Monday
Didn't sleep very well. Got up at 3:30 AM and exercised. Was pleased to be able to do 3 pullups. Went back to bed at 6:00 and slept for about an hour. Got up and headed downtown. On the way, made a couple of bank deposits. Primary purpose of the trip was to get the sticker for the license plate on Jeanie's RAV4 straightened out. Somehow, we never renewed the sticker last year, and we had been driving the vehicle for a year with an expired sticker. I have no idea how much was for the sticker and how much was fines, etc. but the bill was just under $100.00 Went by Staples on the way home and purchased a new 4 phone DECT 6.0 telephone system for the house. It was on sale, plus I had a 20% off coupon, plus it had a rebate. Net cost will be about $60.
Did some work work, then got a call that my mother was being taken to the hospital. We've seen this drill before. In the past, it has usually been dehydration and/or a UTI, so I didn't worry too much about it, and didn't drop everything to run to Jacksonville Beach. I did make a number of calls during the day to talk with nurses at the hospital - first in the Emergency Room and then on her floor after she had been admitted.
Around 1:00, I got a call from Dave Kicklighter, whom I had been trying to coordinate with to go flying in his clipped wing Cub. He said that he had some time this afternoon, and given that the weather was beautiful and nothing was pressing at work, I seized the opportunity and scheduled to fly with him at 3:30. Since I hadn't slept well the previous night, I decided to take a nap.
Here's a representative photo of a clipped wing Cub that's similar in appearance to the one I flew:
The flying was fantastic. Dave is a great instructor - possibly the best I've ever flown with. He spent at least half an hour talking to me before we got in the airplane going over what he planned to do with me. We then got in the plane. Well, technically I got in the plane, as the plane has no electrical system and thus no starter, so he had to stay outside to hand prop it. Cubs are flown solo from the back seat, so that's where Dave had me sit. I was apprehensive at first due to yesterday's experience in the Citabria where when sitting in the back seat, you really can't see well out front when landing at all, but for whatever reason, it wasn't as bad in the Cub. While he was standing outside, but before he propped the engine, he had me apply full brakes. This was interesting, as the Cub has heel brakes rather than toe brakes, and they are somewhat inboard from the rudder peddles. After I had (what I thought) fully applied the brakes, he pushed the strut a bit to demonstrate that I had to push a LOT harder than I realized to REALLY have full brakes applied. Only then did he actually prop the engine.
Dave talked me through taxi (including gently reminding me to occasionally do S turns so I could make sure there wasn't anything directly in front of us) , run up and take-off. The take-off was a little rough as I didn't anticipate the gyroscopic precession when I lifted the tail, and it took me a moment to get on the right rudder when the plane decided to head left. On the climb up, Dave reminded me to occasionally lower the nose or do S turns to clear the area ahead of us. When we got to altitude, he first had me establish level flight so I could get a feel for the sight picture. He taught me a trick which is basically, if the ends of the wings are level with the horizon at cruise power, you will most likely be in level flight.
One of the things I noticed right away was that whereas the stick forces were "very light" on the Super Decathlon and "somewhat heavy" on the Citabria, they were "just right" on the clipped wing Cub. Also, the trim was much more manageable than it was on the Super D or Citabria; the trim on the Super D being much too sensitive in my humble opinion, and the trim on the Citabria not being easily accessible from the rear seat.
He then had me do some banks without applying rudder so I could get a feel for adverse yaw. In level flight at cruise speed doing gentle turns, it was hard for me to see/feel it, so he had me slow the plane down thus increasing the angle of attack and had me use more enthusiasm when making the banks - that did the trick and I was able to finally really see/feel what adverse yaw is all about. In the Cub, it wasn't so much that the nose truly moved away from the bank as it was the nose initially not moving in the direction of the bank. The adverse yaw was actually more pronounced coming out of the bank than when going into it. He then had me use the rudder to make coordinated turns. On some, I did pretty well, on others, I was either too heavy, too light, or ill-timed on the rudder.
Then we did some stalls. He would have me hold the stall, rather than immediately recovering, which was quite challenging, as the clipped wing cub tends to want to drop a wing when stalled. One of the big "aha" moments was him pointing out that rather than applying and holding rudder, I needed to make quick, forceful jabs of the rudder as soon as I sensed a wing was wanting to drop. When I applied and held the rudder, the low wing would pick up, but then the other wing would drop and I was constantly behind, with the wings dropping back and forth in an oscillating fashion.
Next, Dave had me do a maneuver where I would bank the aircraft and then raise the nose to lose airspeed, then drop the nose while still banked, and then recover to straight and level. Either due to training I don't remember, or to instinct, I would level the wings first, then pull out of the dive. Dave complimented me on this, which made me feel good. He then demonstrated what happens when you try to pull out of the dive and level the wings at the same time (which is apparently what a lot of pilots do) - you end up generating about twice as many "G's" and you loose a lot more altitude before you recover. It made total sense to me why this would happen, which was also cool.
Then, we did a spin entry and recovery. We did the classic spin entry - slow to idle while maintaining altitude, then apply full rudder right before the stall. While I was a little slow to get full rudder in, I was quite pleased, as I was able to consciously ensure the stick was centered prior to applying the rudder. Dave told me we did about 1 3/4 turns. I guess I am fortunate in that I actually enjoy spins - I guess many pilots either hate them or are terrified of them.
We then headed back to the airport and Dave had me fly a pattern without telling me what the appropriate speeds / RPMs should be. Much to my delight, I did pretty well, even making a decent three point landing which even appeared to catch Dave a bit by surprise. The only thing that I did was allow my speed to get a little low right at the end, which caused me to start sinking a bit. The timing of my flair was just right, so the landing was good, but because I had gotten slow, I had no margin for error. I also noticed that the pitch angle of the approach is quite a bit steeper than on the Citabria, which affords a much better sight picture from the rear seat.
Afterward, Dave gave me a thorough explanation of gyroscopic precession that made total sense to me. He educated me to the fact that as the angle of attack increases, the big determinant with P factor is actually the speed of the relative wind on the downward blade - which is higher since the "wind" is coming up at an angle relative to the propeller blade compared to the blade going up which is going in the same upward direction.
I had an absolute blast, and didn't have even a hint of motion sickness. It was a fantastic experience.
After I got home, I learned that my mother had been admitted to the hospital, and later in the evening, learned that she would need surgery to remove one or more gall stones from her bile duct. I asked the doctor if lithotripsy was an option, but he said it wasn't for her situation. At least the surgery won't require cutting. Instead, they will do an ERCP procedure where they use an endoscope that is placed in the mouth, down the throat, past the stomach and into the duodenum, where it will then be snaked into the bile duct to get at the stone(s).
Jeanie is still away, although at least she's now heading in the general direction of home. She'll spend tonight at her parents, then come home tomorrow.
Tomorrow, I'll head over the Jacksonville so I can be there for my mother's procedure.
Tuesday
Spent all day at the hospital with my mother. The doctor was not able to get to the opening of the bile duct using the endoscopic procedure due to modifications to her anatomy in that general area due to a previous surgery. So, long story short, they ended up scheduling surgery. They had hoped to be able to perform the surgery laparoscopically, but were unable to do what they needed to do with the scope, so they ended up having to do an open surgery. The surgeon couldn't find any gall stones in the bile duct, but said that my mother's gall bladder was in bad shape and showed evidence of a long history of gall bladder disease (Cholecystitis), so he removed it.
I was quite impressed with Baptist Beaches hospital. They appeared to be efficient and attentive. During the surgery, they moved all of my mother's stuff from her room on the general ward that she had been on to a room in the Surgical Telemetry Unit. The STU is a new unit, and I was quite impressed with the room. It was relatively large, and not only had a recliner, but also a little couch that pulled out into a bed so that if a family member wished to spend the night, they could be at least moderately comfortable.
Jeanie got back home around 4:00 PM and offered to come to Jacksonville, but I told her to stay home, as I knew she was tired and still not feeling well.
I ended up getting home around 10:30 PM.
Wednesday
Went to Jacksonville in the morning. Stopped by the Toyota dealer to get the oil changed in the RAV4 as we were already a 1000 miles over. I was very impressed - from the time I walked into the waiting room until the time I drove off. 22 minutes! Then went to visit my mother at the hospital. She was in a lot of pain. Didn't stay long, as I had to get back to the island for a doctor's appointment for me to see what's up with my stomach.
After the appointment, went to the airport to work on the CAP airplane tug. Put a toothed washer on the side of the handle that didn't already have one which I hope will fix the problem of the level popping open unexpectedly, releasing the lock on the nose wheel at inopportune times. It was late, cold and getting dark, so I didn't want to hassle with actually opening the hangar doors fully and trying the tug out. So, I guess I'll have to do that some other day or let someone else in the squadron do the testing.
Thursday
Went to the hospital to do my pre-procedure paperwork.
Unboxed the new home phone system I had purchased on Sunday at Staples and got all of the handsets plugged in so they could charge.
Jeanie went to the doctor as she still isn't feeling well, and then went to do her volunteer thing at Barnabas.
My stomach wasn't feeling too hot, so for dinner, Jeanie had some leftover soup, and I had cream of wheat and a toasted bagel.
Friday
Jeanie went in to Jacksonville to visit my mother and to go to Costco. I stayed home because I wasn't feeling great, and to try to get some work done.
At lunch time, I got the new home phones installed. This was more involved than you might imagine, as not only did I have to set up the new answering machine including setting the system time and recording the greeting, but I had to program each handset to set the ring tone and activate the message waiting light. The main problem with the old system was that the batteries no longer held a charge for as long as we preferred. Unfortunately, purchasing name brand replacement batteries is just about more expensive than just buying a new setup! Even if I bought the batteries on eBay, because Staples had the phone on sale, and had a rebate, and I had a 20% off coupon, I really didn't spend much more for the entire new system than just buying batteries. Part of the impetus for purchasing a new system was also that I needed to replace my work phone in the office, as the headset jacks in both handsets had gotten to the point where occasionally the phone would make a horrible squeal that not only did I hear, but that was heard by everyone else on the call, effectively disrupting it; bad enough when I was just one the phone with someone else, but really bad when I was on a teleconference. I had tried to fix the jacks, but was not able to. So, in addition to installing the new home phones, I cascaded the old system into my office and cascaded my old work office phone to be my new personal home phone in my office. This cascading meant that I had to do some additional setup on the old system to deactivate some functions to allow proper operation with my work phone director features.
I quite like the new phone system. It is a Panasonic KX-TG1034. It uses the new DECT 6.0 Digital technology, the handsets have big, easily visible buttons and a decent sized backit LCD, everything is RoHS compliant and the system is Energy Star rated. The primary base unit is quite compact. The handsets have a jack for a headset, which is important to me. The menu system is reasonably intuitive, and the caller ID feature allows you to easily change the format of the calling number to include/exclude the "1" and the area code when calling the number displayed - something our old system did not. I also like the fact that phone book entries can be easily copied from one handset to another. The feature I like best is that the handsets use standard rechargeable NiMH AAA batteries, so when the batteries wear out, it will be simple and relatively affordable to replace them. The only two things I am not crazy about are the ring tones - I'm not crazy about any of them (but they're tolerable) and you can't associate a custom ring tone with a caller ID/phone book entry. That was one feature I really liked on the old system - for certain people, it allowed us to "know" who was calling without even having to get up to look at the caller ID.
Saturday
Slug day at home.
Sunday
Went to the coffee at the airport, then returned home for another slug day. About the extent of my productivity was to re-staple portions of the plastic sheeting on the lanai that had become detached due to the high winds, take down the portion of the plastic sheeting that went from the screen door to the house since it will be above freezing and much of had some detached from the ceiling anyway and water the plants on the lanai.
We toyed with the idea of going to visit my mother in the hospital, but neither of us was feeling great, and we figured my mother would most likely be released tomorrow so we'd have to drive in to transport her back to her place and we'd see her then.
Watched Julie & Julia which Jeanie and I both thoroughly enjoyed.
While I was at the coffee, Jeanie made bread pudding using raisin bread and some individual ramekins of egg custard. It was yummy. In the evening, I made some sugar glaze (a little bit of warmed milk, a little bit of vanilla extract and enough confectioners sugar to achieve the right consistency) to drizzle over the bread pudding. Double yum!
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Posted by David at January 17, 2010 10:35 PM | Categorized under: A day in the life, Flying, Movies