88 Hangar Queen - Part I

N88HQ is the tail number on a Cessna 182 at our flight club... properly, phonetically, pronounced this plane is "8 8 Hotel Quebec".. but she's fondly known as "8 8 Hangar Queen" because she is always in the hangar being fixed. Not her fault, we don't have many 182s at the club and so people are more used to flying 172s and 152s and don't know how to fly her well. So people make mistakes flying her, break something, and off she goes to be fixed.

Friday evening we are going to fly good old 88HQ to WLW via GOO. I arrive at the flight club and the mechanics have just finished putting the cowling back on the plane and fueling her up after the latest repair. Jeff pre-flights the plane and I get the luggage together. Katie and our friend, Paul, fly with us. The stop at GOO (Nevada County Airport) was to spend some time with friends that moved to Grass Valley, have dinner with them and deposit our child for the weekend so she could spend the weekend with her BFF from Kindergarten. I (and I think we - Jeff was PIC of the flight) knew that we would be landing at WLW (Willows Airport - our final destination) after dark... one doesn't leave San Jose around 5:45 PM, eat dinner for a couple hours and land another hop away before dark - this becomes significant later.

We fly from RHV (Reid Hillview - our "home" airport) to GOO without incident. (We did note the cylinder head temp and oil temp gauges were inoperative or inaccurate on the way out, but we had enough other information on the state of the engine Jeff figured we could continue.) We meet up with our friends and have a wonderful dinner. They drop us off at the airport and leave with Katie. Its well past dark. We (Jeff, Paul and I) hop in the plane, start up the engine and go through the initial and taxi checklists for the next leg to WLW. We turn on the taxi lights "as required"... hmmm... no lights. Turn off the switch, check the fuses, turn them on. No lights. Park the plane, turn off engine, get out, and see if we can find a way to reach into the cowling of the plan and feel or see an obvious plug that is unplugged. We knew what the issue was right away, the mechanics didn't plug in the landing/taxi lights after doing their work and Jeff didn't catch that fact on his pre-flight inspection.

So, what do you do? You know you need to get somewhere and it is a dark, but moonlit night, and you don't have the lights that are normally used to illuminate the runway directly in front of the plane when landing. You are 140 miles from home and 60 miles from your destination. Well, I knew with my current level of knowledge I certainly wouldn't fly and attempt a landing without landing lights. Jeff wasn't so unsure about his capabilities. He tells me he could land w/o the lights. Well, he's PIC and I'm just a 13 hour trainee. So, I have to trust his judgment. We get back into the plane and he sits for a second. Then he says, its best we don't go. At that moment we both say at exactly the same time "That is the right decision."

It was the right decision for two reasons:
1) while Jeff may have been able to land without landing lights, that puts our flight with an extra risk that we really didn't need to accept... who knew what else may go wrong on the flight. Flying is all about managing risk.
2) it turns out the FAA specifically disallows attempted landings at night w/o landing lights. So attempting such in a non-emergency situation is illegal.

We called our friends, they came back to the airport and picked us up.. we spent the night at their place, borrowed their car and drove back to the airport at 5:00 AM. Timed our flight to take off just after sunrise and landed safe and sound at WLW. There we were... able to fly to our ultimate destination (WLW) safely with plenty of time for breakfast and getting to the track on time.

I think one of the things I like about flying is the significance of the decisions made by the pilot. Yes, we could have taken off and maybe landed w/o those pesky lights. However, we didn't because of the additional risk (or likelihood of failure) created by the attempt... especially if something ELSE went wrong. If you make an incorrect decision (or risky decision) the wrong day at the wrong time with the wrong future circumstance, you, your passengers and innocent people on the ground can die as a result. There are not too many roles that have THAT level of impact... aside from the health care field.

More to come later... The race weekend and The Intrepid HQ and her further adventures ....

Special Things Katie Says

I was thinking today about some of my favorite moments with Katie over the years and the things she's said. I thought it would be good to record those little sayings before I forget. So here are some of my favorite Katie Bug Quotes.

Giving pre-race instructions before autocross race approx 4 years old.

Put your helmet on. Put your gloves on. Put your boots on. Go round and round really fast and come back and see me!

In Kindergarten:

You know... when you think your brain sparkles.

Disagreeing with the parents plans for the day (age 4 or so):

I don't like that plan!

Singing after realizing the dead battery on the Jeep was probably her fault:

Don't blame me, I didn't drain the battery.

After I had to replace my cell phone resulting with a great picture of Diamond Head being lost (note, she hadn't learned how to type or use a computer yet):

Its OK Mom. Just to to hawaiipictures.com, I'm sure they will have your picture there.

When daddy was talking about losing weight (Katie age 11 whispered to me):

I don't want daddy to lose weight. I don't want him to be a different person.

Not a quote but still cool... we were flying to Thunderhill in a Cessna 172 and the flight was turbulent. Katie knows I don't like turbulence. She didn't say anything. She just put her hand on my shoulder to make sure I was OK.

I will post other things as I remember them. I love that kiddo!

The week of listening dangerously

I highly recommend "The Years of Talking Dangerously" great book made up of commentaries mostly (wholly?) broadcast on NPR by Geoffrey Nunberg. Some how it seems even more fitting read of American culture and class and political struggle sitting in England than it is back home.

A little note on the Queen's English.

Here a "scheme" is just a plan or a programme back home it has more sinister connotations. Chips are French fries and crisps are chips (or did I get that backwards?) You put your luggage in a boot and your trash in a bin and your appointments in a diary. Toast is white or brown - not white or wheat. And you never put sweets and savory's on the same plate (still not sure what that means though I gave myself away as American by doing it!). Kit is hardware not a Transam. Not to mention, those zeds of American English are supposed to be s's.. not z's. Which is a PITA when you work in a specialization of optimization (or is that specialisation of optimisation?).

Warwick castle is pronounced "Warick" not "war-wick". Portsmouth is "portsmuth" not "ports-mouth" and Gosport is "gos-port" not "go-sport". Of course, maybe this is just a reflection of the people I am spending time with :) English accents are rather varied as well. Quite lovely to hear. I wonder if the variety of American accents are also pleasing to the ear (I doubt it).

"Brilliant!" usually does mean they really think it was a brilliant idea. "Lovely!" is also a good idea or plan/scheme. But, both terms can be used to indicate sarcastic intent. Another thing I noticed... um, Ummmmm, uMMMMmmmm, umhum and nuhum all mean different things. Tone tells you if its casual agreement, mild interest, intent interest, a positive yes, or negative no. I do like the "um" to indicate, "yes, I heard you and agree". I am happy my husband seems to be taking up the practice. It is better than silence or mild grunt.

It is nice being a relatively fresh ear in an ancient country. I hope I visit the UK many many times in the future... and I hope I never lose my appreciation for the sound of the Queen's English.

Run I did

yep... I put together a good week of running this week. Track Tuesday, weird not-quite-elliptical-thing Wednesday, Run Thursday, rest Friday, Run Saturday. Saturday was a particularly good run... was supposed to get up at o' dark 30 again, but my friend had to run later... so he asked if I wanted to run later. And I agreed (sleep is good and this friend runs closer to my pace). The sleep was good. This morning was the first time I got to wake up naturally (no alarms) and that was good.

The run was very cool... around the Lexington Reservoir. 12 miles total. Very hilly.. but very nice. It is good to feel like a runner again.

Flares

We use a lot of flares in the Santa Cruz mountains... "we" in the royal sense of course.

Its a habit I picked up driving up and down the mountain road.... lit flares in/near the road means something blocking the road up ahead (around that blind turn). But its the burned out flares I see as I go up and down these mountain roads that are more interesting to the imagination. I see a burned out flare, then two, then three.. come around the blind turn... then there may be a scarred hillside, a telephone pole with extra duct tape holding it together... a fence down in someone's yard. Sometimes there's no sign at all but the remains of the flares. I have to wonder.. what happened here between the time I left for work and the time I've returned?

Usually I never know.

The best Ice Dance ever..

or at least unless someone improves on it this year, but so far no one has:
Torvill & Dean's Ice Dance to Bolero. I remember watching this when I was 14... I'll never forget it.

and yet.. she continued on...

Ever wonder when too much really would become too much to bear? I wonder sometimes when my endurance will fail, when the stress will overwhelm me and I will be reduced to a gibbering pile of mush. This was one of those weeks.

It started off in depression... the prior week I got chewed out and used as a scapegoat for telling people something they already knew and were upset about. I almost quit (thought quite seriously regarding how to live off my 401k, how long before foreclosure, how to keep our money if we were foreclosed, etc.) but I didn't.

So Monday was depression... but I made it through, got home, immediately did a Wii Active and Wii Fit workout, and felt better. Kiddo has a hurt finger from wrestling with a friend, but seem to be "ok".

Tuesday, depression becomes numb, I got to work with some of the field, which I always enjoy. Numb really is best case for me at work most days. Katie's finger was still hurting. Scheduled an appt for her with the local doctor, but the earliest they could see her was Friday. Get home, she says she's hurting bad. So I take her to Urgent Care at 8:00 PM. We get home around 10. No exercise, McDonalds for supper. Little sleep.

Wednesday, more numb at work, more meetings and headaches. Kiddo calls and says she will take the 3pm bus home because she needs to print her homework assignment. Then she calls... no 3pm bus... she rides a different bus to her friend's house. This friend lives about half an hour further into the boonies than we do. Pick her up around 7PM, go shopping for superbowl party, get home around 8:30 or 9. Had to work a bit after getting home.

Thursday, work.. numb... good interactions with field. Meaningless meeting about stuff that has nothing to do with me.. until I get a call from the school principal. Katie having trouble with another student he says. (That was last week's other crisis). Talk to principal... blood pressure goes through the roof. Principal arranges mediated discussion between kid and friend. All turns out well. Principal calls again and lets me know. Relief. Time to go home, open a soda in my car... sprays ALL OVER the car. Clean that up. On the way home, blinding flashes ahead in the rain.. turns out the flashes are a tree falling across the highway 4 cars in front of me, power lines down, no one going anywhere. Pouring rain. Call 911, fortunately the BCFD is only 1/4 mile away.. they arrive, cut the downed tree and we're moving again in half an hour. Get home around 8. More work at night. Thursday was so busy all I ate was a couple 100 calorie packs of snacks.

Friday, work... not so numb, not happy. For some reason the service I'm developing has to provide more than any other service.. and what do I know about what CAP-P is? I never heard of it... neither have you right? F*ck. The field guys have to leave. Lower half of my face feels numb and tingly for part of the day.. heart racing... probably just stress. Then I get home at 6, just in time to test a tool release and validate it. Finish working around 8:30 PM.

The high point of the week was the field guys. And my brother seems to be doing well.
The low point of the week was most of the other stuff. Not to mention I feel like crap. Sniffles and sneezing for days now.

Glad the weekend is coming up... work laptop is off. Personal laptop is on. Hubby will be back, SuperBowl Sunday coming. I'm not going to run the race I was signed up for tomorrow.. it will be pouring rain and I don't want to run in the rain when I already feel like crap.

Next Monday I'm going to work late. If anyone asks, I have a doctor's appointment.