Aviation. Inspiration. Life.

Week 6 has is underway....

Last week began in Bend Oregon  babysitting two little ones. While we were at the Black Bear diner eating chocolate chip pancakes we received a call that my mother in law passed away. She would have celebrated her 101st birthday in November. It's been 47 years since her husband had passed. It's time for their reunion. We are so sad for her passing, but it was time. We will love and miss you Grandma Annie. That day we dropped the kids off at school and hiked up Pilot Butte mountain.

In loving memory of Anna May Petitt

The week pressed on with great fun. Nature walks and dinners at the park. Thursday I caught an 6:25 flight out of Redmond and worked my way to Austin via Salt Lake City, sitting in the cockpit on both flights. The best thing about jumpseating is meeting great pilots. I didn't get much reading done, but the conversations were interesting. 

Austin was great fun chasing after a 3 year-old and 9 month old crawler while keeping up on schoolwork. Late nights of reading and some very early mornings. Sunday arrived, and by evening it was time to work my way home. 

I got a great seat on Alaska Airlines. They even announced a "famous author" was on board. "Me." Ha. Ha. Then they announced the happy 60th birthday of a man across the aisle. I was sitting by his wife, so I autographed a copy of Flight For Control for him and we passed it over. Sunday night found me horizontal in my bed before midnight my time zone.

Today is a day of reserve... short call at 1400. YAY!! I'm hoping I can sit reserve the entire week without the phone ringing. I've got two major papers to write and 4 chapters, and a couple conference calls. This morning I meditated. Lifted weights. Watched a great NexGen video... that I will post tomorrow (Oct. 14).

But the highlight of my morning was the email I'm sharing below as I am going to shamelessly market my novels every chance I get. :)

"Hi Karlene - My bride, Terry *** flew with you awhile back and scored a copy of Flight For Control for me.  We’re in the south of France (her Chairman’s Club award trip) on a rainy day and I just finished your book.  What a fun, thought provoking read.  The plot twists kept me engaged and the characters were wonderful.  You put me through the wringer in the final chapters and the very end sent me for a Kleenex (yeah, that’s right, leaving me feeling like a wimp ;-).  The acknowledgements and discussion questions were a nice touch.  I know what’s on my Christmas list. Thanks for a story well told, Bill ***"

The journey continues... Off to the gym for a two hour elliptical session and read my human factors book! 

XOX Karlene 

Thank you so much for reading and sharing my novels Flight For Control and Flight For Safety with your friends. If you haven't left a comment on Amazon, please do so. It helps so very much! 

Puja Niroula

Friday's Fabulous Flyer

 Puja Niroula

My friend, Jennifer Lesher began mentoring Puja three years ago when Puja was entering her sophomore year at Rainier Beach. Puja's family came from Nepal, from a refugee camp, when she was 12. She has done amazing things already, and Jennifer says, 

"I'm confident she'll do more amazing things with her future. I've helped her as much as I can, by buying her school supplies and things she'll need for her dorm, but I just can't cover her financial aid gap, so I helped her do the gofundme campaign instead. 

She is a very hardworking, goodhearted young lady and she has seen things in her young life that I can't even imagine, and still, all she wants to do is give back. She humbles me, she truly does."

Puja and Jennifer

Here's her story, in her words -

My name is Puja Niroula. I am 19 years old and I have a dream to continue my education and become a nurse or public health worker. I have worked hard to create this opportunity for myself. I have been admitted to Western Washington University, and I have been given some financial aid, but I need a little more so I don’t burden my family with debt.

I came here from Nepal when I was 12 years old, but my story starts before I was born. More than 25 years ago my parents were evicted from their native Bhutan because of their ethnicity. They were given the choice to leave or be killed. They moved to Goldhap refugee camp in Nepal. I was born there in 1995. The first 12 years of my life were very difficult. Then, in March of 2008, when I was 12 years old, the camp burned to the ground. My family lost everything, but we were grateful that we were all still alive.

Others were not so lucky. Many were terribly injured and some died. I did what I could to help. I pulled people out of burning houses. I helped organize a group to take the injured to a distant hospital. At the hospital, I helped to distribute medicine and water to the patients. We had to live in the jungle for 6 months after the fire. It was a very rough time. Food and clothing were in short supply. But, we were lucky, because in the fall of 2008 we got to come to America.

Life in America was not always easy, but I was determined to get my education. I focused on school and improved my English on my own. The hard life I led in Nepal made me strong and gave me confidence to achieve anything. I learned English and completed high school with a 3.8 gpa.

Now I’m ready for the next stage of my life – college, then a career. I remember how much it meant to me to be able to help others after the fire, and it made me want to have a career in healthcare. I want to make a contribution to society, and I want to be able to take care of my parents, because they have worked so hard, for so many years, to take care of me.

I will be grateful for any help I receive, and I promise I will make good on my commitment to complete my education.

Giving of the heart to those who help themselves, is a gift that will be paid forward. Puja is one of those people who will do incredible things in this world. 

Enjoy the Journey!
XO Karlene   

Cabin Cooling Systems

Airplane Tech Talk for the Non-Technical: 

By Jennifer Lesher: 

My prior duo of posts about airplane turbine and reciprocating engines was popular, so I’ll expand the series to talk about the mysterious inner workings of other airplane parts. This week, let’s talk cabin cooling.

Smaller reciprocating engine aircraft usually have very simple cooling for the passengers – ram air; that is the air that is forced into the cabin by the forward motion of the airplane. Kind of like the “air conditioning” on your first car.

Some fancier reciprocating-engine aircraft have coolant/compressor air conditioning systems, known as vapor-cycle air conditioning. These run on a principle similar to what operates your home or car AC system.

To whit: imagine a long, long continuous tube. The tube contains the refrigerant and sends it through several stages. First, vaporized refrigerant passes through a compressor, where it’s squeezed, which heats it up. Still in vaporous form, it then it hits a condenser. The condenser is a series of coils that have cool(er than the vapor) air flowing past them. When the hot vapor goes into the coils it condenses into liquid and loses its heat.

The heated air goes overboard as a waste product. The liquefied coolant goes into an expansion valve. Attentive readers may remember from the turbine post that fluids lose pressure when they’re sent through a divergent opening. They also lose heat.

In this case the drop in pressure is very sudden and causes an extreme drop in temperature. The liquid then goes through the evaporator coil where the warm ambient air blows over it and gets cooled down while at the same time turning the liquid inside the coil into vapor, which goes to the compressor to begin another cycle.

This cool air is sent out to the cabin where passengers appreciate the ability to fly without schvitzing all over their spiffy outfits.

Turbine engines have a completely different and surprisingly simple system. In a turbine engine, hot air is bled off from the turbine compressor and sent through something called an air-cycle machine.

Here’s how the air-cycle machine works: bleed air goes into a primary heat exchanger. A heat exchanger is just what it sounds like – it exchanges one temperature of air for another – in this case hot bleed air for cooler ambient air. This doesn’t cool the bleed air to ambient temperature, but it cools it quite a bit, and vents the heat overboard.

From here the air goes through a compressor and gets squeezed, which also heats it up. From the compressor it goes to yet another heat exchanger (still compressed). By this time, the air is quite a bit hotter and denser than it was when it started, because even though it was cooled by the initial heat exchanger, after that it’s been through the compressor.

So then it goes through a turbine (a spinny thing that’s driven by moving air or liquid), which both expands it (and, as we already know, expansion causes it to cool) and absorbs heat energy to perform the work of spinning the turbine. Voila – cool, cool air for your cabin comfort.

Both types of system have water as a by-product, and there are various ways of dealing with the water, but that’s a topic for another post, or maybe not because it’s not as cool (heh) as air-cycle machines." 

If you have any questions for Jennifer, please ask. And make sure to follow here at:

Enjoy the Journey!

XOX Karlene 

There I wuz... Again!

"Why I wrote, There I Wuz!" 

 BY: Capn Aux:

The opening line of my latest book, There I Wuz! Adventures From 3 Decades in the Sky reads, “Ask any pilot how they started flying, and you will hear a love story.”

For pilots and avgeeks alike, this cannot be understated. For many, flying is our first, last, and only mistress. Short of falling in love with one’s spouse, the passion that accompanies the world of flying surpasses nearly any other endeavor.

My love for flying dates back to early grade school, when I first cast my gaze skyward. About that time, I wrote my first “novel,” Little Froggy and the Golden Transmitter—six pages long and fully illustrated. Thus began a (nearly) equal passion for writing. At age 14 I began writing my first real novel, Code Name: Dodger. Shortly thereafter, my feet first left terra firma in a hang glider.

As you can see, my two passions—flying and writing—are inextricably linked. They are also quite complimentary. Flying invites adventure, and readers crave adventure. In a recent post on flxedwingbuddha.com, pilot-blogger Brent Owens said, “flying is the union between the known and unknown, the calm and the chaotic, the real and ethereal. This cocktail has the effect of producing an unrivaled existential experience.” Well, the same can be said about writing. For me, both offer an equally satisfying leap into the unknown.

Over the years, while pursuing an airline career, I wrote and published freelance flying articles for various magazines, such as Arizona Highways, Plane & Pilot, NYCAviation.com and AOPA Pilot. But publishing in magazines was slow, tedious and tenuous. For every 100 queries, I’d sell one piece. With the advent of the internet and blogging, however, my writing exploded: I finally found the perfect medium to write all those adventures pent up over 30 years in the sky! My blog, Adventures of Cap’n Aux, quickly found an enthusiastic audience. I begin publishing books as well. Shortly after Code Name: Dodger, I published The Last Bush Pilots, which garnered an Amazon Top 100 Breakthrough Novel award in 2013.

 There I Wuz! is a logical extension of this flying/writing arc. It’s a collection of pieces from my blog and magazines published over the years, as well as several unpublished stories and contributions from guest pilot-writers. In addition, there are several excerpts from my novels. It has been enthusiastically received, with many readers stating they couldn’t put it down till the last page.

I like to entertain and, in the process, perhaps learn something about the art of flying planes—and the art of understanding ourselves. While any artist would like to make money off their endeavors, this has never been my primary goal. 50% of all book proceeds go to orphan charities. Recently, Amazon hosted a free giveaway of the Kindle version of my books, garnering nearly 10,000 downloads in two days, spurring a torrent of enthusiastic book reviews from around the world!

And enthusiastic comments from readers like you have become its own addictive reward. I’m already working on Volume 2, due out in Spring, 2015.

Karlene doesn’t know it yet, but in Volume 2, she’s going to be a guest writer!
(Looking forward to it! :))

What's with the photos and the kids

and that letter above?

Oh my... if you want to have a tear-jerker

Drop by Eric's blog and see what this is all about 

http://capnaux.com/its-all-about-you/

BOOK LINKS:
Amazon Page, all books http://amazon.com/author/ericauxier

 AND MORE!

The next Dodger Book will be released 

November 1, 2014~ 

“Who is the great Agent, Artful Dodger? Tell me now, and I kill you quick.” CIA Case Officer Bob Cheney is kidnapped, and Teen orphan Justin Reed—aka the Artful Dodger—is forced to match wits with a cartel family’s brilliant teen prodigy, Luis Ocho. But Luis’s stunning teen sister Kiara is another story. Is she falling for Justin, or is this just another one of Luis’s diabolical tricks to lure the “great Agent Dodger” to his demise?

Once again, Justin is forced to rely on his old street smarts—and his new CIA training—to rescue Bob from a ruthless and deadly enemy.

The Last Bush Pilots

Print: https://www.createspace.com/4053153:
Kindle: http://goo.gl/NCvGuW

There I Wuz!:
Print: https://www.createspace.com/4758123
Kindle: http://goo.gl/FX9n3E

Code Name: Dodger
Print: https://www.createspace.com/3964343
Kindle: http://goo.gl/9GykL

NextGen, Voting, and Statistics...

What in the world could these all have in common? 

Welcome to week five of the Graduate Program. Yes... I survived the first official month. And what a month it was. After returning from Hong Kong, two days home and off to Korea for four days. Home one day and I'm back in Bend babysitting the little ones while the parental figures are out of town. Thursday I am off to Austin to watch my two little ones down there, while those parental figures head out. Yes... I am the flying nanny. Next Monday, back on reserve.

NextGen, Voting, and Statistics....

In statistics we've been working on how to design a research project. How to sample. Size, randomness, etc. And this brings me to my point. 

NextGen:

The FAA testing for NextGen has been on a volunteer basis. Sounds like a random sample? I don't think so. The only people who will be flying to the FAA training center and exposing their ability are checkairman, instructors, or have just gone through training. Highly competent and confident pilots.... those who have the ability and do not fear the scrutiny. Meaning, they are only testing the best of the best. Is that a valid and reliable study? Might be reliable as all pilots will perform equally as well...but not sure if that performance represents the normal population. 

Is it possible to conduct valid NextGen testing?

Voting: 

1936, "President Alf Landon"... was figured to win because they sent a poll to all people in the phone book and to those who owned cars.  He was supposed to beat Roosevelt with 57% to 43%. However, Roosevelt won with 61% of the votes. Why were they so wrong?

The reason is they polled only the wealthy. So this brings me up to today's election process. Does sending out ballets that someone has to place a stamp on, eliminating the poor from voting? Granted, you and I probably don't think that 49 cents for a stamp is a big deal. However, when you're a single parent, working to make ends meet, and  you don't believe your voice will be heard... will you take the time to buy a stamp and throw away half a dollar? Do you have time and money to get that stamp?

Thus my questions are these... why in the world are we not allowing free postage on the election ballots? Won't we get a better cross representation of the people? And why should voting cost money? The government can send out surveys for consensus data without postage required. 

Don't you think we should vote for free?

On to week five. Bend. Austin. Seattle. Life is a journey... enjoy! 

XO Karlene 

Please tell someone you know to read my novels Flight For Control and Flight For Safety and leave a comment on Amazon, too. It helps so very much! Thank you!

Patrick Ryce

Doctor learns to fly at 54!

And he needs your help...

 

 Patrick Ryce

"My wife gave me flying lessons as my 54th birthday present. I think she was trying to get rid of me because when I said to her that my life insurance would not pay if I was killed as a student pilot..." 
 

Pat says...
"I’m a 66 year old retired MD "living my dream" 1.2 miles from the airport in Fairhope, Al (KCQF). Am still sharp and healthy, I think. My wife says I am turning into a little old man who likes to mosey.. My main hobby and passion since retiring from Medicine is my plane, flying it, and hanging around the airport. I have some golf clubs, but I rarely use them.

I have a beautiful air conditioned 2002 Piper Archer III (N48PR) which I’ve owned for 5 years and flown about 200 hrs. Prior to that I had a 172M.(N9671V) Got my PPL at 55 years old. I’m instrument rated, but not current, fly mostly VFR. 470 hrs as PIC, 607 landings, all successful so far. I’m a conservative, careful, checklist kind of pilot, never in or near trouble of my own making..

My wife won’t fly with me (chicken), my grandchildren are not allowed to by their mother (control freak), so....I usually fly alone, local stuff around Southern Alabama, occasionally up to Birmingham or Fort Payne (2.5 hrs in my Archer). I’m only an hour from Lakefront Airport in New Orleans via 48PR.

I want to fly to Dallas (KTKI) to visit family, and to Durham, NC for the same reason. I’d love to fly more and further, out to Sedona for example. Maybe check off lots of states I’ve landed in.

(Scouts on board... exhausted after a long flight)

I tell folks I’m slow and not personally complex, and my plane is just my speed and type as I have nowhere in particular to go and no deadline to get there anymore.

There is a nice V35B for sale at our airport. I secretly wanted one for years, flown in V-tails and straight tails with friends, but…. 

It makes no sense mission-wise for me to have a Bonanza. But, dang that it a pretty Bonanza, and I’d love to have it in my hanger...

Help me think this through please…"

Patrick, some say Bonanza's are doctor killers, and others say doctors are Bonanza killers. You will not be either! Now... GA world... Help Pat decide... fill his hangar and with a Bonanza?

What do you think?

Enjoy the Journey!

XO Karlene

Media Gone Wild!

Where's the Truth?

Blogging in Formation is at it again and this month is Rob Burgon's choice is about integrity of media in our aviation world. This subject impacts all.

Aviation and the Media

Rob's passion was sparked concerning the media coverage of the F-22s involvement in Syria. But it's more than that...

"This problem extends into the civilian world as well. You have pilot unions, aviation manufacturers/corporations, etc. trying to influence regulation and policy for their benefit. They do this by trying to sway public opinion, and all it takes for our Facebook-loving society to buy it hook, line, and sinker is to have a skilled (albeit uninformed) author pen a blog post with a flashy title and persuasive verbiage - next thing you know, Congressman X has his/her support for some stupid regulation that ties our hands and puts money in the pockets of the company backing the politician."

Where does it end?

I saw this problem when AF447 crashed. Bloggers were writing when they had no idea what happened as they didn't fly the A330 and speculated based on their Boeing or GA aircraft experience. MH37 went down and pilots were talking on CNN about "Engaging half the autopilot"... "Pilots putting on oxygen with one hand pulling the mask away from the face with the other to talk on the mic" or "The ability to land that plane in the jungle safely".... etc. 

We see this in the medical world with false claims on drugs, nutrition, and overall health. The data are skewed and the uneducated make claims on efficacy.

I'm taking statistics in my PhD class and unbiased, accurate reporting is essential for science. Why shouldn't it be for the rest of the world? It should! Rob has the courage to call people on specifics... and Rob's is one of the best posts I've read in a long time.

(Arrival into Seoul Korea, ICN, yesterday)

 

What do you think about Media and the Truth? 

I recommend you read Rob's powerful post: 

Aviation and the Media 

(Arrival into Seoul Korea, ICN, yesterday)

Enjoy the Journey and report it honestly!
XO Karlene