Information Echo

Ok, this one piqued my curiosity over the weekend after reading about it in the rec.aviation.student newsgroup.

Ever looked up and seen a Contrail from a passing jet? Sure we have, especially those of us involved in aviation.. I myself have looked up hundreds of times at passing jets leaving contrails, wondering where they are going, who’s onboard headed for vacation, what airport they departed from…you know…daydreaming stuff. I often wish it was me up there - if not as the pilot, at least a passenger.

Well, seems that there is a fullblown conspiracy on the whole contrail thing.. “Chemtrails”.

Ok, everybody put on your tinfoil hats now!

So, the conversation started here in the rec.aviation.student newsgroup, as I mentioned.

I commented about the foolishness of this in the thread in the newsgroup.. Following up on that response, someone came to my blog and made an entry to my last post on the whole Chemtrails thing.

Although I was tempted to just delete it as irrelevant conspiracy garbage, I decided to let everyone judge for themselves, so I’m making this post. The person who made the response here was pleasant enough, and honestly seems to beleive this.

So.. Following up on the NG post…

One of the sites mentioned in that post is here.

Quoting said post:

We have good news: The not-so-secret chemtrail spraying program, intended to keep us from attaining higher spiritual awareness/consciousness, to reduce ethnically targeted populations worldwide, and to induce bioengineered disease organisms in order to reap staggering profits for the pharmaceutical cartels is apparently failing- and failing badly. I have seen the evidence here in southern California and have read of similar reports from different regions of America. Read the articles below for an historical overview of chemtrails and the reasons for their deployment, but don’t dwell on the negative aspects of this story because things are beginning to look up and we have good reason for optimism! Get involved with making or obtaining orgone generators in your immediate environment and be part of the ‘hit team’ bringing down this Luciferian inspired genocide operation.

WTF? “Chemtrails” are preventing people from reaching “Higher Spiritual Awareness”?

An “Orgone” generator will help?

Ok… Google defines Orgone as “Cosmic Life Force”.

Really… Wow, do people really believe this stuff?

I’m really sorry, I’m not usually the judging type of person, but in this case I’m forced to say the following.

Some people have too much time, and far too vivid immaginations.

That aside, I’m really starting to suffer from “No Flying” withdrawl.

Oh, and tinfoil-hat guys - Don’t worry, my Cessna 152 doesn’t leave Contrails.

And I promise I’m not pouring mind-control potions into the fuel tanks before I overfly your house.

I hope all of my regular readers don’t mind the more frequent “Non Flying” posts I’m making.. Perhaps when I’m officially finished my training I’ll remove all of this idle chatter and make the blog a 100% true “training log” instead of a chat-chat room like this.

However, I’m low on flying hours for the next week or two, and high on thoughts.

No, I won’t be flying this weekend. The closest I got was listening to Oshawa’s ATC on the frequency scanner this morning. I couldn’t figure out initially why it was so incredibly busy in the control zone - all sorts of aircraft in and out of the airport, none seeming to stay very long, and alot of others “just passing through” along the lakeshore, as well as to the north.

I discovered later on this evening why that was - there was a Poker Rally, with Oshawa being one of the stops. Ok, that explains it.

So, I got my latest issue of the COPA newspaper this evening, and my name finally made it to the list of “New Members”. That was kind of nice, to see my name officially connected with aviation in a public forum, my blog aside.

Following up on my rant regarding Chicago’s Mayor Daley being in Toronto, the Toronto Star today had an article backing up my viewpoints. You can find it by clicking here.

The Chicago Sun-Times also had a good (And scathing) article about it here

I thought I’d checkout the Chicago area on Google Map’s Satellite feature, and was surprised to find that Meigs Field is fully intact in this picture, meaning that the last imaging done on the Chicago area is several years old.

It was sad to know that it’s all completely gone now. I had really hoped to fly there someday in “Real Life”, after spending years with millions of other Flight Simulator afficionados flying out of Meigs (The default field) countless times in a virtual world.

Anyhow… The whole Toronto Island Airport thing has made for alot of interesting reading recently. For those not in the know, the Island was scheduled to receive a “Fixed Link” (Fancy speak for “A Bridge”) some time ago, but when Mayor Miller was elected in Toronto, he did everything in his power to eventually successfully scuttle it. The story, from COPA’s viewpoint, can be found Here.

The result of this cancellation is now costing the taxpayers millions of wasted dollars in contract cancellation fees.

Anyhow, all of his blabber about removing the airport is probably all moot in the end, as it turns out he can’t do it… Quoted from the above article:

“Unlike Meigs Field, where the City of Chicago owned the airport and ultimately Daley could do as he chose, changes at City Centre require the agreement of the City, Transport Canada and the Toronto Port Authority (a federal agency)”

Typicaly, yet another politician who speaks before he understands.<
/p>

So, City Center should be safe for the time being.

And yes, I’ll stop talking about it now.

Here I am stuck at work again on what would be the second day in a row of perfect flying weather.

The nature of my job translates into frequent periods of inactivity due to fluctuations in my customers shipping needs.

Today is one of those days… I’ve been idle for 45 minutes, and will likely be so for another two and a half more.

I guess all-in-all, I shouldn’t complain - I’m getting paid by the hour if I work or not, and my job keeps me outside, as opposed to being inside a windowless office cubicle or a factory on beautifull days like this.

I’m sitting in a nice patch of grass typing this on my PDA, enjoying the breeze coming off Lake Ontario..

Ok, so I’m not so hard-done-by afterall. It could be better, though - I could be flying.

Lots of planes passing overhead again today, seemingly teasing me. Not flying this weekend is going to be tough. Thankfully the weather is supposed to be mediocre, probably not flying weather at all, so that will dampen the pain.

Over the last few days I’ve been conversing in email with a fellow student in New Zealand whom is a visitor here at my blog. Those who read the comment threads wil llikely recognize the name Euan.

Its been very interesting reading all about his experiences and how similar a lot of things are in the overall scheme of overseas flight training. There’s just enough “different” however to make it intriguing at the same time.

If by some stroke of luck I ever get the cash together to fly (commercial, that is) to NZ, Euan, I’ll be sure to drop by and we can go flying together.

As much as I’ve always wanted to visit the area (NZ and Australia alike) I have my doubts on that happening anytime soon, unfortunately… For the last 6 months or so, the airport has somehow managed to grab every last penny of spare money from my pockets. Go figure.

Looking at the price of crude oil, Mogas, and Avgas recently, I had the following deep-thought - what will airplanes do if/when the world *does* ever run out of oil?

You can’t exactly convert a Cessna 152 (or a Boeing 747) to run on batteries, solar, or whatever else there are alternatives wise with current technology.

“Awww crap, the D-Cells just went dead! Time to look for a place to land!”.

Or perhaps:

“The reactor needs new plutonium! Time to set this bird down at the nearest airport for a fill up..”

Yep, neither very practical options.

Now, I’m no “tinfoil-hat” wearing theorist who’s convinced like some that the earth is going to run out of oil in a few years, but one must accept that at some point in the future its a possibility.. Its safe to assume we are pumping oil out of the ground faster then its replenishing.

That would certainly put the brakes on General Aviation…or aviation in general, for that matter, unless some sort of “Star-Trek” Sci-Fi technology makes signifigant progress in the next few decades.

I guess the next generation (or the one after) will have to worry about that.

With that now out of my cranium…… Back to my regularly scheduled programming.

It seems Chicago’s Mayor Daley is in Toronto right now speaking to Mayor David Miller about “Big City
Revitalization”. One point of conversation was Toronto’s City Center (Island) Airport, which I posted pictures of a few blog entries ago.

I hope to fly into CityCenter sometime soon… Perhaps I’d better rush - read on…

Now, my USA and Canada based readers will probably be familliar with what Mayor Daley did (illegally) to Meigs Field in Chicago, ordering it bulldozed overnight several years ago while there were still planes on the Aprons.

Google the story for the full details. Suffice to say that Mayor Daley has a real bug up his rear end for General Aviation, and his strongarm and illegal tactics against GA are historic.

He was again in the paper last week stating that Chicago should have an ADIZ/FRZ around it, and fighter jets on standby just in case.. This is basically what the situation is at the White House in D.C, of which there have been several high-profile breachings of recently.

Mr. Daley somehow feels that Chicago is now a prime terrorist target, and that Cessna’s, Pipers, Etc that frequent smaller GA airports are a terrorists first choice for aircraft.

So, Chicago no longer has Meigs Field as a result of his fears.. Wow, Mr. Daley, You must sure be glad there’s no more of those scary airplane-thingies near Chicago’s skyline anymore!

Blissfully, he’s unaware of the proximity of Chicago’s O’Hare International airport, perhaps?

Anyhow..

I don’t know what this goof has against GA, but sadly he was spouting his anti-GA filth yesterday in Toronto, trying to convince Mayor Miller that the Toronto Island Airport should be also bulldozed and turned into parkland.

His “story” for both Meigs and what would also be Toronto City Center airport (the “proper” name, although everyone just calls it the Island Airport) is that the lands are better used as “parkland”. All of us involved in GA know that this is a thinly guised veil for his unfounded hate of small aircraft.

Dear Mr. Daley: Kindly screw off and leave other airports alone. Your scaremongering tactics are not welcome here, nor does most of Canada live in perpetual fear of the “Evil” aircraft that fly overhead that seem to terrify you so much.

Sadly, Mayor Miller seemed to entertain the idea… I’m sure a strong representation of the rights of GA will soon ensue from the likes of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA), of which I’m a member.

Oh well, with Millers record so far, one can only guess that he won’t be mayor come the next election anyhow, so it may all be moot.

And Mr. Daley, go home and hide under your bed, some evil Cessna 152 might be bearing down on you. It would surely leave a nasty smear mark on one of your big shiny office towers if by some freak chance one was ever to collide.

Ever seen a housefly hit a tractor-trailer windshield at 100 KPH?

Same difference.

Sheesh.

In the meantime, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits.

There, that rant done, its back to work….er, back to sitting in the sun for another 2+ hours.

Man, I stayed up too late last night waiting for my wife to come home from the movies.. It was well after midnight when I finally crawled into bed.

My alarm goes off at 6 AM. Ack!

I drag my corpse out of bed and start my morning.

I stuff down some breakfast to ensure my stomach stays settled, even though I’m just running more circuits today.

I head off the the airport, and the weather is looking great! I listen to the ATIS on my scanner on the way in and it’s calling winds calm and variable. There is a huge cloud bank to the west that appears to be closing, so I’m glad I decided to fly in the AM, as usual.

Once at the airport, Phil is there waiting on another student. We chat for 15 or 20 minutes about my previous flights, and also go over short field procedure again just to confirm I still have everything right in my head. All is well.

I chat about last weeks flight with the videocamera in the back. He’s very interested. When I mention that I put some of the video on my Blog, he’s even more interested and says he’d like to check it out.

I tell him that postflight perhaps we’ll get together in dispatch and I’ll show him my Blog afterwards. Up untill now, I don’t think anyone at CFA is actually aware of my chit-chat here.

So, we may have a new visitor sooner or later, my flight instructor Phil.

Anyhow, Phil goes over my weight and balance sheet and catches a goof. Seems I had a brainfart and messed up one of my calculations. That fixed, I sign out my plane, and I’m on my way out to preflight.

That done, I get underway. The active runway is 04 again today, less then ideal, but with the lack of others that are going to be running circuits, it should work out OK as I’ll likely get backtracked on each landing.

So, up I go, more short field takeoff and landing practice.

I’m happier with my flying today, but I find that I’m consistently high on final today.. I try extending my downwind, and that helps a little, but I don’t know what it is about runway 04, but I’m always fighting altitude on final. Other students report the same experience on runway 04/22 - perhaps it’s the fact that it’s the shorter of Oshawa’s 2 runways that causes this. I don’t know. Strangely, I didn’t have this problem last week when using the same runway, albeit the other end.

One approach I’m so high that I get to put my forward-slip lesson to work. Surprisngly, practice did make (near) perfect, and I pull off the slip and make it quite nice looking, dropping all the altitude required to get back on the glidepath according to the PAPI. No, I don’t depend on the PAPI all the time, I can judge my glide OK..but just sayin’.

Come to think of it, the other end of the runway (22) doesn’t have PAPI at all.

After slipping, I wonder briefly if I should have slipped with 30 degrees of flaps, as I was setup for a short field landing with full flaps deployed. I know I’ve slipped with 20 degrees many times before. By the time I realize that perhaps I shouldn’t have done that, it’s done. An “oops” perhaps?

My first
few landings are decent, but I’m still concentrating hard on my airspeed while on short final…I find that it’s drifting off, and I’m cresting the runway a little slow. I’m not into the stall horn and still at a safe speed, but I’m probably a little outside of what would be acceptable by flight test standards.

With the 54KIAS approach speed for a short field landing, it’s alot closer to the flaps-down stall speed of 35KIAS then the normal approach of 65KIAS is. More attention is necessary. Stalling on short final would really ruin my day, and is probably considered bad form.

A few more circuits in, I make signifigant progress, and I’m very pleased with my landings and takeoffs. The practice is *really* helping today, and I notice each circuit and landing improving.

My choice of aircraft for today is also working much better, and I don’t have any problems with the nosewheel shimmy like last week. That makes the entire “learning short field procedure” thing easier.

Thankfully I do indeed get cleared for the backtrack on each and every landing, which is great… With the lack of appropriate taxiways for 04, unless a backtrack is cleared when doing circuits, it’s time consuming to get turned around and up again.

The tower asks me on one circuit for a Pirep on the clouds. (PIREP is pilot-speak for “Pilot Report”, for those not in-the-know).

Well, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m still questionable at guessing this sort of thing. I’m at 1500ft (Circuit altitude) just turning base when they ask… I look around, and I guess they’re 500 to 1000ft above circuit altitude, although a off to the east and not immediately over the airport. I report as such, perhaps sounding a little less then “sure” about it on the radio. The tower seems happy, hopefully they take it with a grain of salt. Later on, my report turns out to be fairly accurate, as others report similar.

All the looking around for the Pirep makes me late for my turn to final, and I have to correct. Oh well, not the first time that’s happened. If the tower didn’t know before that I’m a student, they probably know now.

I’m getting better at handling multiple tasks at once, and that’s good, but that’s my first PIREP by myself, and if the only thing that I did was turn late after doing everything else involved in setting up for final, while giving the PIREP at the same time, I’ll take it.

I suppose I could have just replied “Negative for a Pirep at this time” instead, but it was no big deal. Earlier on in my training I would definately have taken this option, or just not responded (Remember, Aviation, Navigate, Communicate…) but I was intrigued at being asked for a Pirep regardless of the fact that I’m sure ATC-guy can tell when it’s a student flying…so I thought I’d try to do my duty.

On my last circuit, I call ATC and advise I’ll be “Full stop, back for more”. After landing, they clear me for the backtrack. As I’m backtracking into position, I glance at the Hobbs meter, and my watch, and suddenly realize I’m at the end of my reservation. It’s 8:54AM, and my reservation ends at 9AM. Ack!

I call up the tower and advise them on the change of plans, and they clear me back to the apron.

A fellow student whom I’ve been chatting with in email has a reservation on the same plane right after me, and we had hoped to get together to chat a little after my flight, and before his. My late start kind of messed that up, as after flying for an hour, I was right at the end of my reservation time, and Richard was anxious to get
up right away.

Regardless, we chat out at the plane as he preflights for 5 or 10 minutes. Sorry I kind of messed up our plans, Richard. We’ll definately have to get together for coffee some morning when we’re not pressed for time. It was nice finally meeting someone in person after chatting in email for so long, though.

Anyhow, I finish up and pay for my flight. I’m curious why it seems a little more expensive then normal, and find out shortly after - the rental rate on the 152’s has gone from $94/Hr to $100/Hr. Damn fuel prices.

I used to think that flying model airplanes was expensive.. Boy, was that wrong! I do kind of miss the models though….at one point I was an instructor with the Whitby Aeromodelers club, and enjoyed it. A career change, which at the time pretty much destroyed all my spare time, took care of that hobby. That has changed again, and I now have the time…but with 2 kids and other commitments now, it’s not practical for other reasons now. Perhaps when my son is old enough to enjoy it, we can both get into it again, but untill then..

Anyhow, I digress.

One of the guys in the dispatch office is playing with the new Google Satellite maps..

Link: Oshawa Area

If anyone hasn’t seen this before, check it out. The above link will show you most of Oshawa, as well as surrounding areas, where I fly. If you look close, you can see the airport just to the left of center. Zoom out, and you can see Lake Scugog directly to the north of the airport. This is where our CYA(T) Training Area is.

Unfortunately Oshawa is a “low resolution” area, so zoom is limited. If you want to see something *really* neat, check out some of the following links…

For example, here is the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant, which is near where I work. It’s high resolution, and you can count cars in the parking lot:

Link: Pickering Nuclear Plant

That’s not even full zoom…you can zoom in one more click.

Alot of pilots in the aviation newsgroups are reporting finding this new service from Google usefull to “Check Out” a new airport that they may have never flown into before.

Example? Flying into Toronto’s Pearson International anytime soon? You can check it out right here:

Link: Pearson International Airport

Toronto’s City-Center airport?

Link: City Center Airport, Toronto

The above link has a really nice view of Toronto…zoom in a little to the NE of the airport, and you can checkout the CN Tower and SkyDome. If the dome was open, you could probably count people in the stands.

Anyhow, you get the idea.. It’s cool stuff.

I discovered this quite a while ago, but never thought to share it with everyone here untill I saw someone using it at the airport this morning.

Oh, if you turn the “Satellite” feature off (there’s a link for “Map” instead) it’s a n excellent alternative to Mapquest. I prefer it to Mapquest now, for that matter.

Unlike Mapquest, the Google version doesn’t think that the shortest way from Toronto to Montreal is to travel West, via Vancouver, Japan, Russia,
Australia, India, Back through Russia, across the UK, to New York, California, and then back across to Montreal.

Ok, that’s exagerating a little…but I do wonder what the heck Mapquest thinks it’s doing sometimes with some of the creative routings it comes up with.

This reminds me of someone who posted an entry a few months at Fark.com - MSN Maps gave them a 1700 Mile, 47 Hour drive, as the “shortest route” between two rural towns in Noraway. Everyone had a good laugh over that one.

We shouldn’t expect much more from a Microsoft product. (OK, this is my first anti-Microsoft remark in my blog.. It’s been hard surpressing them this long! Heh)

Anyhow, back to flying.

I probably won’t be up next weekend, we have commitments for Sunday, and with the next flight being a dual, I’ll need to save up some cash.

I’m sure I’ll be posting my usual ramblings in the meantime.

Thought I’d post a few links to some other blogs that I’ve been reading regularly. I see a few others have credited my blog on their own, so I thought I’d pass on the favour.

Some of these are fellow students, and others are established pilots just blogging their experiences.

For anyone who’s interested in reading that sort of thing.. If your reading my blog, then it’ll probably interest you.

Now “New And Improved” with clicky-clicky HTML goodness.

Aviadisto’s Blog

Rfrench’s Blog

Clumpinglitter’s Blog

Michael Lakers Blog

Csmith’s Blog (Long time since this has been updated, though..)

For anyone else out there who wants to quote my blog in their own (or on any website, for that matter) feel free - you have my blessings.

Actually, I’d quite appreciate it.