Good Young Eagle day

The kids I flew today with Young Eagles. Pretty selfish of me, huh?
Fuck O'Reilly. Pissed me off! Spoiled a perfectly good day. Ok... get over that moron. I had a good day...

Weather at WVI was crappy at first, then cleared around noon. With 6 planes, it only took two flights per plane to get the 30+ kids flown. These guys were great, one wants to learn to fly.

Crooks and Liars » O’Reilly Blames TB man on Secular Progressives….

Crooks and Liars » O’Reilly Blames TB man on Secular Progressives….

O’Reilly, I generally ignore your inflammatory babbling as typical chest thumping Fox-Trash. But in today’s talking points you claim Christians only think of others and “Secular Progressives” put themselves above all others. What a bunch of CRAP! Christians are nothing but ME-FIRSTERS! The entire Christian faith is “do it our way or burn in hell!” Your whining about how your Christmas is under attack is nothing but self preservation of a dying, out-dated, ignorant system of belief in a fairy tale.

I just spent the day giving airplane rides to kids, with no kind of reimbursement provided, where it costs me nearly $100 per hour to fly my plane. I gave rides to over 40 kids last year. I stood up in the faces of my bosses in defense of a fellow worker to try to keep her employed. Is that selfish? I have helped my neighbor with her child who has autism. I give to many charities, many of them Christian. I help my family, relatives and friends. I am not, nor are my atheist friends selfish or self-centered. Mostly we are quite the opposite, without a useless religion to waste my time, maybe more so than most Christians I know.

I am liberal, I not only believe there is no god, I know it in my heart. This BS you spouted about atheists only thinking of themselves is incredibly ignorant if you really believe it. But I doubt that, you are really just spouting hate towards atheists because your faith is under attack and is indefensible. Trying to make atheists evil, objects for hate. Sort of reminds me of Hitler blaming Germany’s problems on the Jews.

The whole situation is very ironic in a lot of ways. The drug resistant strain of TB was bred (EVOLVED you dumb-ass) because of people’s ignorance in taking their drugs properly, not really believing the warnings that incomplete drug regimens could cause this breeding. Where does that come from? Christian resistance to evolution? Faith that god has a purpose in such a strain of TB to punish the Secular Progressives? Did that magical god foresee the need for this strain 6000 years ago when he made the universe?

You are a dangerous fanatic. If I didn’t consider the US Constitution one of the greatest documents ever written, I’d like to see you imprisoned in Gitmo.

Tom Hail

From the naturally beautiful Santa Cruz mountains.

Allena graduates

Very nice graduation, I am very proud of both my girls. They are very nice, intelligent ladies and I look forward to them coming to San Jose State and being closer to me.

:-)

Katherine's Garden by ~AJHail on deviantART

Katherine's Garden by ~AJHail on deviantART

Very nice picture Amanda!


Katherine's Garden by ~AJHail on deviantART

A nice day flying

Nice view of the lighthouse and West Cliff drive in Santa Cruz.
The Melges 24 World Cup sail boat race is happening this week, 30 minutes later these were all gone from the water, couldn't figure where they went!
V-tail and it's shadow. Taking the picture seemed to be a good idea at the time.
Expensive gas. Buying an airplane seemed to be a good idea at the time.

Actually, I quite enjoy owning it. Just wish it wasn't such a money pit.

Glider Lands Out at WVI

Something we don't see at WVI very often... looks like a glider from Holister landed out at WVI. He was very low on base and final for rnwy 20. But I guess he really had it ok, he could have landed crosswind on 26 if had to. I landed right after him. An hour or two later this tow plane came and towed him away.

No Young Eagles today

I was supposed to fly Young Eagles today but I killed the battery taxiing up to the kids. I can't believe it. I hope it is just the battery needs to be replaced, but it is less than 2 yrs old. So I took it home and charged it up, went back, put it in and went for a quick flight. Very bumpy, wind was 310 10 gusting to 19 for runway 26. Very exciting, turbulent approach to landing up to just before touchdown, but all of a sudden everything came into place and it was a nice, straight landing.

So I went to get gas and then couldn't start the engine on the first shot. But that was all the battery could give me. Crap. Pulled the battery out again, towed the airplane back to the tiedown with the truck. Battery back on the charger. I think I am going to need a new battery. Hell.

I think I need an alternator conversion, that damn generator won't put out enough electrons. And I hardly have anything turned on! There is another $1500 to spend...

RichardDawkins.net - The Official Richard Dawkins Website

RichardDawkins.net - The Official Richard Dawkins Website:

"'Religion ends and philosophy begins, just as alchemy ends and chemistry begins and astrology ends, and astronomy begins.'"

Quote from Christopher Hitchens as he is interviewed by Lou Dobbs of CNN. Hitchens has a new book titled " god is not Great" and is on his book tour.

Byron Towing

Towing yesterday, first hot day of the year. Got a bit grumpy at the end of the day because my last landing blew out the tailwheel. I had to change it out. I had also changed the tow rope earlier and delt with the oil leak by constantly burning my fingers trying to check the oil level. Looks like the nose seal on the engine is leaking. Then a 90 mile, 90 minute drive home. To find Ernie had a $200+ vet bill for a stupid foxtail in his toe. Grumpy sweaty day.

Day in the Sky 2007

Day in the Sky 2007 was very successful as far as I could tell. All the kids and people I flew seemed to have a good time and enjoyed the flying. Lots of big smiles! That makes owning the plane worth every penny. The weather cooperated and I think all the kids got to go up. 7 flights in 44D in about 2.7 hours of engine running time. I don't know what the totals were for the day, but there were at least 20 planes and pilots. I don't think all of the 155 scheduled kids with their parents/aids/siblings showed up but I bet over 400 people went for rides. It started raining just has I got in the truck after putting the plane to bed. I headed into Santa Cruz and had a beer and sushi for dinner. Good day.

Ernie goes for a ride

Ernie went for his first airplane ride today. He pretty much was unimpressed. Went to sleep. Even the zero-g maneuver didn't phase him.

Pharyngula: I like ‘framing’ less and less; why are scientists the targets?#more

Pharyngula: I like ‘framing’ less and less; why are scientists the targets?#more

1. Why are scientists being told so often that they're bad at communicating? Because, like, we aren't. Most scientists are awesome at communicating, just not on the terms dictated by Fox News.

2. Blame the media. Slamming the scientists is the wrong thing to do when the flaws are obvious and elsewhere.

3. I blame YOU. Yeah, YOU. Why aren't you, the consumer of media, demanding better fare?

Mojan's Birthday!

Sean and Mojan. Mojan didn't last much longer past this. Ali is in the background right.
We had a great time!

Dude! Good looking plane!

I spent Sunday cleaning and waxing the plane. It slicks up pretty good for a 55 year old airplane! Pretty hot looking in this picture. :-)

New left fuel tank installed last week. The old one was made in 1951. I guess we got our money's worth out of that one. The right side should be just as old, and it doesn't leak at all. Yet. Got to save up for that one. $1200 for the tank and I don't have the labor bill yet.

Expensive Hamburger

My gal and I flying home from Columbia. Very expensive hamburger. But is was fun. Stopped in Tracy first just to see the place where I'll be towing at the end of the month. Pretty sleepy place, I hope they can handle our level of activity.

At Columbia we walked into town, got a burger and spent a little time in the historic area.

Liz flew the plane much of the way home, a very nice autopilot, good job with altitude hold. GPS tracking needs some work.

New fuel tank didn't leak a drop... much happiness... can accurately figure out fuel usage without guessing on how much just leaked. :-)