Angel Falls, Still Looking

Last night Uncle Bob and I pored over some old aviation maps of the Venezuelan highlands from which Angel Falls emanates. We also looked, on a more recent aviation map, at previous tracks that Bob (and, twice, I also) have flown in and around where Angel Falls is supposedly located. On the old map, I noted that the stream on which Angel Falls is located did not show the branch on which the Falls is actually located. I dug out a copy of a hand-drawn map, depicting the relative locations and directions of cliffs, the various rivers and tributaries in and around the Falls. When we compared this hand drawing with the aviation maps, we discovered that they generally did not show the little side stream (which also appears on the Google maps!) that represents Angel Falls' source.

We now have a better idea of what to look for when we overfly that part of the country. If the clouds cooperate, I believe we will be able to see the Falls this time! We know where to look and which direction to look (northwesterly), and the most advantageous position for the airplane to be in order to be looking obliquely toward the Falls -- for obvious reasons, you can't really see these Falls if you are directly above them.

Last night we weighed most of our stuff: "Aircraft parts", Maps and Documents, Food box, Tools, Survival gear, empty reserve tank (which will be filled with 20 gallons of 100 octane low-lead gasoline), Cabin supplies (including earphones, intercom and those all-important 1.25 liter jugs used to hold what the long-suffering bladder cannot -- there are no "rest-stops" along the freeways of the sky!). Today we will load these things and the life boat into the airplane and fly it up to the paved runway north of Huntsville. Tonight we will pack and weigh our luggage to have it ready to stow aboard for our take-off tomorrow morning.

Friday in Huntsville

Today was spent at the CIM lab where I helped a young grad student modify his test setup to properly support his test specimen. He was successful in conducting his experiment, which was to show the change in Helium leak rate when a thin film is pierced by a gold-ion beam.

Bob and I stopped at the local grocery store to stock up on the things we will eat while in the air. This included bottled water, pecans, grapes, raisins, oatmeal, pitted dates, instant coffee, powdered mild and Jonagold apples.

Tomorrow we will go out to the Mooney, load it with the things that are stored at Moontown and then fly it up to the paved runway in Tennessee, just north of Huntsville.

I'm getting psyched up!!

Commercial Flight to Huntsville AL

Yesterday, Jim took me to time out of his day (thanks a bunch, Jim!) to take me to the airport in time to catch my 1145 a.m. American Airlines flight. The flight to Dallas/Fort Worth was uneventful with scenery of the snowy Rockies beneath the wings as we crossed the Continental Divide somewhere around Denver.

When we landed at DFW, besides having to taxi half-way across Texas (it seemed) to get from the landing strip to the terminal, when we got there, our gate wasn't ready so we had to sit on the tarmac for about ten minutes waiting for another airplane to leave so we could take its place. All the while, Grumpy is sitting there nourishing his starving stomach with fingernails as my connecting flight was scheduled to leave from another gate on the far side of another terminal!

Finally getting at the gate, now Grumpy (who was cleverly seated near the rear of the not-so-super 80 -- an old MacDac airplane) had to wait while a hundred passengers got up, slowly pulled their carry-ons out of the overhead bins and ambled up the long narrow aisle to the front of the airplane.

I finally got into the terminal with 15 minutes to get myself and my carry-ons to the far gate. I wandered until I found the "QuickLink", an automated tram that carries people from one end of the four terminals to the other, and in another two minutes was at my gate -- five minutes to spare.

My seat (29F), reserved for a month or more, was in the rear of the super 80. When the engines revved up, the noise almost drilled out my eardrums! (Memo to self: after this, make sure to ask for a seat no further back than row 25 on a Super 80.

Anyway, I arrived on time in Huntsville, Unxcle Bob was there to meet me and Inisia and Larry Holland (our hosts in Huntsville) had a gourmet meal prepared for us when we arrived at the Holland mansion.

Today promises to be more excitement as I visit the Radiation Lab and we go see the Mooney. More of that in the next post.

A Shot in the Arm, Part II

Well, I fought I-405 Thursday morning to get over to the Specialty Center in Redmond where a willing nurse gave me three (3) innoculations: Yellow Fever, Typhoid, and Hepatitis A. Two of them were given sequentially in the left arm and one in the right.

So last night and today both shoulders are a little sore. But last night, Grumpy's wife and I went out to a fine restaurant to help Bopop celebrate his 55th birthday, and when we arrived my stomach was not feeling encouraging for the meal that Armondo's offered. I was worried!

Was I coming down with the mild Yellow Fever that this live virus can cause in some people? Was I suffering a reaction to the carrier matix that any of the vaccines used?

Not to worry!! I ordered a relatively bland dish (Garlicky Alfredo Fettuccini, if that can be called "bland"!) and scarffed it all down with a half-dozen slices of sour-dough bread and several glasses of water. I felt fine.

Until I got the bill!

Just joking! It was our pleasure to treat Bopop and his Bride to a meal out; we were entertained among other things by the adventures at Grandma's and Grandpa's house of two little blond boys from down Amboy way. Especially the tale of how Arthur was carried by his Grandpa "the same way my Dad carries me".

I was also amused by Bopop's description of the latest attempt by the power's-that-be at the big Kite Factory to dictate a "new" procedure by which to ensure that "no future confidential data will be lost from another stolen laptop".

A Shot in the Arm

One of the Brazilian requirements for coming to their country, if you plan to visit any jungle/rain forest region, is to have a Yellow Fever shot. Twice in the past two years I have landed at Boa Vista, a jungle town in the Amazon rain forest. The first time, two years ago Uncle Bob and I were entering Brazil, so had to go through Customs; I was asked if I had had a Yellow Fever shot, to which I could truthfully answer "Yes". But then they had to see my evidence!
The Brazilian customs nurse waited with dripping needle, a gleeful smirk on her face as she contemplated the pain she would inflict if I couldn't come up with my proof.

Fortunately, I dug through my travel documents (maintained in one place since the days I travelled as a Boeing employee) and "voila!" here it was. The needle-wielding nurse showed her disappointment; Uncle Bob reflected equal remorse in not being able to see his big brother "tortured" -- part of his life-long wish to effect retribution for all of the real or perceived injustices foisted upon him by said big brother.

However, as I get ready to embark on this adventure to fly the Mooney across continents, impenetrable jungles and oceans, I reviewed my international innoculation records and noted, much to my chagrin, that the Yellow Fever shot (dated 1982) is "valid for ten (10) years from this date". Whoops!!

So this morning I checked with my International Travel nurse to see if that ten-year date had been revised to "for life" only to find out that it hadn't!! Now I am on a waiting list to have the innoculation for Yellow Fever sometime in the next week or ten days. I leave on the 22nd! Maybe the customs nurse in Boa Vista will get her "pound of flesh" after all!

Have pity on me -- Somebody? -- Anybody?

Where in the World is Angel Falls?

Uncle Bob blew the air out of my sails by confirming that the coordinates I found on Wikipedia are the same as he got from Google. Well, we already went by those last April and, as near as I can tell, we were too far West and South -- by at least a mile (one minute of latitude or longitude near the equator is equivalent to one nautical mile).

Can anyone out there suggest another source for the coordinates of Angel Falls? I have searched the Venezuela website but they are more interested in enviegling tourists into their "spider webs" than giving out any information useful to a transient flying over at 12,000 feet.

I found a neat resource at the IRS website: all the forms and instructions that I used to battle bums down at the Federal Building on 3rd Avenue in Seattle to collect before I could do my taxes (two or three 1040's for different people, two 1041's for the two trusts for which the Wife and I are Trustees). Now the forms on the internet are even better! I can fill them out and THEN print them!! It's called something like "editing permission" -- you can't change most things on the forms, but you can fill in the blanks.

Anyway, I use an EXCEL spreadsheet format that I have refined over the years to do the math and logic stuff for the 1041's (I used to do that for the 1040's before TaxCut program came along) and then transpose the numbers over onto the pdf forms from the internet. EASY!! (relatively, that is)

So now I am done with all of the taxes for 2006 --YIPPEE!!! -- except Adolfo's -- he wants to get a nephew added to his dependents first.

Success at Last: Profile and Income Taxes

Well, as you can see, the Old Man was finally successful in getting his photo included in his Profile, thanks to the patience and good advice of my son, Jim. The "illegal" characters with which I had trouble at first turned out to be the " marks at the beginning and end of the scr= statement. I also note that the URL text which appears in the Notepad and also the Profile, include an underline in the places that appear as spaces in the URL link.

I had to postpone working on my BLOG in order to do our income taxes -- edict per Grumpy's wife!! Now it is finished as far as is possible until late-breaking updates from IRS come out about 15 February. We will be getting back a few thou' so I am anxious to get it filed.

Plans and Reservations for Trip to Brazil

Well, so far my recovery from my minor surgery has been according to schedule; biopsies have confirmed that I will probably die of an automobile accident before I die of cancer -- cardiology is also favorable of a long natural life. Mother's fear is that
I will crash into the Caribbean or the Rain Forest before the auto accident.

I have made my reservations for departure from SeaTac on 22 February for Huntsville. Bob and I will be flying out of Huntsville the next day bound for Brazil and points in between. This will be a leisurely trip south, Bob assures me, with a half hour to look for/at Angel Falls if the clouds are favorable. I found the coordinates on Wikipedia and they verified the ones Bob had. Photos of the Falls and/or other interesting things will appear on this site as soon as we get to Ribierao Preto, if I can figure out how to use Adelaide's Portuguese-speaking PC, that is.

Reservations for the return flight from Huntsville to Seattle are for 31 March. Bob and I will be flying north out of Brazil on a not-so-relaxed schedule, as he has to be in San Francisco in early April for a Physics conference.