Commercial Items Identified on my Commute

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I see a lot of interesting commercialitems on truck on I-75. When you make the commute many times you start to see the same items over and over again. Sometimes it is huge equipment tires, sometimes heavy equipment of different types. I see these huge blocks of aluminum going North. I think about what the mill must look like and where it is going. And how much aluminum foil a block like this will make. Using the Tesla Full Self-Driving (supervised) allows me to look for these things on the highway. The FSD also helps me through the crazy stop and goes. Easily over 70MPH and then sudden traffic at dead stops, frequently. I see accidents every trip. It is amazing there aren't more. A side note- aluminum foil has a shiny side and a dull side. The reason why is that the foil is folded as it goes through massive rollers. The shiny side is the side that faces the steel roller. The dull side faces itself - aluminum.
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We are back from Alaska. We drove 1181 miles in Alaska. We went on a glacier cruise, rented a plane for a PIC (Pilot In Command) glacier flight from Anchorage (PAMR) and took my first bush pilot/float plane instruction in Moose Pass. We stayed at Chena Hot Springs and bathed in the hot mineral bath. The place gave me a lot to daydream about. This was the most north I have been on the planet (so far) at 65.03 degrees North. http://www.chenahotsprings.com


My expectations were set very high for the bush pilot training. I was not disappointed. My instructor was a military pilot with well over 300 carrier landings. Very good exposure to precision flying and becoming part of the wind. Landing on a glass smooth lake is impossible by visual reference. After the point of last visual reference on a glass smooth lake --it is all feel and VSI. You can trust the water is flat and level, after all. You can't see the "runway" at all. The refection is just too strong. You can only feel it. Some other tidbits: Watch how the cloud curls over (or not) a ridge, The downwind side of an Aspen tree shows the light colored side of the leaves. Look for the sink from cold air rolling off the snow. Look for the lift on ridges and take advantage. A specific pitch attitude is extremely important lifting-off and landing. http://www.alaskafloatratings.com





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