Well, she’s gone.
My airplane is sold.
The hangar is empty.
The final logbook entry has been made.
And there’s a bit of a hole in my heart.
It’s not sadness per se. More like an empty spot reserved for an old friend who’s gone away. A thankfulness for all the good times, all the flights over water, desert, and rough terrain where she took care of me.
You know, they say you should never really trust your airplane; always expect an engine failure or other emergency. Be ready for the day your steed betrays you. That’s pilot training, and when you’re flying a bird with a single engine, it’s good policy. But the reality of the situation is that you have to trust your airplane, because if you didn’t you’d never leave the ground. Believe me, I’ve flown planes that I had no faith in, and it’s Not a Good Thing.
Nine-Four Mike took me from one side of the country to the other. Through rain, snow, and ice. In blinding dust storms, thick smoke, and to places where the heat was so intense it actually melted the tires on other aircraft. I loaded it to gross weight (and over, truth be told) and vaulted over huge mountains, slogging upward at Vy in 120 degree heat with nary a complaint from the powerplant. Hell, I once took off with the cowl plugs installed. Dumbest thing I ever did in an aircraft. But she just soldiered on.
She brought countless sick people to medical treatment for Angel Flight and then took them home again. She introduced many people to the wonders of general aviation. Took infants on their first flights and retired pilots on their last. Scattered the remains of fellow aviators. Appeared on a magazine cover. Shepherded me through several ratings. Nine-Four Mike even did the impossible: made my landings look good.
It wasn’t a one-sided relationship. I gave her new exhaust system, heat shields, fuel cells, fuel lines, insulation, improved fuel drains, two prop overhauls, mag overhauls, avionics overhauls, countless oil changes, inspections, nearly 11,000 gallons of fuel, a hangar, and the most important thing you can give an airplane: frequent flight time. Above all that, I was ready to pay for a major engine overhaul should it have been necessary. That’s a $20-30,000 expense. Yes, there was commitment there.
After owning that Skylane for the better part of five years, you’d think I would have seen it from every angle, know every inch of it. But last Saturday as I watched her taxi out for takeoff, I realized I was in for something new. The last first: I had never seen the airplane fly. Oh, I’d been at the controls for 900 hours. But to actually see the airplane in flight? Not until that moment.
It was a bittersweet thing to hear the dragster-like sound of that O-470 from the ground. I watched until the plane was only a speck in the sky, until you couldn’t look away because if you did you’d never find it against the expansive blue canvas. Eventually Bill walked up and broke my concentration with a question. And like that, she was gone.
I’m sure that in the years to come I’ll see 94M around Southern California. Aviation is a small world, after all, and a paint scheme that distinctive tends to stick out. Even so, it’s a foregone conclusion that I’ll be looking for her wherever I am. That’s just how it is. Once you own a plane, it’s “yours” no matter whose name is on the registration certificate. No, it wasn’t heartbreaking to see the plane fly away. If I ever find out she ended up in a ball at the end of some runway, that will be the crusher.
I think it will take a long time before I get used to not owning 94M. So much of my identity was wrapped up in that plane. When you own, it sucks up all your money, all your time, and just about all of your attention. But that’s what’s so great about it: it’s hard. If it was easy, everyone would do it. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be special. If it was easy, there would be no sense of pride and accomplishment at defying the law of gravity that has kept man earthbound for a million years.
And so it goes. For nearly five years I was the steward and caretaker of a very fine aircraft. I hope I did right by her. I think I did.
So long, 94M. I’ll miss you…
I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I’m not John Kerry’s biggest supporter. I disagree very strongly with his positions on defense, social spending, taxes, and even on the very basics like role of government, interpretation of the Constitution, and so on.
Despite all that I want to support him. I respect Sen. Kerry because he’s a pilot — and an accomplished one at that. According to the FAA registry, Kerry holds a commercial multi-engine instrument ticket with additional ratings for gliders and seaplanes. Except for the fact that I hold a higher class medical, his pilot certificate reads exactly like mine. That makes him a fellow aviator and member of a very small fraternity, someone who may support general aviation. I say “may” because I’m not sure how principled this support is. In fact I don’t even know what his record is on aviation matters. He’s a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, but he appears to be assigned to the surface trasportation subcommittee rather than the aviation one. Lacking other information, I would give Kerry the benefit of the doubt.
And I have to admit he’s doing some things right in this campaign.
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I like playing a computer game as much as the next guy. But this is a bit extreme:
“It was a small fight, something silly,” said Chrisostomides’ cousin and downstairs neighbor, Paul Michaelides. “It started about who would play solitaire on the computer.”
The fight escalated, and Ioannou eventually hurled herself from the balcony, they said. She fell onto a concrete driveway that winds behind the apartment building.
The fight escalated. Ya think??
Exactly how do you go from “hey, it’s my turn to play Solitare on the computer” to “I must jump to my death from this balcony”? There’s something really twisted about these two. As if the impulsiveness of her leaping off a balcony isn’t enough, the guy waits several days and then does the same thing right in front of his grandparents. O-kayyyyy…
So the country lost it’s second state governor in as many months today, this time a Democrat from New Jersey.
Dropping a political bombshell, New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey announced his resignation Thursday after revealing that he is gay and that he had an adulterous affair with a man. McGreevey’s surprise announcement came as a former aide readied a sexual harassment lawsuit against the governor, two Democratic sources told CNN.
Perhaps I’m just a bit jaded by the past decade of political bomb throwing, but I don’t see McGreevey leaving politics; I see him trying to a) disarm the plaintiff, b) play for sympathy, and c) set up for the next political race. If there’s anyone to feel sorry for, it’s McGreevey’s family.
Oh, and the people of New Jersey.
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I think NBC has run one too many reality TV shows. Or maybe they’re just completely out of ideas for filling airtime. Whatever the reason, this stunt borders on the criminal. If I had tried this, I can assure you I would end up in a terrorist watchlist database.
This comes from Bob McDaniel, airport manager at St. Louis Downtown Airport:
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Well, I’ve got the scuba gear packed, the regulator overhauled, the books picked out, and the passport in my pocket.
I’m outta here — on my way to La Paz, Mexico.
This should be a fun trip. Traditionally the group I dive with alternates between Cozumel and San Carlos since we have good connections in both places, but this year we’re branching out. La Paz might be a bit more subjet to storms since it’s so far south, but hopefully the weather will hold.
Some new sites were just added to my (admittedly paltry) links list, so you can do a little branching out yourself while I’m gone.
Ciao!
When I refer to the “crazy Jackson”, you’d think I’m talking about Michael. And up until now, you’d be right.
But from out of nowhere comes sister Janet to claim that title by suggesting that her “wardrobe malfunction” at the Superbowl is actually President Bush’s fault. According to Janet, the President engineered the whole fracas in order to divert attention from the situation in Iraq.
As if this wasn’t enough, she offered Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 as some sort of confirmation of the fact.
I guess the only question she didn’t have the answer for was: is koo-koo one word or two?
I’ve been back from Mexico for a bit, but haven’t had the time to really post anything about the trip until now. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, you can get the gist of things by checking out the photos.
The trip started with an easy non-stop flight from LAX to La Paz. Normally I wouldn’t take note of the flight, but this was a pleasant change from last year’s fiasco in which all our dive gear was lost when we changed planes in Phoenix. America West eventually found the gear and got it to us in San Carlos, but since they only have one flight per day into Guaymas, we had to do our first day of diving with equipment we cobbled together from spare parts floating around the house and boat. We dove in two shifts, which worked well until the computers started going berserk because they thought the same diver was doing back-to-back dives without a surface interval. They locked up (by design), meaning we did most of our dives sans computers.
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In honor of this weekend’s closing ceremonies (and sponsored in part by Rich’s Top Five List-o-Rama), I give you the Top Ten Signs the Olympics Have Jumped the Shark:
10. The Parthenon was built faster than the Olympic stadium
9. Synchronized swimming?
8. Not a single riot during Olympic soccer
7. Forty percent of tickets unsold
6. U.S. women’s basketball team referred to as The Dream Queens
5. Carly Patterson’s eyebrows
4. Bob Costas
3. What’s with all the falafel?
2. Seventy-five pound gymnast declared obese due to incorrect starting value
… and the number one sign the Olympics have jumped the shark:
1. Race walking (aka hitting rock bottom)
CNN/Money posted a great article today on the state of the housing market. Though it looks at the market on a nationwide basis, Orange County gets a special mention:
Last week, real-estate tracker DataQuick said home sales in Orange County, Calif., the No. 2 U.S. market, slumped 17 percent from a year ago. The No. 3 market, Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., was holding up very well, thank you, but sales fell in San Diego and Los Angeles, No. 4 and 5, respectively.
The article also notes that home sales in Las Vegas, previously the hottest market in the nation with a 52.4% increase in a single year, are “suddenly dead in the water“.
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Another multi-million dollar aviation event falls by the wayside due to the idiotic and useless restrictions on general aviation. Via AVweb:
In Cleveland, Ohio, organizers are scrambling to get a waiver so they can go ahead with a planned air show this weekend after a stadium sports event was scheduled nearby. The FAA said that means no flying. If the show has to be cancelled, organizers said, the event is likely “doomed” for the future.
I was reading an excellent essay from David Warren on the murder of an Italian freelance journalist in Iraq when one of David’s parentheticals caught my eye.
Canada, which bans the U.S. Fox News network, has recently permitted Al Jazeera to broadcast nationally through cable
Like the Canada Dry slogan says, those kooky folks at the CRTC are “Just north of everyday”.
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