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?

Perfect Trial Record Remains Perfect

I had a nice, short District Court trial this morning.

It was a good lesson in both the need of having attorneys draft the contract for the sale of your business, and especially the utility of having an attorney represent you in court.

A doctor decided to sell one of his practice locations to another doctor. Of course they don't use an attorney and make a rather goofy and ambiguous contract where my client sells the practice charts for $10,000 and the furniture and accessories for $2,550. Of course the other doctor only pays the $10,000 and does n ever follow through and buy the furniture. My client drafts a nice letter to the patients at the practice telling them doctor 2 is taking over and he'll no longer be in that area.

Eventually my client gets annoyed at never being paid for the furniture and goes in to take it back, which he does, and the office manager gives him 12 charts of patients that have requested to switch to him.

Doctor 2 doesn't like that and sues, first in small claims court which is then removed to District Court The judge tells them both they should get attorneys and Doctor 1 hires me. Doctor 2 fails to hire an attorney, and then the fun begins.

At the first hearing he gets an adjournment as he said he's decided to get a lawyer, so we adjourn to today. He of course yet again appears without a lawyer. The judge indicates this is a really bad idea for him but its time to go to trial.

Since he's the plaintiff he goes first. He starts making mistakes and never stops - hearsay, inadmissible evidence, statements instead of questions, the lot. He has two witnesses in addition to himself, one of whom had no personal knowledge of the transaction. He fails to admit stuff into evidence and later tries to admit completely inadmissible items into evidence. I get to cross examine his witnesses and him and he admits that patients can go where they choose and if they contact my client they can go to him. He also admits never paying for the furniture and accessories. He hilariously calls my client to the stand and goofs up the entire exam.

He finally rests and I then move for an involuntary dismissal as he's failed to make even a prima facie case of a breach of contract nor of a conversion claim, and as to his emotional distress claim - don't even get me started....

An excellent trial win and I didn't even need to put on any witnesses or evidence, done in 3 hours from appearance at court to the verdict.

Flying Lesson # 103 - I'm Doing This, Why?

It's a beautiful sunny day out and while the ceiling was dropping when I got to the airport for my 3pm lesson it was still at 3,000 feet would be excellent for flying, except for the winds. The winds were gusting from 13-23 out of 200, making for a crosswind factor of between 12.2 and 21.6...The Archer's crosswind rating is 17.

Of course, the instruments except for the altimeter were all covered yet again. I did the preflight inspection by myself just fine, then the engine start and verily it would not start for some undetermined reason. So we had to change planes. That should have been what we call a clue.

So I switched to N5337F, another Archer II set up the same way so it was easy enough to slide in (the one door on the Archer is a bit of a pain). Startup was fine, and I then taxi'd the plane to the run-up area, did a good run-up and got permission to takeoff. With quite the crosswind correction in, I took off and basically flew semi-sideways along to stay in line with the runway. Lack of instruments was rather annoying when having to deal with the crosswind as I was getting concerned about being cross-controlled and not coordinated in flight. While I understand why they insist on non instruments at this stage of their program I'm still allowed to be annoyed by it. Especially so as you're supposed to add half the gust factor to your airspeed, which is pretty hard when you cannot see your airspeed indicator. So we climbed and I turned crosswind, then downwind. Thence for the difference in procedures with the Archer over the 172 - there's a lot that happens at midfield that isn't done in the Cessna until you're parallel the touchdown point of the runway - carb heat, landing lights, power reduction and first 10 degrees of flaps.

Then at the touchdown point you reduce the throttle just a bit, angle down and begin a slight descent, then turn base once you reach that point and put in the second notch of flaps and then turn final and land with quite a crab until close to touchdown when you transition to a sideslip and down to the runway you go.

I did two landings and while it wasn't feeling great I was doing ok.

Then on for the third landing we had to do a go round as the plane before us was still on the runway.

And in the go round some wind shear got us really nicely once we were past all usable runway but below 500 feet and I was feeling completely out of control to the point where not only was the plane at full throttle not responding to what I was doing, but I told the instructor I was losing it. So he took it over and we were then fine after a bit of time that felt longer than it probably was. He then brought it around the pattern for landing #3 and did it just beautifully, and that was it.

On the upside, I apparently handle the radio like a boss, so there's that.

Yet more steps backwards and not particularly happy-making.

.6 and 3 landings.

Chicago Rally Against The Travel Ban To Stop Potential Terrorists Had On Stage An Actual Foreign Terrorist

You really can't make this stuff up.

There was a rally in January in Chicago last month against Trump's travel ban, the purpose of said travel ban is to allow for a pause to develop more vetting from certain countries, identified by the Obama administration no less, that are likely to pose a threat to the US.

At the rally, Democrat Representative Janice Schakowsky spoke while sharing the stage with none other than Rasmea Odeh, an actual convicted terrorist bomber who had lied on her immigration forms to enter this country, and thus is a case in point for better vetting of immigrants and visitors to this country with terrorist proclivities.

Like I said, you really can't make this stuff up.

Observer: Media Ignores Disturbing Alliance Between ‘Progressives’ and Anti-Semites

Interestingly enough, Rep. Shakowsky's husband, Robert Creamer is accused of being one of those behind the riots and incitement of violence at Trump's inauguration.

Flying Lesson #102

Yesterday was a beautiful day by any standard. Warm, light wind of up to 10 knots almost right down the pipe and practically an unlimited ceiling and visibility.

A Good day to fly.

So to the airport I went and did a pre-flight of Archer II N1689H. Then we did the start up and DCT does it a little differently - first they're big on doing it as a flow and using a checklist to verify after. I'm used to working down the checklist step by step and verify as you do - that will be a habit that will take awhile to break. Also some of their steps in the checklist feel backwards to someone used to flying a Cessna - for example, the circuit breakers are practically the last thing you check on an Archer and the first thing on a 172. There are also a few things they do in the takeoff flow that I'm used to doing in the run-up. I'll get it eventually.

Ray decided it was time for no instruments so no instruments were to be had except for the altimeter.

Takeoff was done based on pitch and feel and was fine, as was climb out and heading off to the northeast, using the compass only as the heading indicator was covered.

Once clear of the Delta and into the practice area I did slow flight, then some power off and power on stalls and then steep turns.

Ray did let me have the Artificial Horizon back for the steep turns, which was nice, but no turn coordinator which led to some fun.

Thence on to turns around a point and again the low wing doth make its presence felt, but I did well enough. Then back in for one landing and 1.5 was gone like that.

We were going to do pattern work this morning but the field and surrounding environs is seriously LIFR - Low Instrument conditions due to fog so thick you can't see the runways from the hangars, nor the tops of the hangars. So we did a little ground including my walking him through a pre-flight inspection and then sitting in the Archer and working on the flow technique for engine start, run-up and takeoff. We also talked about their pattern method for the Archer and again its a little different with more stuff happening midfield rather than at the touchdown point on the downwind.

Next flight he's having me do the pre-flight by myself, which is progress, and with any luck skies will be clear enough with good conditions to do some pattern work.

In short, lots of steps backwards and relearning the basics before moving forward again.

2017 Daddy Daughter Dance

Our Town hosts a Daddy Daughter dance pretty much annually and we decided to go this year and last night was the night.

This year was a tad different as Abby decided she didn't want to go. 13 and too cool for it, I suppose. Ah, well, they are growing up fast.

So it was just Leah and me for the night out.

I got her a corsage for the special occasion and off we went dressed in our best. On receiving the corsage she pronounced it to be "All that and a bag of chips!", which means she was very happy with it.

We did the obligatory picture after entering the Country Club where it was being hosted and then got to a table. On heading over to the dinner line we ran into a friend of hers and her dad and invited them to sit with us. A few other Dads and daughters also sat at our table and we had quite a range in ages from I'd guess 4 up to 10.

Dinner was very nice with picks of salads and hot dishes including a meat serving table with slices cut as you waited. Good stuff, and chocolate cake to finish it off.

Then there was plenty of dancing.

For slow dances, apparently Leah and kids her age as she wasn't the only one have a concept that standing on their father's shoes while slow dancing is mandatory and how it is supposed to be done. Me and my aching toes.

After a number of dances it was time to head back home to get her enough sleep to be ready for school today.

A very nice event with everyone having a good time and another moment to treasure and remember.

Good Samartians Stepped Up To Help A Trooper By The Roadside

A Michigan State Police officer stops a motorcyclist on what turns out to be a stolen motorcycle. He then get physically ambushed by the driver of the cycle and the driver's brother who was in an accompanying car.

Two men stopped and assisted the trooper, and the attackers are in custody and facing some serious felony charges.

The Detroit News: Two help MSP trooper being attacked at side of road

An excellent job to both Trooper Guild, and to a 50-year-old man from Plainwell and Jerry Burnham of Berrien Springs who stopped and assisted him. Kudos to all of you gentlemen.

Ones and Zeroes

Looked down and my odometer after hitting 100,000 miles, decided to roll over all binary on this fine day.

Now That's Some Flying!

Take two high performance aerobatic planes, two pilots with ice in their veins, and an airplane hangar:

Sometimes You Really Can Blame The Salmon

Facebook sometimes compresses posts just right:

The image of a deadly salmon serial killer slaughtering Aztecs wholesale appealed to my Monday sense of humor.

You can just see this being discussed by SyFy Channel producers:

"Hmm, Deadly Salmon killed the Aztecs..."

"I know, we'll do a movie with archeologists opening an ancient Aztec box, causing Deadly Salmon to fall on New York and start wiping it out...we'll call it Salmonado!"

"The hero can be a Japanese Sushi Chef!"

"That's gold Jerry! Gold!"

Mondays...

Flying Lesson #101 - It's The Archer Not The Arrow

In this case a Pa-28-181 Archer II to be exact.

My first flying Lesson at DCT.

I got there and after a short wait met up with Ray and went off to preflight N1896H. It's a bit ironic or satisfying, take your pick, that Lesson #101 is not with Flight 101.

Anyways the preflight on an Archer is pretty similar to that of a Skyhawk with a few little differences, as is starting the plane due to the fuel pump and some other minor differences, including how you hold the throttle.

The manually controlled flaps were quite interesting to use and takeoff is done with 10 degrees of flaps.

The Archer feels more stable than a 172 and with a 180HP engine was a bit more powerful than the 150 HP powered 172.

I handled the radios and takeoff with no issues and I flew us to the practice area. Once there we did slow flight, power off and power on stalls and steep turns. The steep turns felt weird because the sight picture is very different from a 172. Strangely enough my left steep turn was excellent complete with hitting my wake completing the circle. For some reason the right looked very weird and after going 3/4 of the way around I started descending a bit in the turn which was really strange and likely due to the different look and feel of the plane. I also had to switch tanks during the flight, something the gravity fed 172 doesn't require.

Then we did turns around a point and this is where a high wing really outshines the low wing - the Archer's low wing kept trying to cover the point which was a major PITA when trying to do the maneuver. Definitely a few nuances to get absorbed - including the flow method they have for all their operations - it makes a lot of sense but needs to be learned and ingrained.

Then we headed back to Pontiac with the sun in our eyes all the way to final. I took her in for landing and it wasn't bad for being practically unable to see the runway in the sun - landings will take some work but I kinda knew that already.

Overall the assessment from the instructor is I know what I'm doing, I just need some polishing of my maneuvers to get them up to ACS standards (then again I've been hearing that since August...), then get checked out and signed off to solo the Archer and then get checked again before the checkride. Next lesson will likely be some pattern work. We'll see how many steps back I need to take before I get to go forward.

1.6 and 1 landing.

No Great Loss There, And The World Is Better Off As A Result

The Blind Islamist Terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman has died in US Prison in North Carolina and didn't even get his 70 raisins, or even 70 Virginians.

In case you forget, Abdel-Rahman was behind the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and planned multiple other attacks.

The Detroit News: Blind cleric jailed for ‘90s terror plots dies

Right On Cue, As Soon As A Republican Takes Office...

The Media discovers the inconvenience to airports and general aviation of Presidential Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs).

The Detroit News: Trump’s Florida visits puts small airport in tailspin

Funny, I don't recall a single article over the myriad of TFR caused general aviation airport activity closures when Obama was president in the Chicago area and other environs. Any visit to Detroit would shut KPTK right down, including all flight instruction and regular VFR activities and that happened quite a bit and caused quite a drain to the coffers of the various flight schools and other operations at the airport.

You'd think they could make at least a pattern work exception when you're over 10nm away, but no.

In short, these restrictive VIP TFRs are nothing new to the aviation world. While they should be better tailored and a bit less restrictive they are unchanged from prior administrations and nothing new, just now we have some new airports feeling the pain of the one size fits all TFR.

Not Flying Lesson #1 Ground School Groundhog Day.

So I went over to DCT this morning, filled out their paperwork (and still have even more to do), gave them a copy of the requisite documents and then got introduced to an instructor.

They definitely do things differently at DCT - quite organized, planes are hangared and they don't want the students putting the oil in the planes and we shouldn't have to call for fuel as they will take care of it and make sure the plane is ready before the lesson -- which is quite a difference. Even more of a difference, their training is in stages and its all documented and checked on by the head instructor.

Unfortunately this stages approach will likely cause some issues with me as I've actually already done all the requirements and just need to get all the maneuvers and landings to ACS standards.....

I was introduced by the operations manager to Ray (not the prior Ray) and we had a ground session as they want to know where I am in my flying and to get an idea of some of their procedures. So, no flying today. Instead, we went over the standard private pilot oral questions on which I did quite well - airspace, systems (changing for the fact the Piper is fuel pump rather than gravity fed) and he was impressed I had already read up on the Archer and knew the total and usable fuel numbers, and that I was pretty good on the knowledge needed for the oral portion of the checkride).

DCT does things with a bit of a different philosophy and consistency between instructors which may very well be a nice thing. They are however pretty regimented and go by flow checklists of which I got a copy to be memorized. The different way of doing things is reflected in other areas - for example, they do not do touch and goes, only full stop taxi backs. They do have JPI edm700 engine monitors in each plane and they expect you to lean to rich of peak using it once you get to 500 feet AGL. The edm700 looks like an interesting bit of kit, integrated with the Garmin 430 and with fuel flow can pretty accurately tell you not just your cylinder head and exhaust gas temperatures but also what your fuel remaining is, quite a contrast to the not so well functioning (as in accurate only when empty) gauges on the Flight 101's C172s.

Actual flying lesson now booked for Sunday.

This will either turn out to be a good decision or a very bad one. Likelihood of exceeding twice the average hours to get a private pilot's license exceeds 99% at this point.

Why Detroit Can't Have Nice Things

Not even in operation yet, and already the QLine streetcars, have been vandalized.

Set to travel all of 3.3 miles of Woodward Avenue, they were apparently not stored in a secure location, which certainly has some interesting implications even as its a commentary on the incapability of some Detroiters to avoid befouling their own nest.

The Detroit Free Press: Detroit QLINE streetcars vandalized with graffiti

Update: I've been informed that the vandalism "ACAB" written on the streetcar isn't due to the vandals receipt of a Detroit Public school system education and thus an inability to tell a taxicab from a streetcar, but apparently it's the urban-dweller acronym for "All Cops Are Bad". Take from that what you will.

What Is Going On With The Criminal Justice System And Carjackers In Detroit?

First, a carjacker of a 85-year-old lady gets three years - probation.

The Detroit News: Outraged chief: She's carjacked; man gets probation

Yep, if you're a habitual offender in Detroit, carjacking an elderly lady gets you probation.

On top of that a pair of carjackers get released from Federal prison and for whatever reason, alegedly due to the Wayne County prosecutor's office failing to file a detainer order, are not sent to State Prison for another car jacking but instead allowed to roam free. They're only picked up when the victim finds out about it and asks, quite reasonably, "wtf?"

The Detroit Free Press: Victim blindsided by justice system: Why were my carjackers set free?

Quite the examples of a revolving door justice system in a city that badly needs a locked door justice system to keep the criminals from the citizenry.

High Efficiency Furnace My Foot

The high efficiency furnaces of today seem much more temperamental than their less efficient but far more forebearers.

They apparently become extremely efficient when they are not working as 0% of no energy used being wasted is well 100% efficiency, which is good, right?

I swear this thing breaks down at a minimum at least once every two years - and that is with a maintenance/furnace inspection done every year - and typically it is a control board or pressure switch that fails. This time for variety it was a bearing for a motor. Let's hear it for the Consumers Energy Maintenance plan.

So, the furnace guy came Friday at 11 pm and pronounced the motor that drives the exhaust for the furnace has a bad bearing and thus doth not work and is nailed to its post. This makes the entire furnace not work accordingly as failure to clear carbon monoxide would be a bad thing. Said part was of course not in stock and the only warehouse open Saturday didn't have it so we're expecting the repair to happen this evening.

To say the house is a touch chilly is an understatement, but thankfully it remained above freezing the past few days even as it was a darn cold wind last night.

Flying Lesson #100 - A Rather Economical Lesson

Lesson 100 started out most promisingly - I got there early and the winds were calm, visibility fine and it wasn't as cold as it has been the past few days. This is good as the furnace at home went tango uniform last night and the part to fix it won't be available until Monday at the earliest. Anyways, back to the flying stuff.

A nice preflight with no frost or snow or ice on the plane to speak of, fuel tanks pleasantly full and oil at 6. Since everything checked out and I was early, I added another quart to bring it to 7 as that is both lucky and good for the plane.

I was rather determined this would be a good lesson and was thinking positively and trying to brush aside all them negative waves.

Bobby then joined me and it would again be a no instrument (except for occasional glances at the altimeter) kind of lesson.

Considering the winds were calm to 5 knots this was a good opportunity for that.

Normal taxi etc and I was feeling good. Excellent no looking takeoff and i was getting the feel of the plane nicely. Good pattern, decent landing and taxi off to do it again. Even better takeoff, great pattern, come around for landing and on touch down it became problematic.

The shimmy dampener failed most impressively with the entire plane shaking. Brakes felt off as well. While the tower want us to turn off at Kilo we stated we were unable due to some serious braking issues and they had a plane behind us go around. We got off farther down the runway and taxi'd on back to Flight 101 to terminate.

That was it.

Hilariously enough, N757MK had headed out after we pulled in to park and it then had a complete steering failure and was stuck on the taxiway and had to be brought back via tug. If they lose Papa Romeo today then all 3 172s will be down.

With plenty of extra time on my hands, I drove over to the Piper-flying school on the field and talked with them and I think I'm going to make the switch. Very professional, solid layout, 7 trainers plus more advanced aircraft and mirabile dictu, a solid syllabus approach (which would have to be modified in my case).

On the one hand I think that Bob (who taught previously at the Piper school) really is a good instructor (and the Piper guy affirmed that he is too - he left there over non-instructional differences not due to any flying issues) and does want to get me straightened out, undo the screw ups by prior instructors and get me where I need to be, and I do like him and think I'm learning from him and I tend to be a bit too loyal, to my own detriment, sometimes. The problem is that if it is not the weather, then its the aircraft at Flight 101 that will likely hold me back even as I finally have an instructor that is set on getting me forward. The Piper place will cost more and the transition will eat more time.

In addition, it turns out that Crosswinds from Howell will be opening a satellite school at KPTK, but possibly not soon enough to matter.

So it was an economical lesson with .4 slowing my inexorable increase in hours and 2 landings. Overall was a darn good lesson that should have been longer but may just be enough to put me in a Piper.

Update: papa Romeo was also no-fly for students (but ok for instructors only) due to a similar nose gear problem.

Update: I called and made an appointment at the DCT, the Piper school at the airfield.

Flying Lesson #99 - Strong Winds Combined With A New Way Of Doing Things

Well, Lesson #99 just kicked my tail. Well, the winds did anyways.

Continuing on from our previous lesson of having me looking outside more, Bob made good on his promise to cover the instruments - everything but the compass, tach, and altitude indicator was covered by some evil black round fiendish rubber covers, which exuded evil - did I mention they were evil?

We would be staying in the pattern for this one.

Bob first demonstrated how you could takeoff safely without an airspeed indicator just by using proper visual and sound cues and did. He also did the whole pattern without instruments and basically just by feel, look and sound.

Then it was my turn. Unfortunately the winds were now gusting from 20-27 knots from 299-300 and with enough turbulence to shake the plane around to knock the covers off the instruments as well as make the plane do some very uncomfortable and nasty rolling movements in the air, with rolls that kept trying to tip the plane over.

Takeoff with no instruments was ok and sort of like a soft field takeoff - pull back to half a climb picture once you think it is around 30 knots and hold it until the airplane flies itself off the runway, then nose down to let the speed build and you feel the plane pushing against you and then you can go to a normal climb attitude.

Going through the pattern was similar with trim and power to get where you want and no airspeed indicator needed, which is completely the opposite of what I was previously trained on for patterns where airspeed and the airspeed indicator was king. Do we did the flaps as susual but kept them at 20 degrees due to the gust and came in on final again doing all of it visually.

Then on final in we went and between the winds, side gusts etc I was not having a great time but landed ok but flat yet again.

We then taxied on back and did it again and takeoff was better as was the pattern, landing however sucked even more as the winds were really nasty and again I landed a little rough and flat.

My impressive death grip had returned and this flight had indeed kicked my ass.

I decided that was it for the day and Bob thought that was a good call as it was getting kind of rough out there to learn a new way of doing things and handle the gusting crosswind. On the upside I certainly learned to look outside more so some progress there but it certainly shows how far off I am yet again.

.7 with 3 landings with no looking at the instruments.

No They're Not Gun Advocates, They're Morons

Let's see how to even begin describing this example of sheer stupidity, that was almost permanently corrected.

In order to "exercise their rights", a dipstick wearing a ski-mask and sunglasses, body armor, and carrying a rifle across the front of his chest, followed by his buddy also armed and in body armor carrying a camera enter the Dearborn Police station to complain about a traffic ticket.

Yes, really.

The Detroit Free Press: Gun advocates arrested carrying rifle into Dearborn police station

Of course people with complaints about the police typically enter a police station wearing masks with body armor on and carry a rifle in an aggressive manner, right? Well no, no they actually don't and therein lies the problem.

Do watch the video embedded in the article - dipstick Baker starts off stating

"We're going to file a complaint because we were illegally pulled over," Baker says on the video. "We felt a little afraid we were pulled over, so we figured we better protect ourselves."

In other words they dressed and acted in a manner where they knowingly provoked a confrontation at the station, and they sure got one.

It ended luckily enough for them, without either James Baker nor Brandon Vreeland getting shot but both are now facing a bounty of misdemeanor charges. Interestingly enough, they kill the video part way into it leaving only the audio, which makes one wonder what was on the video of the disruptive duo for that portion of the encounter.

Michigan Open Carry was quick and correct to state that they do not support these kinds of shenanigans. Actions like this are likely to get legislators to end open carry and hose law-abiding gun owners due to morons like these fellows.

Your Quick Legal Tip of The Day

Your quick legal tip of the day: Coming to court reeking of marijuana so the whole courtroom can smell it -- for a hearing for your violation of probation for drug use does not endear you to the court.

Yep this very morning in court, sumdood himself showed up for his probation violation just reeking of it. The judge pointed that out and it went rather downhill for him from there.

Apparently he was a little hazy on marijuana being a prohibited substance and was rather proud he had switched from heroin to marijuana. Yes, really.

The judge was not amused.

Flying Lesson #98 - Flying After A Long Wait

This morning was a beautiful one. There was a yellow ball in the sky that had been conspicuous by its absence for the past few weeks and one could actually see blue clear sky as far as one looked.

Winds were calm and started to increase as the flight went on, settling at 8 knots from 230-270 when we landed.

In short, time to fly again, finally. It had been almost a month since my last flight as mainly weather (including winds beyond my permissible limits whenever I tried to book a solo flight - hell I haven't flown solo since June) but also airplane maintenance issues whenever the weather was reasonable thwarted my leaving the surly bonds of earth. In short I had more cancelled lessons in January than actual lessons by about a 12-1 ratio.

So the preflight was fun, with frost covering yon trusty (ha! ha!) aircraft. Fuel had not been topped off but since we were at 10 in the right and 14 gallons in the left tank it was sufficient. I did have to add oil as well and scraped off ice and frost from the wings and stabilizer.

The plane started up impressively well and we headed out on ice-covered taxiways to get to the run up area. Of course at the run up area I found the left brake was extremely soft but the heck with it, we were going.

It was quite already busy at 9:15 am this morning as the nice weather had brought everyone and their aircraft out. We initially were set for 27R but then told to go to 27L to takeoff, so we went across the completely iced over taxiway between the two runways and took off from 27L and headed out until cleared to turn right toward the northeast.

Cabin heat was just about non-existent so it was about 0 degrees in the plane and -15 outside at 3,500 feet. But for all that it was good to get up and fly again. Much of the fun of it has gone and its mainly stubbornness keeping me going at this point, but whatever.

After getting to the practice area I did slow flight without a problem, a couple power off stalls, a power on stall, steep turns and turns around a point. The stalls were good but Bob showed me how to make the recovery smoother and we worked on the steep turns. The steep turns needed a bit of work which sucks as they used to be my best maneuver, but everything else is within tolerances. Again, I need to look outside more and I think he's going to cover the panel on the next flight, which is evil but probably necessary at this juncture. I'm still working on getting the right outside sight picture but it is coming along.

Landing was ok, but Bob was a bit surprised and annoyed at what previous instructors had been teaching me on landings so likely next lessons will be on landings which would be good as given the time passing I'm sure I will suck at them yet again as we haven't practiced them.

Bob did also ask a rather surprising question when the lesson ended that showed he is not just a good instructor but a great one.

I figure that I am going to interview a couple flight schools that are on the filed at KPTK as Howell is just too darn far. One is an all-Piper shop which will mean familiarizing myself with a low wing plane and another is a smaller one with Cessnas but either way it will likely mean going around in circles yet again. Of course, this is after I get a really good instructor so I'm rather torn and frustrated by the whole thing and rather undecided.

That's 1.2 and 1 landing.

Apparently It Means Not Only "Peaceful Internal Struggle" But Also "Peaceful Art Criticism"

The Wall Street Journal: Machete Attacker at Paris’s Louvre Museum Shot by Police, Stoking Terror Fears - Man, who shouted ‘Allahu akbar,’ was taken into police custody

Probably just annoyed the Mona Lisa wasn't painted wearing a burka.

Art critics, what can you do?

74 Years Ago, The 4 Chaplains Sailed Into History

On the night of February 2, 1943, the USAT Dorchester with 902 men aboard was sailing towards Greenland on the way to Europe with her cargo of American troops for the war effort. On board amongst the soldiers and sailors were four Army Chaplains. Those chaplains were Lt. George L. Fox, Methodist; Lt. Alexander D. Goode, Jewish; Lt. John P. Washington, Roman Catholic; and Lt. Clark V. Poling, Dutch Reformed.

The Dorchester would never make it to Europe.

Torpedoed by U-223 at 12:55 am, she began to sink in the icy Atlantic.

After the torpedoing of the ship, many men were without life jackets or clothing. The Chaplains kept the men calm and distributed life jackets, and when the supply of life jackets ran out, they gave their own to the next 4 men in line.

The Chaplains remained on the deck of the ship with linked arms and voices offering prayers for the men of the Dorchester. Of the 902 on board, there were 230 survivors. 672 died, including the 4 Chaplains. Their acts of selflessness and heroism would go down in history.

Each of the chaplains was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart posthumously and in 1961 Congress and the President authorized The Four Chaplains medal, an award equivalent to the Medal of Honor, and only awarded this one time, was awarded to the four posthumously to commemorate their heroism.

It's Not Entrapment If You Jump Right In

Anyone ever caught in a sting claims entrapment, and Sebastian Gregerson, aka Abdurrahman Bin Mikaayl is no exception.

The Detroit News: Attorney: FBI entrapped terror suspect

“There would have been no offense but for the government’s involvement and participation in the grenade transaction,” Tholen wrote. “The explosive grenades were effectively dumped on his lap seconds before his arrest. As such the counts in the indictment should be dismissed as a matter of law.....Gregerson told the undercover FBI employee he wanted to buy smoke grenades, fragmentation grenades and an anti-personnel mine that contains C4 explosive and hundreds of steel balls that rapidly shoot outwards upon detonation, court records show.”

Remember kiddies, when someone asks you "Hey, want to commit numerous federal felonies?" The answer, assuming you don't actually want to do so, should be No.

When you jump on board to an illegal proposal and agree to participate, that's not entrapment.

In fact from reading the article, he apparently also received funding for the purchase from an Imam in Maryland for the purchase and was putitgn together a rather neat plot at the time he was caught.

Right On Cue, As Soon As A Republican Takes Office....

The media "rediscovers" military casualties:

RedState: BREAKING. After Eight Years Military Casualties Are Front Page News Again

The Pony Express Would Have Been Faster

On January 6, I sent a demand letter via certified mail for a client to a company in Petaluma, California.

It still has not been delivered and the tracking information tells a rather pathetic tale:

First, it took a day to get from the Post Office here to the Post office in Pontiac, a distance of 4 miles.

Then it took 8 days to go from Pontiac to Detroit, a distance of about 30 miles (or 3.75 miles per day), where it sat for a day.

Then it took 4 days to get to San Francisco, where it sat in the post office for another 7 days.

Then it took 8 days to get to the post office in West Sacramento California, a distance of about 86 miles or 10.75 miles per day, which is a bit of a head-scratcher as Petaluma is actually closer to San Francisco than it is to West Sacramento.

Now it is still in West Sacramento's post office, where it has now sat for 4 days through today.

I'm beginning to think had-delivery would have been quicker at this rate.

The message on the tracking is rather bitterly ironic:

The package is delayed and will not be delivered by the expected delivery date. An updated delivery date will be provided when available. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

Yes, I'd say its rather delayed and then some.

Will it ever be delivered? Where will it end up next? These questions and more may be answered soon, perhaps, maybe.

Possible Green On Green In Quebec Attack

So it appears that the shooting at the mosque was not, as liberals fervently hoped, a case of the stereotypical mouth-breathing knuckle-dragging white guy shooting Muslims. Instead to their assured disappointment, the one perpetrator is described to be of Moroccan origin and another as a recent convert, so it may be an internal dispute, or outside radicals annoyed that the mosque was insufficiently radical itself.

CBC: 2 men arrested in deadly Quebec mosque shooting ID'd

Yes the hopes of the left (as seen in the HuffPo Comments, where even now they're trying to spin it still) to blame this on Trump appear to be dashed, unless a further news update reveals otherwise. Indeed now that their dream that the perpetrator was a Trump supporter appears to be dashed And instead it's an adherent of the religion of peace, the media and the authorities are now walking back their declarations that this was a terrorist attack and now is done for cause unknown and motives yet to be determined.

In going with the fast-changing nature of the story, the Police are now announcing the only suspect is Alexandre Bissonnette, a French-Canadian university student and not Moroccan-born Mohamed Khadir or Mohammed Belkhadir so maybe they'll get their white guy shooting Muslims story after all or it may be a case of a radical white Muslim convert shooting other Muslims or the story is still up in the air.

In 2011 This Was Fine, Today Not So Much

National Review: Trump’s Executive Order on Refugees — Separating Fact from Hysteria

We sure as heck are seeing a lot of hysteria on the left's part these days....

Right On Cue, As Soon As A Republican Takes Office....

The media "rediscovers" the problem of the homeless:

The Detroit Free Press: Nation's annual homeless count reveals some surprises in Detroit

The Latest In Leftist Virtue Signalling: Sanctuary Restaurants

The latest form of virtue signaling for leftists to show they are anti-Trump is being a sanctuary restaurants.

It's rather unclear what this statement that they will offer sanctuary will now include.

Of course Zingerman's in leftist Ann Arbor has signed on as has quite a few other restaurants in Michigan as reported in Crains Detroit:

Colors and Russell Street Deli in Detroit as well as Zingerman's Deli, Bakehouse, Creamery and Roadhouse locations in Ann Arbor and Zingerman's Cornman Farms in Dexter are among the approximately 80 restaurants participating. Restaurants in New York, Minneapolis, Boston and Oakland, Calif., are also part of the movement.

So will the restaurants now fail to verify employment for their workers which is after all against the law and may expose them to legal sanctions, or is this simply virtue signaling writ large to attract a certain clientele?

A more important question for this movement is: If you fail to pay for your meal and leave any of these sanctuary restaurants, is that no longer an illegal dine-n-dash and now merely undocumented dining?

ATF 41F CLEO Notification Follies

The revised ATFE regulations regarding NFA items to be acquired by both individuals and trusts have led to some fun changes, some of which are beneficial and and some which are new headaches.

One of the changes is that CLEO notification (but no longer approval) is now required by both individuals and trusts, and notification is made by taking the copies of the appropriate Form marked helpfully enough, "CLEO Copy" and giving them to your friendly local Chief Law Enforcement Officer.

So I'm assisting a client who is now the beneficiary of an NFA trust, and a Personal Representative of a NFA owner's estate as the now deceased owner had NFA items both in his trust and in his personal name.

Think lots of Form 5s being done for nice tax free transfers to the named beneficiaries/heirs.

This should be easy enough and the clients gets the paperwork and takes the CLEO copy to her local CLEO to provide the notification as required by law. Simple enough right? Especially as, since the client is a beneficiary, the client can even get their fingerprints done at the same time the client is dropping off the CLEO notification copy, rather convenient for all concerned, and no worries as my client is as clean as the proverbial whistle.

Not so fast. The CLEO has no idea what to do with the CLEO copy of the forms, took them, looked at them and then gave them back wouldn't accept them and says that he has no idea what to do with them and says the client should take the CLEO copies to the Detroit ATFE office. Uh NO.

So we will instead go ahead and mail them to the CLEO with a copy of the latest ATFE letter on 41F so the CLEO can then do whatever the CLEO wants with the forms and the client will have proof it was sent to the CLEO.

As the ATFE require CLEO notification while stating they don't have to take any action, they shouldn't be too surprised that the CLEO is in fact taking no action at all.

Electric Cars: That's Not How It Works

Saw a Tesla on the road today. Quite the fancy vehicle.

Apparently this latest model runs not on everyday common electricity, which around here is mainly coal powered, but on pure smug:

So What Were They Protesting Anyways?

Verily it seemed that the women's marches were nothing more than collective tantrums of the left after Hillary lost. Much sound and pink fury, signifying nothing.

After all, Trump had barely been in office a day before they were off congratulating themselves on marching against things he has yet to do and likely won't do anyways. Heck, leftist women around the world were marching to protest his election - which is rather ironic when you think about all these same leftists complaining of alleged outside forces influencing the election of Trump by the exposing of Democrat malfeasance.

In any case it is truly kinda hard to take them seriously when they're dressed like this:

Sorry but while allegedly marching for women's rights as a whole, dressing as if you're one particular body part is rather short-sighted, pathetic and just plain stupid not to mention counter to the concept that real women are more than just said body part.

I think Trump, just like Voltaire. asked God to make his enemies ridiculous, and God granted his request.

President Trump

I certainly wish President Trump well, and watching the leftists' many heads explode yesterday and today with their howls of mixed grief and outrage while they suffer a collective temper tantrum is rather good fun indeed.

But, remember permanent majorities aren't.

There are two rather apt truisms for this moment:

1. The party in power becomes arrogant. The chance of Republicans screwing up now that they're in charge after 8 long years of Obama is rather high.

2. The party out of power becomes insane. The Democrats have kicked this one up a notch this time by going insane even before being out of power and by rioting and being idiots during the inauguration and now by protesting today making much sound and fury while accomplishing nothing.

It's going to be an interesting Presidential term indeed.

The AR-15 Hits Middle Age

The AR-15 design is over 50 years old.

It is certainty a testament to its efficacy and the brilliance of Eugene Stoner's design that it has served so long and become the most popular modern sporting rifle in the USA.

That it is over 50 years old means some AR-15 models can now be purchased using a Curio and Relic FFL as the rifles are now over 50 years old and still in perfectly good working condition. You can bid and buy on this one and have it shipped right to you using your C&R FFL.

That gun banners want to prohibit ownership of over 50-year-old mature technology that is in very common use speaks volumes, and it's also why they'll fail.

Obama: Undocumented Illegals = Good, But Undocumented Cubans = Bad

In one of the ending moves in the waning days of the Obama administration, he sticks it to yet another group that doesn't flock to support him and of which he is less than enamored: people fleeing the socialist paradise of Cuba.

Illegal aliens aplenty can flock through our southern border and get DREAMer status as exhorted by Obama, but the idea of Cubans fleeing that socialist hellhole run by his close compadres getting legal status in the US sure seems to have stuck in his craw.

After all, how dare the ungrateful snits try and flee a communist county whose leaders Obama admires.

The Detroit News: Havana hails end to U.S. immigration policy for Cubans

In Eight Short Days....

After a hiatus of 8 years, in eight days from today, Dissent will once again become the highest form of patriotism.

Ice Ice Baby - The Plymouth Ice Carving Festival

On Sunday, as the last activity of the winter break we took the kids to the Plymouth Ice Carving festival.

To say it was a cold day out was an understatement - even bundled up it was chilly to say the least. It did make it great for ice carving though as there was no risk that a statue might melt in the slightest bit.

The carvings were most impressive:

There were dragons:

There were ice bunnies:

There was an ice car complete with an ice logo:

And of course there had to be ice cold beer.

In addition to the already made sculptures, teams were busy making more right in front of the onlookers:

Very impressive and these teams were very serious about their craft.

In addition to the ice carving there were the typical handicrafts and food vendors of any town fair aplenty - hot drinks and hot caramel corn did a very brisk business indeed.

Plymouth did a nice job putting the festival on and it was very well done and organized.

Just a fun outing before school started up again.

Flying Lesson #97 - Maneuver Heaven

Continuing the tale of sunk flying costs, I took off in N73455 with Bob and headed to the practice area.

Once there we did slow flight, which I did better than last time, power off stalls, power on stalls, steep turns and turns around a point. We also did the engine out and I actually did ok overall with good speed management etc, emergency checklist memorized and run through and overall not bad. I'm still having issues lining up on the chosen empty field amongst many empty fields thing and making sure I don't overshoot it and maneuver to it. I mean it will land in a empty field and that should damn well be good enough really (Yes before you point it out, I know I need to land in whatever field is picked etc).

My steep turns have gotten worse, they used to be my best maneuver. The again I haven't done them since November 19th and it showed. In short, as I get a maneuver down, we move on to others and it then decays accordingly while the maneuver being focused on gets better, rinse, turn prop, repeat. This is getting stupid. If it wasn't for all the sunk costs I'd likely be doing something else by now, but I just may be too stubborn and stupid to drop it -- or maybe not.

Half the fun is getting used to a new instructor, Bob seems quite good, certainly less grabby on the controls than Ray and lets me do everything and seems to really want me to get done. I reckon if I had had him from the first I might just have been done a long time ago now.

He has a big focus on looking outside during the maneuvers and to quit focusing so much on the instruments which is probably a good corrective for me. He said my ground/oral knowledge is fine and he's not worried about that and my radio work is excellent (well yipee). Next we're going to finish the altitude maneuvers and head to pattern entry and landing stuff. Weather or not the weather will cooperate is a fun question, whether the maneuvers will then decay before the somehow always looming but never arriving checkride is quite likely.

That's 1.3 hours and 1 more landing.

Another Home Repair Achievement Unlocked

My late afternoon quiet today was shattered by a report from the kitchen that the insinkerator was leaking.

Verily it had crapped out, developed a crack in its casing, stopped working, given up the ghost, was busy making a mess, and had gone to meet its maker. It was a dead insinkerator indeed.

So now I had the joys of working with both plumbing and electricity at the same time.
I ran out to Lowes and bought a replacement unit - this time 1/2 HP rather than the 1/3 HP of the dead unit, as more power is better and for $15 more why not?

First, I turned off the circuit breaker marked disposer and then tested to make sure it was the right one. It was and it was on to the next steps.

Then it was removal time.

I disconnected the pipes and the dishwasher water tube.

Then I was able to get the unit off its sink mount with some allen keys for leverage and it was electricity time.  I opened the access panel and undid the electrical connectors.

Then I cleaned the piping, put on the new gasket and flange, wired in the new unit making sure the new connections were tight and mounted it under the sink.  Be sure to pop out the dishwasher drain plug if you plan to hook it up to the dishwasher as it is hard to see that it was in there blocking that outlet and is quite easily overlooked, which can lead to some bad results.

Once everything was lined up and the drain hose and tube were tightened, I re-tightened down the mount to the new unit with an Allen key for leverage and voila, a new insinkerator was in place.  Testing revealed no leaks, putting the circuit breaker back on led to no popping, and it ran fine and quieter than the original.

The whole thing only took 38 minutes from the time I turned off the circuit breaker and only expanded my vocabulary by a moderate amount.

It's a relatively easy replacement process.