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The
Squamidian Report – Oct. 19 / 24
Online Versions Of This And Past Issues (Choose the year and then the date for the online issue you want) Issue
#1169 The Ontarion Russ Doug ****
From Greg – The Ontarion
Hello everyone! Last night, the three of us were talking about how thankful we are to be of reasonable health at our age, Carole and I are in our 70s and have been hearing of so many people our age that have terrible bouts with cancer and other life threatening illnesses. Here we are having health challenges that we are able to live with and still have a decent daily life to live! I of course have the dialysis challenge for the rest of my life but can cope with that now that I’m used to it! Carole just got home from the hospital two days ago after undergoing gall bladder surgery! They had to remove several gall stones and her gall bladder. A week ago she had a rough three days of continual vomiting and severe abdominal pains from the gall bladder stones and an attack of pancriatitas! The stones affected several of her internal organs so it required surgery to correct the problem! Luckily they could do the surgery laparoscopically and didn’t have to do any major cutting like they would have had to do in years gone by! She’s home now and feeling much better! However, it’ll take 4 to 6 weeks for total recovery according to the surgeon that helped her! Her stay in the hospital was anything but pleasant! Her room mate was a woman in her late 80s who is no longer normal mentally and would scream at the nurses in the worst language you can imagine! She was a terrible room mate and was very upsetting to Carole! Of course Carole had three days of waiting and worrying that lead up to her turn for surgery! Adam and I visited and kept her company as often as possible! We were all relieved when Carole was finally looked after and able to come home! Now, it’s a matter of her recovery as there always is after such an experience! As I said earlier, at least our medical troubles are manageable when compared to others our age and younger even! On this Thanks Giving weekend we are particularly grateful to have our good health to look forward To life in a reasonable manner! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend with your families as we did! We are going to celebrate the thanks giving weekend once Carole is able to eat a decent meal again! As of now she can’t eat much more than some jello, only that light desert is tolerable for her at the moment! Adam thank goodness is here to look after the two of us and handle all the duties around the house for us! I am able to help when and where I can but he handles most of it! Once again, we give thanks for the health we still have and also of course, for our wonderful son’s attention! So, again, a belated HappyThanks Giving to all from the Payne family and be sure to look after each other in the coming year! All the best…….greg Tune in again next week! ****
From Russ
"If thine right eye offend thee....." "If thine right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee" In the previous Squamidian I described my lady optometrist in great detail - now I'm being punished (as per the above quote from the Bible) For those unfamiliar with the quote, it means; if one's eye leads one into sin, as did mine when I ogled the sexy, young optometrist, then I should get rid of my eye. But I won't go to that extreme! You may recall, or not, Dr. Zammit (with the nice bum) said I have bleeding behind my right eye - that it may correct itself, or I may have to see her colleague, Dr. Sasha (a Specialist in eye problems) in Owen Sound, who may, just may, have to do injections to correct the problem. It just so happens my son, Greg had a similar condition to mine for which he's been receiving injections in both eyes every week for the past months. He's a tough hombre, but the needles are so painful he cries!! I hope and pray I won't have to go through the same treatment as Greg. Greg's mother was my wife. She went blind because of macular degeneration, and that being 20+ years ago, they didn't have this injection procedure. In Greg's case the condition may be hereditary, but it's certainly not contagious! Yup! Got a call today, Thursday, October 17th I have an appointment with Dr. Sasha on Monday the 21st. Stay tuned. Russ PS Please include me in your prayers, and don't fail to mention - I'm a coward! **** ****
From Doug
How’s it going…..eh? I wasn’t going to continue with my flight adventures quite this soon again but it’s been chilly and wet over the last couple of weeks so there really isn’t much else to talk about. My motorcycles are sitting rather dejectedly in my garage waiting for the next sunny day and with the exception of the fact that we are being over run by bears these days, not much else is happening. The bears have become so common place that we take them for granted. So for starters, Greg asked what ‘ASL’ stood for. I had just taken it for granted that it was common knowledge so my apologies. ASL stands for ‘above sea level’, (above mean sea level to be exact). Altitudes in the aviation world are measured in relationship to sea level. Telling ATC (air traffic control) that you are at 1500 ft above the ground would be meaningless as the ground’s elevation could be anywhere. As well, I may use a term such as ‘VFR’. That stands for visual flight rules and is the criteria under which most private pilots fly, and basically means you must be able to see where you are going. It means that horizontal vision must be a minimum of 5 nautical miles in uncontrolled air space, and 3 in controlled air space with clearance from ATC and specified vertical clearance from clouds. ‘IFR’ stands for instrument flight rules and is the conditions under which most commercial flights are undertaken. They are flying using their instruments, obviously, and following very specific flight plans and procedures. A pilot flying IFR never even looks out his windows (except for the takeoff and landing segments of a flight). My simulated flights, both daylight and night, all take place under VFR. VFR night flying requires much more use of the flight instruments but definitely also requires looking out the window for visual references. And for what its worth, as I fly into and around some of the simulated major airports, I and definitely NOT following many of the air regulations. As an example, a small Cessna would never be permitted to fly into or land at any of the major airports without very specific clearances. There are also specific procedures for flying into and through all control zones that I can choose to ignore, and for the most part I do although I try to follow the type of clearances and instructions that I assume a controller would issue. As well, airport runways are numbered, the number corresponding to their magnetic bearing in degrees, rounded to the nearest 10. Therefore, a runway labeled 03 would be 030 degrees magnetic, and a runway labeled 30 would be 300 degrees magnetic. A runway pointing due north magnetically would be labeled 36, standing for 360 degrees. Having said that, I did actually fly into what is now Pearson Int, YYZ, way back on Sept. 15, 1975 when I was doing my night flying training. Part of earning a night endorsement was doing a night cross-country flight. Way back in those days, YYZ was called ‘Malton’ and on certain nights from midnight till about 2 or 3 am, small VFR airplanes were aloud to land and take off there. Our flight instructors were all working on building hours and increasing their proficiency's. So, we as students and they as instructors would work together, I’d do my night cross-country and he’s do the required radio and nav work. It all worked out well for everyone. And, given how confusing a big airport’s runways and taxi ways look in the dark, I don’t think I ever really saw the runway I landed on. I just did my decent approach in the dark as instructed, landed in the maze of lights, and took back off to the return to YKF (Waterloo). And as you have seen in my sim screen shots, airports at night are very hard to see and understand. So,
here
are a few screen shots from my latest adventures for
your
viewing entertainment. I had been digitally exploring
the Ontarion
cottage country and decided to head down to Pearson
(YYZ) as a late
evening flight. YYZ is about 20 nautical miles (nm)
ahead and the
Toronto area light are on the horizon. The 400 is off to
my left. I like the view through the spinning propeller.
In this shot I am swinging around to get lined up for runway 15R. The airport is spread out in front of me, highway 401 is just off the end of the runway, the city lights are the horizon as Lake Ontarion is the blackness beyond that. I’m coming in with full flaps and an airspeed of 60 knots.
I had also been up ‘exploring’ the Ottawa area. I’ve never been there in real life. This is a HUD view as I’m coming over the city from the south. Something I should clarify… the sim program can not depict a city in full detail. To do so would take an incredible amount of computer memory, storage, and graphics generating capacity. Most streets will be quite accurate but the buildings are scaled back by necessity. The Ottawa River is visible running from left to right, and the Gatineau River is coming in from the north. And yes, my left wing is low as I’m starting a gentle turn from north to west.
I found a nice little airport out the east end of Ottawa. Rockcliffe airport CYRO. The time frame is late evening, the sun is low and over my right shoulder, lighting up the instrument panel. I’m nicely lined up for runway 09. Here’s a quiz for you, what does ‘09’ stand for?
Doug ****
Have
a
Good One ****
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