DaleWilliams.net

I felt the compelling need to be productive today, which is a rare occurrence and I can assume it is the result of going out Thursday night and getting absolutely nothing worthwhile accomplished on Friday. I recently just renewed my lease here in Charlotte for a second year, so I figured it was about time to unpack some of the boxes that have been sitting in the exact same spot in my closet since moving in a year ago.

I open the first box, and inside I find my old laptop from undergrad and a few books from my second to last semester at Witt. This might be a record for procrastination; I got a newer laptop just before I graduated, and packed this box up sometime in April or May of 2008, and the box has sat, unopened throughout grad school at Ohio State, and then traveled with me to Charlotte, where it sat, unopened, though almost my first full year at PwC.

My curiosity was peaked, I wondered what was on the old laptop – so I dug around for the AC adapter and turned it on. To my surprise, 20 minutes later (it was a really crappy laptop then and now…) it awoke from a 2+ year hibernation to a snapshot of my life from a few years ago.

I was looking at a window into the past, everything was exactly as I left it before getting completely frustrated with the computer, and sending it into hibernation before going to Best Buy to get a new one that wouldn’t freeze every 5 minutes.

I found old spreadsheets open from my last accounting class at Wittenberg, which looking back, were pretty badly put together considering I spend half of my workday creating excel spreadsheets now. As bad as they were, the work was still good enough for an A+ in the class (no one else ever did the assignments, I set the curve with very little effort)

I also had a window open from thinkgeek.com for their Annoy-a-tron. I eventually got one and had some real fun with this little piece of evil . The Annoy-a-tron is a small device powered by a watch battery which creates a very irritating, high pitched beep at random times. All the user has to do is set it somewhere inconspicuous, and let the fun begin. Within a few hours, the victim will freak out looking for the noise, but because it beeps at random times, it is very difficult to locate. Good memories.

I also found a AIM instant messenger chat window open from a girl I dated for a short period of time. She was telling me what an asshole I was for doing the homework in the accounting class and how it would affect her grade. I guess I still liked her then, so I didn’t realize it at time, but looking at the conversation today made me realize what a bad situation that was, and how much better my life became when I finally swore to never speak to her again.

There was also a Firefox window open with a classified ad for a Cirrus SR22, which is a beautiful airplane that I desperately wanted to fly. I still hadn’t finished my private pilot’s license at that point, but I still swore I would one day have one of my own. I’m still working on that, but at least since then, I have flown an SR22 along with a number of other fun airplanes, I’ve achieved my dreams of flying through the mountains, flown to the beach for lunch, and enjoyed all the freedom to go where I want, when I want.

I wasted a golden opportunity to be productive today, but I got to take a look back in time and realize how much has changed in just a few years. I put the computer back in hibernation, put it back in the box, and will likely forget about it again for another few years until I stumble across it once more and think about where I was, where I am, and where I will be.

One of the best things about having a pilot’s license is the ability to go pretty much anywhere whenever I choose. My birthday gift to myself this year is to fly back home to Columbus, Ohio from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Unfortunately, this particular flight was going to be a little longer than usual – a presidential TFR (restricted airspace) was posting right along my original route of flight. To non-pilots, a presidential TFR is a prohibition of flight within specified airspace – in this case it was due to the president attending the funeral of the late senator Robert Byrd in Charleston, WV. The result required planning a flight which added about a half hour to my trip and significantly complicating things.

My aircraft for this trip was the oldest airplane I have ever flown – a 1967 Cessna 172K, which had a much smaller engine and had fairly dated avionics. While the airplane had a GPS and VOR system, the GPS was very old and was really only effective in telling me my course rather than my actual position, requiring a heavy reliance on maps to confirm my location.

The flight itself was uneventful, I took off, contacted Charlotte approach and requested flight following (they watch me with radar, and let me know if I’m about to hit something). Check out the videos below for some clips along the flight.

The return flight back to Charlotte was a little scary. The first thing that caused me to worry was when I paid for my fuel, I burned 32.5 gallons on the trip. The problem with this figure was that the airplane only has 36 galons of fuel, however when I landed, the guages for the left tank read full, and the right tank read half full. Aware that the gauges are inaccurate now, I made the choice to schedule a few pit-stops along the way in order to refuel and make sure I don’t run out of gas in a bad location.

I begin my pre-flight, checking the oil, exterior and then trying to extend the flaps. I turn the master switch on, and nothing happens… great. The battery is dead.

I get a jump from the linemen at the airport, and get the engine running to finish my preflight, then I depart to the Ohio University airport about 70 miles away. The flight didn’t take long, and I figured stopping along the way would give me that little extra gas I needed to safely make the trip home. I land, refuel, and try to start the engine again, but again, nothing happens. I get a jump and perform my preflight, and when I check the mags (separate electrical system to power the engine) I notice one of the causes the airplane to run rough. Worried that a combination of no backup power, inaccurate fuel gauges, and a rough running engine may not be the best idea for a flight over the mountains with few available places to land in an emergency. I cut the engine, and call my flight instructor to explain the issues I am having with the aircraft. He was able to explain how to fix the issue with the engine, and was aware that one of the fuel gauges read ‘full’ at all times. He also believed that the issue with the electrical system was due to something getting left on while on the ground at OSU and the battery just needed more time to charge.

I elected to circle above the Ohio University airport while trying to get up to altitude to avoid some clouds that have cropped up in the area. The airplane would only climb at about 200 feet per minute, making the climb to my planned altitude of 9500 feet very difficult. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally reach a few hundred feet below my planned altitude, and I’ve made it about 20 miles south of the airport when the engine starts to sputter. With an electrical system which is unreliable, and no battery power, there would have been no way to restart the engine if it quit. I make a hard turn back to the airport, turn on the carburetor heat just in case, and try to push the mixture lever in, but it is already in. I suspect the problem is that the engine can’t perform at that altitude due to the thin air, so I begin to descend to 7500 feet. The engine gains evens out and I adjust the controls and levers to fly at 7500 feet rather than 9500, which puts me right in a layer of puffy clouds and closer to the mountains than I would otherwise like to be.

The clouds began to thin out over the mountains, but I would still periodically have to swerve around them to maintain VFR (flying by visual references). The process of changing altitude in an airplane which at best, can only climb at ¼ the rate of the other aircraft I’ve flown, and avoiding clouds and mountains creates a very stressful situation. After almost three hours, and nearly reaching my destination, I break through the Appliachan Mountans and spot an airport ahead of me. Stressed out, and frankly scared of the airplane, I decide to take a break. I land at Statesville airport in NC to refuel and take a few minutes to relax before finishing off the trip.

The final trip back to the airport was more or less normal (electrical system was still bad and I needed a jump) however once I get down to the airport, I try to extend flaps for landing and my radios and gps cut out. Clearly the airplane can’t handle the current load necessary to extend flaps – I’m close to the airport, so I execute a maneuver called a forward-slip to land (a coordination of rudder and aileron controls to push the side of the airplane into the wind which reduces speed and altitude very quickly). It has been a long while since I’ve had to do this maneuver in a landing, so it wasn’t pretty, but I brought it down in one piece and I was finally home.

Two peeps fight to the death in the Colosseum (i.e. my microwave).

It’s about that time of year again, where everyone makes a pact with themselves which will most likely be broken before the end of January. I’d like to think I can follow through on something I’ve committed to, so the following are my new year’s resolutions for 2010:

Develop tastes and opinions on wine

I have an appreciation for good beers and whiskeys, but I have never developed much of a knowledge of wines. Beer began with brewing my own in the dorm freshman year, and my appreciation of whiskey is the result of discovering the one type of alcohol which will never disappear from my room during a house party. Throughout my time at Wittenberg and Ohio State, I have never really had the chance to learn about wine, and much of what I have had is the grape-flavored vinegar “Box-Wine” from having one to many to know better at parties. My goal here is not to become some wine snob, but simply to have an understanding so I can go to a nice restaurant and not look like a jackass.

Cook an actual meal a few times per week

Over the past year, grad school consumed my life; in the past few months, work has done the same. I used to cook very healthy meals for myself once upon a time, but as my free time dwindled, I found myself surviving on a diet of frozen and prepackaged food. Double-stuff Oreo’s, Cheetos and candy are great (if you are 5), but now that I’m actually an adult, I think it is time to stop eating foods that make me feel sick.

Social Life

I need to get out and meet more people my age around town. Free time is a rare commodity: I’ve been working 50-60+ hour work weeks, studying for the CFA exams, trying to exercise for an hour 3-4 times per week, and working on getting the instrument rating for my pilot’s license; there is literally not enough time in the day to have a life. In the months since I’ve moved to Charlotte, I really haven’t met anyone my age outside of work; this needs to change.

Golf Game

I used to have an acceptable golf game, however I don’t get to play nearly as much as I would like. Golf isn’t like riding a bike, if I only play a few times per year I have to re-learn my swing every single time. I want to find a nearby driving range and practice regularly so I can at least keep the ball on the fairway (or setting the bar really low, at least out-drive the girl who has never played before!).

This video was filmed in SC, I wonder if they would let me try it

And, of course, the pride of Kentucky: Turtleman!

Finally, this is just plain weird:

I just got a letter in the mail today offering a Cirrus SR22 Turbo GTS for the bargain price of $598,500. As of right now, I am making around the US median family income by myself (per Wikipedia), so I’m pretty well off, but unless I can find the loan officer who got those cleaning ladies into half-million dollar houses in California during the housing bubble, I’m SOL on this one.

It is a ridiculous price to pay for a toy, but I’ve met people over the last few months around the airport who could easily write a check today and fly off in one. These people have small private jets, who can fly off on a Sunday morning, meet some college buddies halfway across the county for a round of golf, and be back in their own beds Sunday night to get a full night of sleep before heading to the office on Monday morning. I’d like to think that before I’m 40, I’ll be able to do the same- it’s what I think about after the 15th hour of updating spreadsheets to keep me motivated.

Until that day, I’m just going to have to be happy with flying around in the 30+ aircraft I have access to in my flying club- which won’t allow me to jet around the country for a round of golf, but I am able to leave work around 5 on Friday, and catch the tail-end of happy hour three states away

I had plans this past weekend to rent a plane and fly from Charlotte NC to Athens Ohio for a Halloween party. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and I had to cancel my flight- a private pilot’s license requires flying clear of clouds, and it has been a long while since I’ve seen blue sky here in Charlotte. In a few months, I’ll have my instrument rating, meaning my weekend plans won’t be as affected by crappy weather.

Until that time however, when the weather sucks, I have to spend half a day at the airport just like everyone else- and that’s what happened this weekend. When I fly commercially, I always end up sitting next to this:

Yes it’s a whale. You are probably thinking whales don’t fly, but if it weighs a metric ton and smells like low tide at the docks, then I’m open to suggestions on what else it could possibly be.

I should have dressed as Captain Ahab for Halloween…

At the beginning of the summer, Rob Chabot asked me to give a talk on studying for the CPA exam to the new students. Since I knew I would be in Charlotte then, I couldn’t be there physically, so I offered to put this together instead.

MAcc Presentation- Open in New Window

Most things I do, both good and bad, are the result of a few too many beers and Google. Last week’s good idea was to fly a helicopter. Today’s good idea was to learn to fly a glider. I will be starting work next week, and I fully expect to be worked to near death. This last week of free time I consider to be a golden opportunity: to experience some of the amazing, adrenaline pumping activities that are out there. Once I’ve started working, I don’t want to fill my free time with videogames and Netflix. Now that I’ve done this, I will be willing to make the effort to get out and do it again.

The gliderport is a simple grass strip about an hour and a half from downtown Charlotte NC, well outside the crowded airspace around where I live, thankfully I had my GPS, because it truly is in the middle of nowhere. The facilities are nice, with a number of new and old sailplanes.

My first impression upon sitting down into the glider is how basic the controls and instruments are. A glider is a much simpler aircraft than the Cessna 172 airplane I earned my private pilot rating in, and far simpler than the Schweizer 300CB helicopter I recently started training in. In fact, there is no radio, and very few of the gauges I’ve used in the past. There are no navigation instruments, aside from a simple magnetic compass, and no electric switches.

Taking off from the airstrip felt a little unusual, mostly because the thing getting me airborne wasn’t an engine but a piece of rope attached to a crop duster. At this point, it feels about like flying an airplane. The realization came when I pulled the knob to release the tow cable. The crop duster pulls away, and there’s silence. I don’t hear the sound of an engine, only the sound of air around the cockpit. It was at this point I realized:

“There’s no engine here… I’m going to be on the ground one way or another… I would really prefer if I end up on the ground alive.”

Getting over the initial shock, I found that the sailplane handles much like an airplane. The controls are simple, but very responsive. I made a few turns, flew over a few farms and got a feel for the aircraft. Unfortunately, there were few clouds and the air was fairly stable, so there was no way to gain some lift and fly for more than a half hour. I turned back to the airstrip, and the thought of ending up on the ground in a pile of twisted aluminum returned. Fortunately, the flight instructor handled this first landing, after I lined up to the runway and got within 50 feet from the ground. One satisfying thud, the main wheel hit the grass, and we quickly slowed to a stop, alive.

I had a great time today, I will definitely do it again soon.

Ok, I needed to turn my brain off for a while today, so of course I turn on the most mind-rotting crap available… which of course is SpongeBob SquarePants!

So this is the storyline: Mr. Crabs wants to talk to money, so he says he will give anything for that power. Of course the ghost of the Flying Dutchman appears and is willing to grant him his wish in exchange for his eternal soul in the afterlife. Mr. Crabs accepts the offer and starts talking to his money.

After a while, Crabs realizes how incredibly stupid and annoying his wish is, and wants to cancel the contract. Of course the Flying Dutchamn refuses, and wants Crabs’ soul. Mr. Crabs however, had already sold his soul to about a half dozen cartoon ghosts and SpongeBob for being $5 short on payday.

So , all you accounting people: who has claim to Mr. Crabs’ soul given that Bikini Bottom is in a race-notice jurisdiction, with none of the claimants holding a properly perfected security interest?