December 23, 2006  I was up in the wild blue yonder again today!  We had what was left of the cold front that slammed Denver this week blow through beginning last night, so I was sure when  scheduled the airplane for Saturday morning I was not going to be able to go up due to bad weather.  I woke up this morning and listened for any rain drops that might be falling, and it was quite, so I crept to the computer to check the weather.  There was a small hole that looked like would be open from about 0700 to 1200. I had the plane from 0800 to 1000 so I was set.  When I arrived at the club I was informed that because I had not flown in the last 14 days  (solo) I needed a check ride with an instructor.  John Nayfeck the chief instructor said "No sweat, I will hop in with you, we will do a few bounces, and you can kick me out and be on your way". So we did just that, but instead of some normal landings, he decides to cut the power on me on the down wind leg of the pattern and announces that we are going to do a simulated dead engine landing.  I handled it perfect until we were just about to touch down when he says "Go around, go around!"  I take off the carb heat and push the throttle in but not all the way, as I reach to bring in some flaps he says "full power full power." Oops!  I add all the power and up we go again.  I was not expecting to do all the emergency stuff, but like John says you have to always be ready to do the emergency stuff, and he is right.  The next sim eng out was perfect, as well as the go around.  We did the third landing to a full stop and he got out.  The next 4 that I went out to do alone were perfect.  The runway was still wet from last nights rain, so when the wheels touched down they were silent instead of the normal "chirp" as they go from 0 to 55 mph the instant they touch, and the touch downs were so soft.  I was disappointed that no one was in the plane to see them! Oh well, I will get back up next Tuesday afternoon as I have the day off from work.  Maybe if I am lucky I will have a little cross wind to contend with to keep things interesting! 

I have something else on my mind I need to communicate with you all and because the next few days might get busy with all the Holiday comings and goings, I think now might be a good time to talk about it.  My father passed away back in 1989, and when the first anniversary of his death came around I was torn, I did not want to just do nothing.  I thought I needed to take notice of the date, that it warranted some action on my part, but I did not want to "celebrate" that date.  So I chose to pay homage on his birthday instead.  Now the 27th is coming and I find myself becoming paralyzed with the same sort of grief blinders.  I was talking about this a few days ago when Julies father Luke says to me in a very matter of fact manner, that the 27th was as big a day for her as was her birthday.  He explained that the 27th was her birth into heaven, her birth into eternal life.  How could you not be happy for someone on that occasion.  I pondered on it for a few days and some other thoughts wondered in as well.  I wondered if God was upset when He sent her down here to be with us some 37 odd years ago, after all, with free will, it was a gamble as to what kind of life she would lead.  It would be up to her after all, to choose how close she was going be to Him, and if she choose not to, how sad that would make Him.  But as we all know, He also loves all of us so very much that he could not keep her for himself, and for those 36 short years we basked in the Love and Light that shone so brightly around Julie. 

I guess the point of all of this is we should be pleased for her, as the Joy and Love that she now shares is only dampened on those occasions when we shed a tear for her.  I think she would rather all of us just giggle a little bit under our breath the next time we start to miss her.  I know I spent 2006 doubled over from the blow.  I think Julie would be pleased if in 2007 when you start to miss her, just remember one of those Julie moments, and then Laugh, 'till you cry!

Merry Christmas!

December 19, 2006  I received a call from the Orlando FSDO (Flight  Services District Office) yesterday.  Seems I was correct in assuming that it might be difficult to schedule a FAA flight examiner for my final practical flight test during the last two weeks of the year.  In addition to that, the SODA (Statement of Demonstrated Ability's) document that was generated in May 2005 and sent to Orlando, I also found out yesterday was only valid for 6 months.  That document was generated in May of 2005 when I got my medical certificate and first started the lessons, so it was destroyed in January of 2006.  I was told that I needed to call Oklahoma, the home office for the FAA, and no I don't know why it is not headquartered in Washington D.C., and request that a new SODA be generated and mailed to the Orlando FSDO (pronounced Fisdo, are you guys beginning to enjoy these acronyms as much as I am). Now I was curious as to how long this might take, as the pilot world is renowned with horror stories of FAA paper work SNAFU's (another acronym) that can halt your flying schedule for weeks if not months.  So I call yesterday afternoon, and the number I call in on goes strait to the desk of someone that says he can help me.  I give him my social and he pulls up my record, and proceeds to tell me "OK, no problem, I will generate a new SODA for the FSDO and mail it ASAP" (he really said that he would get it in the mail today but I just could not resist throwing in another acronym). I was ecstatic, here I was knowing that I was going to run into some two or three month FAA paperwork hell, and I was going to have to just suck it up, because after all it is their ball and bat and glove and field and.... , well you get the picture.  So now I get to relax for the next two weeks enjoy the Holiday season, go do some solo flights to keep my landing skills sharp, and wait till the first of the year.  Oh and just in case some of you might be wondering what the SODA is for, it is the document that the examiner has to have in order to grant my medical wavier for my eye.  Once I have the waiver on my medical it will be in place for life.  I could still obtain my license with out the waiver, but I would not be permitted to carry passengers, and what fun would that be!

December 14, 2006  I guess a Merry Christmas is in order here but as you might guess it seems a bit strained to say so these days.  I can almost feel the holiday spirit come over me, then like a knee jerk reflex action I want to share that little bit of joy with Julie and like some cruel joke I am on the outside looking in at the whole Christmas season.  I know it is wrong but this is the truth of my life right now, and so that is what fills the page.  I am a bit hesitant about my pending flight review, not that I don't know it, it's just remembering it all and in the proper order.  I need to be flying and not sitting on the ground, I think I will go up for an hour or so Saturday morning to brush some of the cobwebs away. 

December 7, 2006  I was looking at my E-Mail today, and something caught my eye.  I was looking to store a current email to a file.  While I was there I saw this message that Julie had sent to me, and I think I need to share it with all of you:

Enjoy your life
 
I'll be happy when...

We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a
baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough
and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that
we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out
of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our
spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, when we are
able to go on a nice vacation or when we retire. The truth is there's no
better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will
always be filled with challenges.

It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. Happiness
is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more
because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your
time with ... and remember that time waits for no one.

 
So, stop waiting ...
Until your car or home is paid off.
Until you get a new car or home.
Until your kids leave the house.
Until you go back to school.
Until you finish school.
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married.
Until you get a divorce.
Until you have kids.
Until you retire.
Until summer..
Until spring.
Until winter.
Until fall.
Until you die.

There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey,
not a destination. So work like you don't need money, love like you've never
been hurt, and, dance like no one's watching.

Like I said, every now and then she sends down some little nudge to guide me, ballast to even my keel, or a blast of air when I need a lift. Thanks Baby!

December 6, 2006  Remember back when the month of December took about 4 months to pass, well from Thanksgiving to the 25th it seemed to take that long.  Now days I go to the john, turn around, and Dick Clark is on the tube shouting "Three Two One, Happy New Year!!....." what the heck is up with that. I guess the Holiday season is inversely proportional to your age, divided by your checking account balance, minus the square root of your Visa bill.  Any way, I have been having a very busy holiday season.  BK&K and I entered into a boat light parade here in downtown Jacksonville.  This was Brads second one, and this year he thought up the display of a life guarding Santa on the back of his boat looking over his swimming reindeer.  I was to be the Santa perched precariously up in the life guard size chair 8 feet above the water!  I had an AWSOME TIME!  I was up there in my swim trunks and a tee shirt, Santa beard and Santa hat, with my lifeguard whistle, bare feet , and freezin my kiester off, and love'n every minute of it!  And the crowds were great.  I thought a few hundred people maybe a few thousand altogether would show to cheer us on, no there were thousands and thousands.  The crowd at the landing was solid folks, and the more I waved the life guard flag and blew the whistle the louder they yelled their approval!  We didn't win any awards, but had a grand time any way.  I also went to visit the happiest place on earth (Disney) last weekend.  Randy was down with his family on vacation all last week, so I got some Elizabeth and Katherine time in before they headed back north.  Sorry 'bout that Randy, I mean I like you, but you can't help but love those two!  We had a good time at Epcot, rode the rides until they told us to go home, really until our legs and feet were just about to give out.  Last but not least I did get to fly Sunday, it was pretty bad weather but I got up, I am not gonna talk about what is left to do , suffice to say I am close, and you will know when I have my licence. 

November 24, 2006  I finished my stage III check flight today.  I am scheduled to fly next Saturday with Randy Minor, the club president.  He is the probably the clubs most accomplished pilot, as well as the most qualified pilot to grill potential check ride candidates for their impending date with destiny.  The general procedure of the club is not to present unqualified candidates to the FAA for check rides, so it serves me well to do this final flight with an instructor that is often referred to amongst the other instructors as "The Ayatollah". This flight is scheduled for next Saturday.  Upon satisfactory completion of said flight, I will contact the Orlando FSDO (Flight Services District Office) and schedule an appointment with a FAA examiner. I will keep you all up to speed has to how that goes.

November 21, 2006   It's Tuesday evening and I have been studying for my pending pilots test, and thinking of the coming holiday season.  Last Sunday, during the homily at Church, the priest said something that started the little wheels in my noggin to churn.   He asked all those assembled a question, "If you found out you were going to die in a month, what would you change?"  Well talk about taking one right between the eyes, I listened on and naturally he talked about how we should be living right all the time and not, just when we are in trouble, and I thought back to last years Thanksgiving Day.  Julie and I were both in her room when Dr. Roberts came in to talk with us.  He suggested we seek out Hospice care, as the cancer was not going to be cured. He said we needed to look to making decisions based on quality of life issues, end of life issues, and that we should contemplate abandoning any more curative measures. Well we all know the decisions that were made, but last Sunday I started to think about that last month, as well as the six months before that, the two years before that, and how through all of this Julie never made any major changes in the way she lived her life.  She kept reading as a lector at church, she continued to teach swimming lessons, to instruct her aqua aerobics ladies. She continued to give blood until they would not allow her to do so, she continued to volunteer for The Red Cross, teaching CPR classes, lifeguard qualifying classes, hell she even taught instructors how to teach for the Red Cross! All the time she was working her job, oh and taking chemo therapy.  I guess the point I am trying to make here is that she was confronted with this very question and she lived the answer out for all of us to see, her answer was, nothing. 

She had to change nothing in her life.Each and every Day Julie continues to inspire me, to guide me, to teach me.  Each and every day I give thanks that I still have Julie in my Life!It is with that last thought that I hope all of you will keep Julie's love in your heart this Holiday Season, and to each and every one of you, have a very

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 15, 2006  I am back from the briny blue, relaxed, tan, rested,and tired!  Seems like you always need to get home after a vacation so you can get some sleep.  I got home Thursday and was in the door just long enough to check email, do a load of clothes, repack my bag and it was off to Crystal River.  We got to see lots of manatee as well as visit with family and friends.  Brad and I even got to burn a few thousand pounds of air diving the King springs.  It was a bit bitter sweet.  I miss Julie every day, but times like these seem to stoke the embers of her memory more than usual. I think in general a good time was had by all and I am looking forward to next year already, but we need to do something about the no seeums next year. I am not sure what, but I will come up with something! Anyway sorry for the short post but I am right in the middle of study time for my flight test so I have to call it quits here and get back to the books. More to come on the vacation later, when I can think in clear non-aviation type thoughts.

October 29,2006  The 2006 Blue Angels air show was this weekend.  I attended the show Saturday, and part of today.  I volunteered to work the booth for the Flying Club, well it was not really a booth more like a static display.  Those of you familiar with Air shows know what I mean, static displays are military airplanes as well as some privately owned birds that are set up on the flight line for the public to view up close.  We had the clubs Piper Arrow on display.  I am not sure in what world it would be ok to stand your child on a wing to take his picture or grab a prop and give it a spin, I guess that is why we have to put signs all over everything to protect people from themselves.  It was, for the most part an enjoyable experience, I talked to a few dozen people that were interested in taking flying lessons, and three or four might actually pan out to give it a serious look see.  If we get a few new members from the endeavor that would be great.  I had a great time answering questions for folks, both young and old, from questions like why do all the planes have tails or why do the jets make clouds over the wings when they turn, to other questions like now just where is the pressure pitot and the static pressure port on this plane?  All in all I had a great time, it is always a red letter day when you get to spend it talking about airplanes!

October 27, 2006  Just a quick update about the last weeks flying. I made it out Sunday morning but there was little wind so no crosswind practice was to be had.  We did pick up a little wind on our return to NAS about 8 knots from the south, and the active runway was 9 so that set up a crosswind condition.  I had a little trouble coming in, Robert suggested I dump a little more flaps than I thought I needed, and that caused the plane to "kite" more in the higher crosswind.  It made for a less than perfect landing that I was not pleased with and upon reflection as we discussed it later in the clubhouse I told Robert that had I been by myself I would not have used that much flap.  He said "You know, you are probably right".  We went back up Wednesday afternoon, and because the air show is in town this weekend, all of the airplanes were moved over to Herlong airport.  With the planes at Herlong, it makes the transit time to go do pattern work zero, so we stayed right in the landing pattern at Herlong and did all the takeoff and landing practice.  The winds were favoring runway 7 as they were 040 (out of the northeast), so we did about three TO'S & L on 7 then switched over to runway 11 for some xwind practice.  I bounced for about an 45 minutes in winds as high as 12 knots at 70 degrees, pretty stout crosswinds.  The plane is limited to 15 knots at 90 degrees, the control surfaces will only swing so far, and on these small planes that is the max, so it was pretty close to those limits.  Oh and I was terrific, not perfect, but damn good!  While we were working the pattern, another plane came in to land at Herlong.  He must have listened in to the radio and heard I was landing 11, he decided that was the active runway, so he would just slide in behind me and land.  Now the proper thing for him to do would have been to listen to the AWOS (weather report for that airport) which would have told him the winds were favoring runway 7 not 11 that I was using, then he could have announced that he was entering the pattern for 7 and I would have made adjustments for him if necessary, but no, he just came in behind me and by the look of his landing, he was not very prepared to handle that much crosswind! He made it down, but I imagine he had a major skive extraction as part of his post flight shut down procedures.  I often wonder when I am driving down the highway, how in the hell some people got their driving licenses, well some of those same folks fly!  I need to keep that little pearl of wisdom tucked away for some day when I am about to assume someone is going to do the proper thing in front of me, so that when they don't, it doesn't leave me low and slow!

  And now for something completely different, I don't know how many of you folks use IE (Internet Explorer) for your browser, but I was turned on to Mozilla last week by our IT guy from work.  I have been using it at work and at home all last week and it is the Bomb! Very fast loading, very easy to customize, and from what I am told, does not have any of the security issues that IE has.  It is a version of Netscape and came be downloaded free at www.mozilla.com  Do yourself a favor, give it a look see, I think you will be pleased with the results!

October 21, 2006  Well as far a the FAA and their part 141 training syllabus is concerned I am done!  I finished my last cross country flight today.  It was a short one, about 76 miles over to Suwannee county airport, a sleepy little single strip out 20 miles west of Lake City, near the town of Live Oak Florida.  Today was a good day to be a pilot, clear right to the top most of the way, just a few clouds when I got close to Live Oak.  The runway at Suwannee was so small (how small was it!), I thought I was landing on a taxiway.  I had a slight crosswind about 5 knots, but it was blowing from 330 and I was landing runway 25 not quite 90 degrees but pretty close, so had to fight hard to hold my centerline.  But I made it and soon after taxied back for my departure on the same runway.  I climbed out and returned to Jax with a pretty stout tail wind.  I recalled the winds were blowing at 6000 feet, at about 24 knots, so I flew up to 5500 and pulled the RPM's back to about 2400.  The air speed was reading right at 100 knots but my trusty GPS showed a ground speed of right at 130 mph! Yea Baby!   The view from up there was terrific.  It was about 18 degrees cooler than the 85 degrees down on the ground.  I snapped a few more picky's along the way so you guys could see the sights with me. I am going up tomorrow morning after Church with Robert.  There is a front that is supposed to blow through tonight, so the wind should be up tomorrow morning. I hope so, I want to try to get some crosswind landing practice, I seem to be having some difficulties in the last few moments during the flare keeping strait with some strong cross winds.  I read in some magazines that often some pilots just won't go flying if the winds are not right down the pipe.  Most everybody reading this knows that ain"t me!  That's why we will be over at Cecil Field's 200 foot wide runways tomorrow morning.  We will be cleared to land on all 200 feet of the runways width, but I will only be using about 5 feet on either side of the centerline!

October 16,2006  Finally I got my long Solo cross country done!  I got japed by the weather again on Saturday, which really sucked because it was such a nice day, but low and behold I scheduled the plane for early Sunday morning and I was rewarded with a magnificent day.  I was a bit late taking off Sunday morning as the person that had the plane before me left in a little low on oil and fuel.  It is not there fault on the oil as it is not common to check the oil after a flight, but we all refuel the planes after landing and the tanks were close but not full enough for me, so after going back to the club house for more oil and pulling the plane to the fuel pit to top it off, I was under way.  The day was very clear, cold (49 degrees) which makes for very good engine and aerodynamic quality's.  The engine likes cold air as it can gulp down more fuel and thus more power, and the wings love cold air, as it makes allot (emphasis on ALOT) of lift.  I had planned about 12 minutes to climb 3000 feet, about 400 feet per minute.  That is about normal during the hot summer days that I am used to flying around in, but this morning was very different.  Now, personally, I have never seen a bat out of hell, but I can imagine that my rate of climb would have left said bat behind.  If  someone would have told me they saw afterburner flames shooting out of the back of my Cessna  172, I would not have been surprised.  I was at my cruising altitude in just over 4 minutes, and after getting my headings strait, I started to trim the plane out for the next 45 minutes of flying.  I arrived just north of Ocala, and announced my position at about 10 miles out.  I droned on for a few minutes, then at about 3 miles I once again called in my position and intentions to enter the pattern and land at Ocala.  Shortly after my call, a Custom Air Transport called a 14 mile strait in approach to the very same runway that I was gonna land on.  Now a little quick math here, I have approximately 5 miles to travel before I touch down and I am flying at about 90 knots, the CAT is 14 miles out and trucking along at about 160 knots. This has chicken written all over it, and guess who looses out,  that's right I called a missed approach on final, and did another lap! After landing I caught up with Luke and Celeste, who had come over after church to say hey.  After a quick hello, goodbye, I was buckled up and back in the air heading for Crystal River.  The hop to CR was just that, I was no sooner in the air, when I was pointing the plane down to head for pattern altitude again.  I landed at Crystal River airport and taxied back to the end of the runway to take off for Gainesville, home of the University of Florida. I made it there with little fan fare, landed, taxied back to the end of the runway, and I was off again like a herd of turtles toward Jacksonville, by way of Waldo.  As I hung a left around over top of Waldo, and tossing a small candy wrapper out a vent opening, then I was north bound toward Jax.  I scooted in with a fine landing back at NAS, and preceded to put the plane to bed.  I still have one short cross country to do, I will probably fly down to Flagler this weekend, it is Biketoberfest this weekend so I might flyover Daytona and take some pictures on the speedway with the scoots running around then head home. This as well as some polishing up of some other flight procedures, all to prepare me for my check ride,which I hope I can take sometime before Thanksgiving.  We will see. Check out the picky's page for some new picky's from up on high!

October 12, 2006  Just got back from my second solo in as many days.  I asked (or is it axed) my boss if I could bolt a half hour early two days in a row, that I might get to the base early enough to get in a hours worth of flight time before the sun set on me, and he was fine with that. (He and my other co-workers that took up my slack for me, thanks guys!)  I got out Wednesday, and practiced some ground maneuvers, as well as 5 touch and goes at Herlong.  This was my first solo touch and goes, and wouldn't you know it, I fouled up and left the carb heat on on my first one!  Not a huge mistake (not like flying up the East River, turning too sharply and getting into an accelerated stall and crashing into a building mistake), but still a mistake. I remedied the problem on my downwind leg of the pattern and the rest of the flight went without any more aviation "faxpaux" I did have some approaches that cloud have been not quite so shallow (they were a bit below the PAPI Glide path) but I like to aim for the numbers not the 1000 foot mark.  The good part is they were all as smooth as a prom queens thigh (and that is pretty darn smooth, so I hear).  My radio work is coming along great, in fact, I sound like an old pro most of the time, and I have no trouble getting in or out of NAS Jax, that is no problems with the tower or the military traffic that I must meld with often.  Tonight's flight was kinda special.  I met Robert, my instructor, to do what the club calls a release, to make sure the plane and weather is fine for me to go, and to supervise my departure paperwork.  After that I was off to the plane alone. No other cars were in the club parking all the planes were on the ramp,  I went to a silent ramp, no P-3's roaring down the runway 100 yards away, no S-3's apologizing "ooops, ooops"  on approach, no one but little ole me and my little bug crusher.  The entire airport was mine. The feeling was almost surreal. I bounced 5 more touch and goes over at Herlong, the first as good as the last. Then it was back to NAS, a race with the sun to make it down before sunset (really 15 minutes before sunset) I guess I am sort of a solo student Vampire in reverse. Like Elton John sings "Don't let the sun go down on me" I, by FAA rules, have to be in before the porch lights come on.  Now NAS's runway is huge, very wide, very long, and no arch in it like Herlong, so today's landing back to NAS, well.... I ran a little shy of air speed before a ran out of altitude. I was only overdrawn on my account by about 2.5  maybe 3 feet, needless to say after pulling the yoke back behind my head to try to bring my physics accounts current before meeting the runway, I fell back to terra-very-firma, rather unceremoniously.   After the tower controller caught his breath and could stifle his laughter I was instructed to exit the runway via taxiway Charlie if possible, and if not then I could just bounce off on taxiway Delta.  Oh well, like my Pop's would say, "Any one you walk away from is a good one!" I will try the cross counrty again this Saturday morning, here to wishing for good weather!

October 8, 2006  Well I got hornswaggled again today.  The winds were up a bit 360 at 12 to 13 kts and that is not within the clubs parameters for solo student flight, the FAA has no problem with it but JNFC does.  I have every confidence that I could have handled the crosswinds just fine, but the rules are in place to accommodate the lowest common denominator so no doubt, at some time in the past, a student cartwheeled a plane in a 7 knot crosswind so now we all are subject to the 6 knot rule.  Oh well it will not be long when I will be taking off in a 15 kt crosswind if I please.  The worst part about it is the weather is bright , and I mean bright blue, severe blue skies, with unlimited viability, and the winds that are up would have made the 200 mile round trip very interesting.  Oh well I will keep the flight plan for next Saturday, with the corrections for whatever winds might be up by then.  I am scheduled to go Wed and Thursday afternoon to go bounce Herlong just so I will not get rusty.  I am just about out the door.  The Jags are playing the Jets here this afternoon at 4:05.  Something interesting I noticed while looking through the NOTAMS (Notice To Airmen) the game this afternoon is going to have a flyover by Four F-18's out of Virginia. I can't wait to tell the folks I sit around about it, they are usually a surprise we don't know they are going to happen until 30 seconds before they fly over at the end of the National Anthem. It is always fun to have the inside poop on the sitch.  (Oh and for those of you with Goggle Earth that might wonder why I didn't just take off of runway 14-32, that runway is loaded with about 60 helos waiting to be shipped to # # # # # #. )

October 3, 2006 Hi guys, sorry for the short post but I am in the middle of a flight plan to Crystal River by way of Cross City, then returning via Ocala, hopefully this Saturday.  I heard a song while running yesterday that stirred something inside.  I don't want to taint what the song might say to you with any of my comments here, but if you would like to listen here is a link....and remember, just  Breathe

October 2, 2006 I know, I know everyone was wondering if I fell in (old saying when someone was scarce, folks wondered if they had fallen in to the outhouse hole) No I am still here and not poop covered!  I have been flying like a mad man.  I did a night time cross country flight to Ocala, as well as a daytime flight Solo cross country to Waycross Georgia this last Saturday Morning! I went to do a stage 2 check this evening and the right mag would not clear, so no flying tonight.  The club mechanic will give it a look see tomorrow morning so it should be up before my next flight Thursday night. I will probably have a cross country each weekend until the end of the month as well as two or three days during the week, to get ready for my check ride, all of which will be solo flights.  Well it is late, so I will post all the exciting details of both cross country adventures tomorrow, till then, keep the dirty side down!

September 23,2006  It has been an interesting week to say the least. After the stiller stompin last Monday,  I have spent 5.3 hours in the air, and half of them in the dark!  The flying instruction has taken on an almost frantic pace, and that has been good.  Each time I have had good learning experiences and have grown very able in my plane handling ability's, as well as my radio work, and my over all piloting skills.  I think I will always be learning and improving with each flight hour, but much of what I was working on just this last month has become very automatic of late, and that makes the overall experience that much more enjoyable.  I seem to spend less time studying the instruments to see what is going on, now it is more like glancing at the various gauges to verify what I already feel the plane doing, you know it's getting to be a little more like the motorcycle.  This last week we spent most of the time bouncing night TAGs over at Herlong.  Something interesting about Herlong is the main runway has large crest in the middle, sort of like a large tedder-todder except broken in the middle.  It is so bad that if you are at one end of the runway, and an airplane is at the other end, it would not be vi sable.  This is not that big a concern during the day but at night, when you need as much your surrounding landmarks to be visible, they disappear! Right when you sink to the last 5 feet of altitude before you touch down, half the runway blinks out of sight.  Compound this with your flight instructor reaching over and failing your landing light on final, and well I will get those skives removed some time this next week!  They weren't all bad, but I did bounce one back into the air about three or four feet, I was a little late on the flare.  The mains hit first which was good and I did not exacerbate the problem by sticking the yoke forward and slamming the prop in to the runway, but it was still a motorcross hard landing, my hardest to date.  You just can't save any of that flare for later, you gotta use it all when you are supposed to use it all, much like parachute jumping.  When they say "flare flare flare!", well, you just better not save any just so that you will have it latter on! Right Celeste!  Anyway, downtown Jax has been ablaze all this week with teal light on many downtown buildings, that combined with the cool front that blew through Tuesday, has made for some very pleasant flight conditions.  I also completed my first dual cross country this morning.  We went to Flagler county airport just north of Daytona.  After landing, we went into the local dinner there at the airport and snagged a tee-shirt to commemorate the occasion, and it was back in the bird and of to the hills of Palatka.  After threading the needle through some military restricted airspace, it was over to Gainesville, then north back to Jacksonville.  Total time in route was 2 hours and 18 minutes.  The weather was great! This was my first time, while I was at the controls of the plane, that I have flown above the clouds.  We flew at 4500 feet for about 45 minutes, the air was smooth, cool(about 70 degrees), with puffy scattered clouds to peek around.  Yes, today was a good day to be in an airplane.  My next flight is Monday night, a cross country flight to Ocala. We will be departing about 2000 hours and should make it back home around three hours later about 2300 hours.  I have not sat down to plot the flight plan out yet, but when I do, I will know down to the minute exactly how far and how long it will take. 

September 19, 2006  I guess the answer to the previous question of are we ready for some football was answered last night! Jags won in a 9 to 0 shut out of the NFL Champion Pittsburgh Stillers (yes, I spelled it wrong on purpose).  Jeremy and I attended the game and from the opening announcements of the opposing teams player I thought the numbers of Pittsburgh fans might not bode well with our evenings endeavors.  They had what I would estimate to be about 15,000 (maybe 20,000) fans on hand, and that many folks can make a big noise if they are inspired a bit.  The Jags brought an entire can of whoopazz as well as two or three of the small suppository type containers to the game last night.  The Teal stepped up to the task last night, and we witnessed what I think could have been one of my top three Jaguar games, it was that good.  Now a quick what's up with the flying, I went last Thursday and Saturday, and we got in some VOR Navigation as well as some instrument fight, some slow stalls, regular stalls, instrument stalls, and recovery from irregular flight attitudes.  Now every thing makes pretty good sense accept the last part so I will explain. Recovery from irregular flight attitudes means I sit with my foggles (fogged glasses that only allow me to see the instrument panel) my head down,chin to my chest, while Robert fly's inverted! Not really but he does mix things up a bit and after about ten or fifteen seconds he gives me the plane back in a much worse flight attitude than the manner in which he received it! It was challenging but I was able to pay attention to my eye not my butt and we were back in strait and level flight in seconds.  I am to fly Wednesday (how the hell does that spell Wednesday it should be Windsday or Winsday wed nes day....I digress)  ahh..where was I don't tell me afternoon to go over Saturdays flight review and Thursday we might go out for my first official night flight.  The club has their monthly safety meeting on the third Thursdays of the month so if time allows after the meeting then it is off into the wild black yonder. That would be flight 16 of 26. I currently have 28.3 hours logged and the FAA flight minimum is 40 hours.  Well I am off to finish washing clothes, the washer broke this weekend and as is the rule these days, appliances are disposable when they brake, oh I could have fixed it but why spend a c-note to fix a ten year old machine when a new one is 250 bucks.  It is a bigger machine with a whites only and then a regular cycle, none of that sissy delicate cycle stuff (arrggharghhh) going on here, although I do still have to by cat litter, oh well!  

September 10, 2006  ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!! (Sung in my best Hank Williams voice) That's right it is the begriming of the football season, the real football season not that stuff they play at on Saturdays.  1,696 of the best football players in the world take to the pitch this week as we start the contest to determine who is the best.  The Jags open their season at home against Americas team, the Dallas Cowboys. This is the first time the boys have made the trip to Jax to play the Jags, and the game will be one of only three on tv at the late game slot, and playing the Cowboys will give a the lions share of the national TV viewer ship so I will need to shower, shave and put on clean undies a day early.  We will be in the national limelight next week also when we will host the World Champion Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football.  Jeremy and I are heading to the game together today, we will probibly hit the Bud Zone in the south end zone of Alltel stadium to do our tailgating, as it is much eaiser to do that than to pack up the truck with all the goodies. I guess there is only one thing left to say and that is  GO JAGS!!

• September 9,2006:   I had a very interesting flight yesterday.  When I arrived at the club, Robert was outside conversing with Randy Miner, the club president, about some paper work that needed to be gone through. I walked up to the two of them and as they were finishing,  I asked Randy what was the gouge was for allowing students to fly solo from NAS.  He said that the base ops and the club agreed that all first solos needed to be done off base, Herlong being the preferred airport because of it's close proximity to NAS, but after that there were no had and fast rules, it was up to the student and the instructor, as to how comfortable they both were with the student striking out on his or her own for the first time from the naval base.  This having been clarified,  I entered the club house to start my preflight paperwork.  Robert had already filled out a dual flight plain for us, to save time so we could get in the air quickly, as sundown was at 1941.  I was shocked and pleased when he tore the white sheet in two, and told me to grab a pink one instead! White flight plans are for multiple person flights, yellow are cross country's, and pinks, well those are for solo flights.  That's right baby,  I filled out my pink flight plan sheet and with some last minute what if's from Robert (what if you have a comm failure, what if you have an electrical failure, what if a mother and daughter are both eyeing you from the other end of the bar, I think the last one was a detractor question just to make sure I was paying attention) having passed with flying colors, I was out the door (all by myself!) on my way to my first complete solo.  This time the nerves set in a little, a little mistake here and there would be no friendly hand to reach over and correct it for me, a garbled radio transmission was going to be all mine to figure out.  But as I approached the plane, a calm familiarity came as I broke into a my preflight routine.  I have done this so many times that the first actions came without thinking.  Brad has talked about his first time performing in front of an audience, and as the first words of his lead vocal song was coming up, panic setting in, "oh man I don't remember the words, what was the first word to the song!!...." all the while his body is still going through the motions automatically playing his guitar until the moment of truth....   "There I was completely wasting, out of work and down,"  and as if by magic, out they came!  I thought of this as I read the check list's aloud to myself, and proceeded step by step to ready myself, and the plane for departure.  Of course it is not the actual flying part that is scary, it's the constant what if's you have to remind yourself every second that is so taxing.  What if the motor quits right now, what if I get a bird strike, what was that sputter?  My dad used to call them night noises, and I imagine on my first night flight (which will be in about a week or so) I will come to understand the full meaning of the term! Any way I took off with out incident and flew to Herlong.  After two full stop landings, I departed Herlong to head back to NAS before it got too dark, as I am  NOT approved to fly after sunset, a point that Robert made that very clear to me. With this in the forefront of my thinking, I gave myself a 30 min cushion, just in case I got held up in traffic on my arrival back to the base.  When I did get back, I watched as the tower positioned a P-3 directly in front of me for take off. I was about 2 miles out, when I reported  that I was on a 2 mile base inbound to land.  I was cleared to land along with an advisory caution about the P-3's wake turbulence. I acknowledged the clearance and called an audible in that I extended my base run, to create a longer final, to allow the turbulence to subside before I got in.  This was some of the best part of the flight, the stuff that is not cookie cutter planned out, the stuff you have to think about to stay safe, and I was loving it! As I approached the numbers on the runway and was about to cut power, I looked up and thought,"Man, if I land here, that is going to be an awful long way to taxi" so I held the power on a little longer to fly down the runway rather than touch down too soon.  I set down with a sweet little chirp of the mains and held the elevator full back to do a little aero braking, slowing all along as my taxiway came into view.  After clearing the runway, I heard the crackle of the radio one last time as the tower cleared me to the ramp via taxiway Charlie and wished me a good evening.  I opened the door to allow the cool evening air in, and smiled at the idea of just how good an evening it really was!
• September 4, 2006  I am back from the great white north, and here is some late breaking news, it green! Now don't get me wrong it was still an bit cold ( at least by Florida boy standards) at times but it was also a very pretty state,  I was greeted at the Bangor airport by two very pretty little girls with a "Welcome to Maine" handmade sign, and after grabbing some chow, we went strait away to a local Folk Music Festival that was just finishing up that Sunday.  The air was filled with the sounds and smells of what is very much like a state fair, it was just the portal I needed to change gears and allow my mind to slow down to vacation mode.  Monday morning came and we were off to the coast.  Acadia national park has some of the most picturesque vistas and beautiful breathtaking mountain views of some of Maine's very unique rocky shore,  and we got to see very little of it.  Mother nature was showing her self by covering all she had to offer with a veil of cloud cover and mist.  We still got to take in the "Sand Beach" and the Thunder Hole along the coast.  We ate lunch inland and took a ride up to the top of Cadillac Mountain.  Our last stop was a pass through the very bustling town of Bar Harbor.  It reminded me a bit of St. Augustine, but with more elevation changes!  Tuesday found is making our way north to the Kennebec river to do some river kayaking.  From Memorial day weekend through Labor Day,  the  water control folks release millions of gallons of water each day at around 10:00 am from a dam up river.  The water arrives at about 2:00 pm where we were, so the water was high and moving at about 4 or 5 knots.  I was a bit apprehensive as my kayaking skills fall somewhere between my crocheting ability's and my talents for full contact chess (the latter is not that bad actually, screech, pop! Oh there is that pawn I have been looking for!) but after some moments fluttering about, and the realization that if I did fall out other than being wet (and cold) I would be none the worse for wear.  It was a blast! Right when you think you are ambling along paddling yourself on top of the water at 2 or 3 knots, you catch a glimpse at the rocks disappearing past you at something approaching 8 to 10 knots, that water is really moving at some points in the river!  I paddled through some rough areas, no real white water to speak of, but a few places where the bottom hit some rocks, which did amp up the excitement factor a few notches from time to time. The last adventure was a hike up Mount Baxter in the Katahdin Mountain Range. We left Clinton and traveled approximately 2 hours north to Maine's Baxter State Park.  We camped over night in a wooden lean to next to a roaring brook in, well, Roaring Brook Campground.  Where do they come up with these names?  We rose early the next morning to embark on our hike (Randy and me) up to the top of Mount Baxter.  Our trek to the summit would cover about 5.5 miles each way, and one of those miles is vertical, well almost. The camp site was at about 800 feet elevation according to my GPS readings, so we did have about an 1/8 mile head start. The hike is through some really neat coniferous forest and as we approached the tree line something pretty cool happened; the trees started getting smaller.  Just before we left them altogether they were all Christmas tree size and they looked beautiful, so very dark green and full.  Hey for someone who only gets to see spruce trees once a year, this was special to me.  As we entered the last stages of our hike the trail turns to a section were the hiking becomes part climbing as well.  It was not too bad unless you looked back and noticed about 2000 feet of empty valley behind you. It was thrilling!  Unfortunately the clouds were forming on and off the whole day so the last mile was very cold, a little wet, and very windy.  The temperature hovered around the 40 to 45 degree mark with winds to about 25 mph, that put the wind chill.  We met some guys at the top that had just completed their thru hike of the Appalachian Trail.  They started March 18th and finished just one half hour before we arrived. The AT is a 2100 mile hike that runs from Springer Mountain Ga, up to Katahadin.   The rest of the trail back to camp was to follow part of the way along a path called the knifes edge, this portion of the hike has the path down to 3 to 4 feet wide with 2000 ft sheer drops on either side.  The conditions were, winds to approx 20 to 25 mph cloudy at times, clear a few moments later.  I was concerned the wet rocks with shifting winds was more of a chance than I was willing to take and seeing as how the Mountain was probably going to be around a few thousand or more years, I opted to do the edge at a later date.  In flying they call that a go, no go decision, this one was a definite no go for me.  After eating lunch and taking some pickys from the top when the clouds would clear, we started our decent.  We arrived back at camp about 12 hours after we started.  To give you some idea of how much climbing that is, picture a set of stairs at your local airport or mall, now imagine walking up those steps and back down for about 8 hours.  I have been crawling around the house here for two days! (just kiddn.....Eddie Izzard head shake) I had a great time and will miss my two thumb wrestling buddy's greatly! If you ever get a chance to visit vacationland, save up! It is worth the trip north! check out the pickys on the Maine Page

• August  26 2006 I am off to the great white north tomorrow, beauty eh.  I won't be posting all next week, so you hosers will like have to make do with out me till I return,eh. Take off, I will be back with plenty of fresh stories, (and beer), and maybe some back bacon,(and beer), maybe even a new tuque for this winter to keep my head warm (and more beer) so keep your wits about you I shall return post haste. Oh and yes I will be leaving my John Birch Society membership card here at home, I hear they would confiscate it anyway in the conservative customs I have to go through before they let me leave the airport in Bangor, I'm kidding...(Eddie Izzard head shake...) Here is something to ponder while I am away, why aren't there more parking spaces at take out doughnut shops?  A final post script before I leave for Maine. I had my stage I check flight today and passed with flying colors (no pun intended)!  This is a the end of the first stage of III. It was conducted by the head flight instructor for the club, just a once over to assure the FAA that I have a have the knowledge and capability's that I show having on paper. When I return I will start on the second stage, Short field T/O&L's (Take offs and Landings) as well as soft field T/O&L's, night flights and cross country flights.  Should start getting a lot more fun here the next few months!
• August 21, 2006 Ya'll might be wondering why the date is in red, I guess you could say yesterday was a red letter day for me, I finally did it, I flew my first solo! Everything was all set to go this last Saturday morning but as the plane was being was preflighted, the clouds began to roll in and the field went to IFR  (instrument flight rules) so I rescheduled to Sunday morning after church from 10:00 to 12:00. The weather was great but the winds were a bit outside the Flying clubs requirements of no wind gust during a first solo flight.  The winds Sunday were 6 knots with gust to 16, so I did 5 crosswind landings in the same wind I could not solo in, and nailed them.  We scheduled again for Monday afternoon, hoping that we would not have any of afternoon thunderstorms that Florida is so famous for.  Well Ma nature threw me a bone with 8 to 10 knot winds about 30 to 60 degrees off the runway heading (cross wind from the right) and no gust.  I came in and did two touch and goes with Robert in the plane, then we did a simulated engine out to a landing, and one more touch and go, except there was no go after the touch.  Robert said " Um, take me over to the FBO and let me out, if you are ready?" I said I was and we taxied over to let him out.  As I approached the airport FBO, who did I see sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch, none other than Mr. Brady Brad Brad himself, with his video camera in hand. I waved a hello and pulled back out to the runway. As I sat on the numbers at the end of the runway, throttle to full power, I thought of prayer Alan Shepard said just before blasting off to space in his Mercury space capsule May 5, 1961(the day after I was born).  I said it aloud to myself  "Dear Lord, please don't let me screw up!", and with that it was heels to the deck and away we went! I climbed out to 1000 feet and stayed in the flight pattern around Herlong airport. After two successful takeoffs and landings I noticed it was dark enough for the runway lights to come on.  Some clouds that were moving away from us to the west, had taken a considerable amount of the available sunlight away. I also noted as I listened to the weather AWOS, that the winds had started to gust to 14 knots on my last landing.  Armed with the knowledge that I was now back outside of the flight parameters set forth by the club for a first solo I decided to forego my last soloT/O&L to go get Robert.  As I taxied in Robert walked around the still running plane to enter the right door and Brad walked around to the my side to congratulate me. As we shook hands I could see he had a huge smile on his face, a smile that was almost as big as mine! 
• A little note here about my instructor.  Robert is retired Navy Helicopter pilot and helo instructor.  He has just within the last year got his FAA CFI (certified flight instructor)rating.  I noticed this afternoon that Robert was taking photos of the event along with Brad, which I supposed was something he did with all his students, just to keep a photo record of their first solos.  After we returned to the base and were in the club house finishing up all the paperwork that needs to be done post flight, I asked him "So how many guys have you soloed?"  He looked up at me, smiled a huge grin and said, "Just one, your the first!".  What a special day this was for everyone!
• August 13, 2006 I am all set for my first solo.  I have completed all my FAA and JNFC (Jax Navy Flying Club) requirements, my log book is endorsed and when I arrive home next week I am on the schedule to go fly Saturday morning.  If the weather cooperates, and I am not a complete spaz, Robert and I will take off from NAS Jax fly over to Herlong were I will do a few touch and goes with Robert, then if they are up to snuff I will do three on my own.  This will be a sort of brand new starting time as I stopped last year just short of my solo, so when this is done we will start knocking out lessons from the FAA lesson syllabus.  This will be lesson 9 of 24 so if I progress well, I should be on track to finish before the end of the year.  So far the learning has been the roughing in type of flying, after next week things will get more precise, not just doing the right thing at the right time but doing it with a bit more of "the right stuff".  I am departing to Sin City tomorrow afternoon for a tool convention till Wednesday, so there will be no new post till next Fridayish.
• August 8,2006 In the words of Scott Russell "It was a great flight" spoken with a severe southern drawl.  This afternoons flight was AWSOME. From the first turn of the prop to the chock back under the wheels, it was great. Radio work was very good, still a little lazy with my right rudder peddles on climb to altitude, (but my leg is still really sore), but the landings oh my they were schweet!  I felt like, well like I was riding a motorcycle, it was that natural.  We did 6 touch and goes, 2 were with full flaps, very slow approaches (it is a little harder that way you have to watch the airspeed really close) and one return to base with a wicked bad 15 knot, 45 degree crosswind, that I nailed.  We did some steep turns that I was also very good at and some slow flight maneuvers that while I was flying, Robert was trying to get me distracted looking up Craig airport tower freeks during the slow flight.  This is to show me how not to get distracted and stall the plane while slow, and I did the task and maintained altitude and airspeed.  I was DA MAN! One of the procedures we practiced was an emergency engine out.  We will be flying along and Robert will pull back to idle on the motor and I have to react accordingly.  This is something I had gone over some last year and to help me prep for it, I made a cheat sheet up, put it in the car, and asked Julie to, on some random occasions, call "Engine Out" while we were driving.  I was to run the emergency procedures right then, right in mid turn,or while accelerating up the Highway on ramp, where ever we were.  When Robert pulled the power, I went right back to the front seat with Julie, and it was perfect.  You done good baby, I was prepared.  Upon return to NAS Jax I made the call to enter the Class D airspace and when we were cleared, the tower did not verify which runway I was cleared to. I called back and ask which runway we were cleared to land on, and he said "Oh, sorry, 64117 cleared to land runway 9er" I acknowledge the clearance, Robert said "That was a good catch"   I will be going again this Saturday afternoon. Will keep you all posted.
• August 6,2006  I'm back in the saddle again, yeppers I took to the air this morning and after dodging a rather large tortoise, I was quite successful in making 6 touch and go landings, the last three very sweet ones(in a slight crosswind, that makes them harder).  Yes the first landing was a missed approach.  As we neared the runway threshold, just over the numbers, I noticed up ahead a large pothole looking object about 1/4  down the runway.  Not having landed on 29 in over a month, I thought well they must have been doing some patchin....whoooh, that pothole just moved! I  no sooner was adding power to abort when Robert exclaimed "Hey there is is a turtle in the runway!"  He knew I had seen it, as I was already on the gas when he saw it.  I think that helps him feel better with my vision problems. I told him I can see great, and as long as I don't have to catch a turtle that's thrown to me, I am good to go!  We had to dodge some birds today too that I picked up before he did, so the whole vision question not an issue with him, of course I still have to convince the FAA, but I will cross that bridge later on.  I was in a little pain with the right leg and I was a bit lazy with my rudder movements but it is getting better each day so it should not be to much of a problem from here on out.  I am scheduled to fly again Tuesday and I might try Thursday too weather permitting.  If all goes well I might just loose my shirt tail Saturday morning! I am not at all nervous about it, I am ready.  During my preflight Robert noticed a missing screw from the planes engine cowling,  so when we returned, he wrote a gripe on the plane about the missing screw.  As he was finishing we said "Screws fall out, it is an imperfect world"  to which I said ah, The Breakfast Club.  He was stoked that I knew that, I said that adding key lines from various movies to real life moments, is a talent that I love toy with from time to time.  Now for something entirely different, I have just yesterday harvested and eaten my first homegrown pineapple! Yep the first one of the three growing in front of the house that Julie and I planted three years ago, had turned from green to a golden yellow, so it was time to twist it away from the plant.  I took the crown from it and will replant it out with the others in the Pineapple Plantation.  I didn't realize until recently, how the pineapple is considered a traditional welcoming plant or fruit, so it is very apropos that we would have a grove of them by the front door. The fruit was a little smaller than the ones from the store, it was about 6" tall and 4" in diameter, and it was very sweet, but of course it would be, Julie planted it.

Last but not least Congratulations to Katie on her stellar swim meet performances.  She placed third in the 50 meter Fly(26.29), First in the 50meter Breast(54.16) and First in the 50 meter Freestyle(39.32). Way to Go Katie!

• July 31,2006 Ok I am on the phone to Brad Sunday and somewhere during the conversation I ask if he owns a pair of water skis, which he says he does. I ask him why he owns a pair of water skis, which he got the message and before long we were aqua bound and in search of 5 feet of water.  Although Jacksonville is often referred to as the river city it is not called the deep river city, you could walk across most of our water ways, and this was making things difficult for Brad to get up.  After about three try's we moved to what we hoped was a little deeper water but it was no use the prop was still digging in and robbing us of much of the power needed to get him on plane. Well after no joy in Julington creek, we decided to head out to the open waters of the St.John's where I was to try my hand at it.  First try I was almost out of the water when my right leg zigged (as apposed to zagging) and I felt my hamstring in the back of my leg pop.  Well skiing time was done boys and girls, as I limped back in the boat and sat there wondering how in the hell I was going to tie my shoes for the next three or four days, I made myself a promise, this was not over.  Was it over when the germans bombed Pearl Harbor, hell no! (Germans?, forget it I'm on a roll) I will hydroplane upon the wooden planks, and there will be much marry made, and the crowds will cheer anon (yea) and then(and only then) will I return the foot-surface-area-enlargement devices to their stowage place and look upon them no more with bane and disgust!

Oh and keep your feet together till you get up!

• July 29,2006 Got in another flight this morning and it was great!  We departed NAS Jax at about 0800 went over to Herlong Field about 7 miles a way to do touch and goes.  I got in 10 landings and the last few were pretty darn good.  when we started there was almost no wind and as the morning progressed we started to pick up a little bit of a left crosswind. By the time we headed back to the base the winds had picked up to around 12 knots from the south.  This was to make things interesting for me as the north south runways at Jax are closed for the next two months, so it was cross wind city baby! We were vectored in to runway 27 (west heading).  The maximum crosswind allowed in this plane is 15 kts, so I had the right rudder peddle almost to the floor the whole way in on final.  I was really tickled when I did my approach nice and strait it no crab, wings level, and Robert looked at the wind sock as we passed over the end of the numbers and said " Damn there is a pretty stiff wind blowing out there! You did one hell of an approach to hide that from me"  I did blow it a little at the end when I drifted a bit to the right before touch down, but hey that's what the lessons are for.  My radio calls still need some work, but all in all things are progressing well.  Robert said looks like I might be kicking him out of the plane sometime during these next few flights.  Now for something completely different, I was in Target buying my weekly supplies of assorted consumables, one of which was kitty litter.  Now of late I have been trying to eat right and have cut out a lot of sweets very little bread no high carb foods.  My cart was laden with veggies, fruit, chicken, no ice cream or chips, you know just the stuff that's good for ya, so I am hoisting the cat litter bucket into the basket when I see a guy on the cat isle looking over at me.  Well he smiles and I not wanting to be a total $%#!head, I smile and nod back.  It was that very instant I realized, oh no, I'm a cat guy, and what was worse, I just nodded and was pleasant to a for real cat guy!  I hightailed it out of there before any conversation could breakout.  That's it, from now on I will have to get Brad & Karen to pick up my kitty litter for me when they pick up their pet supplies!
• July 23,2006 My new flight instructor is great! He is ex-military, helicopter rated, easy going and very easy to fly with.  Wednesday's flight went supa (Maine accent there).  I was very much at ease in my handling of the plane with him and I feel my first solo is close at hand.  That said I will be flying again tomorrow evening (Monday @1800 hrs), will report my progress soon after.  I had an interesting and fun evening this last Friday night.  Brad, Paul (a friend of ours from Ocala) and his step son, went to a Suns Baseball game.  This was nothing of any great repute except we traveled by way of Brads boat. The trip down was uneventfully, mildly choppy but in true guy fashion we sucked it up and persevered, crashing through the rough waters, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!  Naturally the game had to go in to extra innings and with the help of some of our extreme Rally hat / shoes / watch / sunglass / ect.... wearing, the Suns came away with the victory!  We returned to the boat and made our way through downtown Jax, breaking for all visible Manatees. We were just about to get under way, back on plane for the final last 8 mile dark dash back to the ramp, when suddenly,    BARRRRGGHTHPPPT, the motor quits!  Now the current just below the Fuller Warren bridge runs at about four to five knots depending on whether tide is coming or going, suffice it to say the night was just starting to get interesting. Brad fired the boat back up and luckily it did run but would not get up on plane.  Knowing it would be better to be stranded in downtown Jax than out in the middle of the river, (at midnight) we turned around and headed back toward the bright lights of downtown.  Brad did reverse the engine to possibly dislodge or unwind anything that might be fouling the prop, but to no avail.  After we cleared the bridge by a few hundred feet, we stopped again to raise the lower unit to visually inspect the prop, sure enough it was fouled with a rather large chunk of very thick plastic.  We all held Brads feet as he dangled over the edge of the back of the boat to cut us free with my handy dandy key chain kniffe (I know it is spelled knife but if the K is silent then so is the second F!) the whole time he was sweating bringing up the plastic with a body part in it! But alas no floaters, the prop was cleared and we were back on our merry way, again at top speed, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahea......well ok not quite full speed, but it was dark and ...shuut up man, it was fast enough!
• July 15, 2006 I received an E-mail from Michael Earl, Mary (Earl) Koykar's brother, and he is participating in a wonderful endeavor to benefit the Cancer Society. The Cancer Society was very helpful and source of support for Julie and I during her fight with Cancer.  I feel it is as important to try to educate non cancer victims as to the warning signs for cancer.  I know hindsight is 20/20 but had we caught Julie's illness in some earlier stage, the out come might have much different.  I feel very compelled to be supportive of any organization that might help to alter the course of someone else's life, thus possibly preventing them from going thru what Julie had endure.  The link to his site is Relay For Life

I was not able to fly this morning as my new instructor was called out with a bit of a family problem. His daughter had to be admitted to the hospital for an illness. We will reschedule to fly tomorrow or later on in the week sometime.  I was also informed that I will be winging my way out to Las Vegas August 13 through the 16 for a tool buyers convention.  I am looking forward to checking out some of the new suppliers, see if I can find out where Harbor Freight get's all of there neat stuff!

• July 13,2006 I just met with my new instructor and he seems to be super guy! He is has a helicopter rating which is going to be interesting, plane people and helicopter people seem to go together like oil and vinegar! I have seen bumper stickers that state "your wings should never fly faster than your fuselage", you know that kind of picking, I think it will be interesting as he might bring a little different dynamic in his teaching style having the chopper techniques under his belt.  I will find out this Saturday morning.  Oh and I have finally committed to visit the great white north(coo uhh coo coo uhh uhh coo coo!) that's right I am traveling head long into that great bastion of severe liberalism, Maine!  Going to spend a week hiking, kayaking, mountain climbing, and just soaking in all that the moose infested state has to offer!  When informed of my eminent arrival to his fair land, Randy called to tell me that he had not been this tickled since the pigs ate his little brother! It was truly a red letter day in Clinton.  I am really looking forward to going even though I must now spend the remaining 6 weeks getting my legs in shape to climb Mt Baxter........Why you might ask?

Because it's there, silly!

Oh and a little post script to Iran while your feeling so good, you might wanna take a look to southeast and just over the border to the west.  This time it's not gonna be a few Sea Stallions and a C130 out in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night.  We have been practicing a bit since 79 and I would say we are pretty good at, well you, know kickin arse and taking names, so in the immortal words of Dirty Harry, "Go ahead, make our day!"

• July 9, 2006 I was moving some gear bags around last Sunday to get my snorkeling gear together and I came across a bag that Julie would often use to transport her swimsuits and towel's back and forth to work.  There were some items still inside it, so I removed them and put them in there proper place and left the bag on the floor.  Last week as I was at my desk doing some computer work I heard some rustling behind me, I turned to look and Sophie was right up in the middle of the bag and rolling round it as if it had cat nip all over it!  I dismissed it as her just being the goofy cat she can sometimes be, but later the next morning she woke me at like 4 in the morning doing her "Come quick Jimmy has fell in the well" holler and frantic pacing in front of me, leading me down the hall into the computer room...all that way just to see her dive into, and roll around in, the gear bag. She most often lays in here with me when I am at the desk either in her cat house or on the rug behind me, not anymore. Here is picture of Sophie's' new favorite place.
• Maybe we are not the only ones that miss Julie.
• July 8, 2006 Went flying again this morning, all and all it was ok.  I am doing my own radio calls now as well as all the take offs and landings, and although Matt is still in the plane with me, he is weaning me off the instructor tit, as it were.  I was doing ok this morning until my third touch and go at Herlong, when I went to fly the plane back into the air, it jumped up and was airborne at around 48 mph, instead of the usual 60 mph. This is not good, as it is indicative of the flaps being fully deployed (which they were much to my chagrin), and although we were climbing like crazy we were also about to run out of airspeed. Insufficient wind over the wings tends to prove out a few of Bernoulli principles, which in turn can then prove out some of Newton's laws, and those tend to bend airplanes and kill folks!  I quickly realized the problem and pushed the yoke forward to stay in ground effect flight, and cleaned the plane up to continue with our departure, but the damage was done.  I am ever confident I have the "right stuff" to do this, it just seems like some days I leave my "stuff" in an old shoe box under the foot of the bed! It looks as though I will be losing my second instructor, as Matt has landed (pun intended) a job with Fed-Ex in Utah.  So now I get someone new to scare the bejesus out of! Hey like my dad always said "Any landings you walk away from are good ones" .  As we returned to my home airport (Navy Jax) I made the call to announce my position and state my intentions to enter their airspace to do some touch and goes there too.  After slaughtering the radio calls here I decided to try go on a little field trip to the tower. I drove to the other side of the base and after poking my head into a few doors, I found someone willing to break away from their solitaire game long enough to escort me to the tower.  When I arrived up top, I was introduced to the two folks on duty that I had just talked to while I was flying, and they smiled and laughed at my chutzpa in seeking them out!  I told them I was a student with the flying club, and my radio calls need some help.  They were more than pleased to give me the 50 cent tour and also the lowdown on what they expect of me on the radio. The information was priceless!  I got the skinny on busy times, how to get quick delivery from ground to the tower, even how to beat wake turbulence holds, none of which is any AIM manual.  They were very tickled to see someone come up and talk to them face to face, and I think I will be a bit more at ease on the mike, even if is not Paul in the tower, or Evette on ground, they will both be in my minds eye the next time I call in, and that might make a huge difference with my radio communications.
• July 5,2005 It is amazing how quickly 96 hours can fly by on a long holiday weekend.  I spent Saturday doing house chores, laundry and lawn and getting ready for trip to Homosassa and Ocala.  Monday was our Scalloping day.  Brad, Karen, Kendall, Luke, Celeste, and moi, headed out to the Gulf in search of Bay Scallops.  The picken was a bit thin, we collected about 70 or so in about 2 hours of snorkeling.  Kendall kept floating away from the rest of us so it was stop gathering scallops, go get Kendall, back to gathering, and so on like that for the rest of the day.  Just messing with you guys, I can imagine all the jaws hanging open right about now, no Karen stayed in the boat with Kendall whilst we plundered our aquamarine environ.  Brad even found a ten spot while floundering about!  After the Gulf trip we headed East to Ocala for Brads annual 4th of July soiree at the Reckamp pool.  Ribs, hot dogs, burgers, cokes, beers, watermelons, and copious quantities of assorted chips were had by all! We set the volleyball net and played two or three match's. We even played a game of death ball, although it is getting harder and harder to compete, what with everyone's walker getting in the way!  This years game was called on account of Brads team was winning!  Instead of the normal 11 points to win, this year we only played to 7, and that was announced .02 seconds after Brad scored said "winning" goal.  This years game will definitely have a huge asterisk by it! The evening came with fireworks soon to follow. This years had to be one of the best displays, if not the best, in years.  Lastly, I think I would be remiss in my reporting duties if I did not mention that I feel this years festivity's were tempered by the void of not having Julie around this year. She was very good at keeping the volleyball court full through out the day, and if not out front doing that she was flittin around, socializing, laughing, teasing Celeste, you know being Julie! 
• July 2, 2006  Here we go again...a one ah two...Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birfday to you, Happy Birfday dear Karen(Brads Karen), Happy Birfday to you! Thats Right it seems like only last year about this time we were wishing her a happy birthday and here it is all over again! 
• And just in time for the our nations birthday, miss Kendall is dressed for a happy and Safe 4th of July!
• July 1,2006 well it is just about time for the Firecracker 400 to start in Daytona, and yes I know they like to call it the Pepsi 400, but I feel if you have attended an actual Firecracker 400 at some point in the past, then you are in a manner of speaking, grand fathered in as it were, to be allowed to refer to it in the un-sponsored vernacular! (That and having actually driven the Hi-Banks of Daytona....did you really think I was gonna ever leave that just laying there..I'm gonna be glory-daying the poop out of this for years to come) Yes I did finally turn the Richard Petty Scheduling Experience into the Driving Experience on June 10th. It was awesome! I drove 8 laps with an instructor pacing me in a car about three car lengths in front of me at over 145MPH! It hit me on about the third lap as we were exiting turn four and picking up some real speed, as I turned slightly toward the outside wall and came within about 8 feet of it, that this was not Disney World. There were no rails under this car to keep it from hurting itself or me, and right about then the fun and concentration level went up a few notches. The G forces in the turns are not too much but I could see doing it lap after lap in the heat of battle and the heat from the atmosphere, that it would be a very physical job slinging all the sheet metal around at 200 mph for 200 laps. I will put some other pickys on the picky page a bit later on.  I have been flying this month too, logging in about 6 hours this month.  The flying part came back pretty fast, that is the takeoffs, rudder / aileron coordination you know pilot stuff, what I am working on is landings and I am probably within a couple of hours of doing my solo flight.  Matt (my instructor) is having me do all my own radio calls and that is been my next hurdle.  It is not that I am shy, but you don't want to sound like a flid kid on the mike with all the other pilots out boring holes in the sky, and when it comes to talking to the tower at Navy Jax, with all the for real naval aviators...well that just adds to the "don't screw up" factor just a tad...oh did I mention that all the time I have to remember all the proper things to communicate with the out side world, I am attempting to bring said plane down in a controlled manner to a patch of asphalt 100 wide and about 1000 feet long and make it stop flying, hopefully a few inches above the ground (as opposed to a few feet). Well I have been doing it and doing it pretty good, this is starting to get fun!

 

Is that Mike in Elliot Sadler's #38 Ford Fusion on the pit road in Daytona?

Why yes,yes it is!

• June 30,2006 Hey everyone I am back and in the words of ZZ Top "I'm Bad, I'm nation wide!" .  Well truth be told I am world wide, world wide web that is, that's right I have my own personal domain name. If you are reading this you found it from the Emails which is,  Im@mike-caudill.com, how cool is that!  The best part is the cost of it all, zero, zilch, nada! The problems I had with not being able to post this entire last month were so complex to fix, it was just easier to do this than adjust the other ISP to enable me to post updates. Long and short of it is, Chuck Nussbaum, the owner of Old City Web hosting, registered my domain and donated the server space on his companies computer, out of the kindness of his heart (and to shut me up). I will be putting up a link to his company, so if any of you want to shoot him a Thank You email that would be nice, what he has done here for me , and all of us really was very nice, and above and beyond all my expections! I am a bit busy now but I will try to get everyone up to speed with what has happened this last month posted by tomorrow or Sunday..

 

• June 9, 2006 ALL TOGETHER NOW....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU....

That's right, little Miss Kendall Grace is one year old today! The celebration went swimmingly as our Kendall dove into her own private Birfday Cake, (well she dove into the whip cream on top of her cake), followed by a display gift unwrapping, that, well, the lets just say they will be talking about it around here for years to come!  My goodness, I got the invitation to her first birthday party a few weeks ago, I have this strange feeling next month I am going to come back from the mail box with her high school graduation announcements in hand!

• June 9, 2006  The first lesson went off with out a hitch! Boy have I gotten rusty these past 11 months! Matt is a super instructor, but I have forgotten so much of the seat of the pants stuff as well as some of the practical knowledge that I have not been using since last July.  I feel confident will come back to me with time.  I hope to be flying solo before the end of the month.  I think I will be ready to do so, I just am not sure how long the FAA will take to get out to see me when I do my SODA (Statement of Demonstrated Ability) which means I have to go fly with an FAA guy to prove I can fly with one eye. After I prove that to the FAA, I do my first solo flight in his presence and they give me a permanent waver for my eye. After that all I would have to pass is a medical exam every 24 months, which is the same as all other pilots.  I did some power on stalls and some power off stalls, and some slow speed flight, all of which are getting me ready for landings, knowing what to do in case of stall is the first key to learning landings.  Flying out of a military base is a hoot also, when we returned to the base we were in the pattern with some S-3 Viking jets, that in itself is interesting, I have seen these planes all around Jax growing up here in a military town, but Wednesday was the first time I was able to see them flying, up close, from the air!  Oh and one more time, Lucy is setting the football out in front of me, lets see how high I can kick and miss this time, that's right I am going to try my luck at the Richard Petty Scheduling Experience once again!  Tomorrow afternoon I hope to be tearassing around the Mecca of Racing , the Valhalla of Velocity, the  Birthplace of Speed, The Wall, the 31 degree high banks, that's right, Daytona!  So far the weather reports look favorable but there is a ten percent chance, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.  You will all know Saturday night what happened, as it will be posted here, one way or another!
• June 7, 2006 Well I know everyone is tuning in to hear how the first lesson went, and I hate to disappoint y'all, but I did not fly.  I did, however, get caught up on the procedures and  the "numbers" that I need to know, so that I might have a flight with a better understanding of my objectives.  There is a saying that cockpits make for poor classrooms, and that is so very true.  I got some great instruction with the knowledge of exactly what I will be doing tonight instead of Matt doing it first to show me and that being the first time I see the maneuver. I now have had 24 hours to think about said maneuvers, so I will not be flying by the seat of my pants tonight.  The weather looks good so unless something very unusual happens I should airborne this evening.  A short for instance is what is known as a slow speed stall.  This is a maneuver that trains you how to recover from a stall that could occur close to the ground, simulating a stall during a landing.  Configure the plane at 2000', carb heat on, fuel mixture full rich, reduce throttle to 1500 rpm's, when speed is below 90 mph add 10 degrees flaps hold nose level to maintain altitude, add 10 more degrees at 80 mph and 10 more at 70 mph as speed bleeds away, wait for stall and as it occurs, remove carb heat, add full throttle, and maintain minimum altitude loss. As speed increases remove 10 degrees of flaps, as the speed climbs untill the flaps are fully retracted.  I am not sure I could have typed this yesterday at five pm!
• May 31, 2006  Well I am on the schedule to fly next Tuesday at 1800 (6:00 PM for all you non-pilot types!)  I'm so excited I'm molting! (spoken in my best Gilbert Godfrey voice) My instructor is a really good guy that I flew with once last year.  It was the actually the last lesson I went up on.  He was very good and let me get in my first unassisted landing.  It was a little harry at the time , but a great confidence builder.  I like his style, he is very calm and helpful in his teaching style.  I did notice something as I was putting a note in my PDA the date and time of the flight June 6, 06 6 pm, good thing I am not superstitious, and it is a good thing the instructor is not named Damion!  I guess if I make it through this flight, it will all be downhill from there.
• May 28, 2006 I made it back safe and sound! It was an awesome experience, we pulled a suspicious guy over for having the wrong tag on the wrong car, investigated a burglary, just about got into a foot pursuit with a perp, ran with the lights and sounds on to an accident (man it is frustrating when folks don't move out of the way!).  I enjoyed standing just out of the picture with my arms crossed behind my Oakley sunglasses, while people wondered who the hell I was! I can not go in to details of all the particulars of each investigation here, suffice it to say it was all very interesting and I could definitely see myself running shotgun again someday soon. After the ride with Nussy I went to have dinner with cousin Craig from Chicago.  During dinner we were discussing the date for this years Manatee trip and some of the particulars of organizing it again this year. We have been sort of partial to the November 11th date as it puts us there before the Thanksgiving holiday rush and also before the Manatee zones come into play. This year we are looking at the 10,11, and 12th.  If there is any problem with these dates, well tough! (just Kiddin!) No really if someone has a problem with this date send me a note and we will see what we might do if not then lets just set this date in stone as the official manatee date, the weekend before the Veterans Day holiday, that way we can all plan accordingly from year to year.
• May 24, 2006 I am all set for my police ride-along this Saturday.  My good friend nussy (Davis Nussbaum) is a member of Jacksonville's finest, and this Saturday I will jump in front seat in the police car with him and do what the JSO calls a ride-along.  They allow civilians to ride along with an active duty police officers to monitor the day to day goings on involved with policing these mean streets of Jacksonville.  Before you poo poo this, keep in mind Jacksonville is ahead of Tampa, Orlando, and even Miami in homicides this year, quite a dubious honor I must say!  I am allowed to get out of the car when David does, so if I am lucky, we will get a domestic disturbance call.  If we do and it is some 6'3", 250lb, drunk, west side redneck type, I might just get invited to a good ole fashioned Saturday night #@& whoopin.  No, it is true that as an observer, I am, under most situations, supposed to just stay out of the way and do nothing more than observe, but police work can sometimes turn into a life or death situation in an instant, and keeping that in mind I am of the mind set that I could not, nor would not be able to sit idle while an officer of the law, not to mention a friend of mine, was under attack.  I hope to have some interesting story's to post here next week!
• May 22, 2006  Kendall attended her first baseball game yesterday afternoon!  I think she enjoyed herself for the most part, but then she enjoys herself pretty much anywhere she goes.  It was crazy hot, about 95 or96 degrees and although we were in the shade it was still a bit warm.  I bumped into a friend of mine in the top of the eighth inning that was watching the game from a private air conditioned box up stairs.  He asked if  I had come to the game with anyone else. I told him I was with Brad, Karen and Kendall, he produced four extra tickets and told us to come on up and watch the rest of the game with his family and guest in the box.  Well not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, we shimmied on up and finished the game upstairs.  He said to let him know when we want to go again and he would hook me up, I love getting a hook up, it is a lot like the difference between a beer you pay for, a free beer, and a thrown free beer.  For those of you that have attended the Manatee trips, you know what I mean!
• May 18,2006 I am heading off to the base to attend my first flying club meeting since last June.  The club moved last December, so they are holding them on the base at VP30's auditorium, instead of the old location which was at Cecil Field, both locations are about 10 miles from the house, so it is a wash as far as which is or was more convenient.  The long and short of it is, I am reminded of the old saying, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"  this is that step. The updates should get a lot more interesting once the lessons start again. I anticipate needing about 4 or 5 hours before I can solo.  Once that is accomplished I then embark on solo flights, honing different skills untill I am ready for my check flight. The FAA requires 40 hours but most people put in between 40 to 70 hrs before they attempt the check flight.   Most instructors will not recommend you for the test untill they feel you are ready,  and the hours still count in your log book so there is no good reason to rush the check flight, that and the fact that each check flight exam is a cool 250 duckies tends to keep the passing percentages in the 90's.  The parts for the Thunder Chicken  shipped today, they are coming UPS ground from California so they should be here before next Friday.  This will surely fix her charging woes, so shortly I shall be, once again, in the wind! (and don't call me Shirley!) dadat,ching! rim shot
• May 12, 2006 I am PT less! I finally sold my PT Cruiser, the profit from the PT was to pay for the thunder chicken, so I in essence traded the PT with its monthly payment for a paid in in full motorcycle.  The PT was a fun ride, but I decided to keep the Ford Sport track that Julie got last May.  It gives me the ability to tow the bike if I want or the bicycles, it's a four door so I can still toat friends and family when needed.  Still the moment is bitter sweet.  I have had the car here at my place of work for the past few months, keeping it out by the street during the day to try to sell it, so I have not been driving it since January.  I think I will miss it most when the football season starts back up.  The PT was a great tail gateing vehicle, it was really good for parking in the smallest spots when I was late arriving, I could pick it up and set it just about anywhere!  I guess I have an honest to goodness tail gate now to eat chicken from.  This also frees up monthly money for flying that I was counting on.  Funny how things seem to work out.  I wonder who is on the schedule to fly tomorrow morning? I feel like getting my head back in the clouds!  (Technically I will have to stay 500 feet below,1000 feet above, or 2000 feet horizontally away from the clouds while flying VFR, my CFI would be pleased to know I remembered that!)
• May 10,2006  I'm back I got shut out for a while there, the web hosting folks where I store all these bits and bytes had locked me outside like the Flintstones cat. They were doing some maintenance on the e-mail server and in their zeal and enthusiasm  to keep bad stuff out, they had firewalled me out.  I am still waiting on the regulator/rectifier to come in from Italy, but the new stator is in stock on the shelf and ready to be shipped when it comes in.  The APE timing chain adjusters are in, as well as the new air filter, and spark plugs.  I have to remove the valve covers to install the adjusters correctly so I am gonna check the the valve clearances while I am in there.  It sounds noisy to me but I think the fact that the rear cylinder head is less than an eighth of an inch from my inner thigh while running, I might not be used to the noise it makes.  Checking it is simple enough and if it is out I will fix it, if not, I will have the piece of mind knowing it is correct.
• May 2, 2006 Well the thunder chicken has caught the avian flu.  I replaced the regulator rectifier at the end of March as it had done what all Hondas do, it burned itself out due to high heat, a poor design used by Honda were the regulator send the access voltage to ground (which usually burns out the battery).  I found an aftermarket design that uses diodes to shunt the access voltage strait to heat and as it is a larger metallic finned unit that can dissipate that heat away better than the stock regulator, that should have fixed the problem.  But alas I cooked this new one down too.  Think it might be stator time, they tend malfunction when they get hot and short some of the wound copper wires that make them up.This causes the remaining working wires to increase in voltage to try to keep up with battery demand, and diodes hate high voltage! I sent the old one back and they will replace it as it has a one year warranty, but they are out of stock until May 18th, so it looks like I will take this time to do a safety stand down, check all the systems do some PM(Preventative Maintenance).  I found that the VTR's (note to some readers, this will be a Motor Head moment here, so bear with me) have a flaw with the cam timing chain adjusters, they are spring actuated typed which is better that the old hydraulic ones like on the Hurricanes, but if you do any sudden decelerating the chain can become overly tight and throw the cams out of time with the pistons, and that can be very bad, like bent valves bad, and seeing as how it is so much fun grabbing a gear and listening the "thunder" pop as you slow down, I ordered some manual type billet aluminum ones coming from APE (Billet  Aluminum, Arrhh Arrrh Arrrhh, it is amazing how anything made from billet aluminum is just so freeken cool) so this will prevent the valves from ever coming in sudden,(read violent) contact with the tops of my pistons.  Oh and for those that have spent countless hours in the race garage twisting safety wire till the wee hours of the morning, the garage is back baby.  I might just put a cot out there!
• April 27,2006 A short story to share here. I heard this last Friday from Brad and every time I think of it I giggle a little.  Jack, my nephew in Virginia, has been enjoying going with his sister Emily (a.k.a. Princess Blue Flame) these last few weeks as she attended a soccer clinic, he would play in an adjoining field.  After the few weeks of clinics she now has soccer practice which Jack also attends occasionally.  Now while the clinics were going on Jack would say they were going to "prinic" I guess a conglomeration of practice and clinic, and Doug just let it slide, as he understood what was meant, and a correction was not really needed.  Well when the "clinics" stopped and practice started they were off to Prinic again, much to Jacks enjoyment.  This time Doug felt a correction was warranted, so he told Jack, no, we are going to practice.. prac---tice     Jack answers from the back seat "Prinic"  No Jack, practice can you say Practice,   P R A C T I C E  Doug slowly enunciates to Jack.... Then an exasperated voice comes from the back seat saying "Yes Dad,  PRACTICE!  Now can you say PRINIC, Dad,  P R I N I C!"       Oh my Keiki Hanu Keaka!! Way to go Jack, I can hardly wait for what's coming next!

• April 26, 2006 Not much going on lately, been running allot, probably too much my knees are hurting today but that comes when we have a pressure change too, and a front is passing so I will blame it on that.  I stopped by the Flying Club today and picked up a current sectional map.  Sectionals are like road maps for the air and before you do any flying you should always have a currant one in the plane with you.  I asked how full the schedule was, and they said they could make room for me so looks like I will get my head back in the clouds starting in June.  I need the month of May to learn the course rules for the clubs new location Jacksonville Naval Air Station, and to get my noggin back in Pilot mode.  I think it has been there for the past few weeks.  When I got the scoot from Clive, he said you need to do some riding and sans any music in the helmet, just me and the drone of 996cc's to clear my head.  Those of you that have not experienced this type of motorcycle therapy, I feel sorry for you, those who have know what kind of Devcon for the soul it can be.  It doesn't make things good as new, but at least it is operatable now.  I have gone on some trips with my MP3 player but as fate would have it, my lithium battery's seem to give way 15 minutes after I start.  I tried to carry a new one with me to swap it out when this happens, then realized the silence was meant to be.  Any way the Pineapples are getting big, I am running faster each week (just a little) going to start back flying soon. I guess in a nut shell you could say, I'm doin' alright, gettin good grades, the future's so bright,(come on everybody sing it with me) I gotta wear shades! 
• April 17, 2006  Tax Day!!  Went to Luke and Celeste home for Easter dinner yesterday, rode the scoot down, and had a great time.  I stopped by the cemetery to pay respects, stood around feeling the wind blowing on my face, but I don't know, I feel Julie around me often but not there.  I have not been able to remember what her voice sounded like it just was not on my head until yesterday morning.  It's nice to have it back.  The services Saturday night were great, it was a little warm before the Baptism (maybe it was just me), but I did it! Baptized, Confirmed, and first Communion all at once. I received a wonderful Rosary along with a beautiful wooden carved crucifix from my sponsor Phil.  I decided to pray a Rosary before I went to bed, it was nice.  Got up the next morning and felt drawn to go to the 7:30 morning mass.  It was a little crowded but that is to be expected on Easter morning.  I still have some RCIA commitment to attend I think through the end of May.  I think I would like to ask if they need any lector help.
• April 14, 2006 Happy Good Friday to all, and as the picture below shows I am ready and raring to go for Easter!  This was taken by Karen or Brad I am not sure (probably Karen as the photo is in focus, with the proper focal length and aperture setting) this last Sunday in a parking lot near their home. Note that I would never do anything like this on the street, that would be unsafe and dangerous          (yea right)

• April 13, 2006 It is about 40 minutes to go until it is Good Friday.  As I think back I can remember wondering about  my faith and what would it take to move me toward God and organized religion.  I seem to have always had an argumentative approach, thinking that going through all the minutiae involved was beneath me, I was strong enough that survive on my own.  I have always believed in Jesus, and christianity, I did not see the need to have it shoved down my throat each and every day or each and every Sunday for that matter.  Then a very special person came into my life  She often did not like to debate me on religion as she was not a theologian, just a catholic girl that knew her where she stood with the Lord, and if she could not explain to others the why and how of it all, well that was my problem. She might not have been able to tell me why water was wet, even though she knew she needed a towel every time she got out of the pool.  I began to understand that the Church was a part of who Julie was.  I decided to join her in church to show my support for her, and for our marriage, The WE that was Mike and Julie was better together, a united front in our endeavors, all of our endeavors, including Church.  I went and listened and watched but, still not wanting to be a joiner, I kept the Church at arms length.  Then one day, the Lord reached down, and in an instant...

She was gone.

In the weeks to follow my one redeeming hope, the light that buoyed my spirit, was knowing, knowing that she was not lost, that her faith was strong, that this was not the end.  I started my journey of  faith with the hope finding some peace and some understanding of my life with God.  One evening, earlier this week, as I stepped from the shower, I had the realization that I was counting down the days to an end point in my life, to the time when I will no longer carry the burden of my original sin.  That time comes this Saturday night, when all will be forgiven, and forgotten. (Rev. 21:5)

 For this I thank God.....and I thank Julie!  

• April 7, 2006 I had a moment of clarity last week that I would like to share here, it has helped me and I would hope it might do the same for someone else out there.  I just finished the book, "Tuesdays with Morrie".  Julie had read this and I don't know why I picked it up out of all the books I have running (I read two or three books in different rooms of the house all the time) but this one I knocked out in a few days.  There is a very poignant statement that Morrie makes to Mitch as he is close to death, he said "Death ends our lives, not our relationships".  As I have thought about this, I have felt a certain amount comfort realizing Julies death doesn't stop my love for her, and it never will.  As we all go on with our day to day challenges and triumphs, we often will have times were we will feel the need to tell Julie of our good times as well as our bad, well, do it, she is listening, and if needed she will answer you too!  Of course the answer might come from some unlikely messenger, but you'll know it's from her when you get it.  Julie touched so many lives, and I feel because of this, she lives on in all of us, every single day.
• April 6, 2006 Brad and I are heading out to the ballpark later this evening to revel in one of our rites of spring, that being opening day of local baseball team, the Jacksonville Suns!  It has some bitter sweet emotions that I know will haunt us this coming year, and that will be the noticeable absence of Julie.  It was this exact time last year that we were told by the doctor of the reoccurrence and with that news I asked her if she would rather just stay home and not go to opening day. We all know what the answer was, and we all had a ball! I can't have a beer tonight (lent) but Brad and I will definitely toast a brat to Julie tonight, and know that she is right there with us, taking the piss out of the visiting teams pitcher, just like she would want us to.
• April 3, 2006 What an event filled weekend this was!  My good friend Lisa from Orlando came up to call on some of her motorcycle shop customers here in Northeast Florida, and to see the world famous Booty Band. Actually the name of the group is "Yo Mammas Big Fat Booty Band". They where here to perform at the Jacksonville Beach Springing the Blues Festival along with many other bands, three days of free blues, jazz, funky rock, it was OFF THE HOOK YO! (That means it was good). I started the weekend early Saturday morning with the 10K Navy Run.  It was good to see many of the good friends that worked with Julie all these past years, and I was glad to finally get to run in this event.  I finished in 71 minutes which is about 11.5 minute miles, not a great time, but at least I haven't set the bar too high for next year. After the race, I rushed home to shower up and was off to Church for a retreat to help better prepare us for the upcoming Easter Vigil. The retreat was very helpful.  It is a bit to personal to go into here, if you can believe that. Suffice it to say on my journey to the lake, I seem to have a few sharp stones along the path, and I feel like I am most definitely bare foot.  Don't misunderstand I am glad to be doing the RCIA and joining the Church, in fact I am looking forward to Easter with a great deal of enthusiasm, it in fact almost borders on, how to put this, a thirst or hunger.  It is hard to explain, but I know I am facing some truths in my life that I never had before, and am glad to finally be coming into the light.  The retreat ran to about 3:00 pm.  After it was over, it was off the crib to get some chores done before Lisa arrived.  She brought a bollinase spaghetti sauce from home as well as some imported spaghetti that did not look like much in the pot, but it kept growing even after it was on the plate with sauce on top. It was nummy.  It was good to have a friend over to talk about the old days, the motorcycle business, church, music and any other topics(other than politics), that suited our fancy, I mean Sophie is good company, but she has a bad habit of walking away from me in mid sentence.  At least Lisa waits until I am through talking before she leaves the room.  Lisa has always lamented that she didn't have a close family life, but that the Lord made up for it by blessing her with such a wonderful circle of friends, and I feel honored to be one in that circle.

• April 2, 2006 here are some pictures of the Pineapple plants, The first was taken about two weeks ago and the latter is the same flower yesterday. This is what will turn in to the pineapple fruit, someday, I hope before summer is out.  These are all plants Julie and I planted in front of the house from pineapple tops we got from the supermarket.  Pineapples are supposed to produce fruit every 18 months, but I think that timeline is when they are in Hawaii not Jacksonville, Florida.  These plants have been in the ground for about two and a half years, I guess the cold days of winter sort of put an extension on their growing time.  Well it is all still very exciting to see what the flower/fruit is going to look like, I will keep you posted.
• March 27, 2006 Well it had to happen, I got pulled over Saturday afternoon!  I was doing 50 in a 40mph zone when out of no where "whhoooo" . I looked in the mirror and there he was Johnny law with the lights all ablaze, so I pulled over and turned of the ignition.  I had a quick thought that I was in Nussys zone but, I couldn't be that lucky.  As I turned around who is climbing out of his cruiser but the nuss man.  Now the thought of bum rushing him and putting him in a headlock and giving him some nuggies did waft through my noggin, but some passer by, not knowing our big brother/little brother familiarity might not understand, so I guess discretion was the better part of valor.  Needless to say he best be on the lookout for a mustard filled doughnut (and being a copper that is a very real possibility). We exchanged pleasantries and were both on our way.  Oh how I wanted to raise the front wheel as I left but again, discretion.  I was reminded of a statement I made a long time ago when Randy, a friend of mine with a bike asked why I did not ride.  I told him that after racing motorcycles, riding on the street was a somewhat boring endeavor, unless you are breaking the law, that I just did not enjoy riding sedately about town within the narrow and slow confines of our city and state road laws, at least not without training wheels.  Suffice to say I have been having a very good time on the new scoot!
• March 24, 2006 I am very pleased with my progress in RCIA.  I was tasked with working the Bars and Bells booth at the Churches spring carnival.  Bars and Bells is a slot machine sort of game played with paper cards with removable windows. The cards cost 25 or 50 cents and if you have three of a kind you can win up to 50 dollars, a very popular game in this parish!  I was a bit apprehensive when I was informed that everyone in RCIA  WILL VOLINTEER  a few hours to work the booth, but after about ten minutes of hawking the tickets, I slowly noticed how at home I felt.  I was sorry I had not done this earlier, I think Julie and I would have really enjoyed it, and as I type this I think she did enjoy the afternoon with me, after all, she has been one of my guides throughout this entire endeavor.  There is a new posting on Julies page from Carol, so you might want to bounce over and give it a gander.
• March 22, 2006 hey just stopping long enough to raise my smoke helmet visor to type with a leather gloved hand that I am alive and well, with a calloused bottom!  Been doing lots of riding after work as well as running when I can get in a mile or two.  I will be running the Navy 10K this April 1, a run that Julie and I have helped  the Navy and MWR put on for the past four or five years. It will be fun to run it for a change.
• March 16,2006 just a quick note, I ran Tuesday 6.2 miles or 10K, this only three days after the River Run 15K and I did it with 11:30 minute miles. That is not entirely accurate the first 5 K was more of a 3 mile waddle than a run, see I have taken on the task of trying to help a friend Vickie Macleod with her running while her husband is deployed to Afghanistan, so I went to her neighborhood, her mother-in law watched her four youngins while I cracked the running whip.  In all seriousness she did well,(Eddie Izzard head shake here)not very speedy yet, but good endurance and she is a trooper.  She should be able to run some 5K events with the rest of us by this summer .  I think we will move the weekly training runs to a local high school track so we can run our own speed and still be close enough to help with encouragement, and whip cracking.  Brad and I are making some grumbling's about running a sprint triathlon, but we a finding out that they are some what expensive, like 70 or 80 bucks as apposed to the 15 to 20 dollars for the 5K events we used to running. I think I would like to train for a half Marathon for this year and the Full Monty by 2007, there I said it, now it's out there for everyone to ask," So how is the marathon training coming?"  I think I might live to rue this day, like the day I am crawling across the marathon finish line, with all my bodily functions fully activated!
• March 14, 2006  It finally rained today and on a day I rode the scoot in. Oh well it had to happen some day.  I don't mind getting wet, and  I am not afraid to ride on wet roads, in fact some of my highest racing finishes were run in the rain, no the big gripe is it makes the scooter nasty dirty and then I have to clean it all back up.  Maybe I will walk home or just spend the night here, just kidding( Eddie Izzard head shake, then a nod)  I have been wearing the helmet to bed, with the visor open of course, needless to say I have been enjoying myself getting my bike legs back.  I was a bit concerned that something was amiss with the bike it did not feel quite as fast as I remembered at first, but it after close examination of the speedometer during said throttle twisting's, it is just my keister becoming accustomed to the bikes acceleration.  Other big news...I have Pineapples!! Julie and I both became hooked on pineapples after our trip to Hawaii in 2003, and not just any pineapples but fresh, cut it up yourself with the funky green plant stuff coming out the top, pineapple.  Well we learned from our friend Crissy that you could plant the tops from the supermarket fruits and grow our own, so almost two and a half years later, the first signs of fruit are sprouting forth from two of the plants, so it looks like this will be the year.  I will post some pictures here when I get home.  I finished the River Run in just over 2 hours. 2:00:38 I was shooting for something under 2 hours so this was ok, next year 1:30min, with Brad and Karen in tow!
• March 10, 2006 I am typing this thru blurry sleep deprived eyes as we closed the North Turn Bar down last night.  This was probably one of the best Daytona's to date, the only thing that could have made it better would have to be able to share it with the Matt man, Randy, Steve, and Clive.  The racing was great and we all made some new friends and rekindled some old friendships.  For the past few years we have had the pleasure of sharing our company with former AMA superbike champion Jamie James,  a great racer and an even better friend.  When he arrived he walked past another old racing buddy some of you may have heard of, Kevin Schwantz.  Jamie went down got Kevin to come up and watch the races with us up top. For those that do not know here is a web link with listings of the racing accomplishments of these two Schwantz Superbike School.  For those of you that do know these guys, close your jaw, and yes I know, oh my goodness!  All these guys put their pants on one leg at a time, they just can do it soooo much faster than the rest of us! I will be racing in the Gate River Run, a 15K (9.3mile) race right in the middle of downtown Jacksonville, tomorrow morning I will be running along with Nussy and his missus Crissy and about 10,000 other runners.   Brad and Karen are going to run a 5K race that they starting 30 minutes before the River Run. You can see the results by Saturday night at this web site: Gate River Run
•     

• March 6,2006 Well this is the big surprise, a new scooter, well new to me. It is a 1998 Honda 996 Super Hawk (A.K.A. The Thunder Chicken). V-Twin, 996cc's of ground pounding, oh my goodness bottom end torque. It weighs about 390 lbs with 110 horsepower to the rear wheel, with that sort of power, well lets just say the front wheel is not on the ground very often, or for very long!  I acquired this magnificent machine from a friend of mine, Clive who has over the last 4 years added all the trick, hard to find goodies that I doubt I would have had the money or patience to research and then procure.  A tip of the lid to Mr. Jordan on his fine choices in his creation that is The Thunder Chicken! I picked it up Saturday morning and as of this morning I have put about 325 miles on it.
• March 1, 2006 It is Ash Wednesday, first day of lent(I need a catholic spell check).  I was told by the RCIA instructors that this one is a "live fire" event we need to be in observance of the Church rituals we have been learning all these many months.  I will have some other rather big news I hope by this weekend, I don't want to spoil the surprise so keep your computers peeled this weekend or at least tune in Monday for some interesting pictures I hope to have posted by then. Not much else going on, the running is going good, just about to enter in 10min mile pace,  I would be happy if I could run 8 min miles.  Running at that pace puts you in the thick of things at the end of most 5-10 K races.  I got the house refinanced, knocked 6 years and about 35,000 bucks off the tail end with three percent lower interest and only increased the monthly payment 50 dollars, so that was good, you know, one less thing! February 23,2006 Wow, it has been 5 days since the last update.  I have been running each night, except for Wednesday, which was RCIA night. I have been going Sunday and Wednesday the extra day is to make up for the time I missed from October through January.  Not so much to make up time but to expose me to the lessons that the others we taught that I missed. I am running stronger faster and looking forward to it more.  I might start doing some morning runs, as the traffic is much lighter and there is a lot less riffraff (when was the last time you read that word?) out and about at 0500.  I think as time goes on I will post less often here, it's not that my life will be turning much more boring in the near future, on the contrary, it is my hope to keep the spirit of the page upbeat and interesting as possible.  I am very grateful to have this outlet to bend so many ears, and having it at my disposal has truly been a blessing, but the time has come where I need to let the hand rail go a little, I think we all need to sort of wean ourselves back to a more normal routine.  I feel some of that will happen if I don't run the the keyboard each night to hammer out the daily drivel of my coming and goings.  We have all spent the last few months knocked to our knees, and it's time to start to regain our footing on this walk through life, of this I think Julie would not only approve, but expect and encourage.
• February 18, 2006  Oh I was reading the post below from the 16th and I couldn't help but think that I hate when the whiney bitch gets in here and takes over the keyboard.  I have since sacked up and back to my more unusual self, so have no fear, I am not turned girlie on you guys, yet!  I have been feeding Brad and Karen's puppies these past few days, and this morning we went for a very spirited 2+ mile walk.  Shelby was good and she even got some leash free time in a field near their house.  Abby was not as good but I did try to let her run free in large fenced in area. I think she wanted to do the right thing until Shelby corrupted her and their hearing and minding skills went south.  I got control back, they were cornered, and so back on the leashes they went. The adage about old dogs and new tricks seems to have some relevance here, but I will persevere, and oh yes they will see it my way, I have faith in them.  I was just roused from my seat here a moment ago by a rather loud roar of two radial engine T6 navy trainers flying in formation just  above the house.  I think I know one of the pilots, a Flying Club member and I will have to ask him if this was a deliberate flyby to "call me out "as it were. The area I live in is just between two Class D controlled air spaces, about 1/4 mile from where two of them actually intersect with each other.  Now it is not against any laws to fly over head, but you would need to get permission from either NAS Jax or Cecil to enter into either airspace at such a low altitude, and if you were just going to do it for one formation fly by, well it is just easier to fly way north of here and not ask any one for anything on the radio.  Now it could be d