other

other, stories

The old adage says that the only constant in life is change. I sit here in a coffee shop down on the Kenai, exactly where I sat two years ago on the brink of beginning a new life as a classroom teacher, and now I am a few days away from beginning a new life, again, as a teacher in a new district. There are a lot of things that’ve changed, there are lots of things that are the same.

There were lots of times when I laughed until I cried and there were times I cried and cried and cried, but never cried until there was nothing left but to laugh. My childhood dream of flying has come true. I learned more then I ever thought there was to learn about life and death and happiness and sadness from my students and the community I was so lucky to call home. I have two lovely nieces now–I am excited to teach them to fly some day. So much life!

Thought on life and its constant change: the most important thing in the world is the time we share with the ones we care about.

Five or six years ago when I was quite close to finishing up my degree, I had this funny thought that I may someday go teach and fly in Alaska. It feels good to have made it! Now I have this funny thought that someday I’ll learn to fly instruments, get a commercial certificate and fly part 135 (charter/air taxi) in the summer time. It may happen, it may not, regardless it’s a fun funny thought to have :).

This is a haphazard post already, so how about one of my favorite book quotes? Yeah!

Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.

-Zora Neale Hurston, from “Their Eyes Were Watching God”

other, photography, stories

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This time, in Bettles!

I passed my checkride, got checked out in the Ercoupe, then buzzed around a few times to get comfortable. Then it was time to sally out on my first real xc trip as a private pilot. The trip–going and returning–was both beautiful and challenging. Some weather gave me a pretty good run for my money on the return trip. Lots of zigging around cloud obscured hills, refiguring my route when I couldn’t make it the way I’d planned. It was tiring but a great experience, and it helped me to realize just how much I appreciate the things that Forest taught me :). To top it off, there was a stunner of a big blue sky in Bettles saturday evening–combined with the photogenic Ercoupe, it made for a lovely panorama. I highly recommend the Bettles Lodge–the staff is super friendly and the lodge is beautiful.

other, photography

Well, yeah, what now? What does one do after coming to a grand crossroads?

In this particular case the answer is trivial: jump in an Ercoupe and go joyriding :)

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other, stories

I am prone to write here, possibly to a fault, about how I have wanted to fly as long as I can recall–I spent large amounts of my childhood jumping off of things to get a tiny little bit of the thrill of flying, yada yada yada. I’ve posted about ‘milestones’ here–my first flight lesson, my first rotary wing lesson, my first solo. In this mortal coil the happy milestones we pass sometimes terminate at a crossroads, one of those beautiful places in life with big surreal views of life and all it is. In those places, we chose where we will go next. I came to a crossroads yesterday.

I’M A PILOT! HAH HAAAA! WHOOOHOOOOO!

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other, stories

I have a little story to tell. It starts just like one my regular summertime days here in fairbanks–I get up around 8, eat a bowl of cereal, brush my teeth, go to the coffee shop to get coffee (surprise, right?), read the comics and get the weather report for my flight lesson, which is usually at 10. The weather looked good. I was excited to go fly–the previous day, I’d done well with my landings and I was eager to do it again. We did pattern work, and sure enough I was landing safely and correctly each time–Forest* didn’t even have to say anything, or touch any of the controls. It felt good. At the end of the lesson Forest says: why don’t you come back at 1:30? We’ll do another lesson. Cool, I thought! If I keep this up, I’ll be able to land really well every time in a week or two, then maybe I’ll be able to solo!

I come back at 1:30, and we do more pattern work. It went well, just like the morning lesson. I was close to getting my landing on target each time, and it felt good. At the end of the lesson, for some reason, Forest asked for plane right after we landed–which is funky, usually he lets me taxi and park. Funky, but ok, I’m sure there’s a good reason. I take my hands and feet off the controls and Forest takes the plane. He fast-taxis (like taxiing, but, well, fast. about 40mph) down the runway, turns on the taxiway, then immediately pulls off the taxiway into some random parking spot. Funky, but ok, I’m sure there’s some reason. Forest pulls out airplane logbook and logs the flight, puts it away, then pulls out my logbook from the behind-the-seat wall pocket and begins to log the flight lesson. Funky, but ok, I’m sure there’s some–oh. Uh. Now he has turned to the back of my logbook and is filling in the student solo-flight forms. Oh. Ohhh. At this point, I say something like “Ummm..Forest..you’ve got my gears turning here..I’m kinda wondering..” and he smirks for a moment, then finishes filling out the form.

“Just keep doing what you’ve been doing. You need three takeoffs and landings–come back and pick me up when you’re done. Don’t forget, you need to call ground to ask to taxi for takeoff. Oh and hang on a second, I need to get my coat. Ok, go have fun.”

And with that, Forest hopped out of the plane, closed the door, and lit a cigarette.

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That’s my logbook. See the second line up, where it says “solo?”
*”Forest,” i.e. Forest Kirst, CFII, is the flight instructor I’ve been learning from. He is outstanding.
ideas, other, stories

I spend some time here & there thinking about why I fly. The trivial answer is: because I like to! Of course this begs the not trivial question: why do I like to fly?

Try this: look away and close your eyes for about 30 seconds, and before you open them take three deep & slow breaths. Exactly when you open your eyes, not a moment later, observe the object that happens to be centered in your gaze. What color is it, how is its texture? Is it old or new? Good. Now think about how you saw that object when you opened your eyes. Hopefully there was a fleeting moment, a peculiar moment, in which you saw things differently. Like a quickly fading dream or deja vu, the moment you think about it, it is gone. Dust blown into the wind.

Now. Imagine: when you closed your eyes, suddenly you popped into an other world. This is a magical world–it looks a lot like the one we live in, but also somehow looks different. There are different rules, all sorts of terrifying things that can kill you very very quickly, and  best of all, a new type of freedom you’ve never felt before. You have been well trained for the dangers and rules, and you can handle them without too much worry or panic. You can spare some time and energy to soak up the beauty and freedom of this mystic world. And when you open your eyes you are back in this world–you don’t see just one thing newly, you see it all. The whole world. The problems, the pain, the beauty, the suffering and the laughter, you see anew. You stop and smell a flower.

Just like when you closed your eyes a minute ago, this moment fades too. A bit slower, albeit. Soon, maybe ten minutes or maybe a few hours, you have re-calibrated and you function in this world just as you did before you closed your eyes. Well, almost. There is a residual after effect…you are a little bit calmer and a little bit happier. And you remember the other world. And you will be back.

That other world is the sky, and that is why I like to fly.

other

Roy–an insecure middle aged man who–most of the time–is a complete a**. Once in a while he opens up and you see the hurting person inside.

Brian–happy go lucky, Forest Gump-ing his way through life, and mostly unbeknownst to him, madly searching for something, something which he doesn’t know what it is.
—
Roy: I chickened out, I didn’t go. Think about all the bad things that could happen!

Brian: Who knows! Who cares! Roy, you gotta be a ten-percenter!

Roy: Huh?

Brian: A ten percenter, like me. See, I’m constantly trying stupid and outrageous stuff, right? Ninety percent of the time it just blows up in my face, but that’s ok, because I rarely use my own name [tongue in cheek].

*pause, for comic effect*

Brian: See, the other 10% of the time when it pays off, it is, a high, like you would’t believe.

Roy: Damn. Why didn’t I have the guts to go.
—
I love Brian Hackett’s philosophy. Brian Hackett is a character in the wonderful 90’s show Wings. Granted, I like for things to work out, generally, more then 10% of the time, but his reasoning is almost dead-center with how I like to live life day to day and year to year. All of the face plants and horrific foot-in-mouth moments and the grinding years of working for some extremely tenuous possibility–it is all worth it for that one moment when I bet and the chips fall my way and oh baby hang on because I am going soaring in the stars. As Babe Ruth says: “I like to swing big, with everything I’ve got. I hit big or I miss big.”

other, stories

–is its dynamic nature.

I mean, we are talking crazy. This is teleporting from the surface of pluto to the surface of the sun in oh, like, 15 minutes.

Ok..so, to be honest, maybe sometimes it is too dynamic. But not often. Most of the time, the worst of the worst comes right before the type of great day that makes me want to sit and stare out the window and savor the feeling and not forget it ever, ever, ever.

Like friday* was one of those beautiful days. Incredible. I worked really, really really hard and used every trick I know, and it all worked. Clockwork. Swiss clockwork with half a gazillion ruby crystal bearings. The kids understood me well, they worked hard, they were helpful, and everybody learned and had fun. Lovely. Did I mention that thursday was positively hell on wheels?

I think this dynamic nature of teaching appeals to me so because it tells of the human condition. Generally, a rough day for me means that one or more of my students was having a bad day. When a day goes from being the worst day ever to being the best day ever (for me, that is), that correspondingly means that one or more of my students exhibited some great resilience and heart and went from having a miserable time to having a hoot: smiling, laughing, and learning. And I love that about humans, resilience and heart and the ability to recover and stand up and do well. And when I see that in my students, well, lets just say the stark beauty of it has gotten me misty-eyed on more then one occasion.

*This was from sometime late april ’14, written on a monday.

diomede, other

Well, two years is much less time then what I wanted, but so it goes. So it goes. Farewell, Diomede–I’ll miss you. I’ll miss my students. I’ll miss those kiddos. A lot. I’ll miss my coworkers who also are some of my best friends. I’ll miss the store and the summers and the smiles and the friends and the wild experiences and the friday night ball and the birds and the crab and the eskimo food. There are many more things I am thinking and feeling about having to leave Diomede; it all needs time to mull about and settle, though. Right now I’m light and the ‘thinking’ and heavy on the ‘feeling,’ and the feelings are largely composed of sadness and frustration.

One chapter ends, another begins. While I am sad to have to leave the island, I definitely am excited to work in Lake & Pen, and I’m excited about lots of flying, reading, writing, music, and drawing this summer. Well, ok. Realistically, probably only two or three of those things (I tend to say I’m going to do more then I actually do).

Also: an hour before our ride arrived the weather had cleared out enough and I launched my rocket. The cloud ceiling was at maybe 1500-2000, and she punched through it quicker then you can say bub’s your uncle. The sound was truly awesome. Launching big rockets is something I would like to do more often.

Liftoff
Liftoff
Farewell, Diomede
Farewell, Diomede
The crew
The crew
diomede, other

This is what it’s like to fly in to Nome in a Bolkow Bo-105 in the springtime. Moderate breeze, good pilot with a steady hand.

Pardon the two ‘oh I should rotate ninety degrees here’ moments. I thought it’d be cool to be able to see what the pilot was doing better, but when I’m taking video I tend to forget that I can’t just, like, rotate part of the video so that it’s all right side up. I don’t shoot video very often.

Also, this is a pretty good approximation of the view from the back seat:

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diomede, other

She’s finished. Permanent-marker coloring job, parachute and shock cored rigged and attached, motor loaded.

Today (the last day of school!) was rocket day, the kids fired off all of their rockets, I didn’t launch mine though–visibility wasn’t too good, ceiling of maybe 400′. I’m hoping for a clear morning. In the past half hour (it’s 2:30am now) things started to clear up a little bit, so there’s hope!

Also, there are a couple pictures of the fleet of my students. All launches were successful! I have more photos, but they are all of students working on their rockets, so I shouldn’t post them (privacy). I don’t have any photos of the launches, as I was rather busy at the time :)

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diomede, other, stories

More rocket building! She is almost ready to fly. I skipped a step involving putting glue into a spot I firmly believe there is no way to get to without some specialized tool (super narrow and long glue syringe?), which I don’t have. The glue was to firmly connect the fins to the body tube, so I figured I’d just make some mega epoxy filets on the outside. Same thing, right? Actually no, because epoxy is way heavier then CA glue, so she’ll need a CP/CG check once everything else is done. Basically: if the center of gravity (CG) is too far aft (i.e., behind this rockety thing called the “center of pressure,” or CP) the rocket naturally goes into a turn–not a spin, a turn–as soon as it’s in flight. Turning rockets are bad juju. Speak of bad juju, I will add–at risk of jinxing this whole thing–that I am a wee bit worried that the fin mount rings aren’t well-enough secured to the motor tube. If that concern bears fruit (weird way to say it? yup), then the motor and motor tube will blast through the rocket and fly god-knows-where, spinning and turning and corkscrewing at speeds extraordinarily unbecoming for such behavior. Exciting! I believe I will wear scientist goggles and hide behind a piece of plywood for the launch.

:)

Checking the fin mounts for alignment in the body tube
Checking the fin mounts for alignment in the body tube
Fins mounted!
Fins secured!
Final motor mount centering ring epoxied in and fin root filets done. She's close!
Final motor mount centering ring epoxied in, launch lugs mounted, and fin root filets done. She’s close!
Thanks to willis for storing his tripod in my classroom, for without it this selfie would not have been possible!
Thanks to willis for storing his tripod in my classroom, for without it this selfie would not have been possible!
other, stories

The last week of school is: Rocket Week!! This year I decided to take part in the fun. I’ve wanted to shoot off a big model rocket for a while, and when I was buying model rocket motors in Anchorage back in August I simply couldn’t not pick up the largest motor they had that didn’t require a license (an Aerotech G80-10, for the interested). When I ordered rocket kits for the kiddos, I also ordered a big rocket for the big motor.

Since next week is the last week, today was building time! The motor mount is all done (approximately half the work). It was very interesting and kinda fun to put together: unlike the small rockets I’ve made before, this model’s design manifests significant thought towards distributing the motor’s impulse effectively to the body through surface to surface joints and not through cement/glue/epoxy joints. Which is to say it made me feel a little bit like a rocket scientist as I worked.

Also, according to a youtube video, this sucker should get to 2000 to 3000 feet, traveling at 600+ mph. Yeah! Awesome!

Er..also..yeah..that does make me a little nervous. Did I mention the launch-button-controller thing has all of twenty feet of wire between the switch and the alligator clips? I’m seriously considering building a plywood box with a narrow-slit-window from which to control/launch/video the launch.

Reading instructions and looking at diagrams
Reading instructions and looking at diagrams
Checking the fin mounts for proper alignment. The fins, which mount through the body, transfer the motor's impulse from the motor mount to the rocket's body. Cool, huh?
Checking the fin mounts for proper alignment. The fins, which mount through the body, transfer the motor’s impulse from the motor mount to the rocket’s body. Cool, huh?
everything ready for epoxy? ready! ready-set-mix! and apply! Go go go! ... that's kinda what goes through my mind when work with a very, very very limited supply of 5-minute epoxy.
everything ready for epoxy? ready! ready-set-mix! and apply! Go go go! … that’s kinda what goes through my mind when work with a very, very very limited supply of 5-minute epoxy.
One motor mount ready to go. Not seen: the cool internal steel-ribbon baffling designed to cool the gasses from the ejection charge before they reach the fragile lightweight parachute. Rocket science, folks.
One motor mount ready to go. Not seen: the cool internal steel-ribbon baffling designed to even out and cool the gasses from the ejection charge before they reach the fragile lightweight parachute. Rocket science, folks.