The world of flight with Captain Jim

Some of my friends know that for a few years I have had an interest in becoming a small aircraft pilot someday. This interest was fueled by flights in my friend Champ Pilot Jim's Aeronca Champ and my friend Super Cub Pilot Bob's Piper Super Cub.

So I hope to begin making aeronautical topics part of the blog again. Today I received a rather informative and amusing missive from Captain Jim in Florida.

Enjoy....


Chump-o-saurus,

I had an interesting experience in the mighty Champ yesterday; you would have giggled like a school girl. Upon take off I turned downwind (to the west) and had to dial in about 30 degrees of crab to correct for the crosswind. Most impressive! Starting about 1 thousand feet the wind must have been a good 40 knots out of the south. Smooth as silk but clearly a strong wind. My ground speed was meager to say the least.

Being deft of mind, I decided to try something I have never had the chance to try before. I climbed swiftly to fifteen hundred feet, then, turning straight into the wind, I slowed her down to about 45 mph indicated and my ground speed was zero, hovering, not moving, nada! That was very cool. I did this over the Florida Turnpike near the toll station, cars backed up for miles as drivers stopped to witness this feat.

Upon arrival back at Bob White, I did the same maneuver right over the airport with the same outcome, zero ground speed. All the hangar rats came out to gawk and little children squealed with glee.

Captain Jim

Del Shannon - Runaway

Del Shannon had a lot of hit records, but Runaway was his sole #1 hit. Great song from 1961. I think you might remember it....

Managing winter

Coming back to the midwest it's easy to miss the Florida weather and to get bummed out about the cold. But I try to manage it in various ways, whether it be bundling up and getting out to one of Omaha's lake recreational areas for a walk to commune with nature, having an ale or two with good friends, visiting with siblings and nieces/nephews or RIDING MY MOTO GUZZI STELVIO!

Today was another Stelvio opportunity. Sorry for the lack of good pics, but it was too cold to stop and loiter around taking photos. It was ~24F but the roads are dry and clear, so a 45 minute ride on the Goose is great tonic for winter's ills.

Remembering a rock n roll legend

On February 8, 1990, rock and roll legend Del Shannon took his own life in his home in California at 55 years of age.

I became a big fan of his, even though most of his hit songs were from 1961-65. He had a unique voice well suited to the type of songs he sang.

SO over the course of the next week I will be featuring some Del Shannon songs. Today's song, "When I had you" is from his final album, 1991's ROCK ON. I really like the guitar and organ in this song, as well as Del's voice of course. This album was produced by Jeff Lynne of ELO and released in early 1991. It was nearly completed prior to Del's death in 1990.

Notable participants on the album other than Jeff Lynne are Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Howie Epstein of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Sit back and listen and if you want a great album pick up a copy of Del Shannon's last record, ROCK ON.

Cajun grub and a sip of Simcoe

My friend at work Karen brought in a container of red beans with smoked ham and sausage for me today. She's real nice and takes care of me, knowing I prolly would have been eating frosted mini wheats again for dinner :) So I bought some rice after work and then had a wonderful, spicy dinner of red beans n rice! Thank you Karen and to your husband...it was great!

With the spicy meal I had a chalice or two of the Simcoe Hop Ale that the Enforcer and I brewed back in December. It's growing on me :)

Nuggets of wisdom from the Enforcer

Lager pigging tonight

Tonight the Enforcer and I will finally be transferring our lager into two party pigs. From there it will condition and age for prolly 3-4 weeks.

Congratulations Carl and Teener!

My friends Carl and Teener Young welcome a little baby girl into the world this morning...Leni was born weighing 9 lbs, 13 oz. Mommy and baby are doing well!

Wooly

So a few of my readers have asked to see a picture of the beard I am growing. Well it is still in the formative stages but here you go....

Charging forward on the Goodship Guzzi

With the milder weather today, I felt the opportunity existed to finally get to ride my Guzzi Stelvio. The roads were just wet now, though still strewn with sand/gravel, but the temp was 41F so I had to take advantage of the situation.

So I fired up the Guzzi and took a nice ride over to my brother Luke's house in Papillion. Ahhh, it felt GREAT to be back in the saddle and I rewarded Stelvy with copious amounts of throttle. She is running great!

Here are a few pics and a link to a photobucket album with several more pics.

CLICK ME TO SEE SLIDESHOW OF ALL THE PICS!

Finally a clear path

The folks that maintain the Lake Wehrspann recreational site finally got a tractor out and plowed a little bit of the walking trail around the lake. So, I didn't have to walk along the road today on my hour long walk but got to enjoy a new route closer to the lake.

It was a windy day, but mild with temps around 35F. I didn't spot any deer today but did see an eagle (or maybe a very large hawk). Pretty cool looking bird in flight.

***CLICK PICS TO ENLARGE***

Elixir of the gods

Let's see who can forecast!

Below you will see the 7 day forecast which I took from each of the 4 major Omaha market network affiliate websites this evening. Let's see just how accurate these are wit regard to high and low temps over the next 6 days.

As you can see KETV and KPTM are the most optimistic, WOWT(Flowers!) is the most pessimistic and KMTV falls somewhere between.

I will keep track of the actual highs and lows for the next 6 days (thru next Wednesday) and post them here...



Friday 1/15 actuals High: 28 Low: 20
Saturday 1/16 actuals High: 32 Low: 20
Sunday 1/17 actuals High: 34 Low: 30
Monday 1/18 actuals High: 30 Low: 23
Tuesday 1/19 actuals High: 33 Low: 27
Wednesday 1/20 actuals High: 34 Low: 32
Thursday 1/21 actuals High: 35 Low: 32

A hoof at Wehrspann

I went for a nice walk at Lake Wehrspann. Here are some pics.....

Breathe Stelvio, BREATHE!!

After a spirited bout of chipping ice and snow from the end of my driveway, I needed to hear the Guzzi running, just to keep alive the flickering flame of hope that I might ride again someday.

So off came the towels protecting her lustrous black paint and in went the key. One button press later and SHE LIVES! Of sweet Lord almighty SHE LIVES! Listen to the snarling, gnashing, whining, ticking....ahhhh, music to my ears.

First pint poured

Yesterday I stopped by the Enforcer's house to watch the Vikings beat down the Cowgirls and to pour the first pint from our ThunderBolt ESB.

I can't say I am very pleased with the ESB. The balance just is not there. It has too much undesirable bitterness. I guess we will drink it but it might be around for a while. I hope the lager turns out better.

She lives!

I fired up my 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider today, the first time in about a month. It took a few tries but she finally exploded to life and sounds good!

Frosty start to the day

Moisture in the air and below freezing temps make for lotsa ice clinging to the trees

THUNDERBOLT ESB!!

ThunderBolt ESB, the first ale produced by the combined might of Morhardt Brewing and Galardi Ales n Such will be unveiled this weekend.

Pert near 6 weeks in the making, this ale has a wonderful caramel color, beautiful creamy head and a not so subtle hoppy after bite.

ThunderBolt ESB....it holds up under fire and leaves scorched taste buds in its wake!

Avatar 3D

I plan to go see Avatar 3D again tomorrow with my pal the Stallion. This will be my third viewing. I am sure I will notice even more little nuances this time, as I did during the second viewing. I think I actually liked it more the second time than the first. Great movie IMHO.

Haiti

As I am sure everyone knows by now, the island nation of Haiti, the poorest in the western hemisphere, was devastated by a strong earthquake recently. At this point they do not really know how many people have been killed, but estimates are ranging from the 10's of thousands to potentially 1/2 million. Untold #'s of people are still buried in rubble as the city of Port Au Prince, with a population of 3 million, was nearly completely destroyed.

If you have a few extra $$ in your pocket that might otherwise go to buying a fancy coffee drink or a lunch out, please consider contributing it to an agency that might provide some help to these poor people.

A trusted organization mike the American Red Cross might be a good one to use your contribution wisely. Just beware of unscrupulous "organizations" popping up to take your money and not use it for helping these people.

RED CROSS LINK

Nice huh?

Hopeful

With the warming trend here this week (temps in the 30's) some snow has started to melt. I have a three day weekend (MLK Jr day) and am hoping that the temps are warm enough for me to get the Guzzi Stelvio fired up and take a ride!

Lager goes to secondary

This evening I transferred the lager we brewed last weekend from primary fermentation (6 gallon white plastic bucket) to secondary fermentation (glass carboy).

It looks pretty good. Certainly much lighter in color than the ale we made last month, as it should be. It's is a golden color. Here are a few pics.

Can't a guy catch a few winks under his desk?

Just a couple more weeks.....

.....and we'll be tapping into our first home brew in several years, a hoppy ale. The chosen date is January 24th, during the NFC and AFC Championship games of the NFL.

I drew a little bit from each party pig tonight to check on clarity, head retention, color, smell and taste and I think we have a winner.

SnOmaha and a visit from the Shark

Just another snowy day here in Omaha. We are expecting 4-6 more inches of the white stuff and it is collecting on the ground as I type this. Worse though is that tonight and tomorrow we are expecting bitter cold (possibly down to -20F) and strong winds, creating blizzard conditions.

As I left to head home and brushed the 3-4 inches off my car I was dreading having to shovel the driveway and sidewalks at home. Imagine my surprise and delight when I turned into my driveway and the whole thing, sidewalk too, was already cleared of snow! Woohoo! I saw my neighbor out with his snowblower and suspected maybe he did it for me, but then I spied a clue left in the snow on my front stoop....the word "Shark" written into the snow! Haha my pal Mark "the Shark" Tolan had stopped by with his snowblower and did the whole shootin' match for me. Now that's a heckuva good pal! Thanks Shark! The pizza's on me at Oscars!

EMU to the rescue!

Ever since my move from Florida and my subsequent fall off the moving truck onto my right shoulder, I have been experiencing increasing pain and discomfort in my right shoulder and upper arm. I have decreased range of motion and sharp pain if I move the arm in certain ways. Additionally, in the morning I sometimes hear and feel what seems to be a clicking sound when I move the arm in certain ways.

I think maybe I have torn something in there that is supposed to keep things lined up and working smoothly. Luckily I have a great friend in Bruce the Spruce Goose, who recommended I try a product called Blue Emu. It's made with real emu oil (7%) as well as many other helpful sounding ingredients. I am supposed to liberally slather it on for a couple weeks. Prolly I will be healed by then. If not, I will whip out my Tiger Balm and then I will be better for certain.