More Rosey Economic News, Or The Subprime Deja Vu

People have short memories and they sure don't learn from history, even very recent history.

Just through a subprime mortgage loan crisis that almost toppled the entire banking system and we now seem to be heading to a vehicle loan subprime crisis with the same cause - giving loans to people that can't afford them to keep the product moving.

The Detroit Free Press: Delinquencies on subprime auto loans hit 6-year high

It's all fun and games until the music stops and then there's a bail out for those left holding the bag.

Vacation February 7 2016 Saying Goodbye To Puerto Rico

After that great day in Puerto Rico it was time to board ship and set sail.

At the end of the Disney cruise last year we had signed up for another which got us a good deal. This would be a re-positioning cruise - starting in Puerto Rico and ending in Miami so that, aside from really enjoying San Juan last year was why we were in San Juan.

This time instead of the Disney Fantasy we would be on a smaller ship, the Disney Wonder. With half the passengers of the Wonder class ship, it offered just about as many amenities except for the Aquaduck, and it promised to have a lot in store for us.

Boarding was flawless and quick.

We could see the fort we had explored the day before from the ship as it dominated the side of the harbor.

Soon we set sail and headed to our first stop on the cruise - St. Kitts.

Snowsturm Und Drang 2016

Well, we are finally getting platered with a winter snowstorm here, just after temperatures were up in the 50s, all the snow had melted and we thought spring was around the corner.

Not so fast.

We're expecting 11 inches today and it hasn't stopped snowing since this morning at 8. The roads are a mess, power was lost around 8:30 am today both at home and at the office, and was just restored now.

Court was a mess this morning but all tasks were accomplished.

Now I'm off to go shovel the Driveway of Doom™. Once that is done, fresh coffee and more work awaits now that power is restored.

Old San Juan: The Castillo San Cristóbal

After the zip-lining adventure it was time for some history.

We went into Old San Juan to visit the fortifications. We went to the eaatern of the two forts, Castillo San Cristóbal.

Begun by the Spanish in 1634 and completed in 1790, the Castillo San Cristóbal is the younger of the two forts with the El Morro fort that guards the western side of the bay begun in 1539 and completed in 1787. A wall surrounding Old San Juan, 20 feet thick also took well over a century to complete. The forts and walls guarded the strategic deep port of San Juan very well indeed.

Castillo San Cristóbal covers 27 acres and is the largest Spanish fortification in the New World.

The fort has multiple buildings with thick walls to resist cannon fire and impressive views.

At the battlements where the main firing battery used to be, there was a display of cannon balls, some of which could be moved around. The fuses of the balls had been removed and you could see their interior construction. Interestingly enough, there were no cannon on display on the walls or at any firing port. Only a lone cannon stood in the main entrance room to the fort.

The kitchen for the garrison when the fort was under US control was rather sparse.

The dungeon was indeed dark and dank, with drawings on the walls apparently from a Spanish captain that had been imprisoned there long, long ago.

It was an interesting self-guided tour and gave you an appreciation for the life of the soldiers at the fort from its construction through its being used by the United States as late as the Second World War.

Flying Lesson #41 - A Pleasant Trip To Mt. Pleasant

Last night winds of 50+ miles per hour blew through the area, evaporating the snow and ice.

This morning when I got to the airport there was winds gusting from 20-30 knots at the surface, but luckily in line with the runway.

Today Will decided we would do a cross-country to Mt. Pleasant as it is to the north which would help with the winds and an uncontrolled field.

I did the pre-flight, got the ATIS which was reporting wind shear and got clearance to taxi and headed to the runway.

Good crosswind takeoff, and it was very gusty and bumpy on the way out up until about 5,000 feet.

We had enough of a headwind that for awhile with full throttle in at 6,500 feet we were practically standing still - we had turned the Cessna into a hovering helicopter. Forget about turns around the point, this was staying over a point. We continued the slow journey onward, finally passing above Flint's Class C airspace and listening to their ATC. I kept the plane in nice level flight the whole time and felt quite comfortable.

Even showing 90 knots indicated we weren't going anywhere fast - cars were passing us like we were standing still, as indeed we were.

Drawing parallel to the frozen lakes in the previous picture took ages.

We very slowly flew over Flint in the face of the headwind. Even with full fuel tanks, I was going to radio them and ask if they had some low lead available......

We finally got to Mt. Pleasant, flying over a windmill farm.

And we made the field:

On the way back we were a rocket, with a 40 knot tailwind and made it back to Pontiac in less than half the time it took us to get to Mt. Pleasant.

We hit a lot of turbulence down to and at pattern altitude, but on descent once we hit 1,300 feet it became nice and stable and with the strong wind we made a very soft landing. I landed and taxied back keeping the elevators down and the ailerons away from the tailwind and we parked tand tied the plane down.

That's 2.2 cross country hours, 2 landings and a great lesson. I handled the plane just fine this lesson and had a great time. I had a good discussion with Will and feel better about the previous one as well. Onward and upward.

Flying Lesson # 40 - How To Scare Yourself Flying

Let's set the scene: Yesterday was a beautiful day with an early morning flight scheduled before work, winds calm not forecast to change for the entire time I was scheduled to fly, sky clear, basically perfect. Did the weather forecast, got the ATIS, everything concurs that the sky is indeed clear and the winds indeed calm as do my senses as I prep the plane. Can't be a better day to practice some pattern work.

I hadn't flown in a couple weeks and my new instructor wasn't available so I figured I'd do some pattern work to work on landings some more in the friendly calm environs of the airport. I had already booked the slot prior to the vacation.

Good preflight, followed the checklist to the letter, beautiful day, engine starts right up, all is good.

On taxi there's a bit of ice on the taxiway to make the plane skid a bit but I maintain the plane on the taxiway. Run-up done following the checklist, all good. Good radio calls, permission to takeoff, all is great.

Takeoff is smooth as silk, I'm vocalizing the process and keeping aware of everything (RPMs good, oil pressure good, airspeed alive, rotate). Good takeoff. Nice pattern, cleared for the option, I'm happy and thrilled to be up in the air again.

First landing I come in a touch high but everything is ok, the touch of the touch and go is just a bit rougher than I'd like and I get up to go do it again and tell myself the next one will be better. So far everything is just fine.

Second pattern is good, come in to land with a great glideslope, winds still clam, touch the runway and "What the F##@!" I feel the plane starting to tilt sideways and one main gear is off. It felt like it was going to tip over but I somehow instinctively get the ailerons in the direction of the up gear, get it under control and then takeoff again. That was really all sorts of not good and that tipping feeling felt like forever but was probably less than a few seconds.

Tower comes on and says "73455 as you may have noticed on that last landing we just got a crosswind coming in."

No kidding.

Turns out it was an 8 knot crosswind which is right at the limit where I'm allowed to fly solo and was not in the forecast. While I'm legal under the endorsement to fly with an 8 knot crosswind, it's not where I wanted to be at that point in my flying.

They even updated the ATIS as it was not expected, and it did not go away.

As I'm heading downwind on 25R Tower calls that I should do a 180 degree turn and setup for 9L to improve on the wind angle. At this point I'm a little shaken but not stirred so I comply and get setup for 9L.

Turns out I'm a bit more shaken than I thought and I can see the setup for 9L on final is not where I want it to be (in other words it's a crappy approach) so I decide since it is not a good approach that I'm not going to try and force it so I let the tower know I'm going around.

Not a problem, Tower's good with that and I do a good go-around and setup for the next one.

I'm now a bit worried as it is just me up in the plane and I'm pretty sure I've found my comfort limit as to a crosswind.

I recall everything I know about crosswinds, do the pattern, decent enough approach, keep the aileron into the wind and rudder to line up on the runway and bring it in but with a lousy series of bounces - probably my worst landing ever and that was a mistake. I'm down though, and tell the tower I'm terminating and they let me know I did a good job, contact ground etc.

I contact ground after leaving the active, taxi back, shut and tie the plane down and realize I had just scared myself nicely but had handled it. No shakes but I probably should have had some. The next student pilot comes over to me tying down the plane and asks how was it. I let him know about the crosswind and that I did not have a fun time. We both check and can see the METAR is still not showing it nor the other weather apps. He wisely decides that as he's also a new solo to check with an instructor first before going up as he's got the same 8 knot crosswind restriction I have.

That's .7, 3 landings and a go-round.

Lessons Learned:

1. Having not flown for a couple weeks I probably should have not done the flight and waited for a lesson with an instructor, I let myself be led by a perfect weather forecast and my senses at the time. Had I known there would be an 8 knot crosswind, I would not have flown.

2. Expect weather forecasts and even current weather broadcasts to lie and be ready for anything.

3. Declaring the go-around was good judgment on my part.

3. On the last landing I should have put in full power on the first bounce and gone around again but was too focused on getting down and holding against the crosswind. It could have led to a major problem, luckily it did not. I'll know better for next time.

On the upside there was no damage to myself or the plane. But I really did not enjoy that at all and was a bit shaken up by it. Upon reflection, the upside is there's the fact that I handled it. The downside was I could have handled it better. While a humble and cautious flyer even before this, I'm a fair bit even more humbled by the experience but ready to get back on the horse with a lesson as scheduled with my instructor tomorrow assuming the weather is decent for flying.

El Toro Verde - Wild Rides

This is El Toro Verde - The Green Bull:

The Green Bull stands at the entrance to the El Toro Verde Adventure Park in Orocovis, Puerto Rico - A zip-lining adventure high in the mountains about an hour from San Juan. The road up had 137 tight curves in it - Leah counted. It was a good thing the El Toro Verde driver that picked us up was quite a skillful driver.

We were so high up, helicopter rides came in to land below us:

We arrived, checked in, signed waivers, got our equipment fitted and it was time to zip-line.

Think long zip-lines, high above the trees with awesome scenery as you ride suspended from a dual cable system at speed so fast if you tough the cables they will burn a hole in your glove or even remove a finger.

Here's the video of me riding one of the zip-lines:

Here's what it looks like from a third person view:

Here's a wide angle shot of another zipliner that came in after us:

To say it was awesome would be an understatement.

Abby, after unstrapping from the first zipline announced that she was no longer afraid of heights. Leah impressed two young men right behind us that couldn't believe a 9-yeeay-old would ride these with such wild abandon as they were freaking out from the bheights. She strapped into the line, looked at them, said "See ya!" and took off. We then rode 7 more, for a total of 8 unforgettable rides.

We did not ride The Beast - a zipline a mile long and moving at speeds of 60 miles per hour that you ride suspended from the cables lying face down like you're flying - because you are:

Sadly the kids were both underage and of insufficient weight to ride it. Next time.

The kids declared that it was one of the coolest family activities we've ever done and we were the coolest parents ever. We'll take it!

2016 Vacation Day 2 - The Streets and Vittles of Old San Juan

We had taken the Flavors of Old San Juan walking tour last year, and enjoyed it so much we did it again this year.

It was not an exact repeat of last year, but had some new restaurants along with some of the best from the previous trip.

Our guide for this tour was named Juan, and he was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour guide.

We were in a group of 13, us and an extended family of 9 who were celebrating their fathers/grandfather's 60th birthday. They were an interesting and fun bunch - Hindus from Guyana of Indian (as in the subcontinent India) extraction who now lived in various parts of the USA. They're quite an accomplished family and they were great company to stroll around the city.

So we got the history of San Juan and got to sample some great foods.

First were two appetizers, one was a croquette made to a 300 year old Spanish recipe, the other a popular Puerto Rican appetizer.

Both were tasty.

We then went to the Parque De Palomas, where the pigeons rule the roost. Way more pigeons than people, and they know they're in charge in the park and will stare you down.

We also stopped by the second thinnest house in the world (apparently the thinest just opened in Amsterdam). If you want to stay here, they apparently are going to make it available on AirBnb for rent. If you want to live thin, that's the place for you.

We again went to Rosa De Triana and made Mofongo, which was great. Mofongo is fried green plantains that you mash up with a mortar and pestle with garlic and butter, spoon on a topping, ion this case chicken, and you're good to go.

We also stopped for popsicles, had some awesome Pina Coladas and enjoyed hours of touring the city and learning more about it.

By the end of the tour the kids were wiped, so we headed home where after a nap they revitalized enough to hit the beach.

Then we went to dinner at Molini's.

A small cafe, there's no permanent menu as everything is made fresh depending on what ingredients they get that day. The menu is handwritten on a chalkboard and the owner translated it for us.

Tash and I each decided to try professionally made Mofongo (#7 & 9 on the menu), one with shrimp and the other with steak. To say both were awesome would be an understatement. The kids had the Salmon and rice to share and it was plenty of food. Great service, cool atmosphere and awesome food. I also sampled one of the local beers, Magna, and it was quite good.

Then we tucked the kids into bed as tomorrow promised some high-flying adventure.

2016 Family Vacation Day 1

Our vacation started out at about 0400 as we got up in the cold to get to the airport.

We got all our bags checked, went through security. For some reason they ran me along with every other male in line through the rapiscan but did not do so for Tash and the kids.

Got on board the Spirit Airlines Airbus 321 and fervently hoped our checked luggage would make the connection.

The flight was on time and aside from the cramped and uncomfortable seats was fine. Our first stop was Fort Lauderdale, where we had a snack at the airport and then got on our next plane.

We then touched down in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Happily, all three checked bags also made the trip.

We used AirBnb to find a place to stay and were pretty happy with the accommodations in the Condado district, a short cab ride into Old San Juan and a short walk to the beach and some great restaurants.

So we first stopped at Kasalta for a snack and coffee. Kasalta is a cafe/bakery in the area that had tons of great stuff and the coffee was great.

Once refreshed, we hit the beach.

The water was warm, and we spent time swimming and wandering around the neighborhood, then we went back to the room, prepared for the next day and then went out to dinner at "La B De Burro" a Mexican food restaurant a short walk form the beach and the place where we were staying. Great Mexican food - the chips were fresh made, the salsa was tasty, and the chimichangas, tacos and burritos were excellent, as was the agua fresca.

Then we got things ready for day 2.

Back In To The Cold

Got in late, late, last night (Or very early this morning) after our flight was rescheduled due to the storm by New York/Baltimore. As it turns out, the flight while later was very smooth without any stops. I'll have a series of posts on the vacation up shortly, complete with some great pics of places been and things seen.

Now drowning in paperwork that has piled up, so I need to dig out of that in addition to the snow.

And, thanks to the ineptitude of a court officer, I've managed to now acquire one harassing stalker complete with threats of bodily harm who has threatened multiple persons before. Great. On the upside, police are now notified and we'll see if the guy is more than just talk or not.

Sheesh, I may need a vacation from the residue of my vacation.

Family Vacation 2016

Escaping winter, we've started our family vacation.

It's been great so far, even with two flights to get to our destination complete with screaming kids (not ours) who also were kicking  our seats and whacking their tray tables while their parents did nothing. 

At least the parents had the kids out on headphones once we asked them to turn down some really obnoxious game noises.

You got to pay your dues on the way so you can get here, I guess.

Yeah, it does not suck at all. Many blog posts of awesome adventure to follow.

Yes, A Car Can Be Used As A Deadly Weapon

It shouldn't be hard to understand that yes, a car can be used as a deadly weapon, and if you try to use it as such you're going to meet with a proportionate response.

After demonstrating just that intent to do great bodily injury first by first trying to hit a security guard with her car and then a police officer, it's rather hard to ignore the fact that the subject of this story posed a deadly threat driving the vehicle. After trying to hit the officer with her car and then fleeing the second scene, another Dearborn police officer stopped the threat she posed with finality.

Of course, those facts not stopping the usual suspects from the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality claiming she was unarmed and not a threat.

The Detroit Free Press: MSP: Woman killed in Dearborn 'armed with 3-ton vehicle'

Using a vehicle on two occasions as a weapon to try to run people over, thus presenting a clear ongoing deadly threat led to her death. Failing to stop and surrender to police led to her death.

In short the lesson here is quite simple: To avoid being shot by police, do not attempt to strike them with your vehicle. Most people have no difficulty understanding this concept.

Flying Lesson #39 - Dual VFR Cross Country

Today was quite a nice day for flying, even with a gusting crosswind perfectly perpendicular from the runway to make life interesting. I was flying with Sean today for a dual cross-country.

After a good pre-flight and taxi, I did a takeoff and while heading for Lansing initially had to stay with the runway heading and a lower altitude than planned due to traffic.

Then I was able to resume my climb and start looking for my checkpoints, all with paper map and navigation log only, which is a bit of a pain, especially when being distracted by tower instructions in Pontiac's airspace.

Then we tried to get flight following from Detroit approach but they were way too busy, so after awhile we picked it up from Lansing approach.

I got my bearings figured out and navigated to Lansing pretty much ok, and landed on runway 24.

After a full stop, we taxied back and then took off to head back to Pontiac, again doing dead reckoning and pilotage only to get back.

That worked out fine and I landed on Runway 27L. I had a lousy setup and come in a bit too high so we couldn't practice a short field landing as a result, but I'll practice more of those later. Still it ended up being a pretty soft very cross-wind landing.

That's 1.8 hours and 2 more landings with a nice cross-country flight.

And my solo shirt is now done and hanging on the wall of the flight school:

On the sad side, my flight instructor, Sean, is leaving Flight 101 to take a job further south where it's warmer to be both a corporate pilot and instructor. He's a great instructor and they'll be lucky to have him there, and I wish him well.

It looks like Will is going to be my primary flight instructor now, so that should be a change. He's a great instructor too with a different style from Sean, so we'll see how we go from here.

Flying Lesson #38 - Short, Sweet, And Soft At Linden

Due to weather and airplane issues, we did not do a cross-country flight today.

Instead we flew from KPTK to 9G2, Linden Airfield for the first time, a single runway strip 3,999 long by 75 wide complete with a displaced threshold about 10 minutes away.

I flew there by dead reckoning and the map only, flying over the now inactive Pontiac VOR site, which is a pretty neat landmark, then on to Holly and then to Linden.

There was a low broken layer so we were at 2,500 on the way there and visibility was pretty sucky complete with an impressive crosswind of a gusting 15 knots.

I eventually found the airfield after quite a bit of looking as it was quite hard to pick out of the background clutter all around it.

I setup and did a short field landing complete with cross wind adjustment, then back taxied and did a short field takeoff. Then we did a soft field landing and a soft field takeoff followed by another short field fielding and a soft field takeoff and then headed back to Pontiac.

I found Pontiac without any issues and entered the downwind for Runway 27R and followed another aircraft that was doing pattern work and then did a soft field landing that had lots of float and a nice soft touchdown.

Then I shut the plane down and that was it for Lesson 38 - 4 landings and 1.2 more hours.

I Suspect This Terrorist Didn't Go The NFA Trust Route, Or Any Other Legal Route For That Matter

Yet another adherent of the "Religion that had nothing to do with it" has been caught by the FBI planning a terrorist attack in Milwaukee, on a Masonic Temple of all things.

News Talk 1130: FBI Thwarts Terror Attack in Milwaukee

The FBI in Milwaukee announced Tuesday that it had thwarted a lone wolf terror attack targeting the Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Temple in Milwaukee.

Sami Mohammed Hamzeh, 23, was arrested and charged with possession of machine guns and a silencer after he allegedly planned a mass shooting at the temple and made extensive preparations with two undercover FBI agents posing as fellow terrorists.

Hamzeh told them in a recorded phone conversation that he wanted to target "Masonic" victims in an effort to curry favor with international terror groups and inspire other acts of terrorism in America.

Note the possession of automatic weapons and a silencer - I'd venture a guess that none of them were legally acquired via a Form 4, so mere possession of those should be good for multiple felonies all by themselves, not to mention all the related terrorism charges.

Apparently he wasn't just a terrorist nutbag with the typical Islamist inspired delusion of grandeur, he also sported the delusion, unfortunately quite common on the "Arab Street" that the Masons are a secret cabal, typically along with the Jews (natch), running the world.

Quick news flash - Masons can on occasion manage to plan a picnic or a chicken dinner, but the whole world domination conspiracy thing is a wee bit beyond their ken.

Good job on the FBI interdicting this guy before someone got hurt.

Detroit Carjacking Gone Very Wrong

In an impressive display of Darwin in action, we get the following news report from the Detroit News:

Detroit motorist watching porn on phone crashes, dies

He wasn't just watching it at the time of the crash either -

A Detroit man watching a porn movie while driving his car got into an accident and died.

The man, who wasn’t wearing pants, was watching the movie on his cellphone, said police.

The driver, 58, wasn’t wearing a seat belt and was partially ejected through the sunroof.

I wonder if it will be written up as a death due to a case of premature ejection.

Florida Man got nothin' on Detroit Dude.

A Taste Of Pho

Just got back from a tasty lunch at Pho Lucky in Southfield.

Pho is a tasty broth soup with noodles and a variety of other yummy things like slices of beef, meatballs, beef tripe and other yummy stuff.

You can then customize your soup to taste with lime, bean sprouts, mint and jalapeno peppers.

To say it was awesome would be an understatement.

Two of these heaping bowls fed the entire family and we're not hungry afterwards.

We also got some spring rolls.

Great service, the food was awesome, and lunch for the whole family plus another order of spring rolls to go for under $30. Highly recommended.

The only change that could possibly be asked for would be the name.

Were I to open a Vietnamese noodle restaurant, I'd name it:

All The Pho King Hue.

Jett's Bath Day

Jett, after playing with Rocky today got a wee bit of a surprise.

Tash had been noting that he was starting to smell rather doggy, so I was ordered to administer a bath.

I had him come into the bathroom and hop in the tub on top of some towels I had placed on the tub bottom to give him some solid footing.  Then Leah and I washed him down, kept him in the tub until he was clean, and dried him off afterwards.

He was not amused.

Now dry and smelling more like himself, he's still not amused.

"Come into the bathroom" they said. "It'll be nice" they said.  "You people gotta sleep sometime", I say.

Flying Lesson #37 - A Good Flight To Bad Axe

So today I came to the airport all prepared for my first VFR dual 50 miler each way cross-country.

I had planned as requested a flight to KADG, Leenawee County Airport.

It was not to be as KADG was showing marginal VFR, and low clouds between us and them which could become problematic.

That's ok, I had a flight planned to Lansing.

Nope, it's showing MVFR as well.

Ok, I was sent off to quickly yet carefully plan a flight to KBAX, Bad Axe Airport. 50 miles to the north of Pontiac.

So I dutifully calculated course, wind correction angle, fuel burn and picked out appropriate waypoints with estimated time of arrival at each.

Sean pronounced the plan good and off we went.

I did the preflight and got clearance for Runway 9L and permission to depart to the north and I began a climb up to 5,500 feet and leaned the engine once I got to cruise altitude.

Sean then introduced me to flight following by contacting Flint Approach, who after a bit transferred us to Cleveland Approach.

Flight following is kinda nifty, you get your own transponder code and they act as an extra set of eyes watching the airspace around you. You're still very much responsible for you and for traffic avoidance, but their radar will see lots of stuff you don't. We did get a few useful traffic warnings for aircraft we would not have seen otherwise, particularly 1 aircraft overtaking us from a thousand feet below and to our right.

So I started naviguessing to my first checkpoint. This was all via map and dead reckoning only as Sean didn't let me use Foreflight nor the plane's built-in GPS. Might as well learn how to do it the hard way first, right? So I headed to my first checkpoint, Oxford and found it without too much trouble. My next checkpoint was Lapeer airfield and I found that one and then Marlette airfield and subsequent checkpoints. No serious drift off course and I did pretty good.

Then we had Bad Axe in sight and I cancelled flight following and after the appropriate radio calls I then setup to land on Runway 4. All of Bad Axe's runways still had some snow on them so Sean said very clearly that I should not touch my brakes after landing. So I made a nice smooth approach, a nice landing and no problems. Then we taxied back to the runway and headed off and climbed to 4,500 for the return flight.

Then it was basically the course in reverse, about 210 degrees and we picked up flight following again and I found my checkpoints and made it back to KPTK. I was first told to enter the downwind and started to setup for that, and as soon as I was just perfectly setup for entry they had me instead enter the base leg. So I then came in on base, got everything ready for landing and did a decent but slightly flat landing and then had to hurry off the runway as there were quite a few planes doing pattern work. I taxied back and shut down and secured the plane.

Sean said my first VFR cross-country was quite good and it went a lot better than for many of the students he's taught and I did a good job navigating back and forth. Yay!

That was a very fun flight and it was cool to plan to go somewhere and then go forth and do it.

That's 1.9 hours, 2 landings and the first dual VFR cross country of 50 miles each way done.

Well, He Would Know......

Kerry says governmental corruption fuels extremism

From the Detroit News.

That he said it with a straight face shows a rather decided lack of self-awareness, not to mention awareness of the administration of which he is a member. Reading his entire statement at the article is even more guffaw-inducing.