I got to check off another item on my list of things I'd like to do list...

I always thought it would be so cool to pilot a Cessna 182. I've wanted to fly one since I regularly started jumping out of them in 1977.

Yesterday, only thirty years (give or take) later, I finally got to do it.

Our Civil Air Patrol squadron ended up with a loaner C-182 a few weeks ago. One of the nearby squadrons had just gotten a new glass cockpit aircraft, and we had been without our aircraft for quite a while due to an extended 100 hour, so our squadron commander arranged to allow us to borrow the other squadron's "other" airplane - a C-182.

I had been wanting to fly it since it arrived, but I just couldn't work out the scheduling.

Yesterday, the stars finally aligned.

I was out at the airport because the Collings Foundation bombers were due to arrive at the local airport. The bombers - a B17 and a B24 - are going to be here for the weekend. As part of the event, our CAP squadron set up our aircraft on static display and also set up a tent with some promotional materials so we could do some recruiting.

Luck - as defined by an old boss: When opportunity meets preparedness - was on my side. I had dressed in my CAP uniform, there happened to be a CAP instructor pilot at the airport, who also was in uniform and the aircraft was available. Unfortunately, it was already tied down in place for the static display. So, somewhat uncharacteristically, I asked if it would be too much trouble to move the aircraft off of the tie down and go fly for a bit. Fortunately, two other members had similar desires, so, the aircraft was moved back to the taxiway, and off we went, me in the lead. Sometimes, even luck needs a nudge. Or maybe as someone else once said - you make your own luck.

Anyway, flying the 182 - with its constant speed propeller, 200 HP engine, cowl flaps and heavier weight, was not nearly as difficult as I had imagined. Maybe the fact that I have flown quite a bit the last few weeks helped. Maybe the time I spent flying the Microsoft Flight Simulator complex aircraft lessons helped. Maybe the instructor was really good.

Whatever the reason, I had an absolute blast!

I stumbled upon this really cool site this morning...

It's an archive of Dilbert strips going back to the summer of 1996.

Here's the URL: http://pag.csail.mit.edu/~adonovan/dilbert/

Both the front door to the house and the door to the garage hadn't been closing well.  When you went to swing the door shut, it would hang / stick when the lock striker hit the strike plate.  If you swung the door hard enough, it would latch, but, that didn't seem like a good long term solution.

I guess I must have read a hint somewhere along the way, although I can't remember when or where.  I don't think I am creative enough to have devised this solution on my own.

Anyway, the solution was quite simple.

I simply took a regular #2 pencil, and rubbed the point of the pencil all over the striker - think "colored in" all of the metal surfaces.  I believe the rubbing accomplished two things:

1. The rubbing removed any corrosion from the surface of the striker, reducing the friction between the striker and the lock body and between the striker and the strike plate
2. The graphite in the pencil acts as a lubricant

Regardless of the hows and whys, the doors latch easily and smoothly now.

The last few days have had their share of ups and downs...

On the ups side...

I've been flying quite a bit.  Since the beginning of the year, I've already flown 3.6 hours, with 2.2 of those just in the last two days.  I don't imagine I'll maintain that pace throughout the year - I don't have the time or the money - but it's a nice start.  The CAP airplane is finally back from its 100 hour, so I took it up yesterday, then today I flew the club plane for an hour with Keoki Gray, and then another 1/2 hour sightseeing with Jeanie.  While I still wasn't happy with my flying while under the tutelage of Master Gray, I did feel a bit better when he told me that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was.  He did give me a few exercises to work on to improve my aileron / rudder coordination including rolling S's, Dutch Rolls, and tracing rectangles on the horizon with the nose of the aircraft.  We also did some stalls which were really cool.  Rather than doing the recovery at the onset of the stall, he just had me hold full back elevator through the stall - both straight and level power on and off, and while turning.  Contrary to what I expected, the plane never got wild, and I really got to experience what a fully stalled 172 feels like.

I won a T-shirt from Lost Squadron as a result of having been a winner in one of Plane&Pilot Magazine's recent WIN THIS contests.

We discovered a (new to us) restaurant on the Island - Baxter's.  The service and food were excellent, and the prices, while not cheap, weren't as outrageous as I had thought.

I received emails from two friends from whom I haven't heard in a while, letting me know how they're doing and what's new in their lives.

And, I haven't had to delete a single comment or trackback spam in days!

On the downs side...

My forearm continues to trouble me - both because of the discomfort, and because of how it has shaken my faith in our healthcare system.  I'm still angry at the hand surgeon, as I still feel he should have referred me to a peripheral nerve surgeon.  I am also troubled because I don't know whether I should try a peripheral nerve surgeon in Jacksonville, or if I should go to a big city practice.  Or, should I even go to another surgeon, or should I see a tumor specialist?  And, either way, how do I pick the actual doctor to see? 

We can't find anyone who video taped the first hour of 24.  I know I can go to the Fox site and read the synopsis, but, I'm still bummed that the $#@%@! DVR didn't work.

My weight is becoming a problem again.  I've gained about fifteen pounds in the last six months, and I can't seem to get back on the wagon with diet and exercise.

Finally, Jeanie has not been well for a while now, and that always makes me sad.

Okay, I know that they don't even technically exist any more, but, our cable service / DVR service sure hasn't improved since they were absorbed by Comcast.

Both of the DVRs continue to malfunction - usually at the worst possible time.

Tonight is close to being the straw that breaks the camel's back.

The DVR, even though I double checked that it was programmed correctly just a few hours prior, did not record 24!

Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until 40 minutes past the hour.

The program guide showed that it was being recorded, but, it wasn't really recording.

Arrrrrg!!!

In the bigger scheme of things, I know this doesn't even make a blip on the radar screen, but, at the moment, I am REALLY pissed!

Amazing what a change disabling the comments and trackbacks have made...

Since I made the change:

• There has not been one new comment or trackback spam posted to the blog.
• No nusiance emails in my inbox alterting me to comment or trackback spam
• Average utilization on the server is down to below 3%

And, unsurprisingly, not even one email asking me to post a comment that the reader couldn't enter directly.

They've totally won.

I've had all I can stands, and I can't stands no more!

Well over 99% of the comments and trackback pings posted are spam, and I'm tired of having to clean up the garbage every day, so I've removed the ability to create comments or trackbacks.  My guess is that the maybe three people who actually intentionally read this blog don't really care.  Even they didn't regularly leave comments,  and they need to email me more often to let me know how they're doing anyway.

To disable the features, I modified the comment and individual entry templates to remove the comment entry form.

I tried renaming the mt-comments.cgi and mt-tb.cgi files in the cgi directory on the server, but this caused all sorts of errors in the blog, so, since I don't have the time right now to figure out how to do it "right" I just changed the blacklist in MT-Blacklist to have an entry for each individual letter of the alphabet.  Since the blacklist is now MUCH shorter, I am hoping it reduces the load on the server.

If you desperately want to leave a comment, you can send an email to:

comments at blogdom dot org

replacing the at above with @ and the dot above with .

Today was much better than last time.

I had a CAP squadron meeting this morning, and afterwards I wandered over to the FBO to get some plexiglas cleaner for the club airplane.

While I was waiting for Sue to come back to the counter, Keoki Gray, co-founder of Amelia Island Aerobatics, happened to be standing at the counter.  I had heard that he was an excellent instructor, and I had been thinking about asking him if I could fly with him for an hour or so to work on my landings, and general smoothness, so I asked him if he was interested in flying with me.  He asked what I had in mind, and I told him I was most concerned with improving my landings.  He asked me a few questions, and gave me a few tips.

Well, I've always thought Keoki had some kind of Zen aura, but, yikes!

A few hours later, I went back to the airport to do a bit of flying in the club plane.  I did five touch and goes.  The first one was pretty darned good, and none of the landings were horrible.

If just talking to him for a few minutes provided that much improvement, I can't wait to see what happens when I actually fly with him.

The bad guys continue to do bad things.

"They" have now started using my witsdom.com domain to forge the "from" address on spam e-mails they are sending.  This results in two major hassles:

1. My in-box gets filled with non-delivery notices because many of the addresses the spammers send to are invalid.  Even though the "from" address is not a valid user in my domain, because I am the administrator, I see them all.
2. As more and more spam goes out and gets caught by automated anti-spam agents or gets reported by users, the entire domain gets blocked by more and more mail servers.  Eventually, I'll no longer be able to receive valid email sent from valid senders because the servers will block the mail due to the domain being viewed as a spam initiator.

I have searched the Internet trying to find a way to overcome this challenge, but so far, I have come up with nothing.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Suggestions along the lines of: just give up and shut down your sites and domains and servers will also be seriously considered.

Apparently, great customer service isn't dead...

Jeanie and I both love Cella Dark Chocolate Covered Cherries.  We like that they have clear liquid centers rather than the gooey center in most chocolate covered cherry cordials.  The Cella milk chocolate covered cherries are easy to find, but the dark are really hard to find.

So, I went looking on the Internet, and found a number of vendors.  I chose to purchase from Groovy Candies because they had reasonable prices and seemed like a decent company.

The ordering process on their web site was quick and easy, and delivery was prompt.

Unfortunately, the product was not satisfactory.  The candies appeared to be old - the chocolate had started turning white, and the centers were thick and gooey.

Considering they were purchased as a Christmas present for Jeanie, it was doubly disappointing.

I decided to go back to their web site this morning to look at their policies.  There was no stated policy regarding customer satisfaction, but there was a feedback form.  So, I decided to leave some feedback.

I started out complimenting the company on their ordering form and their delivery.  I then commented that I was disappointed in the product, and explained what the issues were.   I didn't ask for any action - I just wanted them to know.  Mind you, this was today - New Year's Day.

Imagine my surprise when we received a telephone call from the company this afternoon!  The representative told me that he had read the feedback, and was deeply sorry for our disappointment.  He indicated that even though the expiration date was still nine months away, I wasn't the only customer who had indicated that there was a problem with this particular product.  Without any prompting from me, he assured me that I would receive a full refund - product AND shipping!  And, said they would send us another box of cherries once he got things straight with the manufacturer - Tootsie Roll.

Amazing!

Needless to say, next time I want some hard to find candy, I know where I'll order it from.

It was cute, the special effects were amazing, I'm sure I'll end up watching the sequel, but, it wasn't as great as I had expected.  Maybe I just wasnt' in the mood, or maybe the film relied too much on the effects and skimped on the story.

Happy New Year!

I didn't even bother searching for one of those cute animated gifs because I did so last year and didn't find anything that conveyed my wishes better than those three simple words.

I hope the new year finds you enjoying greater happiness than ever.