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• Post #4454115

  I've been curious because I am hearing a LOT more GA airplanes coming in over my house aiming for 16R and 16L at KEUG, so I went to see what it is costing these days for a private pilot ticket here. One flight school has very good transparency and publishes $13,000 - $17,000 for the average student, and can go as high as $20,000 for "extended schedules" where students fly only once a week or less. Yeah, and $8.80/gal for 100LL at the field's only FBO. #Ouch #avgeeks #aviatio...

• Post #4403194

  Stepped outside to go for a neighborhood walk and the hot, thick, smoky air hit me like a 2x4. Around my house, I have purpleair.com readings of 275, 286 and 288 (closest monitors). Yeah, just gunna stay inside with the windows closed, all good.

• Post #2559194

  CBS is pulling the plug on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert next May, Colbert announced today. We will never know what political horseshit is behind this decision, but the CBS claims of the reason being "purely a financial decision" is bogus. Nobody believes you, CBS. They got to you, CBS and you caved. Colbert was the only decent show left on your network, and this will come back to bite you with another consumer boycott. I hope your viewership falls off a cliff. https...

• Post #2533093

  Heading out for Round Two of "Dan vs. Hoses" in a few minutes. It is my annual cage match between a human and about 10 hoses. Round One did not go well. #Spring #Gardening

• Post #2322300

  Saw this on the Book of Faces and I am 100% down with it. #CRAP

• Post #2175386

  Chatter out of #Canada prompted this question from AvBrief.com: "Last Season For the Snowbirds? Canadian Government Mulls Suspending Demo Team" This is not a done deal by any means. Apparently the Canadian Air Force is down quite a few #pilots, and might be thinking of using these top sticks as non-air show pilots. Article says it might not be a cancellation, just a "five year pause." We love the #Snowbirds here, hopes this does not come to pass. https://avbrief.com/last...

• Post #2172979

  This "Stone Soup" strip in my AM gocomics.com run today hits the target with me. We have something in our family called "The Lebanese Look" that my wife (half Lebanese) can use when she means business. If you see her use that look, you are toast, run fast the other direction. She's normally sweet as can be, unless you are an insurance company trying to F*ck her around. She can somehow transmit that look thru a telephone until the wires melt. It's her secret weapon,...

• Post #2161021

  They way Spirit Airlines went under seems to be indicative of their overall management strategy (or lack thereof). They could have set a date for closing a couple of weeks ago, stopped with the "Trump will bail us out" gaslighting, and not left all their current pax scrambling for flights on other carriers. But no...they just up and closed the airline overnight. 17K of workers on the street, and countless pax screwed over. Corporate America will be proud of them. #GoodRid...

• Post #1993589

  As a guy, I know very little about fashion. But I am failing to understand the Met Gala. So, is the POINT of this event to wear the most unusual, outrageous and ridiculous outfit you can dream up? I get it, you want to serve your ego, make people swoon, but dressing up like a Star Wars houseplant or the love child of Lady Gaga and the Michelin Man just seems silly.

• Post #1993248

  Marked safe from "May the 4th be with you" day. Now to survive Cinco De Mayo tomorrow.

• Post #1901347

  This must be a tradition at Cottage Grove Speedway. They bring every car from the pits out and all of the families come out from the stands and they’ve been hanging around now like this for 30 minutes.

• Post #1892921

  Just made a random observation while on the treadmill. I shuffle all the songs in my iPhone Music app, and many of them are old school 1970s/early 80s rock from back when I was in my late teens and early 20s. I was a different person back then. Partying down, fast motorcycles, trying hard to avoid adulting. My crew did a lot of crazy stuff, it was life in the fast lane. So here I am decades later, still upright, when a few of my pals are gone. I did not expect this level of longevity.

• Post #1888586

  While they might not be 410 winged sprint cars, I'm most likely headed to Cottage Grove (OR) Speedway tonight to see a full card of local yokel stock cars thrash it out on that tight dirt oval. $10 is all to get in, that's some cheap entertainment in this economy. These IMCA cars put on a decent show, they lean heavily on each other in the corners, trade plenty of paint, and make race car noises, which I crave.

• Post #1869127

  Looks like Sonex found a buyer and is back in business. https://avbrief.com/new-owner-restarts-sonex

• Post #1860909

  I am not sorry I never got to experience the thrill of flying Spirit Airlines (Home of the Bare Fare). Via WSJ (behind paywall): "Spirit Airlines is preparing to shut down. The ailing budget airline had been hoping to finalize a $500 million lifeline from the government before running out of cash. Spirit is currently expected to cease operations around 3 a.m. ET Saturday." Never bothered with Avelo, Allegiant or any other "budget" carrier. Too easy for them to cut corners...

• Post #1855507

  OK, so this new phone is seriously faster than my iPhone 8 on LTE.

• Post #1794573

  West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Light Sweet Crude now $109.31/bbl tonight, just keeps going up. Last session closed this afternoon with a settlement price of $106.88/bbl. So it's gone up just today about $2.43/bbl. This is the "front " price, for future deliveries. The "get it here tomorrow" physical delivery price is hovering around $120/bbl. AAA has average price nationally of 87 unleaded at $4.229/gal. #Yikes #Damn #RUKiddingMe #ClownCar #trainwreck #DumpsterFire #WT...

• Post #1782273

  Say this on the Book of Faces today and it gave me a laugh...and a chill because it is SO true. #airplanemath

• Post #1734518

  In talking with my wife/Travel Coordinator about a September trip I want to take to see a 410 sprint car race in the Seattle area, she told me she had no idea what kind of racing this is. So I just showed a World of Outlaws highlight reel from April 19th. She lasted 3 laps. "Are they supposed to go sideways like that in the turns?" "Why do they have a roof over the driver?" "They are not being very nice to each other, cutting each other off." Yes, downforce, an...

• Post #1640859

  There is something that hits me every day right now, and that is the amount of new things people can become addicted to. I have some history with addiction from three decades ago, so I know of which I speak. In the Before Times, there was alcohol, drugs and cigarettes as the three main addictions. Now, add to that social media, diving into Internet Rabbit Holes, vaping, online gambling, the ridiculous "prediction" markets, and AI girlfriends. The weal-willed among us do not stand a...

• Post #1599969

  Kinda noticing a theme in the tech sector re: employees being shown the door. Nike, Microsoft and Meta all announcing significant layoffs and buyouts in the last few days. Every time I see these, I have to wonder how many of these people who are losing their nice fat tech jobs worked on the AI/LLM systems that are replacing them. Sorta like making the Medieval criminals sentenced to hanging to be forced to build their own gallows. https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/meta-to-cut-8000-job...

• Post #1553499

  Balloon Pilot of the Year: The pilot of a large Hot Air Balloon carrying 13 pax threaded the needle between trees and set down precisely in someone's back yard in Temecula, CA. See, here's the thing about balloons. You do not really "steer" them, you go where the wind takes you. You have some control over ascents and descents, so to drop this one into a residential back yard between trees is unreal. The pax stopped at Wally World on the way home to buy new un...

• Post #1507656

  For anyone who says this is electoral cheating, I have one word for you: Texas. Happy to see the Blue team playing hardball against the GOP. They cheated first, so we have to cheat to keep a level playing field. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/virginia-voters-approve-democrats-redistricting-plan-giving-party-midt-rcna340895

• Post #1273497

  My wife has been trying to book a trip to the EU with our 17YO granddaughter, just the two of them. It will be the trip of a lifetime for them both, and is my wife's 5th trip over the pond. She's had zero luck booking flights with United points, but last night was able to move some miles around and locked in the trip over (she already had the trip back booked). Biz class for them both ways. My Grand is stoked to finally be experiencing United's Polaris lie-flat seats. I'm stayi...

• Post #1183386

  I just tried to go to our local #Eugene #Library Annual Used Book Sale at the fairgrounds (all books $3) and the line to get in was at least 300 people, snaked around the building in the rain, and was not moving. I think this might say something about the real #economy, when this many people want to scrape together enough coin for a few used books. I might try again this afternoon or tomorrow to stock up on aviation books on the cheap.

• Post #1183384

  Made it back to the #Eugene #Oregon #PNW Annual Book Sale, and scored three aviation titles plus two on the backstory of national TV journalists. Aviation books are one on Chuck Yaeger, a "biography" of the Spitfire, and one on the making of USN fighter pilots. The two "behind the scenes" titles on TV news people are by Walter Cronkite and Bob Schieffer. All for $10 total. #reading #books #Libraries

• Post #1183383

  Oil futures price vs. physical delivery of crude to a refinery: The "futures" price you see for Brent crude (the world benchmark) is for a contract that ends in June 2026, with trading ending end of April. The physical price - for barrels delivered to a refinery today - can be much higher. Generally, futes price has been hovering around $100/bbl, but physical price is in the $120 to $140 range per barrel. Based on today's headlines, I predict a quick jump in both pri...

• Post #1183382

  Someday I am going to talk to someone who does the actual price changes at a gas station. In a typical retail world, they buy a load of gasoline at a specific price, add in their markup, and see a profit. But with the massive price gouging that is happening right now, that gas in their tank that was bought has not gone up in price, but the pump price jumps on every tidbit of headline news. It is criminal, but of course we have nobody in this guvmint that will do anything about it. #corruption

• Post #1183381

  The awesome election results out of Hungary reminded me of my visit to Budapest in 2017. Quite an interesting place. The metro area is caught between western civilization and Soviet Bloc insanity. To understand Budapest, think "Paris meets Moscow." Chic shops everywhere, but you need to take worn out third-world streetcars to get to them. Meals consist of meat, another meat, with two sides of meat. Do not even attempt to speak or read their language. To western eyes, these ar...

• Post #1183380

  Headed back to the states in my #Xplane #flightsim #Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet. Tonight's flight (actually early Weds morning real-time) is Cork Int'l Airport in Ireland (EICK) to Keflavík Int'l Airport (KEF) in Reykjavík, Iceland. Level at FL260 over a stormy North Atlantic below (ambient temp -40C at altitude) single-engine (turbine). Making 407 kts of ground speed, sucking up the fuel at 137 GPH, so I'll have to tap my virtual ferry tank to meet NBAA reserves wh...