Modern Software Development

I attended an interesting lecture tonight at MIT on the status of the Eclipse project. Vineet Sinha spoke at the session put on by Greater Boston Chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery. It was impressive to learn how far this platform has come and is a great example of the increasing influence and power of the open source community and the value that it can bring to businesses.

Flying in the Clouds

To cut to the chase, I got to fly in actual Instrument Meteorological Conditions tonight. It was an incredible experience. I am in the final weeks of getting my instrument rating added to my private ticket. I got a little IMC about a year ago out west, but tonight was the first time conditions were right during my regularly scheduled training. I filed for a short flight up to Concord NH. The ceiling was at 2500 ft with 10 mile visibility underneath. Shortly after departure, Air Traffic Control sent me and my instructor up to 4000 ft. We were routed the long way around Manchester air space so I got some good time in the clouds. Then we broke out on top in time to see the sunset across the vast stretch of clouds extending out to the west as far as you could see. As requested, I got the GPS approach to runway 12 (RNAV 12). Due to traffic, I was sent into a holding pattern until they cleared the approach. The flight back through the cloud layer was a bit bumpy and filled with rain, but I broke clear at 2000 ft with great visual conditions down to the missed approach point. I went back on top for the return to Nashua as ATC vectored me onto the ILS 14 approach. It started to get dark enough that I needed to light up the instruments. I had one of my best cross wind landings back at Nashua, gently touching the windward main gear down first just like I've read about. It was a thrilling experience and I look forward to more clouds and rain for the rest of April. Nights like this are why I fly!