February 10, 2011
"And for the record … I’d prefer to think of myself as interspersing pauses with torrents of words, like bursts of quick gunfire from the semiautomatic pistol of a brawny freedom fighter, one whose sweaty years in the jungle haven’t knocked the dreams of liberty from his heart."

— Ira Glass

7:06pm
January 14, 2011
"This thing? This’ll run you about three thousand bucks. Yeah. It’s steep. Man, let me warn you, you are entering the world of.. of adult toys. Wait, no, that doesn’t sound right. I don’t mean adult toys like dildos and shit. I just mean, airplanes will make you broke just as fast as cocaine, man."

— My flight instructor in Florida, when I asked him what he paid for his Garmin 696 portable panel.

12:47am
January 10, 2011
Video camera

We’re in the middle of planning the next portion of our trip. I’m hoping to take and post a lot of video during this next portion of travel, and so I’m in the market for a high-quality, ultra-portable, ultra-easy video camera.

High-quality means the Flip won’t do the trick.

Ultra-portable means most standard camcorders are too big.

Ultra-easy means I don’t have to transcode the video or pull it off a tape in order to edit it.

If anyone has any suggestions, send them to nat@nat.org.

5:11pm
January 5, 2011
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Arrived in Auburn Alabama to see my sister and her family. Here’s a clip from the local radio.

4:16pm
January 1, 2011
Late 70s American ruins on the South coast of Florida. This house used to be in the middle of the island till a 2005 hurricane relocated 100 feet of beach further south. This is an isolated part of the Florida coast, one of the barrier islands that makes up the 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Refuge. Stephanie said, “Someone had a vision the ocean did not share.”

Late 70s American ruins on the South coast of Florida. This house used to be in the middle of the island till a 2005 hurricane relocated 100 feet of beach further south. This is an isolated part of the Florida coast, one of the barrier islands that makes up the 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

Stephanie said, “Someone had a vision the ocean did not share.”

6:31pm
December 31, 2010
"Oh, no sir, this is Florida."

— What they say every time we ask if there is a dress code at the restaurant.

9:08pm
December 31, 2010
First Solo! I’ve been taking flying lessons on and off this year. My first flight was in San Francisco in March. Most people don’t realize that you get to control the airplane almost the whole time during your first flight. I think more people would give flying a shot if they knew that. I got to fly over the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge and it was obvious at that point that I had to keep going until I earned my license. Since then I’ve been grabbing a few hours of lessons whenever I’m in the US. Over the last eight months I’ve flown out of four main airports with seven different flight instructors in ten different planes. There have been long gaps of no flying in between. This is not the most efficient or cost-effective way to earn your pilot’s license, but I do have the benefit of a lot of different perspectives. Over Christmas we were in Charlottesville, Virginia and I decided to try to solo. I took a few trips around the traffic pattern with my instructor and he said “You’re ready. You should have solo’d a long time ago.” So Christmas Eve I went up for a stage check with another instructor. He had me fly to nearby Louisa Airport by pilotage (following the railroad tracks), do a few landings in a gusty crosswind, demonstrate power-on and power-off stalls, and then land again in Charlottesville. He said “You’re ready.” The gusty crosswinds had shaken my confidence a bit. It had been 12 knots gusting 22 and my landings hadn’t been all that pretty. I drove to a nearby pizza place and had a couple slices. I drove back to the airport and looked at the windsock. It was limp. Ok, I guess it’s time to do this. I got into the airplane, alone, and started the engine. I have a habit when I’m taking a flying lesson of narrating everything that I’m doing, on the theory that my instructor can better understand and correct my mistakes if I’m explaining them. This time I was talking to myself, and that continued for the whole flight. I considered hooking my iPhone voice recorder up to the headset so I could have an audio recording of my first solo flight, but I’d never tried that before and didn’t want to introduce any new variables this time around. The ground controller cleared me to the runway and I taxi’d up to the line and ran the before-takeoff checklist. One of the items on that checklist is “seats, belts, and doors,” and it’s just a basic check to make sure that the airplane and passengers are secure. Only this time, when I checked the passenger door, I discovered that it was open! Well, that’s why we have checklists, I guess. I closed the door, got my takeoff clearance, and pulled onto the runway. I had considered telling the controller that I was a student on a first solo, but when the time came, for some reason I didn’t. The first takeoff and trip around the pattern was a rush, but I was focused on my procedures. Rotate at 55, climb at Vy, turn crosswind at 500ft AGL, climb to traffic pattern altitude, turn downwind, call midfield. Ok, looking good. Abeam the numbers pull the throttle to 1500RPM, 10 degrees of flaps, pitch for 70 knots. Turn base, 20 degrees of flaps, turn final, pitch for 65, 30 degrees of flaps, round out after the cutoff, wait for the sink, flare, wait for the mains to touch HOLY CRAP I just landed an airplane by myself! I bounced the first landing, and the second one was a little rough. The third landing was good though. Mostly my landings are pretty smooth, so I chock it up to nervousness during a first solo. We’re still in Southwest Florida, and in between visiting the Everglades and the beach, I’ve found time for a couple of flying lessons, including a cross-country flight last night in a Diamond DA40, which has visibility like an IMAX movie. It’s incredible. So, yeah, I’ve got the bug. A friend of mine recently said, “You’d have to be crazy not to want to fly.” I agree.

First Solo!

I’ve been taking flying lessons on and off this year.

My first flight was in San Francisco in March. Most people don’t realize that you get to control the airplane almost the whole time during your first flight. I think more people would give flying a shot if they knew that.

I got to fly over the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge and it was obvious at that point that I had to keep going until I earned my license.

Since then I’ve been grabbing a few hours of lessons whenever I’m in the US. Over the last eight months I’ve flown out of four main airports with seven different flight instructors in ten different planes. There have been long gaps of no flying in between. This is not the most efficient or cost-effective way to earn your pilot’s license, but I do have the benefit of a lot of different perspectives.

Over Christmas we were in Charlottesville, Virginia and I decided to try to solo. I took a few trips around the traffic pattern with my instructor and he said “You’re ready. You should have solo’d a long time ago.”

So Christmas Eve I went up for a stage check with another instructor. He had me fly to nearby Louisa Airport by pilotage (following the railroad tracks), do a few landings in a gusty crosswind, demonstrate power-on and power-off stalls, and then land again in Charlottesville. He said “You’re ready.”

The gusty crosswinds had shaken my confidence a bit. It had been 12 knots gusting 22 and my landings hadn’t been all that pretty. I drove to a nearby pizza place and had a couple slices. I drove back to the airport and looked at the windsock. It was limp. Ok, I guess it’s time to do this.

I got into the airplane, alone, and started the engine. I have a habit when I’m taking a flying lesson of narrating everything that I’m doing, on the theory that my instructor can better understand and correct my mistakes if I’m explaining them. This time I was talking to myself, and that continued for the whole flight. I considered hooking my iPhone voice recorder up to the headset so I could have an audio recording of my first solo flight, but I’d never tried that before and didn’t want to introduce any new variables this time around.

The ground controller cleared me to the runway and I taxi’d up to the line and ran the before-takeoff checklist. One of the items on that checklist is “seats, belts, and doors,” and it’s just a basic check to make sure that the airplane and passengers are secure. Only this time, when I checked the passenger door, I discovered that it was open! Well, that’s why we have checklists, I guess. I closed the door, got my takeoff clearance, and pulled onto the runway. I had considered telling the controller that I was a student on a first solo, but when the time came, for some reason I didn’t.

The first takeoff and trip around the pattern was a rush, but I was focused on my procedures. Rotate at 55, climb at Vy, turn crosswind at 500ft AGL, climb to traffic pattern altitude, turn downwind, call midfield. Ok, looking good. Abeam the numbers pull the throttle to 1500RPM, 10 degrees of flaps, pitch for 70 knots. Turn base, 20 degrees of flaps, turn final, pitch for 65, 30 degrees of flaps, round out after the cutoff, wait for the sink, flare, wait for the mains to touch HOLY CRAP I just landed an airplane by myself!

I bounced the first landing, and the second one was a little rough. The third landing was good though. Mostly my landings are pretty smooth, so I chock it up to nervousness during a first solo.

We’re still in Southwest Florida, and in between visiting the Everglades and the beach, I’ve found time for a couple of flying lessons, including a cross-country flight last night in a Diamond DA40, which has visibility like an IMAX movie. It’s incredible.

So, yeah, I’ve got the bug. A friend of mine recently said, “You’d have to be crazy not to want to fly.” I agree.

9:03pm
December 29, 2010
Rod and Gun

So there was a loud domestic dispute next door at the Rod and Gun. After the shouting turned to slapping and sobbing I called the police. They were there in seconds, and it took me about as long to decide that I didn’t want to sleep next door to violent people on whom I had just called the cops.

So as charming as Everglades City was (and I did like Leebo’s Rock Bottom, the only bar in town where Leebo himself plays guitar), we’re now at the Hilton on Marco Island.

6:31am
December 29, 2010
Gator.

Gator.

6:22am
December 29, 2010

3:39am