In sympathy with peoples abroad who might be chilling these next few months and in consideration of rising energy costs closer to home I am implementing a new routine with hopes for conserving.
The first step is to adopt a “time of use” billing strategy that utility companies offer. The utility solicits a pricing incentive for customers to refrain from and reduce consumption during the part of day that is historically prime time for energy usage. My humble abode is equipped with a heat pump and that is a big consumer so I give you the following strategy:
On-peak is from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., Monday through Friday excluding holidays, so I don’t intend to use the heat pump(s) or worse — system AUX heating, a big draw item. So to comply, the thermostat will be turned down for this time slot. To mitigate rise and shine shivering or breakfast hour discomfort the living space will be pre-heated using the Off-peak ($0.067) rate before it cuts off. On-peak is a penalizing $0.39 per kilowatt hour and to be avoided.
thermostat – settings
0500-0600 74 degrees (pre-heating)
0600-0900 65 degrees (On-peak)
0900-1600 68 degrees
1600-2145 72 degrees
2145-0500 65 degrees
A Smart Thermostat simplifies the task of micromanaging the setting adjustments.
extra credit
Ensuring that the water heater, also electric, will never draw current during the On-peak is a bit more involved but easily controlled. A relay to open/close the 240v contactors for the heating element can be actuated by a 120v smart plug. An [smart-hub] automation routine then will pause the appliance like a timer.
future plan
There is a Super Off-peak between the odd hours of 10 at night and 5 in the morning. At a mere $0.043 cents per kWh this will be an opportune time period to charge the EV.
maybe…
At some point go off grid? Solar array? Powerwall? In any event, please stay warm.
Simulator flying mimics the real thing. Display visuals show realism. There are sound effects for engine and other aircraft equipment noises. The aircraft cockpit flight controls, switches, indicators, and instruments are identical to those of the actual cockpit. Since the machine is perched upon electric actuator struts that can raise, lower and tilt the box in all axis “G” forces are mimicked. Vibrations can be discerned when taxing across tarmac expansion joints or the thump thump thump encountering flush mounted runway centerline lights during takeoff roll.
The simulator doesn’t actually have landing gear or wheels but amusing when you realize that the device has tricked you into believing that it sure seems like it does. The interaction between brain, eye, small of your back, seat of your pants largely takes you in. When applying brake pressure for instance the simulator box dips forward which allows a sensation of deceleration. But the inner ear is not perfectly fooled. Steering a 90 degree turn on an airport taxiway can be nauseating. It is best not to stare too hard at the video presentation in the cockpit window. (When it’s my turn in the co-pilot seat, I don’t even look; keeping eyes in.)
Despite the nitpicks, the experience is real enough and deemed by the regulators to suffice for full blown training and qualification testing. A new pilot will complete the course regimen solely in this device and obtain his Aircraft Type Rating without having boarded the actual airplane before. His first flight (non-simulated) may even have [oblivious] passengers onboard!
A crucial advantage of simulator flying is that many “what if” events can be experienced without putting man or machine at physical risk. Challenging scenarios can be allowed to play out to successful outcome. Before the adoption of advanced full motion simulation, emergency drills where “simulated” in an airborne aircraft. An instructor pilot would surreptitiously reach for an engine power lever and snap it closed to observe a pilots response procedure. This usually worked out fine, as long as everyone stuck to a certain script. Multi-engine aircraft can fly just fine with an inoperative engine. On the other hand; what could possibly go wrong there?
V1 Cut
This is the demonstration of pilot reaction and the control that is necessary because even though, an aircraft is designed to climb engine out it can go badly if not performed precisely. With a failed engine the thrust centerline is now asymmetric. The aircraft wants to yaw and turn in the direction of the dead engine. There are usually terrain or air traffic control considerations so there may be undesired consequences should the aircraft drift off course suddenly or otherwise. The episode is almost always practiced at V1 (decision speed — the point where there is not enough runway remaining to abort the takeoff and at which you are now committed to take it into the air ) It is a velocity calculated beforehand and a commitment rigidly adhered to. This point is the most challenging moment for an engine “Cut” and the engine can lose thrust gradually (called a roll-back) or altogether as in catastrophic failure (associated with a loud bang)
The pilot’s (PF — pilot flying) first task is to counter immediately and correct with opposite rudder. The direction of the yaw may come into eye view as the nose of the plane tends to depart the runway centerline and aims itself for the green grass off pavement. The rudder pedal is used to restore directional control. The rudder surface has low effectiveness at this speed so a massive deflection is necessary; meaning with exertion you push your foot all the way to the floor holding it there. Your scan moves from outside to instruments on the inside because, recall we also had to get airborne and we have simultaneously rotated the aircraft into a pitch up movement to do so. The pilot’s attention is divided across directional control, pitch attitude, and [V2] airspeed. The tolerances are narrow. With disciplined scanning, proper assessment and deft control placement a desired result happens — laterally and vertically. With a positive rate of climb the pilot brings in the second pilot as a resource. This pilot {PM — pilot monitoring) verifies and calls out “positive rate”. The PF calls “gear up”. The entire script is well choreographed and each pilot knows exactly what each is expected to say and do and when. We call these [memorized] actors’ lines.
We are not out of the woods yet. As the aircraft accelerates the rudder gains effectiveness and therefore less deflection is required. The PF constantly adjusts his leg pressure thus maintaining coordinated flight and managing desired heading. A previously calculated [takeoff] flap retraction altitude is reached and the PM announces “FRA”. The PM accelerates the aircraft to the faster and appropriate [Vfs] climb speed and commands “flaps zero”. The climb continues to the briefed safe altitude at which time emergency checklists are performed, ATC advised and their resources utilized. A plan of action is decided upon and briefed and so it goes.
This kind of actual event is extremely rare. I’ve only experienced an engine failure once in my flying career (through 4,000′ on climb out) but just the same we prepare for it and the simulator is an ideal stage.
Elec XFR Fail
This is another time critical event. In the rare occurrence of a dual gen fail and in an effort to conserve battery power the automation will reconfigure the system to shed nonessential loads. CAS warning/caution messages post to the PFD but the bigger give away is the dark cockpit with loss of lighting and blank display screens. You’ve lost a host of other systems too –everything on DC BUS 1 and DC BUS 2 (pitch trim norm and pitch trim bkp — oh dear) In this electric transfer fail scenario, the described reversion didn’t automatically happen and, time critical, because battery life will be severely impaired.
a generic Embraer QRH flow chart for transfer failure
Time is of the essence. The Quick Reference Handbook (QRH) directs the PM to press the ELEC EMER Button, the manual method which overrides the EPGDS, connecting BATT 1 and BATT 2 directly to the EMERGENCY BUS. If this was successful you’ve bought some time but you’re still dealing with the lesser of the two evils, the ELEC EMERGENCY [CAS]. The PF has got his hands full trying to maintain pitch control. (The simulator instructor gave us this one right after takeoff so the aircraft/sim was nose high on trim. I could only arrest the climb by wedging by knee into the control yoke providing thigh muscle assist.) The PM is still in the QRH with the next CAS as the aircraft/sim cabin pressure is escaping and will soon manifest another set of issues. In hindsight, because of our low altitude, we could have cut to the chase and zoomed to the final checklist line; giving my arms a break:
Generators 1 and 2 .................. OFF, THEN AUTO
This ultimately reestablished things as one of the generators came back online. I had my instrumentation and pitch trim and systems restored.
Good thing to demonstrate and to see — in a simulator that is.
A-I WINGSTB LEAK
This cautionary CAS alert directs the PM to a checklist flow chart to try and isolate the source of a bleed leak. Bleed is high pressure air that is used for cabin pressurization, ECS, and airframe anti-icing. Air gains heat when compressed so hot bleed impinging upon unprotected structure is bad. Through the process of elimination we were able to switch to off the errant bleed. The QRH gave further direction to leave icing conditions whilst recommending necessary precaution for degraded performance for the approach and landing phase with Flaps limited to Flaps 1.
We executed and uneventful touchdown at the Pittsburgh Intl Airport — simulated naturally.
A-I E1 (2) FAIL
We saw this one; the anti-ice engine 2 fail CAS. Noticeable vibration developed (yes, the sim does) but before we could action the NAP1-16 reference procedure the engine spooled down. This led to an engine inop approach and landing exercise.
Rules of the Game
Each scenario practiced results in a successful outcome. That of course is desired as it gives good experience should such an event play out in actuality. Positive training.
The sim instructor is not allowed to over-task the pilot with multiple scenarios, at least not at the same time. A windshear situation or terrain escape maneuver would never be compounded with a loss of cabin pressure as an example. Problems can and do coexist of course. e.g. engine fire > single engine approach to landing So, each problem is carefully worked through logical step by step to conclusion before another one begins.
The order of problem solving is by priority importance. For instance, you might think that the first concern during an engine fire is to fight the fire but that is not the case. Number one is to fly the airplane. Maintain control.
After reaching a [briefed] safe altitude we may be required to perform an emergency checklist from memory or Quick Reference Checklist (QRC), or QRH in that order, then we deal with the more “mundane”. Memory items cover immediate action items:
Cabin smoke
Cabin depressurization
Dual engine failure
Inadvertent pusher activation
Evacuation
Start Malfunction
After a 2 hour drill we generally take a 10 minute pause and then swap seats to finish with another 2 hours of excitement. Thus ends the sim session. There are 236 unique CAS messages that lurk so there will always be stuff to see for the next time.
A computer screenshot is trivial today. Using software or even simple button press of PRT SC on the keyboard. But, the terminology comes from the act of literally taking a picture of the screen — the television screen that is.
B&W televised demonstration of working steam engine recorded in the first grade classroom and broadcast as local news.
Using a hand held [Argus C3] film camera in 1958, the resulting capture lost contrast clarity as it was a copy of a copy. (a flatbed scanner was used to scan the original photographic print just posted here so a copy of a copy of a copy) The light would have to be right as the camera would not have had automatic exposure and any glare or refection on the TV screen minimized. Camera focus would be a consideration; pre WYSiWG. Though grainy, it was a resourceful method and the proud parental event was luckily/successfully recorded.
We have it easy. SAVE AS would have archived the entire video and WITH sound, but back in the day this screenshot example was high tech.
This Strombotne family surname has always been a twister. Some get it right first try but others, be they strangers or acquaintances could attempt — make a hash of it and give up or not even try for fear of mangling and risking insult injury. The first syllable was generally easy for them but the rest of it, usually a big fail. Frequently the “t” gets ignored for some reason and it’s uttered phonetically : strom·bone·eeee . Cringe. I had a Junior High PE Coach that would say it Strum·bot·knee with the emphasis on the second syllable. He had the last 2/3rds correct but the first syllable came out like strum (as in strum guitar).
Here’s how: Strom begins with an ST blend phonic same as do words straight or strong and these two consonants precede rom which sounds like ROM (computer read only memory) or rom as in Trombone (the instrument(s) from The Music Man) then bot like in robot and finally “ne” — say knee (the knee bone connected to the…) Strom·bot·ne
Then we have spelling tangles. After they’ve heard the name spoken there is the issue of the last letter. Was that an “i” followed by conversation: “Oh! is that Italian?” No it’s a letter “e”.
Strombotne is an anglicized family name tracing its origin to a farm in Norway — Straumbotn.
Ancestors that lived at Straumbotn and elsewhere had been using a patronymic naming system. The use of a fixed family name was made compulsory by law in Norway in 1923. As a result of this change, many chose and began using their patronymic name as their fixed family name; others (as in our case) chose their farm’s name as their permanent family name and thus the surname name — Strømbotne.
Patronymic Simplified: A child’s last name was derived from the father’s first name. If you had a daughter you would add – datter to the end of the father’s first name, if you had a son you would append – sen or –son to the father’s first name and this new name compounded would become the Childs surname. Sometimes the name of the farm was used as a 3rd name; not so much as a surname but as an address identifier. The reason being is that after several centuries many now had the same first and last names. A formal change to a fixed family surname began in the early 1800’s and was widespread by about 1900.
Spelling differed but the sound was always the same. Straum was the (Nordland local) Nynorsk standard and Strøm was the Bokmål way (Danish was the written language of Norway until 1814).
Considering authenticity, I doubted that my ancestors pronounced words anything like we do here in the USA. Then I told a Norwegian friend, last name Tvedt 🙂 of my state of perplexity and asked him to read it into a recorder.
Strømbotn
We think that other peoples in broader Scandinavia had been adding a soft “neh” sound to botn, so Strømbotn gained an “e” in its spelling to align with this pronunciation. A second theory is that since there are no English words that end in “tn” consonants that this vowel was added to the spelling. Somewhere along the line the soft “e” (neh sound) became a hard “E” (sounding like knee) the spelling Rule #3: the silent “e” ignored evidently.
After an ah hah! moment of imagining a lifetime spent methodically (incorrectly) correcting people it became clear to me that my instilled conception of pronunciation wasn’t necessarily THE way .
In the case of brief person to person interaction it’s unlikely to matter too much how you pronounce it. No longer do I impose (unless badly adulterated) and even then at times let them know “close” or “good effort” as it gives them satisfaction and allows them to smile. But, for standardization (and extra points) say Strombotne – – – strom·bot·ne, straum·botn, or possibly straum·boat·neh.
The church registers from this old parish, and others like it, documented life events for many that came before us. Over recent years these church books have been carefully digitized and archived. They make for interesting sleuthing when seeking out generational family relatives.
The Hemnes Church (photo circa 1890-1900) stands today. Its church grounds contain the original cemetery that was last used in 1886. I have kinfolk buried there.
To this particular church, Great-Great Grandfather Christopher Olai would row his open fishing boat in order to attend the Sunday service.
Looking at that…
period correct fishing craft
No, not the parish parking lot but the very active fishing village of Lofoten. Grandfather’s traditional style boat probably resembled one of these centuries old Nordland craft. It has a high prow and stern similar related to he old Viking longships.
Seksringsbåt med seil og dregg, Lofotbruk
Translation: six-ring boat with sail and dredge, Lofoten use. A craft like this was census listed as owned by Great-Great-Great Grandfather Johannes. This boat was all serious and no play, a bit heavy to row single-hand. Likely, son Chistopher Olai had something svelte (a two-ring) if he went by himself.
His 8 1/2 mile (bi-directional) endurance route through Norwegian fjords would have been quite the scenic (spiritual?) journey. Øverstraumen is a fjord arm of the Ranfjorden, Commencing at the Northern bottom of this fjord arm at Straumbotn and after a narrow bit (Nordgården) there is an exit outlet at Straumkjeften strait in the South. The Ranfjorden opens to the sea eventually but Christopher Olai’s trek would terminate at the narrow strait at the Hemnesberget village.
Impressive! — bragging rights among the parish group. For one of Us, this would be a major feat but for Olai it was Sunday’s health exercise ritual. He was a fit fisherman so he might just parlay wind and water currents to advantage. That, and perhaps a greater power watching over.
As a young boy I can remember Dad bringing home random arrowheads and stone rock Indian artifacts from out on the range. While I never witnessed one of his lucky chance finds, I was with him once when he pointed to another piece of western history — ghostlike narrow tracks through dry hard packed alkali ground. From out of nowhere and scattered tumbleweed these parallel impressions were the dirt markings of the old Butterfield Stagecoach he explained. This seemed so incredulous to me that day and I retained the memory.
That was 60 years ago and even at the time the trail remnants would have been dated by a century. Local knowledge. I categorized his factoid as legend or folklore.
Present day and watching an old James Stewart/John Wayne cowboy western re-run (1962 and available on streaming media), I spied a stage. This movie prop rekindled my early intrigue, for barely legible on the side of the coach roof in faint paint was Butterfield.
for movie timeline purposes they tried [unsuccessfully] to obfuscate the name
This prompted a deep dive [web] search. There was in fact a stagecoach express so described: The Butterfield Overland Mail Company. Accordingly, it operated between St. Louis and San Francisco funded by a 4 year U.S. Postal Department contract. Recalling the glimpse of rutted arid San Joaquin Valley tracks gives one pause; it would have been a rough tough dusty ordeal and how far we’ve come…
Full circle. Dad was onto something! Excepting that reproduced historical map creations are not necessarily precision navigation and that evidential proof has been obliterated by agricultural progress the mapped area of trail discovery does happen to highlight the territory of my one time visit. I like to think that Dad was spot on.
Ernest K. Gann’s novel/screenplay The High and the Mighty (1954) sensationalized a peril of crew (and passengers!) after a mechanical mishap on a trans-Pacific flight. The theme of the movie introduced we laypeople audience to the dramatized concept Hollywood named: The Point of No Return — when to turn back or commit to journey onward.
Today’s arithmetic has the benefit of digital calculation. No longer are there margins of error induced by the width of pencil lead on paper chart. It behooves a pilot to maintain an awareness of where he is and specific to this discussion, a safe path to alternative landing [at a suitable airport] should the trip need to end prematurely. Our pre-flight planning analysis arms us with reliable forethought to avoid reliance upon gut instinct or seat of pants.
Note: With a single engine aircraft a diversion could be an open field or stretch of road that gliding distance will allow. So, you as pilot are always reliant upon senses of judgment. Good Luck, we're all counting on you.
A high flying jet however will have options. Over water operations is more problematic but the objective is to; always have a successful outcome. A line for decision may be more comprehensible as a measured distance but is more a function of timing. The fact is; it is not called Point of No Return… rather; Equal Time Point (ETP). This is the precise moment where it takes the same amount of time to u-turn so to speak or press forward. Not displayed but accounted for are winds and temperature conditions at cruising altitude. Consider that it may be a shorter measured distance one direction mileage wise but if facing stiff opposing winds aloft it may take longer to fly them. A longer distance mileage wise might be flown more rapidly then that of the shorter with tailwinds. So, there is a computed point in time where a logical decision is reached.
There can be multiple on a long over-water route. On a recent 10+ hour hop we plotted 4 ETPs. Actually 12. Within each of the 4 groupings are 3 types. DEPRESS (depressurization), 1ENGINE (loss of engine), and MEDICAL (onboard medical emergency). Observe the dispatch release beginning with ETP 1 through 4 below:
tabulated data snippet
The second box, highlighted group, ETP2, contains two airports deemed suitable. In this case: PACD (Cold Bay Airport) in the Aleutians and PMDY (Henderson Field) on Midway Atoll. As you surmise these are in the middle of ‘nowhere’, beyond mainland US and short of our intended final destination. These alternates will change as we progress and thus there are subsequent ETP groupings.
Loss of cabin pressurization is a critical one. At these high altitudes one can’t function physiologically for very long without supplemental O². An immediate decent to an altitude deemed survivable is necessary. 15,000 feet is the generally accepted. Unfortunately doing so will double the rate of aircraft fuel consumption. Jets fly the icy upper levels for reasons of speed and economy. When forced to fly in the dense lower atmosphere efficiency is lost and whereas we planned for optimum fuel now we will end up short. Thus, the need for an escape plan. There is not enough fuel to continue on oblivious so as we are decending we are also questioning our route. Have we reached our ETP?
I plotted ETP(s) on a digital chart for easy reference in-flight. See the screen-grab below:
Jeppessen Chart (screenshot)
Observe DEP2, a plotted waypoint along this westbound (the blue line) route. It is located using Latitude and Longitude. A (black) arrow line vector shows the approximate direction to turn. PACD is a right turn to roughly North and, if past the DEP2 waypoint, PMDY will be found to the South West. These alternate airports are already pre-loaded into the box (nav system) so a route change can be actuated quickly with a button press or two and crew confirmation.
A curious eye will see ? 37N160 in chart center and also 0730z atop a magenta flag marker. The latter is known as a “10 minute check” — a timed event. The label is 07:30 UTC along with an actual lat/lon position report and is created enroute to compare with the plotted route. It serves as a reality check for navigational compliance accuracy. It is noted 10 minutes after passing the previous fix which depicted in shorthand is at North 37 degrees 160 West.
Armed with computerized clarity we are less vulnerable and don’t face the dilemma that our performers faced on the silver screen. Great aviation movie classic BTW and — spoiler alert — our High and the Mighty live happily ever after.
A 1971 USDA historical aerial photo from UNC Chapel Hill libraries showing the neighborhood now known as Charleston Woods. Before the houses were built, Charleston Woods was actual woods! The point location was determined by taking angles from the Bond Lake Dam (under construction), the White Oak Creek and a transmission line which transits. It is a general estimate.
annotated snippet copy of the original neighborhood
There are also aerial photographs of the county from 1959 and 1938 that also show pine and hardwoods here. The farmland fields that are present in these images are limited to low flat areas of Crabtree Creek; what is now Bond Park Baseball Diamonds 5 & 6 and the Prestonwood Soccer Complex northward. The survey depicts rail tracks and 2 public roads that precede these dates — Highhouse Rd. and Old Apex Rd. None of the streets that we enjoy today had been built yet. The actual full resolution photo file taken on February 24, 1971 can be retrieved easily from here.
The same perspective (via satellite and incolor) today!
After measuring the [29″] diameter of a particularly large Loblolly Pine in the backyard it can be assumed that the area has not been recently cultivated. A 36″ tree is considered mature and that size equates to about 150 years age. There have been people in the area since before the Civil War so it is of course possible that the area had been logged, farmed, or burned. The 1938 shows faint trace remnants of bare dirt that may have been encroaching trails. These are no longer noticeable in subsequent surveys.
Developers had there way made progress and this area has forever lost its out in the sticks nature. It would have been easier to clear cut but to their credit many of the trees were spared.
Update: (according to this source) Before the first Europeans set foot on the [North Carolina] Piedmont Plateau, the land was 99.5% covered by Old Growth forest (oaks, maples, pines, hickories, poplar and tulip poplar, persimmon, elm, hemlock, beech, magnolia, cedar, ash, willow). Some scholars write that the Old Growth was harvested entirely by 1750. All agree that these magnificent trees had been taken down by the start of the Revolutionary War in 1776. When the Old Growth was gone, they started in on the secondary growth. This greatly over-simplified history explains the proliferation of fast-growing pine trees common today.
It was a Beneteau Oceanis 381 with a layout similar to last years except below deck was a flip flop opposite. Only one quarter berth which was a full. Larger V berth forward. Diesel forced air heater which we used a couple of times. Chilly until noon. Sunny afternoons. Never rained. The AYC yachts are individually owned and you could tell that our boat was looked after.
Big galley with two refrigerators. Propane BBQ. Galley stove oven had a broiler.
Smaller Lav space (as if that was even possible). The holding tank was a mere 15 !! gallons and with strict eco regs in US waters that meant we really had to watch it. I had the pleasure of pumping it out twice. Well, pump-outs are encouraged by being free anyway.
We anchored out once. Picked up a ball at two other stops. BTW, you taught Spencer well on the fore-deck He was invaluable. Leah was a complete noobe on day one but by mid week she had it down and by voyage end had the sailing bug. Stayed on a linear mooring one night and one night on a dock. Also, we had to put our own boat in its slip back in Anacortes. No such thing as a marina skipper.
Cleared Canadian / US customs which was good experience. Navigation fairly easy with the GPS tracking and land ho. Fewer visual cues on the long sail to and from Victoria in which case it was GPS track and DR
I kept a watchful eye on tides and currents. We traversed a few tidal current rips but those were a non event. We had to be careful for floating logs. We saw several. Man that would have made a big noise to collide. Remind me not to sail there at night. Big container ships in the lanes too. The most current was 2.5 knots which didn’t last long and luckily was going our way.
The most wind that we saw was 16 knots at which full sail was slightly over powered close hauled. The main sail could be furled into the mast. Very trick. 1 to 2 foot wind waves at times. For the most part the wind was 6 to 10 knots. The ride was always good. Our charter had Radar with AIS if we’d have been caught out by fog but we were only concerned once and it turned out not to be a factor.
Like Father like son, Spencer almost did an endo off of the transom but fell into the dinghy instead. Whew!
53 degrees. I was concerned about going overboard while underway and nobody noticing right away. That would have been bad scene.
Dusty old records survive! This archive having been revisited after 3/4 century, can be digitized and is to be preserved. The pages include Naval deployment orders, training records, and memory scraps.
Aviator’s Flight Log Book
Logged is a (non-military) November 4th joy flight with Esther L. (Mom) as passenger — type NE 1 number 49340 1.0 duration Burbank California 1945.
