Village Green" there. Should be fun, as long as we're not looking directly into the setting sun, like we did at Taughannock Falls a couple weeks ago.

Did I mention I just flew over Taughannock this morning? :-D

GREAT DAY.

One last note, since a lot of blogs leave a space for "Current music," and mine is so amusing at the moment:

Strongbad - "The System is Down."

"Dah - dah - dahdah - dah - dah - dahdah - dah - DOOM!"

Two For Two!

Yay! Two posts in two days! Wow. If anybody actually sees this, they might be impressed.

So, here's my question: why is it that every day I'm stuck at work turns out to be beautiful?

See, our scheduling at East Hill is always by reservation. You have to go online to the special site, check availability, and sign up to use the plane on a given date and time. They tend to fill up fast, too, so you have to go several days in advance, if not weeks. So you sign up and hope that the day will be decent enough to fly. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. That's just the way the world works.

Well, as I said in my last (first?) post, I'm working on cross-country flying. That takes a good, long while. So the only time I really have to do these flights is on weekends, when I'm not working. Well, those two days haven't been the most cooperative of late. Meanwhile, on the nice days (like today), I'm stuck at work. Have I mentioned that I work in a basement? With no windows? Yeah. That part of the job really sucks. Don't get me wrong - it's a good job. Good pay, benefits, good hours, and decent kinds of jobs to do. And even the "no windows" thing is okay - it keeps me from getting all distracted, I guess. But still - I'm not exactly able to get out and enjoy the nice weather all too often, and we Ithacans know that nice weather is too rare to be ignored!

So here's my solution: I have vacation days that I haven't used, and no real plans to use them. So, whenever the weather outlook is for fair weather and favorable flying conditions, I'm going to see if I can get the plane. If I can get the plane, I'm taking the day off of work. They can handle it without out me for a day or two here and there. Besides, it's still summer (for another month. Ish.), and things are going pretty slow.

I'm putting this plan into action tomorrow morning. I'm taking the day off. I've got the plane reserved, the weather looks to be in the 90s, and they're saying winds will be fairly light. Here's hopin'.

I'll let you know how it goes, of course.

Woo. New 'blog.

'Kay. So work is SLOOOOOOOW this summer, and I'm running out of things to do at work. I did have a journal that I kept online for a while, but editing it by hand with the raw HTML was getting tedious, and when I was sitting at home (where I'd do the updating), I never felt like I had anything good to say, anyway. Maybe inspiration will strike more when I'm at work and editing this thing is easier. We'll see. But regardless, I don't really expect anyone to actually READ this thing. It's mainly something for me to do... or to vent with.

What do I have to vent about? Flying. It's simultaneously the source of my greatest joys and my greatest annoyances. I've wanted to learn to fly ever since I learned that my paternal grandfather was a pilot (Thunderbolts and Mustangs over the Pacific). I initially wanted to join the Air Force, but poor vision meant they wouldn't have let me fly, anyway (or at least that's what I was told at the time). In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't join up - if I had, I'd be writing this from Afghanistan or Iraq, and I would have likely been asked to go out and kill people, and I'm not so keen on that idea. Anyway, after college and having no clue what I wanted to do with my life, a friend got me a "Discovery Flight" at the local flying club, and I was hooked. So I've been learning since May of 2006. First soloed on September 21, 2006. I've been working on my solo cross-country flying for a very long time - but I keep getting grounded.

Hence the frustration.

I don't have enough time to dedicate to a long flight except on weekends, when I don't have to work. Once I get the weekend free and the plane booked, I have to contend with the weather. It's too cloudy, or too windy, or raining, or likely to thunderstorm, or some other act of God gets in the way. One weekend recently, I had the plane booked, the flight planned (except for the last details, like wind correction and such), and was all set - until I was reminded that I was on call for the Red Cross that weekend, and so I couldn't really go anywhere. So I had to cancel the flight. Wouldn't you know it - that day was probably the most beautiful, perfect-weather-for-flying days we've had ALL YEAR. And I got to sit at home, waiting for an emergency call that never came (which is actually great news - I'm not complaining about THAT part). In hindsight, I could easily have done the flight and gotten away with it, but with my luck, the beeper would have gone off as soon as I crossed the county line. I stay home, it's quiet. I try to go anywhere, and I'll have twenty calls to respond to. Sigh.

On the upside, I have gotten two of my three solo cross-countries in (and no, it doesn't mean flying to California. I said "cross-country," not "Across THE country."): Ithaca-Oswego-Ithaca and Ithaca-Dansville-Elmira-Ithaca. I have one more solo cross-country (Ithaca-Canandaigua-Wellsville-Ithaca) to do, then a dual cross-country at night, and then all my requirements are done and I can take the exams and get the license. But first, that dart of "I think I'll try to fly on this day" has to hit a fair-weather day across all of New York.

I'd hoped to get in that last solo x-c in this past weekend, but no dice - low clouds all over. Instead, I did some patternwork. For the uninformed, that refers to staying in the airport's traffic pattern - basically, a rectangular course with the runway as one of the long sides - to practice landing technique. Because of the way the planes were parked in the hangar, I flew in 6230Q - one of the club's Cessna 152s - instead of 25028, which I've been flying a lot on the cross-countries (028 has an extra piece of navigation equipment to receive VOR signals, whereas 30Q does not). I hadn't flown 30Q - "Becky," as I've heard her called - since December, due to maintenence and the need for the aforementioned extra nav equipment. Anyway, it was really great to fly that plane again! I can't really explain it - maybe the controls felt more responsive or something - maybe it was just the fact that the nosewheel actually STEERS (028's seems to just caster) - but it was a joy to fly. Six landings, and they all felt pretty darn good.

[Why's 6230Q called "Becky," you ask? In radio lingo, you read letters out as a standardized word - A is "Alpha," B is "Bravo," C is "Charlie," and so on. The number "6230Q" is read out as "six two three zero Quebec." "Quebec." "Bec." "Becky." Pretty cute, eh?]

Before I went up, though, another student flew - and did his first solo! Very big landmark in a pilot's training, although it's really not all that crazy. You just go up on your own and do three times around the pattern, but you're alone for the first time. Man, when I did mine, I was wearing a big, goofy grin on my face the entire time. It was great. This guy seemed fairly nonplussed about the whole thing, but whatever. It's still a big day.

After I flew, the instructor still at the club (everyone else was out in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the big airshow there) asked if I'd like to go with him down to Corning-Painted Post to get another of the club's planes that's down there for maintenence. He was going to go with another of the club members, then they'd each fly one of the planes back, and he said he'd welcome the company. Of course, I said yes - but the other pilot brought his son along, to keep HIM company, and together, we were too heavy. So I stayed behind. SAD! Oh well. It gave me a chance to get some grocery shopping done.

And yes, if given the choice, I would go flying rather than shopping. No-brainer.

Well, we'll see what happens with this here lil' 'blog (and yes, I believe there IS supposed to be an apostrophe in "'blog." It's short for "weblog," after all, right?). The inaugural post is complete! Let the comments fall where they may.

Happy flyin'.