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!

Brian & Pam Depart for Switzerland

Just called Brian and Pam to wish them well on their trip. They are
moving to Bern Switzerland for 9 months. Busy with last minute
preparations, they depart tonight. I promise to take good care of
your Patriots season tickets Brian :-)

Morning IFR Lesson

The morning started with a clear blue sky and me arriving at the airport early. Ron had already put the plane in the hangar to defrost from yesterday's snow storm. Things were looking good for my IFR training flight. When Matt arrived we planned a flight out to Gardner for the VOR-A approach then up to Keene to do the ILS 2, returning to Nashua for the RNAV 32. I got the plane cleaned off, pre-flighted, and away we went. Heading out to Gardner. Since I was under the foggles I couldn't see out the windshield, but apparently things were turning sour out west faster than predicted. I had to descend to 2900 feet to stay below the building cloud layer. As we approached the Gardner VOR air traffic control sent us down to 2500 for traffic that was flying an approach at Orange, which utilized the Gardner VOR as well. I flew the full approach without an issue - until I missed the crossing of the VOR inbound. I had the GPS zoomed out too far and started my timer at the wrong point. This had me crossing the missed approach point at 2000 ft. It took my instructor to point out that I was way to far and now on a glide slope that intersected a hill on the other side of the airport. As I executed the missed approach, we could see snow squalls north of us towards Keene. We canceled our flight following and set a course back to Nashua. I had to descend to 2500 to stay VFR on the way back, as the cloud cover continued to get lower. Back at Nashua I could hear that the tower was busy handling a bunch of arrivals for a Daniel Webster safety seminar. However, Lenny got us in and down without a hitch, and even let me run all the way down the the Echo taxi way - right across from my tie down. Not quite the day of flying I was hoping for, but at least I got out there. I am just now realizing that I forgot to close the cowl flaps for the entire flight. Damn!!

Sensing Change

Sometimes you look back and realize something in the universe was trying to send you a message. It took a year after taking this photo to fully realize it, but the moment I saw this sign in Shanghai I knew something was up.

China Changes Everything

On a business trip to China in 2006 I came across a sign in Shanghai that would make quite an impact on me. I initially found the phrasing quite humorous and laughed out loud about it with a colleague I was with. I snapped a photo, as I am known to do, so I could remember the moment. I soon realized this little sign in an out of the way corner of a far flung location was a particularly appropriate metaphor for so much of what I was feeling about everything from politics to my personal life. Sometimes profound changes can come from the most unexpected places. I don't know what will come of this blog, but I needed somewhere to collect the seemingly trivial observations that I don't want to loose to the depths of my questionable long term memory.