Benny Bob & Phantom Episode 1 !

Benny Bob & Phantom Show Episode 1 from Deodorant on Vimeo.

http://bennybobandphantom.com/

Episode 1 is finally up!
Enjoy!

Slow Times

My Uncle went away for Thanksgiving.
My Instrument Instructor just got back from Miami.
Weather's been crappy.
Work's been picking up.

This has all been leading to another rut in my training.
I feel like the holidays are 2 little speed bumps slowing down the process.
I'm going to try really hard to have my Instrument done by Christmas.
After New Years I will buckle down and finish off everything else.
My goal is to still have everything done by May/June.

I've never really had a job where I look forward to going in.
Maybe it's because money.
Maybe it's because of the weather.
Maybe it's because I find myself bored more than usual.
But I guess it's nice not to loathe a job.
I could even see myself doing it part time once I'm an instructor.

Ah well.
I'll probably make a post from Pittsburgh this weekend.
I'll be there a couple days for deer slaying with my Pops.

I've been lacking on the pictures lately because it's pretty ugly down here.
Like I said before, grass turns brown, leaves fall off.
Nothing to really capture down here.
Maybe I'll get some new things up in the 'Burgh.

Are You Kidding Me???

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Mid-Air Breakdown

THIS is pretty weird.
A pilot in Canada had to be restrained after having a nervous breakdown in mid-flight.
After the Captain asked the stewardess to find a passenger who was qualified to help out, she admitted to being a commercial pilot and helped land the plane.

I don't think I'm ready yet...
But I would love the opportunity to help land a plane like that.
I'd carry that on my sleeve all through training and job interviews.
Be like..."Yeah, I saved 200 lives one time in my flight training because the pilot of this plane I was on flipped out and I had to heroically jump in the cockpit and land the plane safely."
Yeah right, keep dreaming Adam.

I Miss The Snow ... 180.6

Still not much going on down here.
Works been picking up due to the holidays coming.
I don't mind too much because it'd be nice to save a little bit more cash.
This Instrument stuff is real hard and taking a little bit more time than I thought.
When the kid that was instructing me gets back from his vacation I may give him some more cash and get more hours with him.
In the mean time I've been starting to get together my things for my CFI.
It's going to take me months of just reading, studying, and outlining to get through my CFI and there's no reason why I can't start now.
When there are days in a row where I don't fly, I need to be doing something.
My goal is to have everything done by June 2009.
That way it would have taken me exactly 1 year and that's when my loan payments start and I'd like to have a flying job to pay for them.
I think after the holidays things will flow a little better.
We'll see.
Just gotta keep on keepin' on.

Nothing

I don't really have anything to post about this past week.
Work is starting to picking up due to the holidays and I've been doing some book studying.
I have a couple lessons this week with my Uncle but with Thanksgiving coming I may have some down time with training.
I'm going to fly as much as I can to just build my hours.

I've been trying to update my little Twitter thing over there ---> as much as I can.
More to come with there is more.

Boredom

It's a crappy day outside.
I've been up since 4AM because I had to work.
Probably going to take the day off from flying.
So what do I do?
Take pictures of myself.







and now for the odd ball...

Autumn in Atlanta - Part I

I've only gone out once so far to take some Autumn pictures.
These are all just taken in the front/back yard.
I need to get out before they fall off.

Enjoy...

Lunch in Pittsburgh

I found out last night that my Uncle wanted me to tag along to Pittsburgh today.
Woke up and him, my Aunt, and I headed up.











The flight up was pretty uneventful until we got to Pittsburgh and had to descend through the clouds.
The temperature was below freezing at the altitude so we ended up picking up some light ice on the plane.
Eventually we got below the clouds and everything was fine.

Had lunch with family and headed back to the house.
Since I didn't have a lot of time in town I just stuck with family for the day since I didn't want to get lost somewhere and be late for our return flight.
My Mom and I just ended up going to Ross Park Mall to do some Xmas shopping but it was pretty crowded and I wasn't feeling it.
Came back and just bummed around for a little while before we had to leave again.

The flight back was interesting to say the least.
As many of you in Pittsburgh know, it was a pretty cold, cloudy day.
Well clouds are water and water turns to ice below freezing.
So we took off and started to climb to 10,000 feet.
We made it to 9,500 feet before the plane stopped climbing.
There was about 1.5 inches of ice on the plane so with the combines weight and reduction of aerodynamics...the plane said enough's enough.
We dropped back down to 6,000 and then eventually 4,000 to break off the ice.
In the process of the ice popping off the plane, a piece hit the tail and chipped off a pretty decent piece of paint of the tail.



After that the flight was once again pretty uneventful.
It was dark and we were still popping in and out of cloud decks.
Ended up flying right over downtown Atlanta, which was pretty cool at night.

Sorry to anyone that I could have seen but I didn't.
I will be back up after Thanksgiving.
I need to sleep now.
Go Pens.

Tour of my iPhone

It's a slow day here in the ATL.
Weather's starting to get nasty so it's looking like a day spent indoors.
Instead of taking this time to do something constructive I have decided to use the iPhone feature of taking screen shots and post a picture of all my iPhone Apps and what each one is.
A tour if you will.
If nothing else, I hope it makes some of you go out and buy one so we can utilize some of the iPhone to iPhone features.



You may need to click on it to see it better...or...
Here's a link to the largest version.

I wont give descriptions of all of them because some, like Clock, are self explanatory.
Plus the main buttons...Phone, Text, Email, Ipod....stay at the bottom at all times.

**************

Page 1

Calendar
Clock
Safari - Internet Browser
App Store - Where I get all these toys
Calculator
Notes
Maps
Camera
Mobile Fotos - The Flickr App
Pano - Creates Panorama pictures by merging 2-4 pictures
Camera Bag - Puts filters on photos, surprisingly decent
Photos
Weather Bug - Best weather app hands down...radar, outlook, video, & 24/7 live cameras
Aero Weather - Lets me see weather at any airport in an easy to read format
Contacts
Settings


Page 2

Around Me - Locate food, stores, etc around you by GPS
YP Mobile - Yellow Pages
Weather Eye - Another decent weather app
Weather
Wikipanion - Wikipedia app
BofA - Bank of America
PayPal
eBay
AIM
Facebook
MySpace
Google Earth
Say Who - Pretty cool push to dial app, useful when driving
Doodler - Doodle on photos and lets you add talk bubbles


Page 3

Wunder Radio - Access to NHL & NFL radio feeds, along with Pittsburgh radio
AOL Radio - Decent internet radio
Stitcher - Needs work, not very useful
Pandora - Best music app, even had The Vacancy on it!
iheartradio - Getting better, lots of good talk radio
Fly Cast - Pretty good radio app
Midomi - Identifies songs by capturing it or you can hum a part to it
i.TV - Lists the channel guide to most cable companies
YouTube
Movies - Showtimes, Trailers, Reviews for movies and DVD's


Page 4

Pensblog - The one and only
EmptyNetters - Quietly dominating
TSN
ESPN NHL
Pens.com
Steelers.com
AFC North - My favorite football blogger
Pro Football - Scores, standings, schedules, and real time game time stuff
Easy Writer - Lets me write and save emails, blogs, texts using the iPhone sideways
Twitterific - App that lets me easily update my Twitter box
Blogger - Link to this page
Blog Writter - Easily lets me update the blog


Page 5

AOPA - Link is over in My Links section
Zululog - Lets me update my online pilot logbook
FltPlan - Information on destination airports
Pilot Wiz - AMAZING pilot app, tons of calculators and flying tools
Av Wx - Aviation Weather
Nav Monster - Another perfect pilot app, my personal favorite
100LL - Aviation fuel prices by airport
X-Plane - Flight simulator
iWingX - Another free, but still decent, pilot app
AV Mobile - Ditto
Pilot Prep - Private, Instrument, & Commercial Test Prep app


Page 6

FSS Hockey - Air Hockey
reMovem - Something about getting rid of balls
iGolf - Swing your iPhone to hit the golf ball, just don't let go
300 Bowl - Flick to bowl
iBowl - Swing your iPhone to throw the ball, once again, don't let go
Jelly Car - Real fun
Trace - Another simple but fun game
Air Hockey - Another Air Hockey game
Cro-Mag - Cave Men racing
Vegas Pool - Fun pool game
FP Lite - Dancing fighters, or is it fighting dancers?
iBaseball - Throw your iPhone to throw the ball, but not really
FourFree - Connect four
Sol Free - Solitarie
iDoodle2 - Doodle your head off
Cannon Game - Remeber that old MS-DOS game where the monkeys throw the banannas


Page 7

SB2 - Pong-ish
Space Monkey - Pretty fun
Zippo Lighter - Impressive
Cameraman - Spot the differences, like that bar game
Light Saber - A nerds dream
Wooo Button - WOO!
Alarm Free - Beeps when you drop your iPhone, pretty dumb
iChalky - Top 5 app ever
Marble Mash - Guide the ball around the holes
iBall3D - Guide the ball around the holes...in 3D!
Pac-Man - Free version, real one is 10 bucks
Maze Finger - Trace along the correct route otherwise FAIL


Page 8

iTunes
Stocks
Units - Converts any unit to another unit
Translator - Converts and language to another
iTalk - Recorder
MiniPiano - Sweet
MiniSynth - Even better
Pocket Guitar - Could be better
Flashlight
Dual Level
Big Oven - 160,000 different recipes in 1 little button
Gas Bag - Locates gas prices around you using GPS

************

Well there you have it.
Half way through typing all that I was like....really!?
What a waste of time.
I gotta go do something worth while to make up for the 20 minutes of my life I just lost.

Obamarama

One of my daily routines is to browse through a lot of the top pictures on Flickr. The past 2 days almost 40% of the pictures are hand written notes to President Obama. Maybe I'm just so used to everyone hating Bush that I forgot what it's like to actually LIKE our president.

One of my favorites said..."You made us love what you SAID, now make us love what you DO".

RIP Michael Crichton

There was a time a couple years back that I read books like crazy.
One of the authors that I always went back to was Michael Crichton.

He wrote such things as Jurassic Park, Lost World, Prey, State of Fear, Congo, Sphere, 13th Warrior, Timeline, and Terminal Man. He was also the creator of the TV series ER.
None of his stuff, besides maybe Jurassic Park and ER, were ever really huge...but at a time when I was just getting into books his stuff was a pretty solid read.

Crichton was just a solid author who wrote simple yet fun to read books and I for one will miss his work.
He was only 66 and died from a cancer he kept hidden from the public until the day he died.

Short Days

What's with it getting dark at 5PM?
Feels like the day is over but it's currently 6.
Pens play in an hour.
Sweet.
My Dad and maybe my brother will be making a voyage to the ATL.
I have a couple posts started about my flight to Pittsburgh and my current training.
It's been a whirlwind lately so I haven't had much time to do anything.
My lessons with this kid Marcus have been going great.
I feel that I may have this Instrument stuff down in a couple weeks.

New America

I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I know a lot about politics. This will be a rare, if not the only, political post. But did anyone else wake up this morning feeling a little better about things? I know that I did. Even though its going to be a long, hard fought battle to fix what's been happening, I for one feel a little bit better with Obama behind the controls.

I've never really been a political person. George W. has been in office for as long as I've been old enough to care who the president was. But times are bad. I know a handful of people that have lost money through this economic crisis, including my Dad. I'm a firm believer that this is natural regression and it was only a matter of time before something like this happened and it fixed itself. To use an aviation analogy, it's like how the aviation industry is kind of struggling right now but there isn't a lot of new pilots coming out. So in a couple of years when the industry levels off and they need pilots, they are going to be hiring like crazy. Same goes with the economy. Things are bad now, but it's leaving windows open for new people to invest and make money. But then again I don't really know what I'm talking about. I'm just quoting Warren Buffet and how he's telling everyone that now is the time to "buy America".

This is also the first time in my life that I actually see people standing behind the new president. Including me. I've never been patriotic. Mainly because I've been against a lot of things that have been going on the last 8 years. If Obama turns things around and reinstates the American Dream then for the first time in my life I would be happy to wave the Red, White, and Blue. I'm proud of the change that took place yesterday. America voted unanimously for change. They voted in a man whose name is Barrack Hussein Obama. America literally said enough is enough and is willing to put past differences of race and color aside to unite and back a man who is the symbol of hope.

Well that is enough of my rant. You can thank my Mom for calling me and knocking me off track. Moral of the post is that change is coming and welcome to the New America.

From The Cockpit

My sister just informed me I don't post enough. I agree. So starting today I'm going to make a bigger effort to post more. For instance I'm sitting in the plane right now waiting on my instructor. Talk about dedication!
More to come later.

Twitter

I'm slowly becoming more of a blogging nerd.
After looking at a couple of other people that have similar websites as me, I've been copying some ideas.
My newest venture is Twitter.
It's the new box right over there ---->

Basically what I can do now is update that little box with what I'm doing at any given time.
Instead of typing something like....I'm out flying in a post like this one, I can post that little tidbit right over there.
It changes anytime I update it and you can see how long ago I updated by the time on the bottom of the box.
Plus if you click on the "follow adamvacancy" link, then you can see all the updates you may have missed since last checked.

We'll see how long I stay consistent with it, but I think it could be pretty cool.
I guess it'll be worth it if I update all the time so you guys can know what I'm doing at all times....but really it's not that glamorous and the more I try to explain it, the cheesier I find it.
But whatev.
Even if it entertains 1 person out there then I'll do it.

Oh and the little updates at called Tweets.
As if the word Blog wasn't bad enough.
Now there is Blog AND Tweet.

Flight Lessons Start Tomorrow ... 160.7

Like the title says..
My Instrument flight lessons start tomorrow. My Uncle can't sign off on all the training because he doesn't have his Instrument Instructor thing. There's a kid at the flight school who's cutting me a deal and I'm going to get the needed 15-20 hours with him. Plus the nice thing about him is he's free and looking for hours, so I think I'll be flying with him twice a day until I'm ready to take my Instrument (which I feel that I may be able to bang out by AT LEAST Thanksgiving).

We flew to Macon, GA today to work on / bring home a broken down Twin Star.





The people using it yesterday had to be picked up because the right engine died and they couldn't getting working. We got there and my Uncle was working on it for awhile and eventually on his takeoff roll the engine died again and had to call it quits. Eventually we abandoned it again and flew to get some fuel. Pretty uneventful flight. I had a pounding headache and we shot an Instrument approach which hurt my head even more.

I still need to post about Pittsburgh.
It's coming.

Testing iPhone toy

Got this new app on the iPhone, which let's me update my blog where ever I may be.
This may help me update more because I know I've been lacking. I still need to type up the story of the Pittsburgh trip last weekend.
I'll do a bigger post soon, just been busy and/or lazy.

Week in November

Alright I'm just gonna put this out there.

Tues, November 18 - Kings of Leon
Thurs, November 20 - Pens vs. Thrashers
Sat, November 22 - Eagles of Death Metal

Someone take a vacation at work and come to Atlanta that week.
If you buy your round trip tickets ($150-200), I'll buy all your tickets for the shows/game.

My mom was able to find round trip tickets for $170 bucks.
Go to Air Tran's website for the cheapest ticket prices.
Look to fly in that Tuesday morning or afternoon and leave early Sunday.
Do it.

I'm posting this on here to make it easier to pass it around to peeps.

Benny Bob & Phantom Alternative Teaser

The Benny Bob & Phantom Show Alternate Teaser from Deodorant on Vimeo.

The dudes are still hard at work on the show.
To better pass the time they cut a new teaser.
Watch it.
It'll leave you wanting more.

Passed, passed, & passed

Instrument test - 82%
Instrument Instructor test - 90%
Instrument Ground Instructor test - 80%

I was trying to get in the 90's for all 3 but I still got above and 80 which is well over passing.
The tests were basically all the same. None were harder than the others and some questions even repeated. The only probably I had was, by the time I got to the 3rd test I was about 3 hours in, so I was a little fried.
But whatever.
That part is done.
Now I move onto my Instrument flight training.
I don't think it's going to be as grueling as I thought...in fact I already meet a lot of the requirements and all I really need to do is tighten everything up and learn how to shoot approaches and learn how to hold.

I'm going to start early on my Commercial ground test as well and begin studying for that in a couple days. For those of you that I've been trying to explain the steps that I have to take to get all my training done....I have created a visual guide!
I will try to put a thumbnail on the right side of the site but I'll probably update it every time I can cross something off.



There are a couple miscellaneous things missing from the list but that's the meat of my training.
The other things I could have added were the Tail Wheel endorsement, Seaplane, High Altitude endorsement, and the big daddy of pilot certificates...the ATP Certificate (Airline Transport Pilot). But I wont be going for that for awhile and it's extremely hard and expensive. Future jobs will usually pay for that one.

Besides all that I think I'm coming to Pittsburgh this weekend.
I wont be getting in until late Friday night and probably will be up at my parents camp all weekend until I leave. I'll be back the weekend after Thanksgiving though for some chill time.

We will be flying up in the Cessna 182RG...





I love this plane.
It's fast, we wont need to stop for fuel, and its a freaking TANK.
My mind changes on a daily basis, but the Cessna 182 is probably my favorite plane.

That should about do it for now.
As I was typing this post I ended up putting the checklist --->
I'll keep updating it.

Flight training starts Friday.

Tests today ... 149.3

I said I was taking the tests Tuesday but last minute my Uncle asked me if I wanted to fly him around in the Twin Star all afternoon. It was free for me (normally $400 an hour) and I was still able to bring my laptop with me and study while he did his thing.

Feeling pretty confident about the test. Another reason why the iPhone is sweet...I was able to get a application on it with the Instrument tests question database. I'm able to take practice tests ON MY PHONE.

What I have to do is take the main Instrument test, which is 60 questions. A score of 70% or higher is needed to pass. But the closer you get to 70%, the more the you will be questioned on the Instrument oral exam before the checkride.

After that I have to take the test 2 more times. But each of those only consist of 50 questions. At first I thought this was cool, but then I realized that it means I cant miss as many questions. What those 2 tests do are clear the way for me to be a CFII (Certified Flight Instrument Instructor) & IGI (Instrument Ground Instructor). I wont be able to utilize the Instructor stuff until I become a CFI, but it'll get it out of the way now that way I dont have to re-study all this stuff later.

I'll post the good/bad news on here once I get back!

New Layout !!

Finally got around to changing up the site.
Still needs some tweaking.
Trying to clean the whole thing up.
If there are any problems with viewing anything please let me know in the comments.

The one thing that I noticed, and it was even a problem with the old layout, is the pictures that I posted were too long and the right side of them were cutoff.
To fix this problem I will be shrinking the pictures by 1 notch to make them fit better.
If you wish to view the picture larger, just simply click on the picture and it'll load right up.

The new Adam in the Air was made by a friend from high school, Alex Landoni.

Besides that, I'm taking the Instrument test on Tuesday now.
I underestimated how much I have to study to get this thing down pat.
I told my Uncle that if I don't take the test on Tuesday then I will wash and wax his car AND plane.
But I think I'll be ready by then.
I'm about 80% through the question database and I think that'll leave me Sunday evening and all of Monday to go through all the questions that I missed and tighten everything up.
After that I move right into my Instrument flight training and I. CANT. WAIT.
I haven't really had a formal flight lesson since I got my Private Certificate and I cant wait until it starts.
It'll just make me feel like I'm accomplishing something again and working towards my goal.

I'll leave you guys with a picture taken back in August at an airport in Amarillo, TX.
It just proves that lighting is everything when it comes to photography.
This picture wouldn't be anything special if it weren't for the shadow being cast on the hangar.
I'm slowly diving into learning more about lighting.
I won't really have time to take and post new pictures for a little bit.
Mainly because the leaves down here haven't changed yet and the Instrument stuff is taking up all my time.

Too Much to Handle

The world can only be so lucky.
HA!

New Flight Bag

Forgot to put this is my last post.
I'm geeking over the new flight bag that I just bought.
I sold my other couple in order to buy this one.
If anyone's been in the DA-20 they know that there is close to no room for bags.
This guy had the same problem that I had about fitting all his stuff in a small compact bag.

He designed the bag on his own and found a way to produce them.
It's motivating to say the least.
Not to mention he personally emailed me within about 5 minutes of a change I had on my order.
Great service.

If you are a pilot or potential pilot reading this....
I highly recommend this bag!

Brightline Bags

Date is set & Airshow ... 147.7

This post is being typed on the back porch in 40 MPH wind.
I should go inside, but I'm comfortable.

So as the title of this post says, the date is set.
Meaning Friday I am going for my Instrument ground test.
It's been a long time coming.
I wont be the first to say it, but I may have been dragging my feet a little bit.
Learning this Instrument stuff has been a test of my determination and self discipline because in essence I'm doing it on my own.
My formal Instrument training will start after I get this test out of the way.
I think I've been in a rut the last couple weeks and I think once I'm flying on a daily basis again I will be a little better.

The Great Georgia Airshow was decent.



It was no where near as good as the one in Pittsburgh this June.
Falcon Field doesn't have a long enough runway to accommodate bigger planes so they could only fly in the smaller ones.
The biggest plane they had was a DC-4.



I though they should have had more airplanes though.
They had 2 Cessna's, 3 Diamond's, a ton of P-51 Mustangs, and some Helicopters.
To be blunt, it was kind of a weak selection.

The best part of the show was the fly by from Delta's Breast Cancer Awareness 757.









They fly over the field 3 times.
2 were fast passes and 1 was a real slow pass.
It was amazing to see this thing maneuver so close to the ground and just how BIG it was.
Not to mention how quiet it was.
It gave me a new respect for airline pilots.

The other cool thing was this Jet Truck.



When it passed by slow on the taxi way it was spitting out a mountain of smoke.
Originally I was close to it taking pictures but it was pumping out such a low frequency that I had to back off.
I thought it was going to break my camera lens!
Once it got to the runway it RACED an aerobatic plane!
The truck won too.
I mean look at it...
It's basically a JET ENGINE with a truck built around it.
You would never catch me driving that thing.
That much power sitting next to you as you steer it.
No thanks.

The other main part of the show was the F-18.
It might not be an F-18.
It could be an F-something else but I'm not sure.
This was also really cool to see so close.
It would zoom by the crowd at Mach 1 and scare the crap out of kids.
Then on the next pass it would fly so slow I thought it was going to fall out of the sky.
They are amazing how they can maneuver in a phone booth but then fly so fast.
I know I will probably never have the oppurtunity to get in one of them, but I know it would be a highlight of my life.
I can only imagine the feeling of zipping around in this.



I have a couple more pictures from the airshow but I haven't processed them yet.
I'll throw them up on here as soon as I get through them all.
This week should have me not doing anything else but studying so I cant promise anything interesting to post about.
If I get the motivation I'll make a quick post about the Capitals/Thrashers game I went to the other day, but in the end....who really cares about those teams.

Go Pens.

Fall is just around the bend ... 147.7

I'm really sorry again for the lack of updates.
Been lazy about updating, even though I have a ton to catch you guys up on.

I'm off to the Capitals/Thrashers game now and this weekend is the big airshow.
But I will have tons of pictures from the airshow and a post about the Pittsburgh trip.

When I get a couple minutes I will bring you all up to speed!

Pittsburgh bound ... 137.3

I'm heading up to Pittsburgh early tomorrow morning.
Working until midnight then gonna get a couple hours of sleep and try to get outta here before 7.
I'll be going at it alone so the mountains over NC should be interesting if there is any fog.

Got a fun filled weekend planned.
Fair going on in Mars, 2 Penguin's games, a Steeler game, and Pittsburgh's 250 Celebration downtown.
Gonna be nice to see friends and get a little change of atmosphere for a couple days.
I'll be staying until Monday afternoon.

I have a couple other things I was going to post about but I kept getting side tracked this week.
When I get back from the burgh I'll get you guys up to pace with things down here.

So if I don't see in Pittsburgh then I'll talk to you guys next week!

One of my favorites..

Getting closer

As I inch closer to my Instrument ground exam I don't have much to report.
Peachtree City and Atlanta are out of gas.



I got about 3/4 of a tank so as soon as I see some fuel somewhere, I'm filling up again.
It's quite crazy and it's actually affecting what people do down here.
I've been riding my bike to as many places as possible.

I'm going flying tomorrow.
First I'm going to practice some landings since I haven't flown for a couple days now.
Gonna be flying up to the Mall of Georgia and spending a couple hours there.

I will be flying up to Pittsburgh next weekend.
Not sure what day.
But it's gonna happen.
Weather-depending though.
As much as I want to come up now, if the weather is bad in the least bit I'm going to put it off until another week.
I'm really trying to wait for the leaves to start changing colors because I want to take some pics.
But we'll see.
It'll be nice to be back in Pittsburgh for the start of the Penguin's season, even though they are in Sweden.

Here's a couple semi-older pics from when I first got down here.

Spider & Oakland

Nothing new to report.
So in the mean time here are a couple pictures I've been working on.



Cleaned out the filter in the pool the other day and this thing ran across my hand while I was looking at all the dead bugs in it.
I pretty much freaked out, but got over it and snapped this shot.



Very Watchmen-esque.





These next 2 pictures are caused by a new filter I've been playing around with.
One of these days I'll find a really good picture to apply it to, but for now these ones will do.






Been trying to get my Instrument stuff down by next week.
I want to go for my Instrument ground test by then.
Things are starting to click and its only a matter of time.

Atlanta is out of gas.
There are mile long lines at gas stations that do have gas.
Luckily I got gas last week sometime and I should be ok until they get some more.
I guess everyone went out and bought gas once Ike hit and now were out.
Some people literally had to stop going to work because they ran out of gas and have no way of getting around.
It's that insane.

The US is a mess.

Adam in the Air...get it yet??

HAR HAR.
Not much going on this week.
Class is over.
I'm still not ready to take the Instrument written test.
I will probably go for it once I'm done with the King School's course.

I haven't been flying either because my Uncle has the plane up in Pittsburgh with him and the other plane is at a different airport right now.
I've been catching up on things and messing around with pictures again.

The plane search is still going.
Uncle checked out 2 of them already and so far none are a keeper.
He should be checking out another one tomorrow morning in Grove City.
I hope that one's good because it's a pretty plane.

I have a friend from High School working on a couple designs for the site.
His work is really great and you all should check it out at http://alexlandoni.com/.
I should have the new layout, including the logo up within a couple days, to a week.

Lastly...
Verizon and I had a falling out.



It was a messy breakup.
Things were thrown.
Feelings were hurt.
In the end we decided to go our separate ways....

SIKE!

I just wanted to buy this...

I've been waiting for the right time to finally go out and buy one of these bad boys.
It's really not much more expensive than my other plan.
The 3G itself only costs about $200 bucks.
Verizon was trying to make me pay retail ($250-500) to replace my phone with them.
Plus I was sick of not getting calls on my Verizon phone.
I would just randomly get a voicemail from time to time and the phone would never ring.
But that is all wish-wash.
I just wanted the iPhone.
I can give as many excuses as I want but it all comes down to sharing in the joy that all iPhone users have.

This thing lives up to all the hype.
There are limitless possibilities with this phone.
I mean it's got the web, email, phone, text, movies, radio, camera, weather, gps, games, and some of the more useless applications in the world on it.
I actually have a page on it dedicated to applications that serve no purpose other than to get a laugh.
There is a cowbell, an alarm that goes off when you drop the phone, a bubble wrap popping app, a LEVEL, compass, flashlight, and a Newton's cradle.

But one of the best things about it for me is the pilot applications.
They have aviation weather, charts, flight planning, conversions, calculations, etc.
I can basically plan a flight around the country with this little phone.
Plus I'm doing all this with FREE applications.
They have ones that actually cost money too and I can only imagine what those ones do.

It's got built in speakers as well.
Something missing from older iPods.
It's nice to just set out at work before we open and just listen to music while doing whatever.
Speaking of music...it's an iPod, so above anything it's meant for music...well phone but whatev.
If anyone's used the cover flow feature on the new iPods then you know it's really cool.
It's nice actually looking at the album covers of the music you're trying to listen to.

But that's enough about that.
I could go on forever about how sweet the phone is but I'm sure everyone's heard it all before.

This is what my life FEELS like

Coldlanta

Fall is on its way in the dirty south.
I woke up this morning and actually had to throw on a hoodie just to sit outside.
I don't mind this too much for many reasons...
First 80% of my clothes I have are meant for colder weather (Pittsburgh duh).
Plus airplanes fly better in colder air.
Less bumpy, smoother, keeps the engine cool.
Only bad thing about flying during the winter is icing.
It's a whole new chapter that I will have to learn about if I want to fly home in the winter months.
Not to mention I don't even know how I'll fit in the DA-20 with a coat on.
I can barely fit in it right now.

The plane search is sort of on hold until my Uncle gets back into town.
What's nice is these guys selling the planes keep calling me back, showing me that they want to get rid of their planes quick.
This leads me to believe that they'll knock some money off their price if we offer them the right deal.
I decided not to sit on the edge of my seat trying to get this plane.
I'm just going to keep doing what I gotta do and when the perfect one comes along we'll jump on it.
At one time there isn't too many planes on the market.
I gotta keep my search sort of on the East Coast.
So I think there are only about 20-30 planes total on the market.
Whatev.

I got class today and 1 more tomorrow.
After that I'm on my own when it comes to the Instrument ground test.
I got these dvd's by King Schools I can watch that will review the entire course.
They helped me pass my Private test so I'm putting my trust in them for tightening down anything I learned in class.

Lastly, check out the video below.
It's a teaser to my heterosexual life mates up in Pittsburgh's show...Benny Bob & Phantom.
These guys have been working non-stop trying to get this show rolling.
The day it's presented do us is coming closer.
I got the chance to see a little bit of it and it's hilarious.
I'll be sure to keep you all up to date on the progress and post it here.

Spillin the beans ... 131.4

Ok so...
I've been trying to keep this in until it was official.
But I'm really bad at keeping stuff in and not spillin' the beans.
So....
I'm buying an airplane.

This is where I should have said, I bought an airplane and posted a bunch of pictures.
But we're still looking and it could be a couple more weeks before we find one.

So you're asking yourself, why is he buying an airplane??
Well I'm buying it to make some money.
Sorry if they doesn't make sense.
The flight school that I'm at is expanding and they needed to purchase a bunch of new airplanes.
What I'm basically doing is investing in a piece of those new planes.
The planes I'm looking at are between $18-30,000.
I really only need to put up around 10-20% of that to finance the plane.
It would then immediately be placed into the flight school where it starts to generate revenue.
I wont get into numbers, but when the months ends and it's all said and done I should walk away with between $1-2,000 a month income off the plane.
This number would be a lot higher but there are deductions...

20% to flight school
Fuel
Maintenance
Engine savings
Loan
Insurance

Once the plane is paid off (probably 12 months) my income should jump up a little.
Plus I have the option to not save up for a new engine and just sell the plane when it needs a new one.
But it could force me to save a load of money.
Whatev.

That's pretty much it.
I'll know more in about a week.
My Uncle is flying from Indy to Pittsburgh to Maine and back so he will hopefully get a good look at some of the planes I scouted already.

Here are a couple pictures of the ones I've been looking at...




























































Those are just a couple examples of the Cessna 150/152's.
But there is another plane I'm looking at.
It's a lot more expensive and I'd need to pull out a pretty big loan to get it.
But in the long run it would be paid off rather quickly and it's a plane I could use til the end of my days.
It's a Cessna Skylane 182RG.
















This thing is a tank.
Compared to the 100HP of the 150/152's this bad boy has 250HP!
It could EASILY fit 4 people + baggage and think nothing of it.
The only thing with this plane is it costs a lot more and its expensive to fly.
Meaning, I wouldn't be able to fly it as much as the other ones.
But once it's paid off and I have some sort of flying job it would free up the tension it puts on my income.
The 182 is more practical because I don't want to just buy a plane for money, I want to buy it for fun.
This thing could lug me and 3 friends around in real quick fashion.

So that's where I stand.
I have a lot of thinking to do and a lot of calculations to see what could work out.
I will keep you all updated on this, obviously.

New lens & class, class, class ... 130.6

I'll get the new lens out of the way first.
I purchased a new Sigma 18-200 OS (Optical Stabilizer) lens this week.
I'm going to be selling off my Nikon 18-55 & Sigma 70-300.
Will lose a little bit of length in my stockpile, but I wont have to change lenses anymore unless I want to go super wide.
Here's an example of what the OS does.
These are 2 different pictures taken one after another.
The one on the left is without the OS turned on, while the right one has it on.
Seems to work great.
It's a little machine in the lens motor that keeps it from moving and prevents blur.



Instrument class has been good.
My only beef about it is it's extremely long.
The brain can only absorb so much.
I think if it was 2-2.5 hours it would be a lot better.
Especially with the stuff we are learning.
I feel like my brain is jelly after each one.

I'm really trying to buckle down and get this stuff down.
The sooner I get my Instrument rating the sooner I start my Commercial training.
Commercial is basically fly, fly, fly.

It's really hard to explain what I'm learning in both class and my lessons.
I'll do my best...
When flying in IFR conditions sometimes the clouds start real low and visibility is horrible.
In order to land the plane safely we gotta find the runway.
So the FAA makes things called Approach Plates.
These are published routes on how to get into an airport if you cant see...the airport.
We fly the instruments and follow the procedures on the plates and at a point in the approach we should break out of the clouds at some point and see the runway.
Of course if the weather is really bad, we don't land at the airport.

Here is a video of an ILS (Instrument Landing System) Approach.
It's 3:28 long.
A chunk of it is just the plane in the cloud so bare with the boringness of it.
But you'll see at the end of the video as to why we practice approaches and why the instrument stuff is the hardest thing I think I'll ever do.



There is a good chance I will be flying into Pittsburgh this weekend.
My Uncle has to be dropped off in Indy on Sunday so I may drop him off and fly to Pittsburgh for 2 days.
It's going to be my first time flying into Pittsburgh International by myself.
I'm pretty excited.
But intimidated at the same time.

New pictures coming soon.
I'm going to try to make my way around the airport again take some pictures of the planes around there.
The new Cessna 172 at the school is a beauty.

Running on fumes ... 129.9

Things are a little crazy right now.
Work 4AM-1230.
Class 1-5.
Flying 530-8.
I'm running on fumes right now.
I've kinda had it easy the past couple months but now that I have to buckle down and start getting some stuff done, my mind and body needs to get back into shape.

Class is good.
Only 6 other kids in the class and the instructor is from Pittsburgh.
Plus, knowing that I'm the boss's nephew she cracks jokes about it all the time.
It's kinda funny.
But she's really nice and a good teacher.
Between this class in conjunction with watching the King School's Instrument DVD's, I think I can get a good grasp on this instrument stuff.

By the way, if I haven't mentioned yet....
Instrument training is THE HARDEST thing I may have to do while in my training.
I think my CFI training may be up there in difficulty because I literally have to read 3 books and outline the entire thing and teach someone to fly, but that's then and this is now and instrument is the hardest thing because I said so.
As of right now I cant even begin to explain how much stuff there is I have to learn.
When I get some extra time one of these days I'll try to give you guys a summary on what I have to learn during this training, but since I have no idea myself it's kinda hard to do it right now.
Plus I'm exhausted from being up since 330AM.
I get to sleep in tomorrow.
430AM.
YEAH!

Crap.
Goodnight.