So there I was, sitting in the cockpit of a Cessna 172 on the ramp at KCHO, with the engine off. But I wanted the engine on. When the engine is on we could go flying, which would be good, but when the engine is on the heater works, which would be very good.
It was 28 degrees on the ramp and we'd just done pre-flight in the dark. We had needed oil and the cold and wind were enough that it actually hurt just to hold the dipstick.
The problem is, it's hard to start a small plane in the cold. It can be hard to start a car also, but modern cars have a bunch of gizmos that sense air temperature and stuff and mix fuel and air just right to get you going.
In this plane, there were no gizmos. Just me and some knobs. The knobs control the primer, throttle, mixture and ignition. Most combinations of those things result in the engine not starting. A few result in success and a few result in an engine fire. After about 10 minutes of the first set I moved into the second. The third I thankfully skipped altogether.
Honestly, it felt like the mission was complete the moment the tach came alive, but there was more to be done. We had to navigate home in the wind and the cold and the dark and land safely at Leesburg Executive - our home base away from home (real home is of course KSBA).
The flight back went okay. Winds aloft were pretty stiff but not too turbulent. I added a bit of time on to the trip by following the highways a bit more due to it being night time. During the day you can land on a field safely if the engine goes but at night roads might be your best bet. I added a bit more time on to the trip by going around some hills.
Dulles airspace lies over Leesburg so pilots are required to come in pretty low on their approach. That's okay during the day when you can see and avoid hills, but my altitude wasn't high enough to make me feel safe coming in so I went the long way around to keep ground clearance.
The night landing was actually surprisingly smooth. The wind was high at the surface but mostly down the runway. Surface temperature was 25 degrees. We made it home safe and sound and made for the warmth of the pilot's lounge.
Trips home don't happen without a trip out though, and the trip out was the day before. We had planned to take off around 9 but pushed the flight back about an hour in order to allow for frost to melt.
The destination was KCHO - Charolttesville. We were going to visit with Will and Erik, two college friends, and their spouses. I went to school in Charlottesville but had never been to the airport prior to landing there.
We didn't fly direct. We made diversions to overfly Lake Anna and Lake Monticello. The first as it was a childhood vacation destination for my family and the latter so we could fly over Erik's house. We also took some time to fly over the UVA grounds to take some photos of my college.
Lake Anna
UVA
The flight out was uneventful and fun, the visit was awesome, and the return trip was, well, an adventure. Hour 92 in the books. More photos can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elpintorino/sets/72157638101280803/
In yet another installment of our sub-series on unintended adventures, I just had my appendix removed. Perhaps spurned by so many jokes at the expense of its vestigial nature, it did not go down without a fight.
Honestly, this isn't really a very unique adventure. It's pretty went down the same for me as it does for most folks in the modern world. In fact, rather than reading my notes on the subject, perhaps you could just watch this informative documentary. I've linked in to the middle to save you time, but I'm sure the intelligent youtuber can find the entire three part series if he or she desires.
For those more into the written word, the adventure begins on Sunday. I went to Reston to play some ultimate, eat some chicken wings, and hang out watching football. Pretty normal day. Tried some crazy-spicy wing sauce at the restaurant, but only a bit and that's probably not what did the appendix in...
I felt fine during the game and for the most part during the football game, though I had a bit of a gassy, bloated feeling towards the end. Having just had a few beers and a bunch of wings, that wasn't THAT unusual. We watched the end of the game at my parents house and hung out for a bit before heading to ANOTHER pub, to watch ANOTHER game. You know, a pretty normal day.
By the time we got there I didn't feel great. Really gassy, didn't really want any food but got some bread and beer to hopefully fill up my stomach and push the gas out. Felt pretty darned miserable by the time we left, which was late because on the east coast they play football until like 12 in the am.
By the time I got home, I was solidly miserable. Went to bed around 1:30 or so and kept getting up to try and use the bathroom but the gas pressure wasn't going anywhere. It was hard to get comfortable in bed.
I expected some ab and back soreness - on Friday I'd gone to the gym and done a bunch of heavy deadlifts followed by a high intensity interval set of ab exercises. Second day after is a common time for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS, we're no strangers). My stomach was really bloated and muscle swelling is actually associated with an extreme condition called rhabdo, but I had none of the other telltale signs and rhabdo usually affects de-conditioned athletes who attempt strenuous workouts with insufficient hydration. I've been a regular at the gym and I hydrate well so I kind of wrote that out too.
By 3 or 3:30am, I was pretty much unable to get comfortable in any position whatsoever and I'd actually started vocalizing my breaths as the pressure down there was making breathing hard and painful. Melch figured that this was the point where it was time to seek medical attention and I agreed.
I'm not sure why, but as I was getting dressed to go, it dawned on me that it could be my appendix. I have no idea why I thought of that as a possibility, but I hit wikipedia on my phone while waiting for Melch to get ready to go and their list of symptoms was my list of symptoms. In the car I asked melch if the emergency care place we were going to had the capability to perform surgery. They didn't, she said, but they could transport me if needed. That'd do.
I was having so much fun that I was crest-fallen if we got a light red. We got a few lights red.
We did of course eventually get to the emergency room and I was pretty out of sorts, kinda mumbling my name and birth date and all of that jazz to the admissions orderly. A nurse took my vitals, commented on my low blood pressure and we waited for the doctor.
I had told the nurse what I had going on and he told the doctor who then asked the resident he had in tow for a diagnosis. The resident said "appendix?" The doctor turned to me and said, "yeah, you need your appendix removed." 30 second diagnosis for the win - gets you to pain killers more quickly!
Not THAT quickly though - I waited for an MRI first but it wasn't forthcoming so then I got an IV and finally some narcotics that made life a bit better. I actually usually dislike narcotics like percocet or vicodin, but the heavier morphine and friends work out just fine for me - loopy enough that I don't care about anything and just get super friendly and talkative.
Changing venues
Anyway, they moved me from the emergency room to another hospital where I chilled out in my room waiting for the operation to be scheduled. Then it was off to prep where a bunch of people tell you a bunch of things and ask you a bunch of questions and make you sign a bunch of things even though you're way too high to deal with any of that competently.
Hanging in my new quarters
Surgery was a laparoscopic affair which means it works with small incisions, lasers, computers, cameras and sorcery. Apparently all of that went well. Which didn't mean that I felt well, just better than before and without the time bomb organ.
I won't get into the details of laparo recovery for a padendix, you can look them up if you're interested. The highlights: they've pumped your insides full of CO2 and cut 3 holes in the middle of you (the otherwise entirely accurate video above suggests only one). The holes hurt and the CO2 creates discomfort.
I think the beard cover was Melch's idea... No idea if the doctors left it on.
The fix is apparently "walking," but you're tired and sore and high and attached to an iv thing that you have to wheel around with you. But a-walking we did go.
Melch accompanied me and I actually had visits on my evening strolls from both my parents and hers, followed by a painkiller-supported attempt to sleep.
The following day the nurses felt like it would be a good idea for me to get up early and eat and walk. I felt like it would be a good idea for me to sleep in. The nurses won.
I went in early Monday am and left on Tuesday evening. Tuesday daytime was a mostly boring affair with walking, eating and surfing the internet as highlights. Daytime TV sucks. Hospital wifi sucks. But dying of appendicitis sucks more...
Anyway, I'm back home now. Eating normally. GI tract functioning... but not normally, yet. The first few days back were really sore in the abs, that's starting to go away, but the wounds itch and the gas is still keeping me up at night. Hopefully that'll improve soon.
I also can't lift weights or engage in strenuous physical activity. Which, aside from sitting at my computer and drinking beer... is pretty much what I do. This too shall pass though. The restriction will soon be lifted and I'll be back to more intentional adventures...
There's this conception out there that if you put time into one thing, you won't be good at other things. You'll hear people say that football players are idiots because they don't go to school or they're fat and out of shape because they value family or career or studies more or whatever.
It's true that there are only so many hours in a day, but I dispute the disconnectedness of studies, work, family, fitness and all the rest of it. The successes in one teach you discipline and give you confidence for the rest.
I've not been on the earth for too long yet, but even in my short time I've already seen several people get started down the road improving one facet of their lives and end up having that spill over into others. I like to think of it as "waking up." You can muck about without direction, going to work (if you even have a job), eating whatever's around or cheap or easy, watching whatever's on TV, hanging out with whoever's free and then going to bed whenever you feel like it and repeating it the next day. That's the "sleeping" part. Some folks sleep their whole lives, but some eventually wake up and realize that if they put their mind to it they can accomplish a bit more than that.
I don't know if he'd tell it the way I'm telling it, but from the outside looking in, it appears that my brother has "woken up" in the past year or so. He was working an okay job and having an okay life, but he wasn't happy with his fitness level or his career or his education. So he did something about it. He signed up for the gym (and actually went - signing up isn't impressive, but overcoming the daily excuses for a long period is), got a more promising job, transferred to a more challenging college, moved out of the house, and started playing ultimate for his new college.
I don't know if he's happier yet or perhaps too stressed to even know with all of the changes, but he seems to be looking and moving better than he used to.
As I mentioned in a few previous posts, I'm spending a bit of time in my old stomping grounds of Va, so one of the things I really wanted to do was make time to watch his college team. I never got to play college ultimate so I'm kind of living vicariously through him.
He had a tournament this weekend at Lake Fairfax which isn't too far from where we grew up. It's a bit of a hike from where I'm staying, but compared to the flight from Ca, it's nothing! I made it out to find them starting a game against Virginia Tech - the rival school to my UVA. The game was pretty normal for college pre-season. Some athleticism for sure.
A nice effort for an overthrown disc
Not always the best decision making, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I was very much rooting for GMU of course, but Tech looked to be the more experienced team.
My bro warming up
Drayas was playing on the defensive line - the guys whose job it is to get a turnover and then march it in for the score. This isn't like football where you get an interception, take a knee and then have the offense come on to wrap things up. In ultimate, you're out there until someone scores. The d-line kept getting turnovers but then turning them right back. Lot of effort but no points to show for it.
After 10 or so points, the defense finally put one in - my brother scored what in ultimate we call a "break." Like breaking a serve in tennis, if the defense scores when the offense is expected to do so, it's called a break.
Hangin' out in the endzone
GMU did end up losing the game, but it was closer than I first thought that it would be. It's not a huge deal in the grand scheme though - pre-season is about testing people and schemes out, not really about the winning and losing.
Speaking of testing things out, my brother was being evaluated to move up from the 'B' team to the 'A' team and on the strength of this fall's performance he made the cut.
He hasn't won nationals or cured cancer yet, but for a guy that was overweight and out of shape and had never played serious ultimate a year or two ago, it's quite the accomplishment. The easy thing would have been to stay asleep - keep coming home and goofing off, stay at the old comfy job with no future all of that.
He decided to shake things up though and while he's not done yet, he's added a notch on the belt for sure. I'm not sure if he's proud of himself, but I am and he should be. =)
My heart is breaking for my sister and the con that she called "love" When I look into my nephew's eyes... Man, you wouldn't believe the most amazing things that can come from... Some terrible lies...
~Fun - "Some Nights"
So I don't know how many lies were involved, but I ended up with a nephew just about the time this song made it big. His name is my name, although I think we're both named for my grandpa more than he's named for me.
Either way, I've committed to teaching him all of the things that a good uncle should teach a young boy. How to drive fast cars and faster planes, drink beer and whiskey (only AFTER the driving), stay up late playing video games and wear sunglasses indoors and... how to go on adventures!
I had planned on coming out to Virginia to meet him around now anyway, but we had to head over earlier for unrelated reasons. Either way I finally got to see what my sister was on about.
They say that all babies are the same, but that's just like all animals are equal: some are more equal than others. I think when you know you're related there's a bit of extra attachment.
Either way, here he is and I think he's kinda okay-looking. You can judge for yourself.
Jon Stewart had a small cameo in a Dave Chapelle stoner movie called "Half Baked." His character is an "enhancement smoker" - one of the stoners who always wants to use being stoned as a way to improve whatever he's watching or doing. You can check it out here if you're interested.
Anyway, I'm turning into an enhancement flyer. I like flying over places that I've visited to see what they're like from the air. No better place for that than Northern Virginia, where I spent the first 22 years of my life and almost none since.
Melch and I are in town tending to some family matters, but I managed to get some time to head out Leesburg Airport to get checked out to rent their planes.
Renting a plane isn't like renting a car. With cars, you show up at the rental place, they take your license, try and sell you shit that you don't need at prices that make no kind of sense at all, and then when you say no they point you out the door to a vehicle.
There are a lot more differences between planes than cars, so just having a pilot's license isn't enough to prove to another rental company (okay, their insurance company, really...) that you know what you're doing.
So when you want to rent a plane, you have to go up with one of their instructors - at your own expense - in order to prove to them that you know what you're doing. Imagine going to Herz and having them make you demonstrate parallel parking on both sides of the street, recovering from a skid, change a tire, check you oil and demonstrate all of the features of the infotainment system before they'd let you out the door.
It's hard to make a clean analogy because planes are a bit more complicated than cars and there are more maneuvers, but that's the idea. My check ride was 2.1 hours with a ground portion in the beginning and then a 1.1 hour flight.
I demonstrated that I knew about the DC "SFRA" or Special Flight Rules Area. The folks that run our country might be okay with buzzing most of the world with unmanned drones, but they don't really like to take what they dish out. So they set up a no-fly zone around DC and a "you can fly, but it's complicated" zone around that. Leesburg is outside of the NO zone and just on the outer edge of the "maybe" zone. So there are new rules to learn. That and the three class B (that's the busiest) airports in the Washington area: Dulles, National and BWI.
It's a bit of a stressful thing, being judged on your performance by a stranger, but the instructor was pretty friendly and I've been flying often enough that my skills were still pretty sharp. I don't do the PPL maneuvers like stalls and steep turns often, but they came back to me. Not my most precise flying ever, but it was safe and good enough for them, so now I can rent!
No photos today, but I do have a stop-motion video of the trip if you're interested.
A successful adventure of the best kind - this adventure unlocks future adventures. =)
Hour 83 was sort of last-minute. I hadn't flown in a few weeks due to the Portland trip. Some of Melch's co-workers had expressed interest in flying on Sunday, so I reserved a plane for then. Come Sunday they were no longer free, so I started looking for others. Tina and Emilio enjoyed their last flight, but they "slept in" until way after noon.
Flying on a pretty day in Santa Barbara is too attractive of a proposition though. A quick post to Facebook and I had some willing takers. Tony had flown with me before. Twice actually - hour 64 was a quick jaunt in the 152 and hour 70 was a trip out to Santa Monica for some Malibu coast and airport restaurant.
Olivia rocking out in the back seat. Thanks to her for all of these photos.
For Olivia, it was a first. Olivia is an awesome person that I knew from ultimate frisbee - years ago. She had moved to Pittsburgh with her boyfriend, gone on to graduate school and... graduated. I'd seen her the week before at pick-up on the beach in SB and she responded to my Facebook post with excitement. She asked what time, and I said "15 minutes from now." Lucky for us both, she was that flexible on a Sunday afternoon.
Pre-flight was straight-forward from start-up to taxiing for gas... right up to the point where a worker at Above All Aviation came running out to say that the plane we'd reserved, rented, and gotten going was actually grounded waiting for a test to come back from its 100 hour inspection. They hadn't put any notes to that effect, they let me reserve it... but they caught me just in time.
Lucky for us, 4637G was free as well, with just the perfect amount of gas. Too much and we'd be over max gross weight, too little and we wouldn't have the range. 7593X was free too, but that plane and I always seem to get ourselves into a little TOO much adventure. Speaking of 7593X, a student pilot just landed her on the 101 last weekend - presumably out of fuel. No word on what exactly caused the off-airport landing, but yet another adventure for 7593X.
4637G and I have a history as well, but a generally more positive one. We've been to Pismo a few times before. Hour 59 with Oura, and hour 30 with Vadim and Kyle, my instructor (I was still as student then). Other than some quick pattern work, I hadn't flown in her for a bit, but I did all my solo cross countries in 4637G and we were old friends!
Looking happy in 411BP - but it was not to be...
Anyway, we moved our gear over to 4637G did a quick pre-flight and took off for Pismo. The weather was good but windy, the rare down-canyon winds that have SBA using runway 33. We almost never take off in that direction - it was the first time I'd done it since getting my license.
Departing SBA for L52
There was a bit of chop on the way out of the SBA area, but once we climbed above the ridge line it smoothed out just fine. Winds were calm out at the destination and we did the usual Rock N' Roll Diner for dinner.
Here are some shots of the approach to Oceano:
The flight back was the same thing in reverse - not just the geographical reverse but the weather too. Nice and calm until we dropped below Gaviota Pt, then choppy all the way in. Landed on 33 as well - I think for my first time ever.
Although there was some anxiousness due to the winds, Olivia and Melch both help up okay and it appears that good times were had by all. In summary - another successful aerial adventure!
Erwin is a friend of Melch's from college that I met when I would visit her. He also lived near our parents' houses after he graduated so we saw him from time to time before we moved on to Santa Barbara and he moved on to Seattle. You might remember him from this earlier post.
Even though we now live quite a ways apart, we still manage to hang out pretty often. We've been up to Seattle, we've met up at the weddings of friends (and our own of course), we've gone to Blizzcon together, we've played games online and so on.
Erwin's friends are in many cases our friends too - folks that we've known since college or even earlier and the sort of friends where you meet up after a week or a month or three years and it's all the same - you just pick up where you left off.
As you can imagine, we were excited to attend his wedding to Janne Hyunh, a person we'd heard of but not yet met. He's Chinese, she's Vietnamese. That meant two sets of cool and new (to us) wedding traditions. The location was Portland.
Enough talking though, here are some pictures:
Supplies for one of the tea ceremonies. Yes, that's plural.
Jon and Jordan escorting each other stage left during the rehearsal
The bride-and-groom-to-be
Nice location
Getting ready for the tea ceremony
The actual thing happening. =)
Post-ceremony hangin' out
Totoro!
Sunset on the river
They had coloring books for kids of "all ages"
Erwin is not a dancer, but some occasions call for exceptional behavior
