write.as/jonbeckett

I'm not doing the Wordpress Blogging 101 exercise today, because it's not really about writing – it's about commenting – and commenting elsewhere isn't about me, so it doesn't really fit any kind of contorted attempt to make it enough about me to bother writing about. I think that's probably the worst constructed sentence I've ever written too. Ah well.

Today was ever so slightly mad. I spent the morning working on a webservice to help a co-worker out, then cycled home to spend much of the afternoon presenting a web conference demonstration of something big and supposedly clever to aroom full of clients at a far flung destination. Following that I ate dinner, washed up, and then headed to the middle school for a meeting about an upcoming trip to France.

I just got in a few moments ago – while I was out our youngest went to football practice, and our middle girl went to guides. Our house seems to be in a permanent state of flux – one or more of us is always either about to go somewhere, on our way somewhere, or on our way back from somewhere else. The constants in our universe seem to be washing waiting to go in the washing machine, and washing up in the sink – no matter how much of it you think you've done, it replenisheswithin hours.

I bought a bottle of wine from the garageon the way back from the school meeting, and a family sized bag of M&Ms. I've hidden the M&Ms at the back of the fridge. Yes, I am an awful parent, and yes, I will be playing video games late into the night tonight.

I'm not quite sure why I did it, but I installed “Flight Simulator” on the old computer in the study junk room last weekend. I've only had a few opportunities to play with it so far, but amazed myself with how much I remembered – and how much I didn't remember. I was an aircraft nut when I grew up – partly because we lived next to RAF Brize Norton, and also partly because my brother used to build plastic model kits of aeroplanes (he still flies radio controlled aircraft, and has a goatee – two things that seem to go together quite often, based on my limited experience).

Anyway... it turns out I can remember how to fly a plane. I've actually flown a real one in the past too – our next door neighbour years ago (the son of an RAF fighter pilot) was training for the next certification on his private pilots license, and needed help funding the hours required – so invited friends up with him. I took the controls mid-flight for some time, and flew quite a bit of the route while he busied himself with navigation, radios, and communicating with approach at our destination.

I proved that anybody can learn on a simulator and transfer the skills directly to the real thing – and also illustrated the difference between simulation and the real world. Because I had learned watching a screen, I essentially did that in the real aircraft – I flew it on instruments, rather than feel – watching the speed, vertical speed, altitude, and compass, and following the requested path pretty much perfectly. Because I was watching instruments all the time, I wasn't doing what a real pilot would – scanning the aircraft, and scanning the airspace around the aircraft – which you can only really do if you can fly by feel while doing so... I tried it, and it was hard. Harder than flying by instruments.

So – after writing this, I'll probably be jumping in a pretend Cessna, and climbing outOakland to wander around the San Francisco bay for a while.