PPL

Ticking along with my PPL.

Found a local instructor and we're brushing off the dust and rust.

BTW JK... you'll be very proud.

I was very much dreading having to re-learn the E6B. I just knew I'd forgotten everything. But it was time to knuckle down and get back to it. My CFI even had a cross country for me to plan... a real one. We need to fly over to see the examiner. Oh how spoiled we are in Queenstown! I miss having a towered airport with an aeroclub (run by my mates) in my back yard. So nice.

Anyway.

Out comes the rulers and E6B... and... WTF?... hang on... I know how to do this!

I dug up an online flight planner helper site and checked my work... somehow I'd even gotten it right.

Crazy.

Hi JK

I don't update this much, but I know my friend JK checks it here and there, so I'm going to slug up something from time to time for her and the other non-FaceBook people out there.

Back in the States.

Melatonin by the way is some AMAZING stuff!

It usually takes me 2 weeks to get over the jetlag when coming to the States. When heading to NZ for contrast, it takes a few days for the big bits and before the week's out, I'm totally over it.

When I come here.

The first three days are nothing short of Hell. I've done this for seven years, so I'm well familiar with the process. No matter what I do, I'm going to bolt up wide the hell awake in the middle of the night. This isn't just waking up mind you... I mean wide awake. I can even tell that my blood pressure is higher. I'm up, and there is no chance what so ever of getting back to sleep. So I suffer through that for a few hours... then the rest of the world wakes up. I'm starting to "feel it" a little by then... but the sun bolts me back up. I'm in "zombiland" for the next bunch of hours as my body is both exhausted and awake at the same time. The exhaustion eventually, and thankfully, takes over and I pass out again in the early afternoon. I'll wake up in the early evening from this... ARRRRG!!!! So I'm nice and rested and can't get to sleep at a normal hour... thus the "double sleep" cycle continues.

I absolutely HATE the first three days back.

After that, things slowly start to fix themselves and I can almost sleep through the night by the end of the first week. It's one of the very few things that has made me not like travelling. Some years I'd find ways to break up my trip and visit friends along the way. This helped a bit and I enjoyed the hell out of seeing my friends.

This year however, I had no choice.

Time wouldn't allow for stopovers. I had to be back for my doctor's appointment so I can keep my pilot medical. No if ans or buts.

I'd heard of melatonin before. It was said to really help with jetlag. But there's a million things out there that are supposed to help.

Then, my cousin Devin who was having sleep problems posted up that he had tried melatonin and it really helped.

So when I got back. I went straight to the drug store and picked some up.

WHOLLY HELL!!!!!!!

It's no magic bullet that kicks the jetlag, but damn if it doesn't take the sting out of it!

And I mean it works bigtime.

The first night, I still woke up... but it was a drowsy wakeup, unlike the bolt up stuff I'm used to. After an hour or so of emails, I went back to sleep.

The second night, I don't think I woke up.

By the third, I was sleeping easily through the night.

Night four and I stopped the melatonin and slept easily through the night.

I've been back for a bit over a week and I'm well past the jetlag.

Happy times.

In VA

Back flying planes. Woot.

Didn't bother with pics, sorry. I'll get to that next time.

1 hr in a Piper Cherokee with the local CFI Charlie Simanski.

Not too shabby having an airport 5 minutes away.

Jim

Android, take two...

Ok, well, that little Android pad impressed me so much I decided to find a good one.
I called on the advice of my old college professor, Mike Lee, and he steered me right.
I've got an Archos A101 in the mail as we speak.
He said the Archos 70 would do just fine as well, but the A101 has a few touches that make it worth the extra bucks to me.

I'll heave up more info when it actually arrives.

Jim

"Waste" of a good day.

Finally making progress on my new weather station.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check it out in action here

I've been out of my mind since the last one broke. I've been frantically trying to get the new one finished. The Terrace (the flying site this lives at) has become one of my favourite places to fly. The meter is amazingly useful for knowing if it's worth heading out to the Terrace or not. I'm feeling pretty lost without it.

So while today was flyable, and likely quite nice, it was thankfully cold. My desire to freeze my butt off for a flight was shall we say "lacking"... and thus provided a nice excuse to sit home in front of the fire and bang away on the new meter.

Yesterday I found my way around a "showstopper" roadblock that's been plaguing my life. With that out of the way, I was well keen to start building as I know I can finish now... the rest is within my skills and not "Gee, I think I might be able to figure this out".

It's not done, but I gotta sleep sometime. I got most of the hard work out of the way today. I'm very happy with that.

I've got some chores to attend to tomorrow. Hopefully I'll wind up with a little time to finish this bugger off too.

Android

Hey cool... I'd forgot about this post... guess I'll finish it...

I bought a cheap iPad knockoff
It's called a "uPad" hahahahaha. It's the cheapo cheapo one, but it's convinced me that Android pads kinda rock. With a better battery life and a good screen, this thing would actually kinda rock. And I'm sure the more expensive ones have that.... this is the $100 junker model.

Far easier to use than what I'd expected and it comes without all the Apple "NO!, you can't do THAT!" bullshit.

We'll see where the hardware all goes. I could easily switch from the iPhone now that I know the Android stuff is this good.

Jim

Windy day. I took advantage of the crap weather to try and get my wind meter project sorted. For those that don't know, I've been building wind meters. I can write up more on the history of this project some other time. I'm currently working on version 2. The original one met it's demise at the hands of an unknowing earth-digger-machine. It's time was coming either way as the cell network that it uses will be turned off at the year's end anyway. This has just increased the need to get the new one done. So, bad weather = good excuse. I went bashing away at it till I was ready to throw stuff. Probably four to six hours. Fortunately, Keith arrived and we sorted it out. It's so much easier when you've got someone that actually knows what the hell their doing helping you out. This project would have taken probably ten years without his help. (Thanks) Keith got me pointed in the right direction just in time too. He had to go, but by this point, we were in familiar territory. No worries, I was working with circuits that I'd made before instead of trying to work out how to use new ones. Or so I thought. After Keith leaves, I must have taken my stupid pills again, cuz I couldn't accomplish the most basic of tasks. I mean, easy stuff that I've made plenty of times before just wasn't working. ARG!!! I checked, and rechecked and dug through my old designs. I tested different components... recently, I'd run into the problem of a bad batch of chips... how frustrating was that? I mean, out of the box... bran new shit... wasn't working??? Yeah, bad chips it turns out. Not this time. Everything checked out... except when I tried to use it. Eventually, I just decide, screw it... I'm starting over! I rebuild everything from scratch. Then, bingo... it just works. Well, as it should. I diagram it all. I'm not letting the working model go away. No way. Then I take the diagram and have a look at the one I was working on earlier. DOH!! I'm such a moron. One simple simple mistake. LED out connected to the positive rail instead of negative In plain English... I had my lightbulb plugged in backwards. I hate being so stupid. It makes life so much harder. ;) Well, there's my windy day ramblings for ya. I think I'll go clean up the pile of electronics now. Jim

Jackson WY

In Jackson Hole Wyoming, hanging with my friends Cade, Becca and Bradley :)

Happy times.

It was a looong ride up here (5hrs) from Salt Lake City... I'm not particularly looking forward to the ride back ;)... but that's later... focus on the now.

Weather's kinda dumpy so far, but threatening to improve. We'll see... should be able to get some nice flying in before I leave.

Guess I'll get some pics... this place reminds me of New Zealand. Very pretty and very touristy. Good stuff.

FB

Random thought... I logged into FB to blather about something... I'm jetlagged, so other random thoughts pop into my head.

One was all the anti-BF crowd stuff complaining about opening up your personal details to the world. And yeah, I can see that point. I'm generally pretty damn careful about what I put up there... I like the rule of only post something you'd like to see printed in the local paper.

Anyway... so I'm thinking though... there's plenty of people that refuse to use FB full stop cuz of "privacy" concerns.

So... um... if you're concerned... why not fill it with incorrect info?

See, I was trapesing through mine when I noticed it had a map thingy that had my hometown on it. Cool, I thought... "hey, that's accurate".... "um... duh, of course it is". I told you I'm jetlagged right now right?

Well, hell... it's accurate only cuz I told them. There's this "fix this" button on it and, an other random thought here, I figured... why not change it? I think I'll be from Pakistan today :)

Jim

5am

On the road again...

There's just nothing like getting a txt at 4:30am informing you that your domestic flight has changed. It's even more fun when the number listed to call routes to an inactive cellphone. I love trying to work out whether or not I'm getting a spam/crank text at 4:30am.

Of course, they have both my phone number and correct flight number. Joy. Sit on hold waiting for Qantas for 20min. "Looks like there's been a flight time change"... not good... "Which means you won't connect to your international"... very not good... "Let me put you on hold and see what options I can offer you"... better.
Yeah... 5-10min of not happy.
Fortunately they got me on an Air New Zealand flight that connects up with my international flight. It leaves a 1/2 hour earlier... big deal.

Nice.

Of course, the trick was that Qantas used JetStar for the domestic carrier... JetStar's the budget airline around here and delays/reroutes are not uncommon. So it's them covering for their partner's F-up... as they should.

Woulda been nice to fly ANZ in the first place, but I had some frequent flyer miles to burn. I also F'd up booking and which put the ANZ flights a bit out of reach.

Fun fun... silly willy.
Let the games begin.
(I guess they already have)

Jim

Feeling good.

My knee's doing great.

I smashed the other on a rock and it swelled up something fierce. They call it "bursitus". It sucks but it's not too painful. Just screws up your mobility. Fortunately I'm well versed in the ways of treating knee injury ;)
That seems mostly gone now. On the upside, it's "evened me out". I don't baby my ACL knee so much anymore.

Happily I seem to be back to "good health" status. This is a happy place.
I even stumbled over a scale at the thrift shop. It dawned on me that I haven't stepped on one in a while. Last time I was creeping up on 74kg. :(
I thought the scale might be a little off, cuz it was telling me 70... shoes and all? Later I was at the aeroclub and they've got a very accurate scale... same.

Cool.
I consider 70 my "fighting weight". I feel healthy at 70... which is certainly the case at the moment.
I won't go off on my "Whole Food" diet or gym routine for now, but I'm very very happy with them.

Jim

La de da

Just relaxing today.
The weather's kinda crappy. John left yesterday and my knee's still a little sore from banging it on a rock a few days ago. So, all in all, a good day for movies or something. It'll be right shortly so no worries.

It's been a fun but packed three weeks with John and his mates coming by. Back to a bit of a slower pace now. I'll miss having my brother around.

4 gigs worth of pics and videos... gotta weed through a bit of that. Lots of it's the same stuff as my camera shoots pics every two seconds... but there's some very interesting stuff in there. Esp our trip down to Milford Sound.

Watched an unexpectedly good movie yesterday... Speed Racer.
Yup, super campy, super over the top, insanely brightly colored, dizzying motion, over dramatic and simple plot... everything you should expect Speed Racer to be. Such a fun movie!

Gotta rearrange the room back into single guy mode. Still have it in two guy setup. That requires effort though and it's still early.

Jim

Mid Summer

Well, life was in full gear for a bit there :)
Still is, but I'm up early today and haven't updated my blog in forever... damn you Facebook! hahahaha

Figured I'd heave something up here about my knee. On the ACL blogs that I read, the postings seem to dwindle off near the end. I just figured it's cuz you're getting better and have less time to post. In the beginning, you're bedridden, so you've got nothing but time!

This has certainly been the case for me.
I'm over 6 months post op now (everything in ACL reconstruction is measured in "weeks post op").
Ever mindful of not cursing myself with overconfidence... I knock on wood anytime I post the type of stuff I'm about to get into... but...

Things have gone exceptionally well.
Living at the gym has paid off in spades. My knee is strong. Most of the swelling is gone. I just did two days of big mountain hiking (two hours each way, both days, steep unstable terrain) and feel fine. On the second one, coming down, I felt a tad "tender" so I slowed down and upped the "careful factor", but otherwise a non-event.

I still get to the gym as much as time allows. When it doesn't allow, it's cuz I'm out doing very active things, so I don't feel bad about that. I still get the itch to go shove some weights around, especially when the weather packs in, so all's happy on that front.

Eating my "whole food" diet has helped a lot too. I'm in great shape and owe a lot to that decision. I love that I'm off the junk food and more that the junk food tastes like just that... junk. I can barely walk past the banana section in the grocery without grabbing one. Hahahhahaha... the fruit isle is like the candy isle for me now. I love that!

John's showing up today for a three week stay.
I don't think I have to tell anyone how stoked I am about this :)
HELL YEAH!

He said he wants to "fly as much as possible"... hahahahahahahaha... little does he know what he's in for ;) I live in flying paradise. My world is flying. Oh, I think I can help with this goal. Yeah. Yeah, I might be able to line up a thing or two.

Jim

November and then some

Well life has picked up the pace a bit.
November went flying by... pun intended.

The weather was absolutely fantastic! Best November I can remember. Next to no rain, very little "windy days"... just happiness. Loads of flying.

Here we are and it's nearly half way through December?!
Wow.
The weather's settled back to a more normal "changeable" cycle as of late. We're still getting some absolutely spectacular days though. We're just now getting unflyable days as well... we were able to fly virtually every day in November... unheard of. We still seem to get some of the day in still even if it's pretty buggered otherwise.

Still hitting the gym when I can. Especially now that we've got some bad weather days, it's gotten a bit easier. It was a bit of a struggle in November. It seems now that I'm able to get back to an every other day schedule. It gets pushed back a day every now and again while waiting for some bad weather to help out.

Most of the company's crews are settled in for the season. Old friends are back. Most of the flats are sorted and everyone's pretty set up, so now it's just "work" and play.

Leg's going strong. Still have a touch of swelling below the kneecap, but I hear that that bit takes forever to go away. No worries.

Jim

Fun Fun

Ok, catch up time.
Weather went to piss today, so I've got an unusual bit of "time" on my hands ;)

I'm NOT complaining either.
The weather's been absolutely super fantastic lately. We've got some very changeable Springtime weather these days. So who knows? Very typically, we're sheltered in the mornings, then it goes bad in the afternoon. We'll see. Certainly the case today.

Happy times with my wind meter project!
Me and Keith started tackling the next bit of it... direction. We hit a design block for a bit, but Keith came up with a very nice and simple solution.

The current prototype ROCKS!
Had one company phone me today to see what it was saying... as the designer, I'm most tuned into reading it for now. Later, when they showed up on takeoff, they confirmed what I'd said to expect. :)

As we all get used to using it, it will save us from having to drive out on days like today where it's not flyable simply to find out that it's not flyable. It can also let us know when it is flyable, perhaps when we think it's not.

In any event, it's been a super fun project and continues to be. I'm so happy with it. I've learned loads about electronics and it's been a blast working with my friends on it.

Work's going well.
Things are ticking up, which is nice. We're always nervous about the level of work we have ahead. We're such a seasonal driven business.

I've got an MRI on Wednesday for my pilot medical (I do this every year) and I've got a bit of web-work to finish up, so the predicted bad weather doesn't bother me.

On with the show.
Jim

Sunny Weather

As my mom noted... "You must be having fun... your blog's gone quiet".
Yup.
Very much the case.

Weather's been obnoxiously good and my knee's been getting good and strong. Gym Gym Gym Gym Gym... I can't say it enough. Best thing I did was join the gym. It's made a huge difference.

Anyway
zzzzzzzzzzz.. gnight.
Jim

Visit to the surgeon

Had my "3 month" followup visit with my surgeon today.
(I'm a very small bit past 3 I think)
It took all of two minutes... which is a very good thing :)

You don't want to have a long visit... that means something is wrong.
Mine consisted of him checking my knee and saying "Well... that's rock solid".
Those are some very happy words to hear from your surgeon!

I asked him a very rhetorical question because I get it from many other doctors and nurses... How does *he* feel about my knee. I'm obviously thrilled. His answer was similarly over the top "I'm jumping for joy" was part of it... as he threw out a bunch of "I'm super happy" phrases to over-emphasise that he's quite pleased. The over the top bit was a bit of joking as we both understood how silly the question was.

One of the funniest bits of the day was the Taxi cab ride.
Hahahaha, I'm pretty sure I was getting this part right... there was this siren sound thingy that kept going off. I didn't catch it at first... but then I realised that it's a warning sign to the driver that he's speeding! HAHAHAHAHA. I picked it up cuz he seemed to be in a bit of a rush at first... then he chilled out and the noise went away.

Jim

The Gondi

We have a flying site at the top of the gondola in town.
The gondi doesn't take you all the way to takeoff though. You have about a 10 minute hike up a pretty steep path before you're there.

The gondi hike has always been my metric for my physical fitness.
I could always tell that I was turning into a soft American over the Summers in Maryland when I got back to Queenstown. I would take brakes hiking up the gondi. At the beginning of the season, I'd take as many as eight brakes. You're hiking up with a 40lb pack on your back, but since I've done it for many years, I've gotten a feel for what means what.

One year, I'd made a concious effort to stay in some shape in the Summer and I could definitely feel the difference, though I still took like three or four brakes.

I've been living at the gym since my accident, but I'm doing weight training. I've been very keen to get back to the gondi since it's such good cardio. And since I fly down, I've got heaps of motivation to climb it! But, like I said, it's a full-on hike. So even after I was fit enough to hike up, I still needed to be fit enough to hike down just in case I couldn't fly. Hiking down is immensely harder on my knee.

I'm just now at that level.

So today, I went up the gondi. I was very curious to measure how out of shape I was.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Zero brakes.

Made me feel even better about all that hard work at the gym :)
I wasn't steaming up the hill by any stretch, but I wasn't winded or sore either. I'd felt a good workout and had a good heartrate. I was feeling good.

Today's my gym day, so I went there afterwards.
There was something easier about it today.
Jim

Nice day

An other nice day :)
As is the way with Spring, it will end, but I'm soaking it up while it's here.

Hung around Flight Park (our landing field) showing friends how to pack parachutes and teaching a little bit of hang gliding. Nice mellow day. Sunny and warm.

Jim

Boo YA!

Let's see. Guess I'll fill in some details here.
(lot's of HELL YEAH! stuff over on Facebook)

I've been living in hell for 106 days now.
Take the thing you like the most in this world and don't do it for 3 and 1/2 months. Add to this, it's your livelyhood. And, you have to sit back and watch everyone else do it. And, you're crippled. You find ways to cope, but trust me, it ain't no picnic.

So I can't really tell you how freaking unbelievably happy it made me to be able to fly today. So I won't try. I'd prefer not to start crying.

Now, the good news is!
(Knocking on every blessed piece of wood I can find!)
I'll eventually be able to go back to work.
I've come to describe things this way... "I have the most amazing life... and I want it back!"
That keeps me going. Keeps me positive. I've had no trouble "finding the energy".

I go to the gym like it's my job. Every other day... you need to rest between workouts or you slow your progress. I get excited when I realise that "today's a gym day!" I eat extremely well now. Whole foods ONLY. If a sixth year old can't pronounce the ingredients, I don't eat it. "My program", as I call it, has been paying off in spades. I love the reaction I get from doctors that haven't seen me and my physio. My favourite phrase from my physio is "keep doing what you're doing, it's working". I've made it my personal goal to keep her saying that. She also gives me direction and education. I think of her as my coach... and indispensable.

I've got a hell of a knee brace. I call it my "Forest Gump" brace. I've not really done much with it till today. You're not supposed to as it takes over the job of your muscles and they don't grow. I wear it for a bit of protection. Today being the first real use... and holy crap! That thing kicks ass! It's just help, so I need to continue to be careful.

Good winds, maybe three steps to takeoff, and then just happy, beautiful Spring air :) Spring is one of the best times to fly.. there tends to be a lot of the types of currents that allow you to fly for hours on end. And oh hell yes I did :)

There's a funny thing about ACL injuries... and they tell you this when you have one... "Now you're going to meet so many people that have done this... and you'll be amazed at how many there are". ACL is the most common knee injury by the way.

Well, I hitched a ride up the hill today... and as I explained my situation, the wife (husband and wife heading up to ski)... "Oh, I did mine 9 years ago, did you have the surgery?". We had something to talk about the whole ride up.

My last flight of the day (I had three) was with some good friends in exceptionally good air. We all played around for a good long time. When we all landed, we hung around outside the cafe (we have a cafe at our landing field) for a bit. It was so nice to be back.
(No, damnit! my eyes are just sweating!)

Jim