A quick statement of the sweetest flying ever.
It involved personal permission from the Station Commander of RAF Lyneham, Group Captain Paul Atherton OBE, a C-130J, night vision goggles, 250 feet of altitude, 210 KTAS, a simulated air drop, no lights (at all - aerodrome lights, a/c lights, etc.), and an ANR headset.
You haven't experienced a takeoff until you've done it looking down a runway without any lights. You haven't experienced a landing until you've done one with an unlit runway and no landing lights.
Have you ever been so happy that your throat clogs with joy?
Wow. I even got to thank GC Atherton for the experience. Wow.
More jetsetting.
I'm off to England tonight at 2359 (QF29). My friend there has managed to get leave for my entire visit, which will make for extreme excitement. She's trying maybe, maybe, possibly, but not likely, to swing a flight on the J- or K-model Hercs so that I could come along for an airdrop or something... (!!!!!)
I went around the city this weekend finishing up Christmas shopping and tried to avoid the stupid G20 protesters becoming violent and uselessly anarchistic, ignoring the very irony of being an organised group promoting anarchy. There's actually 'professional' protesters - the newspaper (I know, I know) indicated that the really violent ones were from Europe and interstate. And it's hilarious on premise - they've even brainwashed a 16 year old to their destructive, vain, cause. Get a grip people - bashing a police paddy wagon to pieces shows that you are too stupid to use your energy wisely, instead wasting your fury in physical violence that vapourises every drop of credibility from your cause.
I digress... On Saturday night, I caught up with Bruce, Helen and the rest of the family for a pizza/movie night. Sunday morning, Helen invited me to come along to her baptist church where they had a lecture on creation science . . . . . Then I joined the youth group for the afternoon and performed in a skit about Elijah from the Kings book of the old testament. Being brought up in an Anglican Church causes surprise when observing how the baptists do it. Very tight on energy, but very loose on structure. Made for an interesting day.
Following that, I was dropped off at the house and worked on a project for the evening. Now I'm to pack today, organise a ride to the airport, etc., etc., and get on the airplane late tonight.
I'm hoping to put up something when I get around England, but I don't yet know the internet situation. If not, see you all soon!!!
A dogpile of fun! *New*
After receiving communications regarding the updating frequency of my blog, I decided that it is now time for another update. And I've since re-updated the original text.
This past weekend was a blast as my Dad flew in from NZ for the weekend and we went and toured around eastern Melbourne. He got in at 1810, which is pretty good since he arrived on time after crossing the Tasman Sea and the best I could do was arrive at the airport 20 minutes late after crossing the city. We went out for dinner on Friday night, then Saturday we toured around
Mt. Dandenong, the
Yarra Valley, the
Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary, and met up with Bruce and Helen back in the city for dinner. Sunday morning, we took the long road to the airport, stopped for breakfast at Macca's, a.k.a. McDonald's, then I saw my Dad off and walked around the airport for a while as I usually do when airplanes are involved. I drove around to a secluded place from which to watch airplanes and hung out until the AirNZ 747 took off, then I went about for the rest of my day.
Since I was near Sunbury, I decided that it would be nice to visit Bruce and Helen, but I first wanted to check out whether I could go for a flight that afternoon or not. Now last weekend, I dropped by the Sunbury airport expecting to fly the Texan again, but when I rolled up, it was sitting off to the side with it's cowl off and 6 pilots surrounding it. Now, any pilot will know that such a configuration of people and airplane doesn't bode well for said airplane being serviceable. Lo! There was an oil leak from one of the cylinders and when you tried to move the prop, it would go only so far then stop - either a gear in the gearbox was thrown, or something inside the engine is sitting at an angle that its engineers didn't plan for. So: instead, I went flying in quite possibly the most un-sure airplane I've ever flown - the
CT2K - and have confirmed why exactly it is that ultralights - Texan aside - generally are very scarry (okay, well, I've been convinced that the Challenger is a good machine, too)
. I've never operated such an airplane before and while fast - it cruises at 140 kts once you establish cruise attitude and engage negative 12 degree flaps, it flits and fuddles around on you like it's not sure where straight is, the nose wheel shudders on climb out, and the ailerons are spring loaded to return to centre. Apparently there were some stability problems with the first generation of CT2Ks and their pilots where it was really easy to overcontrol. Now, punch me if I'm wrong, but rather than installing a return-to-centre spring system to counter control instability, shouldn't either the design be altered to calm down the lateral control sensitivity or the pilots be trained enough to get rid of ham-fistedness? Eeek! Fast, but a bit frightening... Fun, though, always!
But, I digress... This weekend, I was out to check on the progress of the Texan and it was yet convalescing in the hanger with its cowl off and oil dripping out the bottom so no luck for that. I turned around and went out to Bruce and Helen's place and showed up just in time for lunch. I seem to have really good timing when it comes to food. After that, we goofed around in the yard getting it back into order after, on Monday, Dixie the Amazing Customs Sniffer Dog departed for the last time to start her life as a working dog. Later that evening a big, boisterous thunderstorm rolled through and dumped so much rain that the water wanted to come inside through the kitchen window edging. I left around 2315 and made it back home about midnight.
Anyway... My rocks finally arrived from Japan on Monday two weeks ago and I've been busy chopping and crushing and grinding and polishing and generally making a lot of noise. Last week was the Melbourne Cup, which is Australia's biggest horse race and the climax of the spring racing carnival. It is always the first Tuesday in November and pretty much the whole country stops at 1500 for the race. The Monday preceding that, we had the student staff cricket match and thanks to a well disposed umpire, the students won for what might be the first time! On Thursday, I gave a presentation on what we found in Japan to a one day symposium called
MGiG2 - (Monash Granite Ideas Generation). It was good to find out that I can still talk in front of a crowd.
That's pretty much it for the last two weeks. I leave on Monday next week to meet up with a friend in England for a couple of weeks before arriving home for Christmas!
*****New*****
No entertainment factor increase has arrived in the mail... I eagerly check the mail every day.
Forgot to mention that my camera is officially toast. 5700 pictures and the CCD (image sensor) is kersplat sooner than normal according to the camera pros at Michael's in Melbourne.
