Look at this ticket I booked for February: Airfare quoted amount: $365.00 USD Taxes and fees: $617.50 USD Total Estimated Cost: $982.50 USD
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Success! I did my "long cross country" today. 3.1 hours (includes all the taxi and run-up time) and 215 nautical miles. I had a cold when I started. Now I have a bit of cough from the stress and dry thin air. I wasn't in the best shape to do the flight, but it was manageable. Now that I am looking back, it was worth pushing through. It was a very memorable view and experience descending over Lake Hartwell South Carolina. I forgot to take a picture.(This pic is from the web but represents my memory well only at a bit lower altitude.) Flight Planning at SkyVector.com
From Bloomberg 12-3-11. Try and tell me this isn't scary. We would all be in "occupy wherever" if we could allow ourselves to understand this situation. The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing. The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue. Saved by the bailout, bankers lobbied against government regulations, a job made easier by the Fed, which never disclosed the details of th
My normal routines in Atlanta and NY
I have been busy at work. It is getting to the end of the year. There are a lot of things to finish up. I am working a lot this weekend. This weekend is the first weekend of the month. My favorite weekend when I am in Atlanta. I have all the regular aviation activities that happen on the first Saturday. I am flying after the EAA 690 pancake breakfast tomorrow. Always a good time. I am going to miss a presentation from a new turbine engine manufacturer and the class down at American Eagles flight school. My leadership class is going well on Thursday nights. I certainly have got to know a bunch of people in the area a lot better and the spiritual context gives me a lot to think about. We had some conversation about Sir Edmund Hillary this week. Our paths crossed in Antarctica, spiritually a couple other times. It looks like I am not traveling that much for a while. I am headed up to Boston after Christmas and I have some trips somewhat emerging for Europe, North America and South
I am in NY. Richard and I got to do some flying, fantastic weather. We went from Greene, Norwich, Hamiliton, Sidney, back to Greene. Lots of fun. I got to meet up with my old flight instructor. That was great seeing him. He just sold the plane I originally learned how to fly. The sawmill is currently setup and running. My neighbor is bringing over some logs to slice up this afternoon.
I climbed Blood Mountain yesterday in Northern Georgia. It felt like a mountain in that the climb through the woods turned into more and more granite faced ascents. The wind picked up and the temperature went down. Again, the decent was a mirror of the ascent. Eventually, back to the car it was the comfort of a dense calm forest valley. It might be worthwhile to do that one again. I had to use my backup camera. Not as crisp.
I completed a very nice cross country today, LZU to IIY via AHN and direct back to LZU. After that I went back home and piloted my vacuum cleaner around the apartment. Our theme (this week) in my leadership class is humility. Interestingly, when I opened the cypher lock for the pilots lounge at IIY (lights out and vacant) there was a bible (between the weather computers) that when I picked the book up it opened to Matthew Chap 18:18-19. The airborne pic shows the Athens, GA airport in the right and the city of Athens, GA on the left at 4500 ft. Flight Planning at SkyVector.com
I feel I would really be missing something if I didn't post SOMETHING on 11-11-11. I am in Duluth, I am planning a solo cross country from Gwinnett County to Washington Wilkes county airport tomorrow in a Cessna 172 R model with GPS. I think Sunday is a hike day. The leaves are all turned here in Duluth. Up in the mountains they are largely falling off. I will be on the Appalachian trail. I certainly need some exercise. My work week went pretty well, mostly successes. It is about moving multiple projects down the road. Multitasking is crazy these days. The bottom line is that my heart beats 168 hours a week. I have two hands, feet, ears and eyes. And I have one brain and one soul. There is only so much you can do. I have been daydreaming a bit about my recent trip to Brazil. I admit it. The gas price of 2.84 Brazilian reals per liter works out to be $6.13 Gallon at today's prices. This was in the capital district of Brasilia, the equivalent of Washington DC in the US. M
DJ made it down to Duluth. She brought the truck and we loaded up my new saw mill. I finally found the right deal on the porta-band mill I had been looking for. I found it in Georgia, however, not NY. I will be messing around with it over Thanksgiving holiday in NY. I might have to get a firewood processor too and hire someone to do my "fun" work. We also made it to the Gwinnett County Hamfest. I picked up an Icom 2 meter for the "skua" (my Georgia car) for 40 bucks. It seems to work good.
I am almost all recuperated from my latest trip to South America (actually just Brazil). I got to spend some weekend time in the capital Brasilia and a city called Maringá in the state of Parana. I think that I have now been in 5 different Brazilian states (out of the current 27). Work went so well and blended so well with adventure it was what I would consider a peak experience. I was definitely living life large and having an experience I will never forget. Brazil reminds me of the US about 30 or 40 years ago. The growing middle class population is about optimism and friendliness. Practical joke On one of my domestic flights in Brazil I was stopped at security after the x-ray machine for your carry-ons (the way security used to be in the US). No one at the security point spoke English. They indicated that there was something in my computer bag that was not allowed. They were making gestures like they were eating. Weird. The line started backing up and I emptied out my entire
We lost a friend last week when I was in Brazil. Mike was pretty funny and a very sincere person. Michael A. Angelini (March 30, 1951 - October 27, 2011) Age 60, passed away on October 27, 2011. Michael was predeceased by his parents, Michael A. Angelini and Rose (Naccia) Angelini, and wife, Katie (Brady) Angelini. He is survived by his brother, Joseph P. Angelini; nieces, Debbie Hrivnak and Lynne David; and great-nieces and nephews, Morgan, Hunter, Alexandra, Samantha, Dominick, and Isabella. A Funeral Service will be held at the CHARLES P. ARCARO FUNERAL HOME, 2309 Lancaster Ave. in Wilmington, on Monday, October 31 at 10am. Visitation will be held at the funeral home, prior to service, from 9-10am. Burial will be held privately at a later date.
Last Saturday was a real hoot. Eric and I flew from Gwinnett county airport up to a fly-in at the private Mountain Air airport in Cleveland GA. It is a grass strip. It was good to land on grass again. Eric was telling me to go around on short final. I had it made easy. It was a lot like the Greene, NY airport. Landing and taking off with a good sized audience was great for my ego and confidence; it felt great and we had a great time. There was a guy with Pitts Special that did an airshow. We watched some of it as we did the run up and he got out of the way so we could get back to Gwinnett County. That was great experience. I am currently in Southern Brazil. Like usual it is an adventure.
Hiking and flying in Northern Georgia. That pretty much sums things up. The view from the cockpit is Gainesville, GA . Lee Gilmer Airport and Lake Sidney Lanier. Nice ride in N7262X. It is aganist the law to eat chicken with a fork in Gainesville. There is some really good chicken around here. The Waterfall is DeSoto Falls .
Amateur Rocketry
I have always been interested in rocketry. Here is a really good milestone-type launch of amateur rocketry. I knew there was a reason I was being drawn towards Burning Man and the Black Rock desert this year. Hopefully, I will make it in 2012. The rockets are the real burning man.
I have been busy at work. I am planning a trip to Brazil in a couple of weeks. Other than that NY, MA and maybe some other domestic travel for the rest of the Year. I may go to Haiti in March. I have to get the dates. I will be in Europe in Feb. It has been windy flying. Too windy to solo, but I still go with an instructor. I have a lot of studying to do. Here is an article about one of our most recent purchases. AGCO Buys GSI. It is good be be part of an organization where you you feel the executives are doing something meaningful. Unlike my most recent previous employer that hasn't launched a new product in years and spent the capital on questionable custom software. Now they have some plan to start making products in China for the China market. Good luck. Here is a pic of a 220HP tractor I drove the other day.
DJ has been in Duluth. It was actually in the 60s here today. I was out doing a cook out in my flip-flops and shorts. It has been a bit windy flying. I don't mind it being windy, but when you are doing lots of landings it does get a bit stressful. I took a pic of Atlanta Motor Speedway from the air. I ended up buying more laps. I will be back down there in the next few months. I get to open it up solo now through. This time it will be a bit more intense than the first time (the next level). I never really considered myself a thrill-seeker, but I may have to resign to the label. I was down in Florida for a day with my siblings and my Mom. She is slipping more and more away. We work on different aspects of the humorous side of things, but at the end of the day we all know the gravity. I like the pic (in part) because of the photographer in the mirror. There are a lot of folks in the background. This photo captures that aspect in a way. We took some breakfasts up to the co
Another week gone. It is still getting into the low 80s in Duluth during the day. The leaves are just starting to change. I have been studying for my aviation tests (some I have to take again since they expired (sigh)). I hiked the next segment on the Appalachian trail. Some of the trees are absolutely spectacular. Some of these areas are old growth and the areas have never been logged. I found this interesting "h" tree. It was quite unique (and close enough to the trail) to ponder others who have seen the tree. Sure enough a google got the following result: The "h" tree. This tree is a few miles from anywhere. However, the uniqueness of it has brought it notoriety. The views are getting better as the trail gets into the taller mountains. I was on the trail about 6 hours. It felt like an hour or two, max.
