On the Bottom Half

I keep waiting...

I keep waiting for something really special to bounce along that other people will want to read, but nothing seems to be bouncing lately. Actually, I lie, lots of special things have happened since the last post, thus:

Two weekends ago I finished some forced landing practice in the Texan at Sunbury airport and aced what ultralight people call EFOT: Engine Failure on Takeoff. I know, we do this in GA airplanes, but what we don't do is the dive-at-the-ground-trading-altitude-for-speed-reverse-winch-launch landing technique, which I hereby name DATGTAFSRWL.

The low mass condition that necessarily defines flight in an ultralight causes rapid changes in speed when the engine cuts out. So, from a climb attitude during T/O at 70 KIAS, you pretty much instantly lose about 20 KIAS as soon as the engine fails. To recover that speed and remain above stall, you stuff the nose and dive wildly at the ground reaching and maintaining about 70-80 KIAS until 50' AGL; then level out and fly the airplane to the ground, while avoiding wheelbarrowing, and roll to a stop. It's just like a winch launch, only the other way around... fun fun fun!! I love that stuff... During the week, I applied to get my pilot's permit from Recreational Aviation Australia (RAAus). It only took a couple of days to issue the permit, which comes as a nifty plastic card listing all completed quals and checkouts.

The following week (last weekend) we practiced some more circuits and I went solo!! Total sweetness! The sun was going down in the west and I couldn't figure out why it was getting so bloody dark with the sun still above the horizon. Then I took my sunglasses off. This past weekend, my instructor was in Canberra working on RAAus stuff so I didn't go flying. Hopefully pick it up again this weekend with the eventual goal of making a trip across the Bass Straight to Tasmania, if the club will let me.

A fellow student at uni had her birthday party last weekend as well, so we all went out on the town for Friday night and Saturday morning. I'm continually surprised at how loud music is played in clubs. It causes physical pain for me to stand in most clubs and be blasted with their music. I asked some of the people we were out with if they experience the same thing, but they said it doesn't hurt. Cheers to tinitus! The rest of Saturday was flying as detailed above, then I met up with Bruce and Helen and we went to the Chinese New year Celebrations in the city. Happy Year of the Pig to you all, the twelfth and final animal of the Chinese Zodiacal cycle.

I've taken on another sporting goal and have joined a development squad to play hockey! I was going to post a picture to surprise everyone, but cameras are a little hard to come by and I can tell everyone is getting bored with the Manthos picture and wanted an update. There is a very small but passionate following for our sport here and it's totally wonderful to be able to learn at the extreme age of 24. There is one rink in all of Melbourne (4 million people) with a second in another town called Bendigo, which is about 3 hours drive northwest. That's it for the entire state. Two rinks. On my 'home' rink, they somehow accomodate 23 hockey teams, figure skaters, and public skates. As you might imagine, there are some rather interesting training times, and I've been invited to train with a team that goes Friday nights from 2200-0000 and again on Saturday from 0000-0200.

It provides much needed focus during the week, allows me to pursue a long held goal, and keeps me occupied between weekends when I'm not flying. The raw physical exertion required provides an outlet for all the pent up energy and passion I'm unable to spend sitting considering rocks all week, and I think between flying, hockey, artsy stuff, and hopefully some more travel, I can stand to be at school to complete this project for another 2 short years.

Yes, I had to make a decision and I've decided to stick it out and finish the project. It would be a rather complicated explanation, but you can probably glean the most important parts from everything I've mentioned above. There's only 2 more years left in the award so it will or will not be finished more or less on time and I will move on. I know I told a few I wasn't going to stay, so sorry for that. I wanted to call most of you, but I now no longer have access to a telephone during off hours and my office mate is in my office during most of the work day and interrupting him wouldn't really be very nice. I'll call when I can because I miss you all very much.

Flat Stanley has arrived well and safe and has been on a few adventures so far. More to come.

On Friday the student gang went to Moonlight Cinema and watched Volver with Penelope Cruz. The cinema is a giant inflatable screen that is set up in the Royal Botanical Gardens and at dusk the movie starts. You bring your own food and drink and enjoy a movie under the stars. Quite nice really. Skating on Saturday morning and a bus-ridden festering infection of a commute to get my hockey pants fixed after some stitching pulled the other day. Sunday was a gallery day with Bruce and Helen and then I went to watch a Senior C hockey game at the rink. It is quite cool to see such an extreme mix of ages and sizes all playing hockey together. Everyone from a teenage stick of a girl, who looks like a stick even with full hockey gear on, to 30-something hulks all playing on the same teams. Pretty decent game really.

Anyway, got to go to some talks this afternoon, so I'd best be off. Love y'all and miss you lots!

Happy B-day to Ryan - I tried calling but the phone was off or you were screening unknown numbers!

posted by Kyle @ 19:04