I am sorry I didn't get any pictures from my flight but I took this after we landed...
I did about 6 touch and go landings in a J-5 Cub during sunset, I am not there yet but this tail wheel thing is starting to come together. Don't worry I am not complacent nor will I ever be but I am starting to feel more comfortable with it.
I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to be surrounded by some of the nicest people in the world, they have opened there lives to me and I am forever grateful for the wonderful experiences and friendships that have been established. I never would have thought in a million years that I would be able to jump on a golf cart, ride down a runway and get into a Cub to watch the sunset... Master card has it all wrong, THIS my friends is priceless!
So there I was, sitting in a hammock in Hawaii, watching the waves crash against the shore as the sun sets into the sea and thinking to myself "I need to move home to Hawaii". Well not but a week after returning to Arkansas I bought another home, but not in Hawaii...
I decided that life is about being happy, and not that I was unhappy but I had just realized that your surroundings have a huge influence on your happiness. I was home around family and friends and the beauty of Hawaii and I was truly Happy, so why not move back to Hawaii? Well... I found this "little piece of heaven" as my new neighbor Bev likes to say, right here in Arkansas.
"KC are you sure about this?" My sister Amy said, "You spend more time thinking about what color couch to buy than this, and this is a HOUSE!"
Well Amy was right, it was just 3 days after I had this wild idea that I had an accepted offer. Even a realitor friend that had looked at the house with me said "now why do you want to move? You have a nice house and what's so special about this place?" Not but 10 seconds later I whipped out my phone and took this short video
And this is why I want to move!
So not even 45 days later my mom was out and helping me pack up and move out to the country. I can't possibly thank my mom enough, she and I moved all my junk 20 miles down the road using nothing more than a Jeep with a 5x10' trailer and her Jetta. Ok we did use a Uhaul and some buddies to make one trip with all the large stuff, but other than that it was trip after trip after trip getting the house moved.
Then once we got to the new house it was full speed ahead on fixing up the house. You wouldn't think that a 4 year old house would need so much TLC but it did. We have been so busy this last month working on the house that i have been off the grid. We painted the entire interior, replaced all the carpet, mowed the lawn, had the biggest 4th of July party the neighbors had ever seen (after only living in the house for 3 days), changed all the blinds, mowed the lawn, ran 2 gas lines for a dryer and new gas stove, hung the TV along with inside and outside speakers, wiped down all 23 interior doors (thanks mom!), mowed the lawn, changed 2 broken windows, cleaned all the closets and kitchen cabinets, changed door locks, hung curtains, mowed the lawn, replaced all towel hangers and toilet seats, hung a hammock, cleaned out the hangar, started building a workshop and even mowed the lawn! (All 3 acres :)
So after all this work is it worth it? You betcha! I honestly couldn't stand the house when i bought it but I really didn't care, all I wanted was to be able to live with my plane (when I finish it) and the house is just a place to live. Well let me tell you, that has changed 100%! I still want to live with my plane but after the massive face lift that the house got, wow, I love this house! Being able to see plane come and go from the master bath, living room, kitchen and patio isn't thing short of amazing. I feel like a kid in a candy story, I get all excited every time I see a plane taxi/fly by.
Ok, ok show me the pictures already (yes I can read minds) well here you go.
This is the view from the cul-de-sac,
And here is from across the runway
This is the hanger before I bought it, as you can see you could easily fit three airplanes in here and that's an apartment in the far back that is approximately a thousand square feet
How's that for a view while you mow the yard?
This sure beats my old push mower!
There's mom, she sure loves to clean!
Bringing my baby home, next time she leaves she will be under her own power!
Here is the living room as we paint it
I will load more pictures soon but it's bed time and I wanted to load something for you all to see. But I'll leave you with these last 2. First I can't explain how incredibly nice everyone is out here, they have open there homes and shared their lives with me and I am nothing more than a new stranger. I can't capture with words the sense of community and family that this little piece of heaven has but it is absolutely one of a kind.
And this is the reason I moved, getting to watch the sunset from a J3 Cub that took off out of my own back yard, priceless.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas, I did! We ended up having a white Christmas here in Arkansas, and some might say that too many people wished for it... We got a foot of snow, yep you heard that right 12"! The bad part is that we had freezing rain before the snow and that caused the trees to be weighed down and that mixed with gusting winds caused the trees to fall and take out power lines. This morning the radio said about 250,000 homes in Arkansas were with out power. I was very lucky that I didn't lose power but my buddy did so he came over and we finished cooking his ribs at my place, and yes they broke da mouth!
Today I drove around just looking both the winter scenery as well as all the devastation from the falling trees.
Then I decided why not go for a hike as the state is basically shut down so that's what Brian and I did. First we took my generator over to another friends house to give him some power then we hiked Pinnacle and it was breath taking (and slippery!). I don't thing 10 people made it to the top today so it was pretty neat to see the untouched snow and ice covering the trees on top. I want to blame it on the snow but wow was I out of breath hiking to the top today... Oh well I guess I am getting a little older too, :)
Now I am back at home and relaxing and thought I should share this with everyone. Have a great rest of 2012 and know that I am doing well in Little Rock. Aloha!
Ok I know I should be working on the plane but check out what I can do with a little technology...
This first picture is what a normal camera will capture
Now this is what you can do with an app called autostitch that stitches photos together and lets you basically create a fish eye type lens
Now mess with color a little with another app called snapseed...
Now add a little tilt shift with the same snapseed app...
Wild huh???? Ok I will give up on the creative KC and get back to plane building but I wanted to share some neat things that I can do with my phone, not a fancy camera or computer but a phone! By the way my phone posted this online as well... Ok I'll stop blowing your mind, aloha!
Ok let's say you got a frown on your face and you want to turn that frown upside down... What could you do, o got an idea ;) Last time you saw I had got a "Slidefire" stock for my AK, it is a lot of fun but can get expensive to shoot. I bought this Smith and Wesson M&P 15–22 because it shoots .22 and they cost a LOT less! Well I'll stop writing and just show you what I mean. This is 25 rounds and remember this is 100% legal as per the ATF, crazy huh?!?! Enjoy
And here this shows that the gun is not full auto all the time, you can let go of the trigger even though I can't think of why you would want to ;)
OK I noticed that I never posted the video of my AK, well here it is, this is not me but my gun. Yes I can't be happier to be part of the greatest nation in the world!!!
What you're watching is Dan shooting a spray can of snow, it was on special for only $0.60, well worth it in my book!
We then went on to an indoor shooting range to try out my LCP and a bunch of other guns, I almost forgot how much I like shooting guns :-)
The day ended with's barbecuing and watching some ski videos about Colorado. All In all it ended up being a wonderful day!
This picture was on the flight back after my trip to San Antonio, pretty nice sunset if I do say so myself... I hope you're having a wonderful weekend, aloha!
I just found out where I am going to be moving to... Little Rock, Arkansas Yep I am going to be a C-130J model instructor at the school house. I know so many questions, no I have never flown a J model before so yes I will have to learn. No Little Rock was not my number one choice but the good thing about it is that I will not be deploying for a few years!!!! I am so excited that I will be able to spend time at home and work on the plane with out these 2 month interruptions.
This is the C-130J, from the outside small changes (6 blade props, and a little longer), form the inside all new, they got ride of the Navigator and Engineer so I will be doing a lot more work =(
I am off to fly now, have a great rest of the weekend and I'll write more when I can, Aloha!
Well I made it back to Cheyenne, yep I now get to sleep in this strange place that I am supposed to call home. I know that I didn’t write much the last week or so in Little Rock but I was pretty busy with all the flying and getting a check ride as well. Everything went fine and now I am back home at least for now.
This is me driving through Kansas, I took I-80 across because, well why not =)
My sister Amy was down here for some classes in Denver so we got to see each other and do some house chores together, that was really nice. After she left today I got to work on the plane, yes I actually got to make some progress on the project and will even update my other blog for the first time in a long time.
Oh one of the other things that I worked on this morning before I got out of bed was the Kids of Iraq webpage, I think it’s looking pretty darn good if I do say so myself. If you have any ideas and or comments about what to do to make the page better let me know, I am always looking to improve it.
Well I should go to bed so I can work on the plane tomorrow =)
Well it happened, another month snuck up on me and it’s already here. It’s amazing how fast time flies by. So what happened in this last week…
I flew a few more times and thought I had the worst ride of my life. I know it was not that bad but it sure felt that way. It’s amazing what they make you mess up by playing a bad student. I mean I know what I am doing but when it’s me against the world in the plane it is a whole different story. They got me to mess up a bunch of stuff, or should I say they did things that I “should” have caught. This is defiantly a different type of school and I will be glad when it’s over and it should be over on Thursday!
If and when all goes well I am trying to figure out how to make it down to see my sis E in Florida. I would love to just drive down there but that is about 12 hours in the wrong direction… So I think flying is the only option but then buying tickets the day of is not the cheapest either.
It must be nice to have a life that people can plan around cause I have no idea what that is like. I know it’s my choice as far as my job but sometimes it is kinda silly to think that I have about ZERO control of my life in respect to when and where I will be for the next dozen years if I decide to stay in.
Oh and back to the time flies thing, can you believe that I have been in for 8 years in Dec!!! Yea Crazy!
Well I should sleep but I am trying to stay up as I have a night flight tomorrow and am trying to make it so I can sleep in and be a little rested for the flight. Oh well I give up.
Last Friday I had a chance to get into the cockpit of an AMP C-130, it is a C-130 that has all new “glass” instruments instead of the old steam gauges that I am used to. I don’t know if I will ever get to fly behind one of these but this is the future, it even has a HUD.
Look at all those buttons
I thought it was really neat because my friend Jen worked on this project with GE and did a lot of the testing with the autopilot =) I think it’s so neat that I know people that are working on these cool projects!
I also got a nice surprise and had fun seeing my buddies Chris and Andrea, they were passing through on their way back to Cheyenne from Montgomery Alabama. Yep they just got to drink that wonderful Kool-Aid for the last month and now they are free to return to society.
Andrea and Chris (related....?)
The party animal!
We ate at Boscos on the river and then Chris, Thomas and myself decided to make it a long night. We stayed out and partied harder than I had in a long time, well maybe not harder but at least longer, I got home around 0330!
Chris and I had some breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then he hit the road. I went over to Thomas’ house and helped paint the new babies room, I guess I forgot to take pictures but it’s a nice baby green.
This week at work was a lot of ground training and the week ended with my first flight on Friday. I flew to Monroe, LA and it was a good flight. It was a little different sitting in the right seat and flying a plane that I don’t get to fly that often, in fact I it has been at least 2.5 years since I had sat in the right seat of an E model 130. All in all it went fine but I would have like to be done a little earlier than 1600 on Friday but hey I got a 3 day weekend =)
Last night I went to the first dollar theater I had ever been too, I saw Pineapple thunder? With Thomas, it was funny and I was more impressed that the movie cost, get this, a dollar! Yea it is cheaper than renting a movie! Thomas said that the theater was the nicest dollar theater he had ever been to but to me it was just as nice as a normal theater so wow, good to know.
Today is a beautiful day but I have been doing chores but hope to get out of the room soon. Oh I filled up this week for under $40!!!! Yea gas here in little rock for below $2 a gal, I paid $1.99 a gallon. At first I was like this is great, only $2 a gallon… but then I am like this is really messed up that I think $2 a gallon is cheap. I guess this is progress.
Almost forgot, E, ya my little sister, got to fly the F-22 this week for the first time!!! Yep you’re right it only has one seat so her first flight was solo! The messed up part is she is coming from flying the F-15 and she says that the F-22 has a lot of power… I am like you are saying the F-15 (world time to climb record holder) was not as powerful as this thing? Let’s just say that she can notice a difference =)
She is one amazing girl!
OK time to get out of this room, have a great weekend!
Well I have been in the simulator this last week. I just took my last test so I get to leave the “hill” for the flight line. I should be flying by next week =)
I know I am bad, I passed up a trip to Vegas with my sister Amy and E invited me to sit on the beach in front of her place in Florida and I passed on that too. So what did I do with all my free time this weekend. Well I hung out at my buddies house, Thomas and Sara. I played with Ryan and some other girls that were there for the weekend as their parents got to get away for a bit.
Here Thomas is about to get Ryan because Ryan could not spell encyclopedia
Yes I can draw with chalk!
I also went to an RV flying in Pine Bluff, AR. They had about 20 RV’s there and it was neat to see and talk to people about planes =) I saw some good ideas and it’s just nice seeing what the small pieces look like when they are all put together.
RV's everywhere
Last night I went to the State fair with Tomas and Ryan. It was a hoot! They had everything you could ever imagine deep fried, yep Thomas had to try the deep fried Oreos!!! It was tough but I passed on them. All in all it was a fun night!
Yes tame that dragon!
It was so hot that even the ducks had to take a swim
Ah yes and of course the pig races =)
Today I am messing with a webpage for Kids of Iraq and trying to study a little bit. I hope you are all having a great day and smile cause I am =)
Happy Saturday all! Nothing to exciting going on, I just had another week of classes here in Little Rock. I did get to see my buddy Will from Cheyenne as he flew a plane out here to do some training. We had some fun but kept it down to a dull roar =)
I am studying this weekend but I found out that next weekend there is a RV fly-in about an hour from here, so I think that I will be heading that way to see some RV’s in action! Speaking of RV’s Liz was soo kind to let the delivery man put a new Lycoming engine in my garage!!! Yep I am getting all the parts in order, now if I can just be home to build it!
Ok have a great weekend and give me a call if you want, this hotel does get a little quite at times.
Ok I have a few stories to catch up on so here it goes.
I went to Ft. Collins just to do a little shopping but we ended up having a few margaritas with dinner and then KC had to try the Drunken Monkey!
Started the night off at the Rio
I was an awesome bar where the seats are swings with huge rope that makes you feel like you are in the jungle, ok not really but just go with it.
Our Mascott
Love those chairs!
That night Will got me to sing some Karaoke and well KC does not sing and should not sing, but hey we were all a little happy so KC sang.
It was a great night and I was really glad that we went out on a school night until I had to wake up in the morning, but then I said screw it and slept in... Yea I am a bad bad boy ;) OK I am over it.
The weekend before I left WY to come out to Little Rock I went up to see my sister Amy in Casper Wyoming. Liz took me and showed us all a great time up there at a place called the beacon.
Before we started our night of beverages I had the privilege of being taken around town as she showed me all of her old hangout spots and the coolest thing ever… Gravity Hill.
There is a place in Casper WY that defies all laws of physics. You drive your car DOWN hill to the bottom of this valley and put the car into neutral and it will roll back UP hill from where you just came down. I would swear that it had to be some visual illusion but if it is it’s way crazy!!! So after playing on the hill a few times we finally had to start the drinking =)
Amy’s house is very nice and we lit some fireworks and I burnt some meat on the grill all before heading out that night.
We were a sneaken at the Beacon
I wish I had more pictures but this is all I have; I guess I was slacking that night. We had a blast and it was a great last night in town before I headed out.
So now I am in Little Rock Arkansas for some more wonderful air force training.
The drive out here was long and boring till I got out of Kansas. That state is soo boring and I had to drive for what felt like forever threw it but it was only some 400-500 miles!
Oh but the exciting part of the drive was that my Jeep turned 111111, yea she makes me so proud!
Yes it's the small things that make me smile =)
And yes I even took a video of the special event
I spent the night as I crossed the border into Oklahoma. I pulled off the road into a truck stop and got into the back of the Jeep and feel asleep for a solid 8.5 hours. I guess I was tired.
The rest of the drive went well with a stop at Braums, an awesome hamburger/ice cream shop, kind of like a dairy queen but with a 7/11 in the store as well. I love there burgers and because they are only around Oklahoma I don’t get to have them as much as I would like.
Then I got to little rock and after a little sweet talking I am staying in the Residence Inn again, yes living the good life. They cook breakfast and dinner for me so I save money and get pampered all at the same time =)
Yesterday I went to a birthday party for Ryan, he turned 4. I remember when he took his first step, we were in my house in Japan and he was trying to get some cheerios. Ahh the good old days for having someone take care of your every need.
Well I will try and keep you all informed of what’s going on but I do have homework now so I don’t have as much time as I would like to goof off. Miss ya all and ALOHA!
