Owner: Sulako's Blog URL:http://sulako.blogspot.com Join Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 20:24:43 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Existential angst, with airplanes! Site statistics:Click here
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The alarm c... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Click on the pics to make 'em bigger.The alarm
clock went off at 3:45am this morning. At least I knew it was gonna go off, so I went to bed early last night. I scraped the ice of my car's windshield and drove to the airport. We loaded up, lit up and took off, heading south.For the first hour, things looked a lot like this:This is what we saw about half-way to our destination.After a while the sun came up, and we got a spectacular view of the spectacularly boring undercast layer.The clouds started to break up and it was time to land, 3 1/2 hours after we departed Toronto Pearson.Yeah, I'm a total goof.We landed and checked into our hotel.Hey, this looks familiar :)I apologize for the audio quality. My camera sucks. Perhaps there's a well-heeled internet reader who would like to send me a real video camera? And perhaps unicorns exist, I know.I find it interesting that all the major banks in the Bahamas are Canadian. Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal, etc.In the main harbor there we Read more:Click
I posted this on AvCanada a long time ago, and fo... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I posted this on AvCanada a long time ago
, and found it again. More flying stories coming up soon - I'm flying a whole lot over the next three weeks so I'll have some new content then. A Short Ode to the Understated Genius of Neil DiamondSully here, reflecting on an artist who, outside of his loyal circle of fans, has been the subject of ridicule and punchlines, his music the foundation of the phenomena known as "Elevator Music". A musician whose songs have been in, out and back again, out of fashion, then back again, regardless of climate, pop culture, or mass taste. A man immortalized in not one, but TWO movies: The Jazz Singer (1980), and more recently Saving Silverman (2000). The artist in question? Mr. Neil Diamond. The man, the myth, the LEGEND.I hear some of you out there snickering. "Sully" you're saying, "how can you, the arbiter of all that's cool and hip, consider NEIL DIAMOND a musical icon?"My answer is: quite easily. You want proof? Okay, but remember, you
Back from Nassau, getting ready to go across the c... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Back from Nassau
, getting ready
to go across the country next week. I'll upload a few more pics from the Nassau trip shortly, as I saw something I hadn't seen before on the ramp just prior to our departure. Until then, check these out:I found this on AvCanada. The original youtube video wouldn't allow embedding, so I ripped it and uploaded it again. This is a Citation II doing a barrel roll at altitude. Citations are NOT certified for aerobatics. At appears the crew has some brushing up to do on their decision-making skills, as this seems to be a case of taking a risk for no good reason.Aerodynamically, performing a perfect barrel roll doesn't put a whole lot of stress on the aircraft, but if you screw it up that's another story.On a completely different note, here are a couple of hilarious magicians. Normally I don't care about magic stuff, but I was wiping the tears away from my eyes as I watched this.
Here's a quick clip of a plane having a bad gear d... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Here's a quick clip of a plane having a bad gear day. Watch as the pilot shuts down both engines so the propellors don't strike the runway while turning. The only thing he forgot was to switch off the master electric switch - you can see the beacon on the top of the fuselage still blinking. I had a bad landing gear day a long time ago - I'll write about it tomorrow.From the news article:"A twin-engine plane made a belly landing at Arlington Municipal Airport, Texas, late today after apparently having landing gear problems. Both men on board quickly slipped out of the plane. Neither appeared to be hurt. Live TV coverage showed the plane's landing gear did not appear to be fully extended as the Beechcraft circled the airport numerous times. The pilot was able to cut power to the engines as the plane touched the runway, the gear collapsed, the nose went down and the Beechcraft slid on its belly and stopped."
Sully here, in a strange land.
The hotel I stayed... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Sully here, in a strange land.The hotel I stayed at last night didn't have internet so I wasn't able to post anything. Can you imagine a hotel in North America in 2007 not having internet? And it's not like it was a cheap hotel either. I mean, it was a lousy hotel, but it wasn't cheap. I checked out this am and checked into a Best Western instead.My, what a fine looking airplane! Some mountains in the distance and clear blue sky above makes for beautiful, if stark, scenery.This is an orange tree. I didn't know they grew in the wild :)There are a whole whack of cactii lining the streets here. One of my favorite words is "cactus". It's just impossible to be angry while saying "cactus" repeatedly - the word just makes me smile.The airport we landed in has an airplane graveyard / storage facility. Lots of old tired gas-guzzlers are mothballed here, or rather covered in tinfoil and plastic wrap until gas prices fall below $10/barrel and they become economical to operate again
I'm heading south, north, then west, then east ov... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I'm heading south
, north, then west, then east over the next few days. I'm looking forward to it - I haven't flown in ages and I want to get back into the sky.I wasted the better part of the day today, getting my newfangled Aircrew pass from the GTAA, the organization that's in charge of Toronto Pearson airport. The new passes have retinal scans and fingerprints encoded within them, and someone important has decided that it will protect us all from the terror, so that's that. There is a bit of a catch though. 50,000 people work at Toronto Pearson and need passes, from airport restaurant workers to pilots to baggage handlers etc. The old passes have been declared invalid as of January 1st (recently extended to January 31st). The GTAA Pass office can process maybe 200 people a day.Whomever made up the policy apparently didn't do basic math on how many people they could process by the deadline, and the end result is that the workers at the GTAA office are totally overwhelmed b
I have looked into the abyss and found it staring ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I have looked into the abyss
and found it staring straight back at me. Yeah, that's Celine Dion. Yeah, that's an AC/DC song. Yeah, she's air-guitaring it.I need to post about aviation to remove the mental anguish, so that's coming right up.
A lazy evening storm lights up the local palm tree... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A lazy evening
storm lights up the local palm tree
s down south. Better to be on the ground wishing I was flying than vice versa.When I was little, I'd look up at the stars and wonder if my true love was looking at the same stars as me. Sometimes when I'm away from Lisa, I'll tell her to look outside at the same time I am, so we are both staring at the constellations together, though we are miles apart.I flew night cargo in Goderich for a few years, and on clear evenings I'd frequently see meteors burning across the horizon for a second or two before they winked out, incinerated by earth's atmosphere. Whenever I saw one I'd make a wish, usually involving my being safe and warm at home instead of flying single-pilot night cargo in icing conditions in a small piston airplane with a dodgy heater. But overall it was really easy flying and I was home every night by 930pm or so, so I'm not complaining at all. I enjoyed flying at night because the air was smoother, there was a lot l
Here are 5 things about me I haven't told you yet,... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Here are 5 things
about me I haven't told you yet, courtesy of a kick in the pants by Aviatrix1. I have attended a trial twice, once when my neighbors were convicted of aggravated assault on me and threatening my life, and once again when they accused my cat of digging up their potato plants in their garden and filed a complaint against me with the city. I lost the cat trial, and had to pay $185 in damages to my neighbors for their potato plants. This was while they were both still on probation for the assault / threats.2. I have 4 tatoos - 2 demons, a dragon and a skull - all in places that are covered by a pilot shirt and pants. I want more.3. I once went 96 hours without sleeping on a bet. I attended work each day(I wasn't working in aviation at the time) and on the 3rd day, I saw huge hieroglyphics on the floor of the warehouse I was working in. I don't remember much else about the 4th day.4. I own a collection of thousands of CDs of gothic / industrial music. I collect(ed
Check it out, it's pretty cool. Hexafluoride i... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Check it out, it's pretty cool
. Hexafluoride is a gas that's a lot more dense than air, so they put some in an aquarium and floated a little aluminum boat on it. I'll try to come up with some way to tie this into aviation later, or not. Read more:Check
Last night I ate some new food. I'm fearless when... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Last night I ate some new food. I'm fearless when it comes to new grub, but this was particularly difficult. They called them rocky mountain oysters but they ain't seafood. They were actually pretty tasty, but I worry about the karma associated with my actions, especially if the bulls come looking for what was missing.Anyway...The landscape we flew over today is like the surface of the moon. Beautiful, but stark. Did 6 hours of flying today, a couple of which were sneaking through some really rough air. The sky was clear but the jetstream was being ornery, twisting this way and that through the flight levels. People ahead of us were complaining bitterly about the ride, and we started to get constant moderate chop. Moderate turbulence is when we can still control the airplane just fine, but we are pressed against our seatbelts firmly due to the bumps. Then an MD-82 just ahead of us reported severe turbulence just under us, so that got our attention pretty fast. I wonder what s
I drove up to our airport office to tie up some pa... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I drove
up to our airportoffice
to tie up some paperwork odds and ends, and overheard this:"Hey, did you check the weather for our trip yet?""Nah. Why bother. We are goin' anyway""Heh yup. I'll put in the fuel order""Sounds good, see you out there"The guys were my age, and appeared to be co-captains. Their US-registered King Air 350 was outside on the ramp.I looked outside at the freezing rain, got a cup of hot chocolate and went back inside my office, glad that I wasn't flying, and more glad that I wasn't flying with either of those gentlemen.
So whatever happened to my contest with Lisa?
We ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 So whatever
happened to my contest with Lisa?We both exercised and watched our eating for more than 2 months, and our deal was that the winner would get to decide the theme to our wedding. Lisa's choice for a wedding theme was "traditional" while mine was "everyone dresses up like forest animals". Clearly the stakes were high.We measured various body parts at the start of our wager, and at the end.I went without McDonalds, chocolate bars and adult beverages for months in an effort to win, and Lisa hit the gym and cardio classes every day. We teased each other all the time "Baby, you know what I could go for? A single piece of hot cheese pizza. But I can't have it alone or I'll lose the bet, so how about we both have a slice? You go first..."At the end, Lisa had lost substantial weight and inches, and so had I. I lost nearly 20 pounds in 10 weeks, as did Lisa. But there was a serious problem: We both lost the same amount of inches off our bellies and chests and legs and arms,
I have been really busy over the last couple of da... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I have been really busy
over the last couple
of days. I'll be back tomorrow with some original content.Recently, a reader by the name of Luke sent in this video; it shows a jet in cruise with lots of passing aircraft overhead. We see this sort of thing all the time when we fly around the New York / Washington / Baltimore area, with aircraft filling the skies above and below us. Even though the aircraft are a minimum of a thousand feet vertically separate, it sure seems like a lot less in real life. In real life, a thousand foot separation looks more like a hundred feet apart, which makes for some pretty spectacular images. It's kinda neat watching other aircraft fly right overhead in the opposite direction as the closing speed is usually over a thousand miles per hour and the other airplanes almost look like meteorites, trailing white tails of water vapor behind them.I'll be flying again shortly and I'll see if I can get any decent pics of crossing traffic. Thanks again Luke!
It was the middle of January '99 and I was in God... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 It was the middle
of January
'99 and I was in Goderich, flying a B-58 Baron for Western Air Services. Western Air was owned by a parent company, involved in grain handling, and we had to take the president to Toronto for a meeting. That task fell to myself and Scurvydog, a pilot/friend who I worked with at Western Air for a few years. Now in the background was the "Storm of the Century". From January 2nd to January 15th, a series of snowstorms stalked the city, dumping nearly a year's amount of snow in less than two weeks. In all, the city recorded the greatest January snowfall total ever with 118.4 cm and the greatest snow on the ground at any one time with 65 cm. The mayor of Toronto even called in the Canadian Forces for emergency help, asking them to rescue stranded motorists and people immobilized by the huge snowfall. But before the snow could be removed from the ground, it had to fall through the air.Anyway, we planned to fly from Goderich to Toronto Buttonville, which is
This is the Beriev BE-200 amphibious jet. Pretty ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is the Beriev BE-200 amphibious jet. Pretty
cool stuff; in the clip they have it configured for water bombing, and for marine rescue. Or you can just put up to 64 seats inside the jet and use it for a passenger transport.I want one with a barbequeue in the back so I can take it up to some northern lakes this summer and go fishing!
I have put Google Adsense ads on my blog, in the t... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I have put GoogleAdsense
ads on my blog, in the top left corner.100% of the proceeds, if any, will go directly to the Halton Women's Place, which is a nearby shelter.I'm not going to encourage you to click on the ads, as Dave Starr has pointed out it would be in direct violation of my agreement with Google to do so, and I don't want to do anything inappropriate.More aviation stuff tomorrow. Read more:Google Adsense
We took our other jet to Montreal this morning.
... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 We took our other jet to Montreal
this morning. It has a different avionics package, a Garmin 530 / 430 combo. They are nice little units, providing moving map, GPS, and airplane communication / navigation radios in each box.The sun is shining, providing a nice little reflection off the other pilot's forehead. I know, I know - like I can talk :) It's a beautiful day, but Montreal was -20c outside when we landed. Fortunately our planes use hot (600 degrees c) engine bleed air to heat our cabin so we remain warm until we have to open the door to deplane.We have a split duty day thing going on today - we don't depart Montreal until very late tonight, so we got a couple of hotel rooms to get our mandated crew rest. In our operation we are only allowed to be on duty for 14 hours in a row without getting a rest period, so when we land, we check into a hotel and rest for the day so we'll be fresh for tonight's flight home.The Sheraton here is a decent hotel. Our company policy is th
It was a few weeks ago; we were flying through a t... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 It was a few weeks
ago; we were flying through a thousand miles of really rough air. A new airliner checked in with center and was duly greeted."Good afternoon United, moderate chop from 23,000' and higher""Is it rough at 41,000?" said the United flight"Only if 41,000 is above 23,000. Let me get my calculator and I'll check"
I'm south today, on a secret mission for a day or ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I'm south today, on a secret mission for a day or two. I wish I could say why, but I can't so I won't. I'm checking out the prog charts for the next 24 - 48 hours and I'm not filled with joy.On the right side of that map, about halfway up, see those two red "L"s right next to teach other? That's sort of where I live, and that's where we'll be heading at some point in the next while. Big red "L"s are bad in aviation; they represent lousy weather with low clouds and rain. Hopefully it'll be nice and easy when we actually go flying, but I am certainly keeping an eye out. The plane will be in a hangar so that's one less thing to worry about - few things are more depressing than coming out to your airplane and seeing 2 inches of frost and ice on it.Anyway, time for comic relief. This had me howling with laughter, and I'm sure the people in the hotel room above me are thinking I'm insane, but whatever; this is still hilarious. Whomever thought this would be a good idea ne
At home, our planes are stored in heated hangars w... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 At home, our planes
are stored
in heated hangars when we aren't flying them. We pay a fairly hefty amount of rent for the privilege, but it's better than keeping the planes outside in the cold and in the snow. When we are on the road, a typical charge for putting our planes in a heated hangar is around $200 - the majority of the cost goes to reheating the hangar air after having to pull the doors open 50 feet wide to let the plane in. Sometimes if we purchase fuel the nice people at the FBO will hangar our plane for free, like on this trip. Today our airplane is warm and snug in a heated hangar, waiting until we return home. That way I don't have to worry about cranky batteries, frozen radios, stuck pressurization valves or exploded pop cans in the commissary bins.I found this on AvCanada. This looks like the central deice facility at Toronto Pearson. If you need deicing, you pay $450 for the privilege of going onto the deice ramp and sitting there while 2 types of fluid are
Heading south for a few days soon; more pics of pa... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Heading south for a few days soon; more pics of palm trees and sunburns coming right up.An old story now.At the time, I wasn't sure if we had crashed or not. We were still sitting upright in the cockpit; myself in the left seat and my instructor in the right seat. He turned to me and said "Turn everything off and get the hell out!". I flipped the main electrical switch off and undid my seatbelt while my instructor popped the door. We were out of the Seneca and a hundred feet away within seconds - we both knew how much energy is stored in aviation fuel and neither of us wanted to be anywhere near the plane if it decided to spark up.The sirens of the emergency vehicles were already ear-stinging loud, and as I looked up I saw a firetruck drive up and start to spray foam on the airplane and the pavement around it. We waited and watched, and after a minute or two with no obvious fire coming from it, we started to walk toward our airplane, which was sitting right in the middle of the r Read more:Heading
We were airborne well before 6am. It was night, b... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 We were airborne well before 6am. It was night, but the moon was really bright and it lit up the earth and sky for us as we flew south. The winds were from the west at more than 195 miles per hour, so we crabbed 30 degrees into the wind and lost 45 miles per hour of groundspeed as a result. Fortunately the air was smooth.The moon was really bright.After an hour in cruise, we started to see the faint light of daybreak. It was pretty striking with the moon in one side and the sunrise in the other side of the cockpit.The night before we flew here, a series of thunderstorms and tornados passed through Florida, killing 19 people at last count. We flew over the same weather system a few hours later. The thunderstorms showed up as a relatively solid line on our radar. We wouldn't go through them, so we had to either divert around them or climb above them. We chose to climb, and at 38,000' we were just barely above the system.For the pilot geeks, see how the radar image is all muddy j
This is the weather forecast for tomorrow morning'... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This is the weather
forecast for tomorrow
morning's destination: FM1400 06020G32KT 1SM -SN BLSN OVC005 TEMPO 1620 1/2SM SN BLSN OVC002 FM2000 04020G30KT 3SM BLSN OVC003 TEMPO 2024 1SM -SN BLSNWhat that tells me is that from 9am (Toronto time) the winds will be out of the east at 20 mph gusting to 35 mph with light snow and blowing snow, reducing the visibility to 1 mile and lowering the height of the clouds to 500 feet above ground. From 11am - 3pm (Toronto time) there will be temporary periods when the snow gets moderately heavy and the visibility is reduced to 1/2 a mile, with the cloud bases only 200 feet above ground. When we leave my destination back to Toronto, the weather is predicted to be pretty much the same, with relatively strong winds, blowing snow, visibilities 1 - 3 miles, and a cloud layer around 300 feet above ground. When we are scheduled to arrive back in Toronto, the weather is also predicted to be snowy and blizzard-y, with similar weather.If
To prepare for our flight this morning, I called... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 To prepare for our flight this morning, I called customs, filed flight plans, checked weather (snowy and challenging, but safe), arranged arrival and departure slot times for both airports, called the FBO at our destination, picked up catering (okay, I just bought muffins, but still), had the plane fuelled, set up the cockpit, put hot coffee on board, chilled the cold drinks, ran through the "BEFORE ENGINE START" checklists and completed the other thousand tasks required to make the flight go smoothly and the passengers feel happy. Then I called clearance delivery to get our clearance. I was given a full route, which I entered into our GPS system, and was about to head back inside our FBO to wait for my pax when I got a call on the radio."Your destination has a ground stop in effect at the moment, they aren't accepting any inbound airplanes for an hour."So I waited for an hour. Fortunately my passengers didn't show up until 5 minutes before the hour was up, so they didn't have to
My real post for today is the one below this one. ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 My real post for today is the one below this one. This second post is because I saw something awesome on eBay and had to share:For $799 you could buy a Playstation 3 (not particularly cool) or this turbine-powered go-kart WITH AFTERBURNER (incredibly cool).A quote from the eBay page:"This is a custom made Turbine with afterburner which is mounted on a stretched Trick Go kart frame. Engine will turn approx. 60,000 rpm's. Motor is very easy to operate. Runs on gas or diesel fuel. I have run the engine on the stand only. I started this project about a year ago, but just don't have the time to finish it. I have bought everything you need to finish it, fuel pumps, coils, fuel line, capacitors, oil tank... the only thing you will need to buy for the cart is a fuel cell and a battery.I have approx 2500.00 invested in this kart. The first time I started the engine in my garage almost every neighbor came out of there house, you will be the talk of the town with this. I also have a vhs tape
Yow. I found this at the Uncontrolled Airspace bl... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Yow. I found this at the Uncontrolled Airspace blog."The pilot of N1312R has a slightly dodgy landing at Alton Bay in NH Feb 10 2007. Alton Bay is actually a sea plane base, but in the winter it freezes over and the operator ploughs a runway."Slightly dodgy doesn't really cover it. Any runway with ice on it requires some fairly serious concentration, let alone runways that are made of ice.
I saw this at Cynical-C Blog.
It shows a couple o... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I saw this at Cynical
-C Blog.It shows a couple
of booster rockets falling to earth after they detach from the space shuttle. There's a video camera on one of the boosters, and you get to watch it fall all the way down to the ocean.If you can get past the first minute of pretty dizzying footage, it's quite remarkable. I especially like the final few seconds before / during touchdown in the ocean.It kind of reminds me of a previous clip.From the YouTube upload:"Nasa released a compilation of footage from various cameras attatched to both solid rocket boosters. Nasa TV showed all views from accention to decention. But this compilation shows the most dramatic and interesting views captured. It is still primarily a single shot from low earth orbit down to earths oceans surface."
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