Yes, It's Still Happy Canada Day

Despite all the leftist Canadians telling you Canada should be cancelled.

No kidding.  View the front page of the Toronto Star online and view a few of their editorials. and op-eds on this day.

Some of Canada's self-image as a perfect country with no race relations problems where nothing bad has happened (yeah, as if) compared to their nasty neighbors to the south has been shattered by the revelation that conditions at Many Canadian residential schools for Indians in the past were at times dreadful and many graves of residential school students have been found recently.

Apparently this gives license to claim Canada itself is bad rather than the actions of the few operating the schools and failing to properly supervise them.  To the Left in Canada these residential schools are now becoming Canada's original sin, tainting the country evermore.  Verily, the Left loves to try and throw all of Western Civilization out with the bathwater.

Yes, it appears there were some very bad and probably evil or grossly neglectful actors at those residential schools in the past and conditions most likely were indeed awful but that doesn't wipe away all the good Canada has done since its founding.

No country is perfect, and perhaps it is good our often holier-than-though neighbors to the north (or sometimes south if you're in Michigan and Alaska) realize that they to have some skeletons in their past that they should acknowledge. But, Canada, just like the United States, as a nation has been a far more powerful force for good rather than bad in this world.

That deserves to be celebrated.

Happy Canada Day!

Rolling With Boulders

A major part of Jiu Jitsu is rolling.  It's where you get to practice all the techniques.

This can lead to happiness or frustration, especially when rolling with someone younger and heavier than you and you quickly learn your limitations and the limitations of the techniques you know.

Take rolling with Will for example.

Will is in his 20s and weighs in at 275 pounds or so. 

So he's got 20 years and seventy-five pounds on me. Makes a difference. 

He is described by most other people at the center as rolling with a boulder.

I can't disagree.

Here's what it typically looks like when I'm rolling with Will:

 I can often hold him off and defend and fend off a lot of his attacks, I can stalemate him in a roll and stop him from tapping me out, and even sometimes get a submission if I can exploit a mistake, but I often just get crushed even if it ends in a stalemate.  

Doubly unfortunately, he tends to be a little overenthusiastic and loses a bit of control. This happened on our last roll Monday night and sadly I got a good whack to my left eye.  Ouch.

Woke up the next day and the eye was still hurting and it has caused some floaters and the eye doc has said no jitsu for me for awhile due to the accidental hit to let it heal up, and also no contact lenses, which sucks as that means no flying either.

So unfortunately no jitsu for me until this heals up a bit.

Really Post Office? WTAF?

More Post Office disservice.

Part of any lawsuit is ensuring good service on the Defendants.  Kinda important - very important actually as they deserve notice and should be properly served. 

I send a process server out on a serve on a guy who has defaulted on his business contract with the seller of the business - Guy is keeping the business but not paying for it.  This can get people upset, and justifiably so.

So the fellow will not answer the door, and the process server tries 4 different times and at the business location where he's told he's not in, all 4 times there as well.

So I want to do a motion for alternate service by posting it on his door and at the business and mailing it to both locations.

But to do that, I need a Postal Verification form done by his local post office.

I send one out on April 28, nice and early with lots of time to spare on the summons.

No response back from the Post Office.  Weird as typically mail to the postmaster does get processed and returned pretty quickly.

I send another one out on June 7.  Same no response.

Court refuses to issue an alternate service order without it, I tried.  Court refuses to issue alternate service stating they must have the postal form back even as I relate how I've tried twice and gotten no luck and then the Court show causes me (to appear the first week of July) to explain why I haven't served them yet.  Yippee.  Little Catch-22 there that I'm highly enjoying.

So I go in person to the Post Office yesterday bringing my third address verification form for the same person.

After much back and forth, they check and say they don't have the prior ones and they must have been sent out.  Remember this for later.

I note I never received them, and they agree to take my third attempt and tell me to come back today at 3 for it to be done as they first offered to mail it back when done but I noted they hadn't been successful the last two times. All righty then.

I come back and they have lost the form I gave them yesterday.  No kidding.

I indicate I'm not thrilled by this outcome and the postal worker goes to the back and then comes out, mirabile dictu, with the June 7 form stamped completed June 10, and even better, stapled to the form is my postage-paid return envelope I had submitted with it.  

Instead of mailing it back, they stapled it together and just had it sit there.

So much for it not being in the back yesterday.  Unbelievable.

Flying IFR - Lesson 10 - Approaches, Now With A Circle To Landing Feeling

I met up with Kevin at N5337F this morning.  It was going to be a hot one, but only scattered clouds were forecast at 4-5,000 feet which was nice after all the low overcast and storms the past few days.

We would be flying first to lapeer to do the VOR A approach with a full circle to land, followed by the ILS 27 at FLint and then the Localizer backcourse at Pontiac and finally ending with the RNAV 27 at Pontiac.

So I got the procedure loaded in, and pulled up and checked the plate for D95's VOR A approach.

Took off and was passed to Detroit approach and then Great Lakes Approach and setup for the VOR A to Lapeer.

Flew it and it wasn't bad at all.  The circle to land was interesting as you're at a lower than typical traffic pattern height throughout the process which does look and feel different.  I did a nice landing on Runway 18. For whatever reason, I always do good landing at Lapeer.

Then up again and right on to Flint's 27 ILS approach which came up real fast.  I was getting behind fast too.  But I got it going and did stayed on the glidepath but was having some difficulty staying on the localizer due to some wind but got it figured out.  Not the best I've ever done, but not bad, ending in a solid missed approach and a climb to 2,500 with a right turn.

Then to the localizer back course, which as the name suggests is the opposite of the front course.  Clever these naming conventions.  We did the full approach including the procedure turn.  Was behind the curve on that one too, especially figuring out the procedure turn, but did it ok with a very nice approach at the end.

The RNAV 27L was sublime perfection by comparison.  I got vectored out to LEHRA and was then on top of things and ahead of the aircraft and the approach for the entire approach.  With LPV guidance I rode that approach from the final approach fix to landing like it was on rails, perfect vertical and horizontal alignment the whole way with a perfect landing.  Kevin was very pleased with how I did on that one, and I was rather happy myself as that one just clicked and flowed perfectly.  A very positive ending to a lesson.

Had a good debrief and he stated we would now do a circle to land on every lesson with approaches to get used to doing those. We went over the approach plates he noted I did great on the RNAV 27L, and that was the lesson.

That's 2.1, 1.5 simulated instrument,  4 approaches, and two very nice landings.

Weekend Road Trip: To Mackinac Island

If you live in Michigan and you've never been to Mackinac Island, your Michigander/Michiganian/Michigunner card may get revoked.

So to ensure that didn't happen, we took the kids to the Island.  We'd last been there with Murph many many moons ago, prior to les enfants.

We met the ferry at Mackinaw City for the ride to Mackinac Island.  Note both Mackinaw and Mackinac are pronounced the same - Mack-i-naw.  One's got the English spelling for the word, one has the French.

The weather however was fog, Low IFR with a cloud base of 100 feet.  Just as well we didn't fly there.  I could have take pictures on the ferry but the visibility was almost 0/0 On the ferry.  For example you could not see the Mackinac bridge to the Upper Peninsula from the ferry and you normally can see it.

We arrived at the Island and started looking around.

The fog would stay and we'd get more and more rain throughout our day on the island but we were going to make the best of it.

 The first thing one does on Mackinac is search for its #1 export product - Fudge!

We went to Murdick's fudge shop.  Yes, you can order some of these delectables online if you can't make it to Mackinac yourself.

We got to see fudge being made on marble slabs, being poured out and then being turned into tasty bars of tastiness.

 We got some chocolate cherry and chocolate sea-salted caramel fudge, which was awesome.  Just don't try to eat an entire piece in one sitting.  Nothing good will happen.

We then wandered around the charming downtown area.

The place was still hopping, even with the constant drizzle.

We wandered around and then headed to the fort.

A Nice Weekend Road Trip

We left Friday to travel northward.  The kids had never been to Michigan's north so we were looking to remedy that.

So up north we went.

The clouds were low and foreboding as we did so, and rain soon showed up.

First we stopped briefly in Pinconning for provisions.

The Cheesehouse Cheese Shop.

As the suggestive name suggests most suggestively, it has cheese.

Lots of cheese. And meat sticks, and candy of all sorts, and local wines and other provisions.Well stocked up, including with some really tasty venison meat sticks, we continued north.

Next we passed through Indian River.

 The highlight of the travel through there was the 32-foot-long Steel Sturgeon.  

Then on to Cross Village and the Tunnel of Trees.

The Tunnel of Trees were considered a bit of a disappointment by the kids.  Rather jaded and cynical they are.  To be fair I can't blame them too much as there really wasn't much to it - a fair amount of trees over a road but not super-thick so not really tunnel-ish.  In short, not worth the diversion. At least not during this time of year.    

Cross Village was rather pleasant though, with some very nice people and shops and the kids got to spend some time with a artist's springer spaniel who truly enjoyed the kids' attention.

We stopped in Cross Village for lunch at Legs Inn and the meal was fantastic.   They're famous for their Polish food and the fame is well-warranted.  We had the Polish Lunch and it was awesome.  On order was more than enough for two people.  The Polish desserts were also great, and great friendly service too.  Highly recommend it if you're in the area.

We then made it up to where we were staying in Harbor Springs, and tucked in for the night.

A Clear Sign You Need A New Insurance Agent

I'm representing some business tenants in a dispute with their Landlord.

Long story short, we sued Landlord for doing stuff to the premises making the tenants unable to get the permits from the city to operate their business and thus breaking the lease.  Landlord then sued my clients for not paying rent after they said unless he brought the building into compliance they were outta there, he would not so they left.

Landlord has insurance covering his defense of our suit.  My clients, that's an interesting story.

We got Landlord's complaint in March this year.  I told the clients they needed to put their insurance carrier on notice so they contacted their agent.

Their agent contacted me and noted tenants had cancelled their policy when they moved out in December of last year so she wanted me to send her copies of the complaint and summonses so she can send them to the insurance company.  I do so and hear nothing back.

Time moves on, stuff happens and I'm still waiting to hear from the insurance co as to whether they are assigning counsel for defense or what.  Client tlels me he talked to the insurance agent and she said everything is underway and the insurance co will be covering it.  Great but would be nice to have them do so a little faster.

Yesterday I reach my client re a settlement offer after long delays in geting through to him and express if insurance doesn't get off the ball soon we need to answer the Landlord's complaint or settle.

So he calls the insurance agent who claims I said I would handle it.

Blink.

I get on the phone with the client and insurance agent and express my bewilderment that the last thing she had asked for was the copy of the complaint and summonses, and I had heard nothing back since.

She then says "I don't file claims."

Blink.

I say "You're the insurance agent aren't you supposed to file claims when a customer tells you about a claim?"

She then says she doesn't file liability claims.  

Say what?

I note every other agent I know sure as heck does, after all that's their job.

I express that her story that I was to file the claim makes no sense considering that one, I'm not an insurance agent and two, the last exchange we had was my sending her the complaint and summons so what exactly was she going to do with it then?

According to her she just asked me for it to see it, not to do anything with it.

AYFKM?  Anyone buy that line?

She sat on this for three months while telling her customers it was handled.   This likely screwed any chance of getting insurance coverage for the claim due to that delay.

So she sends me a link to the insurance company system and I end up entering the claim last night, which is insane, but she refused to do it so somebody had to.

So, do be sure to ask your insurance agent what the process is for handling a claim before you sign up with them.  If they tell you they don't file claims or put insurance companies on notice on your behalf, get another agent, fast.

A Little Hosta And Chill Action

This morning we had some visitors to the backyard.

 Mommy and fawn strolled right in, nibbled on some hostas and then headed into the treeline.

The momma deer then came back to the backyard after hiding the fawn and is just lying down chilling about a dozen feet away from the house, without a worry in the world.  She's been lying there for a couple hours taking a break from all her fawncare responsibilities.

She clearly sees us looking at her from the windows, and reacts to our movement, but doesn't seem to mind at all.

It Would Take A Heart Of Stone Not To Laugh At East Lansing Residents

In the news, and it must be a slow news day over in EL,  East Lansing residents are complaining about noise from traffic along the main drag in the city.

East Lansing info: “Unbearably Ridiculous” Noise from Cars and Motorcycles Is Riling East Lansing Residents

But, the woke residents there also don't want police in the area, nor having police enforce minor infractions - like, you know, noise complaints.

Wing said that officers from the East Lansing Police Department are not helping so far as she can see.

. . .

Responding to complaints from people like Worth and Wing, at the June 8 meeting, East Lansing Police Chief Kim Johnson said that his officers had tried showing up in the West Grand River Ave. area to help, only to be asked by one resident to leave because that resident didn’t want armed police hanging out in the neighborhood.

Johnson said police were doing their best, but it is clear that with this issue, as with many others, ELPD now finds itself caught between people who want enforcement against disturbances of the peace by things like loud parties, fireworks, and noisy motorcycles, and people who want the police to back off of enforcement of non-violent offenses.

There have definitely been mixed messages on policing issues like this, with Council taking actions such as revising the disorderly conduct code to reduce the likelihood of a person being prosecuted for a “minor” offense while also wanting the police to stop motorcyclists for making loud noises – something that might be seen as a minor offense.

So get woke, push to defund the police, complain about their presence, insist they don't enforce the law on minor infractions, and revise city code to not enforce prosecution for minor offenses, and then complain when they don't enforce the law on minor infractions that are affecting your quality of life.

Next step:  Act all surprised when your woke policy of having the police not enforce minor infractions leads to higher crime in both minor and major categories, as minor crimes go unpunished and major offenders are not interdicted by being caught for a minor crime prior to their committing a major crime. 

Funny how that happens, eh?

Flying IFR - Lesson 9 - Some New Approaches

So today was fly some more approaches day.  Instead of Kevin, I had Adam as my instructor, but Kevin had left him detailed instructions on what we were to do.

The plan was to go to Flint and do the VOR 36, circle to 27, then the ILS 27, then the 27L Localizer Back Course, and if time a 27L RNAV approach.

I preflighted N1689H and impressively, the seat location I selected didn't slip even once the whole flight - and there was much rejoicing.

I noted the left tire looked a little low, and the instructor, Adam this time, looked at it and said it was in the acceptable range and besides, we would just be doing one landing this lesson.

Jinxed it right there, he did.

Construction is occurring at KPTK, 27R is closed, everyone is getting routed to 27L and it is a bit of a mess.  For now, we do run-ups on the ramp prior to taxi and then taxi to 27L and wait to depart.

We setup flight following and prepared for the first planed approach, the VOR 36 at Flint.

So off we go and head to Flint, and as I put the foggles on we almost immediately getting handed off to Detroit Approach and then we start getting vectors to the VOR 36.

So far so good.  The sky is all sorts of busy and as we get passed of to Great Lakes Approach its apparent that it is a more than full day at Flint and within the GLA area.  Hard to get a word in edgewise.

So we get vectored for the VOR 36, I get the localizer and start doing the approach.

Over to Tower, who is handling all sorts of activity on 36 and 27 and they check us in on the localizer and when we state we planned to go missed they then state the clearance is a full stop on 36, holding shot or 27, and not to go missed.

Ok, my first time landing at Flint it will be then.  Overall a nice airport with a nice smooth runway and it is indeed pretty busy. 

So we land and all is well, then we get to taxi to Runway 27 and wait a good long time to go along with everyone else.  Get to watch a Southwest jet takeoff from 27 while we wait.

We then get to takeoff following a couple other aircraft and they have a new procedure at Flint of climb out to 2,500 feet and then turn, which we do.

Then we setup for the 27 ILS approach at Flint, and I do that approach and this time it is actually a missed approach as planned and we head back to Pontiac.

We request the 27L localizer back course for Pontiac and get it, and  I bring us in to land and do that to a nice landing.  

On the upside, I'm getting much more familiar with approaches and the procedures needed.   I'm also getting pretty darn good at holding my heading and altitude.

On the downside, we left in a bit of a rush due to the mobbing at the ramp and I would have preferred getting a lot more pre-loaded than we did.  Since the ramp and everything  else was kinda jammed at Pontiac for the first day of construction,  for flow we needed to go, so I just dealt with it and got it completed in the air.

That was 1.8 with 1.6 simulated instrument and 2 landings.

The Next Time Someone Says A Civilian Doesn't Need More Than A 10-Round Magazine . . .

You can show him this video:

Video is courtesy of Scholl Security Group from their Facebook page.

Note that it took over a dozen shots on Mongo, and he kept on advancing towards the victim even after absorbing a dozen hits.

Now imagine you're the victim on the ground and the police aren't there and all you have is a firearm with a 10-shot or less capacity.

Still feel comfortable with a 5 or 6-shot J frame?  How about a 10-round mini-wonder-nine? You likely are going to come up quite a few rounds short.

Do you ever practice reloading a revolver or a small semi-auto while prone and fending off an advancing attacker with your offhand?  

I'd posit you will most likely be unable to reload the revolver and get it back into action in such an encounter, and probably also unlikely to get a spare magazine out and reloaded in such a situation, even though such a reload is easier than that for a revolver.

Well, you've got the rest of your life to figure it out.

Magazine capacity limits do nothing to stop a criminal, and instead hamper a law-abiding citizen's ability to effectively defend themselves.

Father's Day 2021

First off, Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Father's Day here was excellent.

It started off with some coffee and the kids bought me some new cargo shorts and a new cover shirt both form Columbia at an outlet mall, which was very nice of them. 

And of course the card:

Touching card it was, yes, hmmmm.

Then we headed off to Kensington Metropark for a nice couple hour hike.

After that, we had built up an appetite so we had a delicious lunch at O Sushi Japanese and Korean Restaurant, where we barbecued meat Korean-style right at the table which was awesome, tasty, and perfect. 

Then we headed to Barnes and Noble to browse the stacks for a bit as we were early for our next activity.

The next activity:

Axe Throwing.

Yes, axe throwing.

Because there's no better activity on Father's Day than to have your kids learn how to throw lethal weapons with skill, grace, and style. 

Axe throwing is harder than it looks, and a heckuva lot of fun to do.  The kids got it down before we did, but we managed to stick a few in the bull's eye as well.  So it was a very fun family activity and highly recommended.

It was a fantastic Father's Day.  I hope all you dads out there had a great one as well.

Dammit Canada!

The Detroit Free Press: US-Canada border restrictions extended until July 21

What utter nonsense.

They're extending it likely to stop people from traveling on the July 1 Canada Day / July 4 Independence Day Weekend. 

Hilariously, the Canadian government is announcing that 

it anticipates fully vaccinated Canadian citizens who test negative for COVID-19 will be exempt from two weeks of quarantine when returning to the country sometime in early July.

Why wait? After all, they're "fully vaccinated Canadian citizens who test negative for COVID-19".  As such, they're not likely to be spreading Covid and Covid is already well and truly in Canada so there's no  valid need for vaccinated and tested people to quarantine, nor any reason to wait until July to make such an announcement.

A pity we don't demand they open the border to vaccinated Americans and allow vaccinated Canadians to travel here instead of agreeing with this nonsense.  This is doubly so as the US sure as heck hasn't closed the Mexican border and doesn't even test illegals coming over.

My Comment on ATFE's Proposed Arm Brace Reguation

Not that I expect it to do much good, or that it will make much of a difference, but I just submitted a comment on FR Doc # 2021-12176, The ATFE's proposed new rule on stabilizing braces.

In short the rule doth suck, and in going over the worksheet it seems practically that there is no pistol with an arm brace that will not likely be found to be an SBR under their criteria.

I'd suggest commenting, and there's over 79,000 comments there so far.

When you comment, do be polite, don't swear, and don't copy and paste other people's comments.  Point out what is wrong with the regulation and how it is unnecessary.

You can go and comment here.

So here's the comment I submitted:

Comment on FR Doc # 2021-12176

Agency Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Bureau

Arm braces have been evaluated and specifically determined by ATFE in 2012 and 2014 to not create Short Barreled Rifles (SBR). Millions of law-abiding firearms owners have relied upon that series of determinations and have obtained, installed, and used arm braces on pistols in a law-abiding manner. DOJ and ATFE now seek to withdraw those determinations relied upon by millions of Americans and instead proposes an arbitrary and subjective standard that places millions of law-abiding firearms owners at risk of a felony or being required to pay a tax and wait up to a year or more and have the resulting firearms that they already own now be regulated as an SBR.

DOJ and ATFE’s explanation for the proposed rulemaking identifies 2 illegal shootings that have occurred with firearms equipped with arm braces as one of the rationales for this proposed rule. However, DOJ and ATFE in the explanation also states there are between 3 million to 9 million arm braces currently in circulation. This means the concerning criminal use of such braces varies between 0.0000666% to 0.0000222% of all extant braces, which is statistically insignificant by any rational analysis. With 3 to 9 million arm braces in circulation, one may indeed say that arm braces are now “in common use” under the Heller test. Furthermore, it is clear that considering their ultra-low and infrequent usage by criminals per DOJ and ATFE’s own stated analysis, they do not pose an issue as “dangerous”, nor given their popularity and widespread adoption can they be considered to create “unusual weapons” when installed upon a pistol.

Furthermore, the DOJ and ATFE’s proposed worksheet is both arbitrary and capricious in its composition and in it’s stated subjective enforcement. The worksheet criteria makes it highly unlikely that any arm brace, including all those already examined and found by ATFE and DOJ to be an arm brace, when placed on a pistol would not lead to the resulting firearm being classified as an SBR by ATFE and DOJ.

The proposed Worksheet 4999 is clearly arbitrary as one of the points used to determine if a pistol is to be considered an SBR is the presence of iron sights, earning one point out of a possible four towards a finding that a pistol is instead an SBR. ATFE and DOJ should clearly know that iron sights have been present on the vast majority of, if not practically all, handguns sold and produced in the United States for well over two hundred years. As such, making this a point that may classify a firearm as an SBR is inane as such a feature is absolutely normal and standard for handguns. Further, the addition of a red dot or other electronic sight is considered another point towards a determination that a pistol is an SBR. As ATFE and DOJ knows or should know, red dot sights have been a feature of handgun sport competition for decades, and have in the past few years have become prevalent on everyday handguns used for self-defense, competition, and other lawful usage. As such 50% of the possible points to determine if a handgun is an SBR are awarded for standard or normal accessory items that are installed on handguns today. Many of the other proposed criteria such as that setting of an overall length for a pistol are similarly subjective and flawed in that any AR15 pistol with a barrel over 7.5 inches will now be deemed an SBR under these criteria regardless of the type of brace used. None of these criteria are necessary. All ATFE and DOJ truly need to do is determine whether the end point of a pistol is a brace or a stock. If it is a stock then it is an SBR. If instead, the item has instead been previously examined and declared by ATFE to be a brace, not then it is a brace and the resulting firearm is a pistol and not an SBR.

In conclusion, there is simply no justifiable need for this proposed regulation, nor for this subjective criteria. Crimes committed with brace-equipped pistols remain statistically insignificant. The braces are now well and truly in common use on pistols and ATFE has already evaluated and regulatorily declared brace-equipped pistols to not be SBRs and there is no justifiable basis for, nor any need to be changing that relied-upon determination.

While it's unlikely for the comments to have an effect on changing their proposed rule, we might as well make them work for it as they do have to review properly submitted comments.  Note well that telling them to perform anatomically improbable acts upon themselves is not a properly submitted comment and will be deleted.

Not Flying - IFR Simulator Ride And Stage Check

It was time for a stage check.  The stage check was set with the Assistant Chief Instructor, Sara.  She really doth knoweth her stuff.

Normally the stage check has both a flying and ground component and takes two lesson blocks.

Today was supposed to be the flying portion but prior thunderstorms and potentially more thunderstorms during the flight time, and IFR conditions meant that wasn't going to happen, especially as there would be steep turns and unusual attitude recovery maneuvers that are best not done and evaluated in actual IFR, and, you know, thunderstorms.  

So instead we setup the simulator.  My first time in a full sim since 2017.

In short, for instrument flying it's not a bad way to go but it takes some getting used to.  It is way, way more sensitive than an actual plane by far, and a lot of the instruments such as the HSI are not the same as in the planes and require different operation which lead to a few issues.

But, I still did well, doing apparently excellent steep turns, and really good unusual attitude recoveries, VOR tracking (Once we figured out the sim lacks the Flint VOR - it did have the Salem VOR which surprised Sara as well, and that the HSI has a totally different OBS approach from the G5), and did a VOR cross check "in flight" as well.  Sara would also ask me some ground knowledge question while I was flying - Aviate first as always, but get the questions answered too.

Then I setup and did an instrument approach in the SIM back to Pontiac doing the RNAV 9R approach (Which I have never done before) and I did it quite well - I loaded it into the GPS, activated it, got out the plate on Foreflight and did it.  Although, landing the super-sensitive simulated plane was very different from a real one.  In short, the SIM shines as an IFR trainer for approaches as you can get many more done in the sim compared to a real flight but landing and takeoff are nowhere like a real aircraft. Best part of all is that it's also cheaper than renting a plane for the same amount of time, so that's helpful.

Next, we went to her office and did the ground portion of the stage check - lots of grilling over flight instruments, the compass, some of the FAA IFR regulations and requirements for both the airplane and the pilot.  Got some things to improve on and tighten up, especially because of my overthinking stuff a bit too much.

I passed both the ground and flight portion of the Stage Check and next week will start Stage II of the IFR curriculum.

That's 1.3 Sim,  0.6 Ground instruction, and 1 simulated landing (no you don 't log simulated landings).

How To Be A Bunch of Ungrateful Snits - University of Michigan Edition

The University of Michigan is now offering free tuition to any high school student admitted to the University whose parents earn under $65,000.

The Detroit Free Press: U-M extends Go Blue Guarantee free tuition program to Flint, Dearborn campuses.

But there's a catch - you have to have a high school GPA of 3.5 to qualify.

For leftist activists, that's apparently a problem.

Apparently such generosity is not welcome, because expecting students to study for their grades in high school is now an expectation that is both racist and classist - yes really.

Students spent all morning celebrating this victory, only to find out there's a *3.5* GPA requirement — which is not present in Ann Arbor. This is a classist, racist requirement that implies only 'hard working' students deserve an education. I'm devastated," Amytess Girgis, an activist for more funding for Dearborn and Flint who graduated from the Ann Arbor campus in May,  tweeted as the expansion was announced. Girgis will be a 2021 Rhodes Scholar in November.

Could Rhodes perhaps revoke granting their scholarship for this twit?  

How the heck is insisting on a 3.5 GPA a "classist, racist requirement".  If this twit is devastated from the idea that hard working students should get a free ride and those with sub-par GPAs should not, she maybe isn't ready for the realities of life,  nor to be a Rhodes scholar.

After all, The University is offering Free Tuition to these students.  

At UofM, tuition for in-state students is between 16-18k per year, so that 's $68,000 or so for an undergraduate degree that these students (including illegals living in Michigan) are being given gratis. Is it too much to expect that they can't study sufficiently to earn a 3.5 GPA in high school in return for such largesse?  

I'll note that if your family earns 66k or more and you have a 4.0 you get bupkis under this program.  As UofM is notorious for not giving out merit scholarships, it is unlikely you'll see money for your effort as a student, which is a pity - as will be your student loans of 68k while a student with a family earning $1,000 a year less will get a free ride.

You Really Can Fool Some Of The People All Of The Time.

Especially so when they want to be fooled.

The Detroit News: 'The one who came back': Ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick returns to Detroit to preach at Historic Little Rock Baptist Church

Yep, disgraced ex-mayor and playa Kwame Kilpatrick, after ripping off the City of Detroit and engaging in really impressive amounts of corruption that fleeced the city for millions, has announced he has found religion and is now preachin' and declaring he's a pastor.

And the credulous fools in Detroit love him for it and gave him a pulpit to do it from.

He took the pulpit to shouts of “Kwame!” and “We love you, Kwame!” and delivered a sermon that drew standing ovations. He thanked churchgoers for praying for him.

They bought his claim of now being a changed man hook, line, and sinker and along the way forgot that the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose:

Pope said he liked that Kilpatrick stuck to biblical references in delivering his sermon because it showed his commitment to his faith.

“I think he’s already a phenomenal pastor,” Pope said.

Detroiter Gwen Greenlee agreed.

“(Kilpatrick) did a blessed sermon,” Greenlee said. “He used the Bible. He is a changed person.”

. . .

Evangelist Rosemary Washington-White said she believes the former mayor is “born again,” and it showed with his knowledge of scripture and his application to his own life.

“He did an awesome job,” said Washington-White as she left Little Rock Baptist Church Sunday. “He’s a changed man.”

Con men are gonna con, and the credulous sheep will continue to be fleeced in the City of Detroit.

One of the many mistakes Trump made during his presidency was commuting this con man's sentence to seven years after he fleeced an entire city.

Postal Disservice Yet Again

I placed an order for a few of a very useful AR15 type magazine accessory from Buds Guns.

It's the Thermold AR15 Magazine Loader.  For $6.00 its about the best tool you can buy to quickly load your magazines.  Used by the Canadian Forces, no less.

You can use Canadian or US stripper clips in it, or just pile loose rounds in by hand and push down on the rounds to load them en masse, no stripper clip required.

In short, it works great and is highly recommended if you have an AR15 or firearm that takes AR15 magazines.  Their FAL loader and M1A loader work similarly well.

Now Buds offers excellent service.  The Post Office, not so much.

The order was placed on May 20 and shipped by Buds on May 20.  Like I said, excellent service.

The package arrived in Pontiac two days later on May 22.   It's been sitting somewhere in the Pontiac Post Office ever since, with the last update being dated May 28 stating delivery will arrive later than expected.

Tell me something I don't know.

Since May 28 no further updates, and no package.

Update June 23:  It finally arrived in the mailbox sometime last night.  Mailed out May 20 and it spent a month sitting somewhere in the Pontiac Post Office before being delivered.

Flying IFR - Lesson 8- More Approaches

Today the weather was nice and with the cloud layer at 4000 and lifting it was rather the opposite of yesterday.

So I went to DCT and began preflighting N5337F.

Turns out Kevin was not going to be my instructor today as they had assigned him for a King Air charter flight.  So, I had Robert as an instructor for the first time today.  Nice enough guy, and I explained what I had done in the last lesson and he then got things in motion for today's lesson.

He then filed an instrument flight plan and showed me how to do so in Foreflight.   Good to see how to do it.  We would do Pontiac to Flint, shoot a couple approaches at Flint, and then back to shoot an approach at Pontiac

Not the  approaches I had written up and studied for that Kevin had told me to study, of course, that would be too easy.  Instead, we did some I had not done before.

So I looked over the plates and started prepping for the VOR Runway 36 at Flint, followed by the Flint 27R ILS, and then finishing with the Pontiac 27R RNAV approach. Fun.  I got as much pre-loaded and ready as possible to ease the workload in the air.

So off we went and got assigned our clearance and we were off.  After takeoff I put the foggles on and they stayed on until practically the end of the lesson. After takeoff we flew runway heading and contacted Detroit approach, were given a vector to fly and to climb and remain at 3,000 and to contact Great Lakes Approach.

Busy day today, with everyone catching up from yesterday's weather cancels.  Flint Tower and Great Lakes Approach were getting a serious workout in as a result.  Pontiac also went to dual towers due to the volume.

So, we got vectored to the VOR 36 approach and I did it rather well if I say so myself.  Then we did a missed at the threshold, and I was immediately told to climb to 3,000 and turn right due to traffic taking off from 36. Next, we got vectored quite a bit due to traffic before getting the ILS 27 approach.  I then got that set and did it and then we had to do a quick missed right at the threshold for traffic.

Then back to Pontiac for the RNAV 27L.  We were vectored around for a bit before heading to the initial fix, and then given the option of holding for awhile to get the initial fix, or getting vectored right in to the final approach fix, and Robert had us get vectored in as time was ticking.  So I loaded up and activated the RNAV 27L approach, had the plate out on my iPad and did a very nice LPV approach and landed, and thus ended the lesson.  

I'm certainly enjoying the process.  Robert said I was doing good for someone starting out and was very good with my altitudes and headings.  Definitely a work in process and I need to work on the Garmin 430 settings a bit more for setting up the plan, procedures and approaches but I'm getting better at it and am understanding stuff a lot more. 

Still lots of task saturation but I'm getting an idea of the flow and what to look at and do next for each step and a better understanding of the process.

A very good lesson and excellent approach practice.

That's 1.6, with 1.4 Simulated Instrument, and 1 great landing.

Further Murphy Adventures Postponed

The plan was to take Murphy and a friend of his up for a flight today.

Thunderstorms moving in and out of the planned route of flight and low clouds put the kibosh on that, not to mention some gusty winds and turbulence that would have made it unpleasant for Murphy's friend who hath not been up in a small plane before.  

No point making the first impression of small aircraft flying a lasting ugly one.

Ah well, we'll get up another time.