Winter Blahs

Not too much exciting going on this week.  Actually, I’ve been having another rough week physically.  My friend at work said that I will feel much better on March 1st.  It’s a new start of a new month, closer to Spring.  Ah yes, I’m going to hold her to that statement!  I’m kinda getting tired of feeling like this, so I think it’s a great way to get focused on feeling better again.  If my pathetic little bod doesn’t want to cooperate, than my mind will just have to force it to!  So Nyah!

I’ve been following the 24 hour a day, live video feed of a bear that just gave birth to her little cub.  It’s so cute to watch.  Check out the Lily Cam here.  Every now and then you’ll see her little cub poke her little head up.  You’ll likely hear her more than you see her.  She cries like a human baby!

Speaking of crying, my little Abby is going to be crying tomorrow.  She needs a bath.  Mind you, she’s much better about it than Mya is.  Mya screams so loud, one of these day she’s going to get us evicted!

It doesn’t look like I’ll be flying this weekend, due to the weather.  We have our last day of overtime on Saturday, so at least I won’t be missing decent flying weather that day.

Please feel free to check out my new videos page!  I hope to be adding more videos soon!

Today’s symptoms:  I’m still more fatigued than usual, and a lot of body aches.  Looking forward to March 1st!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/25/2010 9:36 PM

Elizabatics

I headed out to the airport around 8:45 today.  It was my first aerobatic lesson and was I pumped!  I had many people recommend an aerobatic instructor and I’m so glad I listened.  We met at the Flying Club and went over some material before our flight.  He was very thorough and explained everything so well.  He was also nice enough to lend me one of his parachutes.  It is not essential to wear a parachute during aerobatics, but not a bad idea! 

It was such a perfect, clear and calm day.  The weather hasn’t been this nice in quite some time, and according to the forecast, it’s not going to be clear for about a week. 

Here I am with the chute on, ready to climb on board:

I must say, I sure wasn’t too graceful while climbing into the seat with the parachute on, but at least it was entertaining!

I’m just trying to get my harness done up, and organize the cockpit:

Ready to rock:

The flight was amazing.  My instructor talked me through each maneuver, starting with loops then slow rolls.  I was actually surprised how long we were up and how many maneuvers we did before I started to feel a little nauseous!  I’m sure it will take a few more hours of aerobatic flight before my stomach is totally comfortable with my new hobby.

Our entire flight was directly over the airport, at 3000 – 3500 feet.  Chuck was down below, attempting to take video of the flight.  However, we were too high up to get any decent footage.  I think he still enjoyed the show.
After my amazing morning, I headed out to Fonthill to visit my little mother.  We just went out for a coffee, then wandered around the mall for a while.  I got some of my Christmas shopping done!  How’s that for a head start?

Today’s symptoms:  I think I’m finally over the physical funk I’ve been dealing with for the last few weeks.  It’s hard to accept the fact that I take so long to recover – I have a hard time forcing myself to chill out and let my body rest!  I’m stubborn, but I mean well.  ***sheepish grin***

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/21/2010 9:03 PM

Tri-Fly

What a great weekend thus far!  After work yesterday, I flew for about 45 minutes.  I was hoping to get out to the training area and practice stalls and spins, but the ceiling wasn’t high enough.  I ended up doing about three touch and go’s, then a very brief flight out of the zone and back.  Fortunately, I was able to fly again today.  I went to work at 8:00am for overtime, and was planning on staying until 2:00.  However, I left at 12:00 and Chuck and I met back at the apartment.  I grabbed my GPS and we headed out to the airport.  We flew out to Brantford to go to the Aircraft Spruce store.  I like sitting up fairly high in the airplane, so we went to buy some extra seat cushions.  They didn’t have any in stock so we left empty handed.  It was a nice flight though.  Here’s a shot of little Vyctor in Brantford:

Notice how coordinated his wheel chalks are….

Here are some pics of us coming back into St. Catharines:

We decided to do some aerobatics on the way:

Ok, not really!  I don’t think Chuck will be up to any unusual attitudes or movements!

Here we are arriving back at the airport.

I discovered that I need to add more flaps when landing this plane compared to my last one.  Otherwise, I come in a little too fast and hard.

The third flight in three days will be tomorrow morning.  I found an aerobatic instructor who is going to give me my first lesson.  Yea!  I can’t wait.  It looks like it’s going to be a nice, sunny day too.  Hopefully I will have some good pictures and video to share with you all tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Today’s symptoms.  I’m still improving over my few weeks of physically poopiness.  My fatigue is getting better every day.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/20/2010 8:04 PM

Loopy Lizzy

I was able to get out flying on Friday.  It wasn’t the clearest day, but it was good enough.  I did a fly-by past my office.  I called a friend before arriving, so she got a group of people together to watch.  After a few passes, I headed out toward Welland and Niagara Falls.  I figured I would try my first loop – it was amazing!  I ended up doing eight of them.  There’s nothing quite like seeing the world turn upside-down.  What a rush!  Next I’m going to try barrel rolls.  It doesn’t look like the weather is going to be good enough over the next few days.  It’s a bummer since I have the day off on Thursday.  If the weather poops out on me, I’ll probably end up going into work to put in a day of overtime.  I think I can work this Saturday again too.

Other than being loopy, not too much is new.  I’ll be doing field calls around Niagara tomorrow afternoon.  It’s nice to get out of the office now and then.

Time for kitty pictures!  My little ones were sun-bathing the other day:

Abby realized that she really needed to get some sun on her pale belly:

Today’s symptoms: I’m finally starting to feel better after having a few weeks of worse-than-usual fatigue.  Hopefully it continues to get better.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/16/2010 9:48 PM

Kitty Komforts

I’m hoping for some decent weather tomorrow – good enough to be flight worthy.  When I checked the weather this morning, it said tomorrow will be totally sunny.  Now it’s saying it’s going to be totally cloudy.  Geesh!  We’ll see.

My one kitty seemed a little chilly the other day, so I got her sweater out:

She didn’t seem to like it at first, so I took it off after about five minutes.  Less than an hour later, I caught her trying to crawl under it.  I put it back on for a while:

He sister was a little jealous.  Unfortunately, she is a little too girthy to fit into Mya’s clothing:

At least she got over her jealousy and was able to snuggle up with her clothed sister, for a little nappy:

Today’s symptoms:  The fatigue is getting better than it was over the last two weeks.  I’ve just been dealing with a lot of flu-like pains all over my bod.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/10/2010 10:44 PM

Vyctor Takes Flight!

I set my alarm for 8:00 am today in hopes of waking to clear skies for flying.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.  I looked out at yuck.  I checked the various aviation weather sites online and they indicated yuck.  I phoned for an aviation weather briefing and guess what?  More Yuckaroos!  Geesh.  Oh well, I decided to go visit my mother in Fonthill.  We went out for a coffee then headed over to the Seaway Mall.  While there, I booted up my iPod Touch and checked the aviation weather again.  It looked like it was clearing up!  I phoned the Flying Club and was told that it was indeed clearing.  I told him I would be there in about an hour and a half. 
It was nice to see the clear blue skies up above.  It was a little windy, but nothing major. 

Here’s a pic of Vyc and I heading out:

I had a good laugh when the tower called me and asked if I had new tires.  I guess the big, white labels gave them away:

I was actually a little disappointed when I noticed they all fell off after I landed.  I felt special having new tires.  Also, I littered.

It was a really nice day for a flight.  I think I was up for about an hour and a half.  The visibility was great:

The weather for the first half of the week isn’t looking too good, so I’m very happy to have flown today.  Vyctor handles great!  I can tell that he weighs more than my last plane.  It’s fairly noticeable during take-offs and landings.  His cruising speed is a little faster too, which is a nice bonus.

I have to go make a couple batches of fudge for my RAA (Recreational Aircraft Association) meeting tomorrow night, so I shall say ado!

Today’s symptoms:  Felt physically better today than I have over the last week.  Yea!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/7/2010 8:04 PM

Still Grounded

I was really hoping to take Vyctor up today for his first flight as a Canadian citizen, but it wasn’t meant to be.  I phoned London FSS for a weather briefing around 11:30 this morning, and wasn’t too happy when he said the ceiling was at 1400 feet.  He said it probably wouldn’t get much better during the day either.  Blah.  So, I did six hours of overtime at work instead!  It was a productive day but nothing really exciting happened.   I did snap a picture of my aviation shrine, which is on top of one of my filing cabinets:

The Snoopy dude is the newest edition.  I guess I’ll have to change the picture under the window to one of Vyctor.  Hopefully we’ll get a sunny day soon so I can pose him for a photo shoot.

Keep you fingers crossed for decent weather tomorrow, however looking at the forecast, I’m not so sure.

Symptoms for Today:  Feeling better physically than I have in a while.  Bummed that I didn’t get to go flying.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/6/2010 9:45 PM

Vyctor’s Inspection

My new plane (Vyctor) was all ready for his import inspection today.  My mechanic had an inspector come in from London to check over the plane.  Since the plane came in from the States, we had to make sure everything was up to Canadian standards.  There were quite a few items that needed repairs and adjustments (magnetos repaired, propeller overhauled, harnesses rewebbed, cracks in the wheel pants, the engine needed to be remounted, etc.)  Nothing really major, but some of the things were not up to Cessna standards and regulations – they are now!  The inspector arrived at the airport just after 9:00 this morning, and I met up with him around 9:30.  We went over all of the paperwork and I signed some forms.  My mechanic and I left the inspector to his inspection of the plane and log books.  I think he was there for about three hours.  I was so relieved when my mechanic phoned and said that the plane passed the inspection.  Mind you, having total trust in my mechanic and knowing how meticulous and by-the-book he is, I really wasn’t worried.  It feels good to know that I now have a very safe plane, fully up to Cessna and Canadian standards. 

Today was the first day I saw Vyctor with his new registration plastered on his sassy tail:

Cute, eh?  Gee, Lyz!

Here are a couple more pics of little Vyc during his inspection.  He was feeling a little exposed and vulnerable.

Here’s a picture of the freshly rewebbed harnesses.  Cessna requires rewebbing of the harnesses every ten years.  I preferred the original blue belts, but the black ones don’t look too bad:

Ok, last pic:

I’m doing overtime at work tomorrow, starting at 8:00.  I think we can work until 2:00, however, I’ll probably finish around 12:00 so I can get over to the airport and take Vyctor for his first flight as a Canadian citizen. 
Stay tuned later this weekend for pics and stories from our flight together!

Today’s symptoms:  It’s been a really rough week physically, mainly weakness.  However, I’m feeling quite a bit better today.  I’m going to get a good sleep tonight so I’m able to hit the skies tomorrow!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/5/2010 7:19 PM