After initially installing XP and transitioning it across multiple platforms over the years (not to mention all the SP updates on top of that), I found the other day a few low level, boot time devices that were failing to load or ‘Start’ correctly (i.e. Code 24 marked with an exclamation point when viewing Hidden Devices->Non-Plug and Play Drivers in Device Manager). Now, many of these were devices that were no longer even installed in the machine, so the fix for them was easy, uninstall them. Many of these were former drive and/or RAID controllers. While uninstalling them however, I noticed that PartMgr, an integral part of the Windows OS, and an important one as it controls how Windows communicates with all of your partitions, was still sitting there with an exclamation point, and an error that stated that the driver couldn’t start, was not present, etc., etc. When looking at its Properties, things became even more confusing as the Driver tab was telling me that the driver/device was started at boot-time, however was still stopped, not present, and failing for whatever reason. Searching the Internet, I came across a lot of people that have run into this issue, but not one that actually got the issue corrected. Being that re-installing Windows, doing an “in place, upgrade” was not an option, I dove into the issue and got things fixed up. For those out there that might run into the same, here’s how to correct it. . . [click to continue…]
Not much to type here, really… The video speaks for itself.
Early in my flight training, I’d often grab one of the video cameras we have here at work and take it to the flight school. I’d give it to a passenger or my instructor or stick it up on the dash in the window of the Cessna 172. I found a tape I’d shot late last year and threw together some of the better shots of the hour long flight. It’s certainly nothing amazing, but it does show you a little of how pretty flying around Savannah and the Coastal Islands of the low country can be — especially at twilight. Yeah, yeah… for those pro aviators out there, the landing leaves a bit to be desired, but, “Hey!,” it was only a little over a month into my training. And, as the infamous aviation saying goes:
Any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing.
Needless to say, after eight more months, my recent landings are straight down the runway center-line and a lot more coordinated.
You can click on the above image or link to check out the video… I’ll see what other video(s) I can dig out of the archives over the next few months and post more when time permits. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this short segment.
I’m not too sure whose idea it was to allow VFR (Visual Flight Rules) pilots — meaning you have to be able to see outside to avoid hitting things — to fly at night. Don’t get me wrong… It’s nice to not be grounded by the absence of the sun. For instance, it is great that you can take a flight in the late afternoon knowing that it will terminate well into night and be able to do so legally having only your VFR rating. It’s great that you can fly at dark, in darkness if you want. But, night is a little more than contradictory to the “visual flight rules.”
At night, there are plenty of times where you can’t see anything at all — no horizon, no lights, nothing. Times like these leave you having to rely on your instruments only. That’s not a bad thing and it’s not crazy scary or anything, but to me it is a little more than contradictory to what the VFRs constantly pound into your brain. Such was the case light night over open ocean (You can see last night’s flight in the above pic. Clicking it will take you to ‘Flight Watch’ where you can track all kinds of flights. Cool site… But, I’m wandering here…). So, yeah… last night’s night flight… I took off from Savannah and headed to open ocean, enroute to Charleston. When over water, you couldn’t tell the difference from a star versus the light on a buoy. If banked, turning 30 degrees (which is a lot), you can’t see the turn and you can’t feel it. (see JFK Jr.) You have to have total reliance on your instruments. VFR prohibits you from flying into clouds. Well guess what? At night you can’t see clouds until you’re in them. Then, when you are, you have this nice dimmly lit gray fog surrounding you that lights up with the strobes on your wingtips every second. It makes the propeller do that cool, disco strobe freezing thing. So, you have to fight your way back to ‘legal’ and get out of the clouds. That’s fun when they’re low and there’s lot of them. Then, you have to find your airport, which most incidentally have no runways lit for you. You need to turn on the lights yourself. (You do this with your radios by clicking the mic in succession.) Then, you have to land. You get some landing light from the plane cast on the runway when you’re about 50 feet from it.
All in all, night is quite an experience in an airplane. And, experience is something you’ll definitely want when you fly at night. Me… other than the flights that intentionally take me into nighttime, I’ll wait for those perfectly clear, full moon lit nights once I get my license.
So… Anyone want to go night flying?
