Riding for Charity - MS - Ride the Rhode - June 8/9 2024

My partner Kerry's sister Jen has MS. Her mobility is severely compromised. A mile is a HUGE walk for her. She just about managed it in 2023 having not managed it at all in 2022. This year - with the help of her support team - she is hoping to "do the mile" at the West Orange NJ MS walk on the 21st April - walk starts 10:00 at Clipper Pavillion, 9 Cherry Lane, West Orange, NJ 07052

After the April walk - my own contribution will be the 100 mile ride as part of Bike MS: Ride the Rhode 2024 on June 8th. If I have anything left after the Saturday - I'll try the 35 mile on the Sunday.

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Flying in the Real World.........

Up for another three hour session on New Year’s Eve. Soft field and Short Field landings. Soft is pretty obvious – get out the grass and mud as soon as you can. Pop her into the air as soon as you can – then wheelbarrow her down the runway a few feet off the ground in ground effect till she gets up enough airspeed. Short is different. You do a mad amount of math about air pressure prevailing at the altitude you are at in the prevailing temperature and humidity.

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Solo........

KSFZ - North Central
KSFZ - North Central

I’ve been watching the weather like a hawk all week.  In among the winter fronts and gusts there is possibly going to be a quiet, clear, spot on Saturday for my morning lesson.

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Landings

I can now fly the plane in an elementary way and am considered “safe”. I can check it over, start up, talk to Clearance, then Ground Control, then Tower, then Departure.  Get it off the ground and put it where it is supposed to be in the sky – without falling out of the sky – and I can do the basic emergency drills to a degree considered OK – though the truth is – they all involve looking for a soft spot to get down on after you have blown out the fire with a dive or tried to start the engine and it has not.

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Thanksgiving Lesson

We are going to Minnesota for Thanksgiving. I’ll miss my lesson. I search around on the web and find a flying school at Crystal Airport just north of Minnesota. It is called “The Flying Scotchman”. It is surely fated that I fly here. I email them and a nice CFI called Steve Fischer agrees to take me up for a lesson on the Friday.

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A Flying Lesson

My partner has been very supportive of this undertaking. I talk to my instructor and he agrees she can come on a lesson in the back seat to see what it is all about. Realistically we will not be performing all our normal maneuvers as it can get a bit rough in back. It won’t be a wasted lesson because all time in the air is good. But I should understand that he won’t introduce anything new and we will keep it simple. That’s fine with me.  We take N503SP the more powerful plane for the extra weight.

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A Decision......

“What are we going to do next year?” – posed by my girlfriend. She was just back from a trip to Italy.
I was mulling over the fact that four different friends or clients were facing battles with cancer. I had hit the big 50 this year. If I didn’t do it now – I was never going to do it.

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