Detroit Democrats Helping To Lose The Real War on Women

It's not just the corruption that's endemic to one-party controlled cities. It's the incompetence. That incompetence, combined with a revolving door justice system leads to criminals being allowed to remain free to prey upon their victims, in some cases repeatedly.

The Detroit News: 2nd backlog of untested Detroit rape kits found

A second backlog of more than 500 untested Detroit rape kits languished in storage for years after more than 11,000 other unprocessed evidence packages were discovered in a warehouse in 2009, prosecutors say. Out-of-state laboratory workers discovered 555 additional untested rape packages while testing some of the untested rape kits that were found in 2009 in a police warehouse, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller told MLive.com. The additional rape kits were collected by Detroit police in 2010 and 2011, and eventually sent for testing in 2015.

The failure to process these kits have allowed rapists to remain free to commit other crimes against women. You can read the article for plenty of examples of criminals who would have, and should have, been caught had those tests been done rather than shuffled away, but one statistic leaps out:

Worthy said earlier this month that testing of the pre-2009 kits resulted in 78 convictions and the identification of 784 suspected serial rapists believed to have committed sex assaults 10 to 15 times each.

That's 784 uncaught criminals committing in total between 7,840 to 11,760 rapes on women in Detroit alone.

Think about that - 7,840 to 11,760 rapes in one city alone by a small bunch of criminals allowed to go free due to the failure to process basic evidence from the scenes of the crime. Considering Detroit is a city of less than a million in population, that's a horrific statistic. That's your real war on women right there.

Not Flying - JAFGS

Quoth the Weather-Raven this morning: IFR.

Hail, wet snow, and heavy rain and low overcast this morning. Perfect, just perfect.

So off to JAFGround Session I went.

On the upside, I was able to convey that I'm really quite ready on the oral stuff so we didn't review that. Instead we focused on what the likely check-ride will be like as the examiner does have a pretty set pattern and knowing the route and that he's going to take away your chart and GPS and expect you to find Linden on sight and find your way back is rather nerve-wracking.

We went over some of the issues he's seen so far with my landings (leaving too much power in) and steep turns and that was reasonably helpful and I'll be working on it if the weather ever clears sufficiently for flying.

He also went over a proper instrument scan for the impeding foggles session which was enlightening and a different and both a more systematic and meaningful approach than any I've been taught to date. In short, the instruments you focus on depends on what you are doing - Climb uses Airspeed, Attitude Indicator and Directional Gyro; Level flight is Attitude Indicator, Altimeter, and Directional Gyro; Descent is Vertical Speed Indicator, Attitude Indicator and Directional Gyro and Turns is Attitude Indicator and Directional Gyro and turn coordinator. Pretty nifty.

We also went over emergency landings and he gave me one heckuva great tip - if the field you like is in line with the first row of rivets on the wing, it is in gliding range. Very Cool.

Next, he figured out why Hunter gave me a blank look when I said in response to how you handle an emergency landing is as easy as using "ABCDE".

After all A=Airspeed, best glide; B=Best landing Area; C =checklist/flow check try for restart; D=Declare emergency; and E=execute emergency landing.

Well, DCT doesn't use that. They use Best Glide, WOSSS for best field (wind direction, obstacles on field, Size/shape of field, Slope of field and Shoots what do you hit if you under or overshoot t?), flow check for restart, and then execute emergency landing. I daresay I like ABCDE better but what can you do?

Well the ground session proved useful enough and at elast we didn't go over things I've already done before.

Don't Bring A Hammer To A Car Fight

A reminder for those who missed that day in Physics Class: mass matters.

The Detroit News: Police: Taxi driver runs over, kills man after threat

Police say a taxi driver fatally struck a man with his cab in western Michigan after the man threatened him with a hammer and tried to rob him.
Officers responded about 2 a.m. Thursday after the man was hit by the cab in Grand Rapids.

A clear case of a stupid criminal doing stupid things stupidly early in the morning.

A Poe Day Of Not Flying

Upon an afternoon wet and dreary, while I pondered annoyed and weary "Will a check-ride ever be in store?"
I arrived at the flight school and knew flying would not be from the airport upon the lake's shore.
"Tis only to be a ground session" I muttered "Only this and nothing more."
For quoth the weather-Raven: "IFR".

Sorry it was such a Poe imitation of a fine poem there but it suits the mood.

Weather was rainy with a low mist for a quality depressing IFR day. However, this flight school wants you to show up and not cancel even on non-flying days.
I was somewhat wary and apprehensive of this, for if asked if I want more private pilot ground instruction my response would be:
"Nevermore".

I swear, anymore VFR ground and I'll turn into a frickin' tree. Multiple instructors have already tested me extensively and said I have sufficient knowledge and am ready for the oral portion of the check-ride. Not to mention I know what to study and how to study for it on my own by now, and have. Repeatedly. Lots. But I digress.

So I walked in out of the rain and it turns out my normal instructor was out and I had Hunter instead. Apparently unlike Flight 101, DCT does keep some progress notes on students so he seemed to know pretty much where I was in things, for the most part. He stated while we can't fly we can use the simulator.

And so we did, with a bit of trepidation on my part.

The simulator is a nice moving box with multiple large screen with about a 270 degree view and full flight controls and all switches. Unfortunately it doesn't exactly duplicate an Archer and is setup really for a more advanced aircraft but it was close enough. Controls were a bit more sensitive. The Garmin 430 acted exactly like a Garmin 430 with switches and knobs that did their thing. It ran the commercial version of X-Plane, and was in a fashion realistic-ish. The entire box with you sitting in it does move around pretty convincingly with actual bank and pitch angles and it is an FAA approved training simulator.

We did a takeoff and then slow flight, which he thought I did very well, stalls power on and off and I figured out how to improve the power on stall (in short I need to yank back on the yoke a lot more than I typically would do), and steep turns. He did help me improve my steep turns quite a bit and we'll see if that translates over to the actual aircraft.

We also did my first emergency descent on an Archer - 30 degree bank, throttle idle, flaps full down and descend at the top of the white arc. Basically the same as a 172 emergency descent but I had only seen one of those done and not actually done one, so it was nice to actually "do" an emergency descent maneuver.

Landings felt weird in the simulator but were ok for getting the right descent angle and did help somewhat, but the feel and look in the transition stage to touchdown was not working for me.

We talked about engine out landings and he said we're not going to do one on the simulator but we talked through it and he was satisfied that I knew what I was talking about. He also briefly quizzed me, while I was "flying" the simulator, on the Archer's electrical system and engine and I knew the answer to those easily enough.

That's 1.7 simulated hours. Unfortunately, I can't pay for it with simulated money.

Got Some Serious Wood

Last evening after work I headed to Holt Michigan for a karate seminar.

Before it began I had a chance to briefly meet up with Joe Mama of Eaton Rapids Joe. The good sir brought me quite a present indeed:

Yes, that's a whole lot of wood for smoking: Hickory, Apple, Pecan and Mulberry, enough to fill the trunk and rear seating area to the brim. Each box was full and smelled great.

That's a closeup of some Mulberry - I've never used it as a smoking wood before so it should be interesting to try it out. It should be a fantastic smoking summer. After the karate seminar was over, I got in the car and it smelled great - the apple wood especially has a very nice fresh scent.

Then I went home through high winds, lightening and a thunderstorm that had visibility on the highway down at times to a few feet, which sucked.

Thanks again to Eaton Rapids Joe for a fine gift of some wood. He joked that he had found a city slicker that he could offload some wood on, and he indeed found an appreciative one.

Why The Surprise? After All, You Knew What She Was When You Hired Her

When you hire a felon with a history of interesting expense reports at her former job, it's really hard to be shocked when you allegedly get interesting expense reports her.

Monica Conyers (D), wife of Representative John Conyers (D) was recently either fired or quit from her spot at 910 AM Radio station allegedly because, as stated in the Detroit Free Press the

Radio station says Monica Conyers was fired over a $750 hotel booking.

Basically it's the Detroit way of political graft and perks in action from a former Detroit politico with a history of graft and perks. That the radio station should be surprised is the highlight of the whole sorry tale.

Conyers of course claims she wasn't fired but quit, but she does have a history of the standard denial tactic followed by later admission.

My bet is this story will fizzle out shortly before Representative Conyers gets drawn in too far due to Monica allegedly using his federal congressional credentials without him.

Flying Lesson #110 - Crosswinds And Practice Of The Things

For Lesson 110 I pre-flighted the Archer all by myself without supervision, then did the start and run up and headed out to Runway 9L for takeoff to head out to the practice area. My run up flow was a lot smoother so there's that.

The wind started at 10 knots from 140, ending up at 15 knots from 140 by near the end of the lesson, making for a 11.5 knot crosswind factor right when I started doing some patterns. But before the patterns we headed to the practice area.

I did a very nice slow flight, a good power off stall, an ok power on stall, as I needed to pull back a lot more to get it to stall, and then on to steep turns which are my current bugbear. Steep turns to the left that is, the right steep turn was fine. However, for the left, every single time the nose would drop just enough even though I was hauling back on the yoke and I'd lose 200-300 feet in altitude doing it every damn time. Finally I put in a ton more of trim and did it only losing 150 feet, which still sucks. And to think steep turns used to be my best maneuver.

Then we headed in to do patterns on Runway 9L with a left pattern and over the water and tree line for bumpy finals every time. With a right quartering headwind on base the plane wanted to drop a lot on final so I had to adjust power quite a bit. landings were a bit on the solid side but ok with the last one using only 25 degrees of flap instead of the typical 40 due to the wind. Ray suggested that in such situations I bring it in a bit tighter on base so I don't lose as much altitude and have to add power on short final and I'll try that next time.

Then a long roll to the end of the runway and taxi off back to the flight school.

Overall not a bad lesson at 1.6 and 4 landings.

Range Trip And The P30 Hits 1,750

So whenever Matt visits, a trip to the range is in order.

The weather gave us a break and it was reasonably warm but muddy at the range.

We ran a total of 250 rounds through the P30, 200 WWB, and 50 Federal FMJs, and 50 rounds of Speer Gold Dot 124+p rounds. I figured it was time to have some hollow points through it.

The Speer Gold Dots had noticeably more oomph than the FMJ rounds.

Zero malfunctions so far with the P30, though the feed ramp is getting all sorts of dirty.

The shiny metal part is what the entire feed ramp should look like, instead most is covered in carbon, but it still fed every round without complaint.

The Glock 17, M&P 40 Pro, and then the M&P 22 also came out for some suppressed fun, and yes silencers do in fact help protect your ears.

Then we shot some rifles.

Matt highly enjoyed shooting the Tavor, AR15, M1 Garand, and SAR-1. The Tavor was his favorite and he ran it very well with the AR15 a close second.

We also shot a couple more handguns that deserve their own posts, which will come later.

Afterwards we headed of to Alchilies. No it's not a Mexican offshoot of Al Qaeda, its a rather delicious hole-in-the wall Mexican place with real Mexican style Mexican food. We're talking Beef Cheek tacos and other delicacies. Simply awesome.

It's always a great time when Matt comes to town.

Don't Assume My FAA Class

My cousin Matt came to visit and kindly brought me a t-shirt that may explain why, in addition to weather and flight school issues, it is taking so long for me to get a fixed wing pilot's license:

Overkill? There's No Such Thing As Overkill.

The National Post: An American ally used a $3M Patriot missile to destroy a drone ‘that cost 200 bucks,’ U.S. general reveals

That's one drone that won't fly again, as well as a very expensive use of a Patriot missile. It may have been a dubious usage, but it may also have been a worthwhile exhibition of the Patriot's ability to take down even small maneuverable targets.

It'll be interesting to see which ally it was and what the exact circumstances were that led to the firing of the missile, as "Taiwan, Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the United Arab Emirates" all have the Patriot Missile System.

Don't Try This At Home

Walking the dog this morning in the cold, I came by a house with the garage door partially open.

With a car running happily along in the garage filing it with its exhaust, with only some of the exhuast cloud making its way outside and plenty filling in the garage.

The car was running happily for the entire time I walked the dog, over 15 minutes walking past that house and back.

This is really a very bad idea.

Not only bad for your engine, but potentially bad for your health as well. Yes it is cold out there, but a car will warm up soon enough on its own, there's no reason to let it sit running idle in the garage.

Flying Lesson #109 - Polishing Maneuvers

For this lesson the winds were 11-13 out of 290-300 so not a major crosswind.

However, instead of pattern work we headed out to the practice are and flew there by pilotage and looking at landmarks instead of any GPS or maps. I'm getting better at it.

Quite a few aircraft were in the practice area so we let them know we would be on the north end near Lapeer.

Then we got to dance around some clouds and then did slow flight, power off and power on stalls and steep turns. The slow flight was a pain this time and didn't feel great but was acceptable. Half the fun is keeping it slow but above the stall horn in the rather choppy conditions.

The steep turns still need some work but by the end of the lesson they were getting better. They just feel off in an Archer for some reason. We then climbed to 5,500 to get out of some chop and we above the clouds and did more steep turns and they came out ok, including hitting my wake on the last one which is a good thing.

Then we went down through a clear area to get under the clouds and did turns around a point. I did that very well - holding position relative to the point all around the circle even with the 13 knot wind pushing against me around the circle and did it all well within standards. Funny, it used to be my steep turns were much better than my turns around a point.

At the end of the lesson I didn't have much trouble figuring out how to get back to the airport though my initial instinct on where to turn was off a bit, not a big surprise considering all the turns and maneuvers we had made but my visual check of landmarks fixed it. After calling the tower I did a right base entry to runway 25R and did a forward slip to lose some altitude (we deliberately came in high as he wanted me to demonstrate a forward slip) then did a nice landing, touching down just as the stall horn went off, with a bit of crosswind correction as the wind had kicked to 13 at 300. Still keeping a little too much power into the landing that I need to quit doing, otherwise its ok.

Overall not bad.

"Enjoy" Is Not The Word You're Looking For....

Not to impune a headline author's reputation nor suggest use of illegal substances, nor mental illness -- but -- for a newspaper writer to suggest on the Monday after a massive wind storm with power outages, and the start of DST to boot that we will "enjoy" and find a snowstorm "lovely" suggests a writer who needs a psych eval, stat.

The Detroit Free Press: Lovely! Detroit set to enjoy 3-5 inches of snow today

Seriously, there is no enjoyment in clearing a driveway in the dark while the snow still falls, and then sliding down a driveway. There is no enjoyment in slowly rolling through traffic composed of idiots that can't drive when snow falls to get to an office at 8 while in your head it is still 7 am. None as in not any, zip, nada, zero.

The only white stuff the headline writer should enjoy seeing is some white coats coming to take him/her away.

A Nice Knife Upgrade

I recently picked up a Kershaw 6034 Emerson Designed CQC-6K Knife from Amazon.

The Kershaw version of the Emerson knife has both a disk for opening and the wave feature that can help open the blade as you remove it from your pants pocket.

Priced at $21.95 and free shipping its one heckuva nice knife at a great price.

So, is it sharp? Yes, yes it is.

On arrival the plastic casing was starting to get beat open from the blade hitting it during shipping.
How sharp is it? The wave feature is quite neat, but if you open it along with a backwards movement form your pocket, and don't fully clear it away from your side, well...let's say the knife is so sharp I had no clue this had happened at the time and only noticed it afterward:

Ah, It was time to retire that old pair of jeans anyways....

The lock on it is nice and solid and it fits the hand very well and the grip shape and texture keeps it steady in your hand for all tasks that may require a pocketknife. I'm quite pleased with the purchase.

Flying Lesson #108 - Slip, Slide, And Away

Lesson 108 started out this afternoon on a cold and blustery day.

Temperature was 28 degrees and winds were about 13 knots from 290-300, so not bad but a bit of a right crosswind.

After a cold pre-flight inspection and then run-up, we headed out to the practice area and did maneuvers. We started out with my doing Slow flight, which was fine while keeping it to the new ACS standards of not letting the stall horn go off so it wasn't quite as slow a flight as slow flight can be. In any case I mentioned my altitude, did some truns left and right and that was good enough. Then on to stalls. My stalls both power on and power off were very good with good recoveries. Next for the first time I did a turning stall - stalling while in a 30 degree bank. This was pretty much a non-event - just drop the nose and level the wings and voila you're no longer in a turning stall.

Next on to steep turns, what used to be my best maneuver is now not so much in the Archer and it needs some work,it's not terrible, but just not as great a control over altitude and the picture still feels off.

Then we headed back to Pontiac and did a normal landing and then took off again and did a forward slip to land on final from 800 feet (1,800 MSL) [Fora normal landing you should be at 400 feet at that point]. Again, pretty much a non-event in the Archer and it felt stable as heck while dropping down, much more-so than in the 172. However, again the lesser rudder authority of the Archer caught me a bit as I banked fine for a 172, which was a bit too much for the Archer, once that was straightened out all was fine and it was a much easier maneuver than I had experienced, with the slight edge at the end where i tried to pull up as if I had a 172 picture so I did flare a bit early but it was salvageable without too much correction and a good landing.

On the next pattern the spacing got a bit too tight and we had to do a go-around due to the plane ahead not exiting the runway soon enough - no bother and I'm rather good at go-arounds. Thence back again for another landing where I came in a bit too high on final. I salvaged it with an idle-in technique and brought it in for a decent landing. Then we taxied the plane on back and shut down the lesson. Overall not a bad flight.

That's 1.5 and 3 landings.

Still A Whole Lotta People Without Power, Including Us

Still about 500K people here without power. Both office and home are still without and temperatures are going to drop into the freezing point tonight.

Per a buddy in the disaster recovery industry, we're going to leave the taps slightly open to keep water running through the piping to stop them from freezing.

Last night wasn't bad at the house - piled up in sleeping bags and blankets it was ok in the 40s in the house and about 28 outside, but it will be a lot colder tonight, going into freezing temperatures.

Verily, this doth suck.

Update: Power restored yesterday, thankfully just before the outside temp dropped hard. Certainly I'll be looking into some kerosene or propane heaters and possibly a generator per the helpful comments.

Flying Lesson #107 - More Patterns Make Perfect (Or At least Tolerable)

As there was little else to do and the library was packed and as the winds had dies down the sky beckoned.

Winds were a manageable 9-10 knots out of 260 so practically no crosswind at all.

I did the pre-flight etc and headed to Runway 27R.

Apparently there was a new controler being trained as he was getting a tad overwhelmed. it didn't help that I was flying 6288J and there was a Warrior in the pattern with the tail number N113EJ.

Echo Juliet and 88 Juliet sound almost the same on the radio and it got to be even more fun when he mixed us up - especially when I'm on crosswind and he gives a landing clearance with my call sign meaning to give it to 11EJ who is on base turning final. He also messed up the spacing on occasion, leading to my doing two go-rounds as an aircraft was still on the runway when I was on short final. Not a big deal and good practice for everyone.

The landings are coming along and getting better. I was coming in a little high and fast and got some serious cases of the Archer floats. Must not try and fly it like a Cessna 172. After I got that worked out of my system the next 6 landings were much better, including touching down right at the stall horn going off. The last landing was perfect and Ray was very happy with it. He didn't touch the controls at all this hop except on the first go round when he wanted me to do a side-step right of the runway and not just fly along above it after I had put in full power on the go round.

Overall I'm feeling better with it, and the next lesson we should be doing some soft and short field landings. Given how he's getting me unscrewed from my prior instructor Ray, it looks like its working. I believe had I started with DCT I'd be well on my way by now - there seems to be a lot more stringency and quality control here. Making some good progress.

I do need to eat more bananas though.

8 More landings and another 1.6

So What Was Your First Clue There Exactly?

I went by the office today hoping it had power.

Of course not.

I actually helped the postwoman with the mail as all the mail boxes are in what is now a very dark stairwell and I held a flashlight for her so she could make sure the mail got in the right slots. Quick tip to the US Postal Service - issue flashlights.

How she would have delivered it without being able to see otherwise is quite a question.

So my good deed done for the day and with no power, no heat, and not much else that I could accomplish there I headed out.

On the way I passed a fellow continually hitting the up button on the elevator. Yes, we're on the ground floor of a three story building.

He actually asked "Is the power out?"

Gee what was your first clue there Sherlock? Maybe the complete lack of lights and all the signs on the doors saying Closed, No Power? I then stated that yes, indeed the power was out.

Then he asked, and I kid you not,"The elevator doesn't work then?" No, it really doesn't work too well without power there Mr. Edison, and your continual hitting of the button and noting it doesn't light up isn't doing much either.

These people vote, and sure enough, as his village was calling that they wanted him back, he headed out to a car with a Hillary sticker on it and drove off, I kid you not.

You really have to wonder some times.

And The Winds Sure Blew Yesterday And On Into The Night

Apparently this was one of the biggest windstorms in Michigan, period. Winds reached up to 73 miles per hour.

Power is out for about 600,000 people and the earliest restoration for 90% of those is Sunday. Oh, and the temperature is going to drop below freezing and it will snow then. We're gonna be all sorts of screwed.

The neighbors currently aren't very happy with these winds either:

Poor folks. They just moved into the neighborhood right before winter and have been stuck on the street once due to ice, slipped off their driveway into the ditch, again due to ice, and now they have one of their very large trees across their driveway. This doesn't happen to most people when they move in here, really. Luckily no one was hurt and they were away at the time and their house and cars are unscathed.

Now I'm at the library as neither the house nor office has power.

That's Some Wind We've Got Blowing

It's as if all the hot air from Leftists was held in a petulant "hold my breath until I turn blue as Trump I don't like you" kind of tantrum and then suddenly expelled at once....

Gusts up to 65 mph, the car was being pushed sideways on the highway as I drove back to the office after going to court. Trucks were pulling over to avoid flipping over.

At the office, the power is out and the internet down, apparently due to the winds so it's work from home for the rest of the day for me.

Now power is out at home as well and has been for an hour and I expect it will be awhile before it comes back on.

Meanwhile, the wind keeps on blowing. Before we lost power I was able to overhear multiple planes, we're talking airliners, at Detroit Metro having to do go arounds and divert due to being unable to land due to the High winds. It's getting a little sporty out there.

Flying Lesson #106 - A Pattern Is Emerging

Today the winds again wanted to come out and play - 15 knots at 120 degrees, so we got to use the 9 side of the runways.

I did the preflight, startup etc and my flows were much smoother - it helped that I had studied and worked on memorizing them for the past couple days.

Then I did the long taxi down to Runway 9L. Lots of planes coming in and out today and the tower was busy. First I was told to hold on 9L then they immediately had me expedite a crossing to 9R and takeoff but fly a left pattern to enter 9L's crosswind and then setup to land on 9L. Not a problem. I put in the crosswind correction and headed off 9R.

The first pattern the winds were a bit gusty. I had full instrument panel and Ray said he wasn't going to do or say anything unless I overlooked something or scared him. so with that understood I began the pattern.

Overall not bad, my flow and procedures were good, I came in on final and had a bad bit of wind hit so I did a go-round instead of trying to salvage the landing. Ray said that was smart aeronautical decision making on my part and i did the go-round perfectly. Now to land the plane. I did the next pattern and came down in an ok landing as I had too much crosswind correction in. The next one was again not great as I came in with too much power and floated for a good long time. Ray stated I was used to flying a 172 and I was doing exactly the right things for a 172 including a some power on a gusty crosswind but he said it was too much for an Archer and I needed to get the power out earlier and use less cross wind correction.

I then tried that and the next landing was perfect - a touchdown with the stall horn on, first with the wheel that was into the wind, then the other main and finally the nose wheel. Ray said it was a great landing in conditions beyond starter students.

With that happy thought in mind I went and did a few more landings, all of them decent if a couple a little flat but he said I was getting the hang of things and had done them all by myself. This was happy-making. Hopefully this will stick and I can start moving along and get signed off soon to solo an Archer. Apparently I need to be stage-checked first which may happen soon.

Flying Lesson #105 - Dead Reckoning

Instead of hanging around Pontiac we would go forth and afield today, if for just a little distance.

Apparently one of the examiners likes to divert people to Linden but he does it in a bit of an atypical way - while no GPS is to be expected, he also apparently takes away your chart and still expects you to get there. I'd say that's rather unsporting but what can you do?

After the run-up, where we first had to burn some build up off some spark plugs as a magneto was firing roughly when tested, but it cleaned up ok, we crossed Runway 27R for 27L and did an intersection takeoff from Hotel and headed out to the Northwest.

The takeoff was a short field crosswind takeoff and that was the first time I did one of those in an Archer - no problem at all except for quite a bit of chop and some wind shear that kept trying to jerk the plane around as the wind kept getting under the left wing and trying to lift it.

Then on our way over, Ray pointed out several landmarks and I was finally able to pick out Linden's airstrip which is a little hard to pick out of the background.

Once at Linden, we did all the radio calls and headed in, being careful to stay at 1,800 feet as Flint's Class C outer shelf is right above Linden.

We then did short field and soft field takeoffs and pretty much regular landings and one short field landing as there was a pretty decent crosswind blowing.

Overall not bad, but the flow in an Archer will still take some getting used to, and the soft field takeoffs feel really weird. On the soft field takeoff, you start with 25 degrees of flaps and the yoke full back and the plane basically takes off itself and immediately triggers a stall warning. You then have to push forward a bit, but not too much, on the yoke to get the nose down, but even slightly too much and you're landing again. Then you have to let the speed build and it then eventually flies itself off the runway, a very different feel from the 172 where you're using lots of forward pressure on the Yoke to keep the nose down. This is going to take more practice to perfect.

Then, we dead reckoned our way back and that was that. Dead reckoning by myself will take some practice.

I'm tending to do a side-slip too early on final for DCT's tastes as they want me to have it crabbed longer and kick it over to a side-slip just at touchdown instead of short final when I've been typically doing it, so I'll adapt to that technique. Then back to Pontiac for a downwind entry to 27R, and a good landing and done.

4 landings and 1.4.

The FBI Arrests One Of The Perpetrators of Wave Of Anti-Semitic Bomb Threats.......And He's A Hard Leftist

Much to the chagrin of the leftists online and elsewhere claiming that the wave aof bomb threats are somehow Trump's fault or the actions of white supremacists, we have the first arrest so far.

Here's what he looks like:

Doesn't look like your typical white supremacist, neh?

Turns out he's quite the hard leftist as can be seen under his byline at The Intercept, where he was apparently fired after making stuff up...badly...and getting caught doing it.

In other words he fits the profile of the bug-bear white supremacist Trumpster perfectly...or not.

Apparently many of the robo/VOIP calls making the threats are reported in the article to come from overseas, again not something for which one should blame Trump. This is especially so if the callers have either charming Arabic or Persian accents, or more traditionally a Germanic one.

Good job to the FBI for tracking this guy down.

Flying Lesson #104 - More Crosswind Patterns

So it was pattern work once again. I did the pre-flight by myself (while being supervised) as well as the startup, taxi, run-up.

Before taking off we had to wait a bit due to wake turbulence from a 757 that took off form the parallel - that was kinda neqt and the fargin snow showed exactly where the wake turbulence was by being blown rather turbulently in a wakeful fashion.

Cleared to takeoff, we did so, and again gusting crosswinds form 12-24 from 300 making for a crosswind factor from 6 to 12, and the 12 was kinda spicy with some fun gusts that really made me have to ride it out on climb-out. Lots of crabbing for this pattern work to avoid getting blown off course around the field.

On the first pattern I was all sorts of behind the airplane, between the really gusting crosswind, different procedures, more wind gusts and chop blowing me all over the place and it was not great. It was beginning to feel like lesson #103 all over again. But I persevered and the second pattern was better as we started the midfield procedures a bit earlier so I could get ahead before the end of the runway procedures.

I quickly came to realize that the Archer has less rudder authority than the 172. But, you also need less crosswind correction for it aileron wise. I was using about what I would have in the 172 which is too much for an Archer as you can't get enough rudder in to counteract it, plus you actually don't need that much.

So I settled down and Ray then said on the next one he wasn't saying anything unless I scared him or did something dangerous. So I went along, did the takeoff just fine, did my procedures ok (they're different enough from the 172 I'm used to to mess me up a bit) and then while I was coming in a bit high did a pretty darn decent landing and he didn't say much at all.

I then repeated that and got better each time and finished quite happy with myself including some very nice crosswind landings, which were the only kinds of landings on the menu today.

Yes, there is indeed more float on the Archer than the 172 on landing, and you need to make sure you're not bringing too much energy (airspeed) with you to the landing or you'll either bounce up as you begin the flare or float a good distance waiting for the airspeed to bleed off. However, the landing somehow feels more solid in the Archer than the 172 and the low wing feels a bit better when you're over the runway and landing in a crosswind, it doesn't quite get as caught in the wind as much if that makes any sense.

So, I may be getting the hang of landing an Archer, which is nice. Then again, the constant ups and downs of this course of training is driving me nuts.

That's 1.4 and 8 landings.

Remember When The Dems Said They Wanted Only Criminal Aliens Deported? Well....They Just Moved The Goalposts A Tad

Now its apparently just the serious criminals they want to deport.

Retail fraud and the a felony conviction theft and misuse of credit cards apparently count for nought.

The Detroit Free Press: Judge spares Ann Arbor father of 4 from deportation: 'You get to stay'

In issuing his decision, Immigration Judge David Paruch said that Jordanian immigrant Yousef Ajin has stayed clean for years since committing two crimes that involved stealing 14 years ago and that he has always had a job caring for his family since coming to this country 18 years ago.

He stressed to Ajin that he is lucky to avoid deportation, noting: "This kind of waiver — we don't give out regularly." But he qualified because his crimes were committed "some time ago" and his family needs him, he said.

U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement spokesman Khaalid Walls said Ajin was taken into custody because of a 2001 felony conviction that involved shopping with a credit card that wasn't his. Following his conviction, an order to have him deported was issued in 2012 by an immigration judge. ICE had determined that Ajin was "noncompliant" with the requirement of his release, which led to his eventual arrest Jan. 30.

According to courtroom testimony, here is why Ajin faced a threat of deportation, and what has kept him on the radar of immigration authorities:

In 2001, while cleaning rooms at a University of Michigan hospital, Ajin found a wallet in a couch cushion of an empty room and used the credit card he found inside to go on a shopping trip to Meijer. He and another hospital employee used the credit card to buy $500 worth of cigarettes, cologne and beer. He was arrested nine days later with the help of surveillance cameras that caught him making the purchases. He pleaded guilty to possessing a financial transaction device. He received one year of probation and had to pay $1,475 in restitution.

Two years later, in 2003, Ajin landed back in court, this time for stealing a telephone and remote control from a Meijer in Chelsea. He pleaded guilty to retail fraud, received six months of probation and had to pay a $425 fine.

What's a couple felonies and a deportation order mean these days anyways?