Monday, February 12, 2007

Flights of the Condor



Steve Wendt is here doing a scooter tow clinic and he had the enormous Condors out teaching people how to teach with them. They are HUGE! I feel like a tiny little thing hooked into one of those (and I am anything but tiny!). The pictures don't do them justice....they look even bigger in person.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Nasty Weather

I got several calls today from pilots in different parts of the world wondering if we were still on the map. Happily we are. But, it was a scary night! I've been through I think four hurricanes here at Quest and I was more scared last night than I ever was during a hurricane. We had very high wind, severe thunderstorms and numerous tornados touching down here in Lake County. Luckily none was too terribly close to us.

We had a cookout tonight at Jim Prahl's place where I learned that I wasn't the only one getting more than a bit worried during the night. The storm hit us around 4am and I laid in bed wondering if I should tough it out in my trailer and possibly end up like Dorothy or run through the pouring rain into the concrete block clubhouse. I though I was just being a sissy, but I learned tonight that everyone was having the same thought. Of course, my biggest worry was that my baby Damian (my Litesport) was all set up in the hangar. That might sound like a safe place, but this hangar we call the washing machine. It's not completely enclosed on any side, so sometimes things get tossed around in there. I was relieved to get up this morning and find him safe and sound, none the worse for the wear.

How to Have Fun Getting Whiplash!

At the Florida Mall in Orlando someone has come up with a great way to get really hurt. Inside a shop called Adrenaline, they have built an indoor surfing simulator. You surf on about 4 inches of water that is moving very fast across a somewhat padded (clearly not padded enough) "wave". Since I don't surf, I don't know how close it is to real surfing, but it sure is a blast.

Because we haven't had the best winter flying weather, we've been having to find new ways to entertain ourselves. This was a good one and I hope to get back there again as soon as I'm over the concussion and the neck spasms stop ;-)


Key Largo






I had a great couple of days in the Florida Keys a few weekends ago. I've always wanted to swim with the dolphins and I finally got the opportunity. My "dolphin training" partner was a sweet little girl named Adrian. She's in a few of the pics.

I'm amazed that after 5 years in Florida I'm still finding fun things to do when the flyingn is no good. The weekend in the Keys we had heavenly weather - mid 80's - and that's January! I wonder if I ever want to live anywhere else.