Best routing EVER!
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(OMA) | Wed, Aug 24
06:10 AM | Washington
(DCA) |
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YX 402 |
Washington
(DCA) |
Wed, Aug 24
11:45 AM |
Milwaukee
(MKE) |
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YX 207 |
Milwaukee
(MKE) |
Wed, Aug 24
03:30 PM |
Boston
(BOS) |
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Cleared for Takeoff...
Well, the adventure has begun. After many years of dreaming about doing so, I've finally started taking flight lessons. Like most people out there, I'm learning on the ubiquitous Cessna 152, which, interstingly enough, in many respects, is similar to my car (a 1984 Mazda Rx-7). Two seats, 105 hp, power just-about-nothing, carbureted engines, lack of a/c, the abilty to run for about a billion miles if taken care of, etc, etc, etc... So far (two lessons), I've been introduced to slow flight (clean and dirty), power off stalls, standard rate, steep, descending, climbing, and slow turns, as well as taking off and landing (although, according to my instructor, I try to land the thing like a jet--just fly it right onto the runway), and ATC communications (probably my strong suit at the moment, though I still need some work).
On a completely different note, I got an interesting idea from my friend Jenn, which is to list the first lines to the first 25 songs that randomly come off of my music playlist, and try to get people to guess the songs (Amy, you'll especially like this, though you may be the only one playing). See the comments section for the list.
San Francisco...Here We Go!
Went spotting at SFO today (sort of on a whim) after I never managed to meet up with the group from the lab that was supposed to be touring San Francisco. Despite not being allowed through security, the terminal-side spotting there is actually quite decent. Like Boston, the airport seems to have gone through stages of construction, so each terminal is different. Unlike Boston, however, there are a surprising number of little nooks off the main terminal areas that have windows, allowing you to get very decent shots of the planes as they conduct ramp operations. There are also a couple spots at the stations for SFO's "AirTrain" where you can shoot departures (with a relatively short lens, if they're using the 28 runways for departures), and not have to worry about shooting through glass. And, of course, the tops of the A and G concourse parking garages are decent. Oddly, though, if you want to shoot ramp ops on the south/west side of concourse G, one of the best places is the 2nd level of the BART station (you don't even have to shoot through glass). There's also the connecting walkway between the main terminal and the concourse G parking garage, but you have to shoot through glass, and you also have to sit on the floor so as not to have your view obstructed by a low overhang right outside the windows. On a slightly stranger (and somewhat embarassing) note, I hadn't realized until today just how
incredibly gigantic the 747 is up close. I mean, the damn thing is like a flying
house (and a really big house at that). Anyway, pics from today up soon on my gallery (see link at the right).
Coming to you live from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the introverts stare at their shoes, and the extroverts stare at yours...
I'm not
actually in Minneapolis, by the way (although I have spent a fair bit of time at their airport lately).
I've decided that radio in the bay area sucks. Its not the programming, but they can't seem to figure out the technical aspects of things. its like nobody realizes (well, with the exception of the eight billion Spanish-language stations) that the terrain isn't exactly ideal for EM propogation around here. That, and they all seem to be using fairly low power transmitters for the audience they're trying to reach (usually about 50 kW, as opposed to the major stations in Nebraska, that all transmit at around 100 kW). I mean, I can barely pick up the signal from a country station in Stockton, which is about 20 miles away. Back in Lincoln, the big rock station in town comes through loud and clear, even when I'm in
Omaha (owing mainly to the fact that the terrain around there is flatter than MIC-6 plate aluminum), but the impressive thing is that when I'm driving my car around town (my car doesn't have the best radio reception, mind you), I do pretty well picking up the signal from the student station at Iowa Western
Community College.
Spotting at LVK, day 7. This is actually becoming rather repetitive. I think I've already taken pictures of all the planes that are within reach of my lens.
The Great Reorganization...
I love the part of High Fidelity when Rob is seen tackling the obligatory post-breakup album reorganization, and does it autobiographically. I would do that with my music, but the collection that actually includes all the stuff that I associate with a certain period in my life is on my computer, so it doesn't have quite the same feel as having what looks like a completely random organization of your albums, but actually have it mean something.
Along those same lines (well, somewhat, as I haven't broken up with anybody, and this particular organization is done chonologically, but for a specific reason), I've just now finished organizing my aviation photos directory on
Ray's Pictures Server, which I use as a backup location for my best stuff. The directory is now current, and I've organized everything chronologically, so its easy to tell how my style and skills have changed over the course of about the past year. So, for those of you reading this, Enjoy.
I also had my first encounter with another spotter (aside from Amy, of course) today when I was at Livermore Municipal (LVK). It was interesting, because he was shooting film (Nikon F5, 300/2.8, 2x Teleconverter, for those that care), which I was under the impression was something that had sort of gone the way of the Dodo in this hobby, as you end up spending a whole lot to develop film, and given that in almost all situations, you're bound to have a few photos at least which aren't usable, or are duplicates, it would seem like shooting film would not only be slow (in terms of time from shot to publishing), but also prohibitively expensive. As an example, since the end of school, I've taken 2354 photos of aircraft (good lord, that's insane, now that I look at it as a number). I figure that it would be closer to 1800 had I been shooting film, as I'd be more conservative. That's 50 rolls of 36-exp. film. Figure a cost of $1.85 a roll for basic Kodak Gold 200 film (which probably gives average results close to what I'm getting after post-processing the images from my Canon D30). That's about a hundred bucks for film alone (when shipping is taken into account), and processing usually runs at a minimum $4.00 a roll, giving a total cost of about $300. Thats actually about half of what I paid for my
camera. Lets just say I think I'll be sticking with digital for quite some time.
