happylife

IFR training

Late in the afternoon yesterday, I flew to Point Roberts in the U.S. with my instructor. As the weather was bad and ceiling was limited, I did IFR training. IFR is the abbreviation of Instrument Flight Rules, which is the opposite of VFR, Visual Flight Rules. In the training, I had to fly Cessna wearing a so called hood which is just like a large sun visor and shuts out my window vision. All I could see was the instrument panel of the airplane and I flew just looking at it. That means I had to fly without the window vision. There are six main instruments in the panel; AI(airspeed indicator), ATI(attitude indicator), ALT(altimeter), TC/BI(turn coordinator and bank indicator), HI(heading indicator), and VSI(vertical speed indicator). It is almost acrobatic to control the airplane so that all the instruments indicate the right values, but in the last flight test, we are required to recover from an abnormal situation just watching the instruments. I hope this is the last task for me before getting the private pilot license.

A razor

I've been using this safety razor every day for years. It shaves well and it is very reasonable because I have to change the blade only once a month. I had been using before an electric shaver which was easy to use but didn't shave so well as this razor and cost much. The blade for replacement was expensive and I had to change often. Also I didn't like the smell of electric shaver because it wasn't washable and clean. Only one problem of the razor is that my beard is gradually getting thicker after I started to use it, however it is not an enough reason to return to the electric shaver.

White-headed eagle

There are three white-headed eagles living now around False Creek. They are located at the top of the food chain in the sky. When they fly for food, seagulls which usually fly joyfully and relaxed, would be thrown into panic. They cry so loudly that I can recognize whenever the bold eagle comes. A few days ago, my friend watched the eagle catch a black bird flying over False Creek and eat it. All I watched were some black feathers scattered under the Burrard Bridge. Can you see a small, black spot in this picture? It is the eagle. It is very difficult to take a good picture of them because they are very cautious. I don't know what they are taking precautions against. Are we human beings so scaring?

The protected sea

The sun sets now just on the edge of Bowen Island. The set point is shifting from right to left and for weeks from now the sun is to set under the sea. I was believing like that but I've got to know it was wrong. The sea is not Pacific Ocean but Straight of Georgia and there is Vancouver Island between them. As it can be seen only on clear days and I've forgotten the fact. That is to say, the sun sets behind the Vancouver Island for weeks from now. Comparing this scene with the chart around Vancouver, I actually feel the scale of the earth. I think Vancouver is a great city because we can closely feel the mother of the nature.

Fly to Chilliwack by solo

I've just come back from my first solo cross country flight to Chilliwack. Although it was late August, it was so hot around Vancouver today, and the height of 2,500 feet was not enough to cool down my heated body. I sweated a lot and my towel was soaked. Chilliwack airport is not a controlled airport, that is there is no tower and each pilot has to fly calling each other. There were several traffic in the zone today, and I was very nervous because I had to call in each leg of the circuit like, "Chilliwack traffic, this is FIBX over the city at 1,800 feet, inbound for touch and go, runway 25", "FIBX cross the midway", "FIBX downwind for touch and go, runway 25", and "FIBX short final to runway 25". On my short final to the runway, I was so busy for the radio call and I approached too high to the runway, therefore I had to do overshoot and go around the circuit again. I wanted to land on Chilliwack for a pie but I couldn't because I had enough time to do so. I hope to land there next time to enjoy a coffee break at the famous cafe in the Chilliwack airport.

Blueberries

We can now get fresh blueberries at a very low price in Vancouver. I go to Save on Foods in North Vancouver every week and buy a large pack of blueberries which cost $4 to $5. After washing them in a basket, I keep them in a refrigerator so that I can pick and eat them whenever I like. It is said that blueberries are good to eyes because they contain a lot of anthocyanin. I heard that British pilots found this effect of blueberries when they flew at night during the World War II. They reported that they were able to see better in the darkness after eating blueberry jam. I love blueberries.

Corona beer

In Vancouver, we can get many kinds of beer both domestic and foreign. Corona beer is one of foreign beer made in Mexico. I like it's light taste and color. It tastes much better with a slice of lime or lemon. I remember my ESL friend came from Mexico used to say that Corona beer is very cheap in his country, almost half in Vancouver and cheaper than the same amount of water. Today I enjoyed it on my boat sailing in English Bay. The clear sky and the strong sunshine fit for this beer very much.

Wings and sails

Wings of airplanes and sails of sailing boats are based on same two scientific principles. One is Newton's third law which is called action and reaction force law, and the other is Bernoulli's principle. The former is easy to understand because it seems very natural that a wing or a sail is blown to the same direction of a wind. It was so natural that it had been unconsciously used long time before Newton discovered it. This old style sailing boat is one of the examples; it can sail only in the same direction of a wind and crew have to row it if they want to sail against the wind. The latter one, Bernoulli's principle is related to the airflow, that is to say, the air separated at the head of the wing meet together at the tail of the wing causing the different air pressure which creates lift. All airplanes and modern sailing boats use this principle effectively so that they can fly or sail against the wind. Flying and sailing have a lot of same things.

Hacky Sack

I found "Hacky Sack" as a trade name in my dictionary. As you know it is a small skin bag containing beans for juggling. I often saw a group of people playing in a park near my neighbors kicking it not to fall it to the ground and eventually I got it last year. As I was a soccer player when I was a junior high school student, I thought of it easy to play but it wasn't. It was much more difficult to juggle a small ball than a large soccer ball and I couldn't continue juggling it more than ten times. I heated up in my room with the small sack and when I tried to kick it up in a strange body position, I twisted my back bone. Since then I have not played Hacky Sack for more than one year. I think Hacky Sack is a very dangerous sport.

Tropical fruits

I chose some tropical fruits as a gift for the party I was invited. Most of them I have not only eaten but also seen before. I was so unfamiliar with them that I don't know how they taste and how to eat them, plus I don't know even the names of them. I bought them at Saveonfoods in North Vancouver where there was a special tropical food corner. When I payed for them at the register, the cashier woman was unfamiliar with the names and had difficulty to input the prices to the register machine because they had no bar code. It took minutes for her and several people were lined up after me waiting for her work. I was sorry for her and the people.