Please, take a minute and remember why it is a holiday.
I hope you spend it with family and/or friends, Lots of Cheer and all that.
But remember: Raise a glass, take a moment, have thought for those folks, sailors, soldiers, airmen or marines who are on duty at a post somewhere without their family far from home.
Not happy with all the publicly owned “Confederate” statues and memorials being erased in cities and towns across the country, now they have to destroy memorial statues in federal cemeteries as well.
I have to ask, (and I include myself here) At what point will we stand up and say “enough”? When will we say “stop”?
How much attempted erasure of history can we stomach? Will we countenance?
But you gotta keep up if yer gonna fly
The ground at night from 5000 ft (not really)
So the FAA says you gotta do at least 6 instrument approaches every 6 months to maintain your IFR currency**….to be legal to fly in IMC….And I had only three. (It’s a good idea, really, and your skills are perishable , much like shooting: if you don’t keep them up, you don’t have them at all when you need them)
So you must have 6 approached every 6 months to carry passengers and to maintain your currency…Either you do them in actual IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions…I.E. Clouds) or you can do those practice approaches in VMC (visual Meteorological Condition…Clear skies)…but if you do them in VMC, you need to wear a view limiting Device (foggles or equivalent) and have a safety pilot.
One of the other pilots I know is trying to get a job at an airline and he needed some twin time to meet their requirements, and both of us needed a night landing as well, so he accompanied me as a safety pilot. He did the takeoff and flew us to a point where I took over, put on Foggles and intercepted the ILS to an airport, did the approach to minimums on instruments, and then went missed…he then flew to another airport and I did the same, only an RNAV this time . We then flew to yet another airport and did the same, then on to Champaign (KCMI) and I did an actual approach under foggles (but under ATC control) but this time we landed. That approach was fun as Champaign Approach asked that we keep the speed up for the learjet that was coming behind us, so I flew the approach at 150 knots and slowed up in the last 2 miles to gear speed and then did a landing….all under the foggles. It was kinda challenging, but fun…… when I looked up and took off the foggles, I was perfect on the localizer and just a bit high on the glide slope. I touched down in the center of the 1000 ft markers without a chirp and rolled out to the end of rwy 14L before taxiing to the FBO.
Since it was dinner time and nearly (legal) nighttime, we got a crew car and went into town and got some Chinese food at Golden Harbor restaurant, Since it is my friend MC’s favorite restaurant, I called her to see what she wanted and got some to go for her. We drove back to the airport, did a preflight, and took off. He did the flight home so he could get his time and did a landing, then I did one also…..(Night currency requires 3 landings to a full stop every 90 days)…I had one night landing previously, so now I need one more to be legal… He got about 1.3 hours twin time total, so he is closer to the requirements for getting an airline job and I am mostly current for instrument flying.
The lights on the ground are kinda pretty from altitude:
Champaign on the climb-out
North-north-eastbound -Chicago off the left wing about 70 miles
It is kinda surprising how much light there is on the ground in mid/central Illinois and Indiana. It isn’t ever truly “dark”, even when it is mostly farmland below you. The above photos were taken on the climb out (3-4 thousand feet) and in cruise at 7500.
**(Note: Being “Current” is not the same as being “Proficient”- Legally one can be current, but not proficient. It is only through practice and education and more practice that one becomes (and stays) proficient. The currency requirements are an attempt by the FAA to keep pilots proficient)
Apparently (some of) the names of Jeffrey Epstein’s associates will be revealed in early 2024.
But some people will not be named….apparently some of the people on the list could petition the court to remain unnamed.
One wonders how much the continued confidentiality cost…..
They don’t want her sharing details of how she squelched portions of the investigation(s) and who ordered her to do so…..
WH ordered her to squelch the investigations? Who is she protecting?
Imma go out on a limb here and state right now that Lesly Wolf DID NOT kill herself…..
Just like the Jan 6th protestors are?
Yeah, I know, wishful thinking. THESE protestors are Approved People for an Approved Cause, so nothing will be done.
Still, we could hope…
The Colorado Justices showed their partiality, and demonstrated their unsuitability for office….now this.
Now the Dem folks in California are gunning to keep Donald Trump of Their Ballot.
It appears that they realize how badly they screwed up in placing a senile puppet in when they made Biden President with their ballot “Irregularities”….And they really fear that Trump is gonna whack them come election time because they have no candidate to oppose him. No one that can stand up to him, not on either side.
They must have realized that they cannot pull the number and scope of election shenanigans that they did last time when Biden got “More votes than any candidate Ever”. It shows that they can’t beat him with the candidates they have…and they know it.
They fear Donald Trump greatly if they are resorting to such tactics. It reeks of desperation. THey know they are gonna lose. Why else do this?
Reference to Hitler’s words (out of context, mind you) or not.
The influx of illegal aliens over the southern border IS indeed changing the culture of our country. Poisoning it, if you will.
And I don’t give a fuck if that statement hurts your sensibilities.
The values that we as Americans share are being diluted by these alien invaders…
Trump is right, even if his choice of words was seized upon by his enemies to use against him.
Having said that, I still wish that there was another candidate who cared as much about the country and it’s citizens, that there was an alternative to Donald Trump as a choice for President.
But, of course, the Blue State of Colorado (or at least the State Supreme Court) has declared that Trump isn’t eligible for President because he violated the 14th Amendment by “engaging in an insurrection”….Yet no conviction of such has been put forth. There’s that pesky “Innocent until Proven guilty” thing….But they ignored that. The claim is that he is ineligible because he is guilty of insurrection….which hasn’t been proved or adjudicated.
In other words, the court itself is guilty of violating the 14th amendment….by violating the Due Process part of the 14th amendment. He hasn’t been tried and convicted of the action they are using to prevent him from being eligible for the state ballot. Kinda bad that a justice of a State Supreme Court would do such a thing, even out of Trump Derangement Syndrome….
Their partiality is obvious. Every justice who approved of this should be disbarred, kicked off the court, and blocked from any other office.
This has Fail written all over it. And it reeks of Desperation.
So says Mayor Brandon Johnson about the fact that Governor Abbot (and others) are shipping “Migrants” to “Sanctuary Cities”…..Who are unable to handle more of them…..
What about the thousands more that are invading the southern states? The strain that those states are under trying to provide for those numbers?
How about the fact that the Liberals in the northern states proudly proclaimed that they would welcome “Migrants”, that their cities were “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants…..Who pushed for open borders…..
Now, “dumping” illegals’ those same cities is “attacking our country”…. And blames those bussing the illegals for deaths of sick kids in Blue city sanctuaries.
Hey, it’s what they wanted for Texas and New Mexico and Arizona…..but they are, instead, getting a bit of their fair share of those “Migrants” illegals aliens. The people of the City of Chicago are not happy about the invasion, either.