Ones and Zeros

Instructor M and I rescheduled our planned flight from tomorrow till today due to the forecast winds, snow, etc tomorrow.  So today’s plan is for more BAI (basic attitude instruments) work and to include unusual attitudes, and steep turns.

Unusual attitudes are used to teach to things: recovery from unusual bank or pitch angles in the plane, and also to teach me to trust my instruments and not my semicircular canals and balance.  Steep turns are not required by the FAA, but they’re used for instrument scan training in the Cessna Pilot School syllabus.
(more…)

I plan to get back to writing about aviation and other geeky things, I really do. However the economic situation keeps pulling my attention. (And the winds today forced me to cancel my IFR lesson again too.) I keep hearing things that make me rant at the radio or computer screen. My economics-related posts are my response.

The government’s spending almost $800 billion in the stimulus. It’s a massive giveaway. This will leave debt for our grandchildren’s children. It’s a way for Obama to socialize the country. This expands the government and government jobs aren’t like “real” jobs. This is the first step in taking over everything by the government. Obama will be setting salaries for everyone now. This is massive pork. The economy will just recover on its own.

We’ve all heard all of this and probably more. But most or all of this is from a small group of commentators who aren’t reporting news but using news as a way of pushing their point of view. (Have you noticed that most “news” shows these days are actually commentary shows?) If you follow their philosophy that’s up to you. But if you’re just curious about what another point of view is, this post is for you. I’ll try to base my information in economic fact.

(more…)

We talk about dollars (or yen, pounds, euros, dinars, or whatever) as if they were real. But money isn’t real, what it stands for is very real though. And in not realizing this, we get ourselves confused about inflation or deflation, and end up making bad decisions as a result. Money is something of a fiction. What is real is what money represents: time, effort, goods, and services that require time and resources to make.
(more…)

This isn’t about an IFR lesson, it’s about a flight to a maintenance facility instead. Last week in lesson three, instructor M and I found the turn coordinator was malfunctioning. Today I’m getting it replaced. It should be a quick in-and-out change. (Cue ominous music…)

(more…)