The Doctor's Lair

Under the hood!

2006-02-16T18:26:00.000-05:00

I don't like it! At least not any more. Earlier on it seemed easy enough. On the recent lessons, I got a terrible case of leans. I felt that the plane was tilted a lot towards the left. Interestingly, this feeling was not present before; I only started having it in the recent flights. I also came to know that my instructor carries a barf bag in his flight bag. He tells me stories of a poor chap who lost it on short final. The poor fella went 'your plane' on short final and made a mess.

For me, the unusual attitudes ones was really bad. With eyes closed and chin on the shoulder, I just could not tell where we were headed. Not to mention that staying under the hood my mouth goes ultra dry. I've heard that it goes away with practice. The body gets used to the upheavals and stops complaining. I guess that is still quite a way off. Any advice on how to cope till then?

The unusual attitudes lessons was an interesting one. Its only the second time that I have been in a rapidly descending scenario, the first being emergency descents. Well, in an emergency descent you initiate the dive. In the unusual attitudes, you look up, still disoriented and see the plane going down. To save yourself, you have to the save the aircraft, so in the nose down scenario, you take care that the load factor does not exceed the limits. Power to idle gets rid of the thrust which is increasing your velocity. Then the wings are leveled since any bank adds to the load factor. Finally, you gently pull up or let the plane come up on its own and resume level flight and climb(if required). The other scenario, nose up, comes down to preventing a stall. So full power and lower the nose at the same time as leveling the wings out. The only catch to both these scenarios, you only get a couple of seconds when you look up to react. Practice, practice, practice!!!!!

Solo Solo

2006-02-11T17:33:00.000-05:00

My first Solo Solo. That is the one where I pull the aircraft from the hangar on my own. Brian was flying with another student that day, so I met him in the morning and got my clearance to fly. The day was another of those rare events where you can see till infinity. Being the first, I decided to just go to the practice area and fly around looking at the map. The air was silk smooth and I flew hands free. Did the checklists!!! For a change it was nice to do everything right(since there is no one to tell me otherwise). After a bit of fooling around the area, I decided to practice something. Did some clearing turns and enter slow flight, follow that up with more clearing turns and a power on stall. More clearing turns and end with a steep turn to the left.

Next came some ground reference maneuvers. The turns around a point is still something that I find quite hard to do. In variably I mess something or the other. I am at point where I am little scared of them. Hopefully more practice and I should improve. Ended this flight with a nice landing. Oh yes, I had fun! About 20 minutes after me, Brian landed with the other student. I had to push the 152 out for them to park next to the fueling rig. Looking at me, he says,"So I take it that your flight was a success." That sums it up for me.

The second solo solo was just the next day. A nice day with high clouds and visibility (infinity-1). Brian was out of town so I got my ok from another CFI who took a mini interview and checked my paperwork. Up I go, do the checklists, clearing turns and a power off stall. Oops! A little too much nose down. More clearing turns and steep turns. Both sides. Down to the points around a turn. Today they are worse than ever. I give up after a while and head back. Nice landing, so I decide to do one more. Tower tells me to switch to ground. I tune the frequency, but do not switch yet because I am still on the active. Cross the hold line and do my checklists. Call ground, but am still on the tower frequency. Even as I am talking, I realize I am on tower and end meekly with a 'sorry tower.' Without giving them a change to say anything, I switch to ground and call them. Offcourse from my ATC trip, I know that they sit right next to each other.

Taxiback and around the patter we go. Come back, refuel and notice Aaron is preflighting the 182. I ask him if he is alone and does he mind company. So I get to ride in the 182. Park the 152 in the hangar and buckle up in the 182. Just as the engine starts, I realize I have forgotten to inform the CFI that I am back safely. Aaron helps me and switches off, so I go inform the CFI and up we go. The 182 has so much more space than the 152. I could actually flex my legs in there. We fly a short hop to a grass strip and land there. My first experience of landing on a grass strip. Back taxi on the grass and up we go again. A roundabout route back home. A touch and go and around the pattern. The pattern is crowded like anything. We extend both out upwind by 2 miles and downwind by 5 miles. No fun, so we make a full stop landing.

Flying is fun no doubt, but there are times when I enjoy sitting in the best seat and not have to think about anything. Just enjoy the view.

Modeling for the Flyers

2006-02-11T16:50:00.000-05:00

Once bright sunny clear day(a rare event), just before we were about to cram in out 152, me and Brian got a chance to model for the Flyers. There was an aviation convention in Lansing and the club needed some pictures to put up on the booth there. Well, after a dozen or so poses to me trying to look like I am learning something and Brian like he is trying to teach something we were finally let off. A few days later, I actually got to see the large 8x10 prints and boy, they looked nice. The professional photographer, Aaron is also a club member and some days later I got a ride in a big comfortable 182 from him. Here is one of the pictures. Aaron is actually lying flat on the tarmac when he snapped this. Thanks Aaron for the beautiful snap.

Using Deepest Sender

2006-02-07T14:47:00.000-05:00

Deepest sender is an extension for Mozilla Firefox that lets you post on the most common blogs in a breeze. I am using it for the first time and it really is nice. Saves a lot many clicks to go to the blogger site and post it there. I just dont see a spell check in this window, so please pardon any spelling mistakes. Oh! ... and if you are asking what Mozilla Firefox is, what world are you living in? Get it here, NOW!

Progress Check

2006-02-03T11:34:00.000-05:00

Now that I got to pull the airplane out of the hangar on my own, I naturally schedule a solo flight. Guess what happens? Ah, you got it, the weather god showed his wrath again and I had to cancel. Thinking back, I guess this one was a nice cancellation. The solo is followed in the Cessna Private Pilot syllabus with a progress check. It is there for a reason. To get the rust off. What happened with me was that after hours and hours in the pattern practicing crosswind landings and preparing for the solo, my skills in the other maneuvers got rusty. So when we went out on the progress check, I was again in the thinking mode where I had to do everything by thinking about them. The natural movements were gone. Off-course I knew what to do, I just had to think harder. Practice, practice and more practice: thats what it comes down to.

Signed off!!! The Supervised Solos

2006-02-03T11:22:00.000-05:00

The club requirements require three supervised solos to be signed off. They were literally the same with 4 landings to a full stop with the instructor followed by yours truly attempting the controlled crashes. During my second solo, just turning final I saw a helicopter just off my right wing. I thought that it was pretty close and the controller actually called out traffic for the helicopter. She then called the traffic for me when I was trying to establish myself on the final. A little shaken, I could have still made it but I called a go around. I do not fancy landing with a helicopter going parallel with me. I guess that was probably the most interesting incident of the second solo. I did asked whether I needed assistance as I called my go around.

The day of my scheduled third solo, the wind were cross with me and the runway, so instead of going out for my solo, we went to Plymouth and did some soft and short field takeoffs and landings. This time I was comfortable doing the
radio calls as well as flying the plane. Last time at an uncontrolled field, I stalled on the mike and kept flying the plane with the finger on the ptt. The poor radio had to be rescued by my instructor.

Finally the actual day of the third solo turned out to be very nice. On my second approach, the aircraft just dint want to come down. On short final, I was a little high and plane just hung up there, power to idle had no effect. I thought about going full but by that time was almost over the touch down point, so I called a go around. A nice touchdown a little later and I was signed off to pull the aircraft out of the hangar on my own.

Moving along...........

2006-02-03T11:19:00.000-05:00

In between my last posts, quite a bit has happened. Looking back it took ages to log the first 10 hours. The total on my (now) fourth page of my logbook is nearly 40 hours. That is quite a bit. Off-course the money added up quickly too. I got through with my two others supervised solos unscathed with decent to good landings. I thus got signed off for unsupervised solos and did venture out twice on my own. I thought I would be scared, but I was not. Details on these coming in individual posts.

Added as a crew member!

2006-01-29T18:05:00.000-05:00

I have made it to a blogroll. How about that? I have been added to the crew members of ifrpilot. Do check out his blog!

Can I change my weather god?

2006-01-10T14:47:00.000-05:00

The Chief CFI of our club was talking about relations between CFIs and students. His point being that they may both be very nice people but just might not get well along together. The teaching style might not suit the student, the learning style might not suit the teacher. Whatever the reason might be, he said, its your money and if you are not doing well, change your instructor, etc. etc.

My reply,

"Can I please change my weather god? We don't go well together."

The wrath of the weather god!

2006-01-10T14:39:00.000-05:00

As promised in the solo post, here is the details for the single laps trips we did and
also for the mis-spellings of weeks in the previous post. I was scheduled for my pre-solo checkride december the 16th(friday). That din't happen! It was the weather god. I finally got through the pre-solo checkride on monday the 19th. The next thing offcourse was the solo. I schedule for the 21st. Conditions really early were ok to good but they were deteriorating slowly. Anyway we go up hoping to beat the weather. Right on the climbout, the ceiling goes IFR. You can hear the full version here or the cut version here.

Then came the christmas break and I had a nice trip to chicago. Coming back monday, I scheduled every day of the week to get something in. All wiped out. Friday was a chance. Up we go again and it happens yet again. Hear it again. Full and cut.

First Solo! Finally!

2006-01-08T23:57:00.000-05:00

Finally it happens, after weeeks and weeeeeeeeks of dismal poor visibility low ceilings weather. Not to mention two single lap flights that we did(details on those in some future posts). This time, a picture perfect day, a bright n sunny one sandwitched between days of gray. Looking at my previous luck, chances were good that a cloud would settle just over the airport just as we took off for the first time. That din't happen and neither did I crash, so I made it thought my first solo alive and a fuel spill. Here is the full tale:

Weather looking good, I reach the airport and spy at least two aircraft in the pattern,so I guess it is going to be busy up there. I drive in to the club following N333UM, the very plane I was going to fly(see the photos). The first part of this flight when you go up with your instructor and do four landings to a full stop. My awesome instructor is Brian Lantis.

Up we go without too much fuss. Going around, there is a slight crosswind but nothing too much to worry about. The landings are not that bad: at least they would have been ok with Brian because he let me solo. On the fourth circuit, I was fully expecting an engine out and a short approach, but that did not happen, it was just another normal landing(actually no landings are normal). We then taxied back to the hangars where Brian signed the required paperwork and off I went. Quite apprehensive on the taxi, I forgot all about it when I opened the throttle for takeoff. But before that, there was this Bonanza behind me who called for takeoff before me. Pray how was he going to get to the runway before me. So I caused a hetrodyne on the frequency and said I am before on the Bonanza holding short on runway two four. Oh! hear it all on the recorded audio, links and details are below.

First circuit, was told to extend downwind for a Bonanza coming from north somewhere; I just played it safe and asked the sweet controller to call my base. A minute or so later, I see this plane do a nice turn off my left wing. For a few seconds I just watch the beautiful sight on the nice sunny day and then it hits me: This is the traffic I have to follow! So I call the traffic and behind it I go. Coming in to land, its right in the sun and I have a little difficulty seeing the airspeed. The hard part is seeing the glideslope VASI, I cannot make out the red from the white in the glare. So I just keep it high glancing now and then at the trees below me. Making sure that they are down there and not next to my wingtips. Landing into the sun I level and flare a little high, get hung up there and come down with a bang. A little shaken, I go wow! My first all me landing! Not pretty at all. Taxi out and do the checklist, thinking whether to go again or back when the controller says to taxi runway two four. In a way she made the decision for me.

Being sunny I had kept my sunglasses with me and I swapped them on while taxing. That did help with the sun a lot and the next two landings were much better. I was very high on the second approach so pulled power back, put in all flaps and dove for the numbers. The flare and touchdown were non-life-threatening this time. On the third approach, the sun was much lower and right in front. But this time the approach was good, a little high, but good. There was another cessna that had landed right in front of me. I heard the controller call them to clear the runway, no delay. On short final, they were still on the runway and I was all prepared for a go around call. They turned off when I was maybe 40-50 feet and air and I landed.

It all happened very quickly. Before I knew it, I had managed to do three landings. Interestingly, all apprehension left as I hit the throttle. From that point it was all concentration. Time flew by! I felt working all the time, but surprisingly did not feel rushed or overworked. Previously there have been times when things happen to quickly, but not today. Hurray!

I taxi back to refuel and I actually did not feel anything. It took quite a while to hit me that I had flown alone. Well the fun started when I was refueling. Filled in the left tank without incident and on the right tank, my finger gets stuck on the nozzle. I pull the nozzle out and its still spewing avgas all over. Wasted a gallon of avgas I guess, do you see that small pool of liquid in the photos? That is not melted snow, it is aviation gasoline! I am just glad the incident was on the ground and not the air.

That is the story!

Oh the audio files, I put them up. Again several versions. The full uncut 90 minutes of drama can be found here. The full but without the silent parts is here(21 minutes). If you want my calls and a few other highlights, here is a 6 minute version. My solo begins just before 3 minutes in the last file. Before that I am with Brian.

Hear Me?

2005-12-18T00:51:00.000-05:00

After setting up the Control Tower feed, I am still waiting for it to show up on the liveatc website so I can hear myself. Well, that has not happened, so I figure out a way to record the feed on my server. The only problem is that if the feed breaks, the recording stops and does not resume. I did manage about 20 minutes of recording. I started the recording just before my flight. So you hear a couple of call from me. I am posting a bunch of files. The first is just the two calls from me cut out from the whole audio. The second is the full audio. My calls are at 12:15 and 19:45 in the audio file. The third is the full audio but the silent parts cut out. Its if you just want to listen how one of the controllers at Ann Arbor sound. In that file you can hear me at 4:05 and just before 5 minutes.

Here is the transcript:
1) Before Taxi -
# Ann Arbor ground, Cessna three three three Uniform Mike, northwest Tees, ready to taxi, information whiskey
# three Uniform Mike, Ann Arbor ground, taxi to runway two four
# Taxi to runway two four for three three three Uniform Mike

2) After pre-takeoff checklists and standing just short of the runway
# Ann Arbor tower, Cessna three three three Uniform, runway two four, ready for takeoff, northbound.
# three Uniform Mike, Ann Arbor tower, cleared for takeoff, right turn approved.
# cleared for takeoff, right turn approved, three Uniform Mike

Crosswind landings made easy!

2005-12-18T00:33:00.000-05:00

Well, a little easier, but still something that gives most flyers some work to do. Flew again to Livingston County airport with a perpendicular crosswind of 12kts. This time, it was much better. I actually made a couple of smooth landings and did hold the nose up and not bang it down
on the runway. After 7 landings we actually did a full stop and went to the terminal building and got a soft drink. Ah, hopefully my first $200 drink. The original term is the $100 burger. Its when you fly some distance, eat a burger, have a picnic and head home.

Fall and Winter

2005-12-18T00:31:00.000-05:00

Oh, how the seasons change! From the joyful colours of fall time to the silver cover of winter. See yourself and compare the view from our balcony.

Photos curtsey my roommate Somesh.

Crosswind Landinds

2005-12-12T11:42:00.000-05:00

December 11th - Not fun at all. My first time in a decent crosswind. It was 15kts at an angle of 60 degress or so. Thats comes to a 13 knot crosswind. My approaches were not that bad, I just happend to throw the plane into the ground in the last final seconds. Everything goes haywire, I overcorrect and finally slam the mains followed by the nose on the ground. Not pretty and I am sure the plane does not like it too.

My checkride got preponed to friday and hopefully the weather will hold up. With the checkride out of the way, hopefully I will solo soon. Everybody keep their fingers crossed for better weather.

Emergency Procedures

2005-11-25T23:08:00.000-05:00

Interesting times cometh! From now on, I have been warned, the engine will fail atleast one time every single flight. We tried three failures today in the field: the first I tried to put down on a road in the downwind direction, the second I could not identify a suitable field and we had already lost 300' by then and the last I picked a field that was too far away and against the wind, tried but did not make it. Zero out of three does not sound pretty and it is not! That's why its going to happen atleast once from now on. This was followed by an emergency decent, for example if the aircraft depressrises and you need to get down so that you and your passengers can breathe. Bank at 45 degrees and point down till your speeds hits the yellow mark, the maximum structural cruising speed. Its quite a roller coaster ride and you stare at the earth coming up to meet you quite quickly. With in a few seconds a thousand feet whiz by. And again it happened, the engine failed while right abeam the numbers on downwind. So shorten the downwind and come up high on the final. This went of pretty well with me making the runway and still having time to deploy a full 30 deg flaps. Some saving grace today. Better get these right, my life might on them one day! Also did some landings and slips. The flare and landing is improving an inch at a time.

Uptime

2005-11-23T10:22:00.000-05:00

My Debian GNU/Linux server hit 100 days of uptime today.

methane /home/dhingraa%uptime
10:21:35 up 100 days, 59 min, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

I use this server for lots of things, code repository(svn), webserver, mysql, wiki, storage, practise unix skills, etc. Over the past few months, even though I have installed a number of new things, it has not required a single reboot. Check out the cricket wiki hosted on the server. The link is the the top right of this page. Oh, did I mention its a retired P-III 800 MHz. with 256 RAM.

Of the cluster we run, there are two machines that have been up 258 days with the other being 140 days and above. The cluster is over 3 years old now running 24 P-4 2.26MHz and 4 new P-4 3.2 MHz

Its snowing today, so most probably I am grounded.

Ann Arbor Airport is online

2005-11-20T14:06:00.000-05:00

Ann Arbor Tower has been added to list of online ATC audio streams. You can find the stream here. Now you can hear yours truly talking on the airwaves. Contact me for flight times or look at the online schedule. Unfortunately, you can look at the schedule for only the current day. The Pink ones are inactive, the yellow ones are in progress and the blue ones are completed. Time given is eastern which currently is GMT-5.

You would hear me anywhere from 20-50 to after the time slot begins. During this time, I have to get my weather briefing, get instructions from the instructor and preflight the aircraft. You would then hear me once asking for a taxi clearance and about 10 mins later for a takeoff clearance. After that we usually head out to the practice area where we do not have to talk to the ATC at all. With about 1 hour left in the time slot, we head back the airport and practice some landings. This is the rich time to hear since I will be making a lot of calls and getting clearances/instructions from the ATC. The last 30 mins is to land, taxi back, refuel, clean, do the paperwork and debrief.

Obviously, I would not be using my name, but the aircraft's name, which would be either 222UM or 333UM, said over the air as "two two two Uniform Mike" and "tree tree tree Uniform Mike."

Orlando........

2005-11-19T12:42:00.000-05:00

So if I was not wasting my time on email, what was I doing in Orlando. Well, there was the conference too remember. Two talks in the same day, the first attended by 30 people and the second by 8 people. Pretty nice overall, but the conference was marked by a number of missing speakers. What the reason for that was, I do not know! But apart from that, it was Disney World. One day for three Disney parks is impossible, I managed to get about 10% of each park. Spending 3-4 hours in Epcot, Magic Kingdom and MGM, I was dead tired by the end. The other days were spent in visiting the Kennedy space center and the beaches of Tampa.

Call me for details. I will not try to sell you something, I promise!!!!

Disney Photopass

2005-11-19T12:28:00.000-05:00

Disney has a neat system where they give you a plastic card and have photographers all over the disney premises where they take your pictures. The pictures are then put online from where you can buy them at $13 apiece. Since I did not have a camera, I used the system and thought would pull off the photos from the Disney photopass website. I had expected them to be low res. But hey, something is better than nothing. So here goes...

Orlando Preview

2005-11-19T12:21:00.000-05:00

This is something I wrote on the first day of the conferance. I thought I would keep on writing offline and post it all here, but then I just happened not to boot my computer for four days and check my email for five days.

At the conference. Finally! They charge $8 for each parking entry. What that means is that if I decide to leave and come back, it will be another $8. Oh....I happen to be an ASME member from University of Michigan, Seattle, Washington. Ooops, that is what my badge said, so I had to go back and get it changed. The lady said, at least my name is spelled right!

I happen to be typing this in a text file at the Dolphin conference center. Will be posting when I get a connection.

The hunt for the net
After one day, I started sufferring from email withdrawl symptoms. So began the hunt for a connection to the virtual world: The Matrix. The hotel I am staying at charges $5 for 30 min access. So out we go. I need some dinner too, so I call Gera and get list of places where wireless is available. I find a Fridays and head there, have a nice dinner and check my mail. Thats pretty much what I did, because they just give you a wireless tablet without a keyboard and you use a stylus to work your way around the painful way. But smart me, what I did was to also check for other wireless hotspots in cafes that I will try tommorow.

On Site internet
Hey, guess what? They have internet on site at the conference. Unfotunately, its only four terminals with IE. People are forming lines to check mail. I meanwhile have completed one presenstion and am waiting for the other one. Lunch was an expensive affair. A $10 sandwich, hmmmm, welcome to Walt Disney World: Happiest place on earth!!!

Little bits

2005-11-07T18:22:00.000-05:00

Heres something to keep up the writing.

*Master Vittal defended.....finally! One down, more to come.
* My saturday flying lesson had to be cancelled because of low ceilings. Thats lots of low clouds for the ground bound folks.
* Indoor cricket got cut down because of misinformation from the Collesiums people. They rescheduled us from 7-9 but told us that it was for next week. Bah!
* Sunday was a nice outdoor, another "last" game this season, in the freezing wind.
* Prepped suits 'n' other stuff. Ironed a shirt after ages and aeons.
* I am off to Orlando, will try to keep up with some sort ones. Its 30C there!!!!

Halloween Skate

2005-10-28T17:47:00.000-04:00

Finally after two years of watching people dress up and we in jackets and jeans, dear Rahul Bagdia finally decided to dress up and go in as well. As usual he pulled in a lot of people. Everyone was at least armed with a scar on the forehead and the cut-throats went to the yost arena to have some fun. Not before we had used some colors and gel to modify our appearance. I tried lots of gel, made my hair all messy, weird color on the face and the master stroke, torn shirt dripping with blood. Surprisingly, the shirt got a lot of comments, including a very sweet fairy whom you see below. Also is a photo with other people at the skate. Good fun. Photos courtesy the sweet fairy.

Ground reference maneuvers.

2005-10-27T14:45:00.000-04:00

October the 8th. What good is flying if you cant fly in a straight line. You will not be able to reach anywhere. Well, in straight and level flight, you will generally fly straight, but there is a small complication: The Wind. Always trying to push you one way or the other. So to gain confidence and to fly straight, you do what are called ground reference maneuvers. Turns around a point, S-turns, Turns around pylons are examples of ground reference maneuvers. The aim is to make beautiful looking circles and half-circles and not ugly looking ovals. The instructor says to be patient in these, but yours truly probably has been impatient and draws some weird shapes 800 feet AGL. Oh, yes, these are done about 800 feet above the ground, so its also important to pick an open field nearby should the powerplant decide that she has had enough.

Ugly looking shapes, but good looking photographs. Here are some photographs taken by my instructor on this day. How its done? By opening the window, putting the camera and your hand outside and Click!

Here are some photos from that day.

Pumpkin patch and a cemetry
Pumpkin path from overhead
Four fields
Nice light and shadow

King of the Airport

2005-10-22T19:23:00.000-04:00

October the 6th. Today was an extremely good learning day. I schedule the flight at 8 in the morning and things went quite well. A little fog, but it had cleared enough so as to go out and practice. Most of the practice was done in the westerly headings. Easterly the sun and the remaining fog made the visibility very poor. No foul ups on the radio frequency this time(I did last time) or anything and the takeoff was good. Offcourse, when you are learning there have to be a few hiccups. While practicing slow flight, I stalled; so learned the hard way that I need to keep an eye on the airspeed especially in the slow flight maneuver. Then we turned into the wind and with us going at around 35 KIAS and the wind at 3000' being at 30 kts, we were nearly hovering in the air. Its a weird feeling, looking down and not seeing the ground move backwards. Next came power off stalls and power on stalls: nearly put on of them into a spin again, but apart from that they went quite nicely. We flew back to the airport and proceeded to do some comings back to the earth, or landings as they are known. Did five of them, improving a little each time but still a long way to go. "Landing is about balancing the pitch and the power," was what I got to heard more than a couple of times.

Coming to the topic of the post, taxing past the hold short line to the active runway, we passed a very small bird sitting calmly on one of the taxiway lights. Our wing nearly passed on top of the bird and the bird did not flutter at all. I guess he things he is the king of the airport

Stalled!!!!

2005-10-22T18:59:00.000-04:00

October the 2nd. Things get interesting. This being the day when I almost landed a plane by myself. I would say almost though, the instructor is there and helps with everything, especially the rudder since it is hard skill to master. But the cream of the day were the stalls. Its where you nearly stop the airplane in the air and then it wants to come down. They come on two varieties, power off and power on. I nearly put one in a spin. The natural habit of using ailerons to keep level does not work in stalls and will put you in a spin. I got to hear,"Keep and ailerons level, use the rudder, lower the nose," a couple dozens of times now. The stall characteristics of a Cessna 152 are pretty mild though with you having to literally force a stall. The plane really does not want to stall. Did I ever tell you people that N222UM, the Cessna 152 that I usually fly was made in 1977. But it has an engine that is only about an year old. Most airframes last a long time. There are lost of WWII aircraft that are still being flow today.

Coming back to Earth

2005-10-22T18:57:00.000-04:00

Its been a while since I wrote anything. A couple of posts are from flights that were made earlier. I will try to be regular, but no promises. The following is for a flight for septemeber the 23rd

Added 1.5 hours to my total, with today being pertty hectic. I thought we covered quite a few things. Instead to just trying to hold straight and level and turns and climbs, today was much much more. Approaches!! Yep, coming back to mother earth; and as instict tells you, when the earth comes up to meet you, you pull back on the stick to keep away. My CFI tells me its very natural for a new person to do that. I got a little over that habit today, but will have to work more on it. There are two reason you do not want to keep pulling on the stick, the first is offcourse you are going to go slow and then stall, the second, how will you land if you keep pulling up, you need to come down right? Its was a different aircraft too, this one name tree tree tree Uniform Mike or 333UM. The tree comes from the pronunciation fundas. When talking over the radio, the listener cannot see your lips move and hence it takes a little more effort to understand. To make it easier, some pronunciations are suggestion. Like, tree for 3, fife for 5 and niner for 9.

Traffic

2005-09-24T08:49:00.000-04:00

A much more interesting flight, with now things happening a little more slowly. Highlights of this flight: talking on the radio and lots of traffic, almost a traffic jam. On the way in, I requested the controller for clearance, he issued instructions to three other aircraft before combing back and asking,"Inbound aircraft, say call sign". After I said '222 Uniform Mike', he asked for an ident(so that he can identify on radar) and then said,"2UM, make straight in, runway 6, number three to land". Now thats traffic. We were about 8 miles from the airport and there were two people in front of us to land. Brian even had to ask the controller for a clarification on the traffic. In other traffic, we saw quite a few planes today. Our practising area is about 12 miles WNW of Ann Arbor and there we had about three aircraft cross our path. One was even doing some tight circles and we turned to get away from him. Around this time I was shown some prominent landmarks in the area so that we can make it back to the airport....and that wasn't all of it, we also had to turn away from a jumper aircraft, that is one that takes parachutists up to about 14000' and they jump. Better stay away from those too.

In actually flying the aircraft, today started with some rudder training for turns. This was followed with climbing and descending turns. Then came slow flight and descends with flaps down, the approach configuration. The ending was lining up with the runway with a slight right crab to stay on the centerline. Brian then demonstrated the flare and the landing. I then got to taxi the plane back, shut down, park and clean.

The radio part was fun. I liked it and was not as bad as I had imagined it to be. Preparation does help and I had two good sources. A nice book by Bob Gardner,"Say Again" and www.liveatc.net. This website has a nice collection of ever growing ATC feeds and it does help getting one used to how the voice on the radio sounds like. The book helps with the phraseology and the etiquette. Highly recommended if you are having communication problems on the radio. Its a long post, but the last thing, the first time I got my preflight weather briefing on my own. 1.2 hours flight bringing the cumulative to 2.2 hours.

The every semester Fire Alarm

2005-09-22T10:54:00.000-04:00

It is pretty regular to have a false fire alarm once a semester. We just had one half an hour back. Interestingly, this one got over pretty quickly, within 10 mins. Mostly it takes about 25-30 minutes to check if everything is fine. Its raining pretty bad though, so I went to the chemical engg. instead of stepping out.

Edit: There was another fire alarm today in a neighbouring building, DOW at 1 PM. We had ours at 10 in the morning. Hmmm, coincidence or a prank.

First Flight

2005-09-20T21:55:00.000-04:00

...and there she is, right behind me. Her name is November two two two Uniform Mike. The last two letter are UM; off-course that stands for the University of Michigan. Born in 1977, she is a Cessna 152....and yes I flew her for the first time. Check out the University of Flyers website.

Its a long story, but to cut it short, it took quite a while to get the paperwork done. I was hoping to use the summer since there is a little more time then, but what the heck, finally everything is in place. So here is today's story.

The time scheduled for today was from 3 to 6, with a two hour preflight since it was the first time. Quite some time was spent in doing the final paperwork which was setting up a student file in my name among other things. The real education then began with a call to the AFSS( automated flight service station) to get the weather briefing. You basically talk to a weather specialist on the phone and he or she tells you the forecast and other other advisory that they have. This took around 10 minutes with the wait time on the phone. Next came the procedure to check out the aircraft from the club. You have to pick up the file for the aircraft and the keys while shifting a magnetic stickers from the hanger to a flying position. Along with this, you need to check out the plane on the club's website where you go through the plane's maintenance record. And then you head outside to the hanger, slide the hangars doors open and start the preflight. Go over lots of things(probably will cover this in another post later) and then finally tow the aircraft outside. Till this part I was aware of what was going on. Beyond this till we touched back down, everything happened a little quickly. Went through the pre-taxi checklist, started the engine and put on the headsets. Talked to ground control(Brian, my CFI did, he handled the radios), taxied out short of the active runway(24) and did the pre-takeoff checklist. Called from clearance and took off. Learned the correct attitudes and tried to do some level turns. Managed to keep them within 200 feet. Also did some climbs and descends and tried to end up in a level flight. Finally learned the trim tab for hands free flying. All this took a nice part of an hour and we headed back to the airport. Brian handled the landing alone since there was a nice crosswind, maybe next the winds will be favourable and I will get a change to land. We then taxied back to hangars and shut off. The end of the flight was to push the plane back in the hangar and do the glory job of cleaning her up. We did smash a few bugs up there. Before we went in, we called for fuel and the fuel truck came and fueled the 7 gallons that we had burned.

And then came a little more paperwork. Check in the aircraft, pay the instructor and make the entry in the logbook. All of 1 hour. Yahoo!

Office Hours et.al

2005-09-14T11:46:00.000-04:00

Here I sit, in the learning center waiting for students to come and ask questions. Unfortunately, in the beginning of the term, hardly anyone even turns up to these office hours. The rush time is the right before the exam time when loads of students just pour into the cubicle trying to ask you questions. During those times, I take on a roaming policy as compared to a sitting policy. Instead of them coming to me, I roam around the place to whoever wants to ask questions. Its much more efficient, since if the students have to come to you, they need to pick up loads of stuff and drag it to you. A book, notes, notebook, pencils and a Texas Instruments calculator that looks like a brick(and costs upward of $100). So back to the point, waiting for students. The trick is to get along work to do, it could be a crossword or sudoko, just get something. This is the first thing they teach you at the GSI(Graduate Student Instructor) training.

Indoors.....with 31C outside

2005-09-11T23:39:00.000-04:00

The beginning of the indoor cricket season! And the same old story. Game 1. Scored exactly a zero of zero balls faced. My team wins. Second game, made 37 off 23 balls and my team loses. But in all two good games. A nice beginning to the season. Hope it goes on!

This coming weekend is a trip to Boston. Huraah!

Filler post

2005-09-09T22:17:00.000-04:00

Long time since I posted something. What has happened is that I have been appointed a 50% GSI for a Design and Manufacturing course. So I've been going through maching shop safety courses and setting up some stuff for the project the student will be doing. Its going to be a packed semester. More details on this side will be coming soon.

Life goes on, things go on and so does cricket. The indoor season begins early this year with tommorrow being the first day. The field is about four basketball courts lined side by side inside a huge hollow building. Its nice to play indoor with the snow outside. After a smashing first year, the second year was quite dismill. Hoping for a better year this time around. Wish me luck!

BHASMA ho jaoge

2005-08-30T15:04:00.000-04:00

Game 2 of the now famous Bhasma Series. August the 28th, 2005. A hot day and a 30 over a side game. A loud call for lots of water. A scorching field. A pair of dark glasses. Two MRI balls. A cement pitch. A floppy hat. A pair of stumps. A willow bat. About 26 eager young men....and the making of history.

Hello, anyone?

2005-08-26T23:08:00.000-04:00

Does anyone read this blog anymore? I know, I know, should write more often. Recently, I managed to install a mysql server, php and mediawiki on the burning hydrocarbon. The net result can be found here. Actually, in Debian, it all comes down to a few apt-get install statements, a little googling and your all set. Mediawiki can also actually render Tex, hmmm, so its actually pretty kewl to post your research without any excessive work.

Morse and SMS

2005-08-22T11:11:00.000-04:00

Wow, two posts in a day. I am sitting in a CAEN lab, thats a computer lab in the U of M and I hear a phone beep like when you receive a message. It went beep-beep-beep-bah-bah-beep-beep-beep. Now I have been learning morse and that sounded like morse. So the beeping became ... -- ...

That in morse stands for SMS. Pretty ingenious eh?

High Scores, High Tempers

2005-08-22T09:46:00.000-04:00

Its an old english game called cricket. Supposed to be played peacefully over a period of 5 days while drinking some english tea, it has been morphed into a highly charged smashing sport. Here the saga of yesterday, the Thrashes finale. The series played over the five previous weekends had till now been success and with the series tied at 2-2, it promised to be a contesting final. A few more senior people turned up for this match starting allegations of unbalanced teams. As history has shown, supposedly weaker teams have consistently won over the teams with big players. But this was the just the start of things to come.

The match started with a few tempers frayed, but it wasn't that bad, been there, done that before and I wasn't too worried. You must have heard the phrase catches win matches, and thats very true, as it got repeated today, but heres the new ones, catches dropped raises temperatures in the head. We dropped seven catches a big hitter and he consequently went on to make a half-century. During that period, hair was pulled, people were screamed at and near fights ensued. Standard cricket affair. However somewhere down the line, the fielding side effort decreased, which is a greater cause of worry. With statements like, "They are hitting sixes, how do two runs matter?", the morale went down like me on a water slide. The innings finally over, some more screaming ensued and we had to hold two big people apart. My arms still ache, ouch! Finally the things cooled off and we figured out that we needed to chase 169 of the allotted 25 overs. This after we had restricted them to only 36 in the first ten. I believe they made 102 of the last 9 overs.

Our start was slow but steady. We started at 3 and over and gradually nudged it over 5 an over. Wickets fell regularly, but somehow I managed to hang on to one side, not to mention about 4 dropped catches for me as well(Please refer to someplace above). Then came one over which went like this: 4,4,4,2,2,6 and we were back in the game. Within striking distance atleast. My careless running on an overthrow got me runnout. But the big bang was yet to come. JP with a h, hit a magnificent half-century in half the balls and we were home with 5 balls to spare. A true Herculean effort. As for me, I made a docile 63 of 47. With all the action and 4 half centuries in the match, this will be one to remember....or to be forgotten.

A little back in form

2005-08-16T23:58:00.000-04:00

.....and we have a website. Finally stringing up some good scores again. After a long draught of getting out for a low score after being settled in nicely, I am in the runs again. Not as an opener, but just below at the number one position. Have being playing that position for the last week or so and here are my scores. 23(24), 40(36), 46(45) in the previous 3 innings. Today was at 10 of 16 when a very short ball which I could have hit anywhere got caught at the boundary. Right at the edge. Well theres always tommorow. The second small match I made a duck trying to hit out first ball. Again at the boundary. Now comes the interesting part. In the three matches which I scored well, we lost and the last two with my low scores, we won. Now does that make me someone we all know?

Skating the Park....

2005-06-22T13:05:00.000-04:00

...Gallop park to be exact. With nothing to do this monday evening and in no mood to undertake the huge task of doing laundry(I still havn't), I decided to finally skate around a bit. Dumped the huge amount of equipment in the car and drove to the park. This park has nice smooth pathways that make is a pleasure to skate. Its a very popular place with quite a crown walking, jogging, cycling and skating on the trails. Our friday evening skate passes though the park too.

Arriving in the park, I met one of the guys from the friday skate, forgot his name. Unfortunately he recently got a broken shoulder from skating. So that brings us to the huge amount of equipment I carry. Most of it is the safety equipment, knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards and the helmet. Not to mention the heavy skates themselves. It takes a decent 15 mins to just put all the stuff on properly. I also wear my contacts while skating, just a little more precaution does not hurt.

So that all brings us to the actually activity of skating itself. I started by going towards Dexter. THe slopes are pretty gentle and the ride is good. The return trip that side too around 20 mins. On to the other side towards Mitchell and this side has a small upwards gradient so its a little work for heavy me. My lower back hurts a little on upward slopes, but not too much, need to do some Pilates to strenthen those muscles. Closer to Mitchell is a wooden bridge that goes over the Huron river. Its a little rough and generally I am ok on the bridge going the other way. This time going upwards on the bridge got me. I stopped rolling and nearly fell. So I turned around and went downhill, much easier this way. On the way back, I pushed myself, its downhill and I went fast, boy it felt good and I had fun.

Roller Skating - First report

2005-04-30T13:54:00.000-04:00

8 miles(or about that much), in a pair of shoes with 4 wheels each. Downhill, uphill, turns and oh oh, the Achilles heel, braking. Fun it was and also tiring. The two body parts that get hit the most, the ankles and the lower back. More in detail below, so stay tuned....

It all began at 1830H yesterday, at central campus on the diag. With Rahul Bagadia as my coach and guide, we put on our skates and practiced a little braking waiting for the other people to turn up. A few introductions and some warming up and we were all set to go. I was able to skate well, it was well, you guessed it, the braking. To complicate everything, the regular route guide did not come and so we ended up going on a route with a couple of steep slopes. I negotiated a few with help from the other people, but there was one where you had to skate on a busy road and brake and get off. There was no other way. Here we go...., I preferred some speed over falling on the road and with people grabbing at me to slow me down, made it .....somehow.

Next problem, rough roads. Ice is soooooo smooth, roads? No no! Crossing over a wooden bridge, it got pretty interesting. And then I got quite comfortable. Nearing Gallop park, where everyone was waiting for me and Rahul, with everyone watching us, down I went. A big WHAM! The funny part is that I was quite comfortable at the point and it just happened. Maybe I got lazy. This was not the only one though. There are others too, but this was my *best* fall.

From there it was uphill all the way, or so it seemed. When running you can stop at any time and walk the rest. With skating, you stop, you start rolling backward...oops....and to roll uphill from stop takes some thigh power.

Overall, a great experience, good exercise, lots of nice people, and a hurting foot and lower back. Till next friday, have a nice weekend.

2 salt or 2 much salt

2005-03-31T17:13:00.000-05:00

Made some pulao, forgot the salt, made some dal, too much salt. Saving grace, thank god I forgot the salt in the rice. Net results...Hmmmm, Tasty!

Recommend open source web development tool.....

2005-03-29T23:57:00.000-05:00

People, am thinking seriously to finally build a website, ok ok, atleast a webpage. I will be hosting it on Methane. So what I am looking for is a web development tool to build a simple and elegant looking webpage. Any suggestions.......

Also, is it me, or blogger seems to be slow nowdays and giving me plenty of errors?

Simputer

2005-03-29T12:05:00.000-05:00

Check this out people. From a concept a few years ago, the simputer has come a long way. Do check out the product here. I especially like the flip flop technology. Coming from out very own desh, truly amazing. Hoping for the price to go down a little more though.

Lyrical Tension: A New Interpretation

2005-03-28T14:21:00.000-05:00

We all know about this epic tale, don't we, thanks to sunday mornings on the dual channel network we once had. Well, here is another interpretation of the same old mythical war epic, in Javanese style with good music and some dance that I did not understand too well. Arriving five minutes before the show, I found that they had converted the closest parking structure into a paid one. Nice way of making money of a free show. For me, the miser in such things, this meant parking some 8 minutes walk away and trekking back. As expected, the main floor was filled to capacity and I had to go up to the mezzanine level which also was filled quite a bit.

The beginning part of the show was the introduction, and by this is was the introduction of all the characters who skipped across the stage as their characters were called out. Not exactly skipping but Javanese dancing, it was all the same to me. Bheem was a huge man and Nakul and Sahdev, the twins, were given twin roles, both doing the same steps throughout the performance. Yudisthir was portrayed by a lady, as most wise men are in Javanese performances. This last piece of information curtsey the narrator, also a very wise person I presume.

The new interpretation was given as mortals being played by the gods, with Krishna on the good side and Shankuni on the evil side and no I did not get the spelling wrong. The evil one was Shankuni and pronounced just as it is written. Krishna incidently also was one of the drum players, so he was skipping between playing the drum and dancing on the stage.

The best part of the performance which I liked was the orchestra ensemble. The complete back half of the stage was full of exotic musical instruments. From big hanging metal vessels in the back which were the bass drums to the xylophone type looking instruments in the front. There were also dholaks and a couple of others which I could not make sense of how they were producing music. The music itself was wavering, the crescendos started slow and were gradually built up and then came down again. Overall, quite enjoyable, especially the music, but a little lacking on the details and an interpretation that I found weird being taught by the sunday morning programs.

Later playing volleyball, I ended up with an injured knee, the severity of which I have realized only this morning.

Run Out - AGAIN

2005-03-26T23:05:00.000-05:00

The saga continues. Me wielding the willow trying to score a few scores to bring victory to our team. And yet again, after again, get the run out, by bad luck or by opposite ends refusal to make good on his original commitment. So that now makes it 4 out of 4 times in the last 4 times, wow a 100% record. Today too, first match the round object decided to ricochet and land straight in the bowlers hand, who very conveniently standing next to the stumps took the bails off. The following encounter I ran two runs all by myself with the same usual result. Every cloud has a silver lining though, I managed 20+ runs in the first match........;-)

The mighty Coliseum.

XMPlay

2005-03-26T13:53:00.000-05:00

2MIDI / BASS / MID2XM / MO3 / XM-EXE / XMPlay, as I have found is a very kewl audio player. Its tiny in size (~600K) and does not need an installation. It has just the right number of features that I want and is not bloated like other players are. Even though small, this player packs quite a punch. Features include accurate play, gapless output, interpolation for better clarity while being low on CPU usage, small memory footprint. In other words, it there just for playing music, which if I may say so it does amazingly well. And if you want more functionality, there are tons of plugings to use along, including one that allows for using winamp pluging as well. The only problem with this player is that it is available only for windows and only windows. There is a lot of discussion in the XMplay forums for trying to get it ported to Linux. But with the source code being closed, that's not going to happened soon. (The player is free though).

highly recommended - 4 1/2 stars.

Tiring Tuesday

2005-01-26T16:12:00.000-05:00

Pilates and Volleyball, not a good combination. I had my weekly class of Pilates from 7-8 and I followed that with one and half hour of volleyball in the NCRB gym. Till my body was warm, it was good fun diving to get the ball back, but back home cooling down I started getting sore. Bed time and I tried to get up, my abs dint respond, they were very sore and hurting a little. So, a little rest and need to go a little easy on the volleyball after the Pilates.

Witness for the Prosecution

2005-01-25T17:04:00.000-05:00

Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie is a play that I went to this friday at the College of DuPage just west of Chicago. It was probably my first play where you sit quite close to the actors and actually feel that you are into the play. It was a wonderful experience, leaving me with hope to attend more of such plays in the near future.

The story, a little bit about which can be found here is a fun filled murder mystery with quite a number of twists at the end. The actors performed this play magnificently and I enjoyed every part of the play, even the act changes. Since this was a small play in the College of Drama, the actors themselves came out at the end of each part and rearranged the stage for the next part. Needless to say the interchanges were done flawlessly, even though it was a little bit funny to see the judge in his robes and wig lifting and moving the table around. Oh the whole a very enjoyable experience.

Saturday was a white experience with snow falling on the ground since friday evening. Accumulation reached over and inch and Taiji forbade me to drive over to her place to meet her,"its too dangerous!" So the day was spent at home learning a little bit of yoga and attempts to become more flexible. Time well spent.

Tonight is my Pilates class. Wish me luck and contact me for more details on this interesting exercise system.

Its all in the air.....

2005-01-06T14:42:00.000-05:00

I have been dislocated. They were again working on the air handler boxed
above my desk. Jing Jing had to move half desk length to the left. My
table is in the middle of the room and consequently, me the poor fellow
had to move out. Currently doing the rounds the famous 2505 GGB CAEN lab.
I brought my earphones and plugged them in. I had once upon a time copied
some music files in the new NAS filesystem. Listening to those only now.
And also I have a window, which currently shows a white landscape with
water streams crawling down on the window. Working next to a window is
nice.....but I want my desk back. Booo Hoooooooooooo

Oh Brother..Where Art Thou..

2004-11-07T13:12:00.000-05:00

Amit bhaijaan, kahan kho gae ? Have a fun trip home. Convey my best wishes to your bhaiyya and bhabhi (soon to be) :-D

Bugger, you're one lucky bas**** to be going home now..wish I could. Oh well..mera waqt bhi aaega...!

Cheers..!
Vits

The Doc strikes back

2004-08-07T13:56:00.000-04:00

Whew! One report one....and that too almost. I gave it in with two revisions previously and it came back with lots of revisions. Just finished the third today morning at 9 am and mailed it in. Lets hope only a few things this time. Then I just need to collate it and print it out. Go to the professors and distribute it.

Forget the work thing. Its a saturday and I should not talk on that side. Its vella time. Its 1 pm and here I sit on my sofa with my lappy typing these words. In the backgroud its "Shaadi ka ladoo", so something is going on. Apart from that I have no plans for today. Have to do my laundry, but that later in the night. Abhi ti kuch nahi.

Thats my pal

2004-08-03T17:48:00.000-04:00

The new mafia don

Hmmm, Hmmm, whats goin on here? The new Don is in town. Fear him oh mortals. Well, whatever. I know, I know I havnt written in a while, sorry eh. More hopefully coming soon.

2004-07-14T22:57:00.000-04:00

Hey you

2004-07-14T15:37:00.000-04:00

Check out my reinvented website at http://www.personal.psu.edu/vxb142

A little bit of Macromedia Flash (specifically reworded for more clarity) and stuff there now..:-)

The trip to Chicago

2004-07-14T11:55:00.000-04:00

Shopping spree! That is what I will call it. Reached friday evening and the post dinner session was spent at Meijer buying lots of stuff. Then next morning it was time to get the apartment. So we went to the place and saw a nice board "out showing apartments, will be back shortly." So bro called them and they said 30 mins. Then we went to see the place around. Found a board saying garage sale, so we dropped in. Well, an old electrician was retiring and had all his wi?(a)res on sale. Found nothing nice and we decided to come back. The place was open but there was a long line. Saturday would be a busy day for these people, since all the office people would come in to give in their problem on saturday. That said, we waited and finally were seated on a table and were waiting again. I did a walkthrough the model apartments that they had behind. Pretty nice they were, as models always are!

Got the paper work and done and that started the long day ahead. First hauled all the stuff upstairs. Suitcases, Meijer's stuff etal. Next stop. Walmart! Big shop here. From a bathroom shower curtain to soap and salt. Next stop american mattress. Manager-> named Tony. Looked like a short italian with amazing selling power. Forever dropped prices to sell stuff. Somehow managed to get out of there and went to lunch. Forgot the name of the place, but anyway, had a big meal making me sleepy. Next stop,target which yielded just a papertbasket. Now the things that were left were primarirly a table and a chair. Looking for those, we went to Kmart. No luck, there was a nice small table for $50. Went home, unloaded everything. Boy, was it a lot. This guy called Ajay helped my bro to find apartment and all and he came over to help get the stuff up. Settled the place, and then went to this place called Wiches furniture. Damn expensive place, but they did have a lot of nice furniture. It was already 9 by this time. We went back and reached taiji place when it was near 10. I wasn't hungry but bro way. So he had some little to eat and I left him at his hotel. And I slept.

Come sunday and the hunt for the desk and chair led us to a famed new place in woodfield called IKEA. Really a growing brand here, IKEA opened a huge place in woodfield. We heard it was inexpensive and good stuff, but alas, it was not. The full morning yielding two bar stools and an assortment of hangers. Finally we found an office depot. The search of the place was helped by us reading their sale paper that morning and finding a nice deal in there. Finally got a nice desk on sale along with a chair with a mail in rebate. That done, it was home and assembled everything for him. That is where I left him, at 6:30 eastern time and was home at 11:30, 5 hours it took me to get home.

A nice shopping trip. I am slowly evolving into a house settling expert. Moving into a new place. No problemo.

My Favourite Photo

2004-07-11T20:32:00.000-04:00

My Favourite Photo

Taken somewhere in the year 2000. From Right: Amit, Aparna, Vivek, Charu, Aman and Me (Vittal) :-)

My bro is in Chicago

2004-07-08T23:01:00.000-04:00

My brother is in Chicago!...and I am going there. I start tomorrow afternoon and would reach in time for an american dinner. Would be picking up bro from wherever he is in Chicago and then go to my Taiji's place. Saturday would be mostly a heavy lifting day with helping move my bro in his new place. Check it out! Apart from all this, life goes on. My car needs new tyres which I plan to get pretty soon. Will put me down about $200. And don't forget to see Vittal's all of three blogs. I guess his company pays him to do all this writing. Good boy Vittal. Carry on!

2004-07-08T22:51:00.000-04:00

Wo din kabhi to aayenge.....

Jane Kahan Gae Woh Din

2004-07-05T17:48:00.000-04:00

Kehte the teri raah mein,
nazron ko hum bichaaenge :-)

Chahe kahin bhi tum raho,
cahenge tumko umr bhar,
tumko na bhool paaenge :-)

Firefox - The Browser, Reloaded

2004-07-01T22:36:00.000-04:00

For those who havnt tried it so far, so ahead, blaze the internet. It dsnt make it faster, but its awesome. I have never been so producive surfing the internet ever. A true grad students dream come true. Check it out.
Firefox - The Browser, Reloaded
For those who havnt tried the tab feature, its a must. Use a 3 button mouse to inleash the power of this small beast.

More incentives when IE comes with so many bugs in so a little time. The best of the trojan that actually steals your password usign a popup. Microsofts solution, setting the cookie security feature on high, temporarily, but still imagine all those passwords being stolen. A very good reason to switch to this.

Its lightweght! The installation being at a tiny 4.7 MB downloads in a zip. It claims to be just a browser and thats what it is. For the power user all the other features come using pluggins, just download what you want and its there. I compare it akin to wimamps pluggins, just about for everything, no matter how bizzare. The term to use here, if you can dream about it, search and presto it will be there. Two must have pluggins are the google toolbar(oh, how can I live without you?) and the All-In-One-Gestures extension. The latter is a power packed pluggin which will increase your browsing efficiency to just about double.

Talk about regularity

2004-06-24T14:15:00.000-04:00

So my dear friend, it would seem you made an attempt at being regular with the blog....and were regular for ALL OF TWO DAYS....!!

Talk about being a busy man....

Now take my blog for instance....at least I write an update once a week....
Do something bugger....!! You're letting the fairer side take up "too much time.." already :-p....hehehehe. ;-). Now when I called u yesterday...u took 2 hrs to get off the phone with whoever u were on the phone with :-p....hmmmmmmm........!!!!!!!

Anyhow...I'm havin fun junta...with my internship at FCI Electronics...btw...this post comes to you from a computer on the FCI Electronics network :-D

Cheers...!!
Vittal

2004-05-20T12:43:00.000-04:00

Working in a chemical engineering laboratory can have have its up and downs. Technically speaking, there are ups and downs everywhere, but experiences here can range from good to bad. Below is the link to the lab where I go and work. Its a good feeling to be putting something together.
LTT Research Group
A complete fuel processor. Hopefully, it should work. The individual components work separately, putting in a connected fashion in a single box and getting that to work is another story. Today I am calibrating the controller for the system. Its a six zone controller, with 4 active zones. In other words, we can monitor 6 temperatures, but can control only 4 of those temperatures. Now that worked since we had only 4 reactors that we had to control in the system. But in steps in the faculty and decides the system needs another reactor. Now, subtractions from a system are easy to do, addtions to a system....make room, more stuff in, more instrumentation and the worst part, another reactor to control. So, we have to add a SSR(Solid State Relay) to out controller to make another zone active. That's the easy part. Adding connectors to the system for the extra controller is bad. Neccetates us to pull the system apart and then put it back together.

Now, for the worst experience. A chemical engineering lab had tons of cylinders, you can see a few in the link above. At the last inventory done a week ago, there are 170 cylinders spread in 3 labs. So in the lab I worked there are definitely more than 50 cylinders with many being explosive gases. Here I go, the first time plugging in a brand new controller in the power supply and I hear a huge BOOM, it was one deafening BIG BOOM and a very loud whistle followed it. Damn to loud. I was shit scared, not knowing what it was or what I had done by plugging in the controller that caused the big boom. After few agonizing moments, I left the room and coudnt hear anything. I was shaking like anything. It turned out that a nitrogen cylinder with a faulty valve was venting a little nitrogen. The valve if faulty so it makes a huge noise when it does so. But boy, that was scary. Being in a lab that can blow up anytime and specifically just when I plugged in the controller for the first time.

Whew! On a good note, yesterday's cricket score 20 runs with no boundaries in nearly 9 over by me. Team ending at 144 in 18 overs. We win the match by picking up regular wickets.

2004-05-18T17:18:00.000-04:00

Coming back to make my Blog, my dear friends. Again! This time, lets see how far I can take this thing. Been a few hectic days post my exams. Unfortunately as it happens, I will probably miss my Prelim deadline. But the work will go on. My fuel processor project is in a fast flow, with the actual hardware being assembled. From behold the theory and experimentation, we actually seem to be making something. Its a little contrary offcourse. Overstepping the realm of sciences, we are now doing the work of engineers. But what the heck. Its fun!

On a personal front, cricket is back and my feet still ache from yesterday. I batted and batted and batted. Almost all 16 of the total 18 over, falling only 4 runs of the target to make it a nail biting finish. That's one thing that bugs me. I always get out without finishing the full thing. Yes, I do come very near and leave with the team just a skin away from victory, but why do I get out? I normally open, and am out with about 2 over to go and 10 or so runs to get. The team almost wins always, but there have been cases where we lost by a couple of runs. Real heartbreaking those with so much hard work gone in.

That was a sob story. To the point where I need new tyres for my car. Will put me $250 or so behind. And with gas prices crossing the $2 mark here, its a hot topic. Amrikans just love to drive and want the cheapest gas they can get. Ditch this hot topic......

....and get another! Sonia, of the Gandhi fame, refusing to the take the top chair. So much being said. I take my daily intake of news. Howz the corporates doing out there. Hey Clc, howz the crash go in your company.

I saw "Mein Hu Na", bad movie. I wont even give a synopsis here. Heard that "Troy" is nice. With two heartthrobs, Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt, its a must see for the fairer kind. So live has the following components. Work, Cricket, Cooking, Cleaning, laundry, Movies, not necessary in that order.

Now, since I haven't written anything in a long long time, please be kind on me. Even though I cant get angry on you people to comment now, I humbly request my well wishers to drop a small note here.

With a long type finally. Loeuf to all of you.

2004-02-27T22:15:00.000-05:00

The perils of skiing are not many says Amit...I think I'll agree...the perils are a whole lot less compared to the thrills....the feeling of coming down at almost terminal velocity down a 1000 ft hill...is awesome...if u lose a little control or move toward a tree...your whole life flases by your eyes...!!

Just kidding...it's not as bas as it sounds...in fact..it's a whole lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 and half hours that I was skiing. No photos while skiing though for obvious reasons...:-)...but speed surely thrills...

I did fall over quiet a few times till I got the hang of it. I actually went down like 3-4 times without a single fall...it was really nice...Cost me $50...but was worth every single cent.

After skiing...went to see the highly controvertial Movie "The Passion Of The Christ" directed by Mel Gibson...one heck of a powerful movie if u've ever see one. This is one movie not worth missing. It is very visual in it's depictions mind you. But a lot of that actually happened...or so say historians...

Followed that up with dinner at the "Capitol Diner"...Amit, you might remember this as the place we went for dinner when u came over to my place...

All in all was a very very enjoyable day...

Oh I forgot the icing on the cake....I BUNKED a class to go do all this...:-D
So much for mature people ;-)

Cheerio...!
Vits

2004-02-25T00:50:00.000-05:00

nice posting all of that dude
looks like u really chilling out :) so anyways cheerio and rem i will try and read this whenever i can
cheerio

2004-02-20T13:09:00.000-05:00

Webshots - The World's Largest Photo Sharing Site

Ah, finally, the photos are up there. As for the login, go figure. It should be easy. And comments please.

2004-02-18T02:18:00.000-05:00

Oye D.....

Send Photos ASAP....

Cheerio...!
Vits

P.S. (Exchange offer....send your photos...I'll send photos from my Cincinnati trip....updates on that coming next week....)

2004-02-16T13:15:00.000-05:00

No pain this time. My bother was here visiting the US or A after his engagement. So I got a lot of photos and stuff. What stuff, clothes, eats, and also tadka lagane wala yanta.

My brother basically comes here to sleep and eat. He does not get these things while on the road, so he completes them here. Unfortunately he got to spend valentines day with me. Fortunately, Bhabhi and me collaborated and got him some flowers. Nothing too much fancy apart from that.

We went, ate outside quite a lot and did a bit of shopping. Wo to abhi engagement se hi list mil gayi usko. Dont even ask what all was there. Eye liners etal. Well. All part of life. Is it? Got me scared!!!!

And then left him at the airport yesterday afternoon and he would be in Richmond, VA with clients and all. Well that's that.

Sad part is that he also got the camcorder cassestes. Wo abhi tak nahi dekh paya.

All right, here is the bottom line. I have digital photos of my dearest brother and my to be bhabhi. So the deal is this, read this and please post comments of any sort. Tabhi milenge. Nahi to nahi. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

2004-02-09T16:59:00.000-05:00

Hello, my name is ...
The pain of having a photos online.....is not a pain at all. Infact, now that I am rich and famous, I can have a lot of dames running after me. Ok, ok, a little exaggeration here, am not that rich, but famous I definitely am! Apne hi group mein sahi. Kya? Zor se bolo....Wo bhi nahi? Oops, Houston, this is D, coming back to earth, do you copy?

Well, we had a multicultural food sampling, and we just went for timepass. The food is almost over, we managed to get some salad, and a nice photo in the URecord. So we are in the record of U of M.

In the end, nothing official about it.

2004-02-08T11:58:00.000-05:00

Does anybody even read this????? :((

2004-02-07T11:27:00.000-05:00

The pains in going to a dance performance - well, counting out the cold, were not all that much. So last night, we went to a dance performance called "Dances from Petersburg." University Productions Presents - Dances for Petersburg

We reached a little late due to a late start and also because we had to find parking which was a little troublesome. And then a nice walk in the cold from the parking lot to the Power center. Over walked the door and then we walked back to the main entrance. And we finally made it. The show had already started and what do we see? Girls or all shapes and sizes jumping lifelessly on the stage. Dresses in white dresses that resemble a salwar kameez complete with a stiched on duppatta, they move gracelessly and without any synchronization on the stage.

That was the bad part. The show got better as the evening progressed. The dresses were ok as per me with nothing too special and even the dance wasn't all that invigorating. In the finale, there were three girls on each side of the stage with a huge playing ball(more life a balloon). They stood there for a third of the performance effectively blocking our anyway restricted view. For the second/third part of the show, they proceed to play catch with the huge ball and roll over it. For that last part, they were back in position giving our troupe eye sores. And that's when it all ended. I must say we had better fun coming home and chattering over cups of coffee. Overall quite a non-enchanting evening.

Apart from these antics, well, 'ardy 'nything 'ver 'appens. Beat vittal in a game of chess. No big feat that. Or is it? Any comments.

2004-02-01T12:43:00.000-05:00

The pains of going skiing - are not that many. Oooh, snow is soft so it dsnt hurt that bad. But its cold and you get cold. So please do not apply "nariyal tel" on that day, or else you hair will freeze and will stand on end. Oh back to skiing. So try and get a package that will include entry, the rope tows, rental and a little training. The training will really help. Here it cost us $30 for that package. It was called discover Michigan. And it covered the bunny slope and the intermediate 1. Belive that's all that you will use for the first time. Don't get the all area pass. If you take the lift up the bigger ones, there is only one way down.

Okay, the pains of making a mushroom omelet - are definitely not that much. The hardest part offcourse it to cut the onions, hands stink. Also maybe the cutting of dhaniya, it tends to stick all over the hands and knife, very irritating. Saute the mushrooms first, to whatever level you like em. Then mix the onions, tomatoes, dhaniya, salt, pepper two eggs etc. Put the mix in pan and add the mushrooms on top. Make omelet. In case you don't like mushrooms, you can go a southern style cheese omelet. Put the egg mix in the pan and add cheese strips to half the omelet. Cook till 1/2 to 3/4 done. Fold into half and place on plate. Add salsa on top and microwave for a minute or so. Enjoy with toast and butter.

The pains of writing this all are also not too much. But your pains of reading all this, well that's something else isn't it.

2004-01-30T16:38:00.000-05:00

hihi
how can doccy resist from putting the receipe and to show that he is sarwa guna sampanna :))
han to we have the food thing fixed
ghar humme apppu provide kar rahi hae
transport aman
and khana remove mae kar dungi
so everything is set i guess
now someone ask his bro to get married
and someone get me a job
so that everything is done and i can go and sleep
yes
it is that time of the day when everyone sleeps and my day starts
hmm
life pretty much sucks with placements on head
after a real good time in fest mugging is a pain
the citibank ppt will give me exactly 45 min to go shop in bbay
and i am going to get some good stuff again from there
tomorrow 7 company ppts = 14 hours of pain
day after some crap pre process
and life goes on
waiting for this all to get over
before convocation we have two weeks wella after placements
hopegully we would have a tour of india on this side
hill stations and some time in goa chilling out
then to singapore for 2 weeks
and hopefully by then mr dhingra will be in for marriage and our dabbu will come here
hmm
so planning ho gayi
now back to muck
cya guys
appu isnt well
hopw she gets well soon
luv ya all
clc

2004-01-30T01:45:00.000-05:00

Ummm....Doc....

Please spare the recipe details ;-)
Leave that to our taste buds as and when we get to taste it :-D. Then we'll decide about your cooking skills :p

Cheers...!!
Vits

P.S. Me planning on going skiing next monday night...

2004-01-28T12:05:00.000-05:00

The pains in making pav bhaji......are not all that much. Infact the complete thing can be done in under 40 mins including cutting etc. What I am not counting is the warming up of the buns. That I think even our very own sirdee can do without much fuss. So take a few potatoes, peel and cut em, a little cauliflower and whatever else is left in your fridge. A little bit of water and steam them.

Meanwhile, cut onions, loads of em, mean atleast three and tomato. Saute them both and add chilies and ginger and whatever masalas you want too. Mash the steamed veggies and mix everything. 5 mins down the line and presto, you are done. So you see, not all that difficult. An interesting thing to make. Now only if I could prepare bhel puri like the thele wala.

Now I have been receiving a lot of requests to make a full meal when I am in India. Surely I will do it. So head over anytime. Help me in cutting the stuff and I can cook it. Hozzat!!!!!!!!!

My brother got engaged among a lot of ado, January the 26th 2004, republic day. I was on the phone for quite a while. Let the bill come and then I can commit suicide for going bankrupt. Donations for my bill paying are gladly accepted.

Have one homework due tomorrow, so me will hit the books, actually one book only and get that done.

Taking a break

2004-01-25T03:36:00.000-05:00

oh yeah forgot to say...too many sexy guys together...
;) last time before job to have a good time so making the most of it
solo dates multiple dates whatever suits ;)

2004-01-25T03:32:00.000-05:00

in the fest ... going great...goga pie and astro are here for three days
so its quiet good fun
enjoying the last two months of this place...
got through a citibank case...very happy because of that cause one of the three tea,s chosen across all iims xlri fms etc
going to bbay for the finals at their office in bandra on 4th feb
hopefully this will help me get a job
rest things are good today is the last day of the fest
and the slog starts again from tomorrow
miss my gang
luv
clc

2004-01-23T17:05:00.000-05:00

Though I might update this thing a little more. Hey, you ppl should remind me to do this. Atleast mail me. "Update the blog." Usually I play squash on wednesday with the former ME grad council president(you can guess who the current one is?) But this wednesday he was busy, so he mailed me that he would be able to. I write back a one liner chat style. The reply. Your spelling is absolutely wonderful. :-)

Ok, at the days goes by, india gets another anniversary for becoming a republic and it conincides with my bothers to be anniversary. Thats neat. For all those in delhi, and even outside, are invited to the ring ceremony.

What have you all been upto all this time. Well I made some aloo tikki's this past evening, and they came out quite nice. So had fun eating them(what else). Three are still left. Available on a first come basis. No booking.

Today in the morning I had a meeting with the dean for international affairs. Interesting fellow, quite nice to talk to. The graduate office for internal students wants to organize a periodic event for the internation grads. Anything goes. My name was recommended by my grad secretary. Well, so I will most probably end up on the advisoree committee to the the new organizations. It would be called RISA - Rackham International Student Organization. Dearest Sirdee should tell us the meaning of this word(please post and tell).

Well that was today. And it snows again. Today morning it was a seething -17C. I am sweating out here. Can someone get a cooler please and a surahi. Luv ya all

2004-01-19T23:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Gyro,

Get to the frikkin point....stop kidding about with this marriage thingy....about time to come clean.......!!!!!

Cheers...!!
Vits

2004-01-16T03:11:00.000-05:00

Hey all,
Finally managed to make it to ur spot D!!. surprised to see me Mr. Doctor. Anyways, enjoying life here. So far so good . Evry thing is just abt ready to fall into place ,. me getting married u ceeeeeeeeeeeee.. ha ha

more in the next post.

2004-01-15T14:54:00.000-05:00

The "Vits" Has Arrived

I'm sure you've heard it before....but I say it again here....

Life Stinks

Had a pretty good trip back home. But thanks to some people who didn't turn up (Read CLC), I was left asking for more...and more...But then you would say one never gets enough.

The trip back was horrific to say the least. First the "trauma" of having to leave after "just" 3 weeks, next having to stopover for 10 hrs at the Moscow Airport (trust me...it's worse than it sounds). Follow all that up with my nightmare in NYC (missed bus to Harrisburg by 5 mts and had to wait for 6 hrs more for the next bus in the frikkin bus station)...you have all the ingredients to make up for one hell of a concoction.

I got back to Harrisburg at 7.30 AM and took a lil time to just get used to the fact that I was back to where I have all my classes and research and tutoring and all that work to do (just thinking about all that work made me sick for a minute). I dunno if it was the jet-lag or the tiredness of all that waiting/sitting but I could just manage a shower and then hit the sack by 9 AM. When I woke up, it was 8 PM. I had slept through the day and missed my first class which was from 6-9 PM. I figured what the hell and slept for another 2 hrs....:-).

As for today, I'm trying to get to meet most of the people I need to for my job and research work and get the grind started all over again.

Watch this space for more updates from me and oh yeah, don't forget the scoop on the trip to India :-)

Cheerio...
Vits

2004-01-14T17:18:00.000-05:00

Oh, I forgot to add. PLEASE ACCEPT MY INVITATION. Even if you dont want to post, you can LEAVE COMMENTS.

2004-01-14T17:16:00.000-05:00

Another day with lots of snow. Already 3 inches on the ground and more expected. To about 6 inches till night. Spent the complete morning in a chem lab. Was helping out in static pressure testing of our reactor. Unfortunately after 3 hours we found a small leak and sicne we cant do anything, we left it. Kuch to karenge hi. One para of what we are trying to is here.LTT Research Group

Its interesting, to find a leak, you hook everything up, put pressure inside the reactor and then put a leak finder liquid on all the joints. Where there is a leak, small bubbles start forming, just like finding a puncture. Good point is that the leak leaks only at high pressures, not on low ones, so we should be ok. Bad news is that we will be operating at high pressures. Good news is that we can tighten it more so that its ok at high pressures. Bad news is that it is leaking from a port that is disconnected. So there is crosstalk in the two stream channels inside. Really not good.

Made veggie noodles yesterday and oh yes, tomato soup. Surprisingly, I have managed to survive here without eating non-veg for more than 2 weeks now. religiously pack myself a lunch box and get here and eat it. You can blame the cafeteria for increasing their price for the stupid food that they serve there. Now they even serve sushi. Well, I want food, not fish.

2004-01-11T10:56:00.000-05:00

Hello, welcome to the the blog. Ah, where are the rest, sleeping. No doubt they are complaning the lack of contact. Ok, saturday the 10th, skiing day. Left at 9 in the morning, and headed to a place called mt brighton. hardly a mountain, a man made hump on the ground covered with man made snow. Oh yes, they have snow makers there, which spew out snow at quite an impressive rate.

My first time at skiing. But I would say, my ice-skating helped. So we bought a package, got 1 1/2 hour of training and then practised on the bunny hill.(bunny=begginerest). I got the hang of that while the others had to struggle a bit. Eventually, we all came out nicely and manged to come down the hill in one piece. Once though I had a nice tumble and lost a ski and fell on my face pretty hard. No harm, did I mention that snow is soft.

Post lunch session(which consisted of horribly expensive and bad pizza) we headed back and had the most productive time. The guys headed to the intermediate slope with the gals still on the bunny slope. Well about 5-6 runs down the intermediate and still in one piece. That was good. The worst part were the rope tows. To get up the hill, you hold a rope going up and just get pulled up. And you have to hold the rope pretty hard. So my hands were getting sore and more sore while my gloves lost quite a bit of the inner surface. Getting up the bunny slope was fine, but the intermediate specially towarrds the higher side, where the slope is steeper, it took some holding.

Then me and another guy got a little more zealeous and decided to elevate outselves to another level. There they had ski lift, which looked so much better than the tope tows. So up we went and got a reprimand up there that we dint have the appropriate passes. We said and ok and down we went(via the snow route offcourse). Now this was fun, atleast teh slope lasted for some time as compared to the others which got over before they even began.

Well, net results, lots of fun, great time, and a sore aching body. Took a hot bath yesterday and capped the day with Munna Bhai MBBS, do see this one, its a fun movie.

All right you guys, I am expecting atleast two lines. Cheers

2004-01-11T09:18:00.000-05:00

9th was my first day on the job- so to speak. While cleaning up my work station, found two tension relieving sqeezy toys in the top drawer of my predecessor... All the best to me. The fact itself was not scary...the scary p[art was that they looked very frequently used!!

2004-01-08T14:43:00.000-05:00

Another visit to the school of dentistry and my last filling has been filled. Takes 2 1/2 hours to get it done. Each visit that is. There students attend to you and that means that they take their time with the instructors coming in and checking if you are doing it correctly or not.

Plans are also afoot to go ice-skating this saturday. Would be an interesting experience. Will update post saturday. Remind me if I dont. That way you can post something there too. Reminders only via posting on the blog. Enjoy

2004-01-07T12:18:00.000-05:00

Hello again,

This is another attempt at making the people contribute something. I know, can be done via groups emails too, but hey, no harm in some more enthu to know what all you are upto. I know for sure that vittal is enjoying his curd rice. The southi restaurants here are ok sorts. There is a nice one about 45 mins aways where I have gone once.

So dudes and dudecess, please accept the invit and post any crap that comes to your mind. That can include what you may have in the past hour too. Trust me to post some crap here. Ah, ,my car is at the mechanic. Time to call and ask if she is ready for pickup or not. Cheerio for this one. Waiting for you all. And ah, Happy New Year

2004-01-05T15:08:00.000-05:00

Monday, the manic one. I have almost finalized the courses that I will be taking this semester. Almost is the keyword here. Just need two more. I had hoped for a non course semester this, only research, but as it turns out, I need two more. So here I am taking some arbit courses. Nothing good is being offered that I want to take. Pratical spectroscopy sounds nice. I even thought about taking financial engineering.

And wow, the sem has barely started and I have meeting lined up. NOn counting my advisor meeting tommorow, i have two more, 10 am and 11 am. I dont even know if I can make the first one. Things are going to be hot this semester. But I am sure it will all downhill from there onwards.

2004-01-01T11:41:00.000-05:00

January the first 2004. I don't know how this year promises to be. But I have full plans to make this one an interesting year. Not that my previous years haven't been interesting. This will be a better one. The year was brought in with a nice get together at Suresh's place. Nice fun it was. And for a change, the food was really really awesome. I really enjoyed the food. Followed the south Indian way by not using any form of cutelery. All hands. There was pav bhaji, puri, sabji(mixed), rajma, paneer and hyderabadi chicken biryani that actually dint turn all that bad.

We played some stupid fun games as usual. Dumb C, antakshari etal. Finally the stoke of twelve was welcomed by a black forrest cake and some champagne. The festivities continued for a couple more hours, but then I left to get some beauty sleep. Now January the first and this person sits in 2046 GGB trying to get work done.

Welcome to 2004.

2003-12-31T14:37:00.000-05:00

Hmmm

I was thinking that the word above is the word that i should use to begin my blog. I really dont know how regular I am going to be with this thing. But I think it should help in letting you all know what the person is up to here. Have recently been to a trip to chicago. Met a good old school friend and also got to spend 3 days with Illad.

Saw the movie, Cold mountain. Simply put sont see it. But do see Pirates of the caribbean. It is a really nice and fun movie. I wont say anything about Jonny Depp. Just go see that movie. Preferably in a threatre. I saw it on DVD and would go again and see it on the thratre.

Acads wise, I still go to work and work out some CFD stuff. Other things are also afoot.

I guess this is quite a bit for an introductory post. Just mail me if you think I havnt updated this page. Well, its actually a ploy for you people to mail me. Cheerio D.