On the Road Again

Over the past weekend I needed to travel about 200 miles to a nearby city and take a weekend course related to my flying activities. The course was fun and hard but it was well worth it. The class I attended is not the point of this blog entry but it provides the reason for my travels.

On Friday night, right after work, I started to drive to St. Louis, MO to attend this weekend class. After I got about 20 miles away from home I drove into a snowstorm that just missed my home area. I quickly found myself traveling along this 70 mile per hour highway at about 30 to 35 miles per hour. The road was covered with about 1” of snow and the wind was blowing sideways between 20 and 30 miles per hour. The blowing wind was causing the snow to drift onto the road surface in spots. Several times I found drifts of a couple of inches already formed across part of the road.

Safety said that I should be not on the road and I seriously considered stopped for a while but I knew if I did not arrive for this class first thing in the morning, I would be out some serious dollars I paid to attend. As long as I had some visibility and the roads were not closed, I continued. Even at 30 miles per hour, I would get their eventually and still in time to get some sleep before morning.

At one point the nice snow covered dual lane highway does a slow “S” turn, first to the right and then to the left. I guess this was to align two different highway sections together. Regardless of the reason for the road design, I was slowly approaching this double curve.

I was safety traveling down the right lane of the highway trying to keep my speed at a safe limit for the weather conditions as I watched a car in the rear view mirror appear out of the blowing snow and quickly approach from behind. As we started into the first curve of this “S” on the highway, this car quickly passed me on the outside lane. I could see it was a small compact car traveling close to the posted speed limit of 70 miles per hour (possible more) with two college coeds inside.

I expected them to slide on the road as they entered the first curve but they did not. We had a short straight stretch of highway before we came upon the second curve of the “S” curve, this time turning to the left. At this point I was several cars lengths behind the coeds as they entered the turn. Their car turned, their path did not. I watched them slid across my lane, across the shoulder, down the embankment of only a few feet and directly into a large pile of snow left from the snow plows. Fortunately the car straightened itself on the shoulder so the car plowed into the snow bank front first. If not, the car may have rolled down the embankment.

I safely stopped by truck on the side of the road, as far off the road as I could get. Fortunately, I had a 4x4 truck and I was able to get far off the road and out of the travel path of other vehicles on the highway. I walked back to the car and asked if everything was alright. They said yes and asked me if I could pull them out.

Well first, I did not have a tow rope (I realized later that I did have one with me). Second, I would not want to try to pull somebody out of the ditch on a highway curve blinded by the snow storm. Anybody could come around that corner, find the same slick spot, and crash through me and my truck thus causing a bigger accident.

I told the girls that I would call the highway patrol. Then the said the strangest thing. They asked me not to call the Highway Patrol. I told them they need a tow truck to get out. They asked if I knew the phone number to a tow company. I did not and told them. They again asked me not to call the Highway Patrol and they wanted me to assure them that I would not. I did not go down to the car, which was quite buried in the snow, but through the window again assured me that nobody was hurt, the air bag did not deploy and the engine was still running. I pulled out my cell phone and they again asked me not to call. I put my phone back in my pocket and I told them I would not. They said somebody will come by and pull them out. “Ok,” I said, and since there was nothing else I could do, I headed on down the highway.

But, as soon as I got into my truck and started down the highway, I did call the Highway Patrol. I called for many reasons. First, their car was in a snow bank and they could not get their doors open (but they could roll down the windows which they did to talk to me). Second, anybody that stopped for help could be in big trouble if somebody slides at the same part. And third, I do not know their reason for not wanting me to call the Highway Patrol but I felt that their insistence warranted that I should call them.

When I called the Highway Patrol I did mention that they repeatedly asked me not to call the Highway Patrol. As I got a few miles down the road I passed a Highway Patrolman heading in the opposite direction at a safe speed with their lights flashing away. Maybe they were responding to the car.

I would like to know their reasons for not wanting me to call but this is something I guess I would never find out. If it was serious reason such as drug possession or wanted people then I may hear about it on the news. Otherwise, I will remember the incident and lock that memory away in my pile of experiences.

Fortunately, after about another 60 miles of travel at about 30 to 35 miles per hour, the weather cleared and I arrived at my destination about 1 hour late, but still with plenty of time to get some sleep before the early morning class time.

After I arrived safely at my destination I was still thinking about the two girls stuck in the snowbank. Then I realized that I knew what there story was, as least I figured out the most likely story. There is a couple of high school girls heading out on Friday night to someplace they were told not to go, especially with the weather report. Now, being stuck on the side of the road, possibly being minors, their parents will be contacted. It is not going to be a good weekend for those girls.

My New Truck

It has been a couple of months since I got my new Ford F-150 SuperCrew Pickup Truck and I thought it was time to post a few comments. If you have been reading this blog then you know that I was having severe problems with the truck engine on my Dodge Dakota and that Chrysler was not going to replace the engine, even though it was still under the factory extended warranty. The result of that problem, with assistance from my local dealer, was that I was able to trade my Dodge Dakota for this nice Ford F-150 SuperCrew that I am now enjoying.

Now, to sum everything up about my new truck, I am very pleased with it. It took me a little while to get use to the larger size, in fact I am still learning. This Ford F-150 is approximately 8” longer, 8” wider and 8” higher that the Dodge Dakota I had. Now I am more careful when I drive into drive-up lanes and other narrow locations. I find that I park more to the outside of the lots away from the stores.

Usually people just slide their vehicle into a parking space and try to keep it centered in the parking space. With a larger vehicle you have to be more aware of the remaining space on both sides. First, you must leave enough room for you to get out of the truck and second, enough room for the driver of the vehicle on your right to get back in. If two cars are crowding the empty space between them I will not try to park between them.

There are many things about this new Ford F-150 that I really like. Mostly the truck is very comfortable to sit and drive and it handles quite well. The gas mileage has been the same as my Dodge Dakota which is really good, since the Ford F-150 has a bigger engine, more towing capacity and overall larger. I am looking forward to towing my trailer with my Ultralight Airplane on it this summer. I expect this Ford F-150 will tow my trailer better that my last vehicle.

The little things are the nicest. On top of the front dash is a small recessed area in the center with a non-slip surface on it. This is a perfect place to put your cell phone, iPod and other small gadgets. Speaking of my iPod, there is a jack in the corner of this recessed area that allows me to plug my iPod in and play the music through the truck’s stereo system. With several hours of music loaded in the iPod, I have enough music for a long trip.

The stereo system also supports MP3 music files. I converted about a dozen music CDs to MP3 files and then burned these files to a single CD-R. Now I have two CDs in the truck with just about my entire music collection (well, just the CDs I listen to on a regular basis).

Each of the four doors has a pocket on the bottom of the door. I nice place to hold maps and other objects I plan to keep in the vehicle. My umbrella fits nicely in the back door pocket right behind the driver.

When I first drove the vehicle it was clear to me that I needed running boards or tube steps for the truck. I selected the Ford 5” tube steps. Definitely makes it easier to get into the truck. Next I wanted a soft, roll up bed cover. I had a low profile roll up cover on my last truck and I wanted one on this truck, so I ordered it. I also wanted a bed liner, preferably a sprayed in liner, but my funds were running low. The dealer suggested, that since I got a soft cover for the bed, that I get a rubber mat for the bed. This mat is heavy enough not to blow out yet it is easy to remove for bed cleaning. Good idea, I got the bed mat.

As I said in the beginning, I really like this truck. I have not had a Ford vehicle for more that 10 years now and I still have the high quality I liked in the past. This is my first Ford F-150 and I know why they say that the F-150 is the best selling truck on the market.

I think I might be a Ford Truck person for quite a while.

I Am A LS-I

Ok, what the hell is a “LS-I”? Unless you are involved in aviation and especially Experimental Aircraft, you may not have heard of this. I just spent 16 hours in a weekend course on this topic, passed the final exam, and shortly I will have a FAA license that identifies me as a “LS-I”. What “LS-I” means is that I am a “Light Sport Aircraft Inspector” for my own personal Experimental Aircraft. This means that I am now authorized to inspect my experimental aircraft and determine the air worthiness status of this aircraft.

Many people build airplanes from scratch or kits and during the construction of their aircraft they spend a lot of time doing various tasks as part of the construction of the aircraft. Since these builders do the majority of the construction of the aircraft the FAA decided to declare that if you perform 51% of the work in the construction of your aircraft, as most home aircraft builders do, you have learned and developed enough skills and have become experienced enough to be able to repair and inspect your own aircraft. This will save an experimental aircraft own hundreds if not thousands of dollars each year in inspection and maintenance costs.

Yes, I have an Experimental Aircraft and I had bought mine as a kit. But this kit is different than most. This kit is not considered a 51% kit as the manufacturer, in their desire to make the overall aircraft safer and easier to build, has performed most of the construction prior to delivery. I did not experience tube cutting and bending, painting, bolt hole drilling, riveting and a dozen other tasks. Since I did not perform 51% of the construction, I was left in a limbo area because I am not allowed to perform my own inspection and maintenance.

Here is the real limbo problem. Most licensed and qualified aircraft mechanics work on planes that are familiar to them. My ultralight, being so different from what normal aircraft mechanics work on, most will refuse to accept the job.

Aircraft mechanics and automobile mechanics are quite different. If an automobile mechanic does not put a spark plug back in correctly and the spark plug fails, at most you will be stuck on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. If an aviation mechanic fails to put the spark plug back in properly and it fails in flight, the resulting failure could cause the engine to stop resulting in a crash landing which could kill the pilot and passengers. Therefore, aircraft mechanics need to be qualified and certified to do the job, plus they need to sign the repair job as completed properly. In the event of a failure the aircraft mechanic can be held legally liable for the damages if they resulted from a poor or incomplete job.

Now back to this class I took. My experimental aircraft, like all other aircraft, needs to have an annual inspection. But, since my aircraft is an experimental aircraft and most aircraft mechanics will not touch my aircraft, I would be left with an aircraft I cannot fly because I cannot get it inspected.

Somebody at the FAA came up with a good idea (Maybe it wasn’t the FAA’s idea but they approved it). There are classes being offered, in which I just attended one, that teaches you how to properly inspect and document this inspection for your own personal aircraft. Do not judge too quickly. This inspection is not a quick look over of the aircraft. This inspection on my experimental aircraft will take about 3 or 4 hours to complete not including the documentation needed to support this inspection. Not a simple inspection.

Now after spending 16 hours in classroom lectures and practical applications, passing a written test (80% needed to pass), I have been are awarded a certificate that can be used at the local FAA Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) to obtain a FAA “Light Sport – Inspection” license.

The course was fun and hard, and I learned a lot of things. I made some new friends and found new places to fly. The weekend was well worth the money spent, no only in the savings for the inspection and repair costs, but in the personal satisfaction with my completion.

I Am The Weatherman!

We had a major storm approaching a few weeks ago and everybody kept coming to me and asking me, “How much [snow] are we going to get?” I guess I should back up a little bit. One of the benefits of getting your pilots license is that you have to learn quite a bit about the weather and weather patterns. Combine a hobbyist interest in weather forecasting and you end up being an amateur weatherman.

With the approach of past storms I have made some predictions of my own within the office. Fortunately, many of my predictions were close to accurate, sometimes better that the local TV and radio stations. After many predictions, now I am known at the office as our official amateur weatherman.

The local weather forecasts were predicting that this approaching major winter storm could dump up to 12 inches of snow for our area. That is some serious snow. The morning before the storm, the storm was predicted to hit around 6pm, I started getting questions about the forecast. So I started looking at the online weather sites.

Using various internet sites to view the published weather reports and predictions, as well as view the various satellite and radar views, I tracked the storm all day. I printed out the radar views every hour or so and plotted the course of the storm as it approached. By mid-day I saw a shift in the movement of the low pressure area over Arkansas. The Low, which had been steadily moving north-east, was now heading east. This moved the storm to the south of us and changed the forecast, at least that I what I said.

All morning I had agreed with the predictions made by everybody. We were going to get hit with a major winter storm and get 6 to maybe 12 inches of snow. By early afternoon with the low pressure area moving east, I said that we would be on the edge of the storm. I also said that people living north of us, even as close as 30 miles away, would get little or no snow. I predicted that we would get 3 to 6 inches. I also predicted that the farther south you get from here, the more snow they will see.

The morning, the morning after the storm, I woke up to list over 4 inches of snow in my yard. When I got to work and talked to my coworkers, they all said my predictions were right on target. People living north of this town got no snow. In fact the snow line was only a few miles north of town. And, people living 30 miles south of town got the 12 inches as predicted.

I guess with all this I am blowing my own horn. And that is fine with me. This blog is my blog designed for me to blow my own horn anyways. But what impressed me was that I was able to predict the storm accurately with the information available on the internet. Using sites such as the National Weather Service, The Weather Channel, Weather Underground and a few aviation sites; I was able to follow just what happened to the storm as it approached this area.

When I was learning how to fly I thought all that weather information that I had to learn was something of a waste of time. I know I am a private pilot and I know I cannot fly into clouds and bad weather, and I figured it was just a simple task of staying out of the bad weather areas. But now I fly ultralight aircraft and the weather is even more important so I learned as much as I can about weather. I learned that small changes can have a dramatic effect on your approaching weather. The entire experience re-enforced on me the need to understand the various aspects of weather and weather patterns, especially in flying.

So now I am the Weatherman.