No Good Deed . . .

Happy Birthday to me! Well, that was supposed to be the idea anyway - a friend from the theater had planned an informal get together, and I ended up being a no-show. I hear the cake was great, though. While most people have cards and perhaps presents for their birthday, I instead had a tentanus shot and antibiotics, with a flu shot as lagniappe.

For the background of this story, I'll refer you to my last entry, wherein I mentioned operation fix-a-cat. Saturday, as I was leaving for work, I discovered that the trap under my motorhome contained a cat. It looked like one of the ones that we're targeting, but I opted to deal with it when I got home that evening. When I arrived home it was becoming noticeably chilly, and so I chose to bring the trapped cat inside and transfer it to a larger crate. I thought the cat could be kept more comfortable that way, since the next appointment at the clinic isn't until nearly the end of the month. The transfer went well up to the point when I went to remove the trap from the mouth of the crate so I could close the door. The cat made a break for the gap between the trap and the crate, and not wanting it loose inside, I grabbed it. It then grabbed me with teeth and claws. Once it was in the crate and the door safely latched, I assessed the situation. My left hand had taken the brunt of the onslaught and had seven or eight scratches and easily twice that many puncture wounds, while the right got off lucky with about ten bleeders. Several minutes of running water was followed by soap and then a couple minutes' more water. I ended up wearing gloves to bed to keep from getting blood all over everything.

Having to be at work first thing in the morning, I took no further action until Sunday afternoon. Brandishing my scarred mitts earned me an early departure from the tower despite the fact that I was the third person asking for leave. Upon reaching home, I transferred the cat to a smaller crate (being sure to wear gloves this time) and hauled it over to animal control. Since it had bitten someone, there was extra paperwork involved in getting rid of it, and the weekend part-timer at the counter was agog at the condition of my hands (by now the left had swollen to about softball size, and my right thumb was sufficiently swollen that it was very difficult to hold a pen and fill out the form). The standard procedure in cases like this is to quarantine the animal for ten days to ensure that it doesn't have rabies. When I asked about how and where it might be possible for me to get a rabies vaccination if that became necessary, the people behind the counter (now three in number) seemed horrified, and had no useful suggestions beyond that of getting a tetanus booster.

The fortunate and ironic thing about this whole thing is that my yearly FAA flight physical was scheduled for the next morning. Despite my still swollen and scab-covered hands I managed to pass. Upon hearing my tale of woe, the doctor prescribed a course of antibiotics as well as a tetanus shot. However, discovering that he hadn't any tetanus vaccine on hand, he did give me a flu shot (at my request) in addition to the antibiotics, which he provided gratis. He also said that he could have the rabies stuff on a days' notice if it became necessary.

I wouldn't have thought that a tetanus booster was as hard to come by as mine turned out to be: Besides the doctor's office, I had to try seven more places before finding one that had the stuff in stock. You'd think there'd been a run on the stuff!

These shots were taken Sunday night, not quite 24 hours after the excitement.
The swelling was worse the next day!

I started this entry during a break at work on Monday, but at my next opportunity to get to the iBook I had sufficiently reduced mobility in both hands that trying to type was a ridiculous exercise in frustration. It's now Wednesday afternoon, and the swelling in my left hand has subsided such that some of the normally-visible tendons have reappeared. My right thumb, however, is still unbendable and, if it weren't rather red, would look like I stole it from the Pillsbury dough-boy or the Michelin Man.

Okay, that's enough about cats and my sado-masochistic tendencies. For all of you who stop by for airplane or LAX stuff, here's a couple of shots of the first Northwest aircraft to show up here in their new Delta paint schemes:

NWA 2, arriving from Tokyo.

While we see plenty of Delta B757's each day, this was the first Northwest repaint that I've seen.

And while I'm at it, here are some other recent special shots:

I first saw this American B777-200 with its Breast Cancer ribbon when I paid a visit to DFW's East tower last month. This is the first time I've seen it at LAX. That's a B737-800 holding on the center taxiway (now H, previously AC). Though it seems inconceivable, there's a runway between these two aircraft. One of our whole runway complexes would fit between one of DFW's runways and its adjacent taxiway.

Here's a neat early-morning shot of the setting full moon, reportedly the biggest-appearing of 2009, along with the tower's shadow.

A couple of retro paint jobs: in the foreground, America West's last paint scheme before becoming US Air. In the background, Alaska's 75th Anniversary commemorative.

Several of my coworkers told me about this Mexicana Airbus long before I was able to catch it with the camera. Note that it has a US registration number. I've seen this on some other foreign carrier aircraft as well; presumably they're leased from a US-based company.

Gratuitous A380 shot, with a B747 in the background.

Another, this time with a B777.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009 (and good riddance to 2008). Hopefully this new year and new president will be better than the previous ones.

My holiday road trip went well - more smoothly than usual, in fact. Besides the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater, I also paid visits to friends in Monroe, Louisiana, and Dallas, Texas. Over the two-week period, the Jetta logged about 5500 trouble-free miles. The new 5th gear ran smoothly and definitely made the car feel better at interstate speeds (probably at least 4500 of those miles were done at 75 mph or higher). Average fuel economy, over 15 tanks, was 48.56 mpg. This was done with the newly-fitted O.E.-sized Sprint 357/442 injector nozzles; I swapped out the PowerPlus 520 nozzles just before setting out on this trip. After running them for about 4000 miles, I just wasn't happy about the additional smoke they produced. The additional power that they offered was nullified by constantly checking the mirrors and trying to feather the accelerator pedal to avoid creating a smokescreen that honestly would challenge that put out by an old big rig. They also cost about 2-3 mpg over the original injector nozzles; the last tank with the big nozzles came out to 46.15 mpg, while the latest tank with the new nozzles was 49.56 mpg in similar usage (pre- and post-trip). The next big Jetta project (once I finish cleaning out all the road trip detritus) will be a lighting upgrade: After nine years and 210K miles, the headlights are in serious need of replacement. The new E-code units will add foglights, for which additional wiring will need to be run. I've already got the new switch installed (that was the easy part!) Minor mods to the rear (rear fog and 5 brake lights) are also planned.

Other big projects in the works: Restoring the Baron to flying status (hopefully while avgas is still relatively affordable at under $5/gallon), replacing the heater core in the Rover, and repainting the roof of the motorhome.

Meanwhile, operation fix-a-cat is well underway. Last summer's explosion in the kitten population in the neighborhood is threatening to repeat itself as the surviving cats are now of age to repeat the process. In collusion with one of my neighbors, I've starting catching some of the friendlier cats and taking them to a local clinic to get "tutored". The first two (Shyler and Blackie) went right before the end of the year, and the third (Muffin) came home yesterday. I've appointments for two more at the end of the month. However, unbeknowst to my neighbor, who can't help but feed every stray cat she sees, there will be some that don't come back: Yesterday a completely unknown and obviously feral cat appeared in the trap, and received an all-expense paid trip to animal control. While I'm willing to foot the bill for fixing the local 'friendlies' and giving them shots, I have no intention of trying to fix every cat in the neighborhood: there's just too many of them - and that's just the ones I already know about!

Shyler and Blackie in the post-op crate

Muffin, as previously shown

Meanwhile, at work, I'm transitioning to a new supervisor and new days off. Part of the change is a trainee swap. My previous trainee, who's currently in the ground control classroom phase, has been replaced by a new one, who has made good progress so far on clearance delivery. I'm expecting we'll get him a checkride sometime this coming week (while your calendar may say that today is Friday, it's Monday in my world). Also, we've seen the presence of two A380's on the field at one time:

Two Qantas Airbus A380's on the north ramp, awaiting their evening departures. For comparison, there's a B747-400 tail-to-tail with the one facing the camera. Rumor has it that they're having a hard time filling the seats on these flights.

Road Trip: Holes in the Ground, part 2

Today's photo spread comes from yesterday's visit to Meteor Crater, which lies between Flagstaff and Winslow in northern Arizona. It was created about 50,000 years ago when a 150-foot diameter meteor traveling approximately 30,000 mph struck the earth from the northeast. The crater is about 4,000 feet across and nearly 600 feet deep. The rim of the crater rises about 150 feet above the surrounding terrain, which is relatively flat. The largest piece of the meteorite that has been recovered is a chunk about a yard across, which is on display in the visitor center. Visitors are not allowed down into the crater, but instead must content themselves with taking it all in from the viewing platforms. NASA has used the crater for astronaut training, and there is an astronauts wall of fame at the visitor center.

This is how it appears on the approach: the rim looks like a small rock formation.

The visitor's initial view across the crater from the visitor center, which is at the north side. The southern wall of the crater, sheltered from the sun, has snow on the ground.

These two pictures show the floor of the crater, where various efforts were made in the first decades of the 20th century to recover the meteorite.

The visitor center and surrounding landscape, seen from the highest viewing platform.

From the same platform, here's an attempt to give you a panorama-like view of the crater, from left to right:

This is the largest piece of the meteorite ever found.

For more about Meteor Crater, including better pictures, see these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_Crater

http://www.meteorcrater.com/index.php

http://www.barringercrater.com/

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/meteorcrater.html

Road Trip: Holes in the Ground, part 1, and other sights

I know I said that the blog was going to take a break, but I've got a wi-fi connection in the hotel room. So here are a few pictures from the road trip. Today I visited the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The December sun is not ideal for photography and I probably should have put a polarizer on the lens. In the third picture, can you find the river? It's waaaay down there! The fourth picture shows some rapids.

The Grand Canyon railway. In the summer they use a steam locomotive, but the diesel is needed to power the heating system in the coaches.

You didn't really think that I'd take a trip without stopping at an air museum, did you? I've shown you Planes of Fame's primary facility at Chino. They have another small museum near the Grand Canyon:

Martin 4-0-4

Convair 240

In my opinion, one of the prettiest aircraft of all time: the Lockheed Constellation
This Ford Trimotor isn't in the museum - it's still a working airplane, making sight seeing flights over the Grand Canyon.

The next shots are from yesterday's stop in Kingman, Arizona. There's a small air museum there too, but that's not what I've got to show you:

Yes, those are very pretty mountains, but that's not it. Look closer:

I found them! These are the SF-340's that aren't flying at LAX anymore. I counted about two dozen, so some of these must have come from the DFW hub as well. About 60 years ago, Kingman was one of the depots where most of the US aircraft from World War Two were turned into aluminum ingots. The salvage company used a giant guillotine to chop the aircraft into chunks that were then fed into the smelter. I had hopes of seeing the guillotine in action on the Saabs, but no such luck. There were more than the Saabs parked here:

All of these appear to be E-135's, with the exception of the ex-United aircraft in this last picture: a four-engined British Aerospace 146. We used to have one of these fly in and out of LAX sometimes. If I remember right, it was operated by Air Wisconsin for United, and flew into some mountain airport that served ski resorts. At LAX we called it a "BAC jet" (pronounced like the composer J.S. Bach). However, when I was in Memphis, we had a number of these flying for Northwest Airlink (operated either by Pinnacle or Mesaba, I forget which), and we called them "Avros". This was a matter of semantics, as the BAe 146 became the Avro RJ; but it's now a moot point, as the Avros left Memphis before I did, and we don't have the BACjet at LAX anymore.