Trish and Matt's Web
Log: Jun 04
27 Jun 2004
Racing camels at Circus Circus.

We went there to celebrate Trish's 24th
Birthday. Circus Circus sports a complete circus midway and free
circus acts every 15 minutes. What a country.
15 Jun 2004
How many pilots does it take to change a tire?
14 Jun 2004
Pilots making good use of their time.
12 Jun 2004
The Road to Mt. Charleston

We
spent the day hiking up Cathedral Rock in the Mt. Charleston area, not
20 miles from our house. Isn't that something. 20 Miles to
downtown Vegas, 25 miles to my airfield, and 20 miles to spectacular
hiking. What a country.

Of course, I can't do anything without lugging around 38 pounds of
gear. Because hey, you never know.
Trish
found the hike invigorating.
I must know where we
are!

We made it to the top. Hurray.
02 Jun 2004
First Predator Full-stop Landing.
The Predator is a difficult aircraft to
land. It is an remotly-piloted aircraft and so you have to rely
on the video feed as your visual reference and the telemetry as your
instruments. Since you're using a fixed camera, you can't see
anything but what's right in front of the aircraft. Which means
if you have to crab a bit into the wind, your view is skewed.
In the above video (captured by the payload camera) you'll notice that
I come in a bit steep. Then later, I flare too early and end up
dropping it in, which makes for a very firm landing. Still, I got
it down undamaged. With a bit more practice, should be no problem.
Towards the end of the video, you notice the video slew around.
That's the sensor operator using the camera to make sure there's
nothing on the taxi way for us to run into. This is not the
camera
I'm using to fly the aircraft.