Sunday, April 29, 2007

Let's see, what have I been up to?... Yesterday I went to commencement since a few of my friends got their Masters degrees this semester. Bill Clinton was the speaker, so I got to watch him give a speech in the Big House, which was kinda cool.

Today I started taking tennis lessons; these are the next level of lessons from the ones I was taking last fall (oxymoronically named "advanced beginner"). Now that the weather is good enough, hopefully I'll be able to play some.

Oh yeah, yesterday I had a flight lesson. One cool thing about operating out of a larger airport (Willow Run) is that you intermingle with a variety of other aircraft. Yesterday, one of my landings was simultaneous with a DC-9 on the parallel runway, kinda neat. Since the DC-9's approach speed is probably faster than the Cessna's maximum cruise speed, it was going way faster than me during the landing, probably about twice as fast. So it was way behind me while we were on final, and then we touched down around the same time (would have made for a pretty picture), and it was way ahead of me on the rollout.

Also I went rock climbing last week, which is always fun. But I always feel like my arms get tired too soon and I can't climb for more than a couple of hours. There's always the tradeoff -- you can try the more difficult climbs early, when you're stronger, but then it'll tire you out faster. But if you save the difficult climbs until later, you could be too tired to do them.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Last weekend, with Mario's help, I finally got those springs and struts installed that I bought last month. The car feels more stable and less floaty on the highway now, and also doesn't keep bouncing forever after I hit a speed bump. So the new struts are working. My old struts were in pretty bad shape; one of them (the left rear) was totally shot because I could push the strut rod in and out with my fingers. You shouldn't be able to do that. As for the springs, they ride slightly harsher than stock, and they lower the car about an inch and a half. The difference isn't that noticeable, which is good. Here's a closeup of the front wheels before and after the new springs; if you look at the gap between the tire and the fender, you can see the car's height difference.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

I SOLOED TODAY! For the first time, I flew a plane with no one else in it!

Luckily, one of the controllers in the tower happened to have brought his camera to work and was kind enough to take a couple of pictures. Here is me soon after taking off:

And coming in to land on runway 5R:

Also, when you talk to the control tower, they use a strip of paper to keep track of your plane. Here's the flight strip they used for me:

I don't know what it all means, but on the left is the tail number (N577FA) and aircraft type (C172). I can probably guess the rest: T&G = touch and go; Wx = has latest weather information; 5R = the runway I'm cleared for. And on the right is just a note that says "First & Second Solo 4/19/07".

It was pretty exciting! I was actually more nervous before the flight than during it. First I went up with another instructor (not my usual instructor) for a pre-solo check ride and did a couple of landings, and then I was on my own. I did three landings on my own, and everything went pretty smoothly; couldn't have gone better, really. Woo!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

On Monday I had my first flight lesson since 2005! It was fun to get back in the air. I mostly remembered what to do, although on that first lesson my instructor handled all the radio communication so I didn't have to think about that in addition to flying. We took off, did some climbs, descents, turns, climbing turns, etc., and came back and practiced a few landings. I was a little rusty but mostly knew what I was doing. It was pretty cool. It's been so long since I started flying 3 years ago that my FAA medical certificate is expiring in a couple of months, so I'm going to have to renew that soon.

A couple of weekends ago my car died. It was totally disabled, i.e. it wouldn't start, wouldn't even jump start. For the few days before the car died, the starter would crank slower and slower, seemingly like the battery was dying or not getting charged by the alternator. But the battery was new, and I had the alternator tested and it was good. So I googled the problem and found out the starter was a likely culprit. I figured since I had wanted to replace the starter anyway (it has been making grinding noises in cold weather for the past couple of years), I may as well buy a new (remanufactured) one and see if it fixes the problem. It did, and the car starts great now -- it even cranks faster now than when I first bought the car. This is probably the first significant non-preventive maintenance I've had to do. The car is starting to show its age...

Last weekend I saw a Ben Folds concert with Jenny which was pretty entertaining. I almost didn't get the tickets though. What happened was I bought them from someone off craigslist about 10 days before the concert. But by Saturday, the day of the concert, they still hadn't arrived in the mail. Finally on that day I got a slip in the mail saying to pick it up at the post office... on Monday. Well, that would have been 2 days too late, so I went to the post office on Saturday anyway, and luckily, was able to pick up the tickets in time.