Burke's Ravings

[flaminghotsauce]

AFter looking at it on the map, flying from KNVD to KIRK will take you across a small portion of the Lake of the Ozarks. If one wanted to divert slightly, for some sight-seeing.... There's lots of sights worth seeing down in SW missouri.

[Ed Burke]

Thanks Kev, diversions are a high priority on this trip. I am now in Tillamook after a 'real weather' leg that had me in and out of cloud at 6000', hence I missed some of the mountain scenery but the next leg takes me back north and I feel a 'fair weather' system moving in.

[flaminghotsauce]

I just landed there myself. I thought about diverting to overfly "Idiotville" (that appeared on Google Maps), but I thought they might keep me.

[Ed Burke]

My forecast of fair weather moving in proved to be spot on. I pulled out of Tillamook around 1300 local and wandered north at 5000' , gazing at the mountains big and small. My Rainier is one of the bigger lumps. Plenty of water features too with all those Puget Sound meanderings.

Arrived at Bremerton after 50 odd minutes in the air, very pleasant. RHI there is a BGA type nearby, Meryl I believe.

[Ed Burke]

Bremerton to Vancouver at 3000', water features aplenty, good stuff.
No BGA types to visit here but a friend I haven't seen for a few years and then it will be Anchorage via anything that looks interesting.

[Tom Goodrick]

I'm coming! I started the journey this morning in my Commander 690 Pjet. I have put only the essentials on my route because I have to create it from scratch. So far I have entered Seattle, S47, COE and MSP. I just left Alaska so I won't go back for a while. my flight for Boeing Field to Tillamook went well. I flew low enroute until I could turn west and fly unobstructed to the ocean, and then come down the coast top Tillamook. I turned in and made a landing on 31 (?). then before I could note the fuel, time and landing smoothness, I had a building crash while looking for a place to park. THEY HAVE NO APRON!!! What ditts! I don't park my pjet in the mud. So I converted it to a helicopter to search for a better parking place and then discovered why I don't fly helicopters anymore - no rudders!!!

Time for a snooze and then off to COE.

[Allan_Lowson]

I've rarely taken to helicopters, but one that is easy enough for me is the S-55 from this page:

www.easyfly.co.nz/Freeware/index.php?dir=/USA

It has wheels, instead of skids, that allow arrivals to be almost deliberate. There are other FS9 aircraft/helicopters on this and other pages on the site which acts as a portal for free issues of previously payware Alphasim aircraft.

[Ed Burke]

I believe helicopters are not the way we were intended to leave the ground. I have heard it said and I reckon it's true that they don't really fly but are so ugly that the earth repels them. In my job I was often required to levitate in the awful gadgets, Bell 47's, Hillers, Hughes 500, Jet Rangers. Went atop Mt Wilhelm (PNG) in a Bell 47. I consider myself fortunate ----- to have survived I mean. These days I will only get in one if it is really necessary, like at Mitchell Falls West Oz a few years ago when faced with a lengthy walk back to our vehicle in the heat and Nicole had never been in a chopper. Anything that requires so many moving parts for its flight integrity is going to tear itself to pieces eventually. We had a media identity who was learning to 'fly' choppers. He got into severe lee turbulence behind one of the Glass House Mountains not far south of my home base and the crazy machine cut its tail boom off with the main rotor !!! I think this behavior may be the real reason they got they name of 'chopper'. Needless to say our hero found the resultant rate of descent a bit too high to survive.

I suppose a virtual 'copter is not going to hurt me too much but, gee, I like to FLY.

[Tom Goodrick]

I have usually flown helicopters in FS9 regularly. It is fine if you have rudder pedals. Mine still work fine but not with my laptop. In this case I wanted to terminate the flight while the Commander was too close to a building and would not back up. I thought there was a chance of saving some flight data but there wasn't. From now on I'll just park in a big open space.

[davidrevans]

army aviation saying"a helicopter is 10,000 parts flying in loose formation , waiting for one to fail "

[Ed Burke]

I won't be doing any flying for 2 weeks. We are heading for Flinders Island of past GAAR fame and after 6 days there it's to Glen Innis to find a huge sapphire in a local stream bed. Apart from the travelling, all this will be in the company of numerous friends who are not entirely tee-total. Should be able to depart Vancouver on Wed 11th or very soon after.

[flaminghotsauce]

Well I didn't get any flying in this weekend. I thought I would get a couple of legs in, but I got involved in a TV series that was an offshoot of XFiles. It's called the Lone Gunmen, and it's a bizarre mixture of government intrigue, conspiracy, computer hacker genius, and total cheesiness. These intrepid investigators are always getting outsmarted, outflanked, but the good guys still win at the end of every episode.

I'm almost embarassed to admit I watched EIGHT episodes on disk today!

[Ed Burke]

I understand, Nicole is addicted to the West Wing.

[Tom Goodrick]

My wife has all the West Wing DVD's and I have all the NCIS DVD's. I got into NCIS a few years ago when they killed off the female Director. Maybe that has meaning? But I have since gone back through and learned the stories from the beginning. Sometimes it seems like a good crime show and sometimes it seems more like a soap opera. Now, the current NCIS show seams to be degenerating into spinnoffs.

[Allen Peterson]

OK, Ed, your side trip will give me a chance to catch up. I'll be waiting for you in Vancouver until the 11th or so.