Category: Photos

Pictures, images, and the like.

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Flying Photos

Flying for a Birthday

I decided to push the limits a bit for my birthday this year and see just how much airplane I could handle.  What I learned is that while I can probably fly a bigger, faster, more complicated airplane just fine it isn’t a walk in the park by any means.

This trip included a flight in a rare (for renters) bird indeed:  the Beech Mentor T-34A/B.  The flying club happens to have one and my CFI is checked out in it so we took it for an hour around the Half Moon Bay area.  What makes it tricky for me is the amount of “new” stuff it has: constant speed prop, manifold pressure, retractable landing gear, flaps, fuel pumps, 250+ HP and all sorts of tricky on the ground handling.  It was fast and slippery in the air and I felt like I was behind the the airplane whenever we had to change the flight configuration.  But while it was flying it was silky smooth and the best handling plane I’ve yet flown.

If it weren’t so expensive to fly (over $230 per hour) it would be a great plan to check out in and have in the back pocket to impress visitors.  As it is, in today’s flight dollars, the T-34 is a rare treat to experience when you can afford the ability to do so.  Definitely recommended to fly.

53158 more photos in the album

Categories
Flying Photos

Two Cross Country Flights in the Books

I have now completed two-thirds (or 2 out of 3) of the FAA required cross country flights and am closing in on my private pilot’s license (properly known as a Private Ticket).  This flight was a bit more difficult than the previous in one in that I had to fly somewhere I’d never been; I had to deal with a very busy flight corridor around SJC airport; I had light and variable chop coming over the mountain ridges; The crosswinds at the airports were very challenging; And it was over 90 F in the cockpit the entire time.  I did however get brave enough somewhere over Watsonville to snap a few photos just to prove I was there.

Micah-PIC  The Marine Layer over Monterey Bay.

Categories
Photos

Photos Posted

I’ve finally gotten around to posting up some photos from my last few trips.  You can now find imagery from the following events:

Enjoy!

Categories
General Photos Travel

Flying Over the North Part of the South Bay

Yesterday I took a short flight in a Robinson R22 helicopter over part of the Bay. It was pretty nifty to be flying again, this time courtesy of Mark P (thanks!). At around 800 feet above the ground and around 80 knots airspeed, the flight took me from San Carlos to Fremont and back again.

It was a cool way to see part of the area I thought I knew and get some photos in the process. You can see a selection of those photo’s in this album. Hopefully there will be more of these flights with interesting pictures in the future.

Categories
General Photos

Back in Town and Driving Around

After a long dry spell with no postings, here’s an update. I’ve just gotten back from two full weeks of travel plus another two days on the road inside California. Due to all of this I’m spending the Christmas and New Year’s holidays here at home. This is the first time in nearly two months where I’ll have a stretch of time to sit down and just be at home.

Of course, I can’t sit around and do nothing (besides watch movies and Tivo) so I got brave and zipped out in the rain with the new car. It was a big step for me, as I’ve been very protective of it, and kept it out of the water as much as possible. As the pictures I’ll post in the gallery will attest, I think it was worth it.

Chalk this one up to being one of the reasons its good to live in California.
c6/c6_sea

Categories
General Photos

The C6 Arrives

I’ve been putting off this purchase for a while, but this year I finally gave in and got a sports car again. It’s not in my hands for another few weeks, but you can see it the same way I did, in pictures.

Take a look.

Categories
General House Photos

New Furniture

I recently added a new set of furniture to the homestead, this time in the form of a dining room table and chairs. They match my living room gear, more or less, and the table expands out to nearly double the size. It was good Scandinavian design and I’m glad to have it. Photos are below.

Categories
General Photos

Spring has sprung, sort of

I had a trip out to Tokyo last week and found this when I returned:

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What happened? Does California think it’s spring time or something? Maybe I brought back some of the cherry blossom festival with me? While you’re at it, take a look at my new favorite trip pic from Tokyo:

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There’s a few more where that came from. Click through to the photos area of the site for more of that kind of thing.

Categories
General Photos Site News

Image Test

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Looks like I now have a way to highlight pictures from my Gallery based photo gallery setup without having two copies of the images hanging around and eating up space. Yay php hackers!

Categories
House Photos Rants

The Pit and Despair

I have just completed the first phase of the X-10 light switch install. After two days I’ve swapped out 8 switches and now have all the stairway lights properly wired. It was pretty touch and go there for a while: when things don’t work and patience wears out you can do some pretty dumb things, a bad idea when playing with 110 volts.

In any case, even though it isn’t pretty, things are working. Now the huge task of mess cleanup comes next. I have boxes, wire cuttings, wall remains, and a whole lot of dust and muck to clean up after. I can’t ask myself if its worth it because I know it will be… it’s just the pile of crud that awaits removal that makes me think otherwise.