Burke's Ravings

[Ed Burke]

The transit of Venus was a ripper in my part of the world with no cloud, cool conditions keeping down the shimmer, and an ancient telescope that Cook would have recognised in his day. It was not possible to photograph through the lens but I managed a few shots of the projected image on a sheet of white paper. I'll hang onto those for comparison with the next transit!

Ed

[davidrevans]

I plan on having a GREAT VIEW next transit! ,well, maybe if I change my ways a little....LOL

[Ed Burke]

I think I might have mentioned my intention to see the Swiss Air Force fire power show at Axalp this year. That is not on now as my son Mike, with whom I was to travel, has taken up a new job and won't be able to get the time off.

It is always a gamble due to weather, the 2011 show was cancelled at short notice. That's a downer for bods who have travelled around the world to watch but the spectacle would seem to be worth it judging by the photography from previous events.

Ed

[Andrew Godden]

Ed,

Bad luck about the air show. I guess the rest of the trip is off as well. However, it could have been worse if you got there and encountered one of those last minute cancellations.

Cheers
Andrew

[Andrew Godden]

Ed,

Many happy returns of the day. Don't think it can pass by unnoticed, but we won't mention how young you are - not in public, at least.

Mate, have a fantastic day and here's wishing you many more to come.

Cheers
Andrew

[Ed Burke]

Thanks Andrew, with a fellow Cancerian and a close Gemini we had a joint celebration on Sunday arvo+ and a great time was had by all, Cheers!! There's a nice red in the offing.

[Ed Burke]

DON"T PANIC but that red I had opened has stopped breathing, I am about to perform mouth to mouth resuscitation, I hope it will be ok.

[Chris Ross]

I hope you enjoyed the mouth to mouth and the red wine and the anniversary of your birth
All the best Ed
regards
Chris

[Chris Ross]

I hope you enjoyed the mouth to mouth and the red wine and the anniversary of your birth
All the best Ed
regards
Chris

[Ed Burke]

Thanks Chris, yes I saved the red and all is well. I would have selected some better weather than today's rubbish but I guess, being on tank water, I can't complain too loudly. All the best to you mate.

[davidrevans]

I find if you buy it in a box with the ball inside you can do compresions while preforming mouth to mouth...problem is, usually the paitient and I both lay passed out on the floor...

[Ed Burke]

I'm off to New Zealand tomorrow to help celebrate a significant birthday, one with a zero on the end.
I'll be home again next weekend but straight into a mapping conference in Brisbane. Seems I should be home by the 12th but in the interim I'm grounded.

Ed

[Ed Burke]

I have been on the ground in Mexico City for some time but have finally departed for Panama City in my trusty old Luscombe 8. It was fitted with a 75 gallon fuel tank a few years back and faithfully carried me across to Brazil from the nearest bit of Africa. Now I'm going to ask it to do the reverse trip as I am planning for Madagascar. It is slow progress at 90 knots though.

Allen Peterson you were asking if I could locate Machu Picchu scenery. No I cannot. The nearest I can find is Cuzco airport at ---- secure.simmarket.com/south-america-page-1.chtml ---- which will set you back a tad under USD18 as a download. I'm not going to bother. There is a demo around which lacks the new autogen and has cloud with poor viz which is easily fixed with the standard WX settings. It has good mesh but I have that already from FSGenesis. It seemed to indicate that Machu P was included but my look at the area was not impressive. Standard autogen buildings scattered around the surrounding mountainsides as though they had been placed by an H bomb. I'll go for l'aspect naturel merci.

Droning on into the evening, I have still some 12 hours to Panama, yawn !!

Ed

[Allen Peterson]

I'm on my way to Panama City from Mexico City in my Velocity TXL-5, no 12 hour stints for me. I intend to fly the canal at about 500 ' north to south and then on to Cuzco. I have FSGenisis, I'll stay with that.
From Cuzco I'll head for Natal then to Ascension Island, Sao Tome, and on to FMMV with stops as required for fuel. I'm flying FS9 in real weather, 16-18.000'. Not much weather up there, but coming down for fuel stops may be interesting. One nice thing about FSX is that you can roll the mouse pointer over an airpoirt on the FS map and get the local weather.
Do you set your alarm clock to ring at 10% fuel?
Allen

[Ed Burke]

The TXL-5 seems to be a whole lot of aircraft. Pray tell, where did you get yours?
I haven't planned beyond Cuzco and to tell the truth I have done very little with the Madagascar scenery I have collected but I hope it will do the job when called upon.

I too am using FS9 and real WX. The flight from MMMX was at 12,000' for the early part with the southern Mexico lumpy bits to dodge, then down to 10,000'. Don't need an alarm clock, my bladder does that. The theoretical endurance of the little beast is over 24 hours if one cares to be frugal. By that time one is looking for a decent feed and a flat spot to lie on.

Re the missed Swiss air show that had me nattering on back in June, the first of the two days was cancelled due to low cloud but day two was a ripper and there is plenty to see if one Googles 'Axalp 2012' The day was Thursday Oct 11th, by Sunday the place was covered in snow !!! Planning to see this show really is a gamble.

Ed