I’m having keyboard issues with Flight Gear. Which isn’t really a surprise, I’ve had issues with this keyboard for a while. But apparently Flight Gear really needs to know whether the Num Lock is on or off, and the keyboard ain’t telling. (It doesn’t tell me, either — I haven’t seen that LED on in months. But it does numeric input in BBEdit. Go fig.)
The first substantial winter storm of the year blew through yesterday. It’s gone now, and actually conditions are not bad for flying model rockets. I may bolt out this afternoon and see if I can get my new two-stager to run.
It’s nice to have the flexibility in my activities today, for a change. There’s nothing I *must* do today, except run out and get the little car smog-checked. And maybe make a short grocery run. Among the many “should do”s is rake and bag the leaves for use as mulch come spring.
My pre-ordered Star Trek (2009) DVD is on its way. Hope it comes today!
The Geek Bug has been chewing on me for several days this week about flying. As in, me getting a private pilot certificate and being able to fly the family hither and yon. (This largely depends on that other reliable fantasy: winning the lottery.) There are some very nice planes around, some classic, some modern classics, that would make fine “skyroad trip” vehicles. And you know I love all the science and math tied up in flight.
And then I remembered / rediscovered the necessity to pass a flight physical. And investigating the terms of a medical certificate, it turns out I’ll probably never ever pass. Not with my vision issues, prescription requirements, and other chronic conditions which could interfere with my ability to operate an aircraft if they should go acute on me in mid-air. Pilot having an asthma attack? Bad plan. And then there’s the whole issue of my current weight, which tends to become very important in light aircraft.
So, this one boils itself down to: play with the ground school concepts for a year, and learn to fly a simulator. A year of online ground school costs $50, which ain’t unreasonable. And there are actually two flight sims for OS X that I could try — one of them’s open source and free, which fits my budget for whimsies nicely.
Make a note, kids. Dreams deferred can become dreams lost forever. I’ll have to keep my flying to the passenger seats of commercial aircraft, assuming I get my girth back down to where they’ll not force me to buy two seats. Yet another reason my real first priority, geek bugs not withstanding, needs to be getting exercise and improving my diet so my weight will go back down.
So, the flight of Ares I-X was pretty cool, but there were some very interesting wrinkles:
1) Pad 39B suffered a lot of damage. Both elevators were disabled, support fuel lines were damaged, the comm lines were destroyed… the pad’s not needed any time soon, but that’s a good thing given how much repair is needed.
2) One of the main chutes totally shredded on deploy, a process model rocketeers call “hanging laundry.” The wrecked chute fouled one of the others, so the first stage was recovering under 1.5 chutes instead of 3.0 — coming down much faster than desired, and at an angle. This isn’t new — happened on a recent Shuttle booster — but it isn’t desirable. Engineers will get a fine look at the damage caused when a booster comes back hot and at an angle.
As I like to say, “You learn something new from every flight. Whether you want to or not.”
Up early to make a quick run to the gas station to top up the little car.
First drop off of Youngest at new track-break program; parallel exploration of alternate route to get to work (not using freeway).
Lots of entertaining things happening at work, all of which must be done perfectly, all at once.
Exploration of alternate route to get from work to retrieve girls. Not really as successful — I knew those three intersections would be miserable, but I wanted to see it for myself (again).
Cooking dinner. Cleaning up afterward. Doing laundry.
Prepping for 4-H meeting Thursday.
Working on my budget for the next two months, and for after the first of the year when my prescription plan gets changed and my medical insurance premiums take a big jump upward. (The Rx gets cheaper overall but requires more out-of-pocket at fewer intervals.) Still on track to be completely out of debt sometime in 2013, with most of the debts retiring in 2012.