Ken Q

Nice picture! This is the Kingdom of Mercia? My regards to King Raedwald (whether or not he actually is in Sutton Hoo)! Beautiful. Ken

My father was born in Atlantic, Iowa, and in WW2 joined the US Coast Guard in Council Bluffs, IA. Unfortunately, he died shortly after the War, when I was two, so I never heard about growing up there from him. As a young child I visited his father (my Grandpa) in Omaha. Some memories, but rather vague. In P3D "go to..." is in "Navigation," in FSX it was in "World." It allows for selecting a starting point for any flight. ATC is minimalist "online flying." Do need a minimal capability USB headset. The Logitech is satisfactory, and quite cheap. I got started with an online friend known as "Basement Fly Guy" who is no longer active. But being introduced to it by someone familiar with it is helpful. Now I'm willing to do likewise, so if you like to try it with a flight together, I'm willing. Ken

I've gone through Nebraska on this trip too, stopping at Grand Island and Lincoln along the way. But I'm quite serious about SimVenture. This is a wonderful event. It's designed, with the cooperation of the controllers for AirVenture, as a practice/dry run for pilots flying into the show at the end of July. Since this relatively small rural airport has over 10,000 arrivals and departures in a little over a week, it is beneficial to have a practice run to understand routes and procedures. So while it is aimed at R/W pilots planning on attending, it is open to all, real world and SIM pilots alike. While a PilotEdge membership is required, the service offers a free trial which is generous enough to experience this program. Besides, I recommend PilotEdge to anyone who wants real, professional ATC as part of an immersive flight SIM experience. Unfortunately they only cover the western two thirds of the US. I should note that I (almost) always fly point to point, and hardly ever use the go-to-airport function. I'll be leaving SoCal for.Wisconsin in mid June. Actual dates, scenery and the "Notice" (formerly the "Notam") will be posted on the PilotEdge website. And if actually talking to ATC makes you uncomfortable, don't worry. They do all the talking, unless it's quiet enough for a little chit-chat. We just have to follow instructions. The event can have a few hundred SIM pilots engaged at a time. Ken

Yes Gumby, I suppose so. But here John has a couple of months to do this. In your case we only had a few days, so we had to get creative. Since the Concordes have become museum pieces, the best I could come up with was the Air-o-doodle. Fortunately no one has religated that to a museum, but the only one built was not available. But since we have over six months, I can meet you in Fond du Lac too. Ken

Well, John, once you get to Seattle, here's a thought. Plan to get there by June, then send that tired old 737 to the shop for some much needed maintenance. Then acquire a good low and slow, or perhaps a not so low and so slow, aircraft and head east. You could do it an a 172 or 182, but a Mooney Bravo or Ovation would be faster. Enjoy the scenery and the challenging mountain flying. A stop at Cle Elum, then visit Rodger (if he's home) landing at Felts Field. Then a stop at Glacier Park, and then dip south to Jackson Hole. East again through South Dakota, Minnesota, and finally into Wisconsin. Meet me at Fond du Lac by mid July, and we can fly the Fisk arrival into Oshkosh together. Great fun! Check the gas prices at every stop, and be glad you're not paying them! Ken

My annual long cross country in the Mooney, from SoCal to Oshkosh to participate in PilotEdge's "SimVenture". In the past I've gone a northern route, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, or a more central route through northern Nevada, Utah and Iowa. This time I think I'll go a more southern route via southern Arizona, New Mexico, then slant northeast through Kansas. SimVenture is a great event held every July two weeks before EAA's AirVenture. Fly the Fisk or Warbird Arrival (depending on aircraft) with actual Oshkosh ATC controllers. I always take some vacation time and fly the Fisk Arrival several times. Then.fly.back to SoCal by a different route. Ken

This seems like a very nice tradition. I'm surprised, not only that my family did not observe it, but that I've not heard of it before this. For most of my childhood I lived with my grandparents, both of whom were born in England (Southampton and West Hartlepool). We also celebrated the New Year 1991 in Beccles with friends, but no mention of this custom, either. Then again, we celebrated the turning of the year in the bell tower of the 14th century church where our friend was a bell ringer ringing in the New Year. Is this perhaps a more regional custom? But this is a wonderful story. Happy Birthday to your wife! (My mother's birthday was also New Year's, my grandmother's was Boxing Day, and my wife's is Christmas Day). Happy New Year to all! Ken

A Happy, and Healthy New Year, to you, Iain, and to.all my Forum friends! Ken

I use this site to follow Non Sequitur since the newspaper dropped it. Ken

I fondly remember Calvin and Hobbs. Other long gone favorites were Bloom County and Pogo. Today I have a few favorites. First, Wiley Miller's Non Sequitur. Then Zits and Mutts. Also Pickles has its moments, especially helping oldsters like us laugh at ourselves. Except for Non Sequitur these appear in the local newspaper. Non Sequitur got booted because the cartoonist failed to delete political marginallia but is available on line. (The strip is highly political, but does not name names. Except this once). I still subscribe to Newsday, the regional newspaper for Long Island, New York. But it has gotten very expensive. Sixty years ago I delivered this paper. I had a route of about thirty customers. It cost them a nickel a day, or $0.30 per week. I paid $0.22 for a week's run of the paper, and the rest was my pay, plus tips. So I earned about $2.40/week, plus maybe another $1.80 in tips. Living high on the hog! Ken

Sorry, Gumby. By the time I realized it, I couldn't get a reservation for the Air-o-doodle. They told me it was somewhere in the southern hemisphere, and I hope you'd have a chance. But then finding someone who could run the thing. Sorry, can't help with that. Ken

Any American kid who grew up in the 1950s, with a memory jog, will remember the Air-o-doodle from the "Howdy Doody" television series. The whimsical vehicle was part plane, part train, part boat, and part car. Just thought it would be just the thing to get Gumby from Tasmania to the Northeast U.S. most expeditiously. Of course one needs to able to run these different machines. I, at least, have a little experience in all of them. Car-obvious. Boat- kid growing up around various boats, plus 20+ years US Navy. Plane- Sim, of course, plus some training in the PA 24 Comanche. Steam locomotive training-Standard gauge: Connecticut Valley RR, narrow gauge: Cumbres & Toltec Scenic RR. Gumby, sorry you couldn't make. Merry Christmas to ALL! Ken

Gumby, here's what you need to get here in time for dinner-an Air-o-doodle: Use the boat function to get from Tasmania to mainland Australia. The car function to drive to the airport at Sydney. Fly across the Pacific to Los Angeles (KLAX) in airplane mode. Car function to drive down to the Southern Pacific Yard at Log Beach (pick up a hitch-hiker bound for New York on the way. Don' tell him the reason for your generosity-yet). Get on the tracks at the SP yard. (now you can inform your "passenger" that he will be shoveling coal for the next 3000 miles). With the steam locomotive proceed east and north via various Con-Rail railroads until reaching the Hudson River. The best place to cross used to be via the high bridge to Poughkeepsie, New York, but that has been converted to a pedestrian bridge. So swap your engineer's cap for the captain's cap and boat across the river. Join the old New York Central tracks southbound, the connect with the old New Haven tracks to Derby, Connecticut. Here you can drop your "passenger" of at the Metro North station so he can take the commuter train to New York City. Finding water for the engine should not be too hard; you can probably find fire hydrants along the way. But I don't know where you'll find coal. The coaling towers, with very few exceptions, were torn down decades ago. Now leave the tracks and launch into New Haven harbor and steam across Long Island Sound to Port Jefferson, New York. In car mode drive south on Route 112 (be careful not to snag any utility wires on the way). Proceed west on the Long Island Distressway to Route 110. Do NOT try to go on the Northern State Parkway. The Air-o-doodle will never fit under the overpasses. (Robert Moses deliberately designed the parkways so they could never be used by trucks or buses). North on 110 to the Walt Whitman Shops shopping mall. You can park the Air-o-doodle there (it would never fit on my street). Call me from there and I'll give direction on how to walk the remaining mile and a quarter.

Which of the three ships that are headed for Bethlehem are you going to hijack? No, I won't wait up! Ken

Sunday your time, or my time?

Thanks, Don. A Merry Christmas to you, your family. And a Merry Christmas to all our Forum friends and families. Ken

I also don't have much of a sweet tooth. My wife likes to bake, and she does have a bit of a sweet tooth, so she's been frustrated for all these years since I am a reluctant consumer of her creations. My favorite dessert after Christmas dinner is a nice platter of different cheeses and crackers, along with a little brandy and coffee. Ken

Now, unfortunately, it's just the two of us. But we still follow the same pattern my family has always had. A nice dinner on Christmas Eve. Then we serve at the midnight Mass, which at our church starts at 10:00 PM Christmas Eve. Once we get home we exchange gifts; at our age not that much. Sleep late Christmas morning. Then a nice dinner later. It's my one day to get roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Now the challenge is finding a small enough piece of beef. Ken

Thanks, Iain. And to all my friends on the Orbx Forun, a very happy Christmas and New Year! Ken, Karen, and Chessie (the VP of Rodent Control).

I join Gumby on this. Rodgers TWMT series has turned a bunch of guys from around the world who happen like Flight Simulator into a group of friends. Well done, and thank you, Rodge! Ken

A few years ago we bought a new dishwasher. After a couple of weeks it stopped working, so of course we called the repair man. He took one look and apologized: the repair was not covered by the warranty. The wires had been chewed by an animal. So $150 later we had our dishwasher back, but we had no idea what had caused the damage. A couple weeks later it happened again. This time we determined to find the source before trying again. A couple of days later our vice-president-of- rodent-control detected the culprit behind the firewood carrier in the living room. But we couldn't catch the elusive critter. Be we at least knew we were dealing with a rat! We called the exterminator. He sealed up every possible opening in the house, and set traps all over the basement. Over the next week or so we heard the beast in the walls, in the crawl space, and in the basement. Occasionally we got a sighting, but no luck in catching it. Then one day I was in the basement doing laundry, and Chessie our rodent control expert had come down to use his litter box, and the rat slowly sauntered by. BATTLE STATIONS!!! I pursued the rat into the space between the oil burner and the work bench, while Chessie cut off his route of escape behind the oil burner. Trapped! But now what? No way was I going to touch this thing, and Chessie was of the same mind. At my left hand though was a plastic paint pail. Plot! We got him! Nearby was a "Homer Bucket" (A large orange pail sold by The Home Depot). I put that over him too. The the wife came down with a galvanized steel ash can that she uses to store flour and such. That went over too. I called the exterminator company. Happens that their duty man was on the next block, so he was here in five minutes. We slid some stiff cardboard under the whole thing, turned it over and got it outside where the exterminator "eliminated" the rat. The hero of the story: Chassis Cat. Without his teamwork we'd never get him! But unlike Graeme, we were not about to touch that thing, not with those teeth. Ken

Unless we count the posse of squirrels that formed a "welcoming committee" in the Boston Common, I guess snakes would do it for me: 1. Many years ago my then girlfriend, my friend/roommate and I were in the kitchen when the cat brought in a (garter) snake and proudly dropped it at our feet. My roommate panicked! My girlfriend wanted to study it! The cat wanted to play with it, and I just wanted to get it outside. An episode of Keystone Cops! 2. Where I work, several years ago a snake took up residence under a window inside the blacksmith shop. At times it came out to sun itself on the window sill. We sort of made a pet of it. 3. Speaking of pet snakes, Theodore Roosevelt's daughter had a pet snake she named "Emily Spinach." She named it after two things she hated most: her Aunt Emily, and spinach. Until he died recently we had a Theodore Roosevelt impersonator named Jim Foote. One year when he was working for us during the Long Island Fair he had a garter snake named Emily Spinach which he carried around in his shirt pocket. Now about those squirrels. While not exactly exotic, they're not house pets either. But this bunch, on seeing my friend (the same mentioned above) my wife, my mother and i walk by the Common, they came bounding across the lawn right up to us. One then climbed up my leg and stuck his head in my pocket. Such a look of reproach I got when he didn't find any treats in there. Obviously, when walking past the Boston Common one must pay a toll to the squirrels, at least according to said squirrels. Ken

I have followed Steveo for years, and have always enjoyed his videos, and learn a lot from them. Steveo's employer has recently sold the TBM, so Steveo is temporarily out of a job. I also enjoy Josh Flowers' "Aviation 101" channel. Josh is a young CFII, and his videos are very professional, with both great entertainment and instructional value. Another one I enjoy is Stevie Triesenberg's channel. Stevie owns a V-Tail Bonanza and a Cessna 140. She is based at Camarillo, so flies her planes in much of the same region as I fly the Sim. Ken

After month two you can fetch your own water. Also, the beer is on you. Look up what Ben Franklin (in Poor Richard) said about fish and visitors. Ken

OK, Gumby. I'll order a tent for the back yard. They are talking about an El Nino winter, so there shouldn't be too many below 0 nights (it's the middle of winter "up here") I'll gladly provide buckets of water. I set out several of full ones, as well as an empty with holes punched in the bottom. That way you may shower as often as you like. K