Went to have a bit of Easter Celebration with Midwest Chick’s sister and her husband.

Now, normally, this is a 3 1/2 hour drive….

Or a 1.2 hour flight.

So, we could go, have time to see each other, break bread, etc. and still return at a decent hour, rather than spend more time travelling than celebrating together.

This is why I learned to fly and own a plane.

1.2 each way, and 3 landings.
Weather was frikkin’ perfect. Clear skies, 6 mph winds at 7500/6500, and fairly smooth until the final approach back home.

Please, remember WHY it is a holiday.

Today was the day when some colonists chose to stand and fight their government over control….When that Government wanted to take control of the Colonists means of defying the heavy hand of government……And when a government learned what can happen when a pissed off citizenry with arms has had enough. There are those that say (with good reason) that that day, 244 years ago, was the real beginning of the United States of America.  (one wonders what those folks might think of the current residents of those lands today, what they have become….I think they’d spit on those resident of Massachusetts today) (look up the battles of Concord and Lexington if you aren’t sure what I am talking about)

Also, 26 years ago today, we have the anniversary of the day when our Government went berserk in middle Texas and killed 76 men, women, and children who were holed up and simply resisting arrest. Killed ’em with fire and gas.
And when that happened, the rest of the citizens sat around and watched it on TV.
And we didn’t hunt down and kill those responsible because the folks they killed were a bit strange and were portrayed by the Media as Religious Extremists.
So we watched our Government and their employees kill those folks AND LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT.
After all, Janet Reno is still breathing…..which is a shame, really. As are her commanders on the scene. A further shame. You and I and our fellow citizens watched ’em commit murder on live TV.

If it doesn’t happen this time, I am sure that soon (like a generation or three, at most) it will happen eventually.

I  mean, is there anyone who didn’t think, even for a moment, that the fire was just possibly a bit of arson by a proponent of a different religion?

There is a history of building Mosques on the sites of Churches (and vice versa).

And we may never know.
(And it may be that even if there is a connection, the “authorities” won’t tell us)

Notre Dame Cathedral may be total loss.

The cathedral holds no special significance to me, I’m not a very devout Christian, The artworks, however, are priceless. The Stained Glass and murals are irreplaceable, as are other artifacts.

And there is this to consider:
Twelve French Churches vandalized in past week

At least one is definitely arson. Perhaps, now, another as well.
And perhaps it is just an accident.

But there is the fact that to some other religions, religious icons or artworks not of their religion are anathema and should be destroyed…

More instrument stuff….Partial panel this time.

1.7 hours. and it was stressful. I was wiped out at the end of it.

Plus intersections. Having 2 VOR’s is a nice thing.
As is an autopilot while finding the intersection and VOR info. Plus my first approach using the GNS430.

One landing only ’cause 2 chicks had a stuck mike and we ALL had to listen to the coaching while they did 3 touch and goes..NORDO….and then chattered all the way to out of radio range. No excuse for that, I am sure there are 2 radios in that 172….
(Hint: If you think your radio is broken, stop the lesson and either land and have it looked at or stop the lesson and return to your home airport…and turn it off if you think it is’t working!). If they would have broadcast a tail number (they didn’t ’cause they thought their radio was broken, so no position calls, nothing) I’d have found out who owned the aircraft and called or something and given them an earful. No excuses for that.

So I only did one landing ’cause there wasn’t any way for anyone else to hear me…

The endless chatter slightly marred what was otherwise a great flight.

A great crosswind landing and the stall horn came on JUST as the mains touched. Not even a chirp, just a rumble. I wish I could do that every time.

Filled up the tanks and put it away.

1.7 and one.

It appears, after checking the records for 20+ hours of flight, that I am burning 11.6 GPH in cruise flight and 13.4 GPH in pattern work and climb out.

Some, at least, understand….

I’m sitting in a small coffee shop near Nokomis trying to think of what to write about. I scroll through my newsfeed on my phone looking at the latest headlines of Democratic candidates calling for policies to “fix” the so-called injustices of capitalism. I put my phone down and continue to look around. I see people talking freely, working on their MacBook’s, ordering food they get in an instant, seeing cars go by outside, and it dawned on me. We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we’ve become completely blind to it. Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose. These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don’t give them a second thought. We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average. Thirty. One. Times. Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful. Our unappreciation is evident as the popularity of socialist policies among my generation continues to grow. Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said to Newsweek talking about the millennial generation, “An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity.”Never saw American prosperity. Let that sink in. When I first read that statement, I thought to myself, that was quite literally the most entitled and factually illiterate thing I’ve ever heard in my 26 years on this earth.

Read the rest

There is hope. 

I fail to see the objection that these folks have to the suggestion that CBP/ICE should deliver the criminals apprehended at the southern border to Sanctuary Cities for a release to await the adjudication of their case. 

What, exactly, are the objections? Since Sanctuary Cities “welcome immigrants with open arms” why should they object? Since they claim that these illegal immigrants are a net gain to the economy, why should they not want thousands of that sort of people to be delivered to their cities? Since they claim that these people are more law abiding than the average American Citizen, one would think that they would have no objection?

Or is it that these “progressives” are lying? That they know that these folks are a net drain on the communities where they reside….That they commit crimes at about 3 times that of the average American Citizen…..that they are, in the end, detrimental to the localities where they congregate? 

I fail to see why delivering illegal border crossers to these cities should be met with claims that the Trump Administration is “Targeting” these cities. If they don’t want these people, then why do they support the rest of the country having to absorb them? Or do they just want us to take our “Fair Share” of the problems they wish to inflict upon the country instead of taking that burden themselves?

Put up or shut up, Liberals.