Archive for December, 2006
Friday, December 29th, 2006
We have a new Christmas tradition in our house. We are going to go for a hike. Now, I completely understand that this may be a one year tradition because this year’s Christmas tempurature was in the 50s, but if this Global Warming thing is correct, there may be a few more years to go. By the way, wouldn’t you just love to see Al Gore and George Bush in a boxing match?
Anyway, we decided that Sam’s Point Preserve in the Shawangunk Mountains of Ulster County, New York would be the best place to start, because it is fairly nearby.
We drove up RT.52 towards Ellenville and made a right at the sign that said, “Cragsmoor.” After a few miles of crossing the top of the ridge, we found and parked in the parking area. I took a walk over to the big map and saw that there was a lake about one and a half miles up the trail. Ok, let’s go see that.
We walked for a while and could see the cliffs on the right. They were getting lower and lower to the ground as we continued on. When we finally got to the top, I took Holly (the dog) and jumped up on top of a rock for a view.
The first thought I had was, “What an odd place.” Right from where I was standing, you had a 360 degree panoramic view of the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. Also, there was the lake all right…in the middle of this short pine tree forest. I felt like I was either walking on the moon or walking in Florida somewhere. Again, very odd.
I took Holly down to the edge of the water and came across a weird little area. It must be a spill over or something. It seemed a bit out of place because I was wondering how they would get any machinery up here. I guess it must’ve been a while ago. Also, I was wondering if maybe there was any cave entrances around. I kept my eyes peeled.
We totally forgot what the map looked like, so we only continued to walk for about another mile. We walked out and turned back for the two mile trip back to the car. When we got back there, we realized that a loop actually went around the lake and we were closer to the car at the point we turned around. Whoops. Next time we are going to take the trail from the other direction and take some nice pics from the top of the cliffs.
Till then!
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Posted in Hiking | 3 Comments »
Friday, December 29th, 2006
Hours - 19.4
Ahhh, what a beautiful morning. The birds were chirping sweet melodies, the sun was settling on my silky smooth skin and the air was calm…WHAT? The air was calm? FINALLY! Yes, that’s right. I checked the weather last night and knew today would be the day I have been waiting for through many torturous weeks. Actually, I haven’t even flown in a few weeks due to weather. I was starting to think Mother Nature didn’t like me anymore. I’m not sure why…I always recycle.
Anyway, I got to the airport at 8AM. This is a little later than usual for me. Yigal was waiting in the parking lot. I know EXACTLY what he was thinking. “Hey, look. Here comes my best, brightest and not to mention, my favorite student.”
I walked over to the Cessna 172 and did the fingertip numbing preflight inspection. It was a little chilly. I went back inside and met Yigal. He was putting on his heavy coat and had his radio in his hand. All set, ready to go.
We hopped in the plane and taxied to runway 3. We took off and did a few landings. On the third takeoff, at about 1000FT, Yigal pulled the throttle back and told me I had a dead engine. He caught me by surprise, but showed me that it is quite possible to make a 180 degree turn and land back at the airport at that altitude. You just need to react very quickly. I like the fact that he enjoys teaching the tough stuff to teach. This is the stuff no one likes to learn, but could save your life one day.
After I landed that time, we taxied back to the beginning of the runway. He told me I was ready to solo and that he was gonna hop out. I kept thinking of all the articles and blog posts I have read on the topic. Was I supposed to be nervous? Excited? I am not sure what I was feeling. I think I may have been a little nervous right when he was getting ready to exit the airplane, but the minute he closed the door, I know for a fact that I was ready to roll. I mean I was really excited. I just adore that fact that a few months ago, during a conversation with my father, I was almost kidding when I said I was going to learn how to fly, and now I was sitting next to a runway, alone in a running airplane. An airplane that would be in the air in about 30 seconds. I have to hand it to these instructors. I mean, the way they get their students to do the things they do is pretty incredible. This is a pretty challenging skill to learn.
I made my radio call and pulled onto the runway center line. There was so much space on the seat next to me…kind of weird. I set the heading indicator and pushed the throttle in all the way. 60KTS…the tires came off the ground. I did notice that the airplane seemed lighter. I have read that you can’t really feel a difference anymore, with the higher horsepower airplanes, but I certainly did. I climbed at 70KTS and really noticed the lighter and more maneuverable airborne vessel (you like that?). I made my trip around the pattern and came in for final approach. Everything seemed right. It’s amazing that it really didn’t seem any different that any other time I have ever done this. I came in for my landing and it turned out to be very smooth. I taxied back to where Yigal was standing and he waved me on. I had two more to do. I pulled over for a quick mag check and took off again. This time, on my final approach, I was pretty high. I cut the throttle and lost some altitude. When I saw the VASI lights turn one red, one white, I gave it some throttle. I maintained my approach at 65KTS and came in for another nice landing. Taxied back and took off for another. Landed that one and everything was great. I let out a sigh of relief and headed towards Yigal to pick him up. Over the radio, he told me to do one more and meet him back at the office. Gladly. Now I was having fun. This time, when I came in for my landing, I floated a little bit. All those hours, about a month ago, trying to correct my ballooning paid off. I leveled out and just kept pulling back on the yoke. Smooth.
We talked for a little while back at the office. I have to say that I was beaming. I asked Yigal how he felt. “What do you mean?” he asked. I said, “How do you feel having a new member in the club?” He laughed and shook my hand.
Of course, now I can’t wait for my next lesson on Sunday. I feel good.
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Friday, December 22nd, 2006
Can you believe it has taken this long to get a photo of me with an airplane? Oh well. Yigal took this the other day for us to use on his website (that is still in the works).
If you want, you can take a look at his site here.
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Posted in Flying | 1 Comment »
Sunday, December 17th, 2006
Believe it or not, this is the first year Laura and I actually went out with the intention of bringing back a Christmas tree. I am not sure why we never had one before…probably because we just never got around to it. Well, that all changed today.
I spoke to Paul yesterday and happened to mention today’s agenda (Christmas tree). I said we would probably go to Home Depot or something and just grab one. He said, “No, you less than intelligent, but well intentioned friend. Go to Bell’s Christmas Trees and cut down your own.” Well, I hadn’t thought of actually cutting down our own tree. Somehow, and I do mean somehow, the thought of driving my “kill” home on the roof of my car was a little weird, but I got over it as soon as I pictured myself walking around thousands of pine trees with a saw in my hand.
We woke up nice and early this morning with the goal of beating the crowd up there in Accord. We made it out of the house by 9:30AM and were at the farm a little after 10AM. Like Paul said, there was hot chocolate, a saw and a little sled to drag the tree back to the car with.
The tree farm was better than I expected. You kind of never know what you are going to get up in these parts, but the trees were in great shape and there were plenty of them. The acreage was very clean and the employees very helpful. It was so nice to take our time and stroll around in the great weather (50s) for a while before stumbling across “the one.”
She was a Blue Spruce. She towered over me. She was a beauty and stood about ten feet tall. We thought for a few minutes about how we would fit a ten foot tall tree in the house. I kind of wasn’t listening because my mouth was already watering at the prospect of me putting a picture of me standing next to a ten foot tall tree on my blog. We agreed that a taller tree is better than a shorter one because we could always cut it if we needed to. But, my friends, don’t forget that we have thirteen foot vaulted ceiling in our living room. I cut her down and fastened it to our sled.
Let me give you a small peek into my mind right as soon as I tied it to the sled. “Man, I have about ten puncture wounds on my left hand from these needles.” That’s right, the needles were like little razors on a mission.
Now, let me give you another little peek into my mind as soon as I started dragging the tree back to the car. “Man, this is a very heavy ten foot tree.” Yes, again, that’s right, the weight of the tree created a magnified friction effect between the sled and the ground which, in turn, created a slower and more painful half-mile walk back to the car than if we had no tree at all. Laura helped pull during this agonizing trip and mentioned something about how mules felt. I told her this was no time for jokes and silence would be appreciated. Just kidding, I would never, ever talk to someone like that, especially Laura, my queen.
During our trip back, we paused for a moment to snap a photo of one of the hillsides. This was taken for the blog too. Ok, you know my secret. I take pictures for blogs, now forget about it. When we made it back to the home base, we paid the extra dollar for the nice men to tighten up the tree for us through their machine. Then, some generous guy in the parking lot helped me load the tree on top of my car.
I have no pictures of me dragging the tree up out front porch steps and into the house because I was too busy being maimed by the pine needles, but Laura took a few nice ones after we stood the tree up in the stand.
Not bad huh? She’s giant. We already put some lights up on it but need some more. I am going to grab them tomorrow and then I will post a picture of the final product. All I need now is some Egg Nog.
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Posted in Trees & Shrubs, Winter | No Comments »
Sunday, December 17th, 2006
I am backdating this post to mix better with the post directly below this one. Ok, I must have been mistaken when I wrote there would be no more webstores. Whoops…my bad. Here are 6 new ones:
MyAirplaneMarket.US
MyJewelryMarket.US
MyCandleMarket.US
MyToyMarket.US
MyToolMarket.US
MyGourmetMarket.US
Why don’t you stop by one of them and take a look?
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Posted in Business, Websites | No Comments »
Saturday, December 16th, 2006
I remember the day, January 1, 2006. I was sitting on the floor sulking. I had no idea what I was going to do this year. I knew I wanted to launch some more websites, but I was out of ideas. I already had PetClassifieds.US, CycleClassifieds.US, BoatClassifieds.US, MotoClassifieds.US and TemplateMarket.US. What more could be done? I was out of it.
Then, one day I noticed that my very generic domain name and one page website for WebClassifieds.US had been listed in DMOZ. Ok, wow. That was a shock. I wasn’t even sure that site was alive any more. Well, it was, and that listing put my domain name into the all important Google Directory. Now that WebClassifieds.US had just gone up in value, I decided to create another general classified site there. That took a few weeks.
Well, now what? Ok, I picked up some ideas throughout the year and made a few more sites…like around 16 of them. Here is a list:
MyAutoMarket.US
MyBabyMarket.US
MyBeautyMarket.US
MyBoatMarket.US
MyBookMarket.US
MyCycleMarket.US
MyGardenMarket.US
MyHealthMarket.US
MyHomeMarket.US
MyKitchenMarket.US
MyMediaMarket.US
MyPetMarket.US
MySportsMarket.US
UpMyAlley.US
Also, I needed a place to put all my dot US websites, so…dotusnetwork.com. Lastly, somewhere along the lines I got the grand ol’ idea for a RSS Feed Directory. Yeah, uh huh. I feel a little better.
That’s the thing with me. I get really bored really fast. I always think I am going to accomplish nothing but actually finish ahead of schedule. Well, this brings me to a little issue. Now that it is December 16 and almost 2007, I am kind of out of ideas for stuff for the new year ahead. I either need to partner up with some rich dude and pump some marketing money and new servers into this stuff or just keep making sites. Suggestions?
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Posted in Business, Internet, Websites | 1 Comment »
Sunday, December 10th, 2006
Hours - 18.3
Can you believe it? I was taunted the other day. Yes, that’s right…taunted. By who? None other than Bob C. You can see his taunt here. Now, you can say what you want about greasing things all day, but I pay particular attention when it has to do with landing in valleys with small uphill runways. Well, that’s Sky Acres (44N) in Millbrook for ya.
I have really have come to terms with the fact that I will be the only student pilot taking his practical having never soloed. The examiner is going to look over at me and say, “So, how did you like your first solo?” I am going to respond, “Oh, actually, I never have.” That should make for some good conversation. Hmmm, let’s see…10KTS on the ground with gusts to 20KTS at Stewart. We calculated a 40KT headwind at 3,500FT. The airplane was barely moving, but I’ll get to that later.
Back to Bob. Ah yes, I think I read a bit of a challenge in his last comment. Well, today, after I did the pre-flight, I walked up to Yigal and told him I want to go to Sky Acres. He has never turned down one of my requests, so why would today be different? That’s what is so cool…you actually have an airplane for 2 hours to go do what you want. If you learn something too, all the better. He looked at me and seemed pretty eager to do something fun today.
Before we left, Yigal gave me a rundown on navigation. Yeah, I should probably know something about that. We discussed VOR, the VOR Indicator, the radio settings and the GPS. That all made some pretty good sense. Why does everything always seem so much easier on the ground? You know, I could really be the best pilot if I just stayed on the ground. I could be one of those guys who just hangs around the hangars talking to the mechanics about VOR. That would be fun.
With that all done, I grabbed my bucket of Crisco and headed toward the plane. I was sure I would need that for later. We taxied to runway 21 and flew that airborne vessel off the ground. I turned into the downwind leg and kept climbing. I climbed to 3,500FT and then that’s when it all started. It seemed like everything we went over on the ground was a distant memory and now I knew nothing. I am sure I will get more familiar with it all in time.
We set the radio to the proper VOR setting for Kingston…117.6. I set the VOR Indicator. We started our way to Sky Acres. Due to the strong cross wind, I had to keep adjusting my heading until it was pretty set. We talked with ATC because we were in Class E airspace. I was pretty familiar with the terminology because I have been up at this altitude before. We crossed the Hudson River and saw Dutchess County Airport (KPOU). We were heading right for the VOR beacon. Right when the Indicator switched from “To” to “From,” we turned the plane to get a good look. It looks like a small white lighthouse.
Ok, on to Sky Acres to see Bob. I saw the airport only a few miles away. I descended and switched radio frequency to 122.8 and made a few calls to see what the active runway was…17. Ok, I had the wicked beast in sight. Bob was right, a nice valley right before the end of the runway and an even nicer uphill slope after that. Hmmm…should be interesting. I entered the pattern and did my best to situate myself in new terrain. It is so weird…you can get very used to your home airport very quickly. I turned base, final…kept going down. The wind was pushing me to the left. I went down, cut the throttle, flared and touched down. We turned on to the taxiway. Great landing! I will admit that Bob does have a more difficult airport to practice from. It has “character.” I didn’t want to get smart, so I left the Crisco in the back seat (kidding of course).
Yigal and I talked for a little while and then turned back on the runway for a nice uphill takeoff. On the way back, there was a huge headwind that made it seem like we weren’t even moving. I was boggled at all the ATC chatter and the navigation. I will get that, but it was a challenge. I talked a lot and ATC and I seemed to like each other. One time, I said “yes” instead of “affirmative” and they questioned that. I responded again with “affirmative” and it was all cool. We headed back to MGJ by going through Stewart’s Class D airspace. I made some more radio calls to ask for clearance to do this. All good. I entered the pattern for MGJ correctly this time and landed with a bit of help from the throttle after my airspeed got too slow due to the wind. It’s important to remember that your airspeed needs to be a bit higher when landing in the wind.
Bob, now that I visited your home base, I would like to invite you to my neck of the woods, just be sure to give a call first, so I can be there.
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Posted in Flying | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
First thing - 17.1 hours. Yee Haw. It’s just starting to get good.
I was soooo mentally prepared all this week for my first solo. Of course a huge thunderstorm had to roll through on Friday. Well, that lesson was cancelled. I rescheduled for Tuesday morning at 10:30. I kept looking out the window that morning to see if there was any wind. I am not allowed to fly solo if the crosswind is more that 6KTS. The wind seemed to be calm at my house. I hit the road and called the weather service for a standard briefing. The dude informed me the winds were from 210 at niner…that is…the winds were coming from the southwest at 9KTS. Also, there were gusts to 18KTS. Not a good day to solo. Oh well, maybe next time.
We did go up though. It was windy, but I am actually happy to fly in the wind now. Maybe because I learned how to land. I have to say, out of the four landings I did in this lesson, I aced them all. I mean aced. I can’t even express how good they were…you couldn’t even feel the tires touching the runway. I think this is awesome because it was quite windy and we were tossed around a bit. I finally got a handle on how to combine the “crab” with the “sideslip” for a good touchdown. I think Yigal was getting bored.
Back to the beginning of this story. We decided to go up to 5,500FT for some maneuvers. On the agenda was slow flight, power off stalls and power on stalls. I have done slow flight before, but not the way the examiner is going to ask me to do it. Let me think (first clear the area)…reduce throttle to 1,700RPM, lower flaps 10 degrees at a time, reduce speed even more until I am down to 50KTS while pitching the plane to keep its altitude. Sounds easy, but not that easy when you have to keep turning to stay in the clear area of the clouds and are being pushed around by the turbulence. To accelerate after slow flight, you give the plane full throttle, pitch down to avoid the balloon and one by one, raise the flap levels.
Now, stalls are a little different. The main reason for practicing stalls on Tuesday was to simulate taking off and landing. The power off stall is used to simulate what can happen during your approach to land. Let me think again…reduce throttle to 1,500RPM, pull carb heat on, lower flaps 10 degrees at a time, cut throttle. Now, pitch the airplane up by pulling the yoke to your chest. The plane will pitch up and stall quite easily. The minute it stalls, give it full throttle and try to recover by keeping the nose at the horizon while losing as little altitude as possible. Easier said than done.
The trickiest one is the power on stall. Just wait until I tell you why. Here it is…this is to simulate stalling after takeoff and during your climb. For whatever reason, you might pitch too high or your angle of attack might become too great. Give the airplane full throttle, pitch up, up, up. You have to really pitch up because the plane doesn’t want to stall, but when it does, you better have right rudder hard and heavy. I didn’t and learned my lesson. I forgot to use right rudder and performed a power on stall. The minute the lift broke…WHAM, the left wing fell and we went into a spin. This happens due to the airplane’s natural tendency to pull to the left at full throttle because of slipstream and torque. During the spin, I had a difficult time recovering because of my natural tendency to turn the yoke to the right. I actually aggravated the stall. I should’ve just kept the ailerons neutral and applied right rudder pressure and well as pulled back on the yoke.
We did a few of these and started to head back to Orange County. We were right above Stewart (SWF) with the Hudson River in good view. At 5,500FT, we were in Class E airspace, well outside of Stewart’s Class D airspace. Yigal asked me to make a call to ATC. I said, “Tower, November 734 Delta Sierra has Orange County in sight and is heading back now.” He looked at me and said, “Tower?” I thought we were talking to the Stewart ATC. Not the case. Since we were in Class E airspace, I should’ve been talking to “New York.” Oh well, they answered anyway. Man, you feel like a loser when you screw up like that. The tower guys are cool though. I think they hear a lot of it.
As I approached MGJ, I decided I had to pass the airport on the east to head in at 45 degrees to the downwind leg. As I began my descent to the pattern, we spotted another plane in the pattern already. I thought I could come in behind him and then do some slow flight to let him complete his landing. Yigal thought that was bad judgment because my airspeed was so much more than his. I would’ve come too close to him. We did a right circle to give him some time to get ahead and then we entered the downwind leg of the pattern. Two landings and one emergency “engine-out” landing were as smooth as silk.
Solo next time?
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Friday, December 1st, 2006
For the past few weeks, I have been engaged in a fierce battle with a mouse in our house. An evil vermin, if you will. Recently, our cats have been sitting quietly on the kitchen floor, staring at the lower cabinets. Laura claimed there was a mouse in there, but I hesitated to believe her.
I was wrong to hesitate and I can admit that. The reason I can admit that is because I really do have a wonderful personality. People tell me that all the time. Ok, really now…
Anyway, I decided to purchase those little gray humane mouse traps. I got the ones made by Victor. Well, the first night, there was evidence of a real mouse. He (or she) decided to enter the trap, eat the peanut butter and leave. Ok, fine. I reset the trap.
The second night, the mouse entered the trap, ate the peanut butter and the trap door shut behind him. Well, the mouse decided to kick the door off the hinge and escape.
I knew I was in over my head. This mouse, or whatever it was, was stronger than me. Stronger and smarter. I needed some heavier ammo. I went to the store and purchased the next trap up the chain of traps. I set that sucker and hoped for the best. Morning came and I checked the trap to see if my prize was there…ummm…all I found was a trap with no peanut butter and a bunch of chew marks on it. At this point, I concluded that this was no mouse at all. It was either a raccoon or a bear.
I repaired the trap by using a hose clamp to tighten down the lid. No luck. The mouse entered the trap the next night, laughed and proceeded to eat the peanut butter and leave. How he does this is a mystery to me. After his good meal, I think he may have climbed up to our sink for a quick back stroke and sponge bath.
I contemplated getting a bigger and better trap. The one I wanted costs about $18. But first, I wanted to try the last cheap method. I happened to be in Wal-Mart the other day and saw this very simple box with a hinge-door. It was so simple and cost only $1. I bought it to give it a try.
I set the trap and waited. Two nights ago, I heard some commotion in the kitchen and woke up to see what was going on. I saw the trap just sitting there in a new position. Nothing.
I set the trap again last night. Well, around 5:30 this morning, I heard a very distant scratching noise. My ears were very sensitive by this point. I went out to see if there was an empty trap and LOW AND BEHOLD, A MOUSE!!!!! I caught the beast. I cute little (but very strong and smart) field mouse. We stared in each other’s eyes for a good long time. I saw the defeat in him and he saw the pride in me. Nothing but respect. We both knew the game was over. Check mate.
I drove down the road and let him go in the woods. He quickly bounced away and stopped to give me one last glance. I swear I heard, “Good bye my worthy adversary.” Maybe it was the wind…
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Posted in Animals, Home Improvement, Ramblings | 7 Comments »
