As you’ve probably noticed, things look a little different. I’m a little annoyed by the fixed-width thing; it seems that web people feel this strange need to specify pixel widths for a page. I can’t find a theme I much like. I tried to adapt the old one, but it broke the comments page, and I’m too lazy to figure out how to fix that.

I took the FAA Commercial Airplane Pilot written exam yesterday. I answered 95/100 questions correctly, so my 90% and above record is maintained. I’ve still got two flights left in this stage, minimum. If I can perform all my maneuvers within the appropriate tolerances next flight, then I’m going to fly with another instructer for a “mock stage check” to make sure I can pass, then off for the real thing. The third and final stage of this program should go much more quickly than the first two.

Maybe, just maybe, with a little luck I’ll finish at the end of April. That means I’ll have been here a year which is still way longer than I’d hoped. And then comes the job search. If I get a job somewhere other than Norman, that means that Joanna will be forced to look for other work. I’m thinking this is a good thing, because this warehouse stuff is getting old– and I’m not the one doing it!

We ate breakfast at the airport on Saturday because Jonah wanted to. The food was only mediocre, but it’s all you can eat for $5, and it’s not a buffet.

Jonah was talking about my “obnoxiousessity” last night. No, I don’t get it either.

I would have gotten one of those two flights out of the way today, but it seems that the airplane is down for maintenance. Maybe they’ll fix the stall warning horn? Both it and the plane I flew on Friday had innoperative stall horns. To be fair, the horn in 8091E sounded right as the plane stalled– but it’s really too late then. I did a half-dozen stall in 76067 and didn’t hear a peep out of it. Maybe it’s good for me– get used to judging my proximity to a stall without the horn. Still, there’s a reason just about every sort of plane has some kind of a stall warning system…

On Friday, I passed a party balloon on climbout at about 600 feet. I was close enough to clearly make out the string tied around it. It’s so very weird to have any reference frame other than the ground. The balloon appeared to be hanging out in one place as I climbed above it and flew past it just off the left wingtip. Yesterday, I got pretty close to a flock of birds that was higher than I’ve ever seen birds– about 4,500ft MSL. It was such a big flock of birds that ATC advised me of “Traffic, 10 o’clock, intermittent return, slow moving, altitude unknown.”