Inflight Entertainment => There I was... => Topic started by: leiafee on April 05, 2006, 08:50:39 PM
Title: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: leiafee on April 05, 2006, 08:50:39 PM
Oooh oh aahh wowee! ;D
Flew my longest solo trip away last Saturday and got escroted into my desitnation airfield by a rather lovely rainbow. Overexcited as a little kid I was!
Does this feeling wear off once you're an 'old hand'! I wanted to jump up and down and point it out to someone but I didn't really think Gloucester Tower and the res tof the frequency at large would have appreciate me pointing it out. ;)
I need to get on and get that PPL so I can take some mates along to blather at :D
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Gulfstream Driver on April 05, 2006, 10:59:05 PM
Cool stuff in the air always excites me. When I was doing my commercial training, I was going home one night and saw some awesome Northern Lights. Don't think I'll ever forget that.
The other pilots on your freq may have thought that rainbow was neat. If it's not busy, people usually don't mind extra comments on the air. At least not in the area I fly in...
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: madpilot44 on April 05, 2006, 11:16:58 PM
I need to get on and get that PPL so I can take some mates along to blather at :D
My thoughts exactly. I've got to get it too.
You do see very beautiful things in the air no matter where you fly.
makes me think about "air dates" a lot. it must make a nice one if you get lucky enough to catch a rainbow or a sunset or something like that... must try some of that in the (near, I hope) future.
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Gulfstream Driver on April 06, 2006, 03:09:59 AM
Flying dates are impressive. ;) ;D
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Mike on April 06, 2006, 03:49:00 AM
Flew my longest solo trip away last Saturday and got escroted into my desitnation airfield by a rather lovely rainbow. Overexcited as a little kid I was!
Does this feeling wear off once you're an 'old hand'! I wanted to jump up and down and point it out to someone but I didn't really think Gloucester Tower and the res tof the frequency at large would have appreciate me pointing it out. ;)
I need to get on and get that PPL so I can take some mates along to blather at :D
Don't worry Leia! You'll never lose "that loving feeling!" It will always "take your breath away!"" I still get all excited and that's with 6,500 flight hours and counting!! (and yes, I am still a Top Gun nerd.... sue me!)
I still remember seeing a completely round rainbow over the ocean back when I used to fly off-shore. When I got to the end (or where I thought the end was) I saw about 2,000 dolphins feeding and playing!! The list goes on...
Of course nothing beats watching a raging wildfire! What an impressive beast!!! I should post some pictures....
GO GET YOUR PPL !!!
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: leiafee on April 06, 2006, 07:34:25 PM
In time for the summer weather here's hoping!
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: fireflyr on April 10, 2006, 08:40:33 AM
GEE, reading leiafee's post got me in a nostalgic mood so I dug out my old log books, I used to use them almost like a personal diary in the comments column. All the entries brought memories flooding back, some good and a few not, but all of them worth remembering. There was the time that I flew back to the home field in aeronca 2914E with my brother and we arrived just as a front came through, it took me 3 tries to land with a 30 knot crosswind and the boss (I was the gasboy) chewed me out because all the instructors and other pilots went to other airports to wait out the frontal passage. :-[ The sweet memory of young love was another entry when I flew my high school sweetheart to dinner (had to fly-no car cause I spent my entire salary on flying) at a restaurant near the Bay Area and afterward we flew over San Francisco in the dark at 1,000 ft (it was legal then) with the city lights glowing so bright the the Luscombe we were in seemed afloat in a golden halo. Another was flying my Dad over Alcatraz Island in a Mooney to watch the 4th of July fireworks only to find out there were at least 6 other aircraft circling Alcatraz with the same idea, then a year later on his last flight when he was dying of cancer, we flew to an airshow in my 172 where I had to declare a PAN alert to land on a closed airport because he got desperately sick. My present wife took her first flight with me in a Beech 99 hauling freight from Oakland to Seattle on a wild stormy night with rain, snow, turbulence, and ice and was both scared and mad because she had not been able see the ground for the entire trip-what an introductory flight, that one reads "true love conquers all"! A real pucker factor entry simply says " wire"---I was hauling people and light cargo into various little dirt strips at the Geysers Geothermal project in the low mountains in No. California and failed to notice a new wire some rancher strung between 2 trees on the approach end of the strip, it tore the left wing tip off the 182 and scared the hell out of me! One of the most memorable is flying almost all the way across Arizona and New Mexico after a big snowstorm had gone through on a severe clear night with a full moon turning the totally white landscape into a silvery fantasy more beautiful than a Christmas card---that one was in a Seneca II. Making the last few loops over a fire in the dark in the San Bernardino Mountains with the orange glow illuminating the Commanders cockpit (it was not quite pumpkin time Mike) rated a "BEAUTIFUL FIRE" entry. The memories we make while we're flying are among the best and worthy of some kind notation, after all, when you get old and have to quit, the memories are all you'll have---and that's enough to show a life well spent. There will be sunsets, sunrises, rainbows, scary moments, serene moments, happy times and sad times, times when you smell the grass after a landing in a field, and times when the profound silence of a rural flightline will make you feel closer to God than any cathedral could, these are moments you can't live over. So, write'em down, you'll be glad you did someday. Works for me.
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Mike on April 11, 2006, 04:10:53 AM
Wow Jim, that's awesome! I should post some of my entries here.
Just did a really pretty sunset flight today after getting back from a fire. I will call it "Sunset over Paris in spring time" in my log book, or "we'll always have Paris..." since I watched the sun set over the little town of Paris, Arkansas. I might leave the Arkansas part out since it sounds more romantic that way....
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: fireflyr on April 11, 2006, 04:51:51 AM
WOW Mike, I'm sitting here in rainy California getting mossy and you're enjoying sunsets in Paris.....*insert jealous smiley*
It has rained 39 out of the last 45 days, I'm starting to sink, HELP!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Gulfstream Driver on April 11, 2006, 03:49:01 PM
I heard a Canadian comedien on XM the other day. She said that she did a show in LA and was talking to an audience member after the show. This person said that she'd never be able to live in Canada because it's too cold. The comic said, "I've been here a week and it hasn't stopped raining. Is that your house that just slid down the street? I think I can deal with the cold. I'll just put on another sweater."
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: fireflyr on April 11, 2006, 06:42:58 PM
I heard a Canadian comedien on XM the other day. She said that she did a show in LA and was talking to an audience member after the show. This person said that she'd never be able to live in Canada because it's too cold. The comic said, "I've been here a week and it hasn't stopped raining. Is that your house that just slid down the street? I think I can deal with the cold. I'll just put on another sweater."
Yep, that's true, There's a lot of really dumb people who build homes in slide prone areas then whine about slides. Any time I have bought a house here (Northern Cal) I always check the seismic maps and flood plain information and it's kept me out of trouble so far. L.A. (Southern Cal---500 miles away) is a desert area with a lot of dry stream beds running out of the mountains so with 18 million folks down there, they build a lot in riparian areas which is ok in normal years (8 inches of rain) but when it rains hard the dumb yahoos act surprised when their house, shall we say, 'becomes hydrualically mobile'. :D "here's your sign...."
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Gulfstream Driver on April 11, 2006, 10:41:44 PM
I also get a kick out of people that move near an airport and then complain about the noise. I flew over Palm Springs last fall and saw that the residential areas butted right up to the airport, and the runways had about 1000 ft of displaced threshold. The Metropolitan Airports Commission in the Twin Cities has also bought many homes around KMSP because of noise abatement. Is it that hard to ask your realtor if there's an airport nearby? Dumb@$$es. >:(
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Frank N. O. on April 11, 2006, 11:11:57 PM
Lol yeah I heard lady comic's joke too :D
Fireflyr, try freezing for over a month day and night, I'll take rain over that any day.
About noise then I heard about someone building homes right next to a air force base and it was advertised they were there and the new owners had to sign a waver that they knew it was there. Shortly after they sued and won and they can't fly there anymore. It had to be a joke, didn't it? Especially with the signed contracts and it being the air force and not a private field. The famous racetrack Monza in Italy was originally in the country, now it's in the middle of a town and they are complaining about noise from the track, nuts!
Back on topic, my mom had one trip of a lifetime in 1989, getting a trip with the church and she got to fly 6 times to and from USA, British Airways from Copenhagen to Heathrow and then with a jumbo to O'Hare and she saw several sunsets and sunrises those trips and she said it was absolutely wonderful and something she'd never forget. Btw, it's a normal relaxed christian church called Church of the Nazarene, not a cult or something really wild like that. I personally am not really connected to any religion but try to live with, study and enjoy nature and life in general. My dreamhome is in a hillside with a nice view to get some fresh air and peace and quiet from work on the computer and maybe an airstrip in the backyard :D That reminds me, I've seen someone with a Super Sabre squeesed in their tiny front yard right next to the mainroad across Juttland towards Billund Airport (the second bussiest in DK I believe, originally made by and for the Lego company and where I saw a AN-124 in person, albiet outside of the fence but it was clearly that).
I don't suppose anyone has taken any pictures of some of those monents in flight have they? For those unfortunate ones that don't have wings (yet).
Frank
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: fireflyr on April 12, 2006, 02:28:34 AM
Frank, my Email is published, give me a holler--I want to tell you something, Jim
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Gulfstream Driver on April 12, 2006, 02:53:59 AM
Fireflyr, try freezing for over a month day and night, I'll take rain over that any day.
Hey, Frank, what'd you mean here? Did your heat go out? Were you stuck out in the wilderness? Or was the temp below freezing for a month?
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Frank N. O. on April 12, 2006, 04:13:55 AM
Email sent.
Ah yeah that was hard to understand, here in DK it's been on or below freezing outside for a long time until recently. We do have heat here, but it's a small electrical thingy and with no insulation worth mentioning in this rented row-house, especially not in the floor, then we are a bit cold and nevertheless spending more money on heating than ever.
Frank
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Gulfstream Driver on April 12, 2006, 02:59:15 PM
So, you had winter for a month? I realize Denmark is pretty temperate, but you don't have an extra sweater? :) We had 5 months of winter this year. Between late October and mid-March, the temp didn't get above 35, which is pretty warm for this region. Last year, the temp hung around 0 F, and a few years ago, we had a wind chill of -70 F.
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Frank N. O. on April 12, 2006, 08:59:42 PM
Actually we have winter for the full season but the thing is is that this house we've lived in for about a year now was made very cheaply and we know that from one of the people that built it. They had orders to make it cheap and simple, even though common sense would say that will cost them later. It's owned by an organisation you can join as a member and when you got seniority you can get assigned to rent a home when one becomes available. It's a 2 story row-house, there's no addic so the ceiling of the top floor goes up in a V-shape just inside the roof that doesn't seem to have any insulation and it's drafy aand freezing and as said the electric heating is all but worthless even on full power 24-7, well maybe except for the power-company :D There are big gaps all over so a lot of draft and the floors are ice-cold. Furthermore we live on a small island in a fjord on Zealand the large eastern island and the fjord was frozen over completely for a long time less than a month ago and we had week long period of snow with temperatures going over and under freezing daily causing thick ice under the snow on everything, house, roads, cars etc.
My first flight took us over the northern part of the island Fyn (the round island in the middle south of Denmark where Odense lies on) at the Odense Channel (that leads to Odense Harbour) and it was going close to sunset so it was very nice and showed me places from a new angle and what a beautiful angle it was :) Also nice to do a fly-by to great our friend in the tower (not buzzing though :D) and I'll never forget suddently looking down on the floor without moving my head, he pulled up sharly after the tower :D It wasn't wildly sharp mind you, not dangerous to my knowledge, he was a calm and friendly pilot, and president of the flying club I think, he lives just a few hundred meters from the airport. My mom wanted to wait in the car while me and Michael (my much older brother who was in the backseat, and a few weeks had a trip in a Pacer in windy conditions with the ATC at the tower), she said we nearly buzzed her in the car, flying right over her. I still thinkn it's funny the registration of the first plane I flew in, and flew a little, was BIL which is the danish word for car, and me being originally a car and driving enthusiast as my dad, although I still seem to remember my dad saying he wanted to fly but due to a lazy eye he couldn't join the Royal Danish Air Force when he served in 58 (danish men have to serve if they are fit, can't remember what it's called in english). I can't get it veryfied but my dad loved driving due to the freedom so it isn't far fetched he originally wanted to fly, I also seem to remember hearing he had a uncle that was a military ATC but I haven't been able to get that confirmed from the remaining family members (my dad wasn't the only member of his family to die prematurely and all but one was from cancer :( )
Frank
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Gulfstream Driver on April 12, 2006, 09:39:01 PM
I'm sorry about your dad. My grandfather died last summer from cancer.
Living in the Northern Midwest, we have a lot of tricks to reduce wasted heat. If you have gaps in your door frames, put a rolled up towel or small blanket on the floor to block airflow. Weather stripping around your doors will help, as well. You can put shrink wrap on your windows, as well. That helps a lot. 3M makes an excellent product, but there are generic ones that are a little cheaper. You just tape it up around your windows and take a hair dryer to it.
The vaulted ceilings don't help you at all. It'd be nice if you could put a false ceiling in with some insulation, but that probably impracticle. :) Extra blankets and sweaters can help keep your heating costs down, as well.
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Frank N. O. on April 13, 2006, 12:35:56 AM
Jim: Thank you very much for the offer, very kind of you and appreciated. I hope to at least be able to meet you, and Mike and maybe some of the others from here, and my best friend Chey who lives in Stockton in the hopefully not too distant future. Could be cool with a fly-in lol. Following my dad's intimely death it became appearent that he left a big void in the life of both me and my mom and since I was still focusing fully on my education, with full support from my parents, then my life development got halted for a long time as I tried to find my direction in life and my identity. I got my identity now, I'm simply me! Now I'm working on the final step, finding a place in life and that of course requires an income and since I'm not one to just lie down, unless I'm tired, I'm aiming at computergame creation since I enjoy various types of computergames/sims and creating new content and I know several 3D artists and even a professional game-programmer so I got some good connections. I've inhearited many good things from my dad that will help me in life, not possessions of which there were few, but natural skills like mind with automatic analytic sikills and great awareness. That and a sense for both the big picture and details will all help in creating games. I got a long way to go yet, but I'm well-prepared and I'm very realistic in terms of what to expect and what needs to be done so I'm trying my best.
My condolences with your grandfather, I hope at least he went peacefully.
Thanks for the tips on improving the house, I myself have thought a lot on how a good house can be designed to be both durable and with low running costs, and being nature friendly. In DK they designed a wood-house built with paper insulation, a different structere around the windows and with solar panels on the roof that is so insulated and energy efficient it doesn't need a heater and the electricity can be generated to cover most if not all the needs of the house via the latest type of solar panels, and DK is pretty cold so not needing a normal heating system is fantastic, and there are no new materials needed, it's just a different more efficient way to use exisitng technology, now that's cool in a hot way I think.
Now, does anyone else have some good stories? I feel like I've hijacked the thread and while my story does seem to be getting a happy end then I'd like to hear from the rest of you of your good experience with life, living and flying :)
Frank
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: fireflyr on April 13, 2006, 04:36:13 AM
Stockton is close--If you get there, call and I'll fly over and give you guys a tour of the coast.
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Plthijnx on April 14, 2006, 01:30:40 AM
Frank - your story humbled me. i'm going through a very, very tough time in my life, heck, just look at my avatar. i WILL tell the story once everything is finished. long and short is that i've been arrested and accused of something that i'm not guilty of. point of the matter is to be resiliant (sp?) your obviously a very smart person and can do whatever it is that you want to do. as far as the thread hijack, well, i guess i contributed.......
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: Frank N. O. on April 14, 2006, 02:04:05 AM
Jim: Sounds cool, thanks for the offer 8)
Hijnx: Sorry to hear you're in trouble, especially undeserving. I hope you can get your name cleared in the end and I respect the need to have the details held back, I just hope it will be Innocent and not released due to lack of evidence and I hope the real people behind it are caught.
Frank
Title: Re: Rainbows from the air!
Post by: fireflyr on April 14, 2006, 05:03:21 AM
plthijnx--don't worry about the small stuff---I mean, my probation says I can't be in a turkish bath with minors present but that's not a hardship in California---hehe---just kidding!
Remember, friend, don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff. Pilots rule!
