Flight Log 2011-09-23 and 50@50 update

Sorry it took so long to post this.  In Sep, I visited my 49th state, Hawaii.  We had a wonderful time.  We spent most of the week on Maui, but we went to Oahu for a day, most of which we spent at Pearl Harbor.  Our last day there, I rented a C172 and flew around Molokai, Lanai, Molokini, West Maui, etc.  Temp 26°C, wind 050@15, alt 30.09, a few clouds @ 4000.   Alas, I didn't turn the GPS on to get the flight track.

Lanai from our timeshare the first morning

Honolua Bay

Arizona Memorial

USS Missouri

2 Pearl Harbor survivors, ages 91 & 95

With BGen Jerome Hagen, USMC(ret), author of War In The Pacific series

Sunrise at Haleakala

Elephant Island (off Molokai)

Molokai

Molokini

Bay on the way to Hana (don't remember the name)

Sunset over the surfers near Ho'okipa Beach

And another ride in the books

Longest ride of the year, 15.13 miles in 1:04:21.  I was loving the "out" part of the ride, I made the turn averaging 16.4 mph, but the head wind on the way back "in" was brutal (final average speed was 14.1mph).  Ah, well.  I'm not posting the links to runs/rides that start from home though.

I'm riding again, sort of...

For the 1 person out there that reads this, you may have noticed that my Cycling Log has some new entries in there in the last couple of months.  I have been doing some riding (and some, little, running) lately.  In May, my brother-in-law and I were talking about running in the Columbus (Half-)Marathon in Oct.  Unfortunately, shortly after we decided to do that, I tweaked my knee in one of my very early runs and was basically unable to do any training for nearly 2 weeks.  As a result, we've scrapped the half-marathon idea, but we do plan to ride a century in 2012 (not sure which one yet, part of me wants to do the first day of TOSRV, but part of my wants to do the Hancock Horizontal Hundred, we'll discuss it when I visit my sister in Oct).  So, since the knee stopped hurting I've run a few times (including a couple of 5Ks, the first with Erin, Shane, and Jen, and Sherry and Maggie walking about 2 mi; the second I thought was going to be with Jen, but she and Sherry ended up walking with the dogs and I ended up running it alone).  Given that I hadn't done a competitive run in well over 25 years (and I was at least 40-50 lbs lighter then), I guess I can't complain too much about the results.  In the meantime, the legs are feeling a little better the last couple of rides, and the avg. speed is picking up, though not yet back over 15 for a full ride yet.  No, I won't ride through the winter (at least not outdoors), but it has been kind of nice riding again.  I've ridden the Trek three times and the Stealth twice.  I need to get a new saddlebag for the Trek, I'm not sure what ever happened to the one I used to have, but I can't find it now.  I also need to fix the fairing on the Stealth, I lost a nut during the last Stealth ride.  I'm also seriously considering getting a RoadID, that would be an improvement over the 15-year-old business card I carry with me now.  The new HRM is a Garmin with GPS, so I'm getting accurate maps/distances (including elevation changes that I never had before).  Maybe sometime I'll post a route map like my flight tracks.  I'll have to think about that some.  I probably won't do that for any rides/runs that start from home, but if I do anymore competitive/organized runs/rides, I might do it then.  Here's a picture (coming in to the finish line) from the Dash for Donations 5K in July.  I look better than I felt :)

Update: I'm including links to both of those 5Ks (neither of which were actually 5K).
Dash for Donations
Dog Jog

Flight Log - 2011-08-23

I was due for some flying anyway, so I decided to get some night flying in.  It turned out to be a beautiful evening for it (though it was starting to get a little hazy by the end).  Temp 21°C, winds 190@06, alt 29.96.  I decided to fly over to KZZV where I discovered that the beacon is messed up (not flashing blue, only white), then on to KLHQ, then followed 33 for a while and tried to see the house in the dark, then finally back to KVTA for the requisite 3 take-offs and landings to full stop.  I am again legal to carry passengers at night.  Here is the track.

Why I've been quiet, etc.

As I've mentioned before, I don't write much here anymore.  What little I do write I tend to put on twitter or facebook (other than my flight logs which continue to go here).  What I haven't mentioned is that I also have another blog over at myfitnesspal.com which is strictly devoted to my exercising/weight loss efforts.  I joined the local gym on my last birthday with the intent of getting stronger/healthier (and by getting stronger boost my metabolism to dispose of some excess tonnage).  I may eventually link that here, but haven't done so yet.  On my last birthday, I was up to a higher weight than I've seen in about 2 years.  Since that time I have gotten stronger (though not at the pace I had hoped for) and lost some weight (also, not quite at the rate I had hoped for), but I'm not where I expected to be.  Part of it is due to timing and injury (the trip to Scotland was great, but did through a bit of a monkey wrench in the workout plans).  I also made plans to compete in the Columbus half-marathon in Oct, however, very shortly into beginning training for that I had the aforementioned injury (knee) that has thrown those plans into doubt (I will post on that here soon though)  That being said, I expect to consolidate some of that stuff back here (and/or double post) on this blog in coming weeks, so if there is anyone other than bots from search engines reading this, I really will be updating soon (as soon ans I feel I can take the time from my SANSFIRE talk prep).

Flight Log 2011-06-13

This flight was intended to be an almost-IPC.  Since it had been more than 60 days since I had flown, I had to go up with an instructor to get a refresher to rent at KVTA, so I figured I might as well get some better use out of it and get instrument current, too.  Plus, I got a break on my renter's insurance this year because of getting some dual instruction last year, so I figured it couldn't hurt.  However, when I did the run-up, the oil pressure gauge was pegged at the top of the gauge.  I put the squawk on the sheet and we taxied back in and switched from N785SP to N20626.  Of course, when I got that preflighted and fired up, we had radio problems.  I couldn't hear Harold through headset.  We went with the speaker and hand mike and decided we'd just do 3 times around the pattern.  On the first one, I was too low and slow on final and made one of my poorest landings in a long time.  On the second time around, Harold realized that the radio problem was that someone had flipped the ISO switch on the comm panel.  The second and third landings were much better.  I very nearly grounded both planes though.  The pilot's left brake was very soft, though Harold claimed his wasn't, so...  Anyway, I'm current to carry passengers again, but I'll try to schedule something later in the summer to get instrument current.  0.3 hours and 3 takeoffs and landings.

Flight Log 2011-03-03

Sigh... I didn't get the flight track data because I was looking at the wrong button on the side of the device.  Oh, well.  Beautiful day for flying.  A little windy, but it is March, so not really unexpected.  Not bumpy at all, which came as a surprise given the wind.  Just takeoffs and landings.  Temp -4°C, alt 30.57, wind 090@09 (windier at altitude, around 25kt), clear.