Balance

I was in quite a bouncerific mood today! Yesterday, my car needed an oil change and other maintenance, so I took her to get those things done. Usually, I ask for what I need, the guy takes my keys and that's that. Well, this guy was SUPER nice and started explaining stuff to me!! My eyes got wide when he started mentioning torque and I got all excited because I just read about that in my textbook. The airplane has a left turning tendency, due to torque from the propeller, during take-off and other high powered maneuvers (climbs, etc), so you have to use a bit of right rudder to compensate during these times. OF COURSE we don't have that in a car because no propeller, but we still have torque. So I looked it up when I got into work this morning AND FOUND OUT THAT CARS HAVE STALL SPEEDS TOOOOOOOO!!!  lol It made me soooooooo very, very happy and I squeaked and bounced around the office!! I know they are both machines, but amazing how much alike they are.

It makes me wonder if they have V-speeds too, which I'm sure they do... Makes me want to mark them on the speedometer with a Sharpie! :)  All of this is just soooo very exciting!! I want to know how cars work now! It's amazing that half of what I'm learning about how to fly a plane is how the plane works. Wouldn't it make sense that people should know how a car works before they start learning how to drive it?

Sooooo..., I was already overly excited about that (and I think the tea I was drinking at the time had some caffeine in it, too....hehehe) and then at lunch time, I dove into my studying. I have the study guide at work and work through that at lunch. It was hard to get back into because in that book, I'm going over weight & balance. It doesn't explain it too well, so I got kind of stuck like I was wading through mud. Merlin tried explaining it to me and said it just takes practice (like EVERYTHING else!), but not to get hung up on it because very little of the practical exam is on that. But I'm stubborn and while I have been working on other things at home, I resolved to get this weight & balance stuff down. It's a lot setting it up, going through the formulas and trying to find your results on the chart, but after I completed 4 problems, I began to memorize how to do it and things went MUCH smoother!! I was sooo happy!!! The second to the last problem, I didn't have to look how they set it up anymore and just did it. After I was done, I checked it with the example and got it down!! WHOOP WHOOP!!! So then I looked up at the clock, saw I had minutes left before I had to return to work, turned up the epic conquering music and tackled the last one on the page. Bazzinga and another one bites the dust!!

I have to say that while I was going through those problems and was working them out, I had a smile on my face and for the first time actually thought, "You know... I think I can really do this". Awesome, super-D-duper, warm fuzzy feeling!!!

And while reading up on balance and CG (center of gravity), it made me think of Ballet and how the CG is constantly changing. There are 3 axis of flight: lateral, vertical and longitudinal. When I'm on my toes with one knee pointed out to the side, I also have all three. Now that I think about it, I think we have all three anyways: one from the top of your head to your toes (vertical), one through your hips (lateral) and one straight through the middle of your belly button (longitudinal). When I'm standing on my toes with my knee to the side, the vertical axis is lengthened and moves to one side, the longitudinal stays the same and the lateral moves diagonal from the point of one hip to the opposite knee (if my right knee is up and out to the side, the lateral line runs from my left hip diagonal to my right knee).

Anyways, I'm babbling and need to get to studying. On the agenda tonight: finish the videos on airspace. Maybe if I have enough time, complete another quiz on the CAP website. It's been awhile since I've done one of those. Merlin was suppose to call me back last night to answer some questions, but guess he got sidetracked. He's insanely busy between aircraft inspections for CAP and preparing to go to Oshkosh next week to teach some of the cadets how to fly.

Zomg... Did I mention to you that he called me "Grasshopper" in one of my posts on facebook?? I asked him with muted horror if that was my call sign or not (if you react too much, then it sticks. If you continue to object, a new name will be assigned to you and will be worse than the first one, so I was being careful). He said that he was just kidding around and it would be mean to call me that. I share my stories of aviation at work and was telling my boss that story. He gets an evil Grinch-type grin on his face and his eyes glitter. Oh hell NO. NONONONONO!!!  For the rest of that day, whenever he needed something, he bellowed, "GRASSHOPPER!!!!" from his office and I had to respond to it. Thank goodness he's stopped now... but we were both saying that it was a hideous nickname, but in all seriousness, it oddly fit me. lol

Speaking of Oshkosh, a friend of mine and his girlfriend are going too. Once I find out when he plans to arrive there, then I can secure the camping spot! Wheeeeeeee!!! And we are down to 1 week and 2 days until USS Yorktown!! Did I mention I'm packed for the most part? I'm just missing an extra shirt, shorts, socks and my CAP uniform. I've NEVER packed for anything this early before!! OMFGBBQSAUCE, I'M GONNA FLY IN A C-17 IN 9 DAYS!!!!!!!! lol

Please excuse the overly-hyper post and please be forewarned that they might only get worse from here on out. Too many overly exciting aviation stuffs happening; I can't help it. :)

Edit: Camping spot secure. All that remains is finding transportation to get my happy butt up there and hunting down a tent, then we are GO for Oshkosh!!!