Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

I went flying at my new flying club in Long Beach CA today. It is complicated airspace and lots of traffic and airports, Class Delta, Charlie and Bravo. That didn't keep me from reaching over from my left seat and snapping a picture of The Queen Mary. We will be doing more flying from Long Beach (KLGB).

Angie and I went to a rock concert Tuesday night at the Fonda Theater on Hollywood Blvd in LA. I hate traffic, so we took the Metrolink train to Union station in LA (we ate our dinner on the train) then 10 metro stops to Hollywood/Vine. It took about about an hour an 45 minutes. It was a Мумий Тролль (Mumiy Troll) concert. He is from Angie's home city - a 9 hour flight from Moscow (Vladivostock). He is very popular in Russia. He has a unique whimsical style that is a cross between Russian folk Balalaika, and David Bowie. He uses decent poetry placed on top of simple -sometimes mocking melodies for popular effect. He has been called "Russias biggest rock band, Mumiy Troll began as one of the most socially dangerous bands in the world as noted by a local Communist party chief in the former Soviet Union; yet, was hailed as Best Band of the Millennium by leading Russian music critics after the fall of communism. Mumiy Troll are the most influential and successful independent arti...

Angie and I were seen at a tasting event this weekend. https://events.latimes.com/taste/ It was fun and different. Angie received complements on her jacket. It is actually my jacket from when I was 18 years old. It is the real thing from my punk era (before punk was cool).

Sunrise from our balcony this AM.

Angie and did some more exploring in CA this weekend. We ventured up into LA county with the S2K. I had some fun with the car turning around in a traffic jam. The car has a great power to weight ratio and delightful oversteer. It can do a 180 turn from a dead stop quite dramatically when you are inclined to merge with traffic. Smoke was involved.

I was up in San Francisco earlier this week. I participated in SDL Connect again. I have been a few times both in the US and in Europe. I usually speak, I was on a panel this time. I had a few nice experiences on the airplane up and back including flying on a brand new A220. It was the flight attendants first time as well. Also leaving SF, the "fleet week" airshow going on -- look closely and you can see the smoke from the performing planes.

We are back from a quick trip in Duluth (Georgia). We were busy and didn't take many photos. We accomplished much in three days and most of it had to do with fellow humans, not stuff. My flying club is doing great. My partners are great guys. I enjoy spending time with them. We have 4 planes now. "My" plane (N733NXE) now has more avionics and an autopilot. I did my bi-annual flight review, I am good! It was great to be in the air. I am looking for a flying club in Cali; I am saving the challenges of John Wayne airport for later. Otherwise, I got to see friends and my Brother. It felt great. I even enjoyed catching up with my Barber. Jaws dropped when I walked in there. My Brother is off with my truck and sawmill to Maine. The group photo represents Russia, France, US and Denmark. Great to see folks.

The following pic is from the "pre-alpha release" for the new Microsoft Flight simulator program (Sept 30, 2019). They actually use Google Earth (Bing) data for the scenery. I have tagged my SoCal home and the building I work in. We sure have come a long way from the Commodore 64 version in the early '80s. Quite impressive.