You Can't Say He Doesn't Try!

Kaden has been doing well lately going to the bathroom by himself. Now he's even putting his pants on when he's done.

Unfortunately he doesn't always get them on correctly.

My Two Babies

Emma was laying on the chair and Kaden decided he wanted to lay down too, so I put a blanket down for him. It didn't last long, but it was funny for a little bit.

6.6 Logged In the Cheetah

Today was a good day of flying. Bob S got me back on his insurance with no extra payments and with a 430, STec20 and other goodies, I much preferred flying it over the Archer with it's questionable NAV heads, flaky autopilot and wandering DG.

I flew with Matt W via IFR to Finger Lakes Regional Airport with nice tailwind at 9,000'. We were crusing, but we paid for it on the way home. We had clouds in the middle portion there and back and logged a little IMC. However, I was seeing a little frost on the leading edge, so I decided to climb well over it.

Winds in NY were kicking pretty good, but I had a decent landing there and a great soft field landing back in Bluffton (i.e. nose wheel off for about 1,500'). It's always good to practice.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the adventure.

cruising at 9,000' above a solid layer

ducking clouds in NY

parked at FLRA

westbound somewhere over western NY

the Allegheny Reservoir in SW NY/NW PA

Ohio sunset west of Mansfield at 4,000'

New Shoes and Half Marathon

The warm weather is coming up (I hope) and marks the time for a new pair of running shoes. My white and orange pair is becoming quite uncomfortable as my feet start to hurt before my legs. That usually means they've lost their usefulness. (My socking starting to come out the side is a good indicator too.)

I got on www.adidas.com and ordered yet another pair of the Supernova Cushion line. They are up to 7 while my current pair is the 6. I've heard so much good about them and they get quite a few awards every year from the big running rags. Also, I had a ton of good luck with them this past year. They carried me through 13.1 miles in Columbus so that's saying something.

I also signed up for the Cleveland Half Marathon on May 18th. It's 55 days away and I haven't started to train. I've been running all winter indoors, but I need to get some mileage built up and start working it outdoors more. Fun. (As I type this, I question why I do it.)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a better year of running and biking with more races throughout the year. Yay for self-inflicted pain!

Toledo Aerial Photo Mission

Bob S called me yesterday to see if I'd be up for flying to Toledo with him to take some photos for a pastor friend of his. Sure! I cleaned and loaded up the 80-300mm lens on the Digital Rebel and headed to Bluffton. We loaded up the Cheetah and were off. Bob did a practice GPS4 approach at TDZ and then we circled Main St of East Toledo a few times while I took some photos of a group holding up a big cross. Supposedly they started a parade at 230p, but when we got there at 240p, it was done. You can see what I ended up with.


I also snapped a few shots of downtown Toledo when Main St wasn't visible.




After that, we headed back to Bluffton while shooting an approach at Bowling Green, Findlay and then Bluffton. Fun times and good reason to log a little free PIC time too.

Twinkie Anyone? Nope, Just Brandon and Kaden

That's right. (And I even did it on purpose.)

Emma Turns Three (Months) Old!

So it's a few days past, but Emma got her pictures taken with the classic tape-on-the-shirt depicting the age in months. There are a few of Kaden in there too.

IFR - Legal Again!

Bob S and I went up today and I ended up logging 3.0 from doing my six approaches and sitting safety pilot for him while he shoot two of them. I did four of them and my hold in the club Archer and the other two from the left seat of his Cheetah. I must say that I prefer a Garmin 430 with STec20 to old NAV/COM units with a "heading only" autopilot. The SA difference is incredible.

Anyway, I shot some photos from the air while riding right seat in the Cheetah.

Check out all the photos by CLICKING HERE.

Kaden the Copilot

After dinner this evening I decided at the last minute to go flying and I wanted to take Kaden with me. He has never sat up front with me so I took his booster seat and we headed up to Bluffton. After loading up and getting him set with his seatbelt and headset, we were off.

He ended up flying for several minutes and kept the airplane pretty well level with some input suggestions (as you'll see in the video). We flew around Lima and then up to Findlay to check out some of the water levels from the recent snow melt and rain. There was a lot!



After thirty minutes or so of my parents seeing us fly around and Laura seeing us fly by too, Kaden was ready to land. We did one touch-and-go at Bluffton and then went around for the full-stop. With .8 on the Hobbs, we fueled up where Kaden chatted up the new FBO line girl, Erin.

Fun time. He's the coolest little guy.

Kaden/Emma Update

Here are some pictures of Kaden and Emma around the house doing what they do.

the trouble makers

the BIG trouble maker

Emma likes to smile



Kaden wants a peppermint

Emma likes her new (to her) toy

Don't. Touch. The. Hot Chocolate.

Mmm... hot chocolate with mom!

a hard day of manual labor

Late Friday dNeero Action

Fun in the Snow with an ATV

We went to Laura's brother's (Ryan) house today for some fun on his ATV. We strapped an old car hood to the back with a rope and everyone went for a ride. Kaden didn't last long (about 12 minutes), but Laura and I pulled each other around quite a bit and got over 30mph. Fun! She only swung me off once into the snow/ice/slush.



We also took it out solo once and I recorded my ride through the trees and across the fields.