Dance & Fly

Kiwis and Giant Silver Ferns

2010-03-12T13:56:00.007-05:00

Auckland, the City of Sails

Pancake Rocks, South Island

Fox Glacier

Franz Joseph Glacier

Lake Manapouri

Doubtful Sound

Doubtful Sound

Milford Sound

Sea Lion

Happy Feet, the Yellow Eyed Penguin

Seal

Lake Tekapo

Lake Tekapo

Ngauruhoe and Tongariro from Mt Ruapehu

The Beast!

Bisons and Fried Chicken in the Midwest

2010-03-12T11:55:00.006-05:00

Nashville and the Cumberland River

Hey, I'm on your way, and what ? This bison has an attitude...
Yes there are still bisons in Tennessee and Kentucky...

Elks ... again in Land Between The Lakes

Louisville and the Ohio River from Indiana

Two things for which Louisville is famous:
Tthe Louisville Sluggers and Colonel Harland Davis Sanders of KFC.

Horses grazing in the Lexington Horse Park

Mammoth Cavers, KY

Chi-Town

2010-03-12T10:52:00.002-05:00

Yes, this is Chicago Illinois...

Panoramic view of the Windi City from the former Chicago Meigs Airport

Hancock Tower and interesting sun reflections

Moon rising over Lake Michigan. Sears Tower (Willis Tower)

The big distorting mirror "Thing"

One of the best place in Chicago...

Florida Panhandle

2010-03-12T10:39:00.005-05:00

Providence Canyon of Georgia : where bad farming practices produce interesting Badlands...

Kolomoki Mounds of Georgia. Native American constructions...

Paddling with gators on Lake Ofekenockee

Basking under the Sun...

White-sand beach near Appalachicola, Florida

Best office on Earth

2009-08-07T10:17:00.005-04:00

Some people ask what is flying all about... Well simply speaking it is all about having the nicest office in the world...

Shortly before sunset.

Towering cumulus and a thunderstorm anvil in the distance...

Stratospheric shots with atomic blast colors...
Could you resist flying after gazing at these natural wonders?

Seguin Cheese and Midwestern Dairylands

2009-08-05T14:11:00.017-04:00

Just came back from a short roadtrip in the Great Lakes area. I camped mostly in the wilderness to save on costs, enjoy a genuine natural environment and add a touch of adventure to the trip.

Drivin' the Midwest

I first spent a whole day in Milwaukee wandering in the streets and along the Milwaukee River. Milwaukee traces its roots to an early settlement established by French and Canadian explorer Solomon Juneau in 1818. Back then, Milwaukee was mostly used as a stopping point for fur traders.

The distinctive shape of the Milwaukee Art Museum

Later, numerous German immigrants settled in the area and helped build Milwaukee as a major brewing and manufacturing powerhouse mostly known for being home to the Miller Brewing Company - Miller Time Yay - and the Harley Davidson Motor Company.

The Harley Davidson company is the last American company to manufacture bikes and was founded in 1903 by Harley and Davidson.

A young guy trying one of the numerous Harley Davidsons on exhibit in the museum. Apparently Harley Davidsons are no longer reserved to bad guys and wild hogs!

I then headed North to attend Air Venture 2009 in Oshkosh which is the largest gathering of pilots, aviation enthusiats and industry exhibitors in the world. During the airshow, more than 10,000 aircraft head to the Frank Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh making it the busiest control tower in the world. About 700,000 visits during a week-long clebration of flight makes it the must-attend airshow for any aviation enthusiast.

The Aeroshell demonstration is one of the most spectacular at Oshkosh

Pilots usually enjoy the numerous displays, exhibits, museums, air stunts and formation flights during the day and then camp next to their own aircraft during the night. This year, visitors could enjoy a C5-Galaxy, a C17, the White Knight 2, the Skycatcher and many many other... What is worth mentionning is that this airshow specifically aimed at the aviation enthusiast and pilots meaning that visitors can touch aircraft, step inside, manipulate the controls and have some demos and explanations. This is quite different from the Paris Airshow or the Farnborough Airshow which are almost exclusively aimed towards big fish and other professionals and where the paying public is treated as if it were an annoying bug loitering around multi-million dollar jewels.

Camping in Wisconsin. Could you spot Rodolf on the picture ?

Later in the day, I headed due North towards the state of Michigan to reach Lake Superior. I initially elected to do some wild camping over there in the Hiawatha National Forest but a night-encounter with a bear followed by the eerie sounds of wolves howling close-by in the forrest played tricks on my mind and I finally decided to finish the night in my car...

The next day I visited Pictured Rocks National Seashores and I must admit it is well worth it. The park is little-known but amazingly beautiful, laying on the coast of Lake Superior and featuring interesting carvings and colors over limestone cliffs.

Most of the gorgeous landscapes can only be reached by foot after a bit of trecking making this park quiet and uncrowded. Exactly what I was looking for and great for a spiritual retreat!

Chapel Rock on the southern shores of Lake Superior with its pine atop is quite amazing.

Pristine white sand beaches may also be found outside of the Bahamas...

I walked for about four hours on a 9 miles track across woodlands to reach Chapel Beach, Grand Portal Point and Mosquito Beach. And what is great is that I just met five or six persons. With so few people around to pollute the environment, it is no wonder that the waters around the lake are cristal clear. Later in the day, I headed back South towards Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay in Wisconsin and Baileys Harbor where I spent the night.

Interesting limestone formations close to Grand Portal Point

This part of Wisconsin is cherry-land with cherry trees abound everywhere. A lot of farms were even offering some interesting pick-your-own-cherries tours of the plantations. From Northport at the top of th ePeninsula, I took a thirty minute ferry-ride to Washington Island, a little island populated by Icelandic and other Scandinavian people. It is a nice escape from the vibrant Doors county. Later in the afternoon, I resumed my drive South and overnighted in a corn field close to Sheboygan.

Lighthouse on Lake Michigan, Algoma

Finally, during the last day I slowly drove along the coastline of Lake Michigan towards Milwaukee to catch my flight to Hotlanta. I really liked Wisconsin, the "Dairyland of America". It is very different from Georgia: it is clean, people speak proper english and people do ar-ti-cu-la-te. Nice to hear some good English after so long in the low-lands of the deep South.

EAA Air Venture 2009

2009-07-28T22:41:00.002-04:00

July 2009 and it is time to polish my wings and get ready for the ultimate aviation lover's meeting in Oshkosh.

St Louis

2009-07-05T14:26:00.013-04:00

Here is a short report concerning my trip to Missouri and Illinois. With one of my friends from Florida, we elected to visit the city of Saint Louis and then go West to visit the Ozarks. The flight to St Louis was a short one hour and fifty minutes hop aboard a Boeing 717-200.

Roadtrip to the Ozarks

First on our visit was the Gateway Arch, the iconic monument of St Louis. Also known as the Gateway to the West, it was designed in 1947 by Eero Saarinen as a tribute to the expansion to the West.
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The geometric shape of the arch is described by the hyperbolic cosine function. This function typically describes catenary and inverted catenary.

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An inverted catenary that supports its weight is only in compression with no shear and therefore its shape is ideal.

The Arch in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

From the top of the Arch, the visitor will enjoy an incredible view over the surrounding area. To the North, the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, to the East, the state of Illinois. To the South lays the Mississippi river and finally to the West lays the city of St Louis.

St Louis from the top of the Arch

During the day we also went to the Annheuser-Busch brewery that manufactures Budweiser beers, to the Union Station that used to be St Louis major railway station and that has been transformed in a vibrant neighboorhood with restaurant ans shops and finally to Forrester Park where the 1904 World Fair took place to celebrate the purchase (or not) of Louisiana.

The next day we headed West to St James and the Ozarks Riverways. After spending a few days in the city, going to the countryside brings a lot of fresh feelings. The Ozark riverways is home to several fresh water sources and is best viewed by renting a canoe and paddling down the Current River.

Countryside in the Ozark

Finally, we decided to celebrate Independance Day by visiting the Meramec Caverns. The Meramec Caverns were formed by the erosion of large limestone deposits over millions of year. They were used to extract saltpeper for the manufacture of gunpowder during the Civil War. In the 1870s, the caves were used as a hideout by famous outlaw Jessee James.

Stalactite formations in the Meramec Caverns
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A short movie is available here for your enjoyment. Have fun!

Charleston

2009-07-05T14:24:00.005-04:00

Below are a few pictures taken during my trip to South Carolina. From Atlanta, we drove East to Augusta and Columbia. After Columbia, we reached Congaree Swamp, a huge floodplain that gets swamped a few weeks every year and which is home to bold cypress trees of incredible size.

Large Trees in Congaree Swamp

Next was Charleston, a nice and typical laid-back Southern city with old-fashioned ante-bellum houses. It is also home to Patriot Point which features an aircraft carrier full of US Navy aircraft as well as a submarine. I went there in 1986 when I was four years old. Apparently I did show a lot of interest for what I was seeing at that time especially gazing at the aircraft and the arrestor hooks and cables.

USS Yorktown mooring in Charleston

Loitering on a jetty on Folly beach, we witnessed a baby shark being caught by an angler. Actually we saw several anglers getting sharks. Makes you think quite a bit since the end of the pier is just a few hundred meters off the beach where people were swimming...

A baby shark caught off the beach in Folly Island

Finally, we ended the trip with a visit to Beaufort (where there was no wind...) and to Hunting Island that is home to an interesting state park with waters that are so warm we could spend the whole day relaxing and drifting in them.

White Sand beach on Hunting Island

Here are Orville and Wilbur...

2009-06-26T15:03:00.021-04:00

I took the commercial pilot checkride on the fifth of May but it took about a month before I got the official confirmation that comes with the oh-so-cherished plastic-card. I put so much effort and bet so many financial ressources in this endeavor that.... I am simply so happy.... In a nutshell, yesterday Wilbur and Orville suddenly appeared on my mailbox....

And it reads:

Has been found to be properly qualified to exercice the priviledges of:

Commercial Pilot

Airplane Single Engine Land; Instrument Airplane

Private Pilot Priviledges

Airplane Single Engine Sea

English Proficient (<---!!! )

The adventure may continue.... ya...la...la...lala...

Cascade Range

2009-06-21T13:53:00.035-04:00

Here are a few pictures from my last trip to the states of Oregon and Washington. We were extremely lucky for this roadtrip as we got plenty of sunshine. I was certainly not expecting that from these green coastal states with lush vegetation. Instead I was more or less bracing for impact with raindrops and snowflakes... What a pleasant surprise!

A few loops here and there along the Pacific Coast and Cascade Range

The road trip took us from Seattle to Aberdeen and then along the Pacific coast down to Lincoln City, Fort Klamath and Crater Lake National Park. We then proceeded north along the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range up to Portland and Mount Saint Helens. At that point it started to rain and we elected to change course and go for a short loop around the Olympic Peninsula. After that we proceded to Mount Rainier, Anacortes and the North Cascade National Park before ending the trip in Seattle.

Cape Arch and the coastal waters of Oregon

During the first part of the trip, we drove South and we followed the picturesque Pacific coast. The landscapes are oscillating between large forests, wild bays and capes. The coast being somewhat wild, it is a heaven for bird watchers and marine mammal spotters. We got our fair share of terns, cormorants, pelicans, puffins, yellow crested puffins, murres and hummingbirds as well as seals and sea lions.

Continuing further South, we ended up in Oregon Dunes which is a pretty place where one may enjoy the sight of large sand dunes meeting a wild pine forest. Next we drove towards Crater Lake National Park. The park encompasses Crater Lake's caldera, which rests in the remains of a destroyed volcano called Mount Mazama. Around 5700BC Mount Mazama collapsed during a tremendous volcanic eruption loosing about one third of its height. The eruption formed a large caldera that is now filled with water forming a beautiful lake with a deep blue hue. Crater Lake is one of the deepest lake in the world.

Panoramic view of Crater Lake. These are deep blue waters...

We then proceeded North to Portland visiting the town of Bend as well as Newberry Volcanic National Monument, a park with lava tubes and lava flows. North of Portland lays Mount Saint Helens. Mount St. Helens is most famous for its catastrophic eruption on May 1980 which was the deadliest and most destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. Former President Harry Truman died during the eruption.

Shaken by an earthquake, the north face of the then tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive avalanche. At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted about nine hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscapes were changed forever.

Mount Saint Helens, obviously after the explosion...

After visiting Mount St. Helens, we elected to visit the Olympic Peninsula and reach Cape Flattery the northwestern-most point of the continental United States. The peninsula is home to lush forests due to the high humidity. Mount Olympic, the highest point of the peninsula stops the eastbound clouds coming from the Pacific Ocean. The humidity contained into these clouds condenses when the air tries to rise over the slopes of the mountains and this results in abundant precipitations.

Huge moss-covered pines and firs along the road

The peninsula is also home to some very scenic and deserted beaches. With no one around, there is no better place to listen to the sound of rolling waves. Deadwood and tree logs are everywhere in this part of Washington. A lot of them are peacefully laying on the beaches after having drifted for a while over the sea. A testimony that violent storms can happen in this area of the country.

Dead wood along the coast of the Olympic Peninsula

After driving around the Peninsula, we headed back inland towards Mount Rainier. Most of the roads over there were still closed because May is too early in the season and layers of snow are too thick to be removed. We therefore continued our way to the North Cascades National Park and to Anacortes. In Anacortes we boarded a ship for a cruise in the Georgia Strait trying to spot some Minke whales, Killer whales, Porpoises and some other large sea mammals. We got treated by a pod of Resident orcas roaming along the Canadian coast of Saturna Island. There was even an energic young orca that breached twice over water!

A female killer whale taking a deep breath in the waters of the Strait of Georgia. Orcas are the ultimate killers of the seas

After the cruise we went back to Seattle stopping in Everett. In Everett we visited the Boeing factory and got a glimpse at the Boeing 787-800 and let me say that this bird will be a mighty one. And if it actually delivers on its promises, this is going to be a killer of an aircraft both performance-wise and economically-wise.

Seattle skyline with Mount Rainier in the distance

And that is all about this trip. We did not get a chance to climb the iconic Space Needle this year but instead we enjoyed the view from Magnolia Bluff over the city with Mount Rainier in the background. And even better... there is a short movie of the trip available here. Ain't that a blessing?

Springbreak in Yucatan

2009-06-21T13:53:00.034-04:00

Springbreak in Mexico was an absolut blast!! We spent slightly more than a week wandering around the states of Quintana Roo and Yucatan in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico

From sub-tropical landscapes to pristine coral beaches, from the quest for a meteorite that supposedly impacted the Earth in a humongous blast sixty milions years ago to orange and pink flamingoes and from the outrageously wild parties at Cancun to the legacies left by past civilizations, Yucatan has a lot to offer.

Blue waters and fishermen boats on the Caribbean Coast of Quintana Roo

Our flights led us from Atlanta to Miami and finally Cancun. However it was not our intent to stay for a long time in Cancun as the place in crowded during Springbreak by partyongoers of all kinds. Upon arrival we therefore headed South to reach a quieter resort of the Riviera Maya: Playa del Carmen close to the island of Cozumel.

Maya ruins on the edge...

After spending a whole day relaxing on the beaches of the Caribbean Sea, we headed West towards Tulum and Coba. Tulum is pretty famous for it is the only Maya archeological site close to the sea. In fact, it is actually standing on a beach. It is relatively crowded unless the traveler elects to visit the place early in the morning before the tours from Cancun litteraly invade the place.

Nohoch Mul is a the tallest pyramid of the Maya civilization

Coba is home to the Nohoch Mul temple, the tallest pyramid of the Maya civilization reaching slightly more than forty meters high. Its skewed architecture is very close to the one of Tikal in Guatemala.

After Coba, we headed North to reach Chichen Itza, one of the most famous archeological site of Yucatan. Northern Yucatan is quite an arid place and the sink holes called Cenotes close to Chichen Itza that could provide water all year round might have played an important role in the selection of the site.

El Templo de Kukulcan, the Maya name for Quetzalcoatl, the Plummed Serpent

Chichen Itza rose to prominence around 600AD and soon became a major regional capital centralizing and dominating political, economic and ideological life in the northern Maya lowlands. Around 987AD, the brutal Toltecs invaded the area and brough with them rituals involving human sacrifices to please the rain god Chaac. The blood from victims would also flow and fertilize the Earth.

We later proceeded due-West to Merida and Celestun to visit a wildlife reserve. The Celestun reserve is made of hundred of square miles of mangrove along the Gulf of Mexico coastline and is home to a colony of orange flamingos. Ubiquitous in the Yucatan peninsula are large lizards and iguanas that roam over the Maya ruins, probably chasing ancient ghosts and feeling the scent of blood that used to flow during sacrifices thousands years ago.

Two iguanas probably fighting for the remains of a skull...

Following this trip to Celestun, we headed South along the Ruta Puuc to visit other major archeological sites. Uxmal, Kabah, and Labna were amongst the ones visited. The largest one is the pre-Colombian complex of Uxmal that encompasses several squares miles of land and features pyramids, palacios and ball courts. Uxmal was founded around 500AD and was the most powerful city in Western Yucatan. Most of the monuments seen today were built between 700AD and 1100AD after which the city started a slow decline. This decline is most certainly linked to the fall of Chichen Itza around the thirteen century.

El Adivino in Uxmal

The next day we drove East for a couple of hours towards the archeological site of Ek Balam and finally towards the city of Cancun where we spent a whole day relaxing on the beach and in the crystal-blue warm waters before getting back home. This was an absolutely flabbergasting trip deep inside the Maya world and my trip video is available here. Enjoy!

Florida Panhandle

2009-06-21T13:53:00.031-04:00

In order to complete the requirements for the Commercial Pilot examination, I had to fly a cross-country flight to a point at least 250 nautical miles away from my departure airport. Given that it is winter-time and all grey and gloomy in Atlanta, I elected to head South and selected an airport on the Florida Panhandle : Apalachicola. Apalachicola is actually 252nm from Atlanta and seems to be a quiet and sleepy town of the Gulf coast.

Atlanta - Albany - Apalachicola - Destin - Montgomery - Atlanta

The flight was done with Peanut, the little Cessna 152 Aerobat registered N69023. Not the fastest airplane out there but well enough to carry two standard persons with some luggage. The first stop enroute was a refueling stop in Albany to top off and get some lunch.

Peanut is gently awaiting our return on the ramp at Apalachicola

The next part of the flight was the most interesting one: from Apalachicola to Destin Fort Walton Beach airport along the Gulf coastline. Looking from above, the crystal clear and turquoise waters from the Gulf of Mexico seem to be pretty inviting. On our way to Destin, we overflew some pretty remote places, some swamps, some forests as well as Tyndall Air Force Base and Panama City Beach.

Glorious sunset colors on the Gulf of Mexico!

After about an hour and a half of flight, we could finally see the white sand beach of Destin far on the horizon. The white sands beach of Destin seem like heaven on Earth especially when there is no-one around... We overnighted in Destin to gt some rest and visit the place. However due to some unforecasted bad weather along the route of the return flight, we had to delay our departure and make another overnight stop in Montgomery, Alabama.

Some bad storms looming ahead...

Overall, it was a pretty challenging flight and a pretty interesting one. Challenging due to the complexity of the airspace around Destin : from Tyndall AFB to Eglin AFB there is a tremendous military activity going on and we must pay attention to these high-speed traffic. Interesting because we were going a bit farther away than we usually do. A video of the journey may be seen here. Enjoy!

Vietnam and Cambodia

2009-06-21T13:52:00.035-04:00

After quite a long delay, here is a short report concerning my Christmas trip to Vietnam and Cambodia in South-East Asia. This trip was somewhat different from my usual roadtrips in that it is not possible to rent any car in Vietnam. And I guess this is the best thing that could ever happen since driving there is similar to playing the Russian Roulette: from fanatic drivers, to frantic tidal-waves of bikers there is no way to return a car in the same state it was let-go. So I changed and travelled aboard minibus and trains. And honestly the forty five hour train journey from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was a well worth adventure in itself.

It took about twenty five hours to reach Hanoi from Atlanta with a stop in Seoul in South Korea. That includes my longest flight ever: Atlanta to Seoul was an impressive fifteen hours nonstop leg aboard a Korean Air Boeing 747-400. But I have to praise Korean Air for providing a spotless aircraft, a dedicated cabin crew, some quality inflight services and last bit not least a lot of legroom. Korean Air is definitely not in the same league as Delta Airlines, American Airlines, Air France and the likes... The next leg was aboard an intra-asian configured Airbus A330-300 and that was quite pleasant too.

Once in Vietnam, I travelled for a couple of days around Hanoi before heading South to Hue and Ho Chi Minh City also known as Saigon. After spending a few days in Ho Chi Minh City, I travelled due-West to reach Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia. I later returned to Ho Chi Minh City where I boarded my flights back to Tokyo and Atlanta.

The 45-hour train journey from Hanoi to Saigon was ridiculously insane but awesome nonetheless...

While landing in Hanoi and despite having a window seat, I was puzzled by the lack of lights outside. It was about midnight and we were literrally rolling on the runway before I could see any light outside. I was wondering: what the heck, I thought they had electricity over there... Soon enough I realized that during the Winter season, the Northern Part of Vietnam is swamped in a dense haze layer that precludes any visibility over a few miles and I guess this is what prevented us from seing any form of human activity around the city during the approach.

The next day I was awaken to the sounds of busy streets where honking is just a language amongst others. I initially headed towards the monumental Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh and the VietMinh first booted the French out of Vietnam in 1954 before engaging against South Vietnam and their American allies. So as could be expected in a Socialist Republic, there was a lot of propaganda about how oppresive and treacherous the Colonialists and Imperialists were and how the local nationalists successfully kicked them out....

The Mausoleum with the exposed corpse of Ho Chi Minh

We then proceeded to the Hanoi Hilton, the other name given by Americans to the Hoa Lo prison that was initially built by the French at the end of the nineteenth century. Once again we were greeted with a profusion of state propaganda explaining with all kind of pictures and details how the prison was atrocious and how the jail-keepers were brutal while under the rule of the French (there is even a guillotine exposed). Of course they also explain how all this changed and how the jail transformed itself into a pleasant place for happy and well-treated American prisoner of war. As a trophy, there even exhibit the uniform of Senator John Mac Cain who spent quite a few years over there as POW. And let me add that surprisingly he seems to have very different memories concerning the quality of his stay at the Hanoi Hilton...

Anyway, the next day we headed to the countryside and more precisely to Halong Bay, a World Heritage site that features thousands of limestone karsts and isles of various sizes and shapes. In the middle of these isles and far away from the continental coast, several floating fishermen villages may be found featuring schools, markets....

Early sunrise over some limestone formations in Halong Bay

Once I returned to Hanoi, I headed to the train station for one of the most exhilariting moment of the trip: the rail journey from Hanoi to the city of Hue approximately in the middle of Vietnam. Hue is famous for its Forbidden City which used to be the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty until 1945. It is well-known for its monuments and architecture but unfortunately the historic city has been heavily damaged by American bombings and the Forbiden Citadel is in the process of being reconstructed.

The Citadel of Hue with yet another picture of the national hero...

During the afternoon I set up for a little cruise on the Perfume River to discover a bridge made by French engineer Gustave Eiffel, the Thien Mu Pagoda and the Minh Mang mausoleum. Later in the day I went for a little shopping exploration at the local market and I got treated with all kind of colorful fruits, meats, fish and other interesting artifacts. And because life is insanely cheap, I got into a serious shopping frenzy...

The next day, I headed towards the railway station to complete the second part of the journey that would lead me to Saigon. This part of the journey was much more interesting with the train crawling along the coast and on the slopes of mountains. I finally reached some lowlands filled with rice fields which indicated that I was now getting close to the Mekong River delta.

Winding tracks squeezed between the China Sea and the mountains

Reaching Saigon late into the night or early in the morning shall I say, I headed to the city center to visit a few monuments including the Post, the Opera and the Cathedral all of them designed by the French. Next I headed to the Chinese part of town towards the infamous Cho Lon district in order to visit the Thien Hau temple and to take a tour of the marketplace. Once again, a lot of interesting fruits including dragonfruits, mangoes, pineapples, pomelos, lychees, longans, durians, jackfruits, coconuts, papayas, mangosteens, rambutans, guavas and watermelons.

The Opera of Saigon at night is awesome

During the following days, I continue my exploration of the Mekong River delta going to My Tho, Can Tho, Long Xuyen and Chau Doc. During this time, I visited several floating markets and a stork wildlife reserve. From Chau Doc, I took the speed-boat to Cambodia sailing up the Mekong River.

Upon entering the Kingdom of Cambodia, it is obvious that this little country is completely different. Their political system is no longer socialist and the differences between the poors and the wealthy are outstanding.

It also seems that the people are less active in the fields and this is because unlike Vietnam, Cambodia has not set up an irrigation system and therefore nothing happens during the dry months of the year.

The city of Phnom Penh is also very different and displays a Khmer architecture that is similar to the one found in Thailand. The Royal Palace is absolutely gorgeous with its yellow tiles and golden roof.

Pointy architecture...

After a short stay in Phnom Penh, a city that seems to attract a lot of Westerners, I headed North West to Siem Reap for some more jungle adventures. The main attraction there is the city of Angkor. Angkor is the name of the ancient capital city of the Khmer Empire that flourished from approximately the ninth century - when Jayavarman II declared himself the Universal Monarch - to the fifteen century when Thai invaders sacked the Khmer capital. The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmlands to the north of the Tonle Sap lake. It is believed that Angkor had been the largest pre-industrial city in the world sprawling over three thousand square kilometers and supporting over one million inhabitants. Ouch!

Angkor Wat during a grey, hot, humid and sticky afternoon

There are over one thousand temples in the Angkor area, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubbles scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat said to be the world's largest religious monument.

The most famous archeological ruins include Angkor Thom (Bayon being the most prominent temple of this site), Ta Prohm, Kbal Spean (Valley of 1000 Lingas), Angkor Wat, Phnom Bakheng, Ta Som, Preah Khan...

I truly believe a visitor could spend a whole week there without ever visiting the same temple twice. There is so much to see that staying more than initially planned is tempting.

Buddha is overseing the Eastern gopura of Ta Som

Another gem and my personnal favorite is the temple of Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm was founded by king Jayavarman VII as a monastery and a university in the thirteen century. Unlike most temples at Angkor, Ta Prohm has been left in the condition it was found and the inter mixing of ruins and surrounding silk-cotton and strangler fig trees is absolutely gorgeous. In fact it is even a little bit more than that: the trees are actually growing out of the ruins and this gives a very atmospheric landscape which will leave the visitor speechless.

Silk Cotton trees and ruins seem to cohabit to please the eyes of puzzled visitors

In Ta Prohm, nature and man-made ruins seem to provide a perfect aesthetical combination that is seldom matched. Such a picturesque landscape was bound to be used for movies... did I say....Tomb Raider... After spending a couple of days deep in the Cambodian jungle, I had to call it off and I took the plane to return to Ho Chi Minh City and enjoy a few days on the beach of Mui Ne.

Mui Ne is one of the few resort station that Vietnam offers.

There are very few Westerners there since Vietnam is not a very popular destination for Australian tourists. And I like the way it is: very genuine and different from the usual tourist traps.

The beach of Mui Ne

After spending two days relaxing on the beach of Mui Ne, I was ready to go back to Ho Chi Minh City and visit a few other landmarks such as the Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels at Cu Chi are a symbol of the Vietnamese resistance to the American imperialism. Communist fighters would hide themselves in these tunnels during the day and sneak out at night to harass American forces.

And that's about it concerning the adventure in Indochina. I took a Boeing 767 flight to Tokyo where I spent a whole day and then caught another flight headed to Atlanta. After flying with some of the best airlines in the world (Korean Air, Japan Airlines) and getting accustomed to their top-notch customer-services, I was once more appaled by the low level of services offered aboard american airlines...

I hope you enjoy the trip report and as usual a short movie full of flavors from Indochina is available here. Enjoy!

Georgia Atlantic Coastline

2009-06-21T13:52:00.016-04:00

Here is a short summary of our Thanksgiving trip to the South Eastern part of Georgia over the course of four days in a Toyota Prius. I cannot praise enough the fuel efficiency of the Prius averaging more than forty miles per gallon. In addition, fuel was at its lowest point at that time. Putting everything together, we did not spend more than thirty dollars in fuel for this trip. Amazing!

The first major attraction was the Okefenokee swamp which is a large depression in the southeast of Georgia. Despite being the largest peat-based blackwater swamp in North America, it is not very well known. This result in very few tourists and this is a good way to let the ecosystem in its pristine state. There are no road through the swamp and people have to resort to horses or kayaks to move and visit the wildlife refuge.

Paddling in the Okefenokee Swamp is a treat

Okefenokee or the "Land of the Trembling Earth" is covered by cypress forests, marsh, lakes and island. It is home to a humongous number of animals including alligators, turtle, lizards, cranes, woodpeckers and bears.

The next point of interest was Cumberland Island which is a bariier island and a protected seashore. This result in miles of undevelopped beaches that are accessed only after a ferry rides and some trecking.

Lady Cumberland is the ferry linking Cumberland Island and St Marys

Jekyll Island was one of the last major thing we visited during the trip. From the early British settlers of the 18th century to the rich French landowners of the 19th century, from the gilded age playground of the early 20th century to its recent reconversion as a state park, Jekyll Island has had a rich past. Large and opulent mansions together with ruins of old stone houses are a testimonial of thisrich and changing history.

Nature trail are everywhere and I believe that the most convenient way of moving throughout the island without missing the details is by using a bike. The island is flat and it is easily possible to go around the island under the shade of moss-covered trees in a day.

Nature trail with autumn colors on Jekyll Island

And as usual, if you enjoy these pictures then do not hesitate to take a look at the short video of my trip to the Golden Isles of Georgia here. Enjoy!

Washington and Maryland

2009-06-21T13:51:00.022-04:00

Here is a short preview with a few pictures concerning our Fall-break week-end in Washington, DC. There are several significant monuments in this city amongst which are the White House, the Washington Monument, the Capitol, the Supreme Court as well as several large museums on both sides of the National Mall including the Air & Space Museum.

The White House still hosting George Bush and his guest Silvio Berlusconi that day

The White House is one of the major place in Washington as so much political power is concentrated in this single monument. The house is home to the President and his family and a selected number of people may visit the place. Although we could not actually visit the inside, it is possible to walk around the house and its properties from a distance. Above is a glimpse of the South side of the White House.

One of the other iconic landmark is the Washington Monument that looks surprisingly similar to an Egyptian Obelisk.

Standing more than five hundred feet high, it was built in 1884 in honor of George Washington who led the country to independance and then became its first President.

The Monument standing alone during a nice and shiny morning...

The next monument on our agenda was the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body and leads the federal judiciary. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Once appointed, Justices have life tenure. Speak about job-security during these uncertain times....

Supreme Court at night

Last but not least concerning was the most easily recognized building of all. The Capitol stands alone on Capitol Hill and is the highest building of the city since no other building that is higher than the Capitol shall be built in Washington. As a result, the Capitol is seen from miles away and has become Washington's most iconic landmark. It is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal governement of the United States. It sits at the Eastern end of the National Mall.

The Congress was initially set up in Philadelphia until 1783 when it had to flee to Princeton and New York City following some unrest in Philadelphia.

In 1790, the Residence Act paved the way for a permanent capital and it was decided that it would be set on the banks of the Potomac River.

In 1792 and 1793 following a design competition proposed by Thomas Jefferson, the current Capitol was designed and built according to the plans of architect Thornton.

The Capitol, here at night, is the highest monument in Washington.

The trip headed next to the East toward Annapolis, home of the US Navy academy and to the states of Maryland and Delaware on the Cheasapeake Peninsula. After an overnight in Ocean City, we visited Assateague Island on the Atlantic seahores.

Ocean City resort station

Assateague Island National Seashores is a place created by ocean waves and winds which have formed a maze of sandy beaches, salt marshes, maritime forests and coastal bays. Assateague is most famous for its wild horses that graze on the island. These horses are actually feral animals being descendants of domestic animals that have escaped -probably during some ship wrecks off the Virginia Coast - and reverted to a wild state. Tough enough to survive the scorching heat, abundant mosquitoes and poor quality of food, they have strived and formed a unique wild horse society on Assateague.

Assateague Island salt marshes are infested with mosquitoes...

The next day we drove back to Washington and more precisely to Alexandria and then to Washington Reagan airport to catch our Delta Boeing 757 flight to Atlanta. A trip report that takes the form of a short movie is available here. Please enjoy!

Helens

2009-06-21T13:51:00.015-04:00

September and it is time to think about Labor Day. I was not even returned from France yet that I was thinking af renting a car for a short loop in Northern Georgia. At that time, I heard about a little village in Georgia with a somewhat German architecture and I was curious about it.

Helens is a German inspired village

But even more than the architecture, it was the prospect of a trip in the Appalachians and some tubing down a river that initially attracted me...

And that is why they are called the Great Smoky Mountains

After spending a day in Helens, we went North to reach Pigeon Forge at the feet of the Appalachian mountains. This would be our base for some further explorations of the nearby mountains. These mountaisn are certainly not as wild and genuine as the Rockies but being only five hours away from Atlanta, they are well worth the trip there.

Acid rains killing trees in Tennessee

And for those who still doubt that pollution has an impact on Mother Nature, well just look at this dead forest... Acid rains seem to be killing quite a few trees in these mountains.

Ireland

2009-06-21T13:49:00.003-04:00

A short week-end trip to Dublin in Ireland and a visit to Glendalough National Park.

No doubt, we are in Ireland...

Glendalough round tower

Four Courts building in Dublin

As usual, a small movie from the week end is available here. Enjoy!

Beginning of tyranny ?

2008-11-15T14:47:00.001-05:00

« Lorsque les pères s’habituent à laisser faire les enfants, lorsque les fils ne tiennent plus compte de leurs paroles, lorsque les maîtres tremblent devant leurs élèves et préfèrent les flatter, lorsque finalement les jeunes méprisent les lois parce qu’ils ne reconnaissent plus, au-dessus d’eux, l’autorité de rien et de personne, alors c’est là, en toute beauté et en toute jeunesse, le début de la tyrannie. »
Plato

Week-end in Normandy

2008-06-26T12:10:00.014-04:00

Allright I believe it is now high time for me to give a short review of my last week-end. First let me say that last week-end was great, a really great revitalizing adventure deep inside Normandy to Caen and then to Cherbourg.

Sunny beach close to the Hague

The first day consisted in getting there. Getting there was a three-hour drive to Cherbourg. Once there, the journey continued along the coast to La Hague from where nice views over the surrounding islands of Guernsey and Sark could be enjoyed.

Goury and the lighthouse

La Hague is home to Goury Cape where the waters from the Mont St Michel bay meet the waters from the Channel. During high tides, the Atlantic is literally pushing those waters into the Channel and this leads to unbelievable tide-induced currents that may reach a speed of up to twelve knots. This is absolutely scary!

Milk, Cheese and Pasture.... The three masterwords of my Land...

Later in the day, we opted for a dinner in the fields close to the sea and amongst our familiar beasts from Normandy. After all, Normandy is the dairy country by excellence so let’s take full advantage of that… Sea Cows and Wind is the motto here…

Le Redoutable

On the following day, we headed to La Cite de la Mer where a nuclear-powered submarine is on display. This submarine was the first of its kind in the French Navy and reflected the strategy of its time: ensure nuclear dissuasion by having a strategic fleet of stealthy submarines permanently at sea with the ability to launch a massive nuclear strike on any nation willing to harm French vital assets.

The eight missile-tubes from starboard.... ....Torpedo tubes and torpedoes...

The submarine is roughly ten meters wide for a length of a little more than one hundred and twenty meters. It is home to a powerful nuclear reactor for its propulsion, sixteen intercontinental ballistic missiles, a few torpedoes and tactical missiles and a crew of one hundred and twenty. The sub may cruise for seventy days in between the surface and two hundred meters below sea level while travelling at twenty knots.

Sail of Le Redoutable....... ......That's what I call a propeller...

Later in the day, we went East to the Cap Barfleur, the other cape that is at the North Eastern tip of the Manche peninsula.

Cap Barfleur

Tiny fisherman wharf on the Channel coast...

Finally, during the late afternoon we drove back South to Caen in order to catch my train back to Paris. Caen is a pretty amazing city that I barely know. Strangely enough, I have never visited this town, maybe because it is too far and yet too close from where I live...

Caen, where William the Conqueror is buried...

Mickey and the Rockets

2008-06-17T17:19:00.014-04:00

In order to celebrate the end of semester, my roommate and I elected to go to Florida and spend a few days off over there at the end of May. This was initially scheduled to coincide with the launch of the space shuttle Discovery from Cape Canaveral but the launch got delayed. We subsequently missed it as I had to return to Atlanta in order to catch my flight back to Paris.

Atlanta to Cape Canaveral

This was the first leg of our journey South to Florida and it could not be any simpler: stay on the very same interstate I-75 for at least seven hours between Atlanta and Orlando and then head East towards Titusville in Florida. However, things never go as planned and soon enough we were on I-85 to Montgomery, Alabama…

Not fearing the extra miles, we decided to continue on this way until Lagrange where we would head South to Columbus and then East to Albany and Tifton… Obviously this added several hours to our otherway very long journey since this new route goes through smaller roads... Not very surprisingly, we were still in Georgia at dinner-time…

Anyway, we drove through Valdosta, Gainesville, Ocala, Orlando and finally reached Titusville around two in the morning.

Cape Canaveral

The following day was dedicated to the visit of Cape Canaveral. Learning from my mistakes of the past, we got up quite early to be there at the opening and to get the tickets for the so-called up-close tour. We started the day with the usual exhibitions one would expect in a scientific park : the rocket garden.

The rocket garden is a static display of several intercontinental ballistic missiles and early rockets. The display emphasizes on the evolutionary side of rocket science. Mankind did not come up one day with a whole new rocket design. Instead early rockets were simply slightly modified missiles. As demands to send heavier loads into space increased, early ICBMs got modified and tweaked to accommodate boosted engines. When this band-aid solution reached its own limits, engineers started stacking additional stages below the original missile leading to what is now called the multi-stage rocket.

The inactive launch pad is open

Later in the day, we had the opportunity to board a tour leading to the launch pads 139A and 139B. The North one was not being used at that time but the South one was displaying Discovery in all its glory. Of course because we are lucky we could not actually see the Orbiter itself as it was hidden by other pieces of equipments. We were nonetheless able to see the solid rocket boosters and the main external tank.

It is this very external tank that delayed the launch of Discovery as Lockheed Martin which designs them in Louisiana got trouble during the manufacturing process and had to delay the shipment to Florida. No need to say that it is a very strange feeling to stand next to a real Orbiter that will be in space thousands of miles away in just a matter of days…

Discovery baking in the sun while awaiting its launch

We finished the day by visiting some other exhibits, going into simulators and finally watching an IMAX movie. In the evening, we drove West through severe thunderstorms to Orlando where we did overnight.

Orlando

The next day was one of the highlights of the trip as it was the visit to DisneyWorld. This visit was split in half with the morning dedicated to Magic Kingdom, the very essence of Disney Park and Epcot Center during the late afternoon.

I had already gone to these two places but it was long long ago and it felt really really strange to get back there twenty-two years later…

Upon arrival in the park, we were greeted by the iconic and colorful Cinderella Castle shaped like the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria.

Cinderella Castle at the Walt Disney World Resort

A very nice and sporty ride...

Magic Kingdom features some very nice attractions like the Mine Train, Space Mountain and the Haunted House. I will nevertheless remember it mostly for the Mickey and Minnie village. So cute!! It brings back alive the little child that is sleeping inside each of us !!

Mickey's home...

Epcot Center is more or less an educational park devoted to the achievements of Mankind and tries to pay a tribute to the cultural diversity worldwide through its villages representing the World.

Epcot Center and its famous giant golf ball is the only thing I still remember of my '86 Disney visit.

The day finished with a nice fireworks display over the lake at Epcot and the awesome and charming Disney Characters parade at Magic Kingdom.

The iconic golf ball at Epcot

Orlando to Saint Augustine

Early the following day, we got into Seaworld, one of the other iconic theme-parks in Orlando and one of the very few things I still remember from my previous trip. I did remember that because at that time I was scared by those huge and frightening orcas…

Welcome to Seaworld...

Seaworld, as the name implies, is a theme-park focused on water-related matters. So besides the famous dolphin, sea lion, and orca shows, there are quite a few aquariums to gaze at. From Floridian wildlife such as gators and manatees to polar-bears and belugas, there should be something for everyone.

Orca's extravaganza

The large shark and ray aquarium which features an underwater glass tunnel is also an interesting feature as we are literally walking in a glass tube beneath sharks. 'On a marché sous la mer' cartoonist Hergé would say...

The Atlantic Coast north of Daytona Beach

In mid-afternoon, we headed Northeast towards the Atlantic coast and Saint Augustine. We enjoyed a few splashes in the Atlantic in between Flagler and Beverly Beach. The water was actually very warm for the season and it was a pleasure relaxing and taking full advantage of the soothing effect of the sea.

Saint Augustine to Atlanta

The last day was dedicated to the visit of the oldest city in the United States. Saint Augustine or San Agustin as it was called during those days was founded in 1565 by the Spanish admiral Pedro Menendez, only seventy-three years after Cristobal Colon discovered the New World. The city is one of the few American cities that have their own character with monuments made of stones and are plainly said to have a European look.

Saint Augustine historic center

We then headed north to Jacksonville where we reached the sea for the second time during our trip. It was quite a windy day and the sea was a bit rough. But I like rough seas…

Late in the afternoon, we headed back to Atlanta. All in all, a very nice week-end that will stay carved in my memory for a while. A short movie of this trip is available here. Please enjoy!

Road trip to Yellowstone

2008-06-17T12:09:00.021-04:00

After a few weeks of delays, here am I with a quick summary of my road trip in the northern part of the Rockies around Yellowstone. Completely contrary to the previous journey in the Midwest, this one featured genuine wilderness embedded in infinite landscapes. Everything over there seems to be scaled up in order to meet the definition of the adjective ‘grand’ : vast and infinite plains and basins surrounded by heavy and snow-covered mountains.

On approach to Denver. The Rockies are bordering the vast and dry Great Plains

Denver to Rapid City

First day consisted in travelling from Atlanta to Denver in Colorado aboard an AirTran Boeing 737-700. Then I headed North to Fort Laramie and Rapid City in South Dakota. Fort Laramie is one of the few remaining historical landmarks of the area. Fort Laramie used to be the most prominent military outpost of the Frontier and was the last supply station for the emigrants wishing to cross the Mountains to go West. As time went by, the development of the first transcontinental railway and the complete exploration of the West cast a shadow on the importance of the post as a vital supply node before the Rockies and it subsequently closed.

Emptiness is all around in the Great Plains

The road between Denver and Rapid City is typical of the Frontier with infinite landscapes of bare and nude plains. Over hundreds and hundreds of miles, there is basically nothing to see besides grass. Scarce water, wind and frigid temperatures during the Winter prevent anything from growing leading to these landscapes of desolation and emptiness.

Rapid City to Sheridan

From Rapid City, we first headed East to visit Badlands National Parks. As the name implies, Badlands Natl. Park is an area where the soil is of so poor quality that it cannot be used for any farming activity.

Erosion shapes the grounds and brings into light colorful sublayers

Truth of the matter is that this soil is so weak that water and wind erosion prevent any type of exploitation. Irregular erosion due to nonuniform erosion through the different ground layers results in colourful shapes that are similar to the “Demoiselles Coiffées” or “Cheminées de Fées” found in Southern France.

The four great Tikis...

Next stop was South-West of Rapid City in Mount Rushmore National Park where I got a chance to view the huge faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln carved in the rock. Those huge tikis designed during the thirties required fourteen years of blasting, carving and sculpting and were home to one of the most famous movies ever, North by Northwest.

Later in the day, we headed further West to Sheridan. Blistering winds and pouring rains were of the party during the entire journey across Wyoming…

Sheridan to Yellowstone

The next leg consisted in reaching Yellowstone through Billings, Montana. On the way, I stopped in Little Big Horn where the infamous General Custer got defeated by a rather noteworthy and uncommon alliance of Indian tribes trying to protect their homeland.

Fallen American soldiers

In a desperate attempt to contain the spread of White people over their hunting grounds Cheyennes, Lakotas and Sioux tribes teamed up together under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and defeated Custer.

A herd of bisons peacefully grazing...

Later in the day, I reached Yellowstone National Park through the Mammoth Springs where some very smelly sulphur springs offer a very colourful show. I was greeted very close to the northern entrance of the park by herds of deers and buffaloes also known as bisons.

Wanna wash your feet sir ?

Yellowstone

I spent two days in Yellowstone during which I encountered both heavy snow storms and brilliant sunny weather. During this time, I had some very nice encounters with wildlife amongst which I can count marmots, bison, eagles, black bears and grizzlies.

A huge male grizzli is passing by...

I was delighted with the bears as seeing some in their natural habitat was one of my main purposes for visiting Yellowstone and I got treated. The first encounter was a mom black bear with her two newly born cubs. The second one was a very close view on a huge male grizzly that walked just a few feet from the car. The third one was another male grizzly eating a morning catch. The bear was surrounded by a dozen crows but did not pay attention as he was busy eating the bison.

Next came the geysers which have been the main attraction of the Park since its opening in the late nineteenth century. These geological landmarks are a testimony to the volcanic activity that once took place in Yellowstone. Yellowstone is home to the caldeira of a gigantic volcano that existed long ago. The caldeira collapsed after an explosion and gave place to relatively flat lands in the middle of the park.

Old Faithful is one of the most popular geysers due to its size and regularity : eruptions are ninety feet high and occur every forty to fifty minutes.

Old Faithful during its hourly-show...

Yellowstone Lake is a vast area of water in the Southern portion of the Park. At the time of our visit, it was completely frozen giving place to a gigantic flat frozen surface.

Yellowstone Lake

Yellowstone to Idaho Falls

During the last day in the Park, we slowly headed South towards Rockfeller Parkway and towards Grand Teton National Park that borders the Southern part of Yellowstone.

The majestic Grand Tetons dominate the surrounding mountains

A small Chapel in the middle of nowhere

Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming preserves a spectacular landscape rich with majestic mountains reaching more than thirteen thousand feet, pristine lakes and extraordinary wildlife. The abrupt vertical rise of the jagged Teton Range contrasts with the horizontal sage-covered valley and glacial lakes at their base and create a beautiful scenery home to a sizable population of moose. While in Grand Teton, I got the chance to see some : not the most elegant creatures I have seen but there is definitely something funny about them...

The moose live their whole life close to water

Idaho Falls to Salt Lake City

The road between Idaho Falls in Idaho and salt Lake City in Utah is not very exciting. It simply follows the Rockies to the Great Basins. Just before reaching Salt Lake City, I stopped at the Golden Spike Historical Site where the Westbound railroad construction coming from Sacramento, California and led by the Union Pacific company met the Eastbound railroad construction coming from Omaha, Nebraska and led by the Central Pacific company.

West meets East

The junction occurred in May of 1869 and marks the completion of the first transcontinental railway closing the gap between the East and West and essentially putting in the backyard of History what used to be the Last Frontier.

Salt Lake City lies on the eastern shores of the Great Salt Lake and is home to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and obviously there is a lot about this church in the city.

The city was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young as Mormons were fleeing persecution in the East. During their journey West, they established camps in Ohio, in Wisconsion and finally in Utah. Utah is now mostly inhabited by Mormons.

Mormon temple in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City to Cheyenne

The last major leg of the journey was another crossing of the Rockies from Salt Lake City to Cheyenne through Flaming Gorge National Monument and Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado.

As one explores the craggy hills, one may discover fragments of a long ago world where the largest land creatures of all times once roamed and died.

I say ‘may’ because besides a diplodocus leg fossil, I was not able to find anything else. There were supposed to be other fossils but I guess they were not that apparent or maybe I just visited the place too hastily...

Anyways, after a short stop there, we headed East again climbing passes, some of them over nine thousand feet high to reach Cheyenne and the Great Plains again.

Dinosaur fossil in Colorado

Cheyenne to Denver

This was the very last leg of the roadtrip and I reached the Mile High City in Colorado early in the morning in time for my mid-afternoon flight. The flight home was a short three-hour hop on an AirTran Boeing 737-700. It does feel even shorter when it’s in a nice roomy and wide business class seat…

A short movie about the roadtrip is available here. Enjoy!

S.P.E.C.T.R.E.

2008-06-10T18:01:00.006-04:00

S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extorsion

Service pour l'Espionnage, le Contre Espionnage, le Terrorisme, la Retorsion et l'Extorsion

Organisation internationale secrète fondée par Ernst Stavro Blofeld dont le siège social se situe au 136, Boulevard Haussman à Paris.

Son but est la simple recherche de profits privés.

Elle n'affiche aucune idéologie politique ou philosophique et loue ses services sans aucune discrimination.

"Sur le marché de la mort, S.P.E.C.T.R.E. est totalement impartial" affirme Blofeld.

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A bit of brag time...

2008-06-10T17:14:00.019-04:00

Here is a link to the International Herald Tribune about Oasis Airlines of Hong Kong, China... In a nutshell, Oasis Airlines which tried to pioneer long-haul low-cost flying aboard Boeing 747-400 between Hong Kong and London in Europe and Vancouver, Canada went bankrupt last April... Below is an exerpt from my former journal where I tried all my best to understand analyze and discuss their marketing strategy. Fasten your seat-belt, it's gonna be hairy...

November 7th, 2006

Oasis Hong Kong Airlines : "The" statégie marketing

Non mais, là je crois rêver....du grand n'importe quoi. D'où ils sortent? D'où ils viennent ? De Pluton ? Ca fait peur... Je crois qu'il va falloir sérieusement revoir la stratégie marketing.

"The" logo

"Every element of the Oasis Hong Kong Airlines identity has been crafted to convey our simple, powerful message: affordable, global mobility, provided by an airline whose home is one of the world's most dynamic cities. Our logo is a wordmark that neatly links “Oasis” with “Hong Kong” to communicate our name, the type of brand experience we offer and our home. "

..
.

"The typeface, a modified version of Mondial, encapsulates the fundamental brand proposition: safety and comfort with unprecedented value. The stylized i of OASiS represents the essence of both our company and Hong Kong: international, innovative and inspired. "

"Our primary colours are red and white, the colours of the Hong Kong flag. "HONG KONG" is in medium grey, a colour that conveys our commitment to reliability and the professionalism of our experienced staff. "

"The" Color Scheme

"The bright tail fins of the Oasis Hong Kong Airlines aircraft feature our brand signature: bold streaks of light in red, orange and white. They are an instantly recognizable reference to ever-dynamic, diverse Hong Kong. They also communicate what we provide, i.e., the ability to fly non-stop instead of having to transit at an intermediate point."

"The" Cabin Interior

"The energy of our brand identity extends to the aircraft cabin interiors, where the theme is "refreshing and cosmopolitan". colours are warm, inviting shades of purple, magenta and orange for the seat covers and aubergine for the carpeting. Our specially-designed seat cover pattern is called "infinite oasis," and features an ever-continuing flow of dots that represents the joy of mobility and discovery."

"The" analyse...

Alors ceux là, ils sont passés en mode superconique, supercomique peut-être aussi... Brilliant. A round of applause to the Strategy Boutique which managed to get "fundamental brand proposition" and "infinite oasis" in there without being ejected by security from the Oasis Hong Kong offices with their joss-sticks firmly shoved where the sun doesn't shine.

.
Public Relationship Department, please do your maths again...

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Week end in the upper Midwest

2008-04-30T21:10:00.010-04:00

Here is a short update on my journey in the upper Midwest, the Ruhr of the Midwest as they say over there... So obviously, the landscapes are typical of the Midwest with endless and endless miles of flatlands covered with corn and wheat fields... However in this very case the landscape is scattered with some industrial artefacts, testimony of a glorious past as the industrial core of the United States.

Cleveland

The journey started in Akron/Canton and then headed to Cleveland in Ohio. Cleveland is a city built where the Lake Erie meets the Ohio Canal and was one of the main gateway for the steel industry in the late eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundreds.

The closeness to Lake Erie enabled the local industry to easily export their goods to other parts of the United States, to Canada and even overseas…

Sandusky

Leaving this country of high stacks and chimneys, I headed West along the coast of Lake Erie towards Sandusky and Put-In-Bay. Over there, I found more dreamy landscapes highlighting the sharp contrast between industrial cities and some scattered areas not yet reached by the industry. In those areas, a quiet and charming countryside atmosphere reigns.

.

Put-In-Bay is situated on the tiny South Bass Island in the middle of Lake Erie halfway between Canada and the US. Accessible only by ferry, it is home to the Perry International Peace monument celebrating Perry’s victory over the British in 1812.

Nowadays it more or less highlight the everlasting peace along the world’s longest undefended border between Canada and the United States of America.

Visiting South Bass Island on a bicycle is a must thing to do if you want to fully take advantage of the quiet and sleepy envronment.

Detroit

Next stop was Detroit in order to get an introduction to the world of car manufacturing. General Motors, Ford, Chrysler… they are all there.

.The city of Detroit as seen from Windsor in Canada

The city of Detroit has nothing extraordinary to offer besides emptyand gloomy streets. To me, this city is a ghost-town despite being one of the largest metropolitan area of the United States.

The shabby impression the visitor gets is further exhacerbated by the lack of renovation of the city center: old empty skyscrappers with broken windows seem to be awaiting an uncertain fate.

The GM world headquarters in Detroit

After a quick glance at the Motor City from Windsor on the other side of the border, I came back to Detroit and more precisely to the Ford Museum.

The Ford museum is the only tourist trap in the metropolitan area...

The Ford Museum in Greenfield is the only tourist attraction of this otherwise gloomy city. It features a nice introduction to Fordism and Standardisation in the early XXth century as well as different kinds of attractions in the Edison-era village.

A ride in a 1910 Ford-T is always a pleasant trip back in time...

Ann Arbor

After this short hop to Detroit, I started heading back to Akron/Canton through Ann Arbor, Toledo and Findlay. Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan one of the oldest and most respected university in the United States. It features an interesting department of Aerospace Engineering which specialty is simulations dealing with airframe icing.

Here is a link to a short movie of this trip. But make no mistake : if you're expecting dreamy landscapes you are at a wrong place as this trip is more or less a trip back in history to revisit some of the United States glorious times…

Atmosphere...

2008-04-14T09:41:00.003-04:00

Most books on weather start out by saying that the air is made up of twenty one percent of oxygen, seventy eight percent of nitrogen and one percent of various other gases.

This isn't that kind of things I am interested in.

To me the air is made up of wind, turbulence, clouds, precipitation, some fog and a lot of nice clear days. Ain't that more charming?

Springbreak in Texas

2008-03-27T01:11:00.009-04:00

I am back from my Springbreak roadtrip in Texas. This was one of my usual roadtrip-type vacation and this time I took a brand new car with 129 miles on the odometer and returned it with 1755 more including 50 on dirt roads... Yeah Texas is big and interesting landmarks are far apart... Actually, Texas has the same size as my home country...

My wandering in Texas...

The roadtrip started at Houston Hobby airport and ended there. During the five or so days, I drove to San Antonio, Del Rio, Big Bend National Park, Fort Stockton, Austin, Port Lavaca, and finally Galveston on the Gulf coast.

The first surprise was the city of San Antonio itself. I never ever suspected it could be that interesting. From historical landmarks to fancy touristic places, from Missions to Skyscrapers, there is something interesting for everyone.

Perhaps the most famous landmark is The Alamo mission which hosted one of the most famous fight of the Mexican-Texas war. A bloodshed fight epitomized by the movie The Alamo featuring John Wayne and Richard Widmark.

Other landmarks include the Missions and mark the Northernmost part of the Spanish explorations of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Spanish Missions in Texas are a series of religious outposts established by Spaniards to spread the Christian faith amongst native Americans with the added benefit of giving Spain a toehold in the frontier land...

Next came Big Bend National Park. Big Bend is situated along the Mexican-American border and lays in the middle of the largest North American desert : the Chihuahua Desert.

Balanced Rock is one of the many icons of Big Bend National Park

Lion Warning...

Scary right...

Good way to let visitors feel allright when they are starting a three hour treck in the wilderness...

No I did not spot any mountain lion. I would have loved to though...

Even closer to the Mexican border stands the Santa Elena Canyon.

The Santa Elena canyon was made by the Rio Grande river and now stands as the Mexican - American border. Millions of years of erosion have carved those 1000 feet high cliffs.

Not that wide of a river as the reader might see. Not very deep too as I strongly believe that one could cross it while standing on both legs. But the surrounding environment is as wild and as arid as can be... so this might be a strong deterrent for aspiring illegal crossers...

Arid prairies in South Texas

One of the last stop was Austin, the capital of Texas. So obviously there is a Capitole...but besides the Capitole I was not able to find anything very special in this town... Keep Austin weird as they keep on saying. Ok ok...

The Capitole where "W" used to work as Governor of Texas

Finally upon return to Houston, I payed a visit to the Johnson Space Center which is hosting the space crew training facilities and the mission control center. It is in this very room below that all the Apollo program missions were monitored and surveyed in the 60's and 70's including the famed Apollo 11 and the Apollo 13 missions.

As one might see, there are no keyboard, no mouse, basically nothing to communicate with the computers. In fact, computer screens were used to monitor different parameters but there was absolutely no interactions between the people working here and the systems. Also, the main computer running the show was a state of the art 400kb ram-memory equipped computer... Ah those days...

Mission Control Center. At the time of the Apollo missions, the average age of people working in this very room was 26. Would you believe that ?

Nowadays, the center holds additional rooms. One of which is dedicated to the monitoring of the International Space Station and the other one is dedicated to the Orbiter missions. During my visit, the NASA people were busy taking care of the on-going Endeavour mission that brought the Canadian robot-arm Dexter to the ISS as well as a Japanese Laboratory.

You may find a movie of this trip here. Please enjoy!!

Presidential initiative...

2008-03-25T18:26:00.004-04:00

Our President decided that each pupil entering school should adopt a fallen hero of our history. The aim is to keep our history and its memory well alive amongst the younger generations...

As far as I am concerned, I decided to adopt Aminias de Pallene. Aminias de Pallene is a Greek sailor and a fallen hero of the naval battle of Salamis.

I choose a Greek because in the deepest part of my heart I am convinced that our modern democracies are heavily relying on the ancient Greek model. In fact, as much as we are endebt to the Roman Republic for the establishment of our Rights, we are endebt to the Greek for the conception of our Democracy.

My tribute to him. Long life to Aminias de Pallene....

Sunday Flying...

2008-03-16T17:26:00.004-04:00

All right, this was my last Qual-preparation special flight almost entirely devoted to flight dynamics and flight enveloppe exploration... Well that sounds ambitious, in fact we just did a couple of manoeuvers while flying to Blairsville in Northern Georgia. Once more, I hoped it had been as useful as could be for my friends. I believe I can only wish them good luck right now.

N6344F is a rather old Cessna C172

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Going back to Cessnas after a few flights in the Piper Warrior II, one can definitely feel those 20 added horsepower. From 160hp to 180 hp with basically the same operating empty weight, the climb performances aka the excess power is tremendously felt. The time to climb and the take- off roll are drastically reduced. Still, I like more the look of Pipers...
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Something's fishy over there?

The other difference is the stability of the aircraft. The Cessna is way more stable than the low wing Piper. The damping in Dutch Roll is huge with no more than one oscillation to get back to trim condition. The spiral mode is unstable but on the edge of being neutrally stable. This is clearly shown when changing the pitch attitude : spiral mode with a pitch down attitude is almost stable, spiral mode with a pitch up attitude is only slightly unstable showing only a 1° per 10 seconds divergence...

Exhilarating Birthday

2008-03-16T16:49:00.012-04:00

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Thursday was my birthday and that was a blast. It all started in the morning... I guess pictures speak for themselves...
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Waking up in a newly decorated apartment with balloons and banners hanging everywhere...
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Some new friends eagerly awaiting to meet me for breakfast... And guess what ? A new miniature plane for my collection. Ain't it cute ? And a new Babe too....

Babe presenting me my little birdie and my fortune cookie...
I shall be successfull at work did it say...

Celebrations should not stop at home : so here is my newly decorated office...

Looks good right? You can feel the working atmosphere there...

And then an awesome surprise dinner was awaiting me at the Sun Dial restaurant. I got tricked for this one as they all made me believe this was to be a business dinner with my lab boss... Speak about Doc... instead all of my friends did show up...

With Akash and Greg...

I have contemplated the idea of having dinner at the Sun Dial for weeks. I really wanted to try it and I am glad I did it. Pitched at the top of the Westin tower in downtown Atlanta, the restaurant features an extraordinary view over the city and its surrounding. Food was also great and tatsy but most of all I was with all my friends and roomies.

With my roomie Alexia

And finally the Birthday Cake

A heck of a Saturday !!!

2008-03-05T22:02:00.031-05:00

Fleeing out of Atlanta in the morning, wandering along the shores of Lake Sinclair during a warm afternoon, eating lunch in the grass while enjoying the quietness of Mother Nature and returning to Atlanta late in the afternoon. Well that sounds dreamy, right? Well that is exactly what we did last Saturday...

7,300ft, 80 kts and the VOR needle spot on target...

On our way out, we first flew to Stone Mountain and then headed direct to Milledgeville / Baldwin County airport. In order to avoid turbulence, we climbed high in the air reaching a cruising altitude of 7,500 ft once we cleared the Class Bravo airspace surrounding Hartsfield Jackson.

Our little Piper Warrior N4304B is seen resting and sunbathing during those first Spring days on the ramp after its flight from Atlanta.

Our little Piper Warrior is a low-wing single-engine aircraft. It develops 160hp at sea level and boosts a range in excess of 600 nm with 48 gallons of fuel. N4304B is equipped with the modified tapered wing - not the Hershley bar - and features a cruising indicated airspeed of 105 knots. Transitionning from high-wing Cessnas, the Piper seems a bit heavier on the controls and slightly less stable in roll. The low wing aerodynamics is particularly noticable during flare when the aircraft floats forever in ground effect over the runway.

After roughly an hour of flight, it was hight time for a lunch and we walked towards the shores of Lake Sinclair.

For once, the weather was with us and we enjoyed those enchanting views.

Quiet and rural Georgia may be charming. Far away from those clichés of the deep old South, one might encounter very welcoming people in these sleepy towns.

It is always good to enjoy some peacefull moments from time to time. Life in Atlanta is somewhat hectic and a bowl of fresh air is something welcomed.

Due to popular demand, I had to present this photo. Notice the organic and all-natural pine dust-sweeper in my shirt-pocket... There is an old story about double pine-needles and how they break and separate one from the other but I will restrain myself from elaborating...

Since I am a shameless person, a picture of myself with freshly collected pine needdles.

Soon enough, we were back in the air for some exercises. The overall idea was to get a feel for many of the manoeuvers that are introduced only through theory in class. It was also a good time to practise some manoeuvers with the Piper since I am not yet fully accustomed to its flying characteristics. I have only logged a couple of hours in Piper Warriors, 7.5 hours so far. From steep turns, to stalls, from phugoid-mode excitations to Dutch-roll mode excitations I think we did it all. I sincerely hope it will be useful at some point.
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During the return trip, I let my friend Alexia do most of the flying. In the meantime I was busy taking pictures and simply enjoying the view.

Seat back, relax and enjoy the flight as they say in commercial airliners... We reached 9,400ft on the way back. If it continues this way, soon enough we will need a pressurized bird...

On our way back, we did a detour to Athens, GA so that we could practise some VMC-weather instrument approaches. And that was a real treat since we got radar-vectored to the final approach course exactly like we would in typical instrument operations. A big thanks to the air traffic control folks since this was a nice introduction to instrument procedures and communications for my friend. After the ILS approach and a full stop landing, Alexia did the take-off : congrats to her for a successfull takeoff after just a couple of hours in the Warrior...
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9,000ft over Georgia. The layer of haze is clearly visible over the horizon.

I am glad I can take my friends for a hop from times to times. It makes me happy and sharing the joy of flying with my friends is something I both always look forward to and never get tired of. I guess it shows on my always-happy-after-flying face. And each time the story repeats itself : it takes me a while to come back to Earth and descend from those dreamy puffy little clouds where I like to hide myself.

Ballroom Dance Club Party

2008-02-23T01:52:00.003-05:00

Well, I am just returning from Step Up 2 and my head is full of those fancy and groovy Hip Hop and Breakdance moves. I must admit that this is not the first time I have been impressed by those dances. I have indeed been introduced to these a couple of times in the past mainly through movies. Guess I will investigate these street-dances one day.

In the meantime, let me introduce the next Ballroom Dance Club event that will be hosted next Friday at the Georgia Tech Student Center. For those of you wishing to know more about NightClub Two-Step, here is a quick preview of the instructors who will be there next Friday just for you.

Join us on the dancefloors !!!

Warfare fostering art ?

2008-02-14T13:21:00.004-05:00

"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. [...] In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michel Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. "

The Third Man

Undergrad years

2008-02-05T00:56:00.002-05:00

[Nick] You can't repeat the past
[Jay] Can't repeat the past? Why? Of course you can !

The Great Gatsby

Still moving to hear my friends speak about the good memories they have of their undergrad years.

Repeat the past? Sure I'd like to for I really had the time of my life during those years. But then again, why have all those good memories been spoilt?

Nevermind..

Apartment Preview...

2008-01-27T09:28:00.005-05:00

All right...after some lengthy delays, I am finally able to show some quick previews of my place. Please take a tour and enjoy!!

The hallway
First is the hallway leading to the door. Nothing very fancy there : just tanned walls not yet fully decorated. The hallway leads to the dining room.

The dining room
The dining room comes next with four chairs and a table directly imported from IKEA-Sweden... Adjacent to the dining table is the bar with a convenient opening towards the kitchen. There are no stools right now but one day... For those who remember, just two or three stools similar to the ones of the Maui Park Shores would be awesome. Nothing beats stools for early-bird breakfasts when we need to stretch the legs...

The living room

From the dining room, one may walk South towards the living room. The living room is really the fanciest place to be in the apartment. With a high ceiling and equipped with a nice fireplace, it gives a warm and cheering atmosphere to the condominium. Allright, I dunno yet when we will first try the fireplace but at least it is there... I suppose we should have given it a try earlier this week when it was so bloodily cold...

Notice the Air Tahiti Nui Airbus A340-300E in the middle of the room. Yeah yeah this is the most important thing there...

Next comes a close up of the fireplace quietly sitting underneath the San Fransisco Golden Gate Bridge.
Frisco, the suspended bridges, Crookedest Street, Stanford, Half Moon Bay and the whole Silicon Valley... I can't wait to get back there again.

Adjacent to the fireplace stands the door leading to the balcony. You may not believe it but we do have a view over some of Midtown and Downtown skyscrappers.
The kitchen

Adjacent to both the dining room and the living room is the kitchen. Well, nothing to say there as this is the rather typical roomy American kitchen. Stove, oven, microwave, dishwasher, fridge, washing machine, dryer and lots of drawers to put our stuff.

I like it so much that I can't keep out of it and cook during a sizable portion of the day. I have to admit that I enjoy cooking or better said experimenting... Kinda changes from the easy-life consisting of walking to Georgia Tech's Dining Halls every night. Well, well, well it ain't no good for the diet either I imagine...
And finally my bedroom

This is the hallway leading to my bedroom and the bedroom itself.

Still tidy, but for how long? This is the special double comforter version of my bed due to the polar weather surrounding Atlanta these days. -12°C last Sunday morning at eight o'clock... Speak about a weather...

Warning : this bedroom is a graduate student's bedroom....

Disclaimer : therefore this is also a working place...

Stupid life of graduate students. Well guess this the price to pay to become an educated aerogeek... Whether at school or at home, studying is the masterword. Kinda depressing, no?

Orthodox strategy did I hear ?

2008-01-23T15:48:00.000-05:00

"Plan A was orthodox military strategy. We chose Plan B, which was unorthodox. With Plan B we achieved total surprise - which is also orthodox military strategy."

Herman Wouk

Happy New Year

2008-01-11T14:12:00.000-05:00

Wishing a happy new year to all and each of you.

Five years ago

2007-12-10T21:46:00.000-05:00

Indeed...it all started five years ago on a grey Friday afternoon of December.
December 6th or my first flight with an instructor. So much fun since.

Happy birthday !

Another page being turned

2007-12-10T02:23:00.000-05:00

Five days remaining before I finally leave the Graduate Living Center. This is a rather long and turbulent chapter of my life that will close this Saturday when I bid farewell to my apartment.

For slightly more than two years - 26 months to be exact - I have been living in my little 9.5 m² bedroom (98ft²). I have nothing to say against it but I believe it is high time I move on to something bigger, to something cosier, to something I will furnish myself and to something I will tailor to my tastes.

The Graduate Living Center has delivered on its promises and I will never argue on that. Still, I won't shed any tears for it. I remember the state of happiness I was in when I arrived in August 2005. I arrived as joyfull as could be, loaded with hope and expectations. A new world was opening its arms to me, another world that I had been longing to hug for years. Sure, I also left a lot behind me but I was barely thinking of it, only wondering at the new life I was about to embrace. New conquests and new ventures.

Things however never go as planned in life and soon enough I experienced the saddest part of my rather short life. Inside this very room, all alone and with no-one to turn to I started my long journey sailing miserably over an ocean of darkness and despair. All this is now history but there had been too many endless hours and restless nights spent in that bedroom to feel comfortable again. It has never been the same ever since and in my mind this place will always remain intimately connected with those events.

Looking ahead, I changed everything that could connect me back to those times. Changed my research, changed my lab, changed my degree, changed my advisor, changed my friends and even changed my blog... The housing was the last thing I needed to change. Done.

A page is turned, another one opens itself.

I just love this song...

2007-12-03T22:25:00.000-05:00

And I Love You So

Elvis Presley

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And I love you so

The people ask me how

How I’ve lived till now

I tell them I don’t know

I guess they understand

How lonely life has been

But life began again

The day you took my hand

And, yes, I know how lonely life can be

The shadows follow me, and the night won’t set me free

But I don’t let the evening get me down

Now that you’re around me

And you love me, too

Your thoughts are just for me

You set my spirit free

I’m happy that you do

The book of life is brief

And once a page is read

All but love is dead

That is my belief

And, yes, I know how loveless life can be

The shadows follow me, and the night won’t set me free

But I don’t let the evening bring me down

Now that you’re around me

And I love you so

The people ask me how

How I’ve lived till now

I tell them, I don’t know

Sonoran Rhythms

2007-11-28T17:43:00.002-05:00

I am back from my Thanksgiving journey in the far West and man, that was really awesome. Far away from cities during those rush hours of Black Friday and far away from crowded stores, I was wandering around in the Sonoran Desert in search of quietness and relaxation.

And that is exactly what I got : miles and miles of trecking in the wilderness along deserted tracks and miles and miles of driving along secondary roads into uninhabited areas where services are scarse and traffic barely existant. But most of all, I came back with a plethora of pristine landscape memories that will stay forever in my mind.

A road-trip along the Mexican border in the Sonoran wilderness

Wednesday

Early in the morning, I flew from Atlanta to Phoenix aboard a Delta Airlines Boeing 767-300 jet. I then headed to Tucson to explore the Southern part of Arizona and the Sonoran desert.

With architectural landmarks such as this one, Tucson is undoubtedly an old city from the South West.

White roman-catholic cathedrals remind the traveller of the Spanish and Mexican history of this part of the United States.

Incidentally, Spanish and English are both official languages in Arizona.

Saint Augustine Cathedral in Tucson

Thursday

Thursday clinged as the beginning of the exploration. Surrounded to the West and to the East by Saguaro National Park, a traveller getting out of Tucson cannot miss the huge and unmistakable shapes of giant Saguaros.

Saguaro and Choilla cacti in the Eastern part of the park

The giant saguaro is the largest of all cacti found in the United States and has thus become an iconic representant of the Grand Canyon state.

The Saguaro -Carnegiea gigantea- pronounced sah-wah-roh is a tree-sized cactus commonly found in South Arizona.
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Reaching up to six meters, they outlive human beings as they may grow for up to two hundred years. Their body is composed of wooden ribs holding water and surrounded by a thick skin covered with spikes to protect the cactus against predators and to limit water evaporation.

A giant 200-years old Saguaro next to a tiny bush of Pricky Pear Cacti

The skin is pleated so that the cactus may contract itself during periods of drought and may dilate itself to accomodate more water after Winter rainfalls or Summer thunderstorms. The largest saguaro can hold up to eight tons of water.

Saguaros produce a flower and a sweety fruit that is pollinized by bats and that can be eaten. Native Americans used to collect them to prepare their own food.

Fascinated by this giant cactus, Native Americans were treating Saguaros as living creatures.
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Respect the Giant Saguaro for it is your brother...

The journey to the South brings me to highlands and plateaus reaching up to 4,000 feets. Temperatures are cooler and water is more abundant permitting more complex and denser forms of vegetation.

An overwhelming silence surrounds the highlands West of Tombstone

The next stop was Tombstone, Arizona where one of the most famous gunfight occured on October of 1881. In this place that would later symbolize the struggle between law-and-order and rustling in frontier towns of the West, the Earp and the Clanton factions met to settle one of the west most famous feud.

Trailer from the
Gunfight at the OK Corral

Burt Lancaster
Kirk Douglas
(1957)
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OK Corral, OK Corral...

There the outlaw band

Made their final stand.

OK Corral...

Oh my dearest one, must I

Lay down my gun?

Or take the chance

Of losing you forever?

Duty calls

My back's against the wall.

Have you no kind word to say

Before I ride away? Away...

Your love, your love,

I need , your love...

Keep the flame, let it burn

Untill I return
From the Gunfight at OK Corral.

If the Lord is my friend
We'll meet at the end
Of the Gunfight at OK Corral.
Gunfight at OK Corral.

Boot Hill
Boot Hill
So cold
So still
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There they lay side by side
The killers that died
In the gunfight at OK Corral
OK Corral

Gunfight at OK Corral

Friday

Friday started my skimming along the Mexican border. From Tucson to Yuma through Aro, Kitt Peaks and Organ Pipes National Park. The journey consisted of almost three hundred miles through the great Sonoran desert. Midway between Tucson and Yuma, I stopped on top of the 7000ft-high Kitt Peak to visit some observatories. There was several telescopes there but in the lot stand the rather unusual McMath-Pierce solar telescope featuring an heliostat. Interesting it was...

Desolated landscapes in the Organ Pipes Natural Park. A United Nation international Biosphere Reserve. Life is scarce during the day when temperatures reach up to 40°C.

The cactus on the left is the so-called Organ Pipe Cactus. Organ Pipe cacti require sunlight and high temperatures to grow and flourish.

Only low elevations such as those found around Organ Pipes National Park and Baja California in Mexico are suitable for this kind of species.

Organ pipes in the last sunrays of the day

The next step of the journey consisted of driving further West to Yuma on the banks of the Colorado river right on the Arizona and California border. While entering California, some forms of human civilisation start to show up again. The most obvious one is traffic both on roads and railtracks. Railtracks... Speaking of railtracks, when I was a little kid, I used to count with my brothers the number of cars on those endless American trains. I think we found some in California that were fifty-car long.

Yuma is another symbol of the American Far West with the famous 3:10 to Yuma movie taking place there. .
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Trailer for 3:10 to Yuma available here.

(1957)

Glenn Ford

Van Heflin

There is a lonely train,
Called the 3:10 to Yuma.
The pounding of the wheels,
Is more like a mournful sigh.

There's a legend and there's a rumor,
When you take the 3:10 to Yuma,
You can see the ghosts,
Of outlaws go riding by.

In the sky, way up high,
Tthe buzzards keep circling the train.
While below,

The cattle are thirsting for rain.

It's also true, they say,
On the 3:10 to Yuma,
A man may meet his fate,

For fate travels everywhere.

Though you've got no reason to go there,
And there ain't a soul that you know there,
When the 3:10 to Yuma whistles its sad refrain,
Take that train! Take that train!

Well, as far as I am concerned... I wouldn't ride on that train....

Saturday

Saturday started the beginning of my Californian adventure. From Yuma, I headed to the Imperial Sand Dunes and later to Calexico, one of those twin-cities along the Mexican border: Calexico in California and Mexicali in Mexico.

There is a little bit of Sahara in this picture. Don't ask me why...

Later in the day, I headed North to Salton Sea, Indio and Mount Palomar. For me, it was a trip back in time and in my very own footsteps which brought back fond memories of childhood. I went there in 1991 and I still think of it as if it were yesterday. I remember playing and splashing all around while swimming with my huge inflatable hippo in Salton Sea. It was 16 years ago ... I'm getting old I guess.

Mount Palomar Hale telescope. The 200-inch telescope features adaptative optics and remained the world largest telescope for 45 years between 1948 and 1993.

Mount Palomar observatory stands high on the Coastal Range at 5550 feet above the Pacific. Operated by the California Institute of Technology (those lucky bas....!), it is one of the first modern Cassegrain telescope. However, even at that altitude the ever-growing light polution from public lighting in San Diego and Southern California dooms the future of this otherwise great facility.

Sunday

Sunday was my second day in California. Starting my journey in cosy Palm Springs in the Coachella Valley, I drove East to Joshua Tree National Park. Coachella Valley lies at the junction between the Northwest-moving Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. With the two plates rubbing each other, it is therefore a place of large sismic activity.

Lying in the middle of the Coachella Valley, the San Andreas fault reminds us that California is one of the most Earthquake-prone place on Earth

Here is the so called Joshua Tree - Yucca Brevifolia. Joshua Trees are very common in the elevated Mojave desert of Utah and Nevada. Joshua Tree National Park lies on the Southern edge of its natural geographical spread and marks the northern border of the Sonoran desert.

The name Joshua tree was given by a group of Latter Day Saints who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. The tree's unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky to stop the sun by God's command.
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A Joshua Tree in all its glory

The tips of Joshua Trees and their flower remind observers that this is indeed a Yucca.

Granite outcrop formations are the signature of Joshua Tree National Park. Formed in deep intrusions, these rocks underly most of California's mountain ranges from the Sierra Nevada to the Mexican border. Because it cools slowly, its minerals grow into large, tightly locked grains. This is the medium in which weathering and erosion of various kinds have sculpted Joshua Tree's remarkable landforms.

A skull seems to emerge amongst granite boulders

Monday

Monday consisted of crossing the Colorado river and driving back to Phoenix. I stayed only a couple of hours in Phoenix while awaiting my flight back to Atlanta. Boarded the Boeing 757-200 very early Tuesday morning to get back in town Tuesday by 6am.

The Colorado river in an oasis of life lost amongst hundreds of square miles of arid and unforgiving landscapes

A video of this journey is available here. Enjoy !!

Cross country to North Carolina

2007-11-19T21:57:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted for a while, not because of lack of time but because of lazyness I guess. So I thought a little update about what I was going through would be welcomed... Well, last week-end was pretty fantastic, the highlight being a very nice flight to North Carolina.

There are several milestones attached to this flight so you can expect a pretty comprehensive story about it... I am nevertheless awaiting the pictures from my friend to post a complete report. In the meantime, you will have to help yourself with this little petty appetizer...

So I flew with a good friend of mine deep into the Great Smoky Mountains up to Bryson City and Franklin in North Carolina. In Bryson City, we skimmed along the Tennessee borderline before heading back South again to Franklin. Up there, we enjoyed an awesome view over the Appalachians : miles and miles of endless and uninhabited mountains reching more than 6,000ft. I was expecting a bumpy ride over those peaks but at 7,500ft turbulence was allright. Choppy from times to times but nothing major. The crystal clear weather above a thin layer of haze as well as the late evening sunrays added some fiery colors to an already dramatic late Fall festival of red and orange. What a sight !!

As might be observed in the picture, large embankments of sand along Lake Fontana are clear indicators of the worst drought in decades that the South East is experiencing. According to the media, there are only sixty-days of water left in Lake Lanier, the major water reservoir supplying Atlanta... Well... well... well...

After almost two hours in the air, we glided peacefully towards Franklin airport where we stretched our legs and enjoyed the calm and peacefull atmosphere surrounding those massive mountains. We took the opportunity to refuel both the aircraft and our bellies for the late afternoon and early dusk trip back home.

This is bitsy birdy, the little Cessna C172 that hauled both of us during the entire trip. Seen here cooling down and resting on the ramp while awaiting us to return to its home base in Atlanta. The sunshine nearly transformed the ramp into a bright sea of silver...

That's it for today...as soon as I get new pictures, I will update the thread.

Cleared my Quals

2007-11-11T02:00:00.000-05:00

Done.
I still can't believe it but I am done. I guess I am off for at least six months of celebration, dancing, flying and travelling. Yeah, I believe I will need at least six months to go back to my studies...

I left so much behind me to come here and do this PhD, I couldn't afford to miss the step. Too much left and lost forever, it couldn't be for nothing.

Speaking of dancefloors

2007-10-23T14:34:00.001-04:00

Speaking about dancefloors, let me announce the next Ballroom Dance Club party which will be held on Saturday, November 3rd. There is no need to know dancing as there will be a free Hustle lesson at 9pm. There is also no need to come with a partner since there will be plenty there.

I think this is one of the nicest flyer I have ever done...
I am proud of myself...
:-)

Confession not on a dancefloor...

2007-10-22T18:45:00.000-04:00

All right, for once I will uncover myself. Yeah, you heard correctly...

I am scared. Scared about those Qualifyers. Guess I started too late due to devoting too much of my time to the research until October. But October was already late and now I am running late, real late.

I guess I am as scared as I was a few several years ago on the night before the first examinations for Mines - Ponts.

But well...life is great... that's what people say. Who am I to disagree ?

Flying On Top

2007-10-19T21:10:00.000-04:00

Well today is Friday so I guess you already know what I did... As my advisor uses to say, there is no better place to be on a Friday morning than inside a cockpit and at the controls... And you know what ? The weather was ugly. I keep on repeating myself here but let me state it again : the weather is always ugly in Atlanta on Friday mornings. Still, this time there was something new : besides practicing instrument approaches, I got checked out on a Piper Warrior II.

Here is the beast resting on the ramp at Dekalb-Peachtree Airport

As might be seen in this picture, the aircraft is a fixed gear and features a low-wing with dihedral. It was built in 1983 by Piper Aircraft in Vero Beach, Florida. Dubbed Piper Warrior II, it's official name is PA28-160 and the radio callsign is Cherokee. To be slightly more pedantic, it comes equipped with a 160 hp normally aspirated Lycoming engine, has an empty weight of roughly 1500 lbs and a maximum take-off weight of 2325 lbs.

Cockpit dashboard for the Cherokee Warrior. Flying at 100kt, climbing through 3100ft at 500ft per minute and heading to 050°
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The dashboard features all the standard instruments you would expect in a VFR - IFR - Day - Night certified aircraft. From left to right, from up to bottom we will find a clock, an airspeed indicator, an attitude indicator, an altimeter, an ILS receiver, an ADF receiver, a turn coordinator with a ball, a heading indicator, a vertical speed indicator and a VOR receiver. In the lower part of the dashboard lay the engine and fuel indicators whereas the communication and navigation displays are on the right. This aircraft is also equipped with a LORAN receiver which is a nice and fancy addon not commonly found in Europe.
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Just breaking out of the overcast layer of clouds.
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I did most of my initial flight training in France in a Piper PA38-112 Tomahawk (also called Traumahawk...) but I haven't flown any Piper aircraft in the last three years. It was also a return to low-wing designs after a two-year break period. So, a return to my first love ?

Low-wing aircraft call for a slightly different technique for landings since there is a lot more ground effect and the aircraft tends to float over the runway. Therefore, to reach the pilot's holy grail of kiss-landing, subtle adjustments are required when transitionning from high wings such as Cessnas to low wings.
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Cruising right over Atlanta sandwitched between a lower layer at 700ft and an upper layer at 10,000ft.
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I have always liked the design of Piper cockpits. It both looks clean, neat and a bit more airline-aircraft styled. In addition, there is an excellent forward visibility. My only grief about Piper designs would be the single right cockpit door that lacks the flexibility of Cessna's.
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5075ft, 100kt and 90° on the heading
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On the way back to Dekalb-Peachtree airport, the weather was slightly improving and the lower layer started to fragment going from an overcast to a broken layer. During the ILS-20L approach, we broke out of the cloud at 1000ft above ground and performed a sidestep approach to runway 20 Right to pave the way for a faster flying twin Cessna behind us.

Radar track for part of the flight may be found here.

Stay tuned for some more adventures...
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Plane Spotting in Philadelphia

2007-10-14T10:25:00.001-04:00

Here is a short summary of my wandering for almost fourteen hours in the concourse A of Philadelphia's airport. The international pier is sure very interesting during the late afternoon when it comes to life with transatlantic departures to Europe all over the place. Taking advantage of that, I shoot some pictures of each and every model of US Airways long-haul fleet.

Boeing 757-200
The Boeing 757 is the smallest aircraft used by US Airways for its long-haul operations. The one depicted below is quite special as it has been tailored for Transatlantic operations. It has been certified under the Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standard and comes under the designation of B757-200ET to allow for operations above oceans far away from diversion airports. This is a mandatory requirement as long as flights are more than sixty minutes away from any usable airport.

Dark picture but with thunderstorms all around, skies were dark

ETOPS certification makes things a lot easier for airlines operating over the North Atlantic as diversion airports are few and far in between. Once over the Atlantic, the closest airports are Hamilton in Bermuda, Narsarsuaq in Greeland, Keflavik in Iceland and Lajes in the Azores.

Wingletted 757 plugged on an auxiliary air conditionning system

The other thing that makes this Boeing 757 special is the installation of blended winglets designed by Aviation Partners. The 757 is capable of crossing the Atlantic range-wise but not by a very large margin. This is why airlines mostly use the 757 between the North-East coast of the US and North-West Europe. However, in order to account for strong jetstreams during the Winter and to operate the aircraft further inside Europe, airlines have added winglets that slightly improve fuel consumption and range for long operations.

Boeing 767-200
I was pretty happy to find a load of Boeing 767-200 at Philadelphia as these aircraft are slowly being retired and therefore are more and more difficult to spot. Most of them have already been retired and few airlines still operate them. Continental Airlines, American Airlines and US Airways are the largest operators of the type now but they already plan to phase them out in the coming years.

Boeing 767-200 getting ready for its flight to Spain. The center wingbox fuel tank s visible at the rear of the forward hold.

The Boeing 767-200 was the first aircraft of the 767 production line in Everett, WA. However most of the 767 production consisted of the stretched 767-300 and 767-300ER. US Airways still operate the early-built 767-200ER which features a somewhat higher gross weight and most importantly more fuel capacity.

Pushed back and starting the hairdryers

This version of the 767 is the second longest-range aircraft in US Airways fleet despite serving chiefly the airline for more than fifteen years. However, at the time the airline bought the airplane, operations to Europe were not planned and the airline decided to go with a rather low maximum take-off weight - 330,000lbs - thus tremendously limiting the range-payload envelope of the aircraft. This saddly reduces the capabilities of an otherwise very capable airplane. As a result, US Airways uses them mostly to serve its high capacity routes in western Europe.

The new color scheme is both classy and very curvy

After being towed away from the international pier, this 767 starts its own General Electrics CF6-80C2 engines and is about to go on its own power for another ride above the Pond.

Airbus A330-300
The Airbus twin widebody is the largest aircraft in US Airways fleet. It is also the yougest with deliveies starting in the late 90's. The A330 is used to serve core European destinations as well as Star Alliance partners hubs. I got lucky enough to find this one in the so called old new paint scheme that will slowly disappear in time.

Unloading late passenger bags before heading to Germany

This one was aimed for Star Alliance hub in Frankfurt. It stayed for several minutes at the gate after the jetway was removed in order to unload some baggage of no-show passengers. Some people will never get it...

Starting those massive Pratt&Whitney 4128 turbofans

The airline ordered Pratt & Whitney engines for its A330 fleet which allows the airline to offer long range flights well into Europe to Athens and Rome.

Getting read for an eight hour flight over the Pond to Frankfurt am Main.

While awaiting for taxi clearance and experiencing the usual ATC delays at Philly, the aircraft starts its engines and extends the flaps and slats. Notice the ailerons tilted down and used as flaperons for take-off.

As a bonus, a pre US Airways-America West merger paint scheme on this A320. Radio callsign for America West aircraft was Cactus.
Cute?
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That's it for a short description of US Airways long-haul fleet. By the way, did I mention that ETOPS also stands for Engines Turn Or Passenger Swim... ?
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Trecking in Bermuda

2007-10-13T09:51:00.000-04:00

I am back from my extended week-end in Bermuda and even though I did not manage to disappear or get lost over there, I think US Airways tried hard to... But that is another story...

Anyway, truth of the matter is that I was not really inside the infamous Bermuda Triangle but rather on the Northern edge.

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The Bermuda Triangle is usually defined as the area in between Bermuda, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Consequently, coming from the North West I just skimmed the tip of the triangle.

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Anyway, I have already been at least five times in the past deep inside this mysterious area and I always managed to come out of it...

So dockyard legend?

Well, if you ask me, maybe not so so... Having a close look at the following Bermuda map, the reader may have a quick glimpse of the number of shipwrecks that occured in the last four hundred years. At least thirty four wrecks that we are aware of in the immediate vicinity of the island...

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The most historically relevant sinking was the one of the Sea Venture. The ill-fated Sea Venture was aimed for Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 to bring supplies and new leadership when it encountered a hurricane, got lost and somewhat ended up into the reefs of the uninhabited archipelago. Most of the sailors were saved during the wreckage and they rebuilt two sister-ships during the Spring of the following year. The Deliverance and Patience eventually reached Jamestown in 1610.

Gibbs Hill lighthouse is the highest point in the islands

Still, people from Bermuda do not seem to try to trap people. Two lighthouses at the very end of the island signal the presence of Terra Firma to the sailor. So what happens? My understanding is that most of those wreckages are due to shallow waters that stretch far away from the islands. With tight canals and coral reefs emerging out of nowhere, this is a perfect maze for early sailors. But what about disappearance of airplanes? The mystery remains...

Upon arrival in Bermuda, visitors are immediately reminded of where they are and that this is a British overseas territory...

British Territory
Queen Elisabeth II is still the final authority here and a Governor coming from the United Kingdom is appointed to Bermuda. However, the islands are factually independent.

Bermuda
Well, the so-called bermuda is considered formal dressing here and the governor actually wears it. To be considered formal, the bermuda shall be worn two inches above the knees with knee socks and shoes. Sorry no flip-flop in front of Her Majesty...

Other visible remnants of the British time is the left driving as well as the Anglican church. The left driving might be the reason rental-cars are banned from the islands. Too many American and Canadian tourists that could potentially mess up with the left driving techniques in those not so wide and winding roads... And I believe this is great. Most of the things are within walking distance anyway and for those really wishing to travel all around the islands, there is an efficient bus and ferry transportation system (that I did abuse with my four day unlimited pass...). .

Hamilton's Anglican Church

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The 1609 settlement of British citizens led by Somers established the first recorded settlement in Bermuda in the site of St George. St George remained untouched by the economic boom of Hamilton and looks as if it had been frozen in time. Most of the buildings in St George were designed between the 17th and 19th century. No power lines, no telephone lines there, everything is underground. St George is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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St George

Typical Bermudian houses exhibit their white rain-collecting roofs. There is no public water supply system in Bermuda. Each household collects its very own water thanks to its roof . The white painted roofs have been a trademark of the Bermudian landscape for the last four hundred years and reflect the early availability of material in the form of Bermuda's natural white limestone.
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The unfinished Church lies in the height of St George. A typical Anglican church as might be inferred from the architecture.

If it is believed that the islands have volcanic origins, then the tip of the now extinct volcano is believed to be 120 feet underwater. It most certainly emerged from water at a time when sea level were lower. Coral reefs have built on it and the ground is now mostly made of limestone. Right in the center of the main island, some caves with stalagmites and stalactites may be found. Stalactites and stalagmites grows from the deposition of calcium carbonates and other minerals over time. .

Crystal Cave

Crystal Cave lies 120 feet under ground exactly at sea level. The water seen in the picture comes from the sea through a network of natural canals. The upper two inches of water is made of fresh water dripping from stalactites whereas the water below is plain salty sea water.
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One of the highlight of my visit to Bermuda was those pink-sand beaches. Bermuda is supposed to be famous for its pink sand. The distinctive color of Bermuda's sand is due to a single-celled animal called a foram, which grows in profusion on the underside of rocks. These animals have bright red skeletons, which when the foram dies, are eroded by the waves and mixed with the other matter that makes up Bermuda's sand to give the sand a pinkish hue.

Deserted beaches and crystal clear turquoise water were the highlight of my stay at Natural Arches Beach

Everything thrives in Bermuda's mild subtropical climate. So do Plumerias....

Finally, one last panoramic picture taken from the top of Gibbs Hill lighthouse. The fisheye covers most of the islands with a field of sight of almost 270 degrees... The island is not that big and the longest distance along the roads, from Dockyard on the West tip to St George on the East tip does not exceed thirty kilometers.

Royal Dockyards on the left, Hamilton in the center and St George in the distance behind.

A short video of the trip to Bermuda is also available here. Enjoy !!!

Six Flags Over Georgia

2007-09-29T11:02:00.000-04:00

Amusement Parks.... Amusement Parks....

This is bringing back fond memories of happy times during my childhood. Ludo parks and myself : this is a very long story. I guess it all started in 1986 when I first visited Florida and experienced most of the parks over there : DisneyWorld, Epcot Center, SeaWorld, Bush Gardens.... Surprinsingly, last time I visited one was quite some time ago during the Summer of 1991. It must have been either DisneyLand or Hollywood Studios in Los Angeles.

Sure, in the meantime I have been to temporary parks but it is not really the same. The quite famous "Foire de Rouen" in October and November comes with all kind of attractions and is supposedly one of the largest in France. But it does not have the same flavor. November in Normandy often sees mist, bitter colds and freezing winds ... yesterday's outing to Six Flags was a real blast with cool temperatures and a slight breeze. I went there with a few friends of mine and that was a real treat..

It was more than the park itself though. I did not realize it first but as time went by, this place reminded me of something, something I knew very well but to which I could not put a name on. And suddenly it all clicked in my head. No wonder I enjoyed my time there ... it was the same atmosphere and the same kind of environment one may recognize while watching the end of the movie Grease.

Grease, I watched it at least nine times to look like, to behave and to dance like Danny Zukko. Grease was my very first stage demonstration and I was the one playing Danny for the final "You're the one that I want"(Video here). It was already three years ago ... but I still remember the choregraphy and lyrics as if it were yesterday. One of my friends told me recently that 'memory is selective and you remember mostly the good moments of life'. I guess she is absolutely right...

I got chills

They're multiplyin'
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And I'm losin' control

'Cause the power you're supplyin'
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It's electrifyin'!
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You better shape up

'Cause I need a man

And my heart is set on you

You better shape up

You better understand

To my heart I must be true

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You're the one that I want, o, o, honey

The one that I want, o,o, honey

The one that I want, o, o, oo

The one I need

Oh, yes indeed
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So where are the pics ? Allright, here are they coming. Welcome to Six Flags over Georgia in Atlanta. Enjoy !

Superman... You may not believe it but the entire ride is upside down... From the very begining to the very end, you're looking downwards a bit as if you were skydiving. So smooth and so unusal. Absolutely exciting.

Another picture of Superman showing the upside-down ride. Was it designed by Aussies down under ?
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Next is Goliath. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to try it. Guess I'll do that in a week or two...

After the exciting roller coasters, something much smoother : the flying chairs. Travelling back in time to Vienna of the early nineteen hundreds...

Getting ready for the ultimate Great American Scream Machine experience...
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We dubbed it the ultimate shaking machine : a roller coaster completely made out of timbers.

Scary...

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First teddy-bear hugging of the night for Greg.... That one was with a duck...

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And second one with a rabbit for a change...
Greg loves teddy bears and it shows....
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And I do too...

Dragon Fly

2007-09-29T10:20:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, I wrote a little something about my new toy : an electric powered radio controlled Lancair airplane. It is a really nice bird and I really do not want to crash it. So in the meantime, I ordered another smaller and less complexed airplane.

The reason behind is that I have not successfully flown any radio controlled model for the last four years and my skills are more than rusty. Therefore, I elected to start easy and slowly with a slow and forgiving three-channel model. Three channels to control the electric engine, the rudder and the elevator.

Wing Dragon II : the easy beginner model...

The box comes as a 'Ready to Fly' so there is not a lot of work remaining to put the plane in airworthy conditions. Basically putting the wings together, setting the elevator, adjusting the servo control rods and screwing the main landing gear.

Straight out of the box...

There is something that will be completly new to me : an airplane with a thrust not aligned on the center of gravity / longitudinal axis. Guess what ? I am pretty sure I will get some strong nose-down pitching moments while adding thrust. Anyway, enough talking now. Here are a few pictures of the model flying. By the way, did I mention she looks cute ?

Friday Flying

2007-09-29T09:27:00.000-04:00

And for the first time... it was all good weather. What ? A Friday morning with good weather... Yes that does exist too... Anyhow, cloud-less skies with a light breeze and just a bit of haze around 4,000 ft sounds like a perfect day to go flying. And especially to practise visual flying.

Unfortunately, it was something else that I was planning to practise. I wanted once more and once again to do some instrument flying. So how is it done when the sky is plain clear with no cloud in sight and nothing but a bright sunny disk up-above overhead? Well, basically we just wear a special hood that has view-restricting capabilities. It is designed to limits the field of sight to the lower portion of the cockpit.

Welcome to the alienized world...

Of course, that is not perfect. First because you need a safety pilot in order to ensure traffic avoidance when flying under the hood while visual flying conditions prevails. Then even if a pilot cannot technically see outside of the cokpit, the pilot still has some cues about the attitude of the aircraft due to lighting and shadows on the dashboard.

Readers may understand now why I was so eager to fly in bad weather during the past weeks. There is simply no better training or skill-sharpening shall I say than flying in actual instrument conditions i.e. in clouds. But well, for those of us living in places with great weather all-year round, that is not always easy. So this is simply an 'ersatz' and it is how most of the pilots train for their instrument ticket. And it has worked so far.

To come back to the flight itself, we flew to Lagrange Callaway Airport (LGC) next to the Alabama border about 70 nautical miles South of Atlanta and then to Carrolton - West Georgia Regional Airport (CTJ) approximately 40 nautical miles due West of Atlanta. Highlight was obviously on our way to the South while overflying Hartsfield-Jackson International airport. It simply feels gooood to fly right over those big metal Airbus and Boeing jets...

Atlanta International on our way to the South.
Five parallel runways, six concourses and a brand new control tower... gigantic

Radar track of the flight

For those already inquirring about the erratic flight path of the plane, well...no I was not drunk. I just practised a few instrument approaches at Lagrange airport. Hence those curvy radar tracks...

For those already inquiring about the 'diverted status' of the flight, well...no I did not hijack my own plane. I just changed my destination airport mid-flight...

And finally for those wondering whether I made it to the Advanced Flight Dynamics class, well...no, not in time...

Lancair Aircraft Model

2007-09-24T22:57:00.000-04:00

I hate to stay inactive and I love to have projects on my hands... So here is a short preview of my on-going project. A radio-controlled electric powered Lancair. A Lancair is a true real world two seater aircraft that may be purchased and built by amateur aircraft builders as a kit...
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As far as I am concerned, I elected for a 1/10th scale of the real bird. It better fits my student-budget... Contrary to usual, I bought the box as an "almost ready to fly" kit and this for several reasons. I do lack time right now with Quals coming soon and secondly here in the United States I do not have all the tools I would require to start the project from scratch. And I do not want to start sanding balsa and plywood inside my rather small university room. Still, there is quite a bit of work to be done before calling it done.

. Nice box that came through UPS late last week...

As said before, there is still some work to do and once the box is open we have a fair view of what remains to be done. Well...bind all those elements together....which should not be too long. I still need to buy a radio transmitter though...

The different parts as they come out of the box.

Nice fiber-glass fuselage. Both strong and lightweight...

Technically, a four-channel transmitter should suffice since the four usual suspects are present in this model : aileron, throttle, elevator and rudder controls. However, I am planning to add some flaps to this model by decoupling the two servos required for the ailerons. By doing so, I will have to use five channels and four servos. The two aileron channels will be mixed so that the actuators will control both aileron and flaps at the same time. When the airplane is in cruise configuration, the ailerons are streamlined in the trailing edge of the wing and act as usual ailerons. During approach, the ailerons will both drop slightly down and increase the curvature of the wing while still performing the functions of ailerons to control roll. This is called the flaperon mode which incidentally may be observed on Airbus A330 and A340 during landings.

The wing root and fairing may be observed in this picture. The holes drilled into the wing-box allow for the control cables to go through.

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Finally below is a picture of what the project should look like in just a few weeks. Stay tuned for the factory roll-out scheduled for early November. Entry into revenue service is scheduled a couple of days latter on November 10th with Mile High Airlines - The World Most Experienced Airline.

What my Lancair should hopefully look like in a matter of weeks.

"Mile High Airlines is particularly proud to be the launch customer for this new two-seater aircraft that will soon become the flagship of our airline, flying to our most prestigious destinations while introducing new levels of comfort never ever seen before. With our unique two-seat abreast configuration and our completly revamped inflight entertainement, we will introduce a paradigm shift in air transportation and revolutionize the travel experience"

"Celebrations for the maiden flight will start early November. In the meantime, Mile High Airlines is pleased to provide its fans a quick preview of our new advertisement campaign with these songs"

Mile High Airlines - The World Most Experienced Airline
Get Up In The Air
You Can't Beat The Experience
We Fly The World Wants To Fly
Just Say Hello To Pan Am

Friday-morning flying

2007-09-21T22:47:00.000-04:00

Since the weather keeps on being ugly on Friday mornings.... well..... I keep on flying on Friday mornings... Around 8am, the weather was described as overcast at 400ft with wind gusts from 14 to 18 knots and thunderstorms in Southern Georgia moving to the North.

And as may be infered from this photo, weather was indeed ugly. The tip of the mighty Bank of America pencil-like tower was not to be seen, hiding itself in clouds. Even the smaller AT&T tower -formerly BellSouth- had transformed itself into a cloud-scraper...

Bank of America tower hidding itself behind the AT&T one and resting in a deep soup of low-level stratus

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Aviation Atlanta minimums for instrument operations call for 200ft above published minimums. ILS at Dekalb-Peachtree Airport missed approach altitude is a mere 200ft above ground so it was technically allright to go for a ride.

I went to the airport and shot two ILS approaches at PDK. Luckily we broke out of clouds at 800ft above ground. During the manoeuvers to establish the airplane into its final approach path, we reached 4000ft and flew right above the overcast layer. It was plain sunny and shiny up-above with magnificent views over the peaks of the Appalachians just emerging from a napping of clouds.

So when people ask me why I keep on flying on bad days, I have a new pre-formated reply... Well you know, I am just taking care of my tanning and complexion so I went up-above to a place where the sun shines... After all, paradise is up-above. Right ?

Baldwin and the Whiffles

Sh-Boom

Hey nonny ding dong, alang alang alang

Boom ba-doh, ba-doo ba-doodle-ay

Oh, life could be a dream

If I could take you up in paradise up above

If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love

Life could be a dream sweetheart

Hello hello again, sh-boom and hopin' we'll meet again

Oh, life could be a dream

If only all my precious plans would come true

If you would let me spend my whole life lovin' you

Life could be a dream Sweetheart

Now every time I look at you

Something is on my mind

If you do what I want you to

Baby, we'd be so fine

Oh, life could be a dream

If I could take you up in paradise up above

If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love

Life could be a dream Sweetheart

Sh-boom sh-boom Ya-da-da Da-da-da Da-da-da Da

Sh-boom sh-boom Ya-da-da Da-da-da Da-da-da Da, sh-boom

Sh-boom sh-boom Ya-da-da Da-da-da Da-da-da Da

Sh-boom sh-boom Ya-da-da Da-da-da Da-da-da Da, sh-boom

Now every time I look at you

Somethin' is on my mind

If you do what I want you to

Baby, we'd be so fine

Life could be a dream

If I could take you up in paradise up above

If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love

Life could be a dream Sweetheart

Hello hello again, sh-boom and hopin' we'll meet again

Hey nonny ding dong, alang alang alang

Ba-doh, ba-doo ba-doodle-ay

Life could be a dream

Life could be a dream, Sweetheart

Life could be a dream

If only all my precious plans would come true

If you would let me spend my whole life loving you

Life could be a dream Sweetheart

Life could be a dream

Sweetheart

Instrument flying

2007-09-14T23:14:00.000-04:00

There are some delightful moments in life, yes truly delightful. What’s more than taking advantage of bad weather to experience ultimate fun?

Thursday night, I was coming back from a Hustle party when I noticed on the Internet that they were forecasting aweful weather for both Friday and Saturday. Ding ding… I took my phone and reserved a Cessna. After all this is the right time to practice some instrument flying and shoot a few instrument approaches...

Last time I filed an instrument flight plan was in May when I was doing my training in Mississippi. I have never flown IFR around Atlanta before, nor have I flown in really-bad actual instrument meteorological conditions.

So I was absolutely excited and when I woke up Friday morning it was over the top. Low clouds, overcast layers as low as 500ft and mist. Even the top of the mighty Bank of America tower was imerged in a low clouds layer. Sure that sounded exciting so I packed my stuff and off to Marta.

Upon reaching the airport, I checked one last time the weather and started doing the preflight. Well 500ft ceiling is enough to practice a few ILS (Instrument Landing System) approaches. Lawrenceville was forecasting 800ft ceiling in mist which should even be enough for non precision approaches such as a LOC (Localizer) or NDB (Non Directionnal Beacon) approach.

Half an hour later, I took of from Dekalb-Peachtree Airport and just a few seconds later we were in the soup. Climbing to 4000ft, we eventually reached the top of the overcast layer which must have been around 3900ft. Skimming along the top of an overcast layer in clear blue sky, how exciting. I guess that’s what made me fall in love with airplane. That’s the magic of flight.

Soon enough, we were descending to shoot an ILS approach at Gwinett County Lawrenceville Airport (LZU). And here comes another sight that is truly amazing. Having been in clouds for about 20 minutes, having only seen plain white and raindrops on the windshield, the sight of the runway lights suddenly appearing right in front of the aircraft while breaking out of a 600ft-high overcast layer has simply no equivalent I can think of. And I am not bragging, I honestly think there is no ‘ersatz’ to that. Along with this memorable experience comes an immensely profound sense of achievement. It is hard to explain because after all it is just plain maths. Still there is this touch of magic to it.

Anyway, after a touch we continued with non-precision approaches as the ceiling was clearing a bit. First a NDB approach with a holding pattern and finally a localizer approach. Around 12:30pm, it was about time to head back to Atlanta as I was supposed to go to my Advanced Dynamic Class at Georgia Tech at 2pm sharp. Return trip was uneventful with a cruise entirely in the soup followed by an ILS approach at Dekalb Peachtree Airport (PDK). This time, we broke out of the clouds at 1500ft above ground.

Touchdown was a few minutes after 1pm. Headwinds and funny radar vectoring during our return trip did not really helped us ... I reached Georgia Tech at 2:15pm…well too bad for the flight mechanics class... Guess I’ll have to catch it later…

Part of the flight that was under radar coverage
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N6204F

I did not get a chance to record the approach. But here is what it looks like.

Similar ILS approach in a Cessna 172

Just a thought...

2007-09-14T22:14:00.000-04:00

Claude François

Le Vagabond

Comme un enfant qui a perdu son père
Et qui le cherche en courant sur la Terre
J'ai voyagé dans vingt pays
Et j'ai vingt fois recommencé ma vie
Tous les métiers, je les ai fait je crois
J'en ai gardé un peu de muscles au bras

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Hier encore, un débutant
Et tout a coup au premier rang
Je ne me sens jamais chez moi
Toute ma vie, je resterai je crois

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Un vagabond qui passe et chante
Et qu'il faut mieux ne jamais rencontrer
Un vagabond sans importance
Et qu'il faut mieux ne jamais aimer

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Je vais dormir quand les autres se lèvent
Je suis un fou qui embrouille ses rêves
Toujours à part, toujours déçu
J'ai cru aimer, je n'ai pas su
Et je me dis que malgré moi
Je ne serai toute ma vie je crois

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Qu'un vagabond

Qui passe et chante
Et qu'il vaut mieux ne jamais rencontrer
Un vagabond sans importance
Un chien perdu et jamais retrouvé

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Oui, un vagabond sans importance
Je suis perdu, laissez-moi passer
Ohohoh laissez-moi passer

Fruity diet

2007-09-11T23:01:00.000-04:00

Highlight of the week was my trip to Atlantic Station ... to buy a mixer. Or blender. Or whatever it might be called. I have been longing to get one for about a year...

And as soon as Sunday evening I was preparing my first home-made smoothies : two oranges, one banana, one apple and ice cubes. The whole process is merely a matter of cutting everything into small cubes and then pressing 'liquefy'. In less than one minute the smoothie is ready. For more sophisticated receipes, milk might be added but that is not on my schedule right now.

Gone are all those so-called diet beverages. I am about to start my very own fruity-drink diet exclusively composed of smoothies and juices. Sure there are sugar and calories in those preparations, but at least there are vitamins. And no preservatives, no aspartame. And the joy of preparing it yourself !

Added to my recent exclusive fruit-diet, I should loose a few more pounds over the next three weeks. The ultimate goal is to loose fifteen pounds before the end of September. Cumulated with the ten pounds I have already lost since mid August, I should be in a better shape than last Spring...

So in a nutshell, everyone is invited for a smoothie time !!

Arrivederci Luciano

2007-09-09T10:07:00.000-04:00

Luciano passed away. How sad, really sad. Heaven has a tenor as some newspapers were quoting this week.

Luciano Pavarotti had a special place in my mind : I spent so many evenings in my childhood watching his performances in operas ranging from Verdi's Rigoletto to Puccini's Tosca. Often compared to his fellow tenors Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, he was still a step beyond. He had the suavest voice of the three certainly due to his italian origins.

Linking a three minute long opera excerpt would not pay any tribute to him nor to the music itself. La Traviata is not only the Brindisi aria, Turandot is not Nessun Dorma, Rigoletto is not La dona è mobile and La Bohème is not O suave fanciulla.

Luciano Pavarotti also sang popular music from times to times but in Italy Opera is popular music. So here is a link to a song from Napoli. Arrivederci Luciano.

Caruso - Pavarotti

Qui dove il mare luccica,

E tira forte il vento

Su una vecchia terazza

Davanti al golfo di Surriento

Un uomo abbraccia una ragazza

Dopo che aveva pianto

Poi si sciarisce la voce

E ricomincia il canto

Te voglio bene assaie

Ma tanto tanto bene sai

E una catena ormai

Che sciogliei sangue dint'e vene sai...

Vide le luci in mezzo al mare

Penso alle notti la in America

Ma erano solo le lampare

E la bianca scia di un'elica

Senti il dolore nella musica

E si alzo dal pianoforte

Ma quando vide uscire

La luna da una nuvola

Gli sembro pi dolce anche la morte

Guardo negli occhi la ragazza

Quegli occhi verdi come il mare

Poi all'improvisso usci una lacrima

E lui credette di affogare

Te voglio bene assaie

Ma tanto tanto... bene sai

E una catena ormai

Che sciogliei sangue dint'e vene sai...

Potenza della lirica

Dove ogni dramma é un falso

Che con un po'di trucco e con la mimica

Puoi diventare un altro

Ma due occhi che ti guardano

Cosi vicini e veri

Ti fan scordare le parole

Confondono I pensieri

Cosi diventa tutto piccolo

Anche le notti la in America

Ti volti e vedi la tua vita

Como la scia di un'elica

Ma si é la vita che finisce

Ma lui non ci penso poi tanto

Anzi si sentiva gi felice

E ricomincio il suo canto

Te voglio bene assaie

Ma tanto tanto… bene sai

E una catena ormai

Che sciogliei sangue dint'e vene sai...

.
Te voglio bene assaie
Ma tanto tanto… bene sai
E una catena ormai
Che sciogliei sangue dint'e vene sai...

Labor-Day road trip

2007-09-04T21:57:00.000-04:00

I am back from my Labor Day road trip with some nice pictures to share. It was an ambitious trip since I had planned an aggressive and tight schedule. Nonetheless, I tried to stick to it which means that I had to cover long journeys with early wake-up and late arrivals. But I am a warrior and I like that...

Friday Evening

Picked up the car at Atlanta - Hartsfield Jackson Intl and off I went to North Carolina through Greenville, Charlotte and Greensboro. Lot's of night driving and not a lot to see but I was expecting that. I finally arrived at Greensboro around 2am.

Saturday

Things become interesting as I head towards the Atlantic coast through the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina's cotton fields and Virginia's tobacco fields. Cotton plants were just blooming offering their nice white plumets while tobacco fields were magnificent with those huge light-green leaves.

Weather was on the party with a bright sunny sky. I finally reached Virginia Beach just in time to make a splash in the ocean. Man, I like the oceans...I must have been a sea-cow in a former life. Later in the day, I drove up to Norfolk to gaze at those three large aircraft-carriers mooring inside one of the largest US naval base.

Sunday

Early in the morning I drive past Nasa Langley heading towards Kitty Hawk. If Kitty Hawk itself has nothing exceptional to offer, the name by itself should raise the eyebrow of any aviation addict. Indeed this is the very place where the Wright Brothers succeeded in their first flight attempts. December of 1903 or the conquest of the third dimension opening a new era for Mankind.

Orville and Wilbur Wright monument

Stones marking the length of the four first flights. The first hop by Orville was 120 feet long, the next one by Wilbur, then Orville and finally Wilbur again reaching more than 500 feet.

The Wright's Flyer being launched. Orville is at the command while Wilbur assists pushing and balancing the right wingtip during the very first take-off.

I continued to drive South along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore until I reached the city of Cape Hatteras. The landscapes are magnificent offering miles and miles and miles of endless sand dunes. More than eighty miles of beach stretch along this narrow strip of land thirty miles East of North Carolina's coast.

Sand dunes with a strong easterly wind blowing sand

A few miles later, I reached Cape Hatteras where I pay a visit to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse and boarded my first ferry of the day to Ocracoke Island. A mere thirty minute ride in one of these old-fashioned ferries.

Cape Hatteras lighthouse

Once on Ocracoke Island, I elected to go surfing for a while and take a nap on the sand dunes while waiting for my night ferry. However, the windy conditions deterred me from laying for too long there and I took the car again just after sunset for another ferry ride.

Sunset on Okracoke sand dunes

This crossing was slightly longer : two dozen miles to reach terra firma again or two hours and a half of ferry-time heading South West to the coast of North Carolina.

Man I like boats and I just love ferry trips

This was a night journey starting around 8:30pm. In the middle of the night, away from any source of light-pollution these crossings are simply bewithching offering cristal clear skies with great views over the Milky-way, the Big-Dipper, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor and Polaris. The ferry finally reached mainland at Cedar Island in the middle of nowhere but it is still a long way to get to my bedroom. I finally arrived in Wilmington around 2am after wandering off the streets for half an hour looking for my Motel...

Monday

Off I went on the road again to reach South Carolina and the resort station of Myrtle Beach. However for me this was not vacation-time... I really really needed to submit my report for the lab so I went hunting around hotels searching for a non-secured wifi connection. Well I was kinda lucky and after just a few minutes I found my victim network...used their wifi connection directly from my car...and sent my report. If only Elena knew...thirty seconds later I was in the sea surfing.

In the mid-afternoon, I brought back everything into my car and started my long journey back home. Columbia first, then Augusta in Georgia where I took a shot of the enabler: a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt.

Chevy Cobalt.
36.7 MPG at 75 MPH. Quite impressive for a non-hybrid car...

End of my trip in Atlanta around 10pm after exactly 1509 miles, an exciting week-end and loads of fond memories. Stay tuned for the next one...

Flying

2007-09-04T14:39:00.000-04:00

As a first entry into the journal, I wanted something substantiate and something about aviation. Listening to people not familiar with aircraft operations, I have noticed that there is one source of confusion that is recurrent: Visual Flight Rules and Instrument Flight Rules. There are some subtle differences between the two and if not understood correctly, the whole concept of visual flight might be difficult to grasp.

VFR and IFR
VFR stands for Visual Flight Rules and IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules. These are two different sets of regulation concerning flight. You are either flying under VFR or under IFR and the good news is that those two sets are acknowledged worldwide. Well almost…bar the UK but what are the Brits doing like anybody else?

VFR
Visual Flight Rules mean that your flying is done using visual cues from the outside. In other terms, you are using the horizon to maintain pitch, roll and yaw control and you are using landmarks on the ground for navigation. You barely need any instrument even though the rules require at least an airspeed indicator, an altitude indicator and a magnetic compass. This is because the airspeed, altitude and heading cannot be easily inferred in flight.

However this does not mean that the pilot shall not use other instruments. If the instruments are there on the dashboard, it would be foolish not to use them for navigation. These are nonetheless no primary instruments but what is called supportive instruments.

These rules are the ones used by the vast majority of general aviation pilots all over the world.

IFR
Instrument Flight Rules are a set of rules that allows the pilot to fly only by reference to his instruments. Consequently more instruments are required to fly and the requirement consists of an airspeed indicator, an altitude indicator, a compass, a turn coordinator, a gyroscopic attitude indicator, a clock, a two way radio and an adequate navigation equipment. That’s a whole lot more but this is the price to pay to bust clouds. In return, you are allowed to fly without reference to the horizon which means into haze, fog and clouds.

Instrument flying is more demanding mentally than visual flying and requires perpetual concentration by the pilot. However, navigations are a lot easier because contrary to landmarks that may or may not be seen, navigation information provided by instruments is not subjective.

These rules are the ones used by all airlines' pilot as well as a minority of general aviation pilots. This is especially true in Europe where the cost of IFR flying is usually prohibitive. It is a pity as instrument flying with proper experience is regarded as very safe.

VFR and VMC, IFR and IMC
VMC stands for Visual Meteorological Condition and IMC for Instrument Meteorological Condition. This is used to describe the weather. Indeed, visual flight rules stipulate minimum requirements in term of visibility and ceiling to be able to fly. If those minima are met, the weather is VMC. If not, the weather is IMC.

This only suggests which set of rule to use for flying. For instance, when the weather is VMC, a pilot can elect to fly under VFR or IFR. However when IMC is prevailing, a pilot must fly IFR.

A good example is airlines' pilots who are constantly flying under the instrument set of rules whatever the weather might be. On the other hand, many general aviation pilots are grounded as soon as the weather deteriorates because they are not properly qualified to perform a flight under IFR.

VFR at night
Night flying is not restricted to instrument rated pilots contrary to what one might think. At night the horizon may still be visible and may be used for attitude reference while city lights, antenna lights and roads make good visible cues.

Final Words
Finally a good example of the differences between the two regimes of flights may be seen on the charts used by pilots. The charts shown below depicts the exact same area of Atlanta and are drawn at the same scale.

VFR charts as shown in the link below contain a lot of landmark information and topographic information. Antennae, cities, airports, lakes, river....

Atlanta VFR Sectional Chart

On the other hand, IFR charts such as the one shown below are slightly more austere and only show airports, navigation beacons and airways in between.

Atlanta IFR Enroute

Welcome to all

2007-09-04T12:35:00.000-04:00

This journal is a step in a new direction as I am steering towards another life. Painful pages have been turned but the book of life has plenty more to offer.

I finally elected to start from scratch a new blog and leave the former one alone. A difficult decision as I had been using the former for ages: so much written over there and so much about what I was going through. Certainly too much...

Before heading to new and happier horizons, I would like to quote these slightly modified lyrics. This song, along with many from the motion picture Grease will forever have a special place in my mind. During these exquisite moments, I certainly learnt how to perform on a stage but most of all I learnt how to share my emotions.

From Olivia Newton-John
Grease

Guess mine is not the first heart broken

my eyes are not the first to cry

I'm not the first to know

There's just no getting over you

You know I'm just a fool who's willing

to sit around and wait for you

But baby can't you see there's nothing left for me to do

I'm hopelessly devoted to you

But now there's nowhere to hide

since you pushed my love aside

I'm out of my head hopelessly devoted to you

Hopelessly devoted to you

My head is saying fool forget her

My heart is saying don't let go

Hold on to the end that's what I intend to do

I'm hopelessly devoted to you

But now there's nowhere to hide since you pushed my love aside

I'm out of my head hopelessly devoted to you

Hopelessly devoted to you