Nov 18 update

Interceptor back on the road.

updates

crashed Interceptor, rebuilding, 2010 camaro, yellow

Lighting update and weekend plans

I finally tried out the new Sylvania SilverStar Ultra lights on the VFR. Here in town I can't tell that they're a lot brighter than the old bulbs, but they're surely whiter than standard bulbs. Headlights on other vehicles now look very yellow. I think I may raise the beams just a little. They have a sharper cutoff and less scatter around the edges than the old bulbs so I'm actually not getting quite as much light farther down the road.

It seems everything recreational these days is related to motorcycles. I took all the fairings off of Melanie's motorcycle this week to troubleshoot a problem with her driving lights. It turned out to be a pretty simple fix with some wires plugged into the wrong spots that were blowing the horn/accessory fuse. The Honda dealer plugged them in wrong the last time the bike was there, but shame on me for not labeling them properly. I'll fix that ASAP. Now with that fixed I just need to put the body back on tomorrow so she'll be ready to go.

If it's not raining in the morning I'll be hopping on the VFR to ride over to the monthly flying club meeting to take minutes for the meeting as the Secretary is out of town. Then jet over to Foundry church to catch Cale's basketball game. After that I THINK the day is free. I need to take pictures of our old jet-ski/motorcycle trailer so we can sell it and get a newer folding trailer that holds 2 bikes and folds up against the wall when not in use.

Finally, on Sunday it's a late lunch motorcycle ride with some friends up to Snook just outside of College Station. We're headed to Sodolak's restaurant for some good steaks and maybe a few slices of chicken fried bacon. Ummmm cholesterol!

Car update

It's been just over a year since we bought the Malibu on Memorial Day 2007. I looked on Memorial day this year and it had just under 15,500 miles on it one year later. So, lot's of miles, but we bought it as a commuter and of those miles, probably 13,000 or more were back and forth to work and general running around on errands. A report shows we spent about $1600 on gas in that 12 months. I ran another report, and even with the increase in gas prices over the last year, we STILL spent about 20% less on gas this last 12 months, than with did the previous 12 month period driving the Envoy and avalanche. Score! And I'm still glad with didn't spring more money for a hybrid vehicle as at this rate we're still ahead on overall spending for the next 5+ years, even at the current rate of gas price increases. Yeah, we likely would burn less gas overall but this balances out well for us. Melanie is waiting for a hybrid avalanche to come out!

We're so lucky we can carpool together. We saved money, but if we have to each drive to work, that would be another $1500 or so out of our pockets.

 

Does this still work

Does this page still work? :-) It's been a long time since I've been here. I usually just put blog stuff on my myspace page (see earlier link). Let's see, what's been going on...

Still driving the Malibu, broke my right ankle in November (completely healed now), sold the Honda 599, bought a new Honda VFR800a Interceptor ABS, been at my current employer for 10 years, haven't flown since June 2007. That's about it.

This is just a test

I don't think is is going to work correctly but I'm seeing if Google Picasa can upload a photo to blogger.
 

Holly crap! It worked!

MPG

Just a short post to sing praises of my car purchase. We've filled it up with gas 4 or 5 times now and our lowest MPG has been 25.6 for a tankful. As it works out, we're still filling up the Malibu once a week, just like we did the Avalanche, but now a tankful costs 35 bucks instead of 60. We're on track to save 50-100 dollars each month on gas burned just commuting between home and work. BTW, me and my wife carpool, so that save us gas, and overall environmental impact too.

Still, $35 for a tankful. This car has a 16 gallon tank and uses regular unleaded. We've been putting about 12-13 gallons in it every Thursday. I remember the good old days with my '97 Grand Prix GTP that used premium unleaded and was just appalled at having to spend 20 bucks to fill its 18 gallon tank! I think premium gas was about $1.30 a gallon at the time. BTW, that car got about 16mpg in town and about 30 on the open road (it was a 3.8 liter supercharged motor).

Bought a car to save gas

"They" (probably Edmunds.com) say that it's good to go car shopping on a rainy day, so we did. We ended up buying a 2007 Chevy Malibu to replace our 2002 GMC Envoy. We figured that since the Envoy was coming up on 6 years old, and we didn't need it AND the huge Chevy Avalanche which is newer, we would get something smaller.

We originally went to look at Cobalts (think "updated Chevy cavalier") to add a more fuel efficient multi-passenger vehicle to the garage/driveway. Well, the ones in stock at Lonestar Chevy on 290 either didn't have the options we wanted or had too many and cost more than we wanted to spend. We decided to look at the Malibu just to see how their prices where. They had a nice "golden pewter metallic" sedan that had what we needed on it and the price wasn't TOO much more than what we had figured we wanted to pay on a Cobalt. Anyway, to shorten the story, because it was Memorial Day, they had extra rebates going on, we had an extra rebate waiting in the wings from the GM card we use. The guy brought out the list price of the car, which matched what I had looked on line before and said, "Well, there's list and I want to make a little commission so let's see what we can work out whether it's 1%, 2% etc". We told him truthfully that we could drive to our old dealer in Navasota and order anything we wanted for exactly $100 over invoice, so how about 100 bucks. He said "ok" and that was that. So, about 50 signatures later, we had a Malibu for about $3000 under the msrp/sticker price, THEN subtracted $5800 in rebates and they matched want we wanted for our trade in. We took enough to pay off what was left on our Avalanche, and left with a TINY remaining loan on the Malibu.

So, that's the first time that either me or Melanie have EVER bought a car off of a lot. We have always before ordered our cars with EXACTLY what we wanted on them, so it was quite an experience for us. All in all, we're pleased with the results, and while the Malibu is a bigger car than the Cobalt, the rated gas mileage is the same. Oh, and although the color is "golden pewter metallic", it's prettier than it sounds. It's actually a silver-grey that looks like it has a hint of blue added in and it looks different depending on the ambient lighting.

I've also decided not to go to Oshkosh this year. I want to use those vacation days for something else this year. Also, we voted to increase the flying club deposit this year for just about the same amount that it costs to attend Oshkosh for a week, so skipping the cost of Oshkosh will leave more money for flying and hopefully performing an Angel Flight this fall.

Check out my MySpace page too.

????? Oshkosh 2007 ?????

Time to start thinking about Oshkosh this year. My buddy says that he's going again but doesn't know if he'll be camping or not. If his wife goes they'll either have a hotel room or a camper. Plus she doesn't fly AT ALL so they'd either drive or fly commercial. I was thinking of bowing out this year just to save the vacation time and money (although it's not a very expensive vacation) so I'll have to wait and see. Another friend on the wait list for the flying club (note the new URL) is talking about riding his motorcycle up there which sounds like fun, but a Honda 599 really isn't much of a touring machine for a 1000 mile trip! Hmmm. I wonder if you can rent a 'wing somewhere.... Bill would probably know. Hmmm.

Oh! And I met my goal to average one angel flight per quarter in 2006 by flying my 4th mission this past December. Money is tighter than it was when I first started doing this but hopefully I can keep it up and do 4 more this year. Wish me luck!

Myspace

I can't believe I'm doing this!



Check me out!

The Instrument Pilot's Prayer

Oh controller, who sits in tower
Hallowed be thy sector.
Thy traffic come, thy instructions be done
On the ground as they are in the air.
Give us this day our radar vectors,
And forgive us our bad radio technique,
As we forgive being vectored thru final.
Lead us not into a thunderstorm,
But deliver us from adverse weather.
For thine is the approach to minimums,
The missed approach procedure,
And the published holding pattern
Until our Expect Further Clearance time.

Roger. - Anonymous

Time flys...

Unfortunately though, I haven't been flying much although I've been busy. Since my last post I've been to California twice, once for pleasure and once for business. I've been riding the motorcycle to work when the schedule permits but I haven't been on any pleasure-rides. I'm riding it to work all this week and it's the coldest temps I've ridden in to date. It was about 40 this morning and I did pretty well but I can see why folks in freezing temperatures have heated clothing, grips, and seats. We ordered a black Givi a240 windscreen that hopefully will arrive in time to install it this weekend and I expect it to help somewhat with the wind. Still, today my legs were the coldest but I didn't put my liner in my overpants either because I knew it would be too warm this afternoon for the ride home and I didn't want to go to the trouble to mess with it. I'd need it for any longer rides though. I plan to do some IFR approach practice on Microsoft Flightsim during the holiday, then get a buddy to be my safety pilot in a real airplane. Flightsim can't completely simulate what it's like in the clouds but it's real good for working on procedures and timing. If you can get some practice with the "flow" of an approach, it really helps when you get in the real plane, and saves some money in the process!

Renewed my medical

I renewed my medical yesterday. I decided to get a second class medical this time so I can use my Commercial certificate if the need arises. The vision part was HARD but I passed it somehow so I am now legal to use my Commercial Pilot privileges. So, if you need an airplane ferried or you need to be flown somewhere in your own airplane, let me know!

Yes, I'm keeping it.

Yep, I'm keeping the car. We just need to clean out the garage at home, which we've been needing to do anyway, maybe move the motorcycle and trailer over to the other side so the car will be on the less-traveled side of the garage, and then we'll be ready. Then we can go get the car from my Dad's. We'll then see where it goes from there. I'll probably just simply clean the engine first and then try to put a plan together for getting it in driveable condition again. I guess I had better to check eBay for a Helms manual!

Just for fun, I've started a new blog page. It's called My Gripe for the Day. I plan for it to be a place just to complain. I think it'll be interesting to see just how much I complain about stuff!

Since this blog is called "Flying and other stuff", I thought I should mention flying. Yesterday I went flying for the first time since the end of July. My coworker's dad was in town from New York and she wanted to surprize him with a flight. He has some time in light planes in the past so she thought he'd be cool with it, and he was. There's not a whole lot to see around Houston but I showed him where we work, Minute Maid Park (where the Astros play), the Battleship Texas and San Jacinto monument, and the Kemah boardwalk. As an added bonus, we got to see the Sanyo blimp that was flying around Kemah. That was an added treat. I had really wanted to get some practice in before I took him flying, but I just didn't have time. Still, it was a smooth day without too much wind and I got one of those takeoffs that you couldn't even feel the wheels leave the ground and the landing was very smooth, so I was very pleased! I still feel that my commercial certificate helped me a lot in flying smoothly and professionally with new passengers. I'm going to renew my medical certificate in 2 days and I plan to get a 2nd class medical, so maybe I can actually use my license to make my first penny in the next year!

Then again....maybe I won't

Maybe I won't sell my Camaro. I stopped at a couple of small car shows with 67-69 Camaros at them and while the cars looked good, NONE of them were close to original, especially in the engine/transmission department. The more I look, it appears that I have something pretty special and I might should hang on to it.

In the grand scheme of things, I sort of have a "secret" all original, one-owner, no damage 1967 Camaro. With just a little work it could be ALL original, and then it would be time to call the auto-mags and see if I can get a little celebrity status! : ) THEN it might be time to sell it!

Stay tuned.

Selling my car

Maybe I'll put some Oshkosh stuff up eventually. I've just been super busy. Still I wanted to post a little sampler of what I'm going to be selling in the near future. It's my 1967 Camaro SS/RS 350. My mom bought it new in March of 1967 and I just don't have the time nor resources to hang onto it. Here's a picture:

I'm back from Oshkosh

The trip up was easier than last year and we arrived without much trouble or fanfare. I'll try to post a few details later this week (you know, when I'm at work) but for now let's just say that the Cessna LSA proof of concept vehicle was cool, but maybe not as cool as the Cessna NGP flyby. And the F-22 Raptor display was the most awesome fighter display that I've ever seen. The F-15, F-16, and others don't have ANYTHING on the Raptor except maybe the purchase price!

Come back in a few days and check for an update.

Oh, and I tried my new motorcycle jacket. The mesh design is awecome and MUCH cooler than riding with my other jacket. There was also a lot less wind drag which made it much easier to relax on the bike at freeway speeds and higher!

Ready to fly for another year

I finally completed a new club check yesterday, so I'm legal to fly club planes for another 12 months. I took everything out of my flight bag and put it all in the expandable bag on the back of the motorcycle. It fit great, even the headset, so I may have to do that more often when going out to fly.
I love flying and I love riding my motorcycle, so any time that I can combine the two it's a good day!

I ordered a new jacket to suppliment/replace my original Tourmaster Transition. I know it is brand new, but I've already decided that it was just too hot for the summer. I'm keeping it for now because it's an awesome jacket, but by tomorrow I should have a new Cortech GX Air mesh jacket with leather panels. I ordered it this weekend and UPS says it's on schedule for a July 12 delivery. Yes, it's yellow and black to match the bike. Tourmaster and Courtech are the same company, but the Cortech branded products are tailored with a more sporty style than the Tourmaster products. Assuming that the weather stays ok, I should have bike, bag, and jacket at the flying club meeting this weekend. After the meeting, me and another club member are going to have lunch and discuss any final plans for Airventure 2006!

Back from Colorado - Part 3 (of 3)

Salida was fun. My wife had a friend up there and she gave us some good ideas of stuff to do. She took us rafting on the Arkansas river and told us how to get to an old ghost town up in the mountains where we saw a lot of neat stuff and fed chipmunks out of our hands! We also rode the Royal Gorge train and visited the park.

It was finally time to go home. We had been watching the weather and while it was clear in Pueblo, there was a line of rain reaching across Texas from a stalled cold front. It was showing on radar east of Abilene which was where we planned to stop for lunch. We got to the airport around 9:30, paid for parking and fuel, loaded the plane, and turned in the rent car. We took off and headed toward our first stop of Abilene as we climbed to 9000 feet which kept us above a scattered layer of clouds. We had a pretty smooth flight and shortly after 3 hours, we had the field in sight and started to line up for landing. After an uneventful landing we taxed over to Abilene Aero and parked. A lineman was there at my door with a red carpet that he placed on the ground for me to step out onto! Very cool. The facilities were great and the people were very nice. We went over to the terminal where we had a very good lunch and then returned to pay for gas and get a new preflight briefing.

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, the trip home was pretty uneventful and our luck held. The long line of thunderstorms across the state had broken up completely and there was just some stuff north and south of our course on radar. We departed to the east and started our climb to 9000 again. I had planned our course to go sort of north of Waco to miss some rather large MOAs (Military Operator Areas) between us and Houston. Well, about 10 minutes into the flight, the center controller called us up and said that he had an ammended clearance when I was ready to copy. I grabbed my pen and said, "Go ahead." He then said that the MOAs were "cold" (inactive) and we were cleared across them direct to College Station. He then added, "That route will keep you out of all the weather all the way to Houston." He was right. While we watched stuff build to the left and right of our course, we cruised along in the clear above all but one or 2 small ones that we punched right through without any bumps. All this time the frequency was saturated with the controller and airplanes continuously getting vectors around the building weather near both Dallas and San Antonio. Meanwhile we cruised along in smooth comfort and watched towns and airports drift by below.

As we got to College Station we received a few small course changes and a descent to get us on the STAR (Standard Terminal Arrival Route) in to Hooks. Finally, about 20 miles out Approached asked if we wanted an approach or wanted to continue for the visual approach. We were below scattered clouds to we elected for the visual and via the GPS, pointed the nose straight at the airport. A short time later we were back on the ground at home, glad to be breathing the "thick" Texas air, but still missing the LOW humidity back in Colorado!

After all we went through and the unconfortable condidtions around Amarillo, I was amazed to hear my wife say on the drive home, "Next time we're giving the kids Dramamine on every leg!" Yes, you heard me correctly...She said "next time"! After the stressful flight up there, I thought we had taken our last trip as a family. Apparently not!

Next up...Oshkosh!!!!