A Trio of Trainers At The Selfridge Open House

Three Trainers were featured at the air show (there were some others and we'll get to them later.)

These three are special as all three were in active service at Selfridge through the years,

First to fly was the first aircraft that operated from Selfridge Field, back before it was an Air National guard base and literally had a field for a runway.

The Curtis JN04 Jenny:

 

The Curtis JN-4 Jenny was how America learned to fly, with 95% of all US pilots in World War One having trained in a JN-4 Jenny.

With a max speed of 75 mph, and cruising at a sprightly 60 miles per hour, this aircraft trained America's pilots to fight in the air in the Great War. Over 6,000 were manufactured to teach pilots how to fly.

After World War 1, thousands of JN-4s were sold off on the surplus market and pilots coming home from the war spread aviation far and wide with them across America and the golden age of barnstorming was born.

JN-4s in flying condition are now extremely rare.

The Jenny opened the show as the first aircraft flying at Selfridge this year to mark the 100 years of the base as an airfield.

The T-6 Texan. 

This bird as the T-6 Texan trained America's pilots for World War Two, and as the Harvard it trained the pilots of the British Commonwealth as well.  Over 15,000 T-6s of all models were built to serve the needs of the Allies' growing air arms.

This T-6 is in colors commemorating the Tuskegee Airmen, who trained and learned to fly in the T-6 before moving on to the P-51 Mustang. 

The 332nd fighter group (The Tuskegee Airmen) served at Selfridge in 1943.

The third trainer was the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star.  

The trainer for the jet age.  

Developed from the United State's first jet fighter, the P-80, the T-33 was a long-serving two-seat sub-sonic trainer with the US armed forces.  Nicknamed the "Ace Maker",  the plane trained the majority of Korean War jet fighter  aces.

The T-33 has a top speed of 600 mph or 520 knots.

The T-33 was in service with the USA from 1948 to 1997, though phased out of front-line triangle service in the 1970s.  The last user of the T-33, the Bolivian Air Force retired its T-33s in 2017 - after 44 years of service in their Air Force and 69 years after the type was introduced. A total of 6,557 T-33 were produced by Lockhhed, Canadair, and Kawasaki.

All three trainers had served at Selfridge and all three were very successful as training aircraft in their respective eras.

Selfridge Open House And Air Show 2022

After many cancellations due to Covid,  Selfridge Air National Guard Base opened up this weekend to the public for it's 100 Year Anniversary Open House and air show.

To say it was an awesome show would be an understatement.

One of the highlights was the flight demonstration put on by the very last F-100 Super Sabre in the world that is in flying condition:

Many more pics to follow. 

Oh, and the 10,000 steps I took at the air show may have proven to be a tad ambitious.

Leaves Of Three, Let it Be - Or Don't Let It Be

Walking along the side of my house and saw this:

Yep, poison ivy is back, and quite a bit of it in fact.  Seems to have come in from the neighbor's patch.

Application of appropriate chemical warfare materials for Round 2 of the Battle of the Poison Ivy Patch will commence shortly.

How Do You Stop A Violent Firearms-Using Criminal From Violating The Terms Of His Release In Detrorit?

Apparently, you do it by removing the terms of the release bond that he keeps violating, not by incarcerating him for his violations.

Yes, really.  The whole BLM style, woke, no cash bail, no "mass incarceration" crowd has managed to find quite a following in Detroit, where even violent criminals get released to walk the streets on the regular.

The Detroit News: Detroit shooting suspect's releases prompt police cries of judicial leniency

When Teddy Valentino Davis appeared before Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Hathaway for a May 23 bond violation hearing, the 20-year-old defendant allegedly had breached his bond and tether conditions five times while awaiting trial on a concealed weapons charge.

The judge ensured there wouldn't be another tether violation — by ordering Davis' ankle device removed and releasing the defendant on his own recognizance.

Yep, he keeps violating the terms of his release bond, so instead of putting him in jail for the violation (and thus keeping him off the streets and stopping him from committing more violent crimes), the Judge removed the conditions of the bond and then released him without a bond. 

Tell me again how we need more gun control laws to stop firearms-related crime when actual criminals with longstanding and active firearms and violence related crimes on their record get released on their own recognizance, free to continue their crime sprees?

Let's note that his most recent violation puts him at the scene of a drive by shooting and he was carrying a gun with casings that matched those left at the shooting scene (yes casings evidence tends to be unreliable but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts the caliber matches and likely his partial prints may be on the casings - so given the GPS match and firearm match held by a felon in possession he was probably involved). Oh, and his GPS tether shows him on location at other shooting scenes.

Again, this is no ordinary citizen, this is a convicted felon, found in possession of a firearm, who has used that firearm in crimes, found with more firearms, been positively located at shooting scenes when shootings were going on, and was seen on social media to brandish firearms and threaten people.

One would think a felon in possession with a history of violence and outstanding threats against identifiable persons would be properly incarcerated.

But no, he's set free to commit more crimes and increase the statistics on "gun violence", because per the ACLU and fellow travellers, the bail system hurts minorities, so it is per their beliefs, better that he be out on the street to go around and shoot minorities such as himself.

Make of that what you will. 

But quite simply, I'd pay no heed to anyone calling for more gun control laws who also advocates the no cash bail and revolving door system for actual criminals to be let free and commit more crimes with and without guns. 

Given they advocate leaving criminals free to roam and commit violent crimes, even as they commit clear crimes with firearms, while at the same time calling for gun bans shows they are fundamentally unserious about dealing with crime, including gun crime, and instead seek disarmament of law-abiding folks leaving them prey for the criminals they keep releasing.

Biden Panders To BLM, Ignores An American In Need

An interesting action and  cotinued inaction by President Biden today.

In the case of Brittney Griner, the anti-American WNBA player who refuses to show up for the National Anthem being played before the game  and claims America is systemically racist has been clamoring for America to get her out of the mess she's made when she was arrested in Russia for bringing drugs into the country and been imprisoned for five months pending trial.

Biden has made a point of contacting and speaking with her family.

But, in the case of Paul Whelan however, who has been imprisoned in Russia for three and a half years while being accused of being an American spy - a charge he and the US government both absolutely deny. In his case, Biden has been silent and has not bothered to contact his family at all.

Quite an interesting disparity in treatment.

In one case you have a woke person who admits to having illegally brought drugs into a country where they are banned,  and has now pled guilty to drug charges in Russia, and Biden is all for her and reaches out to her family.

In the other case an innocent businessman is being imprisoned on trumped-up charges of espionage for political games and Biden says nothing.

That silence speaks volumes.

So How Many Laws Failed In The Highland Park Killings?

The City of Highland Park where the shooting took place bans "Assault Weapons" within the city.

To everyone's (assuming everyone is a progressive who claims gun control laws work) obvious surprise, it didn't work.

Even with the longstanding ban, an "Assault Weapon" (type still unknown) was clearly within the City of Highland Park and used for this attack as the killer just up and ignored the law.   

Clearly an impossibility as the City of Highland Park banned such, right?

The State of Illinois also has a much touted "red flag" law that, given the impressive history of violence and threats from the alleged killer, should have prevented him from having firearms.

To everyone's obvious surprise, it didn't work.  

The killer after threatening to kill people in 2019 had over 16 knives and swords taken from him and then was left free to go forth and purchase a firearm and do some killing.

This is the flaw with red flag laws that conservatives have pointed out time and time again: 

You take away present weapons but leave someone who you clearly believe is a deadly threat free to roam around, acquire other weapons, and commit deadly acts without any follow-up.  

Sounds like a great idea. 

Yet again this is another killer "known to police". 

The killer even released a video in 2021 showing him gunning down people in a parade.  Law enforcement and everyone else did nothing.

Good going there proponents of red flag laws, the laws "worked" exactly as you designed them to do, which is not well at all.

We can also note the 2019 incident led to him getting mental health treatment that likely should have disqualified him from buying firearms as he was a clear danger to himself and others, yet clearly the system let him slip by yet again.

With all this history he was still issued an Illinois Firearms Owners Identity Card and able to buy firearms with no hindrance. 

He then violated Illinois firearm transport laws to carry out his crime. 

He then, of course,  went on to repeatedly violate Illinois' laws against murder and attempted murder.

Big Surprise.

But never fear,  the prosecutor is now promising to charge him with “dozens more charges centering around each of the victims.”  

That's going to be super-effective and should really teach him not to kill people in the future, now won't it?

Flying IFR - Lesson 58 - Now With Actual Spatial Disorientation

So today clouds were kinda low and started getting lower as we flew.

The examiner had announced the route we would take for the checkride, assuming the wind is blowing from the west so we did that starting with VFR flight following to Troy and back to Pontiac.

First off to KVLL Troy, where I did a perfect entry into the hold, had announced I was turning inbound, and I then got cancelled off the approach by Detroit Approach due to arriving IFR traffic that got priority.  Flew 360 degrees north for awhile then got vectored back in and did the approach. Overall good but had stayed too close and too high during the circle, but still would have made the landing so it was good enough.  Next time fly a little farther downwind before turning base and I need to announce leaving minimums when I turn base bit other than that it was good.

Next was the RNAV 27L at Pontiac starting at KUHNA.  The approach went pretty much perfectly if I do say so myself.

Then the Localizer Backcourse 27L.  And that's when it began to go sideways, and up and down, too.

Clouds had dropped and at 2,500 feet and we were then in and out of them and I was not comfortable not being an IFR flight in that even if we had ground contact we clearly were not within VFR conditions. I told the instructor I'd rather get an IFR clearance as there was no visibility to the front nor sides at all.

So I got the clearance, climbed to 3,000, then Detroit Approach had me do a turn to 360.  I then got the worst case of spatial disorientation in the turn and climb that I had ever had.  My body, completely irrationally, had become extremely convinced that I was pointed straight up, even though the instruments showed we clearly were not nor had we been before entering IMC. Heading control was crappy as was altitude and even totally focusing on the instruments I was having a ridiculous amount of trouble and could not hold the heading as I normally would off by the tens of degrees and swinging every which way.

That was not good.  Nor was it a particularly pleasant feeling, and that was a bust of an approach.  Finally settled down and got back and lined up and finished it up for a good missed approach but needed to do that again.

Then went to do it again.  

Much better the second time, even in IMC, I had good heading and altitude control.  Much lighter grip on the controls, I then started verbalizing everything and had it right where I wanted it. Not absolutely perfect headings but within range, altitude was good, and I brought it right in for a really nice landing, and all was well.

So yep, still not perfect, probably made my instructor think I completely suck (assuming he doesn't think that already),  and that's rather annoying. Well yet more stuff to work on.

Good actual practice and learning how to deal with unwanted and sudden onset of some impressive spatial disorientation.

That's 1.9 with .7 actual instrument time, .9 simulated, 1 hold, 4 approaches and a really nice landing.  With any luck, only 1 more lesson before the continuation of the checkride.

Happy Independence Day!

Fireworks have been going off around here in increasing frequency, with tons going off last night with many more expected shortly.

It's been a great family day here, commemorating the passage of the Declaration of independence.

I hope you and your families have also had a fantastic Independence Day celebration.

Sad News From The Battle Creek Air Show

WMMT: One dead after truck explosion at Field of Flight in Battle Creek

The Shockwave Jet Truck was racing two planes as part of the Field of Flight air show and was reaching speeds of 300 mph when it exploded, apparently at the time its parachute was deployed to slow it down.

The driver of the Shockwave Jet Truck was killed in the explosion and has not yet been identified in the news.  May he or she rest in peace.

Air Show activities for the rest of the day have been cancelled.

Many People Just Don't Want The Facts To Get In The Way Of The Narrative And it Shows

Some people have allowed Trump to live in their heads rent-free and engage in coup fantasies and it shows.

In my post The January 6 Show Trial Resorts to Hearsay I pointed out issues with the veracity of the testimony made by Ms. Hutchinson and some indicators that it was less than true, especially as those who were actually there, unlike Ms. Hutchinson. have stated the salacious details did not happen and that they offered that they would testify to the contrary.

RobertaX from The Adventures of Roberta X then came by and left a comment that Federal hearsay rules aren't simple. Well, to people who don't understand hearsay that is true enough. Starting out they appear very complex but once you understand the logic behind the rules they do make sense and can be worked with.  Just to be clear, I deal with hearsay in court all the time so I'm rather well acquainted and have a good working knowledge of such in both Federal and State Court. 

 I then noticed she had made a post on her blog on the same subject Wading The Rubicon: Yesterday's Hearing claimed Trump had "crossed the Rubicon" and attempted a coup, based on Hutchinson’s testimony.

Rather histrionic and contrary to the actual occurrence, which was bad enough.  No need to go over the top and over-exaggerate.  The riot, such as it was, was an unacceptable act and properly condemnable and indeed I have and continue to condemn it loudly and clearly, just in case anyone is wondering.

I then pointed out in a comment on her blog regarding the issues with the reliability of Hutchinson’s statements given, they were allegedly relaying information she had been given second or even third-hand and that those she alleged made the statements have said it didn’t happen and even offered to testify.

RobertaX as you can go see in the comments on her blog in the post then replied saying that

“As for "the originator of the tale was not called to testify under oath," he has, in fact, refused to testify under oath, one of the many Trump Administration staffers to so refuse (or to take the Fifth when they do testify). and that Trump attempted a coup."

She also claimed I failed to discuss the talking point that Trump allegedly wanted to go to the Capitol that day.   Go read her comment for yourselves.

No, I indeed did not address ever possible talking point and did not address that tidbit, mea culpa if such is required for not addressing every possible claim in the testimony. But, I’ll note her post doesn’t even mention that tidbit either so no need for my comment to discuss it, neh?

I then replied back to the effect that (no I did not save the comment after posting it there as I expected there would be no need to preserve it, so this is not verbatim and is paraphrasing and summarizing what was written hours earlier):

1. I’m rather familiar with hearsay and the reason it is not allowed in court is its unreliability, such as the case with Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony before the committee. Note in my original comment to her I stated it was disliked.

Disliked as in verily hearsay statements are typically inadmissible unless the statement is not hearsay or there is an exception from the rule to allow its admissibility. But I simply said “disliked”, as I doubted she wanted a dissertation in her blog comments on hearsay, it’s definition, and exceptions. (For the record, lest anyone think otherwise, I do know the committee is not a trial, had there been a trial there might have been cross-examination of the witness, disclosure of evidence, exclusion of un-reliable statements etc, and this is a managed TV show trial production, but hey, you do you).

2. I stated in my comment directly replying to her point that she claims the witnesses are refusing to testify.  I stated that The January Sixth Committee has the subpoena power and can easily compel the original witnesses to the alleged events who allegedly relayed them so they eventually reached Ms. Hutchinson to testify. They have chosen not to do so, nor apparently take up the offers of testimony by those who were actually there and state it did not happen - which speaks volumes.  Namely it  reveals that the Committee prefers unreliable salacious politically-charged accusations that get headlines over an attempt to determine the truth of what occurred that day.

3. It is highly unlikely that Trump could have reached the steering wheel from where he was seated. Since Hutchinson claimed it was in the Beast. He was instead in a Suburban limo which is not the Beast, that testimony is all questionable. What else did she get wrong hearing of it second- and third-hand?

4. There’s a reason testimony like this is disfavored it allows unreliable fabulations and confabulations to be accepted as factual when actual first hand accounts of the same event that contradict the approved narrative are available.

5. There was no “coup”. Indeed her claim of it being a coup demeans the very meaning of the word coup and demeans all the actual coups in history. Verily, if this was a coup as she puts it, it would have to be considered one of the most inept, unorganized, unarmed, unplanned, uncontrolled, and ineffective, coups attempt in the history of the known world. To call this stupid riot a coup is to overstate what occurred by far.   I noted Hutchinson's testimony is a very thin reed to rely upon to claim a coup attempt occurred.

Unfortunately, she chose not to publish the comment, claiming it’s a Trumpy talking point and not addressing the points she raised or others raised in the comments. That, my friends, is false. The comment she chose to block directly responded to her comment and the points she raised.

But that’s fine, that’s her blog, and her choice to not have a conversation nor address the points I made in response to her points. She can have the last word on her blog and mischaracterize what I said in the responsive comment that she has decided not to post as she deems fit.

But, I will note she came over here to my blog first and decided to engage here and discuss my post, which led me to her blog to discuss her over-the-top post, then to reply to her comment replying to mine,  expecting the same courtesy of civil discussion as is extended here. 
 
This is fine, I tolerate multiple views of opinion and do not delete comments simply because they disagree with my view or opinion. I solely delete comments that are spam or defamatory or otherwise in my discretion reach a point of very high unacceptability that you'd know it when you see them. Disagreeing with me does not constitute such. I even allow comments that point out I may have made an error or overlooked something, which I oft have been known to do. This tends to improve dialog and prevents an echo chamber effect and improves my blog as a result.  Dissenting opinions that bring the facts with them in a civil manner are welcome.

RobertaX is certainly always welcome to come and post her opinion in comments on my blog as she may wish to do so, as is anyone else with views that may be contrary to mine.

Well, Ouch.

Hip had been doing just great up until yesterday.

It had been raining quite hard and my Dad is in town for the Canada Day/Independence Day Weekend and we decided to go to Costco to get his car full of (relatively, and only relatively) cheaper American gas for his trip home, compared to much more expensive Canadian gas he gets at home.

So I go to get in the passenger seat, put my foot on the door-sill to get into the seat.  It was wet and I then did what could be termed a ground loop with a nice sharp rotation of the hip as a result.  Ouch.  Did not actually fall but sure as heck wrenched something in the hip pretty good and I've got a bit of a limp going today as a result.

Great, being active and doing Jitsu with light rolling gives me no hip problems.  

I get messed up by getting into a car of all things.

Well, it's just a reminder that I'm not 100% yet. Recovery takes time so I'll just suck it up and keep at it.

Flying: Flew To Grand Rapids T'Other Day

Yesterday I had a hearing in Kentwood, Grand Rapids to clean up a client's record.

The court decided that it would not be done by Zoom but had to be live. 

Considering we originally filled this back in January when everything was Zoom only, that was a bit unfortunate.

The Courthouse in Grand Rapids is a solid two and a half hour drive from the office.

Might as well put that pilot certificate to use.

Did the pre-flight and all was well.  Put the suit in a bag and packed the plane and got ready to go.

Arranged for VFR flight following with Pontiac Ground and  then did the run-up with no issues.

Took off from Pontiac with winds 14-22 out of 190 which was a bit of a bracing crosswind and made for a fun takeoff. 

Headed west and got passed off to Detroit Approach  Climbed to 5,500 to stay under Detroit's Class B shelf of 6,000 feet at that point, and once clear of that climbed to 6,500.

Some light turbulence but nothing serious. Beautiful day otherwise.

Then I got handed off to Great Lakes Approach and flew right over Landing airport at 6,500 feet and then straight on to Grand Rapids.

Did a practice RNAV 26R approach and it got a little sporty for the landing with some very heavy gusts that made it a tad challenging as the bottom really tried to drop out on landing.

Landed and got progressive taxi to Avflight, the FBO I had called ahead for coming in for fuel and transport.

Progressive taxi means they break the directions down into stages.  Grand Rapids is a big airport, I had never been taxiing around there before, and I didn't want to make a mistake on the way to find the FBO and mess things up, especially as it involves crossing runways.  I shall not bust a runway by mistake.

No worries, the controllers were most gracious and got me to Avflight.

Avflight simply rocks, they guided me into their ramp, and literally place a red carpet at the exit to your aircraft, regardless of whether you're a bizjet or a small Archer like me.  Super nice folks.

I opened the door and discovered the door hinge had separated from the door and the wind slammed it against the cowling.  Crap.

Went into Avflight, had them fill up the plane as happily gas in Grand Rapids is a little cheaper than in Pontiac. Still the bill was kinda ugly compared to before, thanks Brandon.

Avflight had a complimentary crew car available (first come first served) which was great and after changing and doing a little work I head to court. Really nice Ford Focus, in great shape and a joy to drive.

Had the hearing and got a very successful result for my client.

Interestingly since it was the criminal motion call, mainly traffic matters, got to see the court in action.

They had a neat system for translators where they call a number and the translator is assigned based on the language spoken and piped through the court's speakers. Unfortunately with a translator everything takes more than twice as long as what each side says is translated, the response to it is translated and then it continues.

Weirdly the court stated they needed a Kenyan-Rwandan language translator or so it sounded to me.   Seemed strange as I didn't think Kenya and Rwanda shared a language, and in fact they don't.  Turns out the language is Kinyarwanda.  Interesting.

Some hilarity ensued when one translator started translating in what was Swahili (which is one of the major languages in Kenya -- but not in Rwanda) and the defendant was giving completely blank looks and clearly had no idea what the translator was saying.  Translator then switched to Kinyarawanda and all was well. Apparently he thought it was a translation from Kenyan as well at the start. So no, disabuse yourselves of the notion that all Africans speak Swahili.

In short Kentwood has a ton of Rwandans living there and based on there being Rwandans as the majority by far in the court that day it seems that a ton of them seem to be happily driving around without a license, speeding, and getting into accidents or all three at once.

Got back to the airport, did another weather brief, changed and pre-flighted the plane.  They had filled it nice and full and I got it started up, got the ATIS for weather, got guided off the ramp and then called Clearance Delivery and requested flight following, got a squawk code,  and then progressive taxi. 

Clearance was sharing duties with ground so they kept me on their frequency and I got directed to 26R for takeoff, entered the run-up area and had a good run up, contacted Ground and taxi'd to the runway, spoke to Tower and was instructed to fly runway heading and climb only to 3,500.

Took off, and the wind was still gusting along at 16-22 from 220 but no issues and I stayed on runway heading.

Then got passed to Great Lakes Departure and they had me fly south and allowed me to climb to 5,500.

They then let me resume my own navigation on course direct to Pontiac.

I flew over Grand Ledge Airport, where may years ago, Murph had taken me up for my first night flight in a small plane.

 

Flew over Lansing again and then to Pontiac.

 

Pontiac had some gusting winds as well, blowing  210 from 11-16.  I got the weather at Pontiac before the handover to Detroit Approach, then about 12 miles out and I had the airport in sight, they stated radar services terminated, keep the squawk code I was using, and contact Pontiac Tower.

Pontiac had me enter a right downwind for Runway 27R and report when I was 2 miles out, which I did.  

I was then cleared to land and a jet was coming in on 27L at the same time so i got a warning for wake turbulence.

I flew and did the pattern, which, considering I've been doing approaches all this time was a nice change, and came in for perhaps one of my best landings ever on 27R.  With a 8 knot headwind and 13.9 knot Crosswind, I landed right on Center-line smoothly and right at my landing point.  Couldn't have asked for better.

Clearly, no one was watching me land at the time.

Tower had me stay with them to taxi back to the hangar and I then shut the plane down, washed off the bugs, and was done.

1.4 there, 1.3 back, 2.7 cross-country time, 2.7 solo time, 1 practice approach, 1 ok landing, and one great landing, and a first time using the plane as a real time-saver to get me to and from work. Both a fun and very useful flight.

The January 6 Show Trial Resorts to Hearsay

The Democrat January 6 Show Trial decided to take a page out of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and derided to run with a false yet salacious second hand claim based purely on hearsay:

Simone : Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Pretty much the same level of reliability  has come from the carefully produced  January 6 Committee Testimony.

AP: Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump White House aide, now in spotlight

 Former aide: Trump tried to grab steering wheel from Secret Service agent after 1/6 rally

Cassidy Hutchinson a little-known former White House aide, described an angry, defiant president who was trying that day to let armed protesters avoid security screenings at a rally that morning to protest his 2020 election defeat and who later grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol.

Hearsay by its very nature is disallowed in court, with a few exceptions, because testimony that based on what the witness heard from what he said that he said that she said is by its nature unreliable.

As is the case here: 

There's numerous problems with the "testimony".

Cassidy Hutchinson wasn't actually there and is relaying a story she heard from somoene else second hand. The originator of the unlikely story, unsurprisingly was not called to testify about it, because you know, potential perjury.  

You can draw your own conclusions to the story's reliability from that lack of the Committee calling a first-hand witness to testify to the occurrence of the event.

Trump apparently wasn't even in the Beast (A Black Cadillac) that morning  but in a Chevy Suburban limo and thus could not have grabbed at the wheel of the Beast, never-mind that he could not have reached it from where the dignitaries sit in the beast anyway, making the entire story implausible at best.

The Secret Service agents who were actually there are denying this ever happened.

So the January Sixth Committee is relying upon second or even third-hand hearsay of a salacious story that fits the Democrat narrative, even as it doesn't comport with reality and the people who were actually present state it never happened.

Can you say reliance on unreliable and inadmissible evidence to paint an Democrat-pleasing "Orange Man Bad" story?   Yep, I knew that you could.

Yes, the Sixth Committee is naught more than a show trial, complete with a television producer to try to up the ratings of this now literal show trial.  

Hearsay is fine for ratings for reality TV.   

For a serious investigation into the claim that this was an "insurrection",  it is not.  Then again, this never was a serious investigation, it's a Democrat show trial and nothing more.

Went To The Dentist T'Other Day

So after the discontinued checkride, I then worked and went to my dentist's office later that afternoon for their last appointment to get my scheduled cleaning in.

Checked in, met with the hygienist and she asked if I had any health changes or dental issues.

I mentioned the teeth were fine but I now had a new hip.

She then asked if I was pre-medicated.

Blink. Huh? 

It turns out that for a year after joint replacement surgery, if you go to your dentist, you need to take some antibiotics before the dental cleaning.

I knew about not going to the dentist for 3 months prior to the hip surgery, but it somehow didn't get mentioned about post-op dental visits.

Apparently, a dental cleaning can release bacteria from your mouth into your bloodstream, and said bacteria tends to not play nicely with joint replacements.

So I quickly downed a 4 horse-pill sized dose of Amoxicillin that they had at the office to get a proper dose on board, and the cleaning began.

Just an interesting quirk that I hadn't realized was an issue. In short, you really don't want the bacteria from your mouth getting into your bloodstream, and that's partially why bites from other humans are nasty (beyond the obvious) - the infections from the bacteria, especially when its not even your own bacteria are rather bad.

Well, learned something new and very good for the hygienist paying attention to things and for catching it.

Flying IFR - Not Exactly The Checkride

So this morning, bright and early, I got up and did all the calculations -- by hand --for a pretend route of flight from KPTK to KMDW via the CCOBB2 Departure and PANGG3 Arrival. That's the preferred route from Pontiac to Chicago Midway per the Chart Supplement, so I could easily defend that choice of route.

Why did I do that route?  Because I was assigned that as the test route for my checkride and today was the day.

That took about a bit over an hour and a half to get all the wind correction, heading adjustment, speed, flight time and fuel burn calculations in for the 2 pages worth of the Nav Log for the flight .  I also calculated time and fuel burn to my selected alternate, KDPA. An eraser and choice language was used quite a bit.

I also drew the route in pencil on the paper Low-Altitude IFR map.

Note that in the real world, you do this in Foreflight or another flight planner application in about a minute, and it will be more accurate.

I had previously done the weight and balance by hand this weekend in preparation for the "flight" and had that all written out and ready to go. Again Foreflight makes that a lot quicker.

I also ran and pulled a full flight brief and downloaded that as well.

Then I had a couple eggs for breakfast and headed to the airport and checked in at DCT and set myself up in the test room at 9.  The test begins at 10, but DCT wants you there an hour early.

Looked like a nice sunny day but with a fair bit of wind. 

Unfortunately DCT didn't have the airplane logbook all tabbed out for the test so that was a major PITA finding everything, especially as it didn't arrive before 10 am.  Very fun and off to a great start.

So I got logged into IACRA, produced all my documentation proving who I was, and that I was qualified to take the IFR checkride and the oral portion of the checkride then began. 

I correctly answered question on what I need to be able to legally fly, what the airplane needs to legally fly, weather, lots of IFR related questions, IFR chart questions, how an altimeter works (it has aneroid wafers inside which is the key answer there) etc.

We went over my flight plan and he ran it and the numbers worked, so I passed my flight planning.

But, I still had a couple brain fades and got stumped on some questions, including this one:

"What is the white D in the black square in the airport diagram at the bottom of the approach plate?"  

I actually knew the answer to this question back in January, but it apparently left my mind in the meantime and never registered that it was gone and needed to be re-memorized. So with all attempts at mind data retrieval failing, I had concede that I had to look it up. 

Yep the D at the top of this diagram:

I proceeded to tell him everything else that was on that entire approach plate not, just this small diagram that was a part of it, but could not remember for the life of me what the fargin' D was for

That D means that declared runway lengths are available to look up for the airport.   So now you know too.  This will clearly make your life better.

As a GA pilot I will never actually use nor need to use declared runway lengths and you don't need them to fly GA IFR, so this is all part of the mind-f___k that is the oral portion of a checkride. They keep asking you stuff until you can't answer it, regardless of its actual utility to show you that you don't know it all. 

I already know rather well that I don't know it all, thank you very much. The stuff I don't know can and does fill volumes.

So, after that bit of demoralization, I then learned I had passed the oral.

I then went out to preflight the plane, and noticed the winds were getting pretty gusty, as I was doing so got a text from my instructor whoi was up flying with another instrument student that the wind gusts were pretty bad, it was very bouncy and turbulent along the route and hard to maintain altitude, and that I should probably discontinue the test at this point.

After all, if turbulence drops or lifts you beyond the 100 foot above, zero below the set altitude you still fail regardles that it was turbulence rather than you that did it.

So what to do?  I had the feeling of get this checkride-over-with-already- warring with the feeling do -not-screw-this up  and I chatted with Mr. B for some advise.  After all, when in doubt, consult a friend.

I also called Flight Service to see what they had and they reported rather gusty at ground level and no sign of it letting up.

I did end up deciding to discontinue as it would have been dumb to go up on a checkride with conditions stacked against me.

Unfortunately, the examiner's next availability is not until July 15, even as tomorrow's weather is forecast to be perfect.  So I will be hoping that July 15 offers better weather. 

So, yet again, this is not over. It's going to take yet more time, require more lessons to maintain proficiency, and as usual take much longer than I would like which seems to be a recurring pattern with my flying instruction.

There's 60 days available in a discontinuance and after that I have to do the whole thing again and pay a whole 'nother full fee for it, so I'm hoping I get an opening and decent weather at the same time in the next 60 days, which is gonna be hard as he's booked solid.

There may be an end to this, but it sure ain't here yet.

Flying IFR - Lesson 57- Can You Hold Please?

Yesterday, I did the remedial flight. I decided to really focus on keeping the altitude under control no matter what.

I did the preflight for N9570F and requested fight following for approaches at Pontiac.

So I got passed off to Detroit Approach, starting with the RNAV 27 full procedure starting at GUZVY.

Did the full procedure at GUZVY with a parallel entry and did a nice approach to 27L.

Then up and did it again.   I kept the altitude pretty much within specs or corrected it if it started to get out of the 100 foot permissible range. Still the plane wouldn't trim out perfectly, but by always going back to the altitude indicator, I at least caught it as it tried to get out of the permissible range. Hard to do when having to do multiple things at once, but I may have finally got that part figured out.

Then I did a Localizer Back course for 27L this time with the full procedure turn, about the first time I've done that as I normally get vectors.  Once established then the G5s were turned off and I did it partial panel and did it rather well.

Then I did it again, again with the procedure turn and partial panel, and came in for a landing.

That 1.7,  4 holds, 4 approaches, and 1.4 simulated and a very nice landing.

Flying IFR - Lesson 56 - More Pre-Checkride Practice

Wind out of the west, sky clear, nice and hot out, time to go flying.

This time I actually got N8570F and did the preflight and we then were off to the the Troy-Pontiac IFR loop.

Did the approach and circle at Troy pretty much perfectly, didn't go too high nor too low, and would have nailed the landing no problem.

Then back to Pontiac for the RNAV 27L with the hold at GUZVY.

Which aside from the hold procedure I did perfectly.

The hold I then proceeded to f-up nicely.

I was about to enter the hold and figured it for a teardrop, when the 430W announced it would be a direct and gave a course heading that was weird, which was weird as it should have been a teardrop.  Rocky said that wasn't right and while we were discussing it I got in the hold and we figured on doing it as a via teardrop, but I dropped almost three hundred feet while futzing around, talking to him, seeing his iPad which showed the course (mine isn't allowed to show position for the test, because really stupid reasons)  turning, and trying to figure out what was off with the GPS and then got back to altitude.  Not good.

Need to watch the altitude constantly as the second I get distracted something always happens. I do scan for it, but this time I got distracted and it was a mess.

Carried on and did the rest of the approach just fine.

Then I did the Back Course 27L and did it very well if I say so myself without issue, probably my best back-course approach yet, everything was pretty darn well perfect.

Then we went out and did the RNAV 27L again, this time without a problem.

So, I need to go back Saturday and get another lesson in as that one wasn't acceptable due to the altitude loss.  FML.

Victory Is Mine

Had the continuation of my trial in Downriver today.

In short, Plaintiffs lied through their teeth, got caught lying through their teeth, and had no evidence of any wrongdoing by my client, a company, because there wasn't any.

In short, the whole case was a scam on their part to try and get my client to pay them money to go away.

Notably, one of the two plaintiffs didn't even testify.  Because she couldn't.

Had she testified, I could have brought in evidence of her prior felony fraud conviction.  

Stupidly, she hadn't told that to her attorney and he learned of it through me when I disclosed all my exhibits, including her fraud conviction, before trial.

Her attorney was really not happy to hear about that from me.

So finished presenting my side of the case today and the judge granted a verdict in my favor of a no cause of action and a dismissal their case with prejudice. 

Plaintiffs were not happy to lose and having their scam fail, and were cursing at us in the parking lot afterwards yelling they hope we all die in a traffic accident.

Not very nice people.

My trial record is still without a loss so far, with one tie due to a jury screw up after a verdict in my favor that led to a retrial that ended in a win for me.

Top Gun: Maverick - Go See It If You Haven't Already

I took Leah to see Top Gun: Maverick yesterday to celebrate her end of the school year that ended Tuesday and her first day of freedom.

Amazingly, we had the whole theater to ourselves, which was kinda strange, so we had the choice of seats.

To say the film is absolutely excellent and a joy to watch is to understate it. 

The film hits all the right notes throughout, and was highly enjoyable with a perfect homage to the original, while not being solely a look back or depending on the greatness of the original to be great itself.

A perfect summer action movie that is a truly fitting sequel to the original.

As the theater was all ours, we did get some of Leah's running commentary.

Best commentary of the night was during the make out scene between Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connely:  "You're too old to be making out like a couple teenagers, knock it off and grow up, seriously!".

To say I choked on my beverage while laughing at the time would be an understatement. Ah, youth.

Leah loved the film, and to celebrate asked if she could drive home and before she did so could she do some doughnuts in the rather empty movie theater parking lot.

So I put on the Top Gun theme in the car and let her celebrate accordingly.

While what she did weren't technically true doughnuts, she made a series of extremely tight and fast circles to celebrate and was rather pleased to do so.

Summer has officially begun, and Top Gun: Maverick is the movie of Summer 2022.

Nobody Cares Because The Bad Orange Man Is Out of Office

Charlie Duff asks a rather prescient question in the Detroit News today:

LeDuff: COVID deaths climb; does anyone care?

LeDuff notes that COVID deaths are higher this year in Michigan from June 2021 to June 2022 than the last year of lockdowns from June 202 to June 2021, yet there is interestingly no urgent action from our dear governor. 

There's been no call for lockdowns, no arbitrary high-handed restrictions from on high, no restaurant shut downs,  no orders for masking in public.  Nothing.

Yet more people have died from or with Covid than before.

Of course, some of these deaths may be back-filling and accounting and reporting for the nursing home deaths that were under-reported when Governor Whitmer ordered nursing homes to take in Covid-positive patients, but that won't account for all of it. 

We will note the true scandal in all of this was that nursing homes accounted for over 37% (likely much more once the true number is known) of all Michigan Covid deaths, and the state then undercounted at least 42% or more of those deaths.

I guess the fierce urgency to destroy the economy and immiserate the population is for some strange reason no longer so urgent.

He asks the rather important question:  

Is there an acceptable death rate in Michigan, now that Gretchen E. Whitmer — and not Donald J. Trump — is up for re-election?

Funny question, that.

Back Home Again

Spent Monday and Tuesday at a legal conference, in Dunedin, near Tampa which was kinda a hot spot in June but still very nice to be there.

Learned a lot, met some really good folks and spent two days in a conference room with the evenings spent socializing and doing a bit of bar hopping, eating at restaurants, chatting with people, etc. 

Not a bad time at all, next time I need to take some extra time off and hang around a bit, hit the beach, etc.

Overall, the hip was pretty good.  Walked everywhere but did smartly (per doctor's orders) bring the cane along for the quarter mile walk into and around the town from the conference center, and it was needed.  So, I'm still not quite 100% yet.

Tampa airport is exceptional, flows well, great layout, efficient security lines, and what an airport ought to be.  Detroit's airport, well, not so much.

So yep, I really, really, felt the hip last night after arriving back at DTW.

I arrived back at Detroit Airport's North Terminal (now the Evans Terminal)  at 11:20 pm.  Of course, they had closed and blocked off the closest entrance to the level down to the baggage claim nearest the plane's gate. So I had to walk all through the North Terminal to the very front, then down to baggage and back to where the closed entrance was to get to the baggage carousel.    This annoyed the hip rather a lot.

But got to the baggage area.  They stated the bags would come out of Carosel number 2, and the markings on the display for #2 matched the flight so we stood around number 2.

Out cameth the baggage and many people got their bags and they were happy.

Mine did not come out, nor did a number of other passengers, and we were getting perturbed.

Then bags stopped coming out and we grew a tad more perturbed.

No, it turns out our bags for some unknown reason instead went to baggage carousel number 3.  

Why?  Who knows, it's Detroit airport.

Bag found, I then walked over to the exit of baggage claim to head to the shuttle to parking.

Went to the escalator, went up the escalator, walked across the long bridge, down the escalator and then out to the shuttle pickup.

Lots of walking ensued.  Got to my car and then back home without incident. 

So, I'm rather beat today, and have a really full schedule.

Father's Day 2022

Father's Day started with coffee being brought to my bedside so I could human.

It then got even better with breakfast in bed of homemade Eggs Benedict. Much yum.

The kids' present to me is apparently on order and yet to arrive, so it will get here when it gets here.

Meanwhile, the dogs chipped in to get me a Father's day Gift.

Apparently, never forgetting to feed them gets you good dad points.

Drat - Not Flying Today

Today, I had planned to head out to KBTL, Battle Creek, for the first time with Leah to go to the Waco Kitchen and meet up with Mr. B and Midwest Chick.

Was really looking forward to it, as I had never been there, was looking forward to meeting up with them, and they currently only have their large 10,000 foot runway open so it would have been neat to land on it.

Winds were potentially going to be a bit sporty coming back with an Airmet for turbulence and with a direct 20-knot crosswind but doable, pretty comparable to what I dealt with yesterday so I wasn't too concerned overall, and the weather seems to have matched the forecast pretty much.

So, we headed out to Pontiac Airport, got to the hangar, and found there was no power at all.

It turns out that all of the hangars were out of power and DTE (our local power utility) had no estimate on restoration.  So we couldn't get the hangar door open.

The airport did have a generator on a truck to open the hangar but it was a long wait for it indeed.  I did the preflight in hangar with the personnel door propped open so we had some light and got ready to go if the truck showed up. But, after waiting a couple hours for it, we decided to pack it in as Leah was starting to get a tad hangry, and justifiably so.

So we headed to Copperstone's, a local diner close to Pontiac Airport for a very late breakfast instead.  I had never been there before but it turns out to be quite busy and popular local place. 

On the upside the service was great, the food arrived quickly, was insanely plentiful for the price - The Country Fried Steak came with three over-easy eggs, hash browns, and toast for all of $10 so yes, the food was impressively amazing and tasty, and it fixed hangry quite nicely. 

On the downside, we didn't get to head out and meet up with friends as planned.

 There will be a next time for that though.

No, Really Don't Do That During A Traffic Stop

A client of mine from out of town got a ticket.

He stated the police officer was a bit of a jerk at the time.

When asked for details it turns out he was pulled over for a driving offense that he clearly did do, but nothing major and a fully lawful stop by the officer, and I got the following story:

It was raining so he kindly thought he'd make the officer's life easier by getting out of his car and going up to talk to the officer and apologize for driving while dumb.

Yeah, don't do that.

The Officer immediately yelled at him through the car speaker to get back in his car.  Client thought that was rather unfriendly.

You do NOT get out of your car when pulled over unless the officer asks/tells you to do so - and then you do so in a carefully non-threatening manner.

Apparently, in the town/state he's in, it is considered friendly to do so, especially with you getting wet instead of the officer.  

Here, it is really not considered friendly, and is instead considered a potentially threatening move towards the officer.

Client is now suitably enlightened as to how to handle traffic stops properly in the future:

Pull all the way over to the side of the road, keep your hands in view and don't be flailing around the interior of your car, shut the car off, have the window down, and if at night your interior lights on.  

Much more likely to get a friendly result that way.

Flying IFR - Lesson 55 - Pre-Checkride Practice, Now With Lotsa Holds

Had N1689H this morning as they switched me to it form my much preferred N8570F (the plane I'm taking the checkride in) so it would a been nice to actually, you know, practice in it.

Instead I get the fargin' seat slipping (yes it did again), misrigged, mis-throttled, beast of N1689H yet again.  If I can fly that crate, I can fly anything.

Sky was clear, sun was bright, and it was bumpy and windy AF as the kids say.

Serious gusts out of 300 degrees and lots of bumping around at altitude including uncommanded ascents and descents and a really strong tendency to push the plane around, and we did end up flying sideways at times.

Flew to KVLL first and did the full procedure approach and did that well.

Then back to Pontiac and did the Localizer BC 27L partial panel.  Wind busily blew me off as I was trying to get established which really made it interesting.  Once established I was copacetic and did it fine.

The then did the RNAV 27L with a full procedure at Guzvy and it sucked.  Got way, way blown off the procedure turn hold, but again, once I lined up on the approach it was then ok, but that's not good enough. Figured out what I was doing wrong, and we did it again - but better, yet there was a catch.

So went to do it  again,  but Detroit Approach had other ideas.  They first had us fly north and then do VFR holds at LEHRA due to heavy traffic.  Then they had us do VFR holds at GUZVY due to heavy traffic.

And then they shifted controllers and seemingly forgot about us completely.

So I got a lot of hold practice in and got the wind correction down which is a good use of time while flying in interminable race track patterns.

After awhile, We called in to Detroit Approach and then they had us head right in once they remembered we were out there. 

Came in and did the approach like it was on rails.

Just as I was landing I got blasted by a gust right as I landed so landing while soft and smooth ended up a little undercrosswind corrected and side-loaded landing.  Drat.

Overall it was yet another 3.6 Roentgen flight, but not good enough to pass had that been the checkride due to getting blown out of the hold, but otherwise ok.

So 2.2, 1.8 simulated, 3 good approaches, 1 not good, a lot of holds, and 1 meh of a side-loaded landing.

Gun Banners Show They Are Not About Reducing Crime With Guns

the Progressive Gun Banners keep talking about banning guns, ostensibly to reduce crime committed with guns,  but at the same time refuse to enforce already existing firearms laws against criminals using guns in crime.

Let's take LA's prosecutor George Gascon for example.

While he's all in favor of gun control  - read gun bans and disarmament of the law-abiding, he's been very open and vociferous about not prosecuting criminals who actually use guns in their crimes.

He eliminated enhanced sentences for using firearms in crimes, leading criminals using guns to get paltry sentences that let them out to commit crimes again.   

He eliminated the enhancement for being in a gang and committing crimes, thus allowing gang violence to flourish.

He eliminated cash bail, allowing criminals to speed up the already quick-moving revolving door form arrest back to the streets.

This has consequences: Gunman who shot dead two cops at motel near Los Angeles was on PROBATION for carrying a gun and has been banned from owning a weapon since 2011: Woke LA DA George Gascon is slammed for 'soft-on-crime' policies

The deaths of those two police officers on June 14, 2022 is on two heads - the scum who shot and killed them, and the scum George Gascon who made sure the killer was released and free to commit murder when he should have been locked up with enhanced sentences for his multiple felonies - includign his beign a felon in possession of a firearm -  laws already on the books to incarcerate dangerous criminals using firearms in crime applied.

Gun banners are demonstrably not acting in good faith when they seek to disarm the law-abiding, yet go out of their woke way to release criminals actually using firearms in crimes back onto the streets to commit more crimes. 

Gun control is demonstrably not about a reduction in crime or crime control. 

Instead, it is about disarming the law-abiding and leaving them at the hands of criminals constantly allowed to commit crimes, often using guns that these progressives claim they want banned.

And Here We Go: Fed Raises Interest Rates higher Than Expected

The Detroit News: Fed attacks inflation with its largest rate hike since 1994

The same Top Men (note that term is now being used in a gender-inclusive manner that includes all the economically illiterate bints in the Biden administration as well)  that brought you Bidenflation are about to drop us into stagflation and a recession - if we're lucky.

Top. Men.

Can Anyone In The Biden Administration Do Math Or Economics?

Biden has announced that the U.S. to sell up to 45 mln bbls oil from reserve as part of historic release (Reuters).

Here's why it's not going to be more than a blip in gas prices and is just plain dumb.

Prior to Covid, the U.S. field production of crude oil, wast 13 million barrels per day of crude oil before the pandemic, we are now only at 11.655 million barrels per day.

US production is now short about 1.3 million barrels per day, every day.  That means we're short about 39 million barrels per month in US production alone, so the 45 million barrel release doesn't do much at all for the worldwide market in oil, much less our own domestic market, and it just covers the shortfall in production for a month and a few days -- without addressing all the other demand factors involved nor the fact that demand isn't going to drop after that month.

The Biden administration, instead of flashily selling off a reserve meant for a national emergency, and instead of blocking oil and gas development at every turn in the US, should instead be encouraging production to ensure an actual longer term easing of prices and reduced reliance on foreign oil.

Unfortunately that goes against their greenie and Democrat policies and beliefs that oil production is bad and higher prices are a good thing, so they're not going to take steps that might actually improve the situation.

But, hey, aren't you glad there's no more mean tweets every time you fill your tank?

Flying Fun - Introducing A Youngster To The Archer

Went to the Airport today and met a client along with her 11-year old son.

Her kid is crazy about flying so I said I'd take them up for a flight.

Weather was just about perfect, light winds out of 140, so Runway 9L (with Runway 9R being closed again, for yet more stuff to be done to it as part of the upgrades).

I had already done a pre-flight on N8428S before they got to the airport, so I escorted them to the Hangar and then walked him through a preflight.

Then all three of us got in, with some trepidation on the mom's part but she did get in which was good.

Good passenger brief, start up, run up, and we were off to the Northeast.

Flew northeast to the Romeo Proving Grounds climbing to 4,000 and then I let the kid fly the plane.

He had a ball and enjoyed doing turns, and some climbs.

After flying around for a bit I called Detroit Approach and requested a practice RNAV 9R approach with a sidestep to 9L.  This let the kid see how some of the technology works and he was interested in that, and I got a practice approach in.

Came in and I did a nice approach and smooth landing on 9L. I got lots of compliments on that landing and no screams, so it must have been good, right?

Then I taxi'd us back to the hangar, shut down the plane, and had him help clean the bugs off the plane to finish up - might as well enjoy some child labor while you have it.

He was all sorts of ecstatic and a great time was had by all.

 

That's 1.2, 1 practice approach, 1 great landing and a kid introduced to flying in the world of general aviation.

Ticked off: An Unwelcome Hitchhiker

Well, it looks like this fellow hitched a ride home on me yesterday.

 

But, I did not see him yesterday even after a soak and a shower to get off the day's grime so not sure when he decided to latch on. I could have overlooked him as he was kinda small at about the size of a freckle.

I was wearing shoes, socks and long pants the whole two days.

Found him this morning, interestingly enough, he was attached exactly on the spot on my leg where the nerves are still dead due to the surgery, so I didn't feel him at all.  

 

Soaked him in rubbing alcohol and he came right off with a light pull of tweezers and was promptly disposed of.

Pistol Intelligence Class Day 2

Day 2 of Pistol Intelligence started a little later than Day 1, which was nice.

The day began with Bill drills, went on to transitions, and then throttle control , and it ended with the standards test. 

Each session started with a briefing and explanation of the concept, then with Riley demonstrating the concept and then the students working on it. As with the day before Riley gave everyone lots of personal attention and customized advice to each student based on what they individually needed to improve.

One fun drill we did was "Bill Drill Till You Spill".  At 10 yards you do a bill drill and keep upping the cadence and continuing to fire until you drop a round out of the A zone, or even better, see your sights leave the A Zone,  and you prevent firing off a round that will miss, or you run out of ammo in the magazine which means you weren't picking up your pace fast enough.

Great fun in learning how to speed up your shooting.

Much more ammo was burned through in practice today and lots of learning occurred.

Transitions were good and I learned some techniques and what and how to look to speed up my transitions from target to target.

Throttle control I did very well at, modulating speed depending on the size of the target.

Riley also gave a good talk on stage planning that was very helpful.

For the standards test, I improved 10% over my score yesterday. This was despite being pretty tried and wrung out after a fun day shooting in the sun.   I only missed one point in terms of accuracy but wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked to be but I think everyone felt the wheels coming off at the time.  

Learning and applying new techniques certainly helped and it was a great class.

A great class, and highly useful if you want to improve your shooting techniques and better yet begin to understand the hows and the whys to improve your techniques.

Really worth it, and I just gained a lot of new techniques and new ways of looking at this that will improve my shooting moving forward. 

I'd highly recommend the class.

Acquiring Some Pistol Intelligence

Today was Day 1 of Riley Bowman's Pistol Intelligence Class in Pinckney Michigan.

So I got up rather early and drove to the range out there as learning how to shoot better is always a worthy goal.

Got here and joined thew 13 other students and we got started.

Nice bunch of folks and there are some really, really, good shooters among them. Thankfully I'm not "that guy" but I'm certainly not the top shot either.

Riley started with the standard administratrivia needed to start a class, and then  a solid  and comprehensive safety briefing, and going over the safety rules as well.

He very much wants shooters to be aware of what they're doing, what is in their surrounding and their target area.  All good things. He also focuses a lot on, and talks about the mental game in shooting which is an area not often talked about in shooting classes.

He went on to talk about some of the fundamentals involved in shooting and we heavily discussed grip, stance and a lot on mental focus for shooting.

I ran my Glock 19 with the RMR on it,  and it ran perfectly throughout the day with no issues. Started out cold with a 5 shot drill at black of a B8 center at 10 yards. I was rather happy with how well I did with all 5 in the black with no misses. That did earn me an "Oooh, a lawyer that can shoot" from Riley.  I'll take it.

I somehow developed a tendency to throw my first shot to the left, which occurred in the next couple drills, and then I fixed it.  Overthinking things and not enough use of the support hand tends to do that.

We did quite a few different shooting exercises and then worked on drawing the firearm more efficiently and I learned to improve a couple issues with my draw which was very good.

It turns out that Yeti is an officer at the range we're shooting at and he dropped by to say hello to Riley.  Kinda fun watching two high-level and capable instructors do a little practice shooting over lunch.

Riley gives every shooter direct personal attention during each drill and personalized feedback and instruction to each and every shooter - the drills may take longer as a result but you not only get more reps in, which is good, and he gets to observe, critique, and help you improve which is great.

We finished up with his Pistol IQ Standards, and I ended up scoring a 100.2 which basically means I met the proficiency standards.  I did bugger the drill transition  drill dumping a few shots left and out of the scoring zone on the leftmost A zone target by a few centimeters. All the rest of the drills were nice and pretty darn accurate but I think I can learn to pickup the pace a bit and should be able to get solid hits on the transition drill, so there's some very real potential for improvement.  

We will be taking the Pistol IQ Standards again tomorrow so it will be interesting to see if I can clean it up and improve my score.

In short it is a great class if you want to learn to shoot better and faster and I'm looking forward to tomorrow even as I'm rather wiped right now.

Flying IFR - Lesson 54 - The Pre-Checkride Checkride Checkride

Yep, today I was up again.  Beautiful day, wind only 4 knots out of 300, beautiful sunny and nary a cloud in the sky and none anywhere that would make an issue.

Preflighted N85470F and Alec met me and let me know we would be doing the KPTK-KVLL Troy-KPTK loop.

Got flight following, did the preflight and we were off.

Had Detroit Approach route us to Celub for the full procedure for the KVLL RNAV 9(10) circle to 27(28).  

You get to Celub real fast and there's little to no tie to setup.

Unfortunately Detroit Approach did not have us switch channels to check the AWOS and as the examiner (for some dumb reason) does not let you split frequencies (listen to two radios at once) so technically I was supposed to ask them if I could drop off the frequency to get the weather and come back to it so  a minor error for me there.

Then did the procedure turn at Celub and headed inbound and let Detroit Approach know, then got on the advisory frequency for Troy and all was well.  Did a pretty good circle if I say so myself and would have had the landing made.

Went missed and back to Pontiac, first for the RNAV 27L. That went fine.

Then for the Backcourse 27L  partial panel.  First approach I technically failed because I didn't turn the OBS onto a heading of 275 for the localizer but kept it on 041 so I could switch to the Salem VOR if he did something tricky like cover the GPS DME so I couldn't know when I was crossing the final approach fix. 

The Localizer is the honey badger of the approach navigation aid world.  It doesn't care what your OBS is set to, its going to broadcast one signal, your VOR receiver will get it and it will line up regardless of what OBS you have.

In fact other instructors had told me to keep it on 041 for just that reason so you can always switch to the VOR and the needle will line up when you cross the intersection that is the FAF if you were lined up on the localizer.

Apparently I'm not supposed to do that.

Also needed to be more of a dive bomber on that approach, I had stayed at the required 3,000 until established and it took awhile to get established so I have to work on dropping faster. I mean I still would have had it made as a landing, but need to work on that.

So that was sucky.

Then up to do it again and it went much better this time.  Did the setting, got everything lined up, did an appropriate dive bombing run down to minimums and in for a landing no problem.

Overall Alec thinks I'm ok and just need to practice the KPTK-KVLL Troy-KPTK loop until its second nature.

Basically it felt like a 3.6 Roentgen Flight - Not great, not terrible.

So that's 1.6, 1.2 simulated instrument, 4 approaches and a good landing.

Kent County Prosecutor Throws Cop To The Mob

Instead of backing the officer, Christopher Schurr, who was facing a deadly threat from the rather super-drunk and feloniously disorderly Patrick Lyoya after Lyoya was pulled over driving a car with non-matching tags, on probation, and on a revoked license with a BAC of .28 and then he decided to resist arrest and fight the officer.

The Kent County prosecutor caved to the demands of BLM to charge the officer after he was attacked by Lyoya and Lyoya had grabbed his Taser.

With second degree murder.

The Detroit Free Press: Christopher Schurr charged with second-degree murder in shooting of Patrick Lyoya

This practice of charging officers (and in this case an officer with an unblemished record) with crimes when the designated minority is harmed while resisting arrest is going to make officers far less eager to pull over suspicious vehicles, and enforce the law and arrest offenders.

Expect crime to increase as officers decide it is simply no longer worth trying to arrest offenders. Combined with soft on crime prosecutors not following through with charges on offenders and going for no cash bail, and it's a perfect recipe for rising crime rates.

Bet on it.

How About Hard No?

Got a voicemail from a potential client who I am not going to be representing for reasons which should be quite clear in a moment.

Said person is from Detroit relates that he is about to receive an inheritance which sounds nice.

But, and there's always a but, he apparently owes child support, a lot of child support for which he has not paid.

So much so that there are apparently a lot of outstanding court orders for him to pay said overdue child support.

Of course he doesn't want his inheritance to pay his long overdue child support which he stated in his message that he owes and for which he hasn't paid, has been ducking paying, and for which there is a court order to pay.

How about you man up, meet your obligations, and pay your child support there ya deadbeat?

So that's a hard no from me. 

I'm not going to be representing someone to try and get around a clear court order to avoid paying what he is without question supposed to be paying, no thank you.

Those Pronouncements Really Didn't Age Well

Remember when Team Biden, and his media cheering section, verily the smartest people in the room, were buys telling us what we knew was happening wasn't happening, and what we knew would happen wouldn't happening? '

Their pronouncements sure haven't aged well.

Take gas prices:

Or how about on inflation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Certainly, neither pronouncement aged well at all.

And of course we have Biden who declares that the "economy in good shape".  I don't think that pronouncement is going to age well either, if it isn't false already.

The Pre-Checkride Oral Exam

So this morning I met up with Alec to go over the oral component of the IFR checkride as a prerequisite to taking the checkride.

Went very well, I apparently have at least some idea what I'm talking about and got some good tips on wha tthe examiner is looking for.

First important tip:  The examiner was paper and lots of it - paper IFR charts and Paper chart supplements.  Never mind that all of this is available on Foreflight, I now need to go out and buy paper copies for the exam.  Blech.

Second:  You need to really know your paper chart symbology.  I was fine with that as I had studied expecting that to be the case.

Third:  Need to know how to explain how the Garmin G5s actually work - solid state gyroscopes, accelerators and air data computer.  We apparently don't need to know how to disassemble and replace the internals so there's that. 

Fourth:  Everything is fair game and there is a heckuva lot of it

Upside:  I passed and now have the checkride booked.

I do now have yet another pre-checkride requirement: a required pre-checkride flight with Alec to do this Friday, so I better not mess that up.

There may just be a light at the end of the tunnel, but it may very well be an oncoming train.

Hip Report: Back To The Mats: First Full Jitsu Class

After spending a day in trial without getting to finish the hearing and only getting my first witness 90% through after the Plaintiff rested, and having the joy of the trial then being adjourned until mid June, I really needed a workout.

Jiu Jitsu it was then.

So tonight I had a quick bite, packed my bag, and headed to the training center for my first full lesson since the surgery.

This is a review week after the sidemount chapter so it was review then lots of focussed sparring starting in sidemount and then open rolling.

I was glad to be back and good to see and roll with friends again.

Did the review and then did some ficussed sparrign and on to the rolls.

I'm really happy with this new hip,  Flexibility is much better, pain is so much lower it is not even funny, and I can now get up off the mat without looking like something the cat dragged in.

Still no falling, so I did everything from ground level and took care to try and protect the hip during the rolls.

Didn't lose too much skill  during my absence but lots of people sure got better. 

I did however, lose some stamina -- being unable to workout for months and being stuck in a chair or in bed will do that.

Tons of fun rolling with friends and it turns out my pressure is better (probably the unwanted extra weight Ive managed to pickup from all the inactivity) and the new hip actually lets me move a heckuva lot more including maneuvers I couldn't even dream of doing pre-surgery.

I had much fun moving into techniques I could previously not do due tot he hip or could only do them with painful difficulty.  Nice to do them in an almost pain-free manner.

Some aches and such, but nothing major and nothing at all like how bad it felt doing jitsu pre-surgery, and we will see how I feel in the morning.

Real good to be back and I certainly need the workouts.