Murphy is there. At the border.

You can find his posts HERE.

The info on the border starts at Nov 18 (HERE) and continues to the present.

Interesting. You should read. 

I know him, he’s opinionated but is a straight shooter. If he says it, it’s the truth. And much  the picture he paints of the shennanigans down at the border isn’t pretty.

So there was a match at the range today….I was tempted. Practical Pistol match. I haven’t done one of those in a while. 

But then again, the weather hadn’t been good for flying all week and today was good, if a bit windy…..and it isn’t forecast  to be good for next week either…..

So I went flying.

Flew to KCMI (Champaign, Il) for lunch. Took MidWest Chick with me…

39 knot headwind, so it took a while to get there (1.2 hours for a bit over 115 or so miles) (we tried as high as 6500 feet, same winds…ForeFlight said they were even worse higher up so we stayed at 4500) , but we got there. Smooth flight, no bumps. I’m falling in love with the STec-55 autopilot. Set it and forget it.

Not my best landing though…Runway 14 had winds at 160 variable at 18 gusting 32…pretty much at my limits. I debated not landing for a just a moment as we approached the airport..but decided to try.

I landed anyway. A long base entry approach as called for by the approach controller and the final was a nightmare of gusting winds…so much so I almost aborted the landing twice….what with the ATIS warning of potential windshear on final and all… But I got down and it smoothed out on short final so I landed. ….and got blown by a gust about 3 feet from touchdown. Very nearly did some agricultural taxiing for a moment. But I got back on centerline and landed and taxiied to the FBO.

Took a crew car and went into town and ate (Chinese AND Pizza). We were gonna look around for a bit, but the visibility was falling back at the home airport earlier than forecast, so we went back, preflighted, and took off for home. We had a 41 knot tailwind at 3500 feet on our way back, so our ground speed was about 175 knots. 39 minutes on the return trip. I did some hand flying just for practice instead of using the autopilot. Very smooth flight though, only one big bump. 

Winds at home were 170 variable 11 gusting 26 on final, lots of updrafts due to mechanical turbulence from the trees a half mile from the end of 18…..so I planted the plane in a shortfield landing to get it firmly (but smoothly) on the ground. Firm, but not hard. Hit my marks too. What with the headwind, I was nearly stopped in about 350 feet. Lots of other planes in the pattern were having issues on landing. ‘Twas a good day for practice.

1.9 and 2 (as Aaron puts it). All in all, it was a good trip. even if I did push up against my limits.

I’m LOVING the 182. So much smoother than a 172 or a Warrior or Arrow. More stable and a lot easier to fly… and about 30 knots faster in cruise than a 172 for not much more gas.

I’m glad I didn’t go shooting instead.

Please, while you are stuffing your Pie-Hole with Pie and Turkey and stuffing and taters and gravy and bean casserole and bread or rolls and all the other stuff we eat on this day….plus desserts afterwards…

and while you are enjoying (or not) the company of family and friends.

Please, do these two things for me:

Take a moment and reflect on why we have this holiday. Appreciate the fact that we are so rich…so wealthy…that we have such a holiday, where the abundance in our lives lets us eat and have a celebration of thanks for all that is good in them.

And take a moment, and think of a serviceman away from his family, out on a post somewhere, his very presence on that post helping to protect that life I discussed in the paragraph above this one. Remember him or her. Perhaps they got a turkey dinner at a mess hall on land or on a ship , or perhaps they got MRE’s on the line or on patrol. 

Either way, they ain’t where they’d prefer to be. But they are there. Say thanks for them, as well. 

That, as a whole, there is a more inept organization that the folks at Wells Fargo Bank.

It could be that I have just not encountered said organization.

Then again, if there were a group more inept, they would probably not be able to breathe or eat on their own, use dangerous objects such as forks and blunt scissors without hurting themselves or use machinery more complicated to operate than elevators or doorknobs…. much less do any sort of business.

I, the previous owners, and the title company are still trying to get the title to the plane fully cleared. It will happen, but demonstrably not with any sense of urgency nor any demonstration of competency on the part of Wells Fargo Bank employees.

One would think they would understand the process and the verbage needed on such a simple document as a lien release…especially one this old and with a zero balance for years. 

Got the new plane, and since then, the weather pretty much has been MVFR and IFR either at my home airport or at any destination I would like to travel to.

I think Murphy and Mother Nature are cooperating to jam it to me here.

Hopefully, they will smile upon me this afternoon. 

So I left the house for a while yesterday….several hours…

and when I came home, I found a TERRIBLE mess.

Seems that a mouse had gotten into the house (It happens every year, after the first frost or two…I’ve never been able to find out where they get in and I only get one or maybe two in the fall….and, having cats in the house, it is usually not a problem: I find a small, cold, mouse corpse on the floor, pick it up and dispose of it, and that is that…).

This time, as per usual, the cats had found the mouse and had dispatched it.

Sadly for me and the floor, they apparently punctured an artery on the mouse before playing with it unto death.

There were bloody trails across the kitchen floor…ALL ACROSS THE FLOOR. I mopped, and I scrubbed, and I mopped some more.

Then I got out the floor scrubber.

Used it twice.

Finally, the floor stopped looking like the killing floor in a slaughterhouse.

Cats, just doing their job, and being cats. 

But Lord, what a mess.

Ain’t it the truth?

Here

ETA: This is true as well.

And, HERE

Aesop has a good one.  Even small actions, in concert, will have a great deal of effect.

The hard part is doing so without getting caught….. or, in planning, not giving the government notice when someone informs.
Easy to plan, much more difficult to execute on a meaningful scale.

The comments, however, are priceless.

2 hours of learning.

Flew for 2 hours. The strobe control box came in (finally) at 10:30, they had the plane ready at 1.

Pulled it out, fired it up and taxied to 27 for a left turnout departure. Flew around south of the field and got a feel for the AC. Then I climbed from 2500 to 10,500 MSL and flew west for about 20 minutes. No wind to speak of and had a ground speed (according to both the 430 and ForeFlight) of 137 knots.

Turned and descended to 5K, and had a GS of 128.

Banked and turned and played with pitch, power and airspeeds leaned and played with cowl flap settings. (I did stay out of the approach path to Midway airport, which was about 10 miles from my “play” area….those SouthWest 737’s are often overflying at 5500 feet).

Turned towards home and did a downwind midfield entry to the pattern for 27. First approach was too fast, but it worked. Winds were calm to 5 220-300 variable. extended my downwind for inbound straight- in traffic.

Second one was better and the landing was a greaser. So was the third.

I can’t seem to find the point wherein people claim that the 182 series is nose heavy on landing though. Flare was easy and touching on the mains first seems to be normal. I don’t understand how folks bang the nose/damage the firewall. My worst landing might have been a little flat, but it wasn’t hard.

Taxied back and topped up the tanks (44 gallons) with 100LL avgas and put it away. The POH says I can use as low as 80/87 or 100LL. I might try the UL94 available at nearby airports just to see how well it works (it ain’t much cheaper, but no lead to contaminate the oil….)

Tomorrow, weather permitting, it’s gonna be touch and goes at a few close-by airports and me and the STec-55X are gonna get acquainted. If not, then the day after that. Gonna do a short cross country on Sunday if the weather folks don’t change the forecast again, so I gotta gain some confidence in the aircraft first.

This plane flies like a Cadillac after the Warriors, Arrows and 172’s. Not a screamer or a truck, but a good, solid, comfortable sedan. Smooth flier, fairly light on the controls. Easy to fly well.

130 knots will take me where I need to go at a decent rate, even if not as fast as I would wish….all at 12.3 gallons per hour.