On the Bottom Half

Warrioring some more.

It was late night, well, early morning hockey on Saturday this past weekend. I've found that the midnight hockey practices completely wreck the day of Saturday, so I had the most nothingest day I've had since the glorious, now lamented, weekends at Wendy, Burt, and Chris's. I watched Star Gate SG-1, pigged out on lollies, and read Harry Potter. How's that for nothing?

Hockey was good, if tiring. I don't suppose I can call it that because it wasn't the hockey that was tiring, I was already so before I got there. It was exacerbated by the past-midnight exertion, but, oh, nevermind, it's just syntax.

The following afternoon, I went flying again! It was a great, if short flight! The clouds were low and rolling in from the Bay and as I got out to the practice area over Lancefield, I found the last remaining hole in the area. Said hole soon realised my presence and commenced closing, which, coupled with the frequent checks over my shoulder about how the weather on the route back home was going, made me quickly decide to duck back down and high-tail it for Sunbury before I couldn't get there anymore. The rule here is clear of cloud and 5 km forward visibility below 3000 ASL. Circuit at Sunbury is 800' to stay under the control area. Cloud base was about 1000' by the time I landed. Whew... Dodged that bullet! What's the phrase?

'A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations that require the use of his superior skills.'

Yeah, that one. Another also comes to mind:

'There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots. Except Chuck Yeager.'

Anyway, you can tell my mind is a bit stir crazy at the moment.

The next highlight of the week was ANZAC Day yesterday the 25th. I've mentioned it in the post at the same time last year, but it was just as good this year. It is a profoundly gooseflesh-encouraging mixture of reunion, comraderie, and solemn remembrance. Primarily, ANZAC Day commemorates the WWI Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915, though now is extended to all conflict involving Australian servicemen and women. Gallipoli is to Australians as Vimy Ridge is to Canadians - it was where the cornerstones of Australian nationhood were laid, as at Vimy Ridge for Canada. Over the 8 month campaign, 8000 Aussies and 2700 Kiwis died trying to take the Peninsula. There were very heavy Turkish casualties as well and the battle ended in a stalemate due to the extreme loss of life without progress on either side. It was also a foundational battle for Mustafa Kemal, later to become Ataturk, quite possibly the most charismatic person ever to walk the face of the Earth. I direct you to Wikipedia for the reader's digest version of Mustafa Kemal vice Turkish history if you wish to know more. If you ever get the chance to be here on ANZAC Day, you simply must go to a service and experience it.

I'm in the middle of preparing my 1-year (can you believe it's been that already?) Confirmation Report and Talk. So, to forget about that, here's another airplane from the airshow:


The very fine look of the Javelin Jet Traininer from behind. Those curves are almost as good as the Hornet...

posted by Kyle @ 02:13