loner’s Neighborhood

I didn't do a very good job of maintaining that music vox, did I?
It's okay though.  I've built an entirely new site from scratch, and I've ported all the old music posts from this blog as well as the djfstop vox over to it, complete with download links for the music, and new entries too.  You should really go check it out.

www.fstopdj.com

Lord of the Silver Bow (Troy Trilogy, Book 1)

David Gemmell

Just finished reading Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmel.  It's a long book, although not huge, at a little over 600 pages but I flew through this rather quickly.  This was my first Gemmel book and I completely enjoyed it.  He keeps the pace of the story going with the ups and downs in all the right places.

It's a sunny, warm Christmas Eve down here in the antipodes.  We have guacamole and salad to prepare tomorrow morning and presents to wrap after Petra's gone to bed tonight.  But apart from that we are pretty damn organised.

I can't quite believe that the year is ending already.  2009 has run away, disappearing in a rush of relocation and renovation.  It's been a full year, and in some ways, a difficult one, but it has given me great pleasure as well.   People have died and others have been born.  There have been accidents and engagements, illnesses and parties.  Travis has had pneumonia, been made redundant from one job, and acquired another one.  Petra has changed from a toddling, gurgling baby into a climbing, dancing, talking little girl.  I am learning how to make my way in the world as someone's mother while still retaining some sense of my own identity and purpose.

Dunedin is fabulous.  I love having my own house and yard.  And I'm really enjoying having so much of my family around.  All in all, life is good.

Merry Christmas everyone.  And a happy healthy prosperous New Year.

Martin_brodeur_01

Martin Brodeur, of the NHL's New Jersey Devils, has just broken Terry Sawchuk's all time shutout record by recording his 104th.  You can find many highlights of Brodeur's career here.  

I had a good day on the slopes today as Kimberley Alpine Resort had their free day for locals.  It was cloudy and a bit foggy today so the light was really flat but it snowed a bit each of the last few days and the slopes were in great shape.   The clouds also kept the temperature at a reasonable level overnight and it was just a couple degrees above or below zero most of the day.  Usually the place is jam packed on the free day but the crowds seemed a little thin this year.  Maybe the extremely cold weather last week scared people off?

Here are some sketches from last week completed whilst watching one son blow straw bubbles in his hot cocoa and the other son dancing to The Cure in his Hulk costume.

"Kids and circuits" 12/09

"The apple and the ibis" 12/09

"Every knowing tale" 12/09

Folks,

In my little adventures up in the sky, there are a few accessories that I use a lot to make life just a bit more organised, comfortable and safe.

Most importantly, I need my pilot's headset. Mine are the standard David Clarks, which are used almost everywhere by pilots at any airfield you care to name on this planet. They are alright and do the job well enough. I get to hear the traffic controllers on Ground and Tower, and equally important they can hear me. In the not too distant past, general aviation pilots used to fly without these headsets and instead used a handheld radio like a CB unit found in trucks. That was alright, too, until research found that pilots suffered serious hearing loss due to the high levels of noise inside the cockpit of most general aviation aircraft. That's when headsets became de riguer.

My David Clarks have some passive noise reduction qualities through the tight ear cups and also volume control, but there have been times when  the radio chatter and interference have been bad enough to reduce my ability to hear who said what. That's when I have to make "Tower, Kilo Mike Bravo, say again last transmission." I will reward myself when I get my pilots licence with a flashier headset that has active noise reduction and also jacks for your mobile phone to plug into. I could be phoning a friend from 5000ft and saying stuff like: "Hey I'm flying over your house, do you want me to buzz you like a Spitfitre pilot?" No, I'm kidding ;-)

Another item that I will be using as soon as it gets to me, is a knee board. As the name indicates, this is a flat writing surface with clips and pockets for all those bits of paper where info is scribbled down and within easy reference... and there's a velcro strap to keep this kneeboard strapped securely to your thigh. Mine hasn't arrived yet as I've only ordered it a few days ago. What I've been doing so far with my checklists is tuck them under my right thigh so that it's within my reach when I need them. But this takes my attention away for a brief moment and more importantly, takes my right hand away from either the throttle or the yoke. In other words, it's a distraction I don't need. Also, when I'm pre-flighting, it is always useful to have weather/runway/altitude settings/fuel tank reserves/radio frequencies data all in the one place without having to go back-forth to check. And you may laugh, but it is really handy to have a place to clip your pen while you're flying. And later when I'm doing my navigation exercises, I'll have even more bits of stuff to lug around with me in the cockpit. When you're flying alone into usually uncharted airspace, you'd want to be organised and not be distracted by a stupid pen or torchlight or your flight calculator that fell on the floor.

So, there you have it. Just a quick round-up of some of my common tools of trade as a student pilot.

Ninja

David Clark pilot headset

Kneeboard

Folks,

I had an early morning session of circuits today. I thought I did 5 T&Gs but it was actually 6... time flies when you are having fun.

Did the right handers today from Runway 06R in Kilo Mike Bravo. I'm getting more comfortable with 06R but it's still my preference to takeoff from 24L for circuits. C'est la vie.

As the session was rather uneventful (just going round and round), today's summary is a short one.

My landings are not perfect (not greasers) but they aren't crap either. My altitude on final is still a bit higher than I'd like at around 700-800ft, which means my approach has to be steeper. Nevertheless, I'm still able to bring her down with a gentle thud. My visual perspective on flaring is better; I think I am seeing the horizon well enough now to positively affect my landings whereas before, my eyes just watched the ground rush up towards me and that's when the hard landings happened.

My ground roll-out on the "Go" is still slightly weavy. This one thing is really holding me back because it means I need a bit more time to centre the aircraft before re-setting all configs for the takeoff.

One more thing that's flustering me are the radio calls. Everyone makes them with the use of slightly different phraseologies. For instance:

1) The first radio contact I have is with ATIS before I do my pre-start checks. I tune into 120.9 to get details of my runway, QNH, weather summary and ATIS version (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc).
2) As soon as this data is scribbled down, I then tune into Jandakot Ground on 124.3 to request permission to start my circuits: Jandakot Ground, Kilo Mike Bravo request start for circuits. The text books have different phrases for this preliminary call but the simpler the better as far as I am concerned. There's enough workload up there as it is, without having to remember every single phrase down to the letter and verse.
3) After my pre-start and after-start checks are done, I taxi off to the run-up area to complete my power checks.
4) To get to Runway 06R, I have to cross Runway 06L. A radio call is needed here: Jandakot Ground, Kilo Mike Bravo request permission to cross Runway zero-six left. On clearance, I cross it and taxi towards the holding point for Runway zero-six right.
5) I now tune into Jandakot Tower for circuits on 119.4 to indicate I'm ready to line up: Jandakot Tower, Kilo Mike Bravo ready for circuits at Runway zero-six right, dual, received Bravo (version Bravo was the ATIS transmission this morning when I went up). On clearance, I line-up on the piano keys on Runway zero-six right and power up to takeoff.
6) After my full-stop landing and when I've taxii-ed off to the runway holding point, I do my after-landing checks then tune back to Jandakot Ground on 124.3: Jandakot Ground, request permission to cross Runway zero-six right.

Strangely, I've got no issues with all of my radio calls in-flight but for some stupid reason, I tend to get a little flustered on the ground with these calls. It is easy to write them down here and they seem simple enough. But at the time of making these calls, I have to pause and think about them.  The cock-ups can be funny to hear... when other people make them, but not so when it's you going: "Er..." and then go silent. The CFI thinks I'm over-complicating this issue. I'm just keen to nail this whole process down. We all learn differently; for me this means writing it all down and reading them over and over again. 

But something funny did happen today on the radio. I think it was on my third circuit when Jandakot Tower radio-ed someone (wasn't me) to get their hands off the PTT button as they were heavy breathing into it! Stuff you hear somedays.

OK, takeaways for the next session:

- Get my setups sorted as I turn base
- Try to aim for 400-500ft on final and feather power down to idle on descent, get lower on short final
- Feet, feet, feet on touchdown to stay on the centreline!!! 

After this morning's session, I've now chalked up 17.2 hours of training, 9.2 of those in circuits.

I've also been told to read-up the chapter on Emergency Procedures (Abnormal Operations) for my next lesson. Inter alia, this has reference specifically to EFATOs (engine failure after takeoff). Nice one.

Till the next instalment, clear prop!

Ninja

Disconnect #1:

Puddin's text message was simple: "J hung himself."

The implications are far more complicated. Puddin has the sense of relief that her ex-husband won't be stalking her anymore, that the past few years' nightmare of frivolous custody suits, unsent child-support, and threats has ended. The down side…how do you explain to a seven year-old that the father who has only been there sporadically is dead? How do you explain that this father loved you, but he hanged himself?

A few miles up I-75, my friend's daughter, Eliza, has coded four times in the past week. She's fighting for her life, fighting the way she's had to her entire 16 years. She's waiting on a heart-lung transplant, eager to grow up and have problems.

There's a disconnect somewhere in this world. How one person can hate life so much that he snuffs it, while another person has battled her entire 16 year life to stay alive--I wish we could just transfer the healthy life spark from one person to another. I mean, it would have been no big deal for J to code--he wanted to go. Let Eliza be up and walking around, and J could segue into wherever abusive bastards are sent afterwards.

Disconnect # 2:

A couple weeks ago, I was surfing around the interwebs, and I stumbled across the video of Bud Dwyer, then the Pennsylvania Treasurer, holding a press conference. After making a statement, in which he professed his innocence, he gave envelopes to three of his aides, then pulled out a .357 Magnum and shot himself in the head. BOOM! Right there on live TV. (you can link to the video from wikipedia's article on Bud Dwyer) All I could think of was, "That doesn't even look real."

The next night, I watched "Boys Don't Cry," in which the protagonist is shot under the chin. All I could think was, "Now THAT is what it's supposed to look like!"

It was vaguely discomfiting seeing an actual gunshot suicide happen; even more horrible was that I judged it as lacking compared to the special effects extravaganza in the movie.

Disconnect #3:

I've written before about my extreme dislike of X-mas, which I differentiate from Christmas. X-mas contains all the frenzy: shopping, parties, stress, presents, et cetera ad valium. Christmas is a pretty straightforward message of peace. Once again, I'm up to my ass in X-mas, and have been since Black Friday. Christmas will be fine and peaceful, but it only lasts a day. Is it worth it? All the madness and mayhem--just for one day where people are less dickish to one another?

Don't ask me that tonight.

Last night, I lay in bed thinking about my life. I've been depressed and alcoholic, where my first thought upon awakening each day was, "Oh, shit; again?" I've also been really sick, where I was 24 hours away from dying. As I lay there, I focused on my breathing, on the fact that I'm not battling for breath. I thought about my job. Yeah, it's stressful as hell this time of year, but it's not too bad. I thought about my people, about Team Punkin and my various partners in crime, about friends nearby and afar. I treasured that even though I'm not wealthy, I have a nice apartment I can afford. Even though it was muggy outside, it was cool inside. I was breathing on my own, without equipment to assist me or monitor me.

I thought how nice it would be if Eliza gets her ultimate Christmas gift, and if Puddin' and her son can find a little peace somewhere in this mad X-mas frenzy.

Tom has a pulse

Well, with some very helpful advice from our pediatrician, and a multi-fronted, concerted effort by Getalife and myself, it looks like we've been able to take a significant edge off the colic. Here's what we've done so far: