Another day, another damn cloud in my way. Most flights were canceled due to low cloudbase, especially in the morning with an overcast in 400′ and 2SM visibility. It improved as the day passed, but not by enough.

Things could be worse though, A big section of Washington state is without power due to that big-ass storm over there now. Chris is up there and he hasen’t been on MSN all day, which is highly unusual for him, so my guess is that he got hit by the blackouts. Hope he’s allright over there.

Another thing that I’d like to mention regarding to this storm, a widespread panic in the game society. Valve’s Steam servers are in Seattle (I think) and with the blackout, they’re all out, leaving thousands of gamers unable to play the games supported by Steam. Including Red Orchestra (Personal favorite) and the all-too-well-known Counter Strike. Man, I wonder how many OMG-shouting 12 year olds are glued to the weather channel right now.

I’m not booked for a flight over the weekend but maybe I’ll try Orlando Executive again on Sunday. Come in when it’s still and quiet, hm? That’s always nice when entering new waters. But I’m taking tomorrow off, I’m sick and tired going early to bed so I can show up for a flight that’s most likely gonna be canceled.

I finally managed to fly another GPS approach for 09 in KTIX yesterday, after a couple of failed attempts. Nothing extraordinary. Todays flight, x-c to Orlando Executive (KORL) was canceled due to low cloud base - I’ll give it another shot tomorrow afternoon but the forecast isn’t looking so good. I’ve never been to that airport and I always get a bit nervous, with unfamiliar runways and procedures and all…I need more experience with dealing with those.

I’ll post some other stuff later today. I believe Chuck Norris is about to kick some nazis around on TV.

I was surprisingly fresh and focused after staying up all night watching dots on my clock and anime. Focused, sharp, impatient even but not too much. It’s a state of mind I like even if I’m serious by heart, at such a moment a smile is not far away. We flew another instrument flight today, which I wouln’t get too deep into, I’ll explain later. It was mostly flying in circles without looking outside, fly all with the instruments onboard. We tried contacting Orlando Approach which handles most of the organized traffic in order to make a special training approach back to the airport (a GPS one for the record). Due to the coverage of the Approach, it’s not uncommon at all hearing only their side of an conversation, with other aircraft being so far away from us and all.

There was a R22 from our school in our training area, that announced they were gonna make the same type of approach about 15 minutes before we did. 31G was its callsign I believe. After lengthy time of checklists and radio mess, we tried contacting Approach but within the minute we heard them respond to 31G, but we never heard the 31G side of the chat. About 15 minutes after we tried to contact the Approach, they were still sorting out 31G for their approach and hadn’t even started dealing with us. At the time we heard “*sigh* OK, 31 Golf, Orlando approach, What exactly do you want to do?” we figured out that either we said screw it and went back the normal usual way. We were shutting down when 31G finally came in for landing. What the hell they did remains a mistery to me.

I plan to break this blog up to two categories. Like my friend/admin says those stories are meant to come from the skies themselves, so from now on I’ll sort my posts into three categories. Mindless raving, flight, and combines (still working on the names of those). The previous posts have mostly been of the Mindless (or somewhat mindful) category. My next post will be flight. This is pretty much mixed, ’cause it’s alot of yada yada in it but it’s about flying. So stay tuned!

The UPS man is becoming a daily visitor. A certain someone is going nuts ordering things online and having me dragging the goods back to Iceland for the holidays.

Last time this happened I was meeting my brother in NY for his part of the marathon there.  I brought a gigantic suitcase of the size of roughly 2′x3′x6′ absolutely stuffed. My personal belongings composed of few pair of boxers, socks and a toothbrush were crammed in as filling. People on the streets of Manhattan made comments about the vast size of the container I dragged around, including the possibilities of using such thing as living habitat. I ran into trouble at both airports, both ways, at the shuttle in Orlando International, both ways, both taxis I took in NY, the hotel I checked in…plus getting the damn thing in and out of my car of total of 4 times (for I stayed few nights in Orlando for my finals there), and on top of that various run-ins with people just having a problem with my bag…about 23 “things” happened to me that would’ve never occur if I hadn’t had to carry the damn thing around in the first place. Plus of course the oversize/overweight charge but those that ordered the damn things can eat that.

I’m leaving the damn bag in Iceland. Not giving the opportunity for people to try this again. Then again, my sis brought back an Aeron chair that almost costed my brother-in-law an eyeball, so that’s their argument that I should stop my bitchin’ and just get over it.

This thing will happen again though. And it’s gonna be huge. Icelandic law says you can ship a container of household and belongings if you’ve lived more than a year outside the country, no taxes or anything. My sister filled hers with grills and other nonsense when she moved from Boston, and the same thing will happen to me. I’ll abuse this thing as hell though myself, like the rest, bring back a nice flatscreen HDTV or something…man. I’ll need an industrial grade voltage converter to run my applications when I get home. That is if I can afford buying things to ship home but hey.

Dayum. I woke up after 2 hours of sleep. Again. I thought I was finally passed that. Damnit, I need my sleep! I have an IFR helicopter booked for 9 AM, guess it’s better than a VFR one ’cause I have to wear foggles for the instrument practices. (Foggles: Fogged goggles so you can only see the instrument panel in your helicopter - from the people that brought you sporks!) It’s easier on the eyes.

My roommate threw out that 6 feet floor lamp that I stole somewhere over a year ago and never got to work. Replaced it with some fancy $12 one from Walmart. One with those colored light bulbs that bugs can’t see…looks like my beanbag’s on fire when that thing’s on.

I installed World of Warcraft again, partly to remember why I stopped playing the damn thing but mostly ’cause my best friends brother bought him a copy and I wanted to help him out. Good stuff, doing stuff you like with the people you dig.

What kind of post do you expect from 2 hours of sleep? Screw it, I’m gonna go get something to eat and either watch anime or stare at my binary clock until I go flying or I pass out, whichever comes first.

Last night space shuttle launch was awesome. Just a quick drive down the road and you’d get a spectacular view. For a second it was like sun was rising over the horizon, boding a glorious new day. Then it was like the sun said “Oh shi it’s Saturday I’m going back to bed!” and all was dark again.

This launch wasen’t as loud as the one I saw last 4th of July. Maybe it was the wind direction, I don’t know.

I spotted a man dressed in camouflage standing outside Walmart today. Military like thick jacket and matching pants and that military cap you see in the movies - my first thought was we had recruitment officers lurking around. Thinking of the odds of them going for the soccer moms vs. young male in cheap clothes, I quietly tried to blend into a group of rednecks waltzing through the main entrance.

As I was tailgating a lady in a slow electric wheelchair driving down the center aisle, my mind was busy forming a plan of avoiding recruitment. For as a pilot, I must be on top of things, with a plan. Always. But as I stormed out, about to shout “I’m on my J-1 visa!” and make a run for it, I noticed some things that passed me the first time when I was busy looking nonchalant. First, I thought wouln’t a recruiter be wearing the ceremonial outfit, with the black jackets with the ribbons, silk gloves and the white hat? Before getting an answer, I saw it. A plastic bucket in his hands. A fund raiser! I should’ve known… And there’s another! And…two more few yards away? Then it hit me. There were no markings on their uniforms, no name tags, ranks or other markings. The bucket was a 1 gallon ice cream bucket with a cut-in hole and a hand written piece of paper taped to it. One was pretty out of shape for a soldier, too. And there are probably at least 4 more at the other entrance. How can the army spare people for that to get some spare change? Are those…are those just some guys hired to act as soldiers? I didn’t really bother to find out, but now I wish I did. Were they really gathering cash to support the troops even? Meh, I dunno, you tell me.

I hope NASA will launch Discovery tonight, but the forecast dosen’t look so good.

Heyas. This is a bit of a test blog thing going on here, which I’m taking part for my bud Chris that apparently runs this doodle.

Now, I’m not a very…fluent when it comes to blogs and forum posting, or in general communication on daily basis. I make typos a lot as well so bear with me on that, English isn’t my first language and stuff…

Yeah. I believe an introduction is in order at this stage. Steini is the name, the nickname at least. The actual name is absurd, being Icelandic, but Steini works for most. Some pronounce it Steiny, which works as well. Nosebleed is my self given nickname for the famous series of tubes, so all those names are good for me.

I’m a helicopter pilot in training in Florida. Titusville to be exact. A bedroom community next door to the NASA launch pads. Most things that happen here would be related to the flight school, Helicopter Adventures Inc. (HAI). Don’t let the name distract you, this thing is huge, with about 30 Schweizer 300CB/CBi (aka Hughes 269), at least 10 Robison R22s and two Bell Jetrangers, and students both civilian and military from all over the world.

Hm, besides the helicopters…main points of interests would be computer gaming, no doubt. It’s not a lot that you can do in this town so it isn’t really a bad thing.

(At this stage I’ve developed a writers block) I’ll post a short story or two from my flights later on.

- Steini