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What did you do this weekend?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
I had flight school on Saturday where I took spent time getting familiar with the pre-flight checklist and I learned how to do weight and balance for an aircraft. From that point on, it was a bit more intense. The plane I am training in is a 1946 Aeronca Champ 7AC and it has to be started by hand turning the propellor. My instructor has been doing the hand-turning while I hold the brakes and set the throttle. This is where I have the most complaints about learning with this instructor. He doesn't explain things clearly and when I make a mistake, he shouts and gets extremely annoyed. This time starting the plane, he had me set the throttle a little past idle and after it started, he started jumping up and down gesturing to turn the plane down. I did, but apparently too much and the airplane turned off. So, we had to start again. The next shouting episode occurred at the runway hold position line as we went through our last checklist before taking off. Apparently I'm not supposed to hold in the brakes when increasing the throttle, but wasn't told explicitly what to do. So, another note for next time.
Taking off went smooth, as soon we got off the ground, I took the plane up 800 feet before heading towards the training area. We encountered some pretty rough turbulence and updrafts in the hills of the east SF bay area but it smoothed out near Brentwood and Discovery Bay. I practiced clearing turns, simple turns, power off stalls, and then steep turns. Steep turns were pretty intense as the g's experienced were greater than what I figured. Once we got up in the air and started practicing maneuvers the instruction went well. I'm hoping I can find a decent, more modern plane to purchase and complete my training in. The plane I am training in is from 1946 and while it will make me a better pilot, I would like more gauges so I have more feedback than simple visual indicators.
That sounds awesome! Too bad on the instructor though. If you get your own plane would you be able to get a different instructor? Any plane in particular you have in mind?
On my list of life skills to acquire is a helicopter pilot license, preferably commercial to expand my entrepreneurial/employment horizons, but current cost estimates put such a license in the $100k range, so it's not a top priority at the moment.
I have one other instructor that I could choose, should I get to the point where I think I need to switch. For now, I'm just going to stick through it and not take it too personally. It's dangerous to be an instructor so I know there is a fair amount of anxiety involved on all sides. You could do everything 99% right but the 1% end up crashing the plane and killing you.
I'm going for a sport license so my options are fairly limited. But I have a few in mind:
You can get a pretty decent plane for ~$60k by keeping an eye out on the various re-sale website. An Aerotrek A220/A240 can even be bought brand new for ~$105k. But I have to get my partner on board regardless for any type of purchase. I have been trying to find different ways to sell the idea to her such as cutting the costs of training by owning instead of renting or leasing the plane we buy to the flight school. Aircraft ownership can be pretty costly so I have to find ensure I have my head wrapped around it pretty firmly.
And yeah, helicopter licensing is really wild. There are a couple of professional pilots in a discord server I'm in that are working on their helicopter license and they find it to be a difficult beast to master compared to their Boeings.
I'm a bit partial to the CTLS/SW and Evektor on an aesthetic basis, but the J230D seems the most practical if you intend to use it for traveling/hauling with the ample space provided by ditching the backseats. Are you intending to use it as short hop travel or just recreation? Would leasing it back to the flight school be profitable?
Yeah, that Jabiru looks like it will fit all my beach stuff and more! I'm looking at short hops, with maybe a long-distance flight up the west coast every now and then. There are apparently some great airports in CA that you can fly into and get to camping/hiking pretty instantly. Trying to balance speed, plus luggage space, and cost is difficult. I've been using Dan Johnson's website to help research different planes.
I had all of last week off, which was a MUCH-needed break. I worked on a few D&D character ideas I've had, and began working on the accent for one of them. I also watched a movie or two, binged Schitt's Creek, and listened to a few albums that I had been meaning to.
Basically, I did almost nothing, and I'm extremely happy about that. Now, back to the usual chaos.
I was off on Friday, so we had a long weekend, which was great. I spent all day Saturday working on my bike (I went to the bike shop four times, finally taking the entire bike itself), but it paid out yesterday when my wife and I went on a 10-mile bike ride through the neighborhood. She had my e-bike, I had my old Raleigh (that I fixed up). It was very nice.
Then we came home and made a delicious pot pie for Easter dinner, my MIL came over with her roommate, we ate that and rolls and had some amazing pie from a local place for dessert.
OH and we started watching Worn Stories on Netflix, which I highly recommend. It's about clothes and the people that wear them and it's very good.
I was really glad this weekend that depression made only a muted and short visit. I quickly got over it which is really good.
I took off Thursday and Friday to go camping and hiking with a friend in the Virginia mountains with two of my dogs. (The third dog went with my partner to his parent's house to celebrate Easter.) It was chilly at night—just below freezing—but everything went pretty well! We didn't get to do the hike we planned because the water crossings were too high, so we did an uphill hike instead that was just as fun and challenging.
Friday was a company holiday and I took today off to have an extended weekend. Spent it dialing in my newly upgraded 3D printer further (and discovering it's new, frustrating shortcomings) along with finding a new local restaurant to be infatuated with. A longtime friend of mine owns one of my favorite breakfast spots, but was closed for Good Friday/Easter weekend so I checked my saved places to find something new and am glad I did. This place's specialty is elotes and other Mexican-inspired "small bites" (although it's honestly only considered "small" in the sense that portions in the US are generally massive), I started with their standard traditional elotes and a serving of the pork belly bites. I kid you not to say it was one of the greatest things I've ever tasted. The elotes were everything they should be, fresh roasted on the cob, then cut off into the bowl before adding the rest of the ingredients and hot sauce. Perfection in a bowl. They of course serve them on the cob as well, but with no dine-in I was not going to try to eat that in my car. The pork belly had a crisp exterior like a perfectly cooked piece of pan fried chicken, just without any breading, and an interior that was indescribably juicy and tender. I don't know what these two women do to their pork belly, but it is magical. The chimichurri that accompanied it was a masterclass in the sauce; herbaceous, citrusy heaven.
I feel a bit sad that I had this place saved on my "to try" list for so long and only just tried it as their landlord is renovating the place and kicking them out, so they're looking for a new place that they can afford and works with their style of business. If anyone on here is also in the DFW area and want to try it before they are out of their current space on April 20th here's their website, they're in west Dallas. It's owned and run by two Hispanic women that are "partners in life, business and la musica" as they are a couple, restauranteurs, and a singing duo. Since trying it on Friday I've been telling everyone that listens about them and keeping my eyes peeled for open spaces they could move to. It might kill me, but I'm setting a goal to have tried most, if not all, of their menu before the 20th.
Saturday was spent with the guys digging an old project car out of the field it had sunken itself into to move it to a friend's house. It had been sitting in that field for the last 13-15 years. I'm not sure if cars actually sink into the ground or if the ground merely comes up over time, but either way it was sunken in pretty deep to just under the frame and we needed to dig it out to get new wheels with fresh tires on it so we could pull it out of there and drive it an hour back into town. Did I mention it was sitting between two Mesquite trees? If you aren't aware a Mesquite tree looks like any other drought tolerant southern tree from afar, but once you get up close and are attempting to free a car from between two of them you quickly learn that they have 3+ inch long thorns covering every branch. Needless to say, I look like I've been crawling under barbed wire to cross a war stricken no man's land.
Still managed to get back in time to take my wife out to dinner, took her to Locura for elotes... I am not ashamed.
Sunday was spent relaxing, printing, working in the garage, drinking beer, and wishing Locura was open on Easter...
Today, so far, I've run errands (wonderful to do on a weekday when everyone else is working), picked up some silicone to do some mold making, and will be going out to dinner to celebrate a friend couple's anniversary.