Today I was privy to a neat show.  I’ll let the video speak for itself.

I donned the regular gear, and added a scarf to the mix to protect my chin (the biggest complaint I have of riding at +5 Celsius and below is that my chin freezes and cramps up with the wind chill of the ride). I rolled the Honda out of it’s slumber and tested the brakes. They seemed fine. Pressing the go button made the starter click but the battery just didn’t have enough juice to fire the engine, it barely turned over. (Nope I didn’t winterize it, nor did I need to….)

I grabbed my little 12 volt booster pack from the house and connected it to the battery leads. The starter engaged with vigor and after about three cranks the engine came to life settling on that typical Honda purr of a 4 stroke single cylinder.

Gotta love the Japanese engineering. I let the bike idle for a few moments then disconnected the booster pack. Donned my gloves and was off! The bike is an amazing way to get around town. It’s powerful enough to move my fat ass briskly and is so cheap to operate that having a car seems criminal. If only it had heat and a stereo?

I rode down to the bank, allowing it to keep running while I used the machine then over to the gas station to add some fresh fuel. After a whopping 2.3 liters of fuel the tank was full. $3 later I was turning the key, the bike fired up like a champ. I guess that means the charging system is still working!

Did I mention that I love Honda motorcycles?! I just rode her home and inputted the numbers and here is my total cost of ownership for 2010.

654 total kilometers driven $27.94 worth of fuel consumed.

I found the old battery was weak so I bought a new one for $58 and installed it myself. So not bad, a year’s worth of transportation for under $100. This year I want to crack 1000 kms.

I didn’t like the thought of a $39 sleeve to protect the kobo unit, one made of non renewable plastics and just not befitting of the whole green movement.  I knew there had to be something as good for much less money.  I found it in the bag drawer at home.  It was a bag given out at the local urban outfitters. The bag is made of a soft fabric, almost like that of an ebook sleeve liner.

It’s black on one side and white on the other.  I knew if I folded it onto itself that there would be enough thickness to do a good job of protecting the ereader.  I needed to see if it fit, the one bag fits perfectly to make THREE sleeves!

Next I had to ask the wife f I could borrow her sewing machine.  She cocked one eyebrow initially then laughed and said “SURE! but what are you up to?”  I told her she would need to wait and see.

So flip the bag over and measure in 5 3/4″ from each end.  Draw a dashed line and cut the fabric off at the mark.  Next feed it into the machine sewing over about 1/4″ into the edge up both sides.  I remembered from home-economics classes back in grade 8 that you always sew on the inside of a project then flip it back right side out when done.  I did not remember how to thread a chinese sewing machine!  Thankfully Rica (and the internet) saved me….  So, onto the sewing.

When you have your parallel stitches turn the item “inside out” and slide in your reader.  Perfectly snug fit!

You end up with enough fabric to make three sleeves but the last one will have a “u” shaped cutout where the bag handle once was.

I hope that anyone who reads this dares to challenge the sewing machine and make their own! I sure had fun doing mine.

The training was great and actually quite enjoyable, I have a bunch of excuses why it took me ALMOST TWO YEARS to do something that many do in a week or two.  But it’s now done and I can put a stamp on it.  I feel great so great in fact that I decided that I would take Rica up tonight to celebrate with a beautiful view of the city lights.  I think that there is something magical about lifting above the city into the dark and seeing all of mankind below you.  I also understand it’s a powerful aphrodisiac.  ;)

So I checked the weather….

For the non geeks that says “it’s nice with a bit of a crosswind”  The forecast said…

Which says “it’s about to get pretty nasty out with strong winds and light rain”

Enroute to the airport I called for a briefing and the weather man basically told me that I’d not want to be up flying tonight anywhere near midnight and that it was quite windy above.  I said thanks and decided that if we flew at all it’d be a couple of circuits or a short hop to Gatineau.  I checked the amazing co-pilot app and it showed the winds at 45KT at 1200′!  hmmmm, that’s quite a bit of wind shear to deal with.  I half decided that we would likely stay on the ground.

We went to the aircraft anyways, Rica had not been aboard since Jan 22 and we pre flighted as a Cessna 172 taxied out and took off.  My mind said “well HE made it…” The aerodrome was almost still with the windsock hanging limp, only slightly indicating the evil broiling only 600 feet above.  I noticed during my walk around that the rear position light was out, I tapped the rudder and it came on.  I tapped again, it stayed on.  So I gave it a good couple more and it didn’t flicker a bit so we went on and taxied out to the runway.  The mind said “two strikes does not make three…”

As we rotated into the climb you could already see the twinkle of lights below and Rica was about to say how neat it looked when we hit the shift.  The stall horn went off momentarily and then we were rocking and rolling every which way.  I wasn’t scared at all, it was raw focus.  I have flown what seems like a million patterns so I did as we do.  I flew the pattern, while Rica marveled at the lights.

Climbing up to circuit height I could feel the airplane drifting madly to the left.  I compensated to the right until I was looking forward, out the left corner of the windscreen.  To see the runway, you just had to look out the front window! My little Piper was cocked into that wind a good 45 degrees just to keep it on course.   I saw my landing point abeam (or was that ahead?) and pulled the throttle.  As we glided down it was not easy to keep any real steady path, more updrafts and downdrafts than anything I just worked the yoke and tried to keep my speed right.  I approached the runway and knew it would die down but it didn’t.  I simply worked the yoke all the way down to about 20 feet then nailed a really sweet landing.

Rica loved it, the whole flight had a lot of spirit.  Best 0.3 yet.  Guess I’ll have to wait for this weather to clear to find out about the other thing!

I started this blog for a few reasons, the most selfish one was that I wanted to have an indelible record of my flying.  Not just a log of hours and aircraft types but of the actual feeling of what one experiences while going into flight training and beyond.  I get really detailed in my flight posts (almost to the point of boredom I wonder) but I do this because I would love to be an old man telling these stories to my own grandson.  In turn the posts are intimate and expose a bit more of my thoughts then one might do publicly.

The second reason is that I want to be an ambassador to general aviation.  I believe firmly that these aircraft serve an important and vital role to the spirit of man.  I hoped that by publishing my ‘secrets’ as it were that someday, someone could read what I had gone through and it might help them get through the same thing.

My thanks so far have been many, such as when you post comments and offer me sound advices.  (Thanks cannot be said enough to Tony or David for their shared spirit and graciousness) and I have slowly made inroads into the airport subculture but I recently was lit up in am amazing way when a young lad who was nearing his own flight test leaned over my desk to say, “hey you have a blog right?”  ”Yes.”  ”Well thanks, it helped me to read some of the stuff you went though when I was going through it myself.”   I almost fell onto the floor!  What a great compliment to receive.

That really truly made my day.   It also made me realize that I should post more often…….

I guess I was a bit cocky thinking that I could teach my daughter to drive to the highest possible standard.  She did learn quickly and she did pass all of her tests.  She handles a car with precision and doesn’t get lost as long as the GPS is powered.  She went to driving school and passed as well but she didn’t look properly when she took a left turn on a solid green light.

I hated the idea of my daughter being in any kind of danger, thankful to the Toyota company for making a solid crashworthy automobile.  She was alone, heading home from work and almost there by 3 blocks.  It happened just two days before she turned 18. I felt as if I had failed her.  Being her primary tutor I had to take the heat but the more I thought about the situation I realized that it’s not something I can accept the blame for.  She took on the great responsibility of piloting an automobile and as PIC for that “flight” it was her job to keep out of other’s way.  She just fell right into the statistical trap.

I guess at the end of the day you can train someone how to operate a machine fairly simply but it takes a lot more effort to train judgment.  I was too confident in my own skills as a teacher and her skills as a driver to recognize the danger signs of a teenage driver with too much confidence and not enough experience to back it up.

I’m secretly glad that the car was totaled knowing that life is an amazing tutor.  Jes will learn much more from that moment of impact than she did in all of her time to date.  I know for a fact that I did when I crashed my first car.

In Canada you don’t generally get to shoot a gun as a regular citizen.  In fact most of us only have ever seen a gun on a police officer or in the movies.  That’s why it was such a rush to actually grab some cold steel and fire a weapon at a range while visiting Las Vegas this week.  We went to The Gun Store and R signed up for the “Ladies package” where she was able to shoot a Pink AK 103 otherwise known as the Kalashnikitty!  She also took hold of a Glock 9MM and left with the biggest smile ever!  I didn’t want to miss out on the fun so I took hold of a Beretta 9MM and managed to shoot the hostage!  Ah well it was all in fun and worth every penny, even with my sprained tigger finger.  I’m not advocating we all go out and buy weapons but I can attest it was an intense rush firing one.   Link to video in case it doesn’t open above.

My commercial training says that I need to learn how to spin an airplane.  It would look just like this in a Cherokee 140.  Would you do it?  Or should I just rent the club’s Cessna 150?  Would knowing the airframe had over 11,000 hours affect your decision?

The majority of engine wear occurs during the start up phase while the oil has not had a chance to come up to pressure.  This is one of the main reasons that cold engines are harder to start than warm ones (Everything is colder and “slower”) however there seems to be a myth propagating about leaving one’s car to “Warm Up” idling away in their driveway.  Even worse are the horrors of remote car starters.  You know how “convenient” they are, you simply press a button from within your warm home and your car magically comes to life.  It will idle away and slowly begin to warm up in your driveway.  It sounds like nirvana on the brochure but in reality I firmly believe remote starters to be one of the worst possible accessories any car can have installed.    Think about this for a moment.

• An idling car gets 0 MPG (or for us Canadians that would be “Infinity”L/100KM)
• A modern car needs only 30 seconds or so of “warm up” time even in the coldest of temperatures if driven carefully for the first few kms.
• A car started remotely is often not monitored, could be damaging itself and even could be running down the road!

I have dabbled in 12 Volt technologies since grade school and I have had my share of remote start equipped vehicles but it was my 1994 Ford Probe GT that made me change my stance on remote start.  You see I had purchased and installed myself an Auotstart unit that was modified to work with my car’s manual transmission.  I had to work thru some circuitry and utilized some strategically placed relays to ensure that the car would never start if it was in gear.  This circuit worked flawlessly every time but I started to pay attention to the car when I used the auto start.  What I noticed was that sometimes the unit would not start the engine correctly.  It would engage the starter, turn that cold engine over a couple of turns then stop.  After waiting for about 30 seconds it would try again and the engine would start.  I imagined all of the metal scrapings coming off inside my engine just from those extra “starts”.  I also noticed that the car would never be warm when I got in.  I could let it idle for an hour if I liked and it would still be more of less cold.  I realized that modern engines are cooled so well that they will never come up to temp unless they are put under load.

If I got in the car and drove away, the car would be warm within 3-5 kms easily.  I could save tons of money by simply not using the remote start and engaging the engine the old fashioned way.  With a key.  Benefits of this method included:

• Ability to hear the engine on start-up for wear or odd noises.  Ability to shut down if any present.
• I would already be in the car and ready to go by the time I turned the key, speeding up my departure.
• I would not have to worry if my car somehow slipped into gear and started a ghost rider down the street.

Are you one of the types that starts their car then jumps in and puts the heater blower on high and drives away, freezing and wondering why it takes so long to get warm?  This is a simple issue.  The heater in your car is simply a small radiator which transfers heat from your engine to the cabin of the car.  If the engine is cold, there is no heat to offer.  By putting the heater on high too soon you are actually making the engine take LONGER to get warm.  The best way to quick heat is the following.  Turn heater control to “OFF”, drive the car gently and watch the temp gauge.  As soon as the gauge lifts off it’s “cold” peg, you engage the blower and you’ll feel nice warm heat.  If you do not have a temp gauge you can use a landmark near your home.  Once you establish this habit you’ll find yourself freezing less each day!

So please do consider your engine, the next time it’s -40C out and you fire up your car pay close attention to the awful sounds it makes as it turns over.  Now imagine if it were making these sounds but no one was there to hear them.  Remote starters are no good!

I’d like to say this is a video of Rica’s first landing but it’s not.  She was at the controls for the entire flight but our cheif flight instructor flew this landing.  There was a strong crosswind but he nailed it!

Jeanne’s link here. 

Soon Rica will be the one flying the landings, she just doesn’t know it yet