SPOT tracking

I just created a link so that anybody can track our progress with the SPOT messenger. This will usually be us flying around, but could be hiking, driving, or just exploring. People can use this to see when we're getting close to arriving if we're stopping by to visit, to track our adventures, or to see that we got home safely. The link is a new gadget to the left of this page, just click on the link and it should take you to a new page to track our progress.

Bad weather and the birthing classes

So for the past few weeks I've wanted to fly down to San Diego. I wanted to wait until this past weekend since I did not have the detailed map of the area until last week. Saturday we drove down to Ojai to take back Lisa's bed to free up room in the kids room, so the plan was to fly down on Sunday. Of course nothing goes as planned. First, Michelle got way behind on her masters project and didn't have the time to go then the weather went to crap and it started raining on us, long story short, we didn't fly. Next weekend I was planning on flying to Tehachapi since it will be a sort of anniversary of our engagement 3 years ago. So now I want to fly down to San Diego this Saturday and to Tehachpi this Sunday.

I guess it is the only way to do the anniversary any justice. I had to drag Michelle on two flights in a row before the engagement. The day before we got engaged, we flew down to California City for a Toys for Tots event with airplanes, cars, motorcycles, and food. She didn't want to go flying again on Sunday so I had to drag her along since I didn't it to ruin my plans. Good thing she went because who knows how long I would have sat on it before replanning the trip all over. So it only makes sense to drag her to San Diego, then back to Tehachapi the next day! I might fly up to Mammoth for some practice takeoff and landings at a higher mountain airport too before we head to UT in a few weeks.

On our way down to Ojai, we stopped in Northridge at REI for a SPOT messenger and Office Depot for a laptop. To give a short background on the SPOT messenger, my airplane is equipped with an ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter). If I were to crash, the ELT would transmit a distress signal. Search and rescue satellites would pick up this signal and emergency crews would come out looking for us. They can fly in a search pattern and home in on the signal until they find us. In the next few months, the satellites will no longer be listening for these emergency signals and they want us to upgrade to new ELTs.

The problem is that the new ones aren't ready yet and the few that are out are way too expensive. Since Michelle and I fly in very desolate areas and are planning our trip to UT in a few weeks, we wanted some extra safety. This is where the SPOT messenger comes in. This little devices is essentially a satellite phone that can only send emails and text messages (can't talk on it) that has GPS capabilities. This means it can send emails with GPS coordinates tracking where you are. We plan on turning this on when we fly around so people know where we are. It also has an emergency button on it that if we crash we can hit the button and emergency crews have our exact GPS location. We used some of our REI gift cards from our wedding to buy this.

The laptop was bought as a method to edit the HD video our new camcorder produces. I was going to have to spend $120 to buy the software, but instead this $400 laptop comes with the software included. The laptop is also nice since our office is so small that we wouldn't be able to fit the kid in their when working on bills and stuff. Now I can do this from the living room while watching the kid.

Tonight we have our 4th Bradley childbirth class. The first class was an intro, the second was nutrition, and I don't remember what the 3rd was, maybe home birth. I haven't had a chance to do my reading assignments for tonight yet, but she said it was ok as long as I do it eventually. We did 'The business of being born' by Ricki Lake that we were supposed to watch a few weeks ago. The movie is available on Netflix so we used one of our rentals to get it.

I guess the movie was ok, but I think it was more graphic than what I need to see. I also believe that it overly blames the hospitals for not supporting natural childbirth. I don't completely believe this, but I'm no expert. I really think the health industry is a scam and they are the worst industry (yes worse than oil) as far as ripping off customers, but I won't get into that now. I think the problem is lawsuits and that is caused by Congress and the laws that are passed. Hospitals need to consider lawsuits as a higher priority than healthcare due to ridiculous malpractice lawsuits, but you can't blame them. Michelle and I are hoping we don't have any of the issues we've been hearing about and so far our doctor has been supportive.

Not much to say

I figured I'd put up a new post of what we're up to even though there isn't much to say. We went to Kevin and Sarah Ford's house for Thanksgiving and had a great meal there, but other than that spent most of the holiday weekend working and cleaning around the house.

The attic is now almost finished, I added several additional flooring sections and built up a frame around a recessed light and put a floor over that and the old attic access hole as well. I just need to finish with the putty, paint, and a few other things. I've been putting a bunch of stuff up there cleaning out our closets. I was able to get all of my model airplane, brewing, airplane records, and ski stuff up there. The dogs were very interested in seeing what was up the ladder and kept whining, so I also brought both of the dogs up to take a look; that was not as easy as it sounds.

I took apart the bed we had in the kid's room and that is in our living room now and will go back to Lisa on Saturday. Michelle taped off and started painting the border in the kid room. She also did the artistic sketches of the different walls. Next step is to paint the backdrops and send out the animal drawing requests.

The last thing I was able to finish was cleaning the office. This has been a mess forever since not everything even had a spot to go since we switched rooms after the house makeover. Now everything has a spot and is clean! I forgot that I also repaired the roof to the shed. For some reason, there is a huge hole where the roof cracked apart. Of course, I didn't notice it until after the two days we got rain...

Saturday, we are heading down to drop off the bed at Lisa's and take a look at the pictures of her trip to India. Sunday, I hope to fly down to San Diego for lunch. We've never been west of Cajon pass and I'd like to get some experience flying down in that area. Originally I was thinking about eating at a place called CrazeeBurgers that we saw featured on TV that had all sorts of neat burgers, but instead I think we'll just play it down and eat at the airport. Maybe next time... I'm not sure if Michelle will be able to go since she is frantically trying to finish her masters project.

We also have a trip planned to Tehachapi on the 13th, this is when and where we got engaged back in 2005. After that we have our trip planned out to Utah to see my Uncle Errol and fly over all sorts of scenery, look for a nice post after that trip.

Test flight with our new camcorder

For the past few years I've been watching videos on YouTube of people flying into different areas and capturing their adventures. I've been jealous and wanted to buy a camcorder to tape my own flights, but haven't been willing to spend the money. Michelle and I decided long ago that we would wait until we start our family before we buy a camcorder.

Here is a link to another pilot who posts his flights. This is his flight into Kernville, I figured I'd link this one since this it compares to the flight we just made.

Now that we have a girl on the way, we made the purchase. Granted she's not due until the end of February, but that's just too long to wait. It kind of goes along the lines of getting the new TV in time for the football season and the new camera in time for a long anticipated trip. The anticipated trip is to Panguitch, UT to visit my Uncle Errol and to fly over Lake Powell, the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, and Las Vegas.

We decided that since we have a fancy new HD TV, we wanted to get a nice HD camcorder. We also want it to be digital since we will be posting both flights and videos of our daughter on the web for friends and family to see. The hassle of DV tapes eliminated that category, and since hard drives don't operate at altitude, those versions wouldn't work either. Hard drives rely on airflow between the disks so that the head "flies" between the platters. When the altitude goes up, the pressure goes down, and the head crashes and the disk fails.

This left us looking for a solid state HD camcorder. I also had 2 requirements for flying, an image stabilizer and a microphone input. All the HD camcorders come with image stabilization so that wasn't a problem, but finding one with external audio in was. Canon is really the only manufacturer supporting external audio anymore these days and we ended up with a Canon Vixia HF100.

My airplane just got out of maintenance so I was anxious to get back up and flying so a flight for lunch in Kernville to test the new camcorder setup was perfect. We also decided to take the dogs with us. They've each flown before, but this was the first time they both flew together and Michelle wasn't in back to calm them down.

The dogs did ok, but they both ended up being nervous at some point. Emmett was much worse off, but I think he'll get used to it. He's always not been a fan of bouncing around. When we drive up to trailheads to go hiking, he always lays down in the back of the Jeep, but he's never gotten sick.

The video turned out pretty good, but there are a few things I found that I want to change. I made a little stand the camcorder attaches to that has a sponge between as a shock absorber. I noticed that the sponge allowed the camera to shake more than if it was just attached firmly. The angle also didn't turn out too good, it was looking down too much and the dash takes almost 1/2 of the screen. This also causes issues since it tries to focus on the dash instead of outside. I also want to work on the audio a little. I have it tied into the co-pilot audio jack, but there seems to be a lot of noise in the audio.

I used a trial version of CyberLink PowerDirector to edit the video, but I think in the future, I'm going to try to use Microsoft Movie Maker so I don't have to pay for the software. I decided to shoot the trip in HD since I had more space on the card than the battery would last. The video was incredible when it was focusing on the terrain. After editing and down converting to HQ, the file was about 10 minutes and 652 Mb. Good thing YouTube just started allowing up to 1Gb uploads... It took about 1 hour to render the video on my PC and the clip is still trying to upload after almost an hour.

Tomorrow I'll be working on the attic since I spent all day playing...

Flight to the elusive Big Bear, L35

Michelle and I have been trying to fly to Big Bear forever. Once I bought my Skylane, I felt more comfortable flying into high altitude airports. We tried flying down several times with N951CC, but didn't make it until today. Previous attempts were foiled by weather of course, fuel pumps inop at IYK, Michelle started feeling sick half way there, some others I don't remember, then I cancelled a trip with some friends to go there on Saturday due to an airmet for turbulence.

I want to fly into Big Bear for 2 reasons. The first reason is just to go there since it seems like a really neat place. The second reason is to tackle a high altitude airport. The airport is at 6,752 feet and has a single runway that is 5,850 feet long. Density altitudes can go above 10,000 feet in the summer, but shouldn't be too bad today. I want to go and visit my Uncle in Utah, but he lives in the high terrain so this will give me the confidence in my and the airplanes ability to land at high altitude airports. I also want to become more comfortable in higher terrain since I want to take a route through Colorado some year flying back to WI. This airport is a good practice airport and today I finally get my chance.

Today the winds were calm here, across the desert, and at Big Bear and forcasted to stay that way. There were very few clouds even visible in the sky but they were 20k or higher and hundreds of miles away. There were no airmets, sigmets, TFRs, or adverse conditions. There was only 1 notam and that was for the unmanned vehicle west of Victorville that has been there for the last year and a half. Long story short, it couldn't have been a nicer day. I had plenty of gas to get to Big Bear, but assuming their gas would be expensive way up there, I added some fuel (15 gallons) so I could make the round trip without more gas.

The air was cool and the flight was smooth as glass; I really love flying in the winter. As we passed over Hesparia I was looking at the map and the GPS and trying to compare to the mountain ridges I was seeing in front of me. I couldn't tell if I was supposed to fly around the near set of ridges or right over them. I decided to peek around them and found that I should have gone right over. Not a big deal, we just added 2 minutes to the flight time, but we did get a better view of the ski area.

Mugshot

Lake Arrowhead

Ski runs

The winds were light out of the east and the traffic was using runway 8, which is right traffic. I flew east to the south of the airport and descended to the pattern altitude of 8,000 feet. It didn't take long to descend only 1,500 feet from cruising altitude to pattern altitude! I swung around and entered a 45 degree right downwind for runway 8 once conflicting traffic had me in sight and gave me the right away. The were further behind and slower so I was able to cut ahead of them with no problem.

45 to enter right downwind

I knew that I would need higher power settings for flying the pattern and landing, but I didn't know how much more. I usually use 2000 RPM in the pattern and 1500 RPM on the descent to land (with low power settings and the RPM at the high-speed stops, it's just like a fixed pitch prop and I use power to control the RPM). I found myself using more and more power to maintain level flight and 80 kts. I ended up around 2300 RPM. I extended the downwind a bit so I'd have more time to play with my descent on final. I set the RPM to 1800 and started down. I soon realized this was way more than I needed and I was very high on the approach. No problem, I put in full flaps and that put me on a perfect path to landing. The landing was just fine, but I did drift just a little.

A little high, but under control

As Michelle and I were walking towards the pilot lounge and restaurant, I noticed they had fuel at $3.50 per gallon!!!!! I just paid $5.19 at IYK expecting it to be more here, stupid me for adding gas before the flight. After we ate, I pulled the airplane over to the pumps and filled it to the brim with 35.9 more gallons, this saved me $60.67 over buying that gas at IYK.

It was pretty cool up at 6,750 feet, but I was comfortable in a sweatshirt. Regardless, the restaurant had indoor seating with big glass panel windows to see the ramp and the airplane traffic. I thought the food was very good, I had a bacon cheeseburger and a side salad. Michelle thought hers was only OK, she had strawberry crepes, but she thought they were too drenched in sauce. She was expecting them to be too drenched and wanted to order the apple cinnamon ones instead, but they were all out. I guess we'll have to go back for the apple cinnamon ones someday! They even gave us a coupon to come back.

On the flight back, we continued east instead of returning to the west and the high terrain quickly fell off. The approach to Big Bear is definitely easier from the east, but not too difficult from the west. It took us a few miles before I could establish communications with Riverside Radio to open my flight plan and LA Center for flight following. I lost contact with LA center before they handed me off and other traffic had to relay the hand-off. We were approved through Edwards restricted airspace above 6.000 feet on the way back and were home quickly.

Michelle had a very weird episode just as we were landing back at IYK. Just as I was turning to a 45 to enter downwind, she started screaming in pain. I didn't know if it was a pressurization thing and I should climb back up or if she needed to get down right away. I couldn't tell what was going on and she was just shaking her head so I kept on and flew a normal landing pattern. She was fine after we landed and she described it as if her tooth was about to explode. This weird though since I've heard of air pockets in teeth causing problems as you climb, but never as you land; weird. I logged 2.1 hours and finally our flight to Big Bear and back. Now I'm confident in our ability to take on the next high altitude airport, Panguitch, UT to visit my Uncle Errol. The Panguitch airport (U55) is almost exactly the same elevation and runway length as Big Bear so that should be no more difficult than today.

More pictures from this flight can be seen here.

WI baby shower

While we were back for Brian and Angie's wedding, Michelle's family decided to throw her a baby shower. It's pretty early for a shower since she isn't due until February 23rd, but this will be our last visit to WI before then, so it was good timing.

Chris and Vân were able to drive down from Minneapolis Saturday night so we were able to catch up with them that night. Sunday morning started off early with a breakfast. Guests were over early since they were still in town from Brian and Angie's wedding. Mark made biscuits and gravy and Michelle and Carley's moms cooked frittatas. My mom brought over fruit, cookies, and cupcakes.

Someone set up some games such as melted candy bars in diapers. I didn't even want to look so I didn't play; Laura took first place! It was so nice to be able to see everybody again since we don't get back too often and when we do it's usually limited to immediate family. My Uncle David and Aunt Gerry were able to make it as well as our friends Chris and Vân.

There were all sorts of gifts from everybody, too many for me to list here. We are so thankful to everybody just for being able to come and visit, that alone is really such a great gift since we don't get back to WI very often. Here's a picture that shows everything that we got all together.

Brian and Angie's Wedding

Michelle and I drove down to LAX Friday October 31st for our flight back to WI for Brian and Angie's wedding. We met up with Michelle's sister Lisa who was on the same flight, but unfortunately the airplane was booked and we couldn't get seats together. Michelle and I weren't even sitting next to each other although we were across from each other. The guy that was supposed to sit in the middle next to me switch with Michelle so she could sit next to me and he could get an aisle seat.

The flight was uneventful and I was actually able to sleep a little bit of the way (we left around 4:30am so I was tired). Michelle's dad Jack picked us up from the Milwaukee airport and drove us home. We weren't there long before heading over to Mark and Carley's so we could see the kids trick or treating. Tierney was a midnight fairy, Norah was batgirl, and Declan was Aaron Rogers. I took the lamp out of the baggage and set it up to make sure it was still intact; it was but I had to bend it back in to shape a little. We decided to pack the lamp with us since they were gouging us pretty badly to have it shipped.

Saturday morning was lazy, the rest of the family was helping Brian set up for the wedding, but they didn't need our help so we got up slowly. Mark had Ironman so we watched that, it was actually pretty good. We left for the wedding early since we were planning on helping them set up and since Carley needed some time to set up the cake that she made for them. The cake was incredible and Michelle and I worked on melting chocolate for the chocolate fountain. Right about now is when we figured out that we forgot to bring the lamp to the wedding!

The theme of the wedding was Halloween / fall with colored leaves for decoration and a candy bar. I was very impressed with how well the place looked considering they had such short time to set all of this up. The wedding itself was very short and straight to the point, exactly how they wanted it. I thought it was great, I like these kinds of weddings.

They had all sorts of options for the lunch including chicken, vegetarian, beef, veggies, cheese and crackers, etc. and it was delicious. Angie's mom catered the wedding herself (with her crew) and did a fantastic job. Again I was so impressed with how well it turned out so quickly. After dinner they moved some tables and had some dancing, although I don't remember them doing any of the formal dances. I love the dancing pictures, but figured I probably shouldn't post any of them.

Monday evening, Brian and Angie held their gift opening. It was just a few people that went over there, but it was fun seeing what they got and what kind of taste they have.

Congratulations Brian and Angie, now comes the pressure for grand kids!