A Quiet Week

October 31, 2009

Weather - A touch of Ohio weather. A day or two of mid 60's, but still blue skies. Temps about the same as Akron. Snow up north in Flagstaff and Show Low.

Since it's grandparents main responsibility to take and show pictures of their precocious grandkids to whomever will look at them - they follow below. Reminder - left click on picture to view full size which allows you a much better view of the kids.

This is grandpa Wayland with Rohan Wayland. He had gained 10 oz at his last doctor's visit (Rohan that is!) this past week which now puts him at 7 lbs 8 oz. He is really filling out and growing fast. He seems to be more content after eating now and is allowing his sleep deprived mother time to get a little more rest than the first couple of weeks. Dad is busy with his hospital rotations, this week at Phoenix Children's Hospital. It sounds like his choice of residency after graduation in May will be in Internal Medicine-Pediatrics and he has been invited to interview at a number of locations in the East and Midwest. He enjoys what little spare time he has with Rohan.

Here is Rohan with grandma Chakrabarty. He is starting to respond to people and sounds around him and can focus on things now. Obviously a very bright child, also handsome and good looking.

Now if you would direct your attention to our other grandchild Ellie Ione Pildner - below you can see her enjoying herself at her one year birthday.

Guess that's about it for the kids pictures for now. Don't want to bore you with just grandkid stuff but I must say that it has been good to share time with Rohan and try to help out anyway we can around the house during the first few weeks of his worldly existence. What a transition of a person from womb to real world. Truly a mircle!

OK - for a little variety we decided to go downtown to the Phoenix Science Museum last Sunday. They had a free entrance weekend and that on a Sunday they wouldn't be very busy - Wrong! When we got there there was about a 45 minute wait in line and considering that there were a lot of families with children that probably considering the H1N1 flu thing that it was not wise to wait that out. We had lunch in the cafe there and then enjoyed a walk around the historic area.

Below is entrance to older part of the ASU campus.

Below is a really large area of pergola sun shade of lathe construction. A nice area used often for weddings, receptions, and other kinds of gatherings.

Below is the oldest or one of the oldest houses in Phoenix. Beautifully renovated.

Below we are back home and watching the quail in the backyard. They are quite different with a little thingy that sticks up on their head. Unfortunately they don't pose well.


Guess that's about it for this week. We are now down to less than two weeks before heading west to the far east (does that make sense?).

Fly-in Friday

October 23, 2009

Weather: Warm 89 degrees, blue skies

This entry is all about airplanes so if you don't have an interest in them you might as well click on the red X now.

This was the weekend of the annual Copperstate Fly-in at Casa Grande just south of Phoenix. I had been watching the activities at the flyin for the last couple of years on their internet site and thought it would be interesting to go to it sometime. This year it happened that we were in Phoenix and coincided with the flyin so I went.

Like a number of other regional flyins Copperstate was originally highly affiliated with EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) but EAA is now making it clear that they have no legal or liability connections with the flyin's. They do provide some support to help with forums to teach building techniques for those building their own airplanes. Copperstate is billed as the fourth largest flyin in the US. Most of the planes of course were from Arizona but there were numerous from the neighboring states of New Mexico, California, and Colorado.

My guess is that there were around 450 planes there and although there were no scheduled show type flying there were always plenty of guys doing fly-bys to show off their planes. There was a large variety of types of aircraft including some beautiful homebuilts, Light Sport, etc.

This was not me shooting pictures but the official photographer for the flyin. Left click on picture for a full size view.

Like Oshkosh you could camp beside your plane if you wanted. There was also a large contingent of drive-in visitors in RV's camped at the airport.

This is a very high performance Lancair single engine turbine. Per the prop tag we're looking at 725 HP and a cruise speed of 310 knots.

A Stearman WWII trainer showing the flags of the US and Arizona.

A very nicely done Ford Model T panel truck.

Now I wonder how long it would take to fly from Akron to Phoenix if Joan and I had one of these. It was pretty on the tarmac and beautiful flying low fly-bys.

A beautiful homebuilt affectionately named by it's owner "Sky Dancer". I would put this plane in a tie with another Lancair below as best of show. Note the beautiful treatment of the engine and also the seatback. Just beautiful!

Below is my other selection as best of show. A Lancair that is turbo charged and pressurized.
The owner said that it could cruise around 22,000 feet (as I remember - maybe it was higher) thanks to turbo charging.

The interior below was impeccable with the uphostery done to match the exterior paint. It would be interesting to fly with the side mounted stick and a full open panel in front of you.

The paint job was fantastic. Look at the below photo full size to best see the shadowing behind the "N" numbers. It looks like the numbers stand out about a half inch from the surface. The pilot's wife said that they picked the N number to be easy to say and understand by ATC - 4 Lima Kilo.

Another homebuilt with a little rougher finish. The interesting part of this plane was the four bladed prop that I would guess was hand carved and built. That might have taken as much time as the rest of the plane.

The RV12 below is the Light Sport kit plane from Van's and was drawing quite a bit of interest.

This panel drew a lot of envy. Bring money if you want one like this!

This was the turbine powered Lancair that was at the beginning. The editor for this blog is not easy to use to move pictures so left it here.

It was a fun day at the fly-in and the right size event to see everything, perfect weather, and everyone having a good time. It was interesting talking with some of the pilots. One had flown over from Quartzite, a small town on I10 just before you get to the CA line. He had a LSA homebuilt that burns about 4 gal/hr and has folding wings. He keeps it in a "hangar" (one of those portable car shelters) beside his house and when he feels like flying pulls it out, opens the wings and takes off down the street. He said that he lands in the bush around there quite often taxiing up to where some of the RV's are parked in the open land and talks with them about their search for gem stones. He would have talked all day about his plane and fun he and his wife has flying. His wife did all the fabric and covering work on the plane because she didn't like the way he was doing it. He was having a lot of fun and enjoying life.

He was every bit as excited about flying as the wife of the pressurized Lancair owner from the southern California coast that talked about flying to Florida at 17,500 feet and making one fuel stop in Texas. To each their own in what ever you do in life I guess.

Life is good.

Birthday Week

10/22/2009

Weather - Getting monotonous - 80's and clear blue sky.

This was grandkids birthday week with Ellie celebrating her first birthday today the 22nd and it was Rohan's 3 week birthday having been born on the 1st. Since it is grandparents major responsibility to show pictures of grandchildren here are a couple.

Ellie is learning to walk and does OK with a little support and she especially likes pushing her shopping cart. They learn early about shopping don't they?

We understand she had her first ice cream at her party. Since her middle initial is I (shares that with her mother) and stands for ice cream it was about time although we understand that kids are not supposed to have processed milk products until they reach the age of one so happy birthday Ellie.

Rohan is also growing like a weed. Below in his well equipped swing you can see that he is starting to fill out the seat.

Grandkids are Fun!

Life is Good!

Rohan's Growing

October 22, 2009

Weather - couldn't be better. Low 80's, blue skies.

Rohan had a doctor's checkup yesterday and he has gained another 7 ounces. That plus the 7 that he had gained last week now puts him almost a pound above his birth weight of 6 lbs, 1 oz.

As you can see he is obviously a handsome guy. It's a pleasure for his grandparents to be able to be here and see this early growth. He just doesn't have that newborn look anymore.

Below he's saying where's that lunch you promised me mom?

Below is the bouginvillia (?) in Tracey and Anjan's back yard. It is blooming all around now and beautiful. Nice to look at but really nasty to try and trim. It has really sharp skin piercing thorns about an inch long. What to do with the trimmings is the next problem.

Some cactus along the walking path. So many different kinds all growing naturally here in the valley.

Tomorrow I plan on going down to the Copperstate Flyin at the Casa Grande airport. It's billed as a large event with a lot of forums, aircraft on display and demonstration flights. Looking forward to that. Joan and I made a stop at the Glendale Airport yesterday. It's a nice airport and facilities and just 15 minutes driving time from Tracey and Anjan's and I've decided that when I fly the Cherokee out (a "bucket list" item) that's where I will fly into. It has a 7,100 ft runway and lies just about a mile west of 101 with the huge Glendale indoor football stadium on the other side of 101. Probably gets a lot of personal jet traffic when the NFL games are at the stadium.

All for today I guess - life if good.

A Titan Experience

October 17, 2009

With this weekend coming up Joan and I were thinking about looking for some type of a tourist type thing or maybe a daytrip to take. Anjan had a rare two day weekend home and would be around to help Tracey with Rohan. One of the things that Tracey and Anjan had done and found to be interesting was a trip down to the Titan Missile museum site south of Tucson so we decided to go and take a look.

We are of the age to remember the cold war and the build up of missiles and the nuclear arms race and the Titans played a big role in that. Terms like "Peace through Deterrance", or worse "mutual destruction" were thrown around freely. It seemed that you were constantly reading or seeing on TV how the US was building more rockets and more nuclear warheads in a race to keep ahead of Russia doing the same. We build one, they build one, we make a bigger one, they make a bigger one, and on and on and someplace someone had their finger on the trigger. Of course the ultimate trigger finger was on the hand of the president. It makes you wonder from there on down to the guys in the control room at the missile site just what the possibility of a mistake was. These were the things that movies are made of I guess.

Originally there were 4 places in the States where there were clusters of about 18 Titans and a total of 54 Titans each with a 9 megaton nuclear bomb on the top. Now there is only one left that is de-nuked and preserved in a museum type setting just south of Tucson. The Titans were dismantled in 1982 with the exception of this one which by mutual agreement with Russia was left. Initially the missile was left in the open with openings in it to allow the Russians to see with their spy sattelites that it was harmless. Also concrete bulkheads that would be visible from space were put in place to prevent the lid on the silo from being fully opened. These remain today for that purpose.

Below is the main museum building that houses a lot of artifacts that tell the story of the program. It was highly emphasized that the program was for peace through deterrance. The more I think about this I think it was twisted logic but as they pointed out it worked and we never had WWIII, yet. If one side had pushed the button and the other side pushed theirs we wouldn't be here today discussing it. (left click on picture to view full size)

Below is topside of missile silo with lid in place plus communication antennas

Below is the tanker that provided one of the liquid fuels for the missile. There were two liquid fuels that combined to power the rocket. The fuels had really long names and were loaded into the rocket by gravity. These were bad actors and were very toxic plus if they ever got together -kaboom!! They didn't have to flick a Bic but only open two valves to mix the fuels and there was no turning back. The two fuels were loaded from opposite sides of the site. Once loaded the entire missile had to be kept in a relatively narrow temperature range I think in the upper 60's so the entire missile had to be kept in an air-conditioned environment. Keep in mind this is a desert environment and the day we were there the outside temperature topped 100 degrees (but it's a dry heat and was in the 30's and 40's back in Ohio). Interestingly once the rocket was fueled it stayed that way ready to go.

Below is a closer view of the lid that traveled on railroad rails with our tour guide Jim explaining it's operation. About one third of the lid is now plexiglas that allows you to look down on the top of the missile and see the full 103 foot length of it.

Below is the entry point for all the underground operations. Today two warning signs probably warn you of your greatest danger on the visit - watch your head, and watch for rattlesnakes. When the silo was active entry was complex. The two missile commanders relieving the ones below had to make a phone call from topside. If they did not call again from the second phone underground within a certain length of time then the guys below called security and no more doors were opened. The next phone call involved reporting to the guys currently on duty a code that the new guys brought with them from the command center at the Air Force Base in Tucson. Once the code was given the piece of paper was burned and dropped in a can painted red at the door.

Below is the main entry door to the command center.

It was about three feet thick and closed on machined surfaces (the dark surface around the door that Jim is standing in. Jim had Joan move this door weighing 6 tons just by leaning on it.

Below we are in the command center where the missiles would have been launched from. Check out the racks of equipment with round gauges, switches, etc.

Here Joan is listening to instructions from Jim on how they were going to do a launch sequence. You've probably seen this in the movies - two keys kept in a locked red box, inserted and turned at the same time by two different people more than arms length apart, etc., etc. Three targets were available but neither of the people knew what they were only that they were pre-programmed and one was selected prior to launch and came with the orders from somewhere.

Below is the real deal looking up towards the black nose that would have contained the nuke.

The Titan II could deliver a nuke warhead to a range of 6,000 to 9,000 miles and was probably to a target in Russia, likely one of their missile bases. The launch sequence was only a matter of minutes and once the missile was launched there was no canceling or changing targets. One thing that surprised me was that the Titan missile went to orbit altitude of 600-800 miles and then the warhead was guided to it's target in free fall. Somehow I always thought that the missile was sub-orbital and delivered under power all the way to the target. The Titan was used in the early Gemini space program to launch the Gemini space capsules.

One of the questions that I asked Jim was what about the people in the area. The perimeter fence didn't cover a very large area and was there risk if anyone was nearby at a launch. Well I guess it didn't really matter because it was a pretty sure thing that one of Russia's missiles was headed this way and the whole area was going to be annililated anyhow.

Well, this was an interesting tour that I would recommend to anyone. It gives a closeup of some really scary parts of US history and leaves you feeling glad that no one ever had to turn those keys.

The second part of our day trip was going to be to the aircraft "boneyard" up by Tucson. We made a hasty trip up there using Amelia to get us directly there but alas it was too late to take a tour so that will have to wait for another day. Joan and I had dinner at the Arizona Inn, a quaint 1930's hotel close to the Arizona State campus. Excellent meal!

Life is good!

Amelia - I Love You

October 14, 2009


This past Christmas we bought a GPS knowing that we were going to take a cross-country trip down through Tennessee and then eventually west to Arizona and we wanted to be able to find our way home. If you have a GPS you have to give it a name because you find yourself talking back to it after it gives you instructions. Since ours came talking in a female voice (could have been changed) she needed a female name and in honor of the famous aviatrix who seemed to be able to find her way most of the time we named it Amelia.


With Phoenix now being the fifth largest city in the nation we have found Amelia to be a good traveling companion. There is logic to their system of streets here but the confusing thing is that once they name a street it sticks all the way across the city. The problem is that there may be big gaps in it caused by washes where flood waters go and where the street will never be connected. So getting to the same street over yonder at times can be tricky. Amelia also comes in handy to find the closest grocery, etc. Also of course the Cabela's, Bass Pro Shop, Deer Valley airport, and all those other good places.

It has been warm here with most days so far in the 90's and 60's in the evenings. Perfect for morning and evening walks around the neighborhood. The effort put into the Fletcher Homes area where Tracey and Anjan live have nice green spaces built in and the main streets are broad with beautiful landscaping along the streets and bicycle paths along most. Below is the main street into Tracey and Anjan's area.
A reminder here that you can see the pic's full size by left clicking on the photo. Use the return arrow on the browser to get back to the blog not the red X or it will drop you out.





Below here is part of the green space built into the area which provides a nice area for walking.





So far Rohan seems to like his grandparents. We know that his grandma (Manju) Charkrabarty and grandma and grandpa Ritzman love him a lot. Activities so far pretty much center around feeding him, holding him, diapers, etc. He is a good baby and is starting to take interest in his surroundings.

All for today.

Hello Rohan

October 11, 2009

You know who your true friends are when they are willing to pick you up at 4:30 AM in the morning to take you to the airport. Joan and I were excited about this trip because we were going to see our new grandson Rohan Wayland Chakrabarty and the alarm going off at 3:45 AM didn't seem like too much of an inconvenience. Rohan was born on Oct. 1 and he was already going to be over a week old before we were going to see him. At 4:30 Jerry was in the driveway to pick us up to go to Akron Canton airport to catch a flight to Chicago leaving at 6 AM. All things went on schedule and we had about an hour and a half in Chicago to grab a bite of breakfast before the flight to Phoenix.

The Airbus was pushed from the ramp exactly on the published time and the flight to PHX was smooth and again on schedule. This was the first time that we have flown with the new airline cost adders in place. I don't know about the other airlines (I think that Southwest still doesn't charge for bags) but United had extra charges for each checked bag (carryons still free) and if you paid on the internet it was less than at checkin. If you wanted to have a seat with a little more legroom towards the front of the cabin you could pay $30 more for 5 inches more legroom. We were flying on points and it was only the bag charge that we had to pay extra for but they try to get you for everything it seems. Restrooms and coffee were still free.

Anjan picked us up at PHX after an ontime arrival and we headed to Rohan's house. He was just as handsome as his hospital pictures indicated (we may be slightly prejudiced).

Below is grandma Joan with Rohan. He is quiet and well behaved except when hungry then he gets a little grouchy.

Anjan below is giving Rohan a little sunlight treatment in the backyard to help with the jaundice that he had.

Well we are having a good time so far and Tracey has given me a few projects around the house to do to help me feel at home. I think that I have finally figured out how the programmed lawn sprinkler and drip system works. Next project will be to do some trimming of the bushes and trees.

I sure don't want to rub it in but the weather here has been beautiful compared to the recent weather in Akron. So far it's been down into the upper 60's at night and mid-80's during the day and lots of blue sky. VFR every day so far. Just perfect for evening and morning walks and sitting out to enjoy the sun.

All for now!

Wayland