My Archives: April 2003
Sunday, April 13, 2003
It's a little bit late, but I've also been meaning to post about our trip last weekend (April 4-6). We flew the plane up to Indianapolis and visited our friend Squirrel and his girlfriend Megan. The trip up was a challenge for me, as it was my first long distance cross-country trip. We were in instrument weather most of the trip, so I got to use my IFR rating a bit. We left RDU Friday morning, made a fuel stop in Hazard, KY (Boss Hogg wasn't there) and got into IND before 3pm. Total flying time was around 4 hours and 15 minutes. While waiting for Squirrel to pick us up, I saw a guy in the terminal that looked familiar. I finally figured out it was Anthony Edwards (Dr. Greene from the TV show "ER").
Squirrel took us Duckpin bowling at a 1920's replica bowling alley. On Saturday, we walked around downtown Indy, did some shopping, and saw his favorite act, Hog Eye Navvy at the Aristocrat pub. This band is a college tradition around there and they were a lot of fun to hear (we couldn't see them from our seats). They did a lot of Irish-type music, a number of a capella pieces, including a railroad song. Squirrel and his friends knew all the words to all the songs and sung along. It was quite fun.
Sunday morning, we woke up and didn't set our clocks forward (Indiana doesn't believe in daylight savings). Squirrel took us to a great sushi place, although this proved to be unwise later. We left Indy after lunch, but didn't make it 2 hours in the air until we had to make a bathroom stop. Our full bladders from the salty sushi and the turbulence we were flying through was a bad combination. I diverted the plane to Huntington, WV where we made a much needed pit stop. Since we only had 2.5 hours to go, we were able to fill up and make it back to RDU without stopping again.
Heather and I had a very pleasant weekend. After a week of dreary, depressing weather, we got to enjoy nice sunshine and perfect temperatures. Friday night we visited friends and watched Harry Potter again. Saturday we ran errands and had lunch at our favorite sandwich place, Atlanta Bread Company. My dad and I went flying Saturday afternoon and enjoyed some "severe clear" flying weather. Saturday night, Heather and I had steaks at Tripp's (they rock) and did some much needed clothes/shoe shopping at the mall.
Sunday we dropped of Penny to get groomed and had lunch with Scott & Michelle at Carolina Ale House. Then, we went home and worked in the yard the rest of the day. The remains of those evil Bradford pear trees are almost gone now. I also mowed the weeds (grass hasn't started growing yet), so the yard looks 1000% better now. I'm quite tired now and will probably remain in the Laz-a-boy the rest of the evening.
Saturday, April 12, 2003
As I've mentioned before, WRAL's writers don't seem to know how to spell. Here's the latest headine:
Proposed Change Prompts Concern For Parents Of Autisic Childern.
Tuesday, April 1, 2003
I moved my plane from Sanford to RDU last weekend. I have no complaints with the service at Sanford, but the location of my new job makes flying after work impractical. By moving my plane to the airport I drive past twice a day, I have more opportunities to fly. As a matter of fact, I'm flying tonight.
To answer the question everyone asks when I tell them I'm based at RDU, no they do not have special runways for small planes. I use the same runways, taxiways, controllers, and approach procedures that the big jets do. There is one runway that I can use that they can't. Runway 32 is a 3000 foot crosswind runway. It is used only for landings where there's clear weather and light winds.