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Showing posts from April 5, 2009

Worst Weather in the World

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I flew up to Maine to see my sister and cousins for a few days. As part of the trip we went up Mount Washington in NH. We went up on the Cogged Railway. It's A unique old vehicle system that only uses a large cog underneath the engine hooked into a ladder type of rack on the tracks all the way to the top. The modern engine uses a 600HP John Deere driving a hydraulic pump which in turn drives several hydraulic motors turning the large cog. Mt Washington is known for the extreme cold and highest wind in the world. Yes, the world. That was not the case when we went up. The winds were 3 MPH and the temp was 62 degrees. the highest ever temp ever recorded was 72 degrees and a 3 MPH wind is generally unheard of. So, the weather was quite kind for us.
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The turkey population looks good this year. I pulled over a couple of times just to watch and listen to the birds. I will have to make some time to do a bit of Spring turkey hunting. I was a bit over confident the other night flying. It was a bit squirelly with the wind and I bounced a couple landings. No two landings are exactly the same no matter how hard you try. Today I am doing masonry work in the milkhouse and fixing the wheel studs on the jeep.
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This is one of my favorite pics I took when I was in Antarctica. This is us comms folks coming down from the summit of Mt. Terror to the Helo. The weather was nice on this particular day, but it was quite cold. The helicopter didn't start the first try. It made us all think. We relied on the helo so much. Spending time on this mountain was quite a thrill. The thin air always made us euphoric. We saved the oxygen for the pilot.
I have been performing field trials with my new jeep. It is a lot cheaper than using the tractors, a lot more comfortable too.
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It is nice to live around here. Despite the 2 inches of snow this weekend it is very nice. I am accelerating my flight training. I expect to have my private pilot licence this year. I am studying for the written exam and I am also studying for the Certified Information Security Manager(CISM) test in June. Neither of these tests is cheap.