The World from 3000

Flying an airplane is tedious.

30 minutes before i fly, I'm at the Aviation center. I have to do the same thing each time before I take off.

Get the weather from the METAR/TAF/AIRMET/SIGMET reporting station. Call the weather briefer for more information. Then I have to sit down and calculate take-off and landing distances and weight and balance information. After which I have to do the pre-flight.

Then the pre-flight, another 5 minutes of procedure. Master on. All lights on and pitot heat on. Check and make sure all the lights are on. Check the pitot tube and make sure it gets hot. Turn lights and heat off. Check the fuel quantity. Turn on the Avionics, make sure the cooling fan comes on. Turn off the avionics. Turn the fuel selector valve to left. Make sure the annunciator panel (works like a car's annunciator panel) works. Then push the fuel shut off all the way in and push the alternate static valve all the way in. Next, extend the flaps, turn off the master.

Now I walked around the aircraft. Check the baggage door, the tail and the left wing. Sump the fuel drains. Check the fuel quantity by looking in the tank. Sump the drains under the nose. Check the alternator belt. Check the prop. Check the static pressure port and the pitot tube, check the right wing.

Every single time. But the fun begins after this point.

The master switch goes on. The engine starts to hum. The beacon is on and flashing. Throttle and mixture controls are set. The key is put into the ignition. Fuel pump is turned on, mixture to full until the fuel flow valve moves to indicate that there is fuel in the engine. Mixture to idle. Fuel pump off. Turn the key to start. The prop turns, a bit shaky at first but then it kicks and starts really going. Mixture to full.

And finally once the engine is started, the run up (another 5 minutes of tedious procedure) is finished and we take off, we are finally in the air.

And then it becomes amazing. Even after learning all the physics behind flight, it still seems like magic. There is nothing between me and the ground besides 3000 feet of air. Nothing. I am an average person doing what the famous scientists of old never figured out how to do. Here I am, 3000 feet over Fitchburg, looking at boston and the rising sun. Its glory.

And with all the checklists and the hour of preparation it takes, its worth it. Sitting in a machine, 3000 feet off the ground, supported by magic.

J Kuhl Signing Off

If You Can't Take Them to a Bar

Can they be considered friends?

This question arises with games such as World of Warcraft where one may spend a few hours a day in a group or a guild with other people across the globe. Being an officer in one guild, I have "met" some of the people whom I play with. From the way they talk and what they say, I can get an idea of who they are, what their personality is and what they are like.

But the problem is the veil of the computer screen. I still don't know them in real life, I don't know what they look like, and I have no way to tell if they are lying. There is definitely something missing from an on-line "friendship." Although we play together and talk about stuff, even though we have Teamspeak (a voice chat program), there is a lack of the human effect. There is another person on the otherside, but you only know what he choses to reveal to you. You cannot see who he is.

So I'm gonna have to say, if you can't take them to a bar, then no, they cannot be friends.

"Mongo only pawn in game of life" -Blazing Saddles

J Kuhl Signing Off