Return to flight
After thinking about it for a while now I’ve decided to re-start flight training, moving toward getting my Private Pilot License. I’ve wanted to fly since I can remember. My earliest flight memory comes from a ride in a small private plane when I couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 years old. I remember sitting with my parents and the pilot – eating breakfast, I think. We took a ride and I remember looking out the window and seeing the tiny trees and people down below, looking just like the little plastic toys I played with. I was hooked. As a boy and teen, my Dad and I flew radio controlled models. While I never got really good at it, I did spend an awful lot of time flying gliders and learning about airfoils, angle of attack, center of gravity, thrust, lift, and all the mechanics of flight. Dad could (and very often did) design and build airplanes from scratch, flew them as well as most serious competitive flyers, but for whatever reason never did like flying in small planes.
I have a couple of hours logged from much earlier training sessions, one dating back to 1999 and the other from 2002. They’re old, but they still count. Both flights were in Piper Cherokee (PA-28-140) aircraft, which I prefer at this point over a Cessna 172 — at least partly for reasons I’ll cover in greater detail later on. I do want to get some more time in the 172, though, since it’s an extremely popular airplane. Many, if not most flight schools operate at least partly using 172s. From what I have read, the two have very different flight characteristics.
The first step will be to get my medical exam by an aviation medical examiner. Fortunately there is one in the family practice office we use, and I’m really due for a physical anyway — so I can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. That will get me a Student Pilot License, which is required to fly solo. I could hold off on it until I’m ready to solo, but at 50+ I suppose I should be getting regular medical exams anyway.
Next up is a self-imposed limit — I’m not going to log any cockpit hours until I’ve shed some pounds and gotten back into something resembling reasonable condition for my age. While I haven’t assigned any hard and fast qualifications to that objective, “I’ll know it when I get there”. The cockpit of a Cherokee is not exactly roomy (though a couple inches wider than the 172), and with only one door on the right side it means a little physical hauling of one’s ass in and out of the airplane. I’d prefer not to wheeze and grunt in front of the instructor. Or in general, for that matter. Of course I’m not getting any younger, the muscles and joints aren’t getting any more resilient, and from here on out it’s just going to be more and more difficult to reverse the effects of too many years of too much food and not enough activity.
While working on those two items, I’ll start preparing by doing some at-home study – regulations, navigation, etc. Sporty’s has a pretty reasonably priced DVD course, and it seems that Flight Simulator is a pretty good training tool as well. There is a tremendous amount to learn! The flight controls (throttle, mixture, ailerons, rudder, elevator) are no big deal — as a former radio control flyer, I’m pretty familiar with how airplanes fly and why. The instruments, procedures, navigation, radio, landing pattern, charts, weather, and calculating things like altitude density, takeoff distance, that sort of thing… that’s going to take a lot of study and practice. It seems at this point to be very daunting, but of course once put into context and actual practice a few times, I’m sure it will get better.
Another WordPress hack
This time some jackass(es) uploaded changes to several popular WP plug-ins that provided back door access to servers on which they were installed. Yet another reason to assume control of (and responsibility for) your own systems. I also try not to jump immediately on new updates of plugins and new software versions. The way I figure it, your chances of updating to a hacked version of something is reduced dramatically if you wait a few days or weeks after an update is released. It’s one reason I like to be informed of available updates, but not automatically have them installed — and I don’t want to be nagged (Avast, Adobe, Nikon…).
CNC to the rescue!
I’ve got a big box of very expensive parts that all need to be modified due to a screw-up in a circuit board I had made. Tossing either the boxes or the boards is out of the question. I can fix the cabinets with a file, but doing so takes a lot of time and does some nerve damage to my fingers.
Enter the CNC machine. I bought a 1/32″ end mill and wrote a short program to shave exactly the right amount of metal from each hole that needs fixing. Now I can do one cabinet every 4 minutes, every one of them is perfect, and it’s far less stressful on the operator (me). The only trade-off it that it’s pretty noisy, between the CMC machine and the shop vac to suck up all the metal shavings.
I love this machine… 🙂
The French Cafe, again
I have to admit that I feel a little guilty. It seems we only dine at French Cafe on our anniversary. We’ve done so the past several anniversaries, and we have really come to regard this place as our “special evening” restaurant.
Really, though, it’s more than that. While the French Cafe is a very upscale and romantic place to eat, it’s also a place we should probably go more often. It’s one of the few places that has been under the same (local) ownership and management now since it opened over 40 years ago. Tony’s (and now Valerie’s) attention to detail and insistence on perfection is what really makes this restaurant.
The food is, as it always has been, truly outstanding. You won’t find a better French onion soup anywhere, and the escargot is good enough to convince you that snails were meant to be eaten. Their menu is varied and updated, and there is always something new to try. It’s elegant without being snooty, accessible without being overly informal. We’ve also noticed that the cost seems to be lagging significantly behind inflation; our dinner bill was lower than expected (possibly due in part to the fact that we skipped drinks and wine).
We had Chateaubriand for two, prepared tableside by an excellent waiter. After dinner was the minor spectacle of seeing our cherries jubilee prepared, followed by the even more enjoyable eating of them. And of course one of the best parts is the after-dinner stroll through the Old Market before returning home (or wherever you’re staying).
You may think French food is for snobs, you may think the French Cafe is expensive. If so, I would respectfully say you’re wrong on both counts. If you haven’t been to the French Cafe, or haven’t been there recently, make it a point to do so, and soon. You deserve it.
Parker’s Smokehouse
It’s been tough to find really good barbecue around here for a while now. First Tony Roma’s, then Famous Dave’s slid from outstanding to mediocre to not-wort-it. Dickie’s looked promising, but I suspect their obscure location and high prices were what led to their early demise. I haven’t been to McKenna’s in recent years, so we’ll have to try them again some time. But until then…. we’ve been to Parker’s a few times now, and the food has been uniformly outstanding. If you like BBQ, this is the place to go! There are three locations that we know of — Nebraska City, Lincoln and the one we’ve been to, between Ashland and Greenwood on Highway 6. It’s not too much of a drive from Omaha, a nice unhurried run down 6 from Gretna.
The wait staff is knowledgeable about their menu and the various sauces. The ribs, chicken, brisket and pulled pork have all been excellent. What really surprised me was the catfish. Many places serve their catfish cooked beyond death, a heavily cornbreaded bit of fishy leather. No so Parker’s! The catfish was tender, juicy and some of the best I’ve had anywhere that I can recall (the absolute best had to be from Smoky Bones). They have half a dozen sauces that your waiter or waitress will walk you through, with some potato wedges for sampling them. The sauces range from pretty good to truly excellent. None are blazing hot, but a couple do bring a reasonable level of spiciness.
The atmosphere is very informal, but not the throwing-biscuits-at-you kind. They play decent music, though the place is loud enough most of the time it’s just background noise. It’s not objectionably noisy; you can still carry on a conversation with others at your table. Just don’t expect to eavesdrop on the next table over. Prices are moderate and reasonable, portions are average to generous, appetizers are pretty good. They do carry-out as well, though it’s a bit of a drive (or ride)… so you’ll probably want to grab a table and enjoy it hot.
Class actions
I got a post card in the mail today about yet another class action lawsuit. This time it’s Sirius XM. Apparently some people (probably former XM customers) were upset that Sirius bought XM, then raised their prices. Well, yeah. It’s a time honored tradition. You buy up your competition, become king of the hill, and charge what you want. Or sometimes you buy up your competition because they were close to going under anyway, and raise your prices so you don’t follow them down the hole. So of course they got sued for anti-trust violations, and agreed to a settlement.
Naturally the customers who were affected got… nothing, squat, dick. Not that I care; it didn’t affect me in the slightest. The settlement terms basically say that groups of customers can renew their subscriptions at the current rate, people who dropped their subscription can renew without a reactivation fee, and no one gets any cash. Except, of course, the lawyers who will without a shadow of doubt get their hefty portion of the estimated $180 million in settlement valuation. And of course Sirius XM might possibly get a bunch of subscribers back. It’s like the Blockbuster class action settlements… millions of people got coupons for a buck or two, to be used the next time they rented from Blockbuster. I bet they (Blockbuster) really felt the sting from that!
What an incredible victory for the consumer. Or maybe everyone but the consumer. Class action lawsuits seem to be a are pretty good business to be in if you’re a lawyer, and if you’re a cagey defendant you can twist it around to your advantage. In the end the only people who get screwed are the customers, who have to bear the cost of the whole sideshow.
The Drover
Last night I had the opportunity to have dinner at The Drover (off 72nd & Mercy Rd) for the first time in years.
If you have never tried the steak at The Drover, you really do owe it to yourself to go there. The decor hasn’t changed much since the 60’s, but it’s clean and well maintained. I had the 14 ounce whiskey ribeye, which honestly was about twice what I should have. The steak was easily as good as any I’ve had outside of a Ruth’s Chris. In hindsight, the whiskey filet would have been a better choice.
The salad bar is the original item installed in 1968, one of the first in Omaha according to the attached plaque. It’s probably the oldest now, and is about what you would expect in an Omaha steak house. Good stuff, but Lisa’s not going to find her Romaine and spinach there.
We had a plate of bacon wrapped shrimp as appetizers, which were excellent. The grilled asparagus was OK, nothing spectacular, I’ve made better. Overall, The Drover still hangs in there with their signature and rightly famous whiskey marinated steaks. The rest of the menu isn’t spectacular, but doesn’t disappoint either. Prices are moderate to a bit high — $34 or so for my steak, with some lower priced items. I heard no complaints from anyone in our party of 8.
Too much workie, not enough play, and Spring harvest?
Been spending WAY too much time indoors, especially in the basement. Working on stuff, creating more work, and most of all, definitely NOT getting the bike (either one!) out for its much needed exercise. That’s OK, though… this is temporary, I keep telling myself. Got a few more weeks of hard work, then I can relax at least a little and enjoy the summer. All of this work will allow us to enjoy some much needed and long awaited leisure time, especially next winter when we need it most!
I’ve been watching the progress of our apricot tree this Spring. For the first time in a couple of years now, the weather has not been too cold, too wet or too generally crappy — and we have apricots! Lots and lots of them. Right now they’re green and about the size of nickels and quarters. Need to get some bug spray on them, as I can already see some have little nibbles taken out of the skins. I’d hate to lose them all to bugs!
Last year we had a good number of apples, but nearly every single one was eaten by insects. The worst was late in the year when they ripened, they were besieged by wasps. Seriously, who knew wasps like apples? I was knocking down the empty shells of apples, and watching a dozen or so big fat wasps come out through holes in the skin. That won’t be a problem this year. I’m going to remove the buds from the tree and let it spend this year growing instead of producing fruit, then in the fall I’ll lop off the lower branches. It’s getting to be a pain in the ass to mow around. I may prune up the apricot tree as well after this year. I don’t know how long it will last, though; it’s a little too close to a big sugar maple and I’m afraid the maple is about to kill it off.
Hmmm…Â maple trees…Â maple syrup, maybe…Â ?
First parts coming off the CNC machine
Last night I successfully ran my first “real” jobs on the CNC. One was a jig to hold a number of PIcoKeyer-Plus cabinet end panels, which came out perfectly. Then I used that to actually mill an end panel, which also worked exactly as I had it set up to do. Today I’ll run a batch of end panels, and set up a jig to drill tiny speaker grilles in the cabinet tops.
It’s almost scary how perfectly the stuff is coming out. I’m still learning about tool selection. For example, I assumed a 4-flute end mill would be best for doing the cabinet because it will produce a smooth finish. However, I think a 2-flute would be better. I’m also learning how much material can be removed, and how fast, to get the best results. Speed control for the spindle would be good, but for now I’ll settle for just getting the stuff done!