Nothing To See Here

Scenic Anadyr

2010-07-01T09:01:00.002-04:00

The Airfield

The Market

The Harbor

The Bus

Someone tell Larry we've got a ready-made location for the next dystopian adventure film.

The Siberian Riviera

2010-07-01T08:29:00.004-04:00

Anadyr- with average January temps of only -12F (-25C), one of the warmest winters in the Siberian climate. My guess would be that the continantal climate is moderated by the pacific, making the strms much harsher, but the overall temps much milder than a ot of the other places I've visited this trip. Break out the fur-lined bikinis! Or not.

This was also the longest flight so far, and will likely be the longest leg this time 'round. Warming up at Sokol, my GPS said that the distance was 799nm. Actual flight path was a bit longer, of course- probably on the order of 825nm or so. Because of the dearth of scenery, I finally decided to go with a dusk flight, taking off at a little after 10:30pm local time, and flying overnight for 4.7 hours. To maximize range, I cruised at FL190, and thruttled back a bit, so cruising speed was 190kia most of the way (varied a bit.) No storms, hardly any clouds, and Passpartout got a chance to take some nice pics. Sunrise was at 1:30am.

Still had 15 gallons of fuel in the tank on landing. Plenty of margin.

Warming up at Magadan
Landing Lights!

Taking off at Dusk
(I was going to put Roamin' In The Gloamin', but that's more of a Scottish thing.)

Turning to Course (Duskily)

Climbing into the Looming Gloom

Midnight Sun(rise)

Descending into Anadyr

Just a Shot of the Aircraft I Thought Looked Cool

On Approach to Ugolny Airport

Just About to Flare (From the Replay)

Taxiing to Parking

East Coast Time

2010-06-28T20:56:00.006-04:00

I'm way way way far east now- all the way to Magadan, the city at the end of the M56 Kolyma Highway, also known as the Road of Bones. The city is by the Taui Bay, in the Sea of Okhotsk. It was featured in the book & film "The Long Way Round", with Ewan "Obi-Wan" McGregor. This point is nearly the end of the Asian part of this virtual journey.

What remains to be seen is which way now- either go north, to Anadyr, which is about 960 miles, or south to the Kamchatka peninsula. Either would be the last airport in Russia, and in Asia. Anadyr, though, is way far away. Not sure the plane would make it. May have to retrofit for more fuel, and lighten the load. Luckily, I can leave Passpartout at Sokol, and have him meet me in Anadyr, should I choose to go that way.

Oh, bugger it. It's only about 801nm. I can make that.

Update: It's really not all that far. I've already run flights of up to 760nm, and 801nm isn't that big a deal. Forgot I was looking at statute miles in Wikimapia.

At Yakutsk, just after receiving the catering delivery (minivan pulling away).

Taking off

Starting the climb out

Turning to course over downtown Yakutsk

Some mountains near Magadan

Descending onto Sokol Airport

On Final

Just before touchdown, tower view from the replay

Yakutsk! Gesundheit.

2010-06-28T20:33:00.004-04:00

The trip from Chuleman to Yakutsk is a shorter hop again, at 345nm. Basically due north, over the mountains that form a ring around the coal deposits. Took off from the minimalist landscape at 5am. Because there's nothing paved, FS put me at the end of the runway, and proceeded to pretend that I had to taxi to the runway. Took, like, no time at all...

At the end of the runway

It's another looooooong one...

Looking back

En Route

Coming even to Yakutsk, on the Lena river. There's no bridge for hundreds of miles, but the highway is on the other side. In the summer, you cross on a ferry, in the winter- drive over the ice.

On final

Middle O'Nowhere

2010-06-26T13:08:00.005-04:00

This leg takes me to ...another place in Siberia! Imagine! FSX really just stopped trying with this airport. There's no town graphics, and there's nothing at all at the airport but the runway, the tower and the fuel box (see last photo.) According to Wikipedia, though, this airport sees two airliners a day or so, so it isn't off the grid or anything, plus it's designated as an emergency diversion airport for polar routes.

Here's the actual airport:

And it doea appear that there is an actual city there...

The flight was longer this time, 764.4nm, cruised at FL190 for fuel efficiency. The clinb up to FL190 happened over Lake Baikal, and there were some mountains- so this is not tundra in this area, nor steppe.

The destination, Chulman Airport, was built to service the area administered at Neryungri, which was founded in 1975 over a very large coal deposit. The airport and the towns around it all sit in a coal basin. It's as though if Siberians do anything, it's bleak. Bleak, Bleaker, Bleakest. If there were shellfis, you might say it was bleakest before the prawn.

Way to far to go for that joke.

Warming up at Irkutsk

Climbing Out

Over Baikal

On Approach to Chulman

Still Life with Fuel Pump and Aircraft

More Siberia...

2010-06-22T08:01:00.005-04:00

On to Irkutsk, which, not content with being just another Chicago of Siberia, has a nickname of the Paris of Siberia. What evs, dude. Seems like the Siberians have City Envy, or something. On the other hand, this phenomenon ain't uncommon- Chicago (the Chicago of the Midwest) has had some New York envy at times, as evidenced by the "Second City" and all. So, if Chicago is the New York of the Midwest, then would Omsk & Novosibirsk be the competing New York of the Midwest of Siberia? That seems headed down the rabbit hole.

Anyway, the flight was 480nm, cruising at FL190. The thunderstorms & I seems to be pacing each other as I head east. The route took me near the junction of Siberia and Outer Mongolia- where the steppe meets the mountains (the Alps of Mongolia?) Ok,I'll stop now.

Warming up at Krasnoyarsk

Note the looooooooooooong runway...

Straight out departure

There's those thunderstorms

Where Siberia meets Outer Mongolia

Approaching Irkutsk

Instant Replay: Over the Threshold; View from the Tower

About Half Way Across Russia

2010-06-21T07:16:00.004-04:00

Off to Krasnoyarsk, which is, oddly enough, not known as the Chicago of Siberia. Flew it at FL190, distance of 341nm.

But, hey, their hydroelectric power plant has a trading card:

(For more Power Plant & Industrial Trading Cards, go to http://www.industcards.com.

Taking off from Novosibirsk

Over Downtown

There's Some Actual Scenery near Krasnoyarsk

Descending before making a left turn to approach- because of winds, landed form east to west.

There's no Frikkity Grass Runway(!)

This airport is supposedly one of the most modern in the area, and Lufthansa was comitted to moving their Asian cargo hub here in 2008, but there was a problem in that the airport did not have ILS, or approach lighting, so they noted they would wait until moden safety features had been installed. As of when FSZ was published though, back in the early aughties (it really feels dumb to type that phrase), none of those features had been installed. All the field has here is a VOR. As usual, though, the runways are so long that it really doesn't matter- take all the time you want lining up. Go have a lunch break, come back, settle in, and flare. And you'll still roll out for yards. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just a thing.

Siberia

2010-06-20T21:59:00.005-04:00

On to Novosibirsk, which can be translated as [Novo]=New + [Sibirsk]=place where it can get cold enough to freeze your wrists off. Novosibirsk is another Siberian CIty claiming to be the Chicago of Siberia. Evidently, there's been competition between Novosibirsk and Omsk for that title, as well as competition for status as the capital of Siberia for some time. Novo grew larger, and has a population of over a million, and is the third largest city in Russia, after Moscow & St. Petersburg. So I guess they won. For whatever that's worth.

This leg is 320nm, and I cruised mostly at 5,000ft, so if there was anything to see, I could see it. There wasn't. On the plus side, now being hip to the grass runway thing, I was able to get the controller to allow an approach into Novo in their Frikkity Grass Runway, but sidestep to the regular runway and land there. Still don't have any idea what causes FS to think that landing any aircraft other than an ultralight or glider on grass is better than concrete.

Warming up in Omsk

Taking off to the west, Frikkity Grass Runway visible to the left.

Over Downtown Omsk

Heavy Weather, Man- thunderstorms en route.

Making a Withdrawl from the Cloud Bank

Miles and Miles of... [sigh]

On approach into Novosibirsk

The Actual Downtown Novosibirsk

More on the Frikkity Grass Runway

2010-06-20T06:07:00.002-04:00

Here's Wikimapia's overhead on the Omsk Airport. Maybe FS just decided that since I was in a small plane, a grass runway would be OK. Maybe it's based on the length of runway, and it picks the runway based on wind direction and then length. Donno. Either way, there was a perfectly servicible concrete runway right next to it, and the buggers wouldn't let me land there.

As a side note, it seems Dostoevsky was holed up in Omsk when in exile, and it is western Siberia, so it is kind of a dreary place. (At least that's the impression I got from the Wiki article. Your mileage may vary.) So any comic releif is probably welcome. Like twinning Omsk with Milwaukee, as a sister city. To quote Deteriorata, "reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot, it could only be worse in Milwaukee." Or Omsk. "The Chicago of Siberia." Really. Not. Making. That. Up.

Omsk! Omsk! Omsk!

2010-06-19T19:15:00.003-04:00

...or so the Swedish Chef's Russian Cousin might sing.

Omsk just kinda sounds silly to us westerners- like it's the punch line of a joke involving plungers and skunks or something. To be honest, the pronounciation in FS seems to involve a lot more vowels.

Anyway, after fueling up in Yekaterinburg, I immediately took off for Omsk (Smock backwards?! No!!) a trip of 434nm, or another short flight, compared to the transatlantic hops back at the beginning. Alson the way, there was yet more incidence of miles and miles of miles and miles. Russia seems to have that in abundance. One of their biggest natural resources seems to be the sheer size of the place. If we could just work out some sort of parking arrangement...

Taking off from Yekaterinburg

More of the Miles and Miles of Miles and Miles

On Descent into Omsk at Dusk

...Another View

Here's the Punch Line: Frikkin' 9000ft Grass Runway. Who's idea was that?

Ural Washed Up

2010-06-19T16:02:00.002-04:00

This is a pretty short flight from Perm to Yekaterinburg, but it marks a pretty serious divide: Europe & Asia. As near as I can tell, Perm is in Europe, and Yekaterinburg ...ain't. Flying over the Urals was almost unnoticed, though, as there was some weather afoot. Overall the trip was 168nm, and cruising altitude was 15,000.

Warming up in Perm

Takin' Off, Eh? (But not to the Great White North...)

Thar She Billows...

Descent into Yekaterinburg

At the Fuel Box, Gassing up for the Next Leg

Steppe Two - Gotta Git My Hair Did

2010-06-17T21:43:00.004-04:00

An even shorter hop this time, only 275 nm from Syktyvkar to Perm. Another huge case of miles and miles, however. Cruised at 15,000, and the only interesting things that happened were a chance encounter with a Cessna going the other way (but at 4500ft, so he was so far away as not to be actually seen- just showed up on the traffic scan on the GPS) and a much better landing. No bounce, touched rear wheels just before nose gear, and rolled out nicely.

Again with the skeewoggy ILS tho- maybe it's just the norm in Russia.

Warming up- early flight. Took off at 3:30 AM Local

Climbing out of Syktyvar

Another view

On Descent over Perm

Steppe One

2010-06-17T19:11:00.003-04:00

Steppe-ing out...

Fairly short flight- only 300nm. Cruised at FL190 for a while, but since this area is basically flat plain, descended for a better look. Didn't help. Ran into a thunderstorm nearing Syktyvkar, which bounced things around a bit, but otherwise uneventful.

Climbing out of Arkhangelsk

Miles and Miles of Miles and Miles

Oddball approach ILS- the angle from the runway is coming from the beacon, which it seems sits to the right of the runway, instead of at the far end.

Gear Down...

On the ground. This isn't a dinky town, but the airport setup is kinda weird, May have something to do with it being an old airbase.

Аэропорт Талаги

2010-06-15T07:00:00.003-04:00

Moving on, I decided to pass by the Krivak at Murmansk, and head straight to the submarine races at Arkhangelsk. But enough F119 references...

This trip was about 500nm, at the staid and boring FL190. Took off at 4:30am from Tromso, having to dodge some mountains because of the straight thru GPS flight plan, eventually coming out on top for clear skies the whole way. Couple of air pockets here and there over the White Sea, then a quick descent into Talagi Intenational. There's no nav equipment at all in FS at Talagi, but it's made up for by the length of the runway. I guess.

Warming up at Tromso

Turning to Course (The city is actually quite a bit more populated than it looks here. See the Wiki article.)

En Route

On Approach

Taxiing off the runway.

I don't know if my landing skills are just bad, or I'm too used to using an ILS, or too dependent on the approach slope lights (none of which exist at this airport) or what, but the landing was lousy- only saved because the runway is over 8000 feet long. I, er, bounced. Not bad enough to break the gear, but it would have been very unsettling. Probably coming in too fast.

Midnight Sun for a Midnight Snack

2010-06-13T12:45:00.005-04:00

From Oslo, on to Tromso, which is way above the arctic Circle, and has realllllly long days this time of year. I'm aiming for a landing very late, just to demo FS's astute grasp of sunlight conditions at different latitudes. I'm nerdy like that.

This leg is at FL210 (quel surprise...) and hasa distance of about 600nm. Becuase of the low angle of the sun, it's also very dramatic.

Feulin' Up in Oslo, 8pm local time.

Turned to Course, and flying back over the airport.

Dramatically over Norway (click thru to see the [dramatic] sliver crescent of the Moon)

Even More Dramatically under the Big Norweigan Dramatic Sky

Dramatically Descending thru Dramatic Mountains to Tromso (Dramatically)

Dramatically lined up over a dramatic reflection of the sun

Dramatically on final next to the dramatic houses of Tromso, which are dramatically perched on the hiils by the shoreline

On the Ground in Tromso- local time 12:15 am (Drama!)

N00B to Oslo

2010-06-13T12:23:00.003-04:00

Heading northeast from Glasgow to Oslo, which is, evidently in Norway. It is roumored that the Norweigan language is made of almost entirely of the sounds that drunken Vikings make...

Anyway, lined up for takeoff in Glasgow- this trip in only about 550NM, and I cruised at FL190 (predictable, really). Very nice weather the whole way until some turbulence in the terminal area. Made the descent, especially between 10,000 and 3,000 rather bumpy.

Initial Climb

Turned to Course, Climbing over Glasgow (the trees make it look like the plane's shadow, and I'm just skimming the ground here. Kewel.)

On Approach to Gardermoen Airport (a little big for this type of aircraft, but what the heck, it's Flight Simulator. I can land where I want.

On Final

"You're Scottish, Fry Something!" - The Doctor

2010-05-31T13:57:00.004-04:00

From Iceland to Scotland. From the Land of Ice to the Land of Scot. Er, Scots.

Anyway, about 750NM at FL190 (seems to be the most efficient). From Keflavik to Glasgow. Cloud tops were only at abut 16 thoudand, winds mostly calm, in short, a very good day for flying at altitude.

Pulling out of Iceland.

Turning to course.

Over the North Atlantic, headed south to Glasgow.

On final into Glasgow, following a 737 that just landed.

Instant replay from the tower view.

All out for Haggis & Butter Cookies.

Iceland - Land of Ice

2010-05-24T19:48:00.003-04:00

Moving on to Keflavik. This flight totalled 3.8 hours, mostly at FL190. Both the airports are far enough north that the days are really really long- landing was at 12:30AM local, and as can be seen from the last photo, it wasn't quite dark.

Warming up.

Climbing out after a 180 degree turn (took off to the west, the turned left to pick up the GPS track.)
Over the mountains and glaciers.
Midnight sunset.
Landing at Keflavik. Very big airport, with one small hangar area for dinky tiny plane parking.

Onward to Greenland

2010-05-23T12:54:00.003-04:00

Gander to Narsarsuaq

Next stop is an airfield at the southwest of Greenland, called Narsarsuaq. Built by the US War Dept for WW2, construction began in July of 1941. At it's largest, the base housed about 4000 personnel, and was used as an aircraft ferry stopover for planes being moved from the US to Europe, and as an observation and antisubmarine base. It's a biut more mundane these days, providing a passenger service hub, since the runway is long enough to handle large aircraft.

Warming up at Gander

Took off to the southwest, so had to come around- shown here flying past the airfield while climbing.

Experimenting with screen views at FL230.

Almost landed- steep approach, because MS Flight Sim seems to maintain standard H over G requirements in all terrain, without regard to common sense approach slopes...

On the Ground

An actual photo from the Wikipedia Commons...

Bangor to Gander

2010-05-22T09:03:00.005-04:00

...and other phrases that sound dirty but arent.

Anyway, drippy day in Bangor- very wet parking area and runways. Taxiing kicked up a lot of spray. Cruised again at FL190, uneventful flight to Gander. There's not a lot of traffic on these routes, so not too much radio chatter either.

On the line, just after getting IFR clearance.

Dramatic pose amid rain and cloud...

Liftoff.

En route.

On Final into Gander.

I looked at the Wikimapia map of Gander, and there should be buildings in the foreground of that last shot- mainly car dealers, according to the map entries.

Next up, Bluie West One.

Eww

2010-05-19T08:39:00.002-04:00

I just realized I used the term "sweet ride" in a prior post. I humbly apologize to the world for, on balance, reducing couth and beauty.

Leg the Foist

2010-05-19T08:06:00.005-04:00

Chillicothe, OH to Bangor Maine.

Climbing out

In Route

Dark, pues.

Overall, pretty uneventful. Cruised at about 165kts IAS at FL190. Trip length was about 660 nautical miles. Used about 60 gallons of fuel. Took about 3 hours flight time.

One more time, with feeling.

2010-05-19T07:42:00.005-04:00

Finally, off to 'round the world again- this time in a Mooney Bravo. Just to make it more interesting. I haven't found out what kind of range I can coax out of the thing yet, so the pacific crossing could get hairy. The Atlantic crossing, tho, will go over the tiome tested northern route that was used for ferrying aircraft since the 30s & 40s. North to Canada (I'm going to go through Gander), then to Greenland, then Iceland, to Scotland.

Anyway, here's the Bravo:

The beginning and end point is, for no apparent reason, Chillicothe, Ohio. Mead had a plant there, but that had no effect on my decision.

Anyway, the Bravo is a pretty sweet ride (in FlightSimWorld, anyway). It's got enough horsepower to climb up at 1,000 feet per minute if you want to, and at FL190 can cruise with a 210kt groundspeed (winds permitting). I'm flying the glass cockpit version, which has a lot of advantages over the old style instrumentation- the only drawback I've hit so far is I haven't been able to figure out how to tune the NAV2 radio. There's got to be some switch or key somewhere that changes the tuner knob so it tunes NAV2, but I haven't been bothered to find it yet.

Anyway, it looks cool, too.

hoorah

2009-03-16T13:00:00.002-04:00

ThespaceFafblogspaceisspacebackspaceexclamationpointspaceHuzzah

AkchallyspacetheyspacebeenspacebackspaceferspacesomespacetimespaceanapostrophespaceIspacedidnapostrophetspacenoticeperiod

Compods

2009-03-12T23:41:00.003-04:00

Comcast is now employing Pod People to advertise their all-in-one cable system to other pod people.

Actually, the spacemen on Hippity-Hops are kinda funny, but the overall effect is just creepy. From the fedora-wearing-guitar-strumming chipmunks to the bicycle-riding-multi-tracked-singing-automaton, the last thing I'd want to be is associated with them.

I mean, I get it - "Dream Big" and the whole bizzaro world dream sequence thing, but usualy when having a dream such as this, I'm trying to wake up.

Get very very slightly excited...

Victory Lap, Part Deux

2007-06-02T22:25:00.001-04:00

Sao Paulo to Kolkata (Calcutta)
This leg was 8322NM, cruising at Mach .85 (283KIAS) at FL 370. Lots of photos. Radios went from Guarulhos clearance, to ground, to tower, Sao Paulo departure, Sao Jose Approach, Brasilia Center, Atlantico Center, Luanda Center, Kinshasa Center, Brazzaville Center, Entebbe Center, Khartoum Center, Addis Ababa Center, Mogadishu Center, Sanaa Center, Mombai Center, Nagpur Center, Calcutta Center, Approach, Tower & Ground.

Takeoff from Sao Paulo

Climb Out

Keaving the Sao Paulo Area

Over the Brazillian Coast

Clear Air

Rio de Janiero 1

Rio 2

Moon over the Atlantic

Sunrise over Africa

Over The Sahara

The Horn of Africa

Mumbai (Bombay)

Cirrus Clouds near Kolkata (Calcutta)

On Descent

Touchdown

At the Terminal

Victory Lap Part 1

2007-05-28T12:35:00.000-04:00

Wellington to Sao Paulo

Around the world in as few hops as I can in a 747-400. Part 1 is Wellington, New Zealand, to Sao Paulo, Brazil, a trip of 6295NM, in about 12 hours. Well within the range of a 747.

Radios: Wellington clearance, ground, tower, departure, New Zealand Center, Isla De Pascua Center, Punta Arenas Center, Comodoro Rivadavia Center, Ezeiza Center, Montevideo Center, Curitiba Center, Montivideo Center, Curitiba Center, Sao Paulo Approach, Guarulhos Tower, & ground.

Came in a little shallow, and overcorrected, floating a ways down the runway, Luckily, Guarulhos has a long runway, so I could roll out with no problem.

Warming up at Wellington

Pushing Back

Ready for Takeoff

Climbing Out

Turning to Course, back over the airport

Climbing over North Island

The Sun Sets Over New Zealand

Night Flight w/Moon

Multi-Screen En Route

Nearing Terminal Area

Touching Down

Guarulhos International Airport

Leg The Last

2007-05-18T23:57:00.001-04:00

Well, this is it- the final leg on this trip 'round the marble. I got a new monitor (not just for this, but it is pretty cool to show off with.) The new monitor's a ViewSonic LCD 22" with a resolution of 1680 x 1050. Effing huge.

Anyway, this last leg has a distance of 1203NM, which I cruised at FL290, at 300KIAS. Radios went from Sydney clearance, to Sydney ground, tower & departure, then Melbourne Center, Brisbane Center, Auckland Center, New Zealand Center, Wellington Approach, Tower, & ground. Interestingly, Wellington uses the same frequency for tower & ground.

Coming in to Wellington, there was traffic taking off- one jet got cleared out when I was only 12 miles out, and took his time. I slowed to 140KTS, and he got off about 4 NM ahead of me, so I didn't have to go around. The next jet took off shortly after I landed. I came in a tad high, so I rolled out to the next to last taxiway on runway 16 before pulling off.

Well, that's pretty much it, except for the photos. I'm thinking about taking a victory lap in a 777, only 3 stops... we'll see.

On The Tarmac at Sydney

Warming Up

Over Sydney Harbour & The Opera House

Bit of a Hazy Day...

"So, what brings you this fine day to the EAC?"

Nearing the South Island

Banking to the ILS

Approaching at Sunset

Over the Marker

Welcome Back to Wellington

A Really Nice Evening

The Big Map

2007-05-15T10:38:00.000-04:00

Wrapping up before the final leg, here's the Big Map O' The Trip:
(some of the city locations are, uh, inexact.)

Leg The Penultimate

2007-05-14T06:42:00.000-04:00

Darwin to Sydney (All that's left is Sydney to Wellington)

This leg, a distance of 1704NM, is one of the few domestic flights on the itinerary. Darwin is in the far northwest of Australia, and Sydney's southeast. Along the way, there were miles and miles of outback. I flew at FL 310, 290KIAS, pushing back from the terminal at Darwin at 7:30am local. For the first hour or so, I had a strong tailwind, and made a groundspeed of 520NM/Hr, but after that had either crosswind or headwind, and made much slower time, usually around 460NM/Hr. Nearing, Sydney, the weather got, well, wierd. I don't know if it was a problem with the internet connection, but the clouds suddenly came in, very thick, and the barometer went all uppy-downy. On the other hand, it could just be the way it is coming over the Great Dividing Range and into the Sydney area.

Radios went form Darwin clearance, to Darwin Ground, tower & departure, to Brisbane center, switching frequencies a few times, then to Melbourne center, back to Brisbane, back again to Melbourse, to Sydney approach, tower & ground.

Warming up at Darwin

Climbing out Thru some Haze

Over The Outback- Miles & Miles of Miles & Miles

Descending into the Sydney Area

Now That's Dense Clouds

On Final, 34L

A Cockpit Closeup

Busy Terminal Area

The Sydney Airport

Leg the 29th

2007-05-12T20:23:00.000-04:00

Jakarta to Darwin
So, after a 3 hour rest for lunch & fuel, I headed off to Darwin, Austrailia. 2 more stops, and that's lap 1 over with. Pushback was at 12 noon, and visibility was still only 4 miles.

Coming in to Darwin at 5PM local, 2 time zones over, there were 3 aircraft that entered the terminal area at the same time. Since there's only 1 runway in Darwin, that made for quite a line-up. I followed an MD-80 down, which barely made it off the runway before I landed, and I was followed by a Learjet. The Lear didn't slow down, and wound up getting told to go around. Some coulds around Darwin, but otherwise not much weather wise.

Flight was 1483NM, cruising at FL330, 280KIAS. Radios went from Jakarta clearance delivery to Jakarta ground, tower, departure, then center, to Bali center, Brisbane Center, Darwin Approach, tower & ground.

Pushing Back at Soekarno-Hatta

Climbing Thru the Haze

Over the Mountains of Indonesia

Between Could Layers Nearing Darwin

Following the MD-80

Taxiing Up to the Terminal

Parked in a Row at Darwin - Door Open for some Fresh Air

Aerial View of Darwin Airport

Jakarta

2007-05-12T17:26:00.000-04:00

Nice morning flight to Jakarta, Indonesia. The destination airport was Soekarno-Hatte International. Push back was at 5am local time, landed at 9am, local. Cruised at FL330 at 280KIAS.

Radios went from Bangkok Clearance, to ground, to tower, to departure, to center. Next was Singapore Center, Kuala Lumpur Center, Singapore Center, Kuala Lumpur Center, Singapore Center, Jakarta Center, Jakarta Approach, Tower & ground.

Along the way, I had a cloise approach to another aircraft, another American Pacific flight, also bound for Jakarta, at the same altitude. I was going a little faster, and eventually passed by, coming as close as 0.9NM. I was about 20NM ahead of him coming into the terminal area, but for whatever reason, I got a vector way west, and the controller called him in tighter, and to lower altitudes. The result was that he landed first. It just seems kinda odd. Anyway, knowing that he was going to come in first, I slowed further out than normal so he could clear the runway & I would not have to go around. Good thing too- I heard the tower tell him to exit the runway 4 times before telling him to tune to ground.

Warming Up at Bangkok

Climbing Out

The Close Approach

On The ILS in a Cloud

Pulling up to the Terminal

Aerial Map of Jakarta Airport

Leg the 27th

2007-05-11T07:57:00.000-04:00

If the world's your oyster, which part's the shell?

Nice flight from New Delhi to Bangkok International, apart from low level haze over the departure airport, but that topped out at about 11,000. Push back was at 8:15am, for a flight of 1575NM, cruising at FL330 at 275KIAS. The course was over India, Myanmar, and Thailand. I would be remiss if I didn't note that Myanmar used to be Burma. I think that they changed it after it's use as a Monty Python Joke ("BURMA!").

Radios went from Ground at Delhi for clearance delivery, to tower, then departure, Delhi Center, Varanasi Center, Calcutta (Kolkatta) Center, Dhaka Center, Calcutta Center, Yangon Center, Bangkok Center, Approach, Tower & Ground.

Mucky Skies over New Delhi Tarmac

Climbing Through the Haze

On Course, back over Indira Gandhi Int'l

Over the Myanmar Coast

Touching Down at Bangkok

Parked in the Far East

Hello, Delhi

2007-05-10T08:05:00.000-04:00

How often do you get to write UGGG->VIDP and mean it?

This flight was 1748NM, cruising at FL330 at 270KIAS. Good weather until in the terminal area- I have no idea whether that's air pollution or just low clouds, but it's really thick around Delhi.

Radio went from Tbilisi ground, including clearance delivery, to tower, to departure, to Tbilisi Center, Makhachkala Canter, Turkmenbashi Center, Ashkabad Center, where I got into a bit of a ping pong match again, this time along the Iranian border- Tehran Center, Ashkabad Center, Tehran Center, Ashkabad Center, Kabul Center, Lahore Center, Udhampur Center, Delhi Center, Delhi Approach, tower & ground.

Warming Up at Tbilisi

Taxiing Out

Climb Out- There's 3 Airports in the Valley

Nearing New Delhi- Thick Atmosphere

On Final

At The Gate

Aerial of Indira Gandhi International

And then, outta nowhere...

2007-05-06T09:19:00.000-04:00

Innsbruck, Austria to Tbilisi, Georgia

Continuing Eastward, this leg takes me to Georgia, which is on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, a trip of 1530NM, cruising at 270KIAS at FL330. I had good weather at flight altitude, over the tops of clouds, and over an electrical storm near Budapest (enlarge photo below). When nearing Tbilisi, the controler had given me an approach for runway 31 right, visual- since I wasn't familiar with the airport or the approach, I requested ILS 31 L, which turned out to be a very good thing, because 31R doesn't have lights. Ewps. So I got lined up, hit the beam, slowed to approach speed, and this Bombardier Learjet shows up 1000ft above me, about 1/2 mile ahead. He got cleared to land first, and I had to go around. #$*@%&! Landed the second time around, and taxied to the gate.

Radios went Inns. Tower (for clearance), ground, tower, Approach, Vienna center, Budapest center, Bucharest center, Chisinau center, Odessa center, Simferopol center, Rostov center, Tbilisi Center, Approach, Tower, [missed] Approach, Center, Approach, Tower, ground.

On The Tarmac at Innsbruck

Lined Up for Takeoff- note rather large mountain right in the way...

Climbing up the valley after a right turn

Above the Valley

Turning to Course

Back over Innsbruck at Altitude

Sunset Over The Alps

An Electrical Storm near Budapest at Dusk

Moonrise Over Georgia

The Airport at Tbilisi

Tirol

2007-04-21T17:06:00.000-04:00

Athens to Innsbruck
Innsbruck is one of my favorite airports in Flight Simulator- a real challange. The airport is at 1900ft MSL, sitting in the center of a valley and surrounded by alps that top 12,000ft. Since the valley curves a bit, there is no direct approach to the airport. In fact, the ILS, while terminating at the landing threshold, is *not* in line with the runway- at decision height, you have to make a quick right turn to line up. Not that it made any difference in this case (more below.)

Pushed out at 2:34PM in Athens, for a flight of 788 NM, cruising at FL360, at 275KIAS. Radios went from Athens ground, to tower, to departure, to center, then Tirana Center, Belgrade Center, Zagreb Center, Ljubljana Center, Milan Center, Vienna Center, Innsbruck approach, then tower.

Watching the winds, I had been expecting runway 26 to be active. I usually approach 26 for ILS via transition at the RTT intersection, a ways east of the airport. Pretty simple- fly to RTT, descending to be at 13,000 at RTT, then descend into the valley to intersect the beam at about 3,900, then on in to the runway. Today though, nothing doing. The controller assigned the dreaded runway 8 visual approach. In the real world, I would have to assume that the controllers take the actual landscape into account, but no such luck in FS 2004. (Note: in FS10, there is actually an ILS approach from the west at Innsbruck, and while it is complicated, at least it does exist. FS2004 has NO approach from the west other than the visual.) So, I followed the vectors, and sure enough, control put me at 11,000, right over the top of a mountain, only 12 miles from the runway. I radioes I had the runway in sight, so approached passed me to the tower, but rather than contacting the tower right away, I circled once (very tight circle, between the walls of the valley) to descend about 5000ft, then contacted the tower. A massive no-no in the real world, but in the real world I would not have been in that situation in the first place. I had to maintain a pretty high rate of descent- high enough there probably would have been barf bags coming out, but since this is a simulation, I don't have to give any refunds. (!) Landed a little long, but since I was so slow on touchdown, there was no problem with rollout. That's another issue with this airport: the runway is 6550ft, which is useable, but a tad short for jets- no margin for error.

Well, that's part of the challenge. Interesting flight.

Warming up at Athens

Number One for Takeoff

Climbing Out

Ascending over Downtown Athens & The Acropolis

Over The Agean Sea

The Italian Alps

Making a turn towards Innsbruck

Wait- this was supposed to be a VISUAL approach...

Landing- still a little high

Wilkommen bei Innsbruck

Another Map

2007-04-15T19:08:00.000-04:00

New continent, new map. Here's the route thru Africa.

Out of Africa

2007-04-15T18:08:00.000-04:00

Khartoum to Athens (Eleftherios Venizelos Int'l.)
Early morning start, pushing back at 5:51am local time. Cruised at FL320 until turbulence became a problem over the desert, then went up to FL340, and slowed to 280KIAS from 290KIAS. Distance between airports was 1416NM, actual flight was a bit longer because of maneuvering.

Radios went from Khartoum Tower To Departure, to Center, Cairo Center, Athens Center, Eleftherios Approach, Kotroni Approach, then Eleftherios Tower. Ran into some low clouds on approach, but otherwise uneventful weather wise. Came in #2 for landing behind a Global Freightways 747-400 cargo jet- slowed to 165KIAS sooner than normal to give him time to clear the runway so I wouldn't have to go around. Rather busy airport- the active was 21L, and there was traffic somewhere behind me, the 747 ahead, and an MD-80 holding short as I landed. This is the busiest airport I've encountered in FS yet- more traffic than JFK and O'Hare even.

Climbing out of Khartoum

Heading Back Over Khartoum

Over The Nile

A Sea of Sand

Over The Eqyptian Coast

Descending into Athens

Lining Up

Touching Down

Quite A Busy Parking Lot

The Aerial View of the Airport

Leg the 21st

2007-04-14T12:44:00.000-04:00

Nairobi to Khartoum
Pushed back at 6:34 AM, for a flight of about 1040NM from the plains and hills of east Africa to the south edge of the Sahara. Cruised at FL280 about half way, then went up to FL 300 just to make better time. Cruised at 300KIAS. Descent into Khartoum had winds shifting around, and some turbulence crossing 8,000, but it was pretty smooth for the landing. Radios went from Nairobi Tower, to Departure, Nairobi Center, Khartoum Ctr, Addis Ababa Ctr (the flight path was straight, the borders aren't), back to Khartoum center, then approach, tower & ground.

Moved over to the passenger terminal at Nairobi

Taxi to Takeoff- Tower View

Climbing through a haze

En Route

Approaching Khartoum- Desert and More Desert

Landing at Khartoum

An Aerial of Khartoum International

Leg the 20th

2007-04-14T12:31:00.000-04:00

Johannesburg to Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta Airport
Trip length of 1569NM, Cruising at 290KIAS at FL 310. I was using a GPS direct route, and so I wound up hugging the border between Zambia and Malawi for a while, which resulted in repeated handoffs between centers, in turn making the frequency change list rather long. Anyway, it went like this: Joburg tower for clearance & takeoff, then to Waterkloof Departure, Johannesburg Center, Harare Center, Beira Center- then the ping-pong match. Lusaka Ctr, Lilongwe Ctr, Lusaka Ctr, Lilongwe Ctr, Lusaka Ctr, Lilongwe Ctr. Finally, handing off to Dar Es Salaam Center, then Nairobi Center, Nairobi Approach, Nairobi Tower, then I got stuck behind a DeHaviland Dash 8 that couldn't get off the runway in time, so I had to go around. Uneventful landing the second time.

Warming up at Joburg

Climbing into blue sky

En Route

On Descent

Parked atthe cargo terminal appearently

Aerial Photo of Nairobi International

Leg The 19th

2007-04-11T05:42:00.000-04:00

Luanda to Johannesburg
Nice uneventful flight. Distance was 1344 NW, cruising at FL330. Radio went ground (clearance) Tower, Departure, Center, Windhoek Center (a name which reminds me of Ren & Stimpy) Gabarone Center, Johannesburg Center, Waterkloof Approach, then Tower to land.

On the Tarmac at Luanda

Climbing Out

En Route

Sunset over South Africa

Just About To Touch Down, Joburg

Joburg International (Wikimapia)

Makin' A Run For It

2007-03-25T22:02:00.000-04:00

I stayed overnight on Ascension, and then got out as fast as I could- closely persued by Virtual Police... or not.

Anyway, on to Luanda, Angola, Africa. The flight from Wide Awake to 4th of February International Airport is 1640NM, which I did at FL290, cruising at 295KIAS (.74 Mach) 447kts groud speed. (Most of the way. For the last 200 or so NM, I had a tailwind, and was doing 454kts groundspeed.) Radios went from Tower to Atlantico Center, Dakar Center, Accra Center, Luanda Center, to tower. Got some nice photos during the daylight flight, and I discovered that Wikipedia has a WikiMapia, which has much better aerial photos than MS's Live Search does. I'll be putting up a few new photos of other places I've visited.

On the Tarmac, warming up

Climbing out

A Clean Getaway

Descending into Luanda

Nearing the runway

Dead on the stripe (!)

Parked at the terminal

Aerial View from WikiMapia

Mappage Again Pues

2007-03-25T14:40:00.000-04:00

"The Story of the Film so Far..."

Here's the overall map of the South American portion of the trip- the side trip to Antarctica is in green. And, the blue line from Recife to Ascansion is too long. My bad.

An Illegal Landing...

2007-03-25T10:16:00.000-04:00

On from Recife to Ascension Island
Pushed back from the terminal at Recife at 2:10PM, cleared the plan with ground, and set off on a 1225NM segment to Ascension. Cruised at FL330, 280KIAS (.77 Mach (not that anybody cares...)) After takeoff, first climb was up to 7,000; then subsequent climbs to FL190, FL310, then cruise altitude. The radio went from ground to Recife Tower, departure, Recife Center, then Atlantico center all the way to Ascension Tower. In the terminal area, I got vectors to visual, runway 14. Wideawake doesn't have ILS in FS world, which I find kind of hard to believe, since it's basically a dual use military/commercial airfield.

Anyway, I got one of those wierd series of vectors that Flight Simulator comes up with- first, I got vectored south of the flight plan, then back north. Honestly, sometimes the AI makes no sense at all.

Here's the illegal part- in order to visit Ascension, you need to have written permission from the governor of the island, as well as permission to land, which I didn't have. Luckily, through a system of virtual bribes, I was able to land and refuel on the sly, and will be taking off before the (unbribable) authorities are any the wiser...

If there's any interest, here's links to the island web cam, although it looks like the camera's been stuck since February) the newspaper, and the official gov't site.

On the ground at Recife

Taxiing to the active

Climbing out

En route

Nearing Ascension

Lining up for landing

Taxiing to park

Parked at Sunset

A view towards the volcano

Wide Awake Airfield from the air

Leg the 16th - Recife

2007-03-24T08:44:00.000-04:00

On To Recife, Guararapes International Airport
From Rio to Recife is a flight of 1003 NM. I cruised at FL310, 270KIAS. I pushed back from the terminal at 7am, just after sunrise in Rio. Weather was still not the best in Rio, with a briken ceiling and scattered showers, one of which I flew through just after takeoff.

Clearance delivery had me climbing to 13,000 after takeoff. Ground had me taxi to the active, runway 15 for departure, and there werer no other aircraft arpound, so I got cleared for immediate takeoff. Tower passed to Rio departure, the to Brasilia center. Once I got to 13,000, I was cleared up to FL230, then to cruising altitude. Eventually, Brasilia handed off to Recife center. The active at Recife was 18, soi the call to decend came lat, as I was approaching from the south. At 103 NM from the airport, I got the instruction to descend to FL190. Vectored to final through 11,000, then 2,800, then hit the beam at 2,000. I put it down right on the centerline, but kinda blew the flare, and hit a little hard. Ewps.

Rio Terminal

Taxiing To The Active

Climbing Out in the Rain-with an example of the cheesy was FS handles low level haze in the background

Turning to Course

En Route

Descending into Recife

On The Beam

On Final

Touchdown

The Airport at Recife

Buzzing Around the Beach

2007-03-19T09:21:00.000-04:00

I 'borrowed' a Skyhawk to do a little VFR around Rio while I was here. I took off and landed from Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport, having both one of the longest names of any airport so far, and definitely the longest taxi time. The airport is laid out with the runway and terminal formina a sort of U shape around a hill, so there's no shortcut from parking to the end of runway 28. I buzzed around for a bit, north & south over Ipanema & Copacabana, did a touch and go at Santos Dumont, which used to be the international airport, then headed back to land. Coming in, I got cleared to land in front of a 737, so it was a case of get down & get the heck off the runway. Managed to make it without either of us having to go around.

Taxiing ... taxiing ...

Near Pão de Açúcar

Near Pão de Açúcar with Copacabana in the background

Heading around for another angle

Off to Rio

2007-03-16T08:20:00.000-04:00

This flight was 1077 NM from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janiero. Cruised at FL330 at 275KIAS- very nice weather the whole way, except for on takeoff (it was kinda hazy), so more photos this flight.

Radio calls went from Ground to tower, to Ezeiza Center, to Montevideo Center, Curitiba Center, Brasilia Center, Santa Cruz Approach, then Galeao Tower. There was actually some traffic around Rio, but nothing that effected the flight.

Interestingly, the big International Airport (Galeao) is on an island in the bay behind all those famous photos- you can see the surrounding mountains when on approach and final.

Pushing Back in Buenos Aires

Climbing Out

En Route

Another En Route w/Moon in Background

Descending off the Coast, in vectors to approach

In the terminal area, Ipanema in the background

On the beam

Landing

Parked at Rio

Sat photo of the airport

On To Buenos Aires

2007-03-10T11:51:00.000-05:00

Uneventful Night Flight from Comodoro Rivadavia to Buenos Aires' Ezeiza Intl. Ministro Pistarin, overall 762NM. Good weather the whole way, cruised at FL350, 270kias.

Sorry I don't a have a good image editor on this PC- so the photos came out real dark.

Taxiing to take off

Climbing out

On Approach

On The Ground at Buenos Aires

Aerial View- airport in lower left

Lucky Leg the 13th, Pues

2007-03-04T00:47:00.000-05:00

Leaving The South Polar Region
I decided to head to Comodoro Rivadavia next, and see where the center I'd been communicating with was located. Comodoro is the biggest little city south of Buenos Aires except for Punta Arenas, or something. Which seems snarky, and probably is. Comodor is about 545 NM from Ushuaia, so I took off with the center tank empty. Cruised at FL360, 270KIAS. Took about 2 hours. Winds were strong during approach- strongest I've encountered so far, so biggest crab angle yet.

The Wiki entry for Comodoro is here. Naturally, in FS, there's no city there...

Warming up at Ushuaia

Waiting for clearance to take off

Climbing out of Ushuaia

On descent into Gen. Enrique Mosconi International

On final into the sunset

Pushing up to the terminal

Hopping back to Ushuaia

2007-02-28T21:46:00.000-05:00

Just a quick freehander to get back to the jet- thus endeth the side trip. Next, onward- either Buenos Aires or Comodoro Rivadavias. I haven't decided yet.

Leg the 12th Part V

2007-02-24T21:40:00.000-05:00

From The Falklands to Puerto Williams
It's getting to be time to get back to the jet and continue, but I just had to stop by Puerto Williams. They've got a web site, which I ran into while browsing Wikipedia for info on the area. (The Wiki entry is here.)

So, this flight was from Mount Pleasant in the FAlklands to Guardiamenina Zanartu airport at Puero Williams, Chile, just across the channel and up a bit from Ushuaia. Distance was about 380nm, which I flew VFR at 6,500ft, most of the way, until runing into a cloud bank about 90mn out from PW, so I took it up to 8,500. Uneventful strsight in landing- although, it seems that Flight Simulator has a thing for fog & haze at high latitudes. Or at least that's the way the graphics engine interprets 'broken clouds' or 'partly overcast'.

Taking off from Mount Pleasant

Pretty nice weather over the Falklands, apart from the aforementioned haze

Over cloud tops nearing Puerto Williams

Approaching the airport

Taxiing back to the tower bldng.

The actual tower

An aerial phtoi of the city

Overall, it loks like a nice place- very scenic, going to great lengths to attract tourism...

On the other hand- there is this:

The Side Trip Continues...

2007-02-18T12:06:00.000-05:00

Teniente R Marsh Martin, Antarctica to Mount Pleasant Airport, Falkland Islands
Well, at least Mount Pleasant exists. In Wikiworld, that is. Anyway, it was a great day for VFR, so I took off from Marsh, and headed 600 or so NM up to Mount Pleasant. Here's the trip photos.

Taxiing to the end of the mysterious gravel-on water runway at Marsh

Climbing out of Marsh

Say Goodbye to Antarctica

Nice weather for VFR en route

Low clouds over Mt. Pleasant

Landing in a haze, but still VFR, according to the tower

Aerial Photo of Mount Pleasant

Coming Back Up

2007-02-17T12:54:00.000-05:00

Or, Meandering Back North
I took off from Base Marambio just before dawn- a little before 4:30 am in the middle of summer at this latitude. I had decided to visit some of the other airports in between while coming back north, so I landed at Isla Rey Jorge, and discovered... nothing. A whole lot of nothing. In FS, most of the runway, and in fact the service building, control tower, and beacon are all, uh, offshore. Kinda strange. Satellite photos from both MS and Google don't show anything, and there's no entry that I could find in a Google search, not in Wikipedia. That is a LOT of nothing about some place that ostensibly exists. In fact, there was one item I found that listed it, which was a list of airports that had the airport name and the 4 letter code, but nothing else. Anyway, the screen grabs are kinda cool, if a bit dark. For some reason, the jpegs got darker when uploaded to Blogger.

And, I think I'm going to stick with using 'div' tags and 'br' to format the photos. It seems to work better.

Taxiing out

Ready for Takeoff

Climbing Out

Cruising En Route

Sunrise

Landing

The Mysterious Airport of Watery Spookiness

More Mappage

2007-02-10T18:49:00.000-05:00

Keeping up with the Location Jones

Going All The Way Down

2007-02-10T17:33:00.000-05:00

From Comodoro Williams Int'l to Base Marambio
I decided to go ahead and 'borrow' a Cessna Grand Caravan to make the flight to Antarctica. After looking at the
charts, I decided that it would be foolish to try to land a 737 anywhere down there,
since the runways are a) a bit short for that and b) gravel. The weight of a 737, even if mostly empty, slamming into a gravel runway doesn't seem like a
recipe for a successful conclusion. So I filed a plan to fly at 7,000 IFR GPS stright shot from Williams to Marambio. After climbing out of the soup, I soon found that 7,000 had me flying through clouds most of the time, so I requested altitude increases until I got above the weather. I wound up cruising at 13,000. The flight took me back and forth over territorial waters of Chile & Argentina, so I switched centers several times, between Punta Arena and Comodoro Rivadaviva. After leaving the Megallanes, the flight was over the Drake Passage until coming into sight of the islands of the Antarctic Peninsula or 'Graham Land'. The base itself is located on Seymour Island, which is on the south side of the peninsula. ATC had me come in on a visual for runway 24- while there is an NDB and a VOR, there's no ILS. The cloud ceiling was at about 3,000, and when I broke through, I was quite surprised to find that the airport is basically a runway set atop a mesa (see photos below). At that point, I was very happy I'd decided not to bring the jet. I blew the approach anyway, and went missed, but landed OK on the next time around.

One note: Comodoro Williams Int'l is the Airport at Ushuaia, not to be confused with Port Williams, which is a town in Chile on the other side of the channel from Ushuaia. Just so you know.

Pardon the space, but I'm experimenting with different methods of getting Blogger to display pictures the way I want to. This was mainly a photo expedition, and I'm trying something new.

Parking at Willimas Int'l

Holding short

Getting turned around to line up for takeoff

Climbout from Williams Int'l

Climbing thru weather...

Looking towards Port Williams, above the muck

Keeping the moon company

Over Drake Passage

Approaching Antarctica...

Over The Antarctic Peninsula

Approaching the first time around...

On Final- finally

A few photos of the real thing:

The Control Tower

Leg the 12th Part 1

2007-02-08T20:17:00.000-05:00

Im Arsch der Welt
This is a short hop- only about a hundred miles or so. Cruising altitude was 17,000ft, speed 250KIAS. Took off in iffy weather, and landed in thick fog.

Comodor Williams' claim to fame is that it seems to be the farthest south I can get with a 737 for a landing. While there are airports farther south, they're all smaller- which is going to be Part 2, a side trip in a Grand Caravan to look around the outposts and Antarctica.

Climbing out of Punta Arena

En route between Punta Arena and Ushuaia

Approaching in fog

At the End of the World - Comodoro Williams International Airport

Here's what the real thing looks like:

Leg The Eleventh

2007-02-04T22:48:00.000-05:00

Patagonia

I've been remiss with some of my place names- this flight is from Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport, Santiago, Chile to Carlos Ibanez Del Campo International Airport, Punta Arenas (which was actually called Sandy Point by English explorers), Chile. This is arguable the most southern large city, with a 2000 population of 120,000, but its claim to be the southernmost city is, I think, counterfactual. Ushuaia, while smaller, is arguable a city, having a population of 62,000.

In any even, I pushed back at 11:45am, into ground traffic and a dense fog. There were 2 aircraft in line ahead of me for departure, and one behind. Trip distance was about 1170nm. Cruising was at FL330, at 275KIAS.

Radio went from clearance, to ground, to tower, to departure, to Santiago Center. Then it went to Mendoza Center, handing off to Ezeira Center, then after crossing the Argentinian border, Comodoro Rivadavia Center, then crossing back into Chile, Punta Arenas enter, which handed off to the tower. Weather at Carlos Del Campo was rainy, and windy- gusts kept trying to blow my approach off the localizer. Rain stopped minutes after landing, but it was still a dreary day.

Pushing back in the fog at Santiago

Busy Taxiway

Climbing thru the fog

Above the muck, the weather's nice

Approaching between cloud layers at Punta Arena

On final in the rain

Overcast at the airport

Sat. view of the airport

Sat. view zoomed out to show how far the airport is from the city

Map of Route, SFO to Lima

2007-02-04T22:42:00.000-05:00

Leg The Tenth

2007-02-01T08:29:00.000-05:00

Lima to Santiago
Uneventful flight- mostly over water. Cruised FL310 at 280KIAS. Pushed back from the gate at 12:30, climb to 12,000, good weather the whole way. Next stop, Patagonia.

On the tarmac at Lima

Climbing out

A view out the front of the Andes descending into Santiago, Chile

The most, erm, suggestive parking slot, er space I've ever run in to.

Satellite view of the mountain to the west of the airport- I'm not sure how faithful the reproduction is in FS, but it's definitely there.

Leg The Ninth

2007-01-30T23:21:00.000-05:00

Guatemala to Lima
Pushed back from the gate at 6:30, had clear skies, visibility greater than 50 miles. Beautiful day for flying. IFR clearance was to an initial altitude of 13,000ft. Total trip was about 1790NM. Radio passed from clearance to ground, to tower, then to Aurora departure. Set a heading of 151, and kept it pretty much the whole way. Cruised at FL310, 290KIAS (Mach .76). Departure passed to Central American Center, then to another frequency at Central American Center, on to Guayaquil Center, and after passing the equator, handed off to Lima Center. I chose to approach via the LIM intersection, then realized that is right at the end of the runway- so the approach was a bit of a problem, since the AI wasn't too keen to let me descend to the beam at the right time. Finally got the call to get on the localizer when I was about 9 miles out, and 2000 ft too high. Rather than go around, I hit the brakes, and had a rather steep descent to the runway, but only about 2100 fpm, so no need for the barf bags. Leveld out and let it float over the runway to settle in, landing about 1/2 way down. Plenty of stopping space, as I was light coming in w/only about 20% fuel left, and 12,000 ft of runway overall.

Sorry, but Google Earth & MS Virtual Earth both have the same coudy sat photo of the airport.

Pushing back at La Aurora

Climbing out past the Volcanoes

Flying near the Andes

On Final at Lima

Speaking of Flight Simulator 10

2007-01-29T21:32:00.000-05:00

Here's a couple of screen shots from my test flights in FSX- and yes, I spend way too much time doing it. Since Jan 4, I've already logged 65 hours, and landings at more than 25 airports. The program's nice, even though I don't have anywhere near the hardware I need to really make the graphics shine. With my onboard lame-o graphics carg, I still get pretty decent reflections and lighting effects.

Beech King Air in the sunset over southern Oregon

Learjet near Mt. Shasta, CA

Sunrise from the 747 cockpit at 41,000 feet over Brazil

On final at Sao Paulo

Guate Side Trip

2007-01-29T21:06:00.000-05:00

One of the things I did while stopped in Virtual Guatemala was to fly a side trip to lake Atitlan using a Cessna Caravan Amphibian. The Amphibian has pontoons with retractable wheels, so it can land on a runway or on water. La Aurora International airport is at about 5,000 ft above sea level, and so is the lake, but the lake is surrounded by mountains, so you have to climb to 12,500 fairly quickly on a direct route, then once over the valley that the lake's in, I used a spiral descent to lose the 7,000 feet to the water. Landing was toward Panajachel. The day wasn't the greatest for visibility, but that added interest.

On the Ramp at La Aurora- General Aviation is on the south side of the airport, away from the terminal.

Climbing Out- turing left toward the lake (north)

On Course Cross Country, Volcan de Agua in background

Approaching the cliffs around the lake

Descending... descending... descending...

Landing in the fog

Long Time No Blog

2007-01-29T21:03:00.000-05:00

Not that anyone cares, particularly, but the trip 'round the world has been on hiatus because of 1) the holiday season 2) financial year end and, most importantly, 3) Flight Simulator 10.

Since no one actually reads this blog, there's no one to apologize to, apart from those I could apologize to in person anyway. So I won't. Nyah.

Leg The Eighth

2006-12-10T22:53:00.000-05:00

MIA to La Aurora International, Guatemala

A relatively short hop of about 950 NM (using high altitude airways- direct via GPS would be shorter.) Pushed back about 9:00am, taxied to and took off from 9R, the longest runway at MIA. I was number 2 for takeoff, after following a 747 out to the runway. There was another 737 waiting behind me- so more traffic at this airport than even at DFW.

Looking back over downtown Miami
Radio went from Clearance Delivery to ground, tower, then Miami departure. Flight path took me south near homestead, so I got passed off to Homestead approach. After that, then to Miami center, Havana center, Merida center, Central American center, Aurora approach, then tower.

Over Key West
Takeoff & climbout was uneventful, weather not bad in Miami, just some spotty coulds. Got above pretty quick. Nearing La Aurora, however, it became obvious that there was low lying cloud cover, which is not unusual for this time of year. Closer in, it got thick- not quite pea soup, but definitely low visibility. Got vectored in from the south, and after control tried to run me into a mountain, got on the beam and put it down into a very stiff headwind.

Volcanoes on the horizon- appr to La Aurora

*Very* windy at La Aurora

Leg The Seventh

2006-12-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

DFW to MIA
More boring. Pushed back at 7:20 am. 1005 NM from DFW to MIA, using high altitude airways. Picked up a 99kt tailwind over the gulf, and carried a groundspeed of 556 kts for about 350NM. Cruised at FL 330, but changed to FL350 because of turbulence. Radio went: Clearance delivery, ground, tower, Regional departure, Ft Worth Center, Houston Center, Jacksonville Center, Miami Center, Miami approach, tower, ground. Ho frikkity hum. Next leg we're off to more interesting parts.

Pushing Back from the Gate at DFW

Climbing out of Dallas

On Final at MIA

Leg the Sixth

2006-12-06T21:23:00.000-05:00

SFO to DFW

Boooooring.

Pushing Back from the Gate at SFO

Climbing out of SFO, Downtown in the background

Over The Middle Marker at DFW

After all that gadding about over the pacific, this is kind of a letdown. Just a typical commuter air route between big hubs. Pushed back from the gate at 5:30 ish (trying to make it more interesting by flying at night), was #2 for takeoff. Cruised at FL330, 285kts, picked up a 50kt tailwind over Arizona, and made real good time into DFW. Total distance was 1269nm. Passed just on the north side of the China Lake Weapons Center airspace. Nothing went boom.

Radio went from Clearance Delivery at SFO to ground, to tower, to Bay Departure, handing off to Oakland Center. Passed between controllers at Oakland several times, then passed to LA center. LA center passed off to Denver center, then to Albuquerque, where I made a shallow left turn (no- not really), then to Ft Worth center, Regional approach, then DFW tower. And that's kinda how boring the flight was. Landed runway 18R, ILS approach, on the beam, easy rollout.

Next leg's gonna be kinda boring too.

Leg The Next

2006-11-30T08:01:00.000-05:00

On to SFO

Climbing out of Honolulu

This leg is a long one: The GPS says 2018nm as I sit at the gate, so I'm going to do everything I can to conserve fuel. I'm going to cruise at FL310, 210KIAS (M 0.72). I'm also going to reduce the climb rate from 1,800 feet per minute to 1,200.

The flight's uneventful, good weather the whole way, including at SFO (!). Even fairly reasonable vectors in to 10R. Nice views of the Golden Gate and the city off to the left on approach, touched down just as the sun was going down (yeah, I adjusted the world clock a tad for effect.)

On Approach near the Golden Gate

Coming in over the hills

Lining up for final

At the gate

Some Definitions for those what need 'em

2006-11-29T15:41:00.000-05:00

Nautical Mile, or nm (not to be confused with nanometer, also abbreviated nm) is the unit of measure typically used for distance in aviation, so distances and speeds are typically given in nautical miles, or 'knots'. A nautical mile about 1.15 miles. The exact definition is one meridian arc minute at sea level. An arc minute is 1/60 of one degree, and there's 360 degrees around the planet, so the earth is 360 x 60 or 21,600 nautical miles around at sea level at the equator. Also, 1 nautical mile is equal to 1,852,000,000,000 nanometers.

Acronyms-
KIAS or IAS: Knots, Indicated Air Speed- how fast the plane is moving through the air, measured in nautical miles per hour. Actual ground speed can be quite different. As the plane flies higher, the air is thinner, and has less resistance. At FL330, while KIAS might be 275, actual ground speed might be 480kts.

IFR: Instrument flight rules- plane and pilot must be able to fly using only instruments (altimeter, radio navigation, GPS etc.)

FL: Flight Level- Altitude in hundreds of feet. i.e. FL220=22,000 ft FL330=33,000 ft

GPS: Global Positioning System- satellite navigation. Same as the Garmin you might get for your car. Or that Scott-Scott (Bob-Bob?) uh, Tom-Tom system.

The Story So Far

2006-11-29T10:27:00.000-05:00

Since you asked...

Leg The Fourth

2006-11-29T08:14:00.000-05:00

Cassidy International to Honolulu International

Weather still very clear...

Pushed back from the ramp at 14:52, virtual local time, got IFR clearance from Christmas Radio, switched to advisory, taxied out and took off. Instructions were to climb to 14,000, which was a bit unusual- typically, it's been to 6,000 or 7,000 over the pacific for the first altitude stop. Anyway, looking back after takeoff, I was thoroughly chagrined to discover that the other end of the runway has approach lighting- which I could have used, because winds were calm when I came in the other day. That's a minor beef I have with FS- default IFR approach seems to be east to west, no matter what the facilities are. In general, a lot of the vectors to final seem wierd, and in cases where I've actually flown into airports (as a passenger, duh) the vectors I get from FS aren't anything like the patterns that the airlines actually fly. Sometimes the instructions are just dumb. Coming in to Honolulu, for example, the vectors put my flight path coincident with a mountain. Not the best plan when you're trying to line up with the runway.

Climbing out of Cassidy

Oahu (virtual) from the cockpit (virtual)

The deal is that I got vectored in to runway 22L, but the vectors went through a mountain range. Control seemed to be unaware that there was a mountain range... Anyway, on first approach, it was obvious I wasn't going to be able to put it down without my virtual passengers virtually heaving in all their virtual barf bags, so I declared missed approach and went around. Same vectors in, but this time I knew what was coming, and managed to put it down without hitting a mountain or making a big splat. Again, no ILS on this runway.

After missed approach

Landing at Dusk

Stats: trip was about 1160nm, longer flight beause of the missed approach, flew 275KIAS at FL320 (mach .76 for those keeping score at home). Tuned to Oakland center after takeoff, passed to Honolulu center 250nm out of Honolulu, passed to Kaneohe approach during vectors, then to Honolulu Int'l tower. In flight entertainment was Boston Legal (where Lincoln Meyer, the bizarre peeping tom, in a kidnapping gone awry, takes a crossbow bolt to the chest, and quotes the Black Knight from Monty Python & The Holy Grail: "It's only a flesh wound." I swear I am not making this up - Dave Barry)

Edited to fix typos at 3:38pm

Leg The Third

2006-11-26T20:53:00.000-05:00

Pago Pago International in American Samoa to Cassidy International, which happens to sit on the island Kiritimati, which is one of the Line Islands, in Kiribati. According to Wiki, the airport gets one flight a week, stopping between Nadi and Honolulu. Basically the same thing I'm doing.

Great weather, visibilty 50, with just a few scattered clouds.

Takeoff from Pago
Radio went Pago Tower, handing off to Pago Departure, then to Nadi Center, then Oakland Center.

Cruised at 275kias at FL350, pushed back from the gate at 11:20am with a full tank, landed with about 45% fuel remaining, so I came in at 175kts, and misjudged the flare a little bit. Put it down right on the center line tho, which I was particularly proud of because this airport does not have an ILS. In fact, it doesn't even have an approach lighting system, so you really have to judge the line by eye. Plenty of runway to roll out & stop tho. Approach was via GPS, with the center handing off to the local advisory frequency (there's no tower, either) about 15 miles out.

Nearing Cassidy

Touching Down

Kiritimati (Christmas Island)

Leg The Second, With Photos!

2006-11-23T00:21:00.000-05:00

The second leg was a short hop from Nadi International to Pago Pago International in American Samoa. Just getting in position for the next leg, really. Fligh path was 720 nautical miles, but because of the silly vectoring, it worked out to about 800, cruising at 280kts at FL330. This time, I flew using jetways. The route was almost a straight shot. Pushed back from the gate at 2:20pm, was #2 for departure. Nadi has a turnaround at the other end of runway 2, so had to wait for the traffic to taxi out & take off before taxiing into position. Control tower handed off to Nadi departure, then to Nadi center, which controlled the remainder of the flight. Started descent into Pago at 100 nautical miles out, and was given a visual approach to runway 5. Vectors put me a bit to the left of the runway, and I finally put it down a bit off to the left of the stripe. Ewps. Not my best landing ever. Pulled up on the tarmac at 7:30pm- time zone change and crossed the date line, so it was 7:30 pm the previous day.

Taxiing Out at Nadi

On Approach at Pago Pago Int'l

On the tarmac

Pago Pago International

Leg The First

2006-11-22T13:15:00.000-05:00

I decided to start in Wellington, New Zealand. Why New Zealand? It's the country farthest left on my wall map. Why Wellington? Well, it's the capital, and like, dude- Wellington Boots! Never mind.

So, first leg, Wellington International, to Nadi International. Nadi International is on the west side of Fiji, and the GPS says it's 1440kts from Wellington.

Weather in Wellington, partly coudy, broken at 3000, winds from the north at 5. Flight plan a couple of degrees to the right of due north, 354 magnetic (true course offset seems to be about 10 degrees at that location). 3rd in line for departure, took of at 10:34am local time. Full load of fuel. Cruised at FL320 at 280kts IAS, .76M. Handed off from tower to Wellington departure, then to New Zealand center, then Auckland center, to Nadi center, to Nadi approach. Started descent about 150kts out, descended to 7000. Usual bizarre vectors. Descended to 2500 to line up with the ILS, but there was a Cessna Skyhawk ahead, and as a result, I had a run-in with the tower controller AI. About 10 miles from the runway, I had got ahead of the Cessna, but the tower cleared the Cessna for landing first. The limited AI of the program couldn't figure out that a 737 comes in just a tad faster than a Skyhawk, I guess. So get a call from the tower, "cleared to land, follow the aircraft on final." What aircraft? The only one else up here is that Cessna I passed... so when I get to decision height, I get the call to go around. Pinheads. So I go around. Only now, there's a Piper in the pattern, so I'm thinking, "same problem." Only this time, I got cleared to land first. Which I did, with no further incident, on runway 2. At Nadi, the terminal is at the far north end of the airport, so I flared late for minimum taxi, and got out of the way of the Piper, who landed about 4 minutes later.

Wellington International

Nadi International

A New Direction

2006-11-22T13:04:00.000-05:00

I'm off to see the world. Virtually. I wanted to log my time in Flight Simulator, and here's as good a place as any, especially since no one reads it besides me anyway.

Here's the premise: I'm going to fly my virtual Boeing 737-400 around the world in relatively short hops. (Flight Simulator 2004, no add-ons. I haven't got FSX yet. Maybe for X-Mas.) It's gonna take a long time, and be very boring overall, but ther's going to be a couple of challenges, such as figuring out how to get over oceans. I know I can make it across the Pacific, 'cause I've done the hops, just not in sequence. In FS2004, the 737 has a max range of about 2200 nautical miles, if you don't get much headwind. 2200 kts is way out on the edge tho, and you might not make it if you have to go around.

More rules- I'm using the autopilot a lot, so I can wash the dishes or tidy up while the plane flies itself. All legs are IFR flight plans, and I'm going to follow controller's instructions even when they're absurd (if anyone's done vectors to final on an ILS in FS2004, you know what I'm talking about- the wierd tendancy to vector way off course, only to get vectored back to almost right where you were...) I will occasionally use a GPS or ILS via transition approach, but generally only where I'm familiar with the airport. FLight plans are going to by direct GPS, unless I feel like following the airways. No cheating on fuel. If I can't use real world weather, I'm considering the airport closed, and waiting until the internet works again.

Well. Off to it then.

Delightfully Loopy

2006-10-06T10:09:00.000-04:00

Lou Dobbs was on the Today Show today with Matt Lauer. He (Dobbs) advocated changing party affiliation to independent, because both Democrats and Republicans are not responsive to the public, but only to corporations and special interests. Which is fair enough, I suppose. Some of what he (Dobbs again) advocated makes a lot of sense: getting involved in local politics, working with the school board, and his (still Dobbs) diatribe about public education made sense (mostly). On the other hand, Lauer took the opportunity to characterize Dobbs' 'war against the middle class' as a war between the middle class and globalization. I suppose if we can have wars against nouns, we can have wars against verbs. But if what he (Lauer this time) means is that offshoring of jobs is bad for the middle class, shouldn't he (still Lauer) just say that?

Other thing- wouldn't having everyone become an independent kinda throw a monkey wrench into the primary process? I'm just sayin.

I had an idea about a monkey/typewriter remark to insert here, but it didn't work out.

Flailing About For Clarity

2006-09-08T10:36:00.000-04:00

Hmm. I'm gonna try to hash out an idea. Careful- this won't be pretty.

Here's a sort of counterintuitive conclusion I've been thinking on:
An increase in the curve or progressive tax rates would have the effect of increasing investment, and therefore improving the economy and increasing GDP.

The reasoning's not too hard, it involves greed.

Postulate 1: There is a high correlation between rich persons and greed.
Opinions differ. But I think this is true. Common experience shows that persons with money tend to want to a) hang on to it and b) increase their holding, which leads to:

Postulate 2: Most wealthy persons are risk averse.
This kinda dovetails with item 1 above- but it also kinda hits human nature in general. Most people won't take a risk that they don't have to, which brings us to the reasoning:

If a person has sufficient personal funds to maintain their lifestyle without taking on further financial risk, they won't take on that risk. Lower progressive tax rates, extending to no tax at all on dividends makes it easier to have sufficient return with little or no risk. So, there's no incentive to invest. So, lots of money sits on the sidelines. Conversely, if the easy return gets taxed, then the individual needs to invest more and in higher risk/return investments to get the eventual return that they need or want.

That's the idea anyway. As exhibit A, look to the average Libertarian businessman.

There's a Long Lonesome Road in the Lifetime of a Trucker

2006-08-23T19:25:00.000-04:00

I'm just sayin.

Skeleteens Is Back

2006-08-23T19:16:00.000-04:00

For those who like a little heat in their beverage, try Brain Wash.

Basically a soda with hot pepper extract.

Just thought you should know.

I Am The World's Second Laziest Blogger

2006-08-23T13:00:00.000-04:00

See The Poor Man for the First

Bonus Goofiness

2006-08-23T12:57:00.000-04:00

(Mis-spelled fone-etically)

Onn dee doon
Ver doon gadishka doon
In dish dee voon dish dee doon
Bork! Bork! Bork!

Special Bonus Fact:
The Swedish Chef's real first language was mock Japanese.
(A fact uncovered by Jean Stapleton.)

You Too Can Be An Asshole

2006-07-26T09:12:00.000-04:00

This seems to be the point of the new Hummer ads.

Especially the 'Get Your Girl On' spot. In the ad, we see a slightly mousy woman and her son get cut off at the slide. This proves to be enough of a psychic event, that she goes out and gets a Hummer, so she can be every bit the bitch on wheels that the bitch who cut her off was. Nice. "Buy a Hummer so you can be an asshole too!" Same kind of thing for the other spot- where tofu man sees he-man buying meat, so he has to get a Hummer to make up for not being a carnivore. Or something.

This is truly how pathetic advertising execs thinks the public is.

Dicks.

Frippin' at the Jim Jam, Frappin at the Kropfz

2006-07-12T20:20:00.000-04:00

These 'tards over at Dodge are pissing me off.

They sent a letter saying basically, 'Happy Anniversary for Getting Your New Car' and 'by the way, here's who are new lease manager is.'

There would be the very same 'tards I have yet to get my floor mats from. Or working headphones for the DVD player. After a year. Yeah. I'll really do business with them ever again.

Oh, and it's not a lease.

'tards.

In Honor of the World Cup

2006-07-08T22:33:00.000-04:00

I've only got one thing to add.

That's Just Wrong

2006-07-08T22:27:00.000-04:00

Warning: Vulcan Hobbit. You were warned. Pues.

Eau. Migh. Gaud.

2006-07-08T18:30:00.000-04:00

There are no words...

I'm going to have to go somewhere and get some talcum powder now.

Dirty Dancing

2006-07-02T12:33:00.000-04:00

Before "Sprockets"...

Bitte, Baby!

For those who don't remember, "Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance..." and "Would you like to touch my monkey?" may refresh the memory.

The World's Biggest Problem

2006-06-27T10:36:00.000-04:00

Is stupidity. But I'm going to rant about spelling. Take this comment post for instance:

Incidently, I remember reading an article in The New Republic wear the writer attended anti-Iraq war rally. The entire article was the guy seathing with rage invoking 9/11 as the reason we were invading iraq and dreaming of having the protestors arrested and deported. I bring this up because I know how TNR can get there circulation up. See, they’re marketing themselves to the wrong crowd. If they started putting girls in bikinis draped over the hoods of cars on their front cover, they’d reach a friendlier audience.

First, "Incidentally". The word's been spelled that way since the 1800s. "Incidently" is archaic. Get with the program. Come join us in the current effing century. Next: "wear the writer". I think that's illegal. Jeff Dahmer & all that. WHERE the writer attended AN anti-Iraq war rally. I don't even know where to begin with 'seathing'. Is it a thing from the sea? (See Russell, Kurt, Thing, The). Seething would be an actual word that one could use in this instance. Eye-raque needs to be capitalized, regardless of one's opinion of it. Next, we come to 'get there circulation'. Typical misuse of 'there'. Should be 'their'. This error is particularly odd, because in the very next sentence, the author (holy carp) uses "they're" correctly. Seriously, what's up with that?

I rant because I strongly feel that these sorts of error detract from the thrust of one's argument. And apart from the above mentioned errors (don't get me started on the grammar), I think that the ideas expressed are not without merit.

Possible definition of 'seathing':

The Below Post is Brought to You

2006-06-16T18:31:00.000-04:00

courtesy of Spacey Stacey, who, by inadvertently generating a rant involving Tenacious D, Cleveland Steamers, and Tea Bagging, inspired me to write that post. Also brought to you by the number 42.

The Creepy Thing About E-Harmony Ads

2006-06-16T18:26:00.000-04:00

I finally figured it out the other night. These ads had been creeping me out for some time, but I could never put my finger on why. I finally got it tho- all of the couples' noses match. It's really weird. The guy with the long nose is with the chick with the long nose, the guy with the broken looking nose is with the chick with the broken looking nose, etc. Is this how they really do their matching? Is this really what they mean by profile? Maybe I've stumbled onto the secret of love, life, the universe and everything by accident. The *real* question, then, is how do noses relate to 42? Is it just that the 4 looks like a nose in profile, while the two is... well, I'm not sure what the 2 is.

Should I adjust my meds?

Because I Can

2006-06-07T10:44:00.000-04:00

Ladies and Gentlemen- or, more accurately, Lady and Gentleman (I know my traffic)-
Cyndi Lauper with a Fire Hose:

Not Albatross

2006-06-07T10:35:00.000-04:00

I pick not albatross. An' I'm all out a Zom-B-Gone.

I Bought The Kaboom

2006-06-03T11:09:00.000-04:00

Went over to see the lovely folks at the explosives store this morning. They were both very helpful and informative, and I walked out with over 110lbs of kabooms. Very nice.

They had a 2 for 1 sale (ends monday).

Howling Error

2006-05-26T13:17:00.000-04:00

When a coyote barks at the moon and misses.

Thank You. I'll be here all week. Don't try the veal.

Gift Cards - Not So Much

2006-05-25T11:16:00.000-04:00

What the hell is the deal with Gift Cards?

You can walk into a grocery store (for example) and get a gift card for Target, Chili's, Toys R Us, or even frikkin' Bass Pro Shops. It's the gift that says 'I cared about you enough to think about the vague area you might be interested in, but not enough to actually go there and get something.'

Seriously.

WTF?

You pay extra for something that the recipient can use almost as easily as cash. Which brings me to the Generic Gift Card. Visa, MC, Amec, they've all got them. Why would we want them? If you want to give someone money, give them money. Or, if you have to send it, send an effing check fer cripe pete. It costs more money to give someone somethig they can use almost as easily as actual money. What's the benefit? Wallet thickness?

Faugh.

Gotta Love It

2006-05-24T16:10:00.000-04:00

Putting CEO Pay In Perspective

Hank McKinnel, Chairman & CEO of Pfizer, will get paid $6.5 MILLION A YEAR AFTER HE RETIRES.

That's the equivalent of 1,624 doses of Viagra a day.

Schwing!

The Problem with Actually Knowing What You're Doing

2006-05-24T13:39:00.000-04:00

The problem with actually knowing what you're doing is that if you really do know what you're doing, and you're doing something that effects other people, people will start to assume that you know what you're doing in general, instead of in relation to the specific thing where you actually DO know what you're doing. The problem is a lot worse if you happen to actually have some expertiese in more than one area. The problem becomes exponentially worse if the areas of expertiese in question happen to be diverse and unrelated.

The problem, in case you've lost track, is that people will just assume you know something about any given random subject. The worst case scenario is when the random subject just happens to be in a previously unknown area of expertise.

There's a couple of ways to approach the situation. You could a) bullshit, or b) fess up and admit lack of knowledge. I don't like option a). I won't deny having used it, on more than one occasion even. But I don't like it. Option a) sets you up for a fall. Potentially a big and embarassing one- which is why it shows up in sitcom plots so often. Unlike sitcoms, in real life the end result, while sometimes a font of hilarity, is more often than not just the source of a reputation as a bullshit artist. Not that there's anything wrong with that. There is great artistry to be had in bullshit, and artistry in this area is a skill in its own right, which can serve one well if one chooses to go into politics, for example. Not so useful for everyday, tho.

On the other hand, option b) is not without difficulty. If enough demontrations of Actually Knowing What You're Doing have actually occurred, when you do fess up to know knowing, the audience might juist assume you're lying, or blowing them off because you just don't want to deal. (Which happens too, sometimes.)

In the end then, the best approach seems to be to be a stone cold fuckup. You'll get to be president one day.

They Might Be Particle-ular

2006-05-19T13:02:00.000-04:00

They might not be. But, since triangles were up for discussion, why not segue?

Kryptonic Analysis of Particle Man
In this song, we have Particle Man, Triangle Man, Universe Man, and Person Man. I believe that these represent four approaches, or outlooks, if you will, to the state of man, or more succinctly, philosophies.

Partilce Man. Who is particle man? Particle Man represents the scientific community- and/or realists/factualists/scientific athiesm, that sort of thing. The references to dot and speck, and the appearent play on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle are what lead me to this conclusion.

Triangle Man. Next up is Triangle Man. Funny thing- Triangle Man hates Paricle Man. They have a fight, Triangle wins. Triangle Man also hates Person Man. More on this later.

Universe Man. Universe Man is a powerful man, and seems immune to Triangle Man. Universe man seems to have an inclusive philosophy, and as such, I think this points to Deism, or a more generic belief in oneness or wholeness, as in "the oneness of the universe." Universe Man doesn't cause Triangle man heartburn, but There could be cause for strife betyween them, althoug this remains unexplored in the song.

Person Man. Lastly, we come to the poor wretch that is Person Man. He's seriously put upon-= being hit in the head with a frying pan and living his life in a garbage can. I think that this is a derisive take on secular humanism. Person man never looks up. Never sees anything larger than himself.

Triangle Man also hates Person Man. They have a fight, and, naturally, Triangle wins. This is the final clue as to who Triangle man is: Organized Religeon, specifically Christianlty, possibly as specific as Catholicism. In the case of Particle Man, there is a natural tension between those that must live by faith and those that must find out how things work. Additionally, there will be tension between those who live by faith in a higher being, and those who deny the existence of such a being.

The cautionary tale of the song is this: Triangle wins.

Birdhouse In Your Soul

2006-05-19T13:00:00.000-04:00

It's a song about night lights.

And other things.

Get over it.

I'm Not Puh-Sychic

2006-05-11T22:23:00.000-04:00

To be clear, I have no idea what the internal dialog of a gay cop actually would be. The entry below contained an idea which was a supposition only. No actual police were harmed in the filming of this episode.

No, Really. They Don't

2006-05-11T22:20:00.000-04:00

For simplicity's sake, let's assume that everything in flatland is either material X (which is flexible enough to resonate), or air (which has no resonant frequency), and that both have the same rate of propagation of pressure waves. Let's also assume that there's constant temperature and pressure, and that the speed of propagation is therefore always 100m/s, a nice round number that's easy to work with. (The actual speed of sound in air is 331.4 m/s + 0.6 m/s per degree C. FYI at freezing, that's just a bit faster than 1000 ft/sec). Lastly, let's assume that in Flatland, pressure waves are able to propagate from air to material X, but will tend to prefer to remain in whatever substrate they're in, and will lose energy when changing substrate.

So, with those assumptions, we can concentrate on the geometry.

Let's begin with an open figure- a line segment. The reason to start here is because it's easy to think about. The length of the line segment is also it's wavelength, and therefore the only thing effecting the resonant frequency. If the line segment is 100 meters long, then the resonant frequency is 1 Hz. This works to scale, too- if the line is 10m long, the resonant wavelength is 10 meters, or 10Hz. A 1 m line segment resonates at 100Hz, and so on. (0.1m at 1kHz, 1cm at 10kHz, 1mm at 100kHz). This is not unlike the arrangement of strings on a Greek harp- where the length of string is doubled to halve the frequency.

Let's start closed figures with an open square- that is, the same shape as if one were to draw a square on a sheet of paper, drawing only the edges; i.e. 4 line segments. Let's draw the square so that it's 100m on a side. In this case, it's going to resonate at 1Hz, since the wavelength at 1Hz is the same as the side (100m).

Next, let's consider an open triangle. In this case, the same rules apply for the basic resonance. A 1m to a side equilateral triangle in Flatland will resonate at 100Hz.

Now, if we fill these shapes in, things get more complicated. In the examples above, there's only one path for the pressure wave to take, so it's easy to tell where a resonance will occur, and what the frequency will be. In the case of a filled in object, there are multiple paths for pressure waves to take, a situation that has 2 effects: 1) There are resonances available in any direction that the wave can propagate, and the wave will propagate in any and all available directions equally, which means that instead of a single resonant frequency, there will be multiple resonant frequencies; and 2) because the pressure wave is free to propagate in any direction, the available amplitude and power in any given direction will be much reduced, which makes the resonance far less noticeable.

The next logical question is, "Why is this so?" To answer this, you have to think about what a mechanical resonance actually is. A mechanical resonance with a pressure wave occurs when the wavelength (or a whole number multiple of the wavelength) of a pressure wave is equal to the distance between opposing boundaries that the wave can reflect off of. When a pressure wave encounters a boundary, it reflects back from the boundary at the reciprocal of its angle of incidence. When the angle is 90 degrees, and the wavelength is a whole number multiple of the distance between the reflecting surfaces, the reflection of the wave tends to reinforce the wave, so that it loses power and amplitude at a slower rate. This is because the peaks and troughs of the reflected wave match the peaks and troughs of the original wave. When the wavelength is not a whole number multiple of the distance, the peaks and troughs of the reflected wave don't meet with the original, and the result is interference, causing the wave to lose power and amplitude more quickly. In extreme cases, the reflection can nearly cancel out the original wave. This is the effect employed by those Bose noise cancellation headphones- by inverting the incoming wave, they cancel it out, producing a quieter environment.

Going back to our triangle, no matter where the original pressure wave comes from, there are multiple complex paths through the object. Further, pressure waves reflecting off the boundaries at various angles will intersect and interfere with each other. The net result is that the triangle will probably have resonances in certain cross sections at certain frequencies, but wouldn't really have a definite centered frequency we'd call a resonance per se. In 3 dimensions, the problem naturally becomes worse.