Posted by Dave Minor
Tue, 06 Dec 2005 15:20:47 GMT
In flight training, we use sight limiting glasses (called “foggles”) or a hood to block out the windows and force the pilot to fly by instruments simulating having flown into clouds or fog. It demands focus and attention on the task at hand.
I need foggles in my programming. It’s so hard to stay on task and complete the requirement. Not just from a “keep programming” perspective (ignoring email, phone, browser, IM, and making posts to my blog), but also from a “specific task” perspective (ie, “oh, it would be cool if it also did X. I’ll add that real quick then come back to this problem”).
Of course, this is all just discipline, something which I apparently lack unless I’m passionate about something. I’ve never thought that was really a problem for me.
It would also be great if I could have someone sitting beside me all day reminding me to check on things and pointing out my mistakes:
“Make sure you close that block.”
“Watch your tests.”
“What’s another way you could write that method?”
“OK, you just got hacked. What are you going to do now?”
Posted in Flying, Look Inside, Programming | 1 comment
Posted by Dave Minor
Tue, 22 Nov 2005 20:13:04 GMT
Today was a good step in my dream of flying. I passed the Private Pilot written test with flying colors. :)
Last night I did my night cross country flight. Next big event is my solo cross-country which will happen after Thanksgiving. I should be ready for my checkride before the middle of December! This has happened a lot faster than I expected it to—which is fine by me!
Posted in Flying | no comments
Posted by Dave Minor
Mon, 07 Nov 2005 15:43:37 GMT
Here’s a picture from my first solo.
The weather lately has not been kind to me. I was supposed to have done my first cross-country flight last Thursday, but the winds were really high making things very turbulent. We stayed in the pattern and did some really rough crosswind landings instead. The winds stayed high all weekend.
This morning when I got up it was beautiful—calm winds and clear skies. By 0800 there was a ceiling at 1200 and we were boxed in. Hopefully it will clear off later and we can go.
Posted in Flying | no comments
Posted by Dave Minor
Tue, 25 Oct 2005 17:53:01 GMT
I completed my first solo flight this morning! It was a beautiful morning with light winds. 3 takeoffs and full stop landings. Of course, as expected, as soon as I got in the air, traffic in the area started coming in. Not slow traffic that would just meld in with me, but fast planes using the other runway, so I had to do some maneuvering to get out of their way. Between that and the life flight chopper at the hospital, things were pretty active. Lot’s of fun. Can’t wait for the next leg of my training.
Posted in Flying | 1 comment
Posted by Dave Minor
Thu, 20 Oct 2005 19:23:43 GMT
Bumpy day today. I was hoping to work on smoothing out my touchdown, but the winds were ripe for practicing crosswind landings - quite the different beast. I still smoked the last one! :)
Posted in Flying | no comments
Posted by Dave Minor
Thu, 20 Oct 2005 14:19:32 GMT
I mentioned at the beginning of last year that Sarah has given her blessing for me to pursue my pilot’s license. I began that full swing in October. I’ve logged around 8 hours so far most of those last week. The airport is only about 10 minutes from our house, so it’s easy to get to.
Anyway, I’m going to keep a running log of important events that happen along the way here. I also want to create an app (probably in rails) that is basically an online pilot log. Then have a script that includes my log stats at the end of each flying blog entry.
Posted in Flying | no comments
