Monday
Work from home.
Tuesday
Second attempt to transport the Atlantic Flying Club to Alabama to get painted.
One of the other AFC Board Members, Joe, picked me up at our house at 0645.
Took off at 0738. First leg was direct to Fitzgerald, GA (KFZG). Had about a twenty knot headwind at 4500 feet. Leg took a total of 2.3 hours. Visibility was fantastic, and the air was as smooth as glass. Approach was normal, but ended up high on final. Had to aggressively slip to make my aim point. Landed on runway 1 with about a seven knot crosswind. Got a strange burble crossing the threshold, but managed to make a smooth touchdown. I even noticed that I used good crosswind technique and held me ailerons into the wind throughout the flare. I did have to work hard through the final portion of the landing, to the point that I was actually grunting. I can only imagine what Joe was thinking.
Tried to use my new "tailwheel style" takeoff, but found that it was much harder to manage having to hold in lots of aileron to correct for the crosswind. I find it awkward to hold aileron with a yoke - this aspect seems much easier with a stick.
Conditions on the leg to Wetumpka, AL (08A) were the same as the first leg, with a bit more headwind. Had to climb up to 6500 near Columbus, GA due to issues ATC was having with their radar, which caused us to lose some groundspeed both due to the climb, and the higher winds aloft at 6500 vs. 4500. We were able to return to 4500 feet after about half an hour, which allowed us to increase our groundspeed both due to the descent, and to the lower winds at 4500. As we started our descent into 08A, things got quite bumpy. We also hit an incredible updraft that lifted us almost 500 feet before I realized what was happening. Even though I consciously extended my downwind, I was once again high on final, and once again had to aggressively slip. I was able to make my aim point, but I ended up ballooning my flare, and had to add some power to recover. We landed on runway 27 and winds were from 310 at 12, gusting to 16, so the crosswind was a bit stronger than FZG at about 10 knots. The fact that it was so bumpy, and that the runway at 08A is only 80 feet wide (vs. the 100 that I'm used to) made for an exciting landing, although I didn't grunt. 20 feet doesn't sound like much, but it does change the sight picture on final. Time for this leg was 1.6 hours.
The wife of the owner of the paint shop was really nice and drove us to the Montgomery, AL airport so we could rent a car. We had a bit of a challenge getting a car, due to the recent unseasonable weather in the South, which had apparently created a run on one-way rentals. Hertz, our first choice due to there being a location at the Fernandina Airport was totally out of cars; I was able to get a reservation through the telephone reservations from National, but it took some convincing at the counter to get them to actually honor it. We ended up with a Toyota Corolla, which was fine for me, but a bit tight for Joe's 6' 4" frame. My TomTom routed us south on 231 through Dothan, AL, to I-10, east to Jacksonville, then north on I-95 to home. Total drive time home was about 7.5 hours, which included a stop at Wendy's (which now serves fish sandwiches - yea) for lunch and one fuel stop, compared to the total flying time of 4.5 hours including the fuel stop at Fitzgerald. Driving mileage was 430 statute miles compared to the flying distance of 276 nautical miles.
Drive home was very pleasant. Scenery was pretty - I especially liked central Alabama with its rolling hills. Conversation was great, and the time flew by.
I got home around 2230.
Wednesday
Drove to JAX first thing to drop off the rental car. Joe picked me up and took me home.
Worked from home for the rest of the day.
Attended the monthly CAP Safety Meeting and hung around a bit after the meeting to chat with the commander and director of operations.
As an experiment, Jeanie and I tried sleeping in the bed in the "yellow room" to see if that mattress allowed us to rest any better than the one in the master bedroom. Unfortunately, the answer was "no." My back still got sore, and between the three of us (Jeanie, Cali, me) I guess we've outgrown a queen sized mattress.
Thursday
Did some work work, but also did a number of "honey do's." These included:
- Speaking with the broker who manages my mother's guardianship investment account about alternative fee structures.
- Repairing the cord for the electric blanket in the blue room. The cord is a three wire affair, about the same gauge as the cord for an electric light. In one place, one of the three wires had been totally severed. In the other, there was about a six inch section that appeared to have been chewed by a dog. I cut out the chewed section, offsetting the cut of each of the three wires so that the splices wouldn't all be at the same spot creating a giant bulge in the wire. I was able to salvage one piece of this removed area to use as a "graft" for the section of the severed wire I had to cut out. I soldered all of the joins, and used heat shrink tubing to insulate the joined wires. I was reasonably pleased with the results. It never ceases to amaze me how much a dab of flux helps solder to flow.
- Replacing the batteries (4 button cells, which fortunately I have a bunch of) in one of Jeanie's carabineer flashlights. This also required cleaning out the corrosion that had accumulated in the battery section.
- Replacing the batteries (3 of the same type of button cells as the flashlight above) in Jeanie's lighted tweezers.
- Taking out the garbage and wheeling the dumpster to the street.
- Putting the ladder back in the garage from when we had to re-hang the insulating plastic sheeting on the lanai.
- Re-filling the bird feeder.
- Moving one of the bird houses from a branch on the oak tree to a free-standing metal "shepherd's crook" stand.
- Flipping the king sized mattress in the master bedroom and helping Jeanie change the sheets and remake the bed.
Friday
Work from home.
Jay, Tricia and the boys arrived around 6:00 PM. Jeanie had our low country boil (sans sausage) ready shortly after they arrived, and we ate until we were about to pop.
We watched "Cars" and then went to bed.
Saturday
Jeanie made a lovely breakfast, then we headed downtown to walk around. Went through the farmer's market and Tricia bought some plants and I bought a five pound jar of locally produced wild flower honey. I've been consuming a lot of honey since I switched from drinking coffee to drinking tea. I'm now on a "Constant Comment" kick. Occasionally I'll still have a cup of Peet's coffee because it is just so good, but my stomach tends to object.
We returned home and hung out for a while then Jay, Tricia and the two older boys got in their vehicle, and the youngest rode with us to Pepper's Mexican restaurant on the Island. Jeanie and I shared the seafood fajitas for one which was delicious as usual and more than enough for the two of us. After lunch, Jay, Tricia and the two older boys headed off to the River City Marketplace to see Avatar, and Jeanie and I took the youngest to the playground at main beach. Afterward, we walked on the beach, then went to the playground on Atlantic.
For dinner, Jeanie made a lovely dinner of salad, spinach lasagna, pizza and spaghetti. After dinner, Jay and Tricia headed off to Jacksonville for their Jimmy Buffet concert, and we bathed the youngest, then sent each of the other two boys off for their showers. After bathing, we put the youngest to bed, then the two older boys and Jeanie and I watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
Fortunately, the plastic five pound honey container we got from Costco hadn't made it to the garbage yet, so I cleaned it out and transferred the locally produced/purchased honey from its glass jar to the plastic container. Even though I like the idea of glass vs. plastic when it comes to what I'd rather have my food sitting in, the plastic is much easier to dispense from.
Sunday
We had pancakes for breakfast, then the gang packed up and headed back home. Jeanie and I went to the beach with Cali. I took the new kite I had received from the IBM Thanks! program, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough wind to fly the kite. We stayed a couple of hours, then headed home. After dropping Cali off, Jeanie and I headed out to drive through some neighborhoods to see what was on the market. We saw some houses that might be worth going through. We stopped off at McDonalds for Filet 'O Fish sandwiches and some shared fries. We returned home and watched "Up" which we both really enjoyed. "Up" deftly demonstrates that with a compelling story, a movie can be great, pretty independent of the medium in which it is presented. I also found it interesting just how strongly the movie tugged at the heartstrings.
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Posted by David at February 21, 2010 11:19 PM | Categorized under: A day in the life, Flying, Movies