Category: Rant

Sometimes I should just leave well enough alone

I went to register my AvMap EKP-IV GPS. While doing so, I noticed that the firmware I have is a couple of version numbers older than the current downloadable one. Upgrading is supposed to be a simple matter of popping out the CF card, putting it into the computer, and copying over the two files you download, and then putting the CF card back in the GPS. Well, I did that, but then the GPS started saying “Device not found”. So I copied back the original files, which I’d copied onto my laptop as suggested in the documentation. And I got the same damn message. So now I’m basically boned.

The instructions were all about “Hilight the two files and drag them”, but I used “cp -R”. I wonder if there is a permissions problem? I knew I should have made a tar file instead of just a copy.

Well, that sucks

This morning I was sitting there enjoying my breakfast and the early morning quiet when a woman who was parked a few planes down (so she arrived the same time as me) came over to chew me out for nearly hitting her when I turned final on Saturday. I told her that while I don’t remember it exactly, I’m pretty sure my base had been called by the tower, so I really don’t know how that could have happened. Although in retrospect, I could have been focusing too hard on the Mooney I was told to follow, and not enough on looking around.

Now I’m all nervous about just how bad a job I did arriving here, and I’m even more sure that I shouldn’t do the VFR arrival without a second pair of eyes on board.

BTW: Wifi sucks here. It sometimes works at the shower stalls, but it cuts in and out when it does, and the wifi here at the bus shelter is more reliable but there isn’t any power here.

Found some wifi

Yesterday I found some power but no wifi. Today I found wifi but no power. So I was able to finally get the log file that my boss emailed me yesterday. I had been trying to find a way to read it on my cell phone, but for some stupid reason every “text reader” I managed to find for the Palm either required you to convert the text file to something else on your PC, or the program itself was only available as a zip file, and I have no way of unzipping files on the Palm. Why can’t they just make the bare .PRC file available?

Once I got the log file, it only took me a minute to find the fix, so I’ve emailed me off. Yesterday I started writing a long narrative of my Oshkosh so far, and I was going to put it all up when I got home, but now I have wifi I guess I could cut and paste that into blog posts.

I’m here!

I made it to Oshkosh. And I flew the Ripon-Fisk VFR arrival. Man, I have never been so close to so many aircraft in the air before in my life. As I was coming up to Ripon, a Bonanza passed about 20 feet off my left wing and crossed about 20 feet in front of me. I don’t know if he saw me or not. Then since we were over Ripon already, I just turned up the tracks, but I think I cut off a Mooney who was also coming up the tracks. I was told to follow another Mooney up to Runway 27.

The instructions say to turn up the road just north of the field as a downwind leg, but the Mooney went about a mile wider than that, and an RV snuck in between us. I’m not sure where he came from, but I think he might have gone around from his previous approach. They also extended the downwind way out over the lake. Tower told me to turn to base immediately, and that put me way too close to the Mooney (I lost sight of the RV again), and then he told the Mooney to go around, and I thought he said for me to go around, but then he expressed surprise when I did, so I guess that was my other mistake.

But we got slotted into the downwind again and landed safely, although I don’t think he ever cleared me to land.

It was a very strange experience, and I’m really glad I did it. But next time I’m going to make sure I get an IFR reservation.

And I’m alone again

The guy who wanted a ride from Muskegon to Oshkosh has changed his mind. Probably. He’s still looking for a ride home on Tuesday, possibly by bus, but unless he calls me sometime tonight or tomorrow while I’m on-route to Muskegon, I’m going to be alone.

Time to study that NOTAM one more time, I guess.