Loyalties

Just before I left for work this morning, I found out that a very dear and beloved friend of mine (my closest friend, after Jen) tried to kill himself either last week or over the weekend. Details are sketchy right now, because the only source of information I have is my friend, himself, writing on a laptop, apparently from his hospital bed and apparently heavily medicated. There are 2000 miles between us, so I can't even go visit him. I can't talk to him face-to-face, I can't hug him; I have no way at all of letting him know he matters to me, except by sending him a stupid e-mail.

This past week, Jenny called me out to the second-floor railing outside our apartment to show this interesting critter. Now, we get a LOT of bugs out here, but this was the first time either of us had ever seen one like this. It looked EXACTLY like a leaf! As always, click the picture once to enlarge it. Enjoy!

Improving My Memory

So. We meet again. How long's it been? Too long, I guess.

Since our apartment is so stinking hot (the swamp cooler was down overnight for maintenance), Jen and I are going to enjoy some McDonald's for dinner tonight, followed by a short quest for a flash drive. I have to save a pretty substantial number of files for my Creative Writing class, and a flash drive will enable me to work on my writing exercises on any computer on campus. Since the world has largely lost faith in the lovable little floppy disk, a flash drive seems like the way to go.

My classes are going okay. The content of my Western Civ class remains vexing (so far, I've been told that aliens planted Atlantis so the Atlantians could teach Neolithic man how to build pyramids, that the Eyptians of the Middle Kingdom had space-age technology like x-ray machines, and that Pharoah had all the Hebrew firstborn put to death because he feared the birth of their Messiah). To be fair, though, the guy who teaches the class is a basketball coach, versus an Egyptologist or PhD or anyone who would actually be qualified to teach such a class. The last time I took a Western Civ class, it was taught by a brilliant Egyptologist named Dr. Scott Carroll, so I guess I was naive to expect anything from this class other than disappointment. And, as I've said, the only function this class must serve is to provide me with the credits I need in order to receive full financial aid.

In my Creative Writing class, one of our two required texts is a book called Writing Down the Bones. It's a book of writing tips written by a Buddhist, who regularly quotes Buddhist holy men and describes writing as a spiritual exercise. In one of my assignments, I mentioned that I felt very strongly the book was a guide to worshipping the creative self, and I felt spiritually demeaned and disrespected by being forced to read it. The teacher's reply was that, as a college student, I should be open-minded and that she's never had a complaint like that for this book, so my accusation is essentially baseless. However, she did tell me I could do my readings out of the ENG219 (Advanced Creative Writing) book if it would make me more comfortable. I'm already halfway through Bones, though; jumping into another book would only mean more work while I try to catch up. Still, it's something I may end up doing. If I really feel strongly about this, then extra work is a small price to pay, right? Or is she right, that I'm not being open-minded about this? What do you think?

My Human Geography class is going well. I'm actually enjoying it. The content is very interesting, and there hasn't been a single mention of aliens or Atlantis or worshipping anything. I imagine that last will change once we get into the unit on religions, but I don't expect that the text will attempt to coerce me into choosing a new god or belief system.

Flying is also going well, more or less. Erin and I flew to Sierra Vista yesterday morning, so I could practice some instrument approaches over there. I flew my first real-life (I'd already done them in the simulator) ILS approaches, and they went really well. I also flew a Localizer approach that went well. I see my mid-stage check on the horizon, and it makes me think I might really make it through this rating, after all.

Jen's friend Carmen took some pictures of us last Friday. She's in a digital photography class, so she needed to take some pictures, and we needed some pictures taken because a Sunday school class at our AZ church is focusing on missions and missionaries, and they asked for our picture. So the three of us went over to the ramp and took some pictures with the airplanes. Many of them turned out really well. I expect Jenny will probably post some of them, sooner or later.

It's been a while since I've posted, and Kelly is requesting posts to read, so here we go. After I finished my Commercial 1 stage check (I think that's what my last post was about) I began working on my Instrument Rating, which means I'm now flying the Cessna 182. I MUST have my Instrument Rating finished by the end of this semester, which means I don't have time to really get a feel for the 182 before I start working on the Rating. The Instrument Rating is, obviously, all about flying IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) which means we're practicing flying solely by our instruments. This means that the vast majority of my time in the 182 is spent wearing a hood, a vision limiting device that keeps me from being able to see outside the airplane. So I'm trying to learn to fly the 182 while not being able to see outside the 182. It's kind of frustrating sometimes. But I'm doing better than I personally expected to, and better, I think, than my instructor expected me to. This just might work out, after all.

My classes started on Monday. I'm taking one classroom class and two online classes. I naively thought the online classes would be a little easier than a classroom class, which is why I took 2 of them. I was mistaken. They involve obscene amounts of reading, both from books and from the internet. It's taken me a few days to get used to them and sort of settle into them. Ultimately, I'd prefer to sit in a classroom a couple days a week. Lesson learned.

I started my job 2 weeks ago. I got a work study position in the aviation department. As a work study, I'm only allowed 16 hours per week, and 12 of them are scheduled for office work (mostly keeping up on the paperwork that keeps the FAA off our backs). The other 4 hours, however, are open hours for the weekend, so I can help the fueler/washers wash airplanes. Since the fueler/washers and I are all new to the job, we had to wash a plane last Thursday AND last Friday. It's much harder, physically, than I expected it to be, because we not only wash the planes, we also wax them. Even with 3 of us on the job, it still takes somewhere around 3 hours.

All told, between the new classes, the job, and the 182, this has been a hard week. It's been quite some time since I was actually busy on a daily basis, and I'm still trying to hit my stride. But the 182 is going to bring us one step closer to Africa, the job is going to pad our savings account for our Michigan Christmas trip, and the classes are giving me full-time status so I can keep pouring large amounts of financial aid into my flight account. It's all quite a change for me, but it's also all working for our good.

A Stranger in the House of Instrument

After a bit of a delay (Erin called me last night to tell me I'd been rescheduled to 9:45), I had my stage check this morning. Despite a little bit of trouble with my commercial maneuvers, I still passed, with the assurance that my flying is right at the appropriate level, if not a little beyond that. So now I'm on to my Instrument Rating, and the Cessna 182. Thanks for your prayers, and thanks be to God, who accomplishes His will in spite of our doubts and insecurities.

The Big Test

My Commercial 1 stage check is this Wednesday at 8:15am (11:15 Michigan time). It will involve successfully performing some fairly difficult maneuvers, but passing it means I can focus almost exclusively on my Instrument Rating, which I MUST finish before the end of this semester. Please, please pray for me, that I would be able to satisfactorily answer the questions and perform the maneuvers asked of me.

Humdrum

I've been kinda out of it lately, when it comes to Blogger (and Livejournal). The thought of blogging has just lost its appeal for me, and I'm not sure why. I was taking a walk tonight (just got back), and I found myself thinking about writing a post (with pictures) about my flight bag. When I first started out on here, I was all excited about passing along the stuff I was learning, and generally any sort of aviation-relating thing I found interesting. I've gotten pretty far away from that in the last months, so I think I'm going to try to get back into it by posting about my flight bag: what it's all about, what's in it, why I've chosen those particular items, etc. Maybe this all sounds terrible arrogant or something, but the truth is, I find flight bags in general really interesting. Maybe some of the rest of you do or will, too (I'm thinking, though, that most of the gals who read the post will say something like, "Oh, it's like a big (or in some cases, not so big) purse for pilots"). Anyway, keep an eye out for that post. It'll be coming soon.

Phoenix and Back Again

Here are the pictures I took on my cross-country yesterday. As always, clicking on them will enlarge them.


I know I've done this picture before, but it bore repeating. This is what my instruments look like in flight.

I took this because I was curious what I look like when I'm flying. Apparently the answer is, "scary and intense."

This is the town of San Manuel. I thought the layout of the town was interesting. It's far less square than most towns I fly over.

This is Coolidge Airport. It was my final checkpoint before I ventured under Phoenix's airspace and into Gateway's airspace.

This was the view just behind Coolidge. It was an eerie thing to behold, after spending a year flying over round fields.

For reasons I just don't understand, some people actually enjoy playing golf. I will admit, though, that golf courses are very pretty from the air.

And, finally, this is Benson Airport. I actually had a much better shot of this airport all lined up, and then I accidentally hit the camera's power button and lost it.

Well, that's it. I hope you enjoyed them. They're the last ones I'll be taking for a while.

Victory in Jesus!!!

I'm back! My commercial 1 cross-countries are now a thing of the past! And this morning's trip went spectacularly! The only reason for it that I can come up with is that I was praying hard, and a lot of people were praying along with me. Thank you to all those people. God was, and is, faithful.

Incidentally, I managed to snap a few pictures, mostly between here and Phoenix. They'll probably be showing up on here before too long.

Thanks again to everyone who prayed for my safety and success.

Weather permitting, tomorrow morning at 6:45 (9:45 Michigan time) I'll be leaving for my final cross-country of commercial stage one. It's also, arguably, the most difficult cross-country I've had to fly yet. I would greatly appreciate prayer.

Leftovers

Here are a few other pictures I took yesterday on my way home from Sierra Vista.


The building with the blue front towards the center of the picture, is a restaurant in Sierra Vista called My Place. It's really good.


This is the San Jose area of Bisbee. The main road cutting through it is Highway 92, and First Baptist is visible on the right.

And, finally, this is the Warren area of Bisbee. The big hill behind the town is a tailings dump from the old copper mines.

That's all for pictures until my cross-country tomorrow morning. Hope you enjoyed them!

Church, at 7,500 MSL

As I was overflying Bisbee on my way home from Sierra Vista Thursday morning, I noticed that I fly right over First Baptist, which is where we go to church now. So I decided to take a couple pictures on the way back from my solo this morning. The church is the blue-roofed building in the center of the pictures. As always, clicking on the pictures will enlarge them. Enjoy!

Difficult Decision

As I mentioned earlier today, I went and registered for my Fall classes. One is a classroom class, and two are online courses (most of the interesting-sounding classes were only offered on the Sierra Vista campus, so I had to make due with Douglas classes and online classes). I was reasonably happy with my choices. Then I talked to Erin while we were flying this afternoon. She warned me that the guy who teaches one of the online classes is a real jerk. Apparently, he really likes to pick out two or three students from every class to shamelessly pick on and otherwise make miserable. So now I have another choice. I can either drop this particular class and replace it with one of my other choices (sort of a first runner-up situation), or I can just stick with the class and hope I'm not one of the unlucky few who are chosen.

Wasted Semester?

In just a few minutes I'll be heading over to the one-stop to register for my Fall classes: three classes I need to take in order to receive my full financial aid, but don't need for my degree. I still have mixed feelings about this coming semester. On the one hand, it feels like I'm wasting a semester, since I'm not taking anything aviation-related, except for my flying. On the other hand, it will give me a chance to get all caught up before I go after my Flight Instructor certificate. I'm mostly just afraid that I won't commit myself to these classes and I'll hurt my GPA. We'll see, I guess.

Ground School

In my last post, I mentioned a near-incident I had, involving some power lines, but I never really went into details. I've decided to go into details now, but to fully appreciate what I'm telling you, I have to start with a little bit of private pilot ground school (plus I'm eager to try out my explanation of density). I'll try to keep it from getting overly technical. Here we go.

Air density is, essentially, how many air molecules you'll find in a given parcel of air. For instance, if you could jump up to 10,000 feet MSL (mean seal level) and snatch up a one-inch by one-inch by one-inch cube of air, it would have a certain number of air molecules. That's the air's density. The air becomes progressively less dense the higher you go, because there's progressively less pressure pushing those molecules together. Think of a really thick book laying on its back on a table. The last page of the book is under more pressure than the first page of the book, because it has all the other pages pressing down on it, whereas the first page of the book has no other pages pressing down on it. Same thing with the air: the air down low is more dense because it's under more pressure due to all the air above it pushing down on it. However, other factors can also affect the density of the air. High temperatures, for instance, cause the air molecules to expand, causing air to become less dense. Your 1x1x1 cube of air now has fewer molecules in it because they expanded and some were pushed outside of your box. When we have a really hot day (and we have plenty!), the air at ground level expands to such a degree that it ends up having the density of air we'd normally find, say, 3,000 or 3,500 feet above the ground. We call this "density altitude." It means, not how high the air is, but how high the air is acting. The ground here at the school is about 4,000 feet MSL so, in the situation I just described, the density altitude would be 7,500 feet MSL. The air at 4,000' is acting like the air would at 7,500'. This is not usually a good thing. In fact, I struggle to think of a scenario where high density altitude would be beneficial to anyone. I digress.

Air density, and thus density altitude, directly affects the airplane's performance. The propeller works, essentially, by grabbing and pushing off against those air molecules, so if there are fewer air molecules for the propeller to push against (like if we're at a high altitude, or if we have a high density altitude), then the propeller's not as effective. If the propeller's not as effective, then you can't climb as fast or as high (or, sometimes, at all) as you would be able to in denser air.

All that said, here's what happened on my flight Monday. There are power lines a pretty good distance off the departure end of runway 5. They're far enough away from the runway that they aren't typically a factor for us when we take off. However, by 3:30 in the afternoon, it's good and hot here and, accordingly, the density altitude is nice and high, which means it takes us longer and farther to take off, and longer and farther to climb up to a safe altitude. On my very first landing, I came in a bit fast, which meant I didn't actually touch the ground until I was close to halfway down the runway. So when I added power to take back off, I didn't have much runway to work with. Had I been alert to how much runway I'd already used up, I could have done a short-field takeoff, which would have made everything okay. But I didn't. I did a normal takeoff, and didn't get very far off the ground before I ran out of runway, which meant I was sort of skimming the desert floor as I struggled to climb out in the distressingly un-dense air. I felt like I was doing okay, because there were no close mountains or anything else for me to collide with, but then I saw the power lines in front of me. They were still a fair distance ahead, but I wasn't making much progress in climbing, so I started to wonder a little. Then I started to worry a little. Then I asked Erin if we were going to hit the power lines. After a moment of tense (for me, at least) silence, she finally answered that no, we should be okay. And we were, but I sweated until we were physically over and clear of the lines. The experience did its job, though; I learned my lesson and did mostly short-field takeoffs for the rest of the lesson.

And that's the story of the near-incident involving power lines. It should be stated, though, for the sake of establishing the severity of the situation, that Erin's opinion is that 1)hitting the power lines would probably have killed us, and 2)there's really nothing we can do in a situation like that to avoid hitting them, if we're pointed at them and unable to climb any faster. Thanks to everyone who prays for my safety!

P.S.- I would appreciate any feedback regarding the clarity and/or understandability of my explanation of air density. Thanks!

The Return of Flyboy!

I just got back from my first flight period in two weeks. It went really well, except for a near-incident involving some power lines. I had a really good attitude and felt I flew the plane very well, and my landings were pretty decent, especially for having not done one in two weeks. Erin and I are flying to Sierra Vista on Wednesday, and I'll probably do a local solo on Thursday morning. I'm gearing up for my last cross-country before my commercial 1 stage check. Exciting!

One pic

It's too hot to post much (I know that doesn't really make sense, but trust me), but I wanted to get a pic online ASAP. It was taken during one of the highlights of our trip. Enjoy.

The Difference Between Michigan and Arizona

The news teaser on TV a little bit ago gave us this gem of a quote: "Rain in the middle of June. What's up with that?"

Holy Smokes!!!

I jokingly told Jenny, this morning, that I was going to dazzle the aviation staff by getting a perfect score on my commercial knowledge test this afternoon. Turns out I was almost right. I missed one question, out of 103. Not too shabby.

Today is the day I take the FAA commercial pilot knowledge test. I don't know why, but I pretty nervous about it. I know the study guide inside and out, and I only missed one out of 70 on my commercial ground training final exam. This thing is in the bag!

Here's an update I forgot to make, regarding the chick I'd previously rescued, twice. It's dead. The morning after I put it back in its nest the second time, we found it on the ground, expired. At least I tried.

It stormed here during the night. That's pretty exciting news for Douglas. It's the first rain we've seen in over a month, and we needed it desperately. It's still pretty cloudy out, so maybe we'll get more moisture before the day is done.