Posted by mstroud in General
I have just about recovered from the ordeal that is getting ready for, staging, shipping, demonstrating, and tearing down a full show load out for CES. I can’t say that I enjoyed it, or that I’d volunteer to do as much work again, but I’m glad its all done.
Severe pain came from the logistics of getting people (namely me) and equipment (some 80+ boxes of it) to and from the show. As the largest single event in Las Vegas, CES is uniquely positioned to stress out every part of the infrastructure needed to travel, house, transport, and sustain a group More >
Posted by mstroud in General
After a short 3 days and change in OK, plus a day and a half in Tahoe, I get a short rest in San Jose for the next week. Well, that isn’t really true, as I must now scramble to get all of the work done to make it to CES this coming weekend and all next week. But at least for today it seemed a bit more subdued than usual, or maybe I’m just not sure what to call the time you have outside of work.
What did get me wondering about stuff is the temperature at the house, which is More >
Posted by mstroud in Flying
In a last ditch effort to squeeze in a bit more flying and learning time, I drove up to Palo Alto to fly one more hour in the Citabria, my last flight for the year. It involved more touch and goes, slow speed turns, stalls, spin recognition (scary) and slips. This is just what I need to help get me through the muck that is sure to be known as commercial air travel.
Posted by mstroud in Rants
I had to fly to Orange County, CA for work today and I thought that I’d have a pretty clean trip, what with it being Tuesday and all. The day started off simple enough: get up at 5:30am, get to the airport by 6:10, and on the plane by 7:30. No security lines, no delays, no parking issues. This seemed great.
But when it came time to fly home tonight, via LAX, I could see the problems mounting. Awful traffic getting to the airport (not unusual for LA), really crowded check-in areas in most terminals, spotty seating at the food court, More >
Posted by mstroud in Flying
Another weekend, another couple of flights out of Palo Alto. This time around it was a series of landings and simulated emergencies on the way to and from Livermore Airport, with some decidedly better (if I may say so) landings than I had the last time. The instructor seems to think I’m getting a little bit better, so he’s ratcheting up the workload in the air.
On the 24th lesson I was swapped into a similar plane with 40 more horsepower. The difference was like driving my 4Runner around some cones and tight corners, then getting out and hopping into the More >
Posted by mstroud in Flying
Today with all the wind, rain, and rough weather I headed out for another hour in the front seat of the Citabria. It ended up being not as bumpy a ride as I had first thought, and in general I made my way around the field in relatively good shape. Kudos to the instructor for keeping me flying right, even though the runway and pattern were now being flown from the left.
Landings proved to be tough again, as were my turns to base and final. The instructor snuck in a few extras, like a short field landing, forward slips, and More >
Posted by mstroud in Flying
I must have really bad luck with equipment, or something. The 19th flight lesson was short because of the rapid onset of darkness (stupid wintertime!). The 20th was fogged out with visibility of less than 500 feet. The 21st was only 30 minutes long thanks to a weak engine. Needless to say, I won’t be flying that particular airplane for a while.
If there is a silver lining out of all of this, its that I’m really learning not to trust the engine in the aircraft I fly in, so I’m extra paranoid about finding an emergency landing spot each time More >
Posted by mstroud in Photos
I’ve finally gotten around to posting up some photos from my last few trips. You can now find imagery from the following events:
Enjoy!
Posted by mstroud in Flying
I managed to go to a new airport and put a plane into the fix-it shop in this installment of flight training 101.
First up I got to go to San Carlos, just a quick hop up the peninsula from Palo Alto, and just close enough to completely throw off my check list for landing. Other than one completely hosed approach, things fared fairly well. Well, I think I did OK, anyhow.
This morning I headed out in the same plane as flight 17, and no one had flown it since I brought it in the night before. After doing all the More >
Posted by mstroud in Flying
The most recent flights were more of the same: flying the pattern, learning how to properly setup to land and then takeoff again. Should be getting easier, but I’m still finding ways to blow the base to final setup and then to be a bit early on roundouts at landing.
One exciting new event that happened was my near-night flying where I began losing spatial awareness, cutting my downwind leg short, and ending up a little closer to the runway than I’d like prior to landing. That was a bit rough, but nothing compared to the student ahead of me who More >
