Monday, April 30, 2007

Plane Crash at KHAO

A quick follow-up to my Sunday post describing my landing practice at the Butler County Regional airport. It couldn't have been more than a half an hour after I was there that a Cessna 210 crashed at the airport. Very spooky. The Dayton Daily News has photos of the crash posted. A lot of damage to the airplane. It looks like they were off to the side of the runway. The 4th picture gives a good idea where the plane ended up.

There was a gusty wind when I was there, but it didn't seem too bad and the wind was more or less down the runway. While practicing there was one approach where a gust caused me to flare a bit high. I just executed a go-around (also good practice) and came around again and landed. If anything, there was a slight crosswind right to left so I'm guessing there was another reason they ended up off the right side of the runway. I'm doubting the weather was an issue.

Unfortunately the three occupants were taken to the hospital -- no word on their condition although the Hamilton News said one person was taken by air care to University hospital. I did a quick N number search and one of the co-owners of the 1964 plane was from Canton, OH.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Center of US Population

Historic Marker SignOn Tuesday, I went to the greater Cincinnati airport to pick up Dianne -- returning from her trip to Washington, DC. I got there early, so I went to the airport viewing area on the east side of the airport. There is a car park just outside the fence, on a bit of a rise, that gives a good view of runway 18L/36R and runway 9/27. It's a nice spot to watch the planes come and go, although it would be better in the morning when the sun is at your back.

On my way out of the parking area, I saw this sign marking the location of the center of the US population in 1880. It's gone quite a bit west since then. After the 2000 census, the Census Bureau announced the center is now near Edgar Springs, MO (southwest of St. Louis). I guess California and Hawaii are mostly responsible for the shift. The Census Bureau announcement gives the history that shows how things have shifted west over the years.

Recent Flying Adventures

Tony at MQJI've been a blogging slug. A week ago Friday (4/20), I took the afternoon off and took a trip to the Indianapolis Mount Comfort airport on the east side of Indy. It's a very nice airport with two perpendicular runways so it's easy to land no matter which way the wind is blowing. It's also the home of Indy Aero where I bought Tony. Indy Aero is a very nice FBO -- very professional, courteous service. They have a large ramp for parking. The photo at right is Tony parked on the ramp in front of their building. Indy Aero is a big Cessna dealer and so they always have used aircraft for sale. Although you can check out there inventory on the web, it's fun to fly in and see what they have. Nothing there was better than Tony.

Today I got some practice in by flying in the Cincinnati area and up towards Richmond, IN. When I took off the winds were gusty. My first destination was the Butler County airport for some landing practice in the gusty winds. That went well. Afterwards, I did various maneuvers and slow flight/stalls just south of Richmond and then headed home. Although it was a bit windy and bumpy, it was a beautiful day to fly as there were just a couple puffy clouds at about 5000 feet.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

My Friday the 13th Surprise

Door DingWhat is this photo? It's a photo of my driver's side door. You're seeing the parking lot, grass, a bush, a building, my fingers, and part of the cell phone reflecting off the finish of the car door. There are some dust and dirt specs -- my car needs a wash and wax. But what's that big white triangle in the middle of the picture? That's a new door ding, in my black car door, that I got at work.

Last Friday was a busy day at work. I had a surprise request at about 11 AM to revise one document and create another document for a regulatory agency before the end of the day. To make a long story short, I dropped everything else and after a lot of work I finished and sent them about 4:40 PM. After sending I had to wait awhile for someone to review and OK them, so I didn't leave on time. I was a little grumpy as it was a nice day and I wanted to get out and fly a bit.

When I got to my car, I found someone had given me a door ding on my previously pristine driver's side front door. OK, it's not really a 'ding'. It's a large scrape (compare to my fingers) and a good dent. I got to work early and left late so I have no idea who was parked next to me. However, I do know it was some idiot co-worker that somehow managed to slam their door into my car even though the parking spaces at work are unusually wide. In short, the person had to make a real effort to put a ding like that into a neighboring car.

The only bright side is now my driver's side front door is a closer match to my driver's side back door that has five parking dings in it. Argh!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Sunday Errands

Late this afternoon, Dianne and I ran a few errands. We carried our recyclable items to the car. As we were pulling away from the house, I noticed I forgot my cell phone. I like to have one along while driving, so I asked Dianne if she had hers. She did, so all was good. We dropped off our stuff at one of our local recycling bin centers. Then we drove downtown to pick up our Little Giant ladder that we had delivered to Dianne's office.

On the way home, we stopped at the Indigo Casual Gourmet Cafe for dinner. It's a small, but very nice Italian place near Hyde Park Square. It was a nice dinner. We just finished dinner, and Dianne gets a surprised look and starts patting her jacket. I didn't hear her phone, but I thought maybe it was vibrating. Nope. She didn't have her phone.

I remember she told me a story several days ago that she dropped her cellphone in a co-worker's car when a group drove to lunch. She took the keys to go look in the car while I waited to pay the bill. Dianne didn't find the phone in the car, so it was time to retrace our steps. I didn't think there was much hope of finding the phone. We drove back downtown and fortunately some kind soul had turned her phone in to the security guard at her office. Whew! That was lucky! I think someone will keep it clipped to her belt or in a zippered pocket from now on. Yes, Dianne, I had to get one more reminder in.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

"New" Wine Store

This afternoon, Dianne and I noticed a couple "new" stores in the strip mall on the east side of Kenwood Road just south of Montgomery -- across from the Graeter's ice cream store. Tucked away on the south end of the strip is a store called microWINES. We noticed their sign the last few weeks and thought the place was new. We stopped in to look and found out they have been there over a year, but put up new signs relatively recently.

It's a very nice store that offers a wide variety of wines from smaller wineries across the world. The store has an elegant look and the two staff folks we met were very knowledgeable about the wines. They have a tasting table that is always open, so Dianne and I tried a pinot grigio and a tempranillo red wine from Spain. Both were very nice, but I liked the Kios wine a lot.

They have lots of tasting and education events, they will track your purchases to help you remember what you bought, and they have information about wines in their inventory on their website or available via kiosks in the store. If you're into wine and in the neighborhood, stop in and check out the store.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Peep Show

This is a bit late, but check out this flash piece called Peep Show at the Washington Post site. It's pretty funny. You can scroll at the bottom of the screen. My favorite is #17. And yes, it is safe for work (it's not that kind of peep show). Thanks to the Foodie Report for pointing out the site.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

FAA Safety Team Website

I attended an FAA general aviation safety seminar last week at the Clermont County airport (I69). At the start of the seminar, the host of the event took a few minutes to give a brief overview of the FAA safety team website and the resources there for pilots. Surprisingly, he mentioned that just over half of the general aviation pilots in the US are registered at the site. The FAA is trying to get the word out to folks to register. By the way, you don’t have to be a pilot to use the site. Anyone interested in aviation or a student pilot can benefit.

One of the nice features of the site is the option to send notices to you by email for many different items – newsletters, seminar announcements, airworthiness info, etc (the safety program airman notification system). You can pick and choose what you want to get in your preferences. Also, the site has many training/refresher documents, on-line courses, etc. in the learning center area. If you haven’t been there, check it out.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Google Mobile SMS

Dianne pointed out a Google Labs product a couple weeks ago called Google SMS. It lets you make a Google search via a text message from your cell phone. It is really slick. If you go to the Google SMS page there is a sample interface where you can try it. They also have a list of sample searches. It's a handy tool when you're out and about and not near a computer.

Today we were out and about and wanted to see the movie Grindhouse, but didn't know the show times. While sipping our smoothies, I just sent a text message containing "Grindhouse" and our zip code and about 10 seconds later the movie times at neighboring theaters popped up as text messages. That is really handy. The only watch out is that searches like that may be long and so the results are split into several messages. If your plan doesn't have a lot of text messages, just be aware one query could produce several messages and be judicious about your searching.

We did see Grindhouse today. It's a long double feature, but we both enjoyed it a lot! Brace yourself for a lot of gore. Dianne was jumping out of her seat and grabbing me during some scenes. I liked the first segment a bit better, but they were both good. Definitely a 'buy' when the DVD comes out.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Spring Day

Busy BeeThe early part of the day was another beautiful Spring day in the area. But if the weather forecast holds true, we're in for several days of hard overnight freezes that might put the brakes on the blossoms. I used a half day of vacation from last year to take some photos. There were lots of bees out sampling the flowers. It didn't take me too long to get the shot shown here. Look at my Flickr pool to see several flower photos I took today.