There’s something about a rainy Sunday at the beach. Everything seems just a bit muted, the pace, which is never a frenetic as it is on the other side of the ditch, is even a little slower. A perfect day for watching football, though the Jaguars were blacked out again. They won, which was a good thing, and if the season ended today, they’d have a wildcard playoff spot.

Of course, the season isn’t ending today. There are still 5 regular-season weeks to play. But I digress.

It was that way much of the week. Midweek, the winter fogs started to roll in off the ocean. As the air cools more quickly than does the water, it picks up more moisture and hangs onto it as it moves over land. Usually there is a northerly breeze associated with these foggy days, which are an almost strictly coastal phenomenon. Occasionally the fog clings to the riverbanks as well. I can recall going over the Matthews bridge and seeing the fog begin and end within 500 yards of the river. Here at the beach, depending on how hard the wind is blowing, it can be foggy to about third street, then sunny here where we are west of Penman … or it can extend the 2 miles or so to the west side of the ditch, blanketing San Pablo Island while the sun shines at Hodges Boulevard.

Today, though, it was a plain-old rainy day. Not the all-day rain that had been predicted a couple of days ago, but overcast and grey and sprinkling rain until late afternoon, when the sun finally peeked through on its way to the western horizon. 

It’s Thanksgiving week, and I’m looking forward to having Thursday and Friday off from Aero-News. I haven’t taken a day off, really, (other than weekends) since I got the contract to edit news for the organization. Despite the challenges of a very difficult year, there are things for which to be thankful. We still live at the beach, and can enjoy a quiet, grey Sunday at the continents edge. The family is mostly nearby, and we’re finding ways to keep moving forward. We’ll get together on Friday, rather than Thursday, because that’s when everyone is available, and enjoy the day.

Between now and then, it’s business as usual. I’ll be editing stories for Aero-News, and Andie’ll be filling out applications for jobs. All there is to do is keep plugging away until things improve.

And improve they will, though the economy has certainly had the wind knocked out of it, and it’s going to be a long time getting its breath. You can almost see it gasping for air, bent over double, eyes bugged out, wondering if it’s ever going to breathe again. The business cycle says it will, and the 10 percent of the population that is actively unemployed and the additional 7-10 percent who as given up looking or who have done things like try to start little one-person businesses hope it’s sooner rather than later.

Sometimes a quiet, grey Sunday makes one think a little too much …

–scene–

I’m sure it will be spectacular. Once again, the CGI destruction of the world, and I understand that the principal character tries to re-connect with his family or some such thing while mayhem ensues. Yes, it’s 2012, but according to the movie, and some others, a Presidential election won’t be the worst thing to happen in that even-numbered-year-divisible-by-four.

Can’t you just hear some “journalist” asking about it during a debate?

“What are you doing to stave off the end of the world as we know it as predicted by the ancient Mayan Calendar?”

Depending on the answer a Republican candidate might give, Wolf Blitzer or Keith Olberman would huff and puff about how they are not doing enough to protect people from the possible end of the world. It might even make the front page of the New York Times.

Fox News, on the other hand, would carefully parse a Democrat’s answer to show how he or she implied that the end of the world was really George Bush’s fault, and all would have Planet X experts on the set to breathlessly confirm or offhandedly dismiss the coming end of days.

All of which might make a pretty funny sketch.

But it’s just as likely that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 because that’s where they ran out of rock.

You can just see the high priest … carving away at the Mayan calendar, getting to the end of the “page” and thinking to himself “2012 … that’s pretty far in the future … and I’m out or wall to write on … let’s just give that a bit of a rest for a while.”

Then their civilization ends, and they never got back to the calendar.

Seriously, isn’t that scenario as plausible as the “Planet X” theory that will tilt the earth off it’s axis, make Africa the south pole or some such thing? If Nibiru were going to do such a thing, in 2012, it would have to already be in the solar system and we’d know about it … and be complaining that President Obama isn’t doing enough to stave off the end of the world.

“Up” makes as much sense … flying a house away tethered to a phalanx of helium balloons. And even though 2010 LOOKS real, it’s just about as substantive as the Pixar animation of “Up”.

But because it’s on a movie that looks realistic, some people, particularly kids, give it some credence. A young person we know asked, in all seriousness, “What it it’s true?” To them I would only say … we all lived through Y2K.

Then again, Al Gore is good at finding ways to make money from hyping up possible global calamities based on questionable science, and he’s been strangely quiet about 2012. So maybe there’s something to it after all. I mean,  if Planet X is really going to tip the earth off it’s axis in three years and cause the magma under the Earth’s crust to boil up in to massive volcanoes, the polar bears don’t have a chance anyway.

And so, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, I doubt I’ll go see 2012. I don’t think there’s enough suspension of disbelief available in my brain to enjoy it.

There’s always “Men Who Stare At Goats,” which might be a bit more believable.

I’ll see you in 2013.

And in case you’re wondering, that’s an image of Neptune taken by Voyager 1 … not Nibiru. But when you google “Planet X”, it’s the one that shows up most often …

–scene–

One of the things we’ve learned over the past year is how to make inexpensive ingredients into really good stuff. One of those things is short ribs of beef, which are very inexpensive, but with some patients, can be really, really good.

Knowing Andie was going to be late, I picked up some short ribs at the store this afternoon. The thing about short ribs is that they need to cook for  along time to be … well … edible. The package directions say they should be grilled, but I don’t know if they’d ever be tender enough unless you put them on the cool side of the grill for a two to three hours.

But not wanting to tend a charcoal fire, I heated the oven to 275, and went to work.

In cast iron skillet, I seared the ribs in some peanut oil, seasoned simply with salt an pepper. While they were searing, I chopped some onions and garlic, went out to the herb garden and got some fresh parsley, basil, and rosemary. All that went into a shallow roasting pan lined in aluminum foil, and the ribs went in on top of the veggies. Another piece of foil went on top, which i crimped all the way around … eventually.

Before sealing the pouch, I poured about a half cup of burgundy wine into the mix and finished the crimping. It all went into the 275 degree oven for about 3 hours.

That’s it. It couldn’t be more simple, They came out fork tender, very flavorful, and not too much protein for counting calories. The ribs were under $6.00, two slices of onion, 4 cloves of garlic, some fresh herbs, and a half cup of burgundy. All told, It couldn’t have cost more than $10 for dinner for two, including the broccoli I steamed for the side.

It is possible to cook really good food economically.

The blog has been pretty light this week simply because it’s been a very busy one. Not that I haven’t written. Lots for Aero-News, and two pieces for The Jacksonville Observer, along with the radio show yesterday. I’ll work on a bit of  longer post tomorrow.

–scene–

–scene–

It was a somewhat hectic week in Tampa at the AOPA Aviation Summit, though the pace was not as frenzied as it was at either Oshkosh or NBAA. But for me at least the trade show season has wrapped, and we’re settling in to the holidays.

This is is the Cirrus SR22 (N377SR) in which I’ve been re-discovering my love of flying. Arriving at Tampa was an interesting experience. AOPA had published a special approach procedure for Tampa Executive Airport for airplanes arriving for the summit. We were #2 for the approach behind a Cessna skyhawk when the airplane that was landing porpoised and had its nose gear collapse. Kind of an embarrassing thing for the pilot, whom we heard later was a woman in her 80’s. Frankly, I hope I’m still breathing at that point if my life, let alone still able to get a medical to fly.

But I digress.

Anyway, we diverted back to Plant City, got the only rental car on the field, and drove over to Tampa.

And it occurs to me that, when you read all the negative press in some of the mainstream media about federal money going to small airports, where we would have been left if KPCM had not existed. Less than 20 miles from Tampa Executive airport, which was suddenly not an option, we would have been forced to Peter O. Knight, which was a madhouse from airplanes arriving at the event, or Tampa International. At that point, Plant City looked like a pretty good option, for both us and the C172 that was also in the traffic pattern when the accident occurred.

Having spent both Thursday and Friday cooped up in a convention hall, I was happy to finally get out to the flight line on Saturday to see some airplanes.

This is the Lockheed Electra that was used for the movie Amelia, and it is a very pretty airplane. The yellow sign hanging from the prop is an admonishment to not touch the airplane, or spend some time polishing. Pretty much the entire aircraft is polished to a mirror finish, and you can imagine they don’t want a lot of people smudging their oily fingers on it. It does make for a very photogenic airplane, but I have to say that the sign kind of detracts from the effect.

There was everything from motor-gliders to bizjets on the line at Peter O. Knight airport. One of the gliders was very transformer-like, with a propeller and tiny engine that popped up out of the fuselage when you needed the boost. Sort of like the auxiliary engine in a sailboat, only here when you need it.

I’ve got a pretty busy week coming up. I’ll be at the Lincoln Day dinner tomorrow night, where Mitt Romney is speaking. Austin has asked me to take some pictures and provide a report for The Jacksonville Observer. Tuesday is an improv show at The Comedy Zone, Wednesday is the Jacksonville Observer Radio Show, I think thinks slow down by Thursday. And there’s Aero-News every day, of course. But at least I’m at home all week, which is not a bad thing.

Still, if I’ve got to travel to trade shows, there are a lot worse ways to get there than flying in the ANN Cirrus.

And the best part is, when that happens, I get to fly. It’s way better up front than in the back.

–scene–

But I can still fly.

I proved that to myself today on the trip from St. Augustine to Tampa for the AOPA Convention, which get’s underway Thursday. And while I’ve got a long way to go, today was hopefully my first step back on the road back to the left seat.

My fairy dust was the Aero News Cirrus SR22 3G Turbo. The same airplane I wrote about when we went to Savannah to cover the G650 rollout this summer. I was sitting in the right seat, and Aero News Editor in Chief Jim Campbell got the airplane off the ground, mostly because we used the shortest runway available at KSGJ. But once established in a cruise-climb, he said “climb on up to 4,500 and we’ll get over the top of that,” referring to the broken clouds just ahead. We quickly determined that 4,500 was not going to get us over the top, so we settled back to 2,500 and lumped our way through the bumpy convection currents under the clouds. Not ideal, but in a way, better for me.

My last time to actually fly an airplane was September 12th, 1988, so I set two goals for myself … keep your altitude to +-100 feet, and try to hold a course. I was successful on both counts.

In the years between my opportunities to fly, I’ve done lot of sailing, which I’m sure was very beneficial to my ability to hold a course. The magenta line on the Avidyne Entegra Release 9 Flight Management System helped a lot too, but it was certainly helpful to know that I could pick out a spot on the ground a few miles up the way and fly to it, rather than trying to chase the compass. Sailing a 30 foot boat in choppy seas and trying to maintain a course is not unlike flying an airplane in choppy air and trying to hold a course. Altitude, however, is a bit of a different matter.

See, if you’re +–100’ altitude in a boat … you’re in kind of big trouble.

But I impressed myself. I managed to stay MOSTLY in that 200 foot window. A couple of times I found myself outside the box, but for the most part, I nailed it.

Man, that felt good.

I had flown an SR22 simulator in August in Oshkosh, but I think I flew the actual airplane more precisely than I flew the sim, which was a pretty good feeling as well.

As we approached Tampa Executive Airport, which was our intended destination, we had a bit of a problem. We were Number 2 to land, when someone arriving forgot to put down the landing gear on their airplane, and they closed the airport. We diverted to Plant City, got a rental car, and drove back over to Tampa. Jim will go get the airplane tomorrow and bring it over here.

I’ll admit, he did a lot of things and decreased my cockpit workload. Little things like, oh, taking off and landing, power management, and working with the avionics with which I’m just not familiar. I hope in the not-too-distant future I will be, but there is still a great deal to be learned. My job today was just to fly the airplane.

I could go into a detailed description about the avionics that tell you where the traffic is, and say “traffic, same altitude, one mile” if someone gets too close … but I’ll save that for another post. For today, it was enough just to have the airplane in my hands again, and remember why I fell in love with flying in the first place all those years ago.

The good news is, it’s an affair that can be resumed, and Andie won’t even care…

Much.

–scene–

I t is the second of November, and I just saw the first Christmas ad of the season.

Frankly, I’m not ready for that at all.

I know it’s less than 60 days, which in its self is pretty frightening. It’s going to be another really skinny Christmas here at Lake Woebegone by-the-Sea. But this year, in the throes of an economy that’s technically in recovery but in which people are still wondering if the next Friday brings bad news … the onslaught of Christmas ads may seem increasingly desperate.

I know it’s no earlier than usual, and truth be known I’m sure there have been Christmas ads before Halloween this year, but this one was the first that had the lights and greenery and obvious Christmas … stuff.

It won’t be long before the advertisers will start reminding me that I’m a rotten husband if i don’t buy my wife, whom I love very much, a Lexus or a diamond for the holiday. Sorry, but I’m gonna be a rotten husband AGAIN this year. Of course, since I’m a guy, she’ll be encouraged to buy power tools or shavers. Everything about the holiday has become mundanely predictable.

I’m certain that retailers are coming into this season very nervous. Even people who might have some money to spend are likely to be very conservative with it, because so far it has been a jobless recovery, and the 89% of people here in Florida who have jobs are still skittish, most have not seen a raise in a year or two, and many have had their wages cut. Separating people from their money is going to be challenging this year. But then a lackluster Christmas will make retailers even more nervous, and President Obama can’t bail out everybody.

Christmas will come, and we will enjoy it. The DVR will make it tolerable. And maybe by Christmas 2010, things will have finally turned around, or at least be back on the right road.

–scene–

I don’t know why this struck me as humorous, but it did.

I was on Mayport Road today, which is not an unusual place for me to be, but when I looked over at the woman driving the hybrid, she had a cigarette dangling, rather precipitously from her lips.

Not exactly image I have in my head when I think of the typical Prius driver.

I’m not sure what that image is, but it’s not a somewhat haggard-looking woman with a half-smoked cigarette.

Having spent some time on the road recently, it doesn’t seem as if the Prius mentality has taken hold anyway. On a recent road trip to Orlando, I couldn’t help but notice that there are still (literally) tons of massive pickup trucks and SUVs being pushed at speeds well above the posted limit on I-95 and I-4. Every time one blows by me, tires howling because they of the the big, all-weather treads on their tires that make them even less fuel efficient, my principal reaction is “I’m glad I don’t have their fuel bill.” I suppose that they are among the 89% of the population in Florida that still has a job, and what they pour into their fuel tanks is worth less than their time to get where ever it is that they’re going 15-20 minutes earlier, while endangering the lives of those who dare to go slower.

Of course, speeding tickets are such a revenue stream that if people really started driving the speed limit all the time, we’d be in far worse financial shape than we are now.

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While the rising price of oil, because it is, after all, the beginning of home heating oil season for folks that don’t live in climates like Florida, does not seem to be deterring people from pressing the gas pedal to the floor on their pickups and SUV’s neither does it seem to be helping nuclear power gain any traction on the Senate floor, where the climate (read cap-and-trade) bill appears to be struggling. Dems have added some provisions for some movement on the U.S. Nuclear Power Industry in an effort to get at least a few Republicans to vote for the climate bill, according to the Washington Post. There are not 60 votes for Cap-and-Trade, nor are there 60 votes for a nuclear power bill, but added together … there might be 60 votes to pass something.

It used to be called *gasp* Compromise, before that became a dirty word everywhere in Washington except for news releases.

I find it to be telling that much of Europe, which so many on the political left hold up as such a paragon of virtue on so many issues … saying “well, that’s how the do it in Europe”, generates so much of its electricity from nuclear plants, apparently with very little cause for alarm amongst the thousand-year-old castles and a stellar safety record. Maybe the nuclear lobby should point to that and say “Well, that’s how they do it in Europe,” but then they might be bound by an aversion to hypocrisy to support a single-payer, or in some other way nationalized, health care plan.

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And finally, the sight of the woman in the Prius smoking led to a conversation about how smoking is perhaps becoming seen as a habit of the lower class. Watching a show like Mad Men, you’re reminded that smoking used to be considered glamorous. From board rooms to news sets, airplanes and the finest restaurants, smoking was nearly ubiquitous as little as 40 years ago. Now, when I travel, it’s surprising to be asked by the host or hostess of an eating establishment “Smoking or Non.” Here in Florida, it’s one of those things that just is not allowed in any business.

One of the reasons I quit back in the mid-80’s was because even back then, in California, a smoker was something of a pariah. You were relegated to the outdoors at people’s houses if you were visiting. One could still smoke in many businesses out there back in the day, but that went away a while back too.

Not to mention the cost. Cigarettes were about $20 a carton when I quit. I understand now they’re closer to $40, and in states where the taxes are higher, closer to $50. When I was going through two packs a day, a carton would last 5 days tops. I’d sure hate to be supporting a $300-$400 a month cigarette habit.

A cigar, however, is still a symbol of affluence. Which doesn’t make them any less of a health risk, but I don’t go through 40 a day, either.

–scene–

What’s with all the ghost shows? I know Halloween is just a couple of days away, but it seems like everybody suddenly wants a ghost show.

Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Lab, Ghostly Encounters, Paranormal State, Ghost Whisperer, Ghost Adventurers, Destination Truth sometimes does the paranormal thing, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. No doubt, the paranormal is hot.

And we watch a lot of them, to be honest, but there are only a couple that are set on the DVR. Ghost Hunters and GHI are two of them.

Ghost Hunters may not be the first ghost show, but of the current crop, it’s certainly the best, IMO.

Jason and Grant are plumbers with Roto Rooter. They’re also the founders of TAPS, The Atlantic Paranormal Society. They travel around the country investigating supposedly haunted places, and debunking when they can. They also occasionally comment on the plumbing, which makes them very real.

And I think of all the paranormal shows, I like that one best because they’re real.

All the shows pretty much use the same technology. The K-2 Meters and EMF detectors, digital recording devices, FLIR cameras … gives it some kind of credibility I suppose. 

But so many of the shows have such over-the-top characters that it takes away from the show. Ghost Lab and Ghost Adventurers are the worst of those, I think. Ghost Adventurers in particular takes a swipe at Ghost Hunters in its intro, talking about “no big camera crew.” But Zack and his bunch are such amateurs and such … weenies is the only word I can come up with …  that it’s more a comedy than a a ghost “reality” show.

Jason, Grant, Steve, Tango, Chris, and Amy, however, make the ghosts and the locations the stars of the show. It’s not about them, it’s about finding or debunking the paranormal, and that’s what sets them apart.

Are there ghosts? From what I’ve seen on some of these shows, I’d have to say it’s at least plausible. 

But the even larger question is, how do I get a show like that? I’ve got to figure out what I can do to be able to travel around the world and be on television and make some money at it. I mean seriously. I’m good on television, I love to travel. Maybe not a ghost show, because there are a glut of those on the channels above 100, and I’m not as enthusiastic about getting dirty as Mike Rowe, but there has to be some kind of show that would allow me to travel the world on somebody else’s dime.

Shouldn’t there?

But the ghost thing still amazes me. It just seems like every cable channel has to have there ghost show. Is there that much interest in the afterlife? My sisters used to insist that the house we grew up in was haunted, but I never saw anything that would make me believe it. Even though some of the things are, at best, unexplainable, there’s never the full bodied apparition walking down the hall, caught on camera, with a big toothy grin. It wouldn’t necessarily take that to convince me, but they always hear stories about those kinds of things, but they never, ever show up. Just an occasional disembodied voice, human-looking shadow,closing door, and the ubiquitous footsteps.

But they are entertaining, and we keep watching because the woman in the white dress will eventually come walking down the hall, bigger than life, on the IR camera. It’s sort of like the aliens, I think they’re out there, but no one has been able to present the hard evidence. As for ghosts … I wouldn’t say no, and they make for some entertaining television.

–scene–

Not so much of a review, because I’ve just installed it. But I will say the installation went (mostly) smoothly.

First, it took a little more than 4 hours to complete. I don’t know why that surprised me, because it is, after all, an operating system, and it had to work around all my installed programs. It only asked me to uninstall three things, and I did two of them. The Windows Live Webcam, which I use for Skype, and the HP Quick Start buttons were pretty easy choices.

But it also wanted me to uninstall iTunes, which I didn’t do. I checked a couple of websites, which assured me that iTunes would work fine with Window’s 7, but I do have the executable for the latest version of iTunes should there be a problem. The next time I need the cam, I’ll plug it in, it’ll wake up and install the software, and should be fine.

At least that’s the plan. If not, I’ll go find it.

I’m sure the laptop will realize soon that I’ve uninstalled the quick start buttons, and restore them for me.

But other than that, the installation went smoothly. I probably didn’t have to uninstall those bits of software, but did anyway. After the initial re-boot, I pretty much sat back and watched.

And watched.

And watched.

Worked a crossword puzzle.

Fixed dinner.

Ate it.

Watched

Watched football.

Watched.

You get the idea.

I’m not sure if it’s easier yet. Like I said, I’m in about the first half hour with the OS. But when a friend of mine who’s a dyed-in-the-wool Mac guy told me at breakfast that this was a pretty good product, and I knew I could justify the upgrade as a business expense, I just went ahead and bought it today.

I’ll let you know about my impressions. As far as the installation goes, it was pretty painless. There were a couple of things on this confuser that had been a problem with Vista, so we’ll see if 7 clears those up. The most annoying of those was with some automatic updates that keep erroring out, and I hope that’s now fixed.

So, no recommendation yet, but since the Office Depot checkout guy told us that once the package was opened there were no refunds or exchanges … we’re committed now.

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Speaking of Office Depot, there was something that just didn’t add up in the parking lot today. We’d just parked the car and were going into the store when a massive 4X4 pickup came down the lot … and drove around the speed bump. Now, here’s a truck that’s intended to be used off road, though it’s obvious that it had never been off the pavement. It’s one of the trucks that you see in the commercials having several tons of cement blocks being dropped in the back, or pounding through the desert, or running through the mud, tossing rocks the size of your head off like they were styrofoam in super slow motion. Rugged, manly, gas-guzzling truck … and the weenie behind the wheel decided to drive around a speed bump.

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Which reminds me of the drive back from improv rehearsal in Orange Park a couple of weeks ago. A guy in a Prius tried to cut in front of me to get on the freeway, which I thwarted. But on cruise control on the freeway, heading up the incline on the Buckman Bridge … here comes Mr. Prius at about 80 … passing me on the right in his hybrid car.

Now, I don’t mind that he wants to prove that his glorified golf cart can go 80 miles an hour, uphill on the freeway, but doesn’t that kind of defeat the entire purpose of the hybrid? I’m think I’m pretty safe in saying it wasn’t the ELECTRIC motor that was making that happen. But he was finally ahead of me, which seemed to be the point, and I was on cruise control and pretty much beyond caring at that point. It was nice weather, the top was down, and my mileage was probably better than his at that point.

But it’s still not going to convince me that a Prius is a muscle car.

-0-

So, that’s kind of the news from lake Woebegone By-The-Sea. The Jaguars had a bye this week, so at least they didn’t lose. Tomorrow is Monday, and it’s time to get back to Aero-News. Improv rehearsal tomorrow night and a show at The Comedy Zone on Tuesday.

And in 10 days it’s off to Tampa for the AOPA convention. The fun just never stops …

–scene–

And no, that’s not an additional “A”. I spent the week at the National Business Aviation Association meeting on behalf of Aero-News.net. And boy, were there a lot of pretty airplanes.

Here we have the Honda Jet, certainly not in its natural habitat. Honda has had this aircraft in development for several years, and the only place it’s prettier is when it flies. Honda was one the few airplanes on the floor of the convention center in Orlando, and how they got there with no nearby runway had to be amazing. I didn’t see it. Along with the Honda, a Pilatus PC-12 was parked indoors at the convention center, which was sold during the show. There was also a Cirrus SR22X Edition, as well as the mockup of the Cirrus Jet.

But airplanes are usually best displayed outside, which was the purpose for the static display at Orlando Executive Airport.

This row of Cessna jets, along with a Grand Caravan and a 350 Corvalis. Off to the left are the Citation X models, one with the winglets that are showing up on more aircraft. I was up on a scissor lift with the ANN camera guys to get this shot. Cessna was one of the many recognizable names that brought their entire lines to Orlando for NBAA. Bombardier/Learjet, Embraer, Gulfstream. Pretty much if you ever dreamed of flying, or flying in one, it was on the static display at Orlando last week.

This is the MS760, an airplane as old as I am. Originally designed as a French military jet, it was marketed by Beechcraft back in the day as first of what are now known as VLJ’s, or Very Light Jets. Four seats, two engines, goes fast, but economical (for a jet), the people who fly it say it is very easy to fly. Here’s a jet you could throw dive bags in the back seat, a day pack with a bathing suit, clean shorts and flip-flops in the baggage compartment, and zip down to Treasure Cay in about an hour, turning heads at the airport on arrival. The company is putting together an aerobatic demonstration team featuring Dale “Snort” Snodgrass, who I was told was the pilot that was the inspiration for the movie “Top Gun”, and who flew many of the F-14 sequences in that movie, and Jerry “Jive” Kerby, 23 years in the Air Force and a top F-15 pilot. The best part is they’ll be practicing out of St. Augustine, which is a good reason to go to Caps On The Water to watch them fly.

Of course, for taxiing right up to the dock at Brendal’s on Green Turtle Cay, this would be the airplane of choice, for me anyway. The Dornier Seastar brings a long heritage of flying boats to this first all-composite example. But like most of the airplanes on the ramp last week, I’m going to have to win the lottery to be able to buy one.

So on the way out of town, I bought a ticket.

As far as the overall economy is concerned, though, I talked with a lot of people who said that, while traffic was down somewhat from past years, the people who were looking at the airplanes at NBAA this were were more serious. “Fewer tire kickers” was a phrase I heard more than once. From just the variety of pictures here, it’s fairly obvious that really any airplane can be a business airplane. From a 4 place piston aircraft to a 50-year-old Paris Jet … or a big, roomy, flying boat to the traditional bizjet, airplanes are a great way to get where you’re going, whether there’s a business meeting or a boat trip to the reef at the end of road.

Of course, the first time we went diving with Brendal, and we settled into a coral cavern about midway through the dive, he pulled out his slate and wrote “how do you like my office?” So maybe those two things aren’t THAT much different.

–scene–