Lots of news

To start with, as you have most likely seen on Nathaniel's blog, the surgery went really well. It was, by all preliminary indications, very successful. The doctors are hopeful that the surgery has taken care of all the epilepsy problems. It's quite possible that, after a few months, he'll be totally off the anti-seizure medication. Even if that doesn't turn out to be the case, it will almost certainly work to take a very low level of the medicine, a much lower dosage than what he's been on for a while.

Our entire experience up at the Cleveland Clinic was wonderful. The people there were simply amazing. Everyone seemed to be smiling all the time... everyone was willing to help you if you were lost or needed anything at all. It was great.

So, that's it for Cleveland. Let's update everyone (if anybody still reads this) on some other stuff.

I'm down near Kingston, OH, between Circleville and Chillicothe. It's south of Columbus, OH. The reason I'm down here is that I'm at my uncle and aunt's house for Christmas. Because of a few schedule conflicts, the big Christmas dinner and gift exchange is later today.

Our immediate family already gave each other stuff. So, what I've gotten so far is a Land's End microfleece jacket/shirt that is sooooooooo nice. It's a 1/4 zip that so far, I've worn about the whole time since I unwrapped it. I also got a nice book, and a Leatherman Micra multitool. The latter is a small thing... about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. It has about 10 different tools in it. It's reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally nice. :D

So, that's my update for now. I'm going to a presbytery high-schoolers' winter conference next Monday, and getting back on Thursday. There probably won't be any more posts until after that. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Update on Nathaniel

We're all up in Cleveland tonight. The plan is to be in at the Cleveland Clinic by 1030 tomorrow for pre-surgery. Not exactly sure when the surgery itself will take place, but it will probably start before noon. It's supposed to take around 4 hours total. So... that's the latest. His blog, which is here, will have updates when we have them. I most likely won't be updating here much until everything is over. As always, prayer is appreciated.

The LORD's will be done!

New developments

Well, I finally did something this morning that I could have done for something along the lines of the last two years and five months. I finally got my permit. I spent a few hours yesterday reading through the "Digest of Ohio Motor Vehicle Laws" and then went into the BMV this morning. After spending a little while filling out another temporary permit package, I went to take the test. I was anticipating it to be pretty easy.

It was. :D It took me around 5 minutes to answer 31 of the 40 questions. Only a 75% average was required to pass, and they stopped the test when I could no longer get below a 75. I ended up missing one question. Oh well. :P

I haven't actually used the permit yet. But, it is in my wallet, ready to get used soon (hopefully). So, that's been most of my morning.

In other news lately, Nathaniel is back home. All of us went out to Pennsylvania yesterday to pick him up, came back (same day) and went to a Scout event. Dad got a couple awards, which was nice. :) I ended up more or less babysitting 7 Cub scouts to keep them from going completely crazy. I nearly went totally crazy, but not quite. :D

The weather has not been cooperating of late, so my latest flying lessons have involved either ground lessons or else simulator time. I've been learning about instrument approaches, such as how to interpret the depictions of different kinds of approaches, learning to fly the different kinds, learning what to do when the weather still is too bad to complete the approach... that kind of thing. If you're curious, I have a couple links here for approaches into Bellefontaine. The first one is a GPS approach, or as the FAA calls it, an RNAV approach. It uses position information from geostationary satellites to figure out where the airplane is, and I use that information on a moving map display in the cockpit to shoot the approach.

The other kind of approach is a VOR approach, which uses a ground-based radio navigational aid for the approach. Basically, the instruments figure out what heading I am from the station, and I use the GPS to figure out how far away I am. Using that information, I can make the approach safely.

The other main kind of approach that I've been learning is the ILS: the Instrument Landing System. Not many small airports such as Bellefontaine have this kind of approach, since it's quite expensive to set up. I shot this ILS at Dayton the other day on the simulator. It uses two different components of a dedicated radio navigational aid on the ground to give me vertical and horizontal guidance down to the runway. It's very precise, so much so that special categories of the ILS approach are approved for flight down to the runway with zero visibility. It's a fun approach, since it's (most of the time) rather easy to do, and it's kind of hard to screw up. Approaches, so far, are pretty fun. Hopefully I still think that by the time I'm done with them. :D

Well, I think that's about the end of this post. I have a lot of stuff to do this evening, and I need to get going on it. Hopefully, it won't be quite so long until the next post. I'll be up in Cleveland almost all of next week, and I'm not sure if the internet up there will let me post on here. If I can, I will. If not, I won't. :P

I am still here

Just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't forgotten about the blog or anything. I'm still here. Will most likely post tomorrow. Well... erm, today. Something.

These guys are either total geniuses (geniusi?) or total idiots!

Leave your opinion in the comments.

Six days more!

And it'll be my favorite holiday of the year. Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time. Far from being just the fabulous food (especially the pumpkin pie), the football (which is fun), or even the fellowship with family rarely seen (which really is great... especially when that fellowship includes playing Taboo), it's wonderful to take a day out to simply thank God for the blessings He has given us throughout the previous year. True, we do that (or should) on the first day of every week; the day that the Lord has set apart for a Sabbath unto Him. However, this just seems different in a way. Maybe it's that Thursdays normally aren't anything special for me. Maybe it's something else. I really don't know. It just is such an awesome (true sense of the word) blessing from God.

However, not everybody thinks this way. Like my mom, I do inwardly cringe when I hear people call it "Turkey Day" and only mean that. They're missing out on what it should be. A gift from God in which to be thankful for all that He's done. I realize that it isn't a day established by direct revelation of God. However, it seems clear to me that it should be recognized as His gift.

Well, changing subjects. Since last post, I've finished my first college class. The official grade isn't released yet, but I do know that the grade at the end of the course was 94.59 %. The professor was going to also drop the lowest quiz score in each category (each chapter had three quizzes--multiple choice, true and false, and final [normally just more problems than simply questions]), so this will probably help the score a little bit better. Accounting really isn't my favorite subject, so I'm glad to be 1/3 done with it! :) I've already enrolled for the next class, ACC 112 (instead of ACC 111) that will be done in the winter quarter.

I've also kept busy with work. Things have been going mostly well there, and, as ever, quite busy.

Last Saturday, I was able to go over to a friend's house and watch a movie with him and a couple of his younger siblings. We watched "We Were Soldiers" with Mel Gibson. As always, it makes me appreciate even more both those who served in our country's battles and those who had loved ones serving. Nobody watched expect me had seen it before, and everybody agreed it was a good movie, aside of course from the rather atrocious language. At least, however, in movies of this sort, the language is reflecting reality instead of being thrown in gratuitously to simply fit in with the mainstream. The violence, while graphic, is also at realistic levels. Overall, I'd recommend it to someone that would like to see a reasonably accurate portrayal of early Vietnam. It's not for younger children, though. Or for the particularly squeamish, either.

I also got to do something else pretty fun last week... last Thursday evening, I believe. The local homeschool group had a square dance, which I got to attend. It's a great way to get to know people, a great way to get (lots) of exercise, and a great way to have fun. The best dance is always the Virginia Real/Reel. Not sure which one... and I'm too tired to look it up right now. It's really a TON of fun. The Popcorn is also great, until when they start speeding it up. I don't have quite what it takes to keep going when they speed it up to at least 2 times the normal speed. :P

Well, I think that's all that I have for right now. I need to be getting up early enough tomorrow to eat, fix a lunch, and be in at work by 8:00. So, I'll be departing here. Hopefully this post is enough to last people for a while. :D

I'm trying to come up with a witty title, but I'm not having any success.

I really found this observation interesting. On Monday of last week, I wore shorts to work. Tuesday too. Wednesday too. Then, by Saturday, I was wearing my winter coat outside. And gloves. And I was cold. I must live in Ohio.

I'm thinking of putting up a bunch of pictures. I don't have time for many, but I'll put in some. These are from different days at work. Some are pictures of airplanes, some are pictures of sunsets, and some are pictures of other things. :P

Me after flying a couple friends.

The Diamond Star. Sweet plane. :)

A King Air B200 that flew in. This was a charter aircraft from northern Ohio. I got a bunch of pictures. :DAnother view of it. In case you're wondering, the red thing on the prop... that's a prop lock. It keeps the prop from rotating in the wind while it's sitting on the ground. The other ends of the cable are secured around the exhaust pipes for the engine.Another view.Nose-on. This is one great-looking plane. :D

And, I had to get one with me in there.

An incredible sunset view shot alongside the King Air.
This is the Beech Duke. It flew up from Florida, non-stop. I've gotten to fill it up two times so far. :DA different view, this one from a little further away.It's a little smaller.

And more sunset. :)

Another great sunset picture.

A Columbia 300. REALLY fast airplane. I wouldn't mind one. :D

A Learjet 25. It flew up from Texas. Must have been a fun flight. I wouldn't mind going along. :)

A sunset on another night.

The Twin Star taking off. The Piper Arrow in the foreground. :D

Another view of the takeoff. Eclipse in the foreground.

Still getting up.

And finally, off it goes. Awesome airplane.

Well, that's it for now. I'm off to go to sleep. I hope some people really enjoyed the pictures. :)

Pray for our country!

We need it.

I just couldn't resist posting this video

This just cracked me up. Incredibly. Watch the whole thing. :D

I tried to come up with something like "I've been busy" but it just didn't seem to fit...

I'm sorry. I'll try to do better.

I have been up to quite a lot. Let's start with school.

I'm doing just a light load of schoolwork this year. Since I'm planning on getting a business degree from Geneva, I decided to start on some school after all. Right now I'm near the end of the fifth chapter of the accounting course I'm taking online with Clark State Community College in Springfield. It's going well overall, except for occasional problems with the online server. :P

Work has picked up a lot for me. Since there was very little rain for quite a while, mowing had slowed down a lot. However, now that we've had some more rain, the business has returned. I'm also working 18 hours a week at the airport. I'm doing Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings 4-7, and also Saturdays 8-5. That's going really well. I enjoy the (most of) the work and the people there at the airport are great. I'm able to make a bit of money which is going towards my next topic.

Flying is starting back into learning again instead of recreation. I'm working on what's called the Instrument Rating, which allows me to fly in clouds, low visibility, or other similar situations. So far, it's been a lot of fun. Most of the time I learn pretty quickly, so that's good.

I haven't started driving yet. I really really really need to start sometime soon. Hopefully that'll work out soon.

Unfortunately, one thing that has been sacrificed with my increasing time at the airport is participation with my Boy Scout troop. I'm late for each of the meetings, since I work Tuesday nights. As well, since I'm working Saturdays, I can't really make it to campouts. That's about my only regret working at the airport, since I miss doing things with the troop. It's taken a bit of getting used to.

One thing that people will (hopefully) be interested in is what I got to do with a few other guys and a couple adults from the troop this August. We went out to Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania, which is in southwestern PA. There, all of us got to participate in two days of whitewater canoeing on the Middle Youghiogheny River. Those of us under 18 earned the Whitewater Merit Badge, while the adults enjoyed getting to watch us. :D They canoed all the time that we did... just they didn't take the adventurous routes like we did. They also had the record for the least capsizes, at three. My canoe partner and I wiped out four times, while the other two guys did about a dozen. We laughed at them a lot. :) Actually, whenever anybody wiped out, they were laughed at thoroughly. :D

I think that's it for now. I seriously will try to remember to post more often. I'm also going to change the music. If you have any questions, comments, or stupid jokes... go ahead and leave me a comment. I don't mind. Even stupid jokes. :D

I think that safely qualified as my longest sabbatical ever. I'm back, now, though. :D

Just a quick post to get stuff up again. If you'd like to see the first photo album of RP International pics of mine on Facebook... click here.

Hope you like the music!

Great news!

The National Merit Foundation wouldn't let me publicly announce this until today. However, now that it's the 30th, I can tell anybody.

As many of you had probably known, I'd gotten National Merit Finalist. We found out about 5 weeks ago that I'd made it into the next and final cut, Scholar. Not all scholars get any money, but they've given me $2500 to use for schooling. As you might imagine, I'm really happy with this. Praise the Lord for His blessings like this!

Too long

Well, it has been too long. I'll summarize what's been going on in the past month and a half.

Church has been going quite well. We've been having some encouragements. We had a congregational meeting a few weeks ago. The congregation has been moving forward, and we enjoyed the benefit of a meeting that was wonderful due to the unanimity showed. A couple weeks ago, due to two families visiting the area, we had 66 people at church. That's the most that I remember having there in a long time. It was great. Hopefully, we'll soon be having that sort of attendance normally.

We're a bit behind in school, unfortunately. However, we're making steady progress on it. Hopefully, we can get done before too late into summer. :P

Flying has been going well. I'm working on getting checked out in the Star, a 4-seater. It's quite fun. Soon after getting the checkout in the plane, I'm hoping to take a bunch of friends up. :)

I'll finish up tomorrow with more. Night! :)

This would really be an interesting place to land.

No post since last month...

I'm posting again. Finally. :) Guess you figured that out without me telling you, though.

Currently, I am exhausted. Mostly, that's due to two things. 1) I got around 4 hours of sleep, I think. 2) After having something around 12-15 inches of snow, it was necessary to both shovel it and sled in it. I went with a couple of the neighbor kids (most of my readers know them) and their mom to a hill near here, where we spent about an hour sledding. After that, I helped shovel our sidewalk and then shovel out the van. I'm tired. :)

I flew a couple days ago. Hopefully, I'll get some pictures up here sooner or later, but I had a great time. I got 3.2 hours of cross-country time, and I'm now over 25 cross-country, and up to about 52 hours total time. I need 50 total cross-country hours to get my next rating, the instrument rating.

Well, speaking of flying on instruments, I almost had the chance to do that on Thursday. Nathaniel and I went flying down south of here, checking out the Ohio River. The weather was excellent down there. However, the closer we got to home, the worse it got. I was planning on going to Urbana airport, the next county south, but I wasn't too sure about it, so I played it safe and went to the Springfield airport, the next county south of Urbana. That airport is a bit better equipped than Bellefontaine, and I figured it would be all right. Well, after we got on the ground, I talked with a flight instructor (he's also the airport managing company owner) at Bellefontaine, and he told me to come on back, since the clouds and the visibility had gotten better. We headed on back, but I felt kinda weird--flying 500 feet above the ground, 500 feet below the clouds, and about 130 MPH. Only was able to see about 2 miles, too. :P

Oh well. It was legal. I gained a lot of experience--I now know I can fly in that kind of weather if I have to. I also now have some actual experience in having to make in-flight changes and adaptations. Hopefully, I won't have to do this kind of thing more often, but at least I know I can really do it now. That was kinda rambling. :P

School's been going well, but we're still behind. It's going to take us to the end of the year to catch up. Oh well. We'll get done.

Umm... I'm trying to think of something else.

BREAK

That was all last Saturday. Now it's Tuesday, and I'm realizing I forgot to finish the post. I'll update since then...

Letsee. No more flying since then. Done several tests for school, a couple of them pretty big, and they've all gone well. :) We're getting along.

Sabbath was excellent--most people there despite the weather. Sermons were great, the presbytery update was really good (getting to hear how other congregations in the presbytery are doing), and the dinner was tacos. Excellent day spent with the Lord and His people.

I just got back from our weekly scout troop meeting. The last 2 weeks' meetings were canceled because of weather, so this one had elements from 3 different meetings. A few interesting things--I've been elected the Senior Patrol Leader again (basically the guy that runs everything), which is mostly nice. I'll be training my assistant to take over my job by the end of my term.

That's about it for now. I'm going to find a bloopers video and post it.

It's been under a week--weird, ain't it?

Well, this has been a very history-minded past few days. I found a book lying around called "Grant Comes East." Finding the title intriguing, I picked it up and started reading.

I'm starting to get into this alternate history more and more, and this is right up that alley. It's the second book in a series. As you might guess by what I've said, it's a "what if" of the Civil War. Basically, Lee won at Gettysburg and then also soundly defeated the Army of the Potomac (again) at Union Mills. This is all in the first book of the series, which I haven't read yet. Yeah, I read the second before the first. Oh well.

The book was really good, overall. Very little language, no sexual anything at all, and a fast-paced read. It mainly focuses on the leaders (mostly military, but some political)--Lee, Longstreet, and Stuart on the one side, Lincoln, Grant, and Sickle on the other. It does a very good job of showing Lee's faith, except at one point, at which he used obscenity to get the attention of his staff and get them focused. I was not happy at that point.

It's a very intriguing read. The situations were very plausible, at least based on my understanding. Several characters were rather interesting studies as well, especially Lee. Personally, I'd recommend this book to most people. I really need to read the first one, though. Thankfully, the library has it. :)

Because of all this, I decided to watch a movie tonight. One that I hadn't seen in years. Gods and Generals. At about 11, I was only halfway through it, so I decided I'd stop for the night. However, I'd already been impressed yet again by Jackson's character. He depended utterly on the Lord for strength and protection. As he said in response to a question from one of his staff officers as to why he was so calm in battle, he replied "Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me ... That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave."

What a testimony for Christ. He sat on his horse, just watching the enemy troops advance, shot plowing up around him. I pray that, if indeed it is God's will for me to be in the Army after college, that I can be as strong a witness as he was.

Well, I'll quickly update you all on everything else going on recently. Church was quite good as normal. Please be praying, though, for more people. We would like to have more in the local area, and we really could use some more elders and deacons.

School's been all right. We're still behind, but we'll finish eventually. I don't remember if I'd said this before or not, but I've made Finalist in the National Merit Scholarship Competition. No money out of it (yet), but this means that, as long as I keep the grades up, I'll get free tuition at Geneva! :)

Shoveling has become a daily activity, or nearly so. The snow has been coming about once a day, putting down anywhere from two to five additional inches. It's been great for working out, at least. :)

Well, that's it for right now. I'm going to a Pinewood Derby on Saturday--Cub Scout event where they race wood cars (only the little ones--about six inches long). Should be fun. If I get the chance, I'll get pictures. Good night everyone!

Out of jail!

Well, I'm out. It was an interesting experience...

Seriously, it was a visit for a merit badge for Scouts. I was there, touring, along with a couple of other guys from the troop, for about an hour. It was really an interesting experience. I'm rather glad that, unlike a few guys in there, I'm not so familiar with being in jail that I know the daily routine by heart. Some of them have been in there for several years, not having fresh air for a few months at a time. Phew. Sin is a horrible thing, ain't it?

Well, since then, I've been busy. Not busy enough to skip a blog post--I just wanted to keep you all hanging. :P

School's been going well. Since last week we did nothing, we've been trying to make a comeback. We've succeeded, mostly. I think we're on track for this week, so we only added another week to the behindness. Oh well. We'll get done eventually. I had one really good math test, and one not so good physics test. They averaged out. :P

I had the Merit Badge Trail Drive today. I assisted with the Aviation merit badge class, feeling kinda weird correcting the two adult counselors. They both had lots of experience with aircraft, but mainly on the ground, so they'd asked me to help correct any mistakes they made. I did so, but it felt strange. The other two classes (I was a mere participant in Energy and Radio, the other two classes) went well, and I had fun. Learned some things, too. :)

Well, I'd reserved a plane out at the airport for Monday morning, and had planned to have Milkdud go up with me. However, when I talked to him this morning, he didn't think it would work, so, since the weather today was so nice, we worked it out... He and I went up this evening/late afternoon. The weather was the nicest I'd had in about a month. Almost no winds, almost no clouds... it was wonderful. Hopefully, I'll have pictures sooner or later.

It's been a long day. Great day, but long. Good night everyone, and have a great Lord's Day!

Going to jail this morning... I'll let everyone know what's going on when I get back.

We're back.

As the title says...



Basically, Nathaniel had another seizure. It wasn't one of the major ones. He's doing fine now.

After the seizure occured, he went to a local hospital's emergency room for a while. After some testing, he was released. Other than the fact that he's in no immediate danger, that's about all we know. Hopefully, the neurologist will be able to shed some more light on the situation.

We got out there around 2000 on Saturday evening. After talking with Nathaniel a while, Mom and Dad went up to Rose Point (next county north) to stay with my grandpa, while I got to stay at Geneva. Since Nathaniel had permission to violate the fire code for a night, we got a spare mattress from the across-the-hall neighbor (who doesn't have a roommate) and I slept on that, in the middle of the floor. :)

That evening was really nice, since we got to hang out with some Indiana friends. Hansons from Southside were out. Actually, it was they who helped out a ton with Nathaniel--they'd noticed his having the seizure, and they took him out to the hospital, and even brought him back! Thanks!

Anyway, we got to hang out with them and Nathaniel's roommate, Luke Dinkledine, for a couple hours. It was really great.

Well, Sabbath was good (as normal). Since we were in PA, we all went to Eastvale RPC, Nathaniel's home congregation when he's at school. That was really good--everyone there is always great to talk to, and, more importantly, the service (since it was through Christ) was glorifying to God, and the sermon was quite edifying. That evening, since they don't have an evening service, we attended the Bible study, which was also quite excellent.

Sabbath night, I stayed across the hall from Nathaniel, since nobody wanted the fire code broken much. The guy whose room I stayed with is a pretty good friend, one that I've known for several months (through Nathaniel, of course), so we had a nice time. However, I woke up the next morning with... *drum roll*

THE FLU!!!!

Thankfully, it didn't hit too quickly. Mom and Dad also thought they had it, although lighter, so we decided to come home. The trip seemed to take forever, but we got back safely.

Tuesday was really bad for me. High fever and lots of acheing all day long. Not fun.

Yesterday, and continuing into today, I've been recovering. I still have this cough that's really annoying. However, it's had the benefit of getting me used to Robitussin. I really don't like that stuff, but it's getting more bearable.

That's our news. One last thing--I just did some flying on my flight simulator here on the computer. I flew a precision instrument approach into Dayton International Airport while in bad weather. Basically, without looking at anything but stuff on the instrument panels (except for the last little bit), I landed a plane. It was cool. Now, I wanna do some more practice of this in real life. :)

Good night all! Sorry this post is later than promised--flu slows you down a lot.

I was planning on posting today, but not about this...

We had a call earlier from Nathaniel. Sounds like he's had another seizure, not quite as intense as a couple years ago. He's at Beaver Valley Medical Center right now getting some examinations. We're leaving in a few minutes for PA. We really have no clue if it's serious or not, but, just in case, we're going out. Please be in prayer for everyone involved--Nathaniel, us, the medical personnel, etc. I'll post more when 1) I know more and 2) I get the chance.

Christ is over all.

Hey, I'm posting!

Weird, ain't it? :D

Alrighty. Things significant in the two weeks since the previous post...

Well, I've flown once. I picked up a guy from church and went up to Bowling Green. I picked up something around two hours cross-country time as Pilot in Command. I need to build up fifty total hours, and I'm sitting on around twenty. Not too bad.

I've also been working on getting checked out to rent the airport's Diamond Star. It's a four-seater, complete with what's called a "glass cockpit." The Eclipse, which I normally fly, has all the instruments in a standard dial format, sorta like a standard watch. Well, if the Eclipse is like a standard watch, the Star is a digital watch. Most all of the instrument panel is two ten-inch displays. It's pretty complex (until you figure it out), but it's really powerful. I was rather amazed the other day when I got to get in it and spend about ninety minutes just learning about it by pushing and pulling buttons. It's a bit more capable than anything I've ever used before. I can't wait to take the plane up. :)

Church has been going well. Nothing new really. The sermon series have been quite good. The psalm meditation last week was quite good. Christ is still blessing us. Please be praying, though, that we would have more people coming, both those who know Christ and those who don't.

I'm really not coming up with a ton of other stuff to be posting. I'll try to post more regularly. I know, I say that a bunch, but oh well...

Video of the post. Hold on a second. Gotta upload a video to Youtube, one that I've been needing to for a while.

OK. Nathaniel took a video of a landing when he and I flew a few weeks ago. Here's the video. It was a little bit gusty wind, so not the best landing. However, the plane survived, and he didn't mind the slightly bumpy landing. :) Here's the video.

Logansville, a small village here in Logan County.
Flooding near Belle Center, which is in the upper part of the screen.
Ridgeway, also nearby.
West Mansfield, near here.
And lastly, Zanesfield, near here.

Two days after I got my license, Nathaniel and I went up around the county. Here are a few pictures from that.

Today, Bumpas and I flew around the county for about an hour. He had lots of fun, and I rather enjoyed it, too. :D When we were about ready to leave, though, the best part of the day happened...

A Columbus Police MD-500 (light helicopter) came in and shut down. I talked to the pilot, who let me get in and check it all out. Unfortunately, a ride wasn't possible, but it was still really fun. I knew how to operate a lot of the avionics, since they were the same as in the Eclipse! :)

School's been going well. I did quite well on a math test yesterday, and we're slowly but surely catching up.

While at the airport today, I found out some more about a possible next step for me in the flying career. I might well be getting a ground instructor license, certified to be teaching groundschool. This would be quite nice, since I could work a bunch more and get paid better. We'll see.

That's about it for right now. I'll try to post more frequently.

Finally

Well, I'm doing it. Here it is.

Monday morning, I was quite anxious. I was afraid that the weather would not cooperate, and that I'd have to cancel. However, I called in to the weather briefer (it's a free service by phone) and got told that it would be doable during the day, but not all the time. Some of the day, it would be, but, during a few points, the clouds would drop enough that I couldn't. However, I went in to the airport anyway and finished the planning.

Winds started picking up, enough that they were gusting past the limits of the aircraft. Basically, the plane, when taking off, is only allowed to have so strong of a crosswind--any stronger, and I might not be able to keep it going straight down the runway. Worse, there'd be a chance that a freak gust could get under a wing and lift, flipping the plane. That would tend to ruin your day.

Well, the clouds lifted a ways and the winds dropped, just as I was about to get going. I was adjusting the rudder pedals when a cable snapped. Thankfully, it was just a cable for adjusting the pedals' position, not the actual cable to control the rudder. However, I had to wait for the cable to get replaced, and, by the time it was ready, the winds had picked up again.

Just about literally praying without ceasing, I taxiied down to the runway, did the pre-takeoff checklist, and sat there for a few minutes, figuring out the gust patterns. When I managed to do that, I got off the ground and headed north to Bluffton, where I'd be having the examination. On the way up there, I did a little bit of practice maneuvering. The most fun were a few practice stalls and a series of S-turns along a road.

Well, I got up there and had a couple things go wrong. First was I didn't totally follow the checklist, accidentally. As a result, mixture was not quite properly adjusted. Basically, this controls the fuel-to-air ratio, something not so important in a car as a plane, since the car stays at the same air density, or at least changes gradually. Anyway, I'd leaned the mixture, as I should have, but I'd forgotten to rich it all the way. As a result, when I landed (rough landing, too, because I caught a gust at exactly the wrong moment), the engine shut off. After about two seconds of near silence, I figured out what was wrong (yeah, it took me that long) and I realized why the propeller blades were quite visible.

Rather embarrassed and calling myself names, I restarted the engine and taxiied in. I was kind of nervous, thinking that the examiner would have seen all that fiasco, and would tell me to just skip it and go home. However, I got in there, and she was all smiles and happiness. I asked her if she'd seen the landing, and was told that coffee was more important than watching me land then, since she figured I could handle it. :) I figured this was a good thing, seeing that she wasn't going to be super tough.

Well, I started to explain what had happened. I said that the engine had shut off when I landed, so she quickly asked me why. I started to say that I hadn't re-adjusted the mixture when she cut me off to inform me that she had done the same exact thing countless times over the 70 (yes, seventy) years she had been flying, and not to worry about it until I do it three times in a row. :D

Time for the oral exam. Basically, I had to prove that I knew how to plan a cross-country trip, that I knew how to check to make sure the aircraft is legally (and safely) flyable, that I know all about the different airspace types, how to navigate, and the list went on and on... It was really fun, even though it lasted about ninety minutes.

After all of that, I got a few minutes' break to visit the facilities (known in the book, Cheaper by the Dozen, as "examining the rear tire." Also, I grabbed a few snacks.

Well, after the few minutes' hiatus, I went out and preflighted (not preflew) the plane. The examiner (whose birthday it also was, I'd forgotten to mention) got in, and off we went. Basically, we started out on the cross-country trip to see how well the planning would work out. After going to the first checkpoint, she had me divert to another airport, estimating it by just looking at the chart. In short, we flew off to there for a few minutes, then started the maneuvers I had to demonstrate. I had to do steep turns, climbing and descending turns, constant-rate and constant-airspeed ascents and descents, several different types of stalls, a few maneuvers with reference to the instruments only, turns around a point, engine-out (just throttle pulled back, not actually turning off the engine) glide and decision on where to forced-land it, S-turns along a road, and plenty of other things I'm not thinking of, probably. It was all fun, although a bit bumpy and a bunch windy.

We got back to the airport and did a few landings and trips around the traffic pattern, and then she told me to taxi back in. With a big smile on her face, she told me that she was never scared or really nervous even, so I'd passed. By this point, my grin greatly outdid hers. :D

While she was taking care of the paperwork, I made a couple quick phone calls--one to home and one to a guy from church who lives about 2 miles from the Bluffton airport. He'd never been up in a plane before, so by the time all of the paperwork was finished, he was there. We went up for about a half hour. All of the time and work and money I'd put into the lessons were worth it to see the look in his eyes as we lifted off. It was a blend of amazement and wonder and joy. :)

That's it for now. Expect pictures before too horrible long. Horribly.

PS: Sorry about the formatting. Blogger just doesn't seem to like me. Maybe if I used it more often I'd get better service. :P

Got it!

More to follow later, but I have the license. :)

Where to begin...

As the title says. Since the last post, I've only flown once (yesterday), but I've been to the presbytery high school winter conference, gotten a few Christmas presents, and done plenty of other stuff.

OK. I'll just sort of analyze the general things. First of all, anyone that can identify the aircraft recording correctly, leave a comment. Just tell what the name of the aircraft is. It shouldn't be too hard.

Alrighty. First, Winter Conference. Wow. It was, as I said a couple days ago, fun, useful, safe, and edifying. I met a lot of new friends and strengthened old friendships. The lectures/messages/sermons (whatever you want to call them) were given by Bob McCracken. The subject was "Living as an RP Christian." They were excellent.

I have plenty of pictures from WC, and I'll be putting them up on Facebook. In a later post (and I will make sure I do it) I'll put in a public link for getting to them. Everything at WC was great. I'm not really able to come up with anything bad. As normal, I didn't get much sleep, but I didn't stay up most of the night like normal, since the last night was a Friday.

OK. That's it for WC for now. I'll probably edit in a link or two here later.

*EDIT* First album is here. Hope everyone likes it.

Second album
Third album

Christmas was good. Everyone in Dad's family was there, including my grandmother and all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Of course, now that I look at it, that would be everyone. Oh well. I ended up getting several nice things for presents. A new Air Maui hat came in from my uncle, since the old one didn't hold up the best. The same uncle gave me an iPAQ, a handheld computer that's really nice. Other than that, I got a new Victorinox knife and a 2Gb mp3 player from Mom and Dad, and cash from various people. Everything turned out nicely.

Yesterday I got to fly again for the first time in 13 days. The clouds were low enough at my destination that I had to slip in pretty low, but I was still legal. After hanging around the Defiance airport for a little while talking with Mortons and having them check out the plane, I left again. The closer I got to home, the higher the clouds got, until they were so high the plane couldn't get even close to them. Eventually, they pretty much disappeared, so I got to just have fun flying around the county quite high up (more than a mile), something I'd not been able to do in a long time due to the weather.

OK. Well, that's it for now. I'm off to put pictures on Facebook. Look for them here soon!