The Lion King meets the Corvette King

My little buddy, Cubby

For 100 Rand, I had a close encounter

Well, it has been too many months since I blogged. Therefore I''m sort of embarrassed - as it's not as if nothing has happened in my life - indeed, almost everything has.  For starters, I journeyed to South Africa whiter I ate in five star restaurants, visited the prison where Mandela was held for 27 years, went to the top of Table Mountain, took a boat to Seal Island, visited the South African penguins, played with a baby lion cub and rode an elephant.

My little buddy, meeting on me

Today I'll stick to the lions, which we saw every day when we'd venture out at dawn and dusk with our guide and his tracker.  I've included a picture of an older male lion, as well as a female lioness, both resting as we drove by.  After all, in September it's Springtime in the southern hemisphere, and it was getting hotter each day.   I really enjoyed the Safari week, not to take away from a week of great dining and wine tastings in the Capetown area.

But to think, for 100 South African Rand,, with worked out to perhaps eight dollars U.S. currency, I got to step into the cage with this cute little bundle of fur and play with him.

And he played rough - when I go up to leave, it was then and only then that I noticed he'd scratched my forearms - and I didn't even notice until the keeper (and iPhone photographer) poured iodine on both arms, chased it with hydrogen peroxide and some bandages.  Next blog might be about the elephant ride

a 3 month old cub

A mama lion at rest

King of the Jungle, and bored silly with tourists taking pictures

I had the time of my life, playing with this little guy - soft and cuddly......and ten minutes went too quicly

An old man with a Corvette problem

I have a Corvette problem.  That I assume is part of the 12 step program.  Therefore I'm on step 6, as I've had six Corvettes so far.

Pictured here are four of them, with the silver metallic one pictured with my very tolerant wife.  That was a 2008 sixth generation Coupe, which I had traded my 2004 Lemans Blue Coupe on here in Florida.

The 2008 was purchased in 2009, and two years later was traded for the 2011 new Cyber Gray Coupe.  I'm pictured with the obscenely tall trophy won at a car show in Illinois, which I attended during a visit to St Louis.

The other picture of the 2011 was taken in the driveway of our home on Winding Oaks Drive on Longboat Key.  This would be my fourth Corvette, starting with the 2001 Midnight Blue (almost purple), which I purchased used from a St Louis Dodge dealership.  All up to this had been Coupes, except for that first 2001, which was a manually operated top Convertible.  So, the 2001 begat the 2004, which then begat the 2008 and ultimately the 2011 Coupe.

Then everything changed.......I had the 2011 in for servicing and I spotted a red convertible, on the used car lot.  It had an automatic top, and I was hooked.

Should have kept her - automatic transmission

It had lots of options too, installed by the prior
owner, including window tinting and special wheels.  It also had a large CORVETTE decal across the top of the windshield.  Wife said "why", commenting that there was nothing like a corvette, so why proclaim the obvious.

She (the car) was very sweet looking, with a gray top and gray fender badging.  She was also a Grand Sport, with those big tires on the rear sitting inside those flared out fenders.  And she was fast.  Six speed auto with paddle shifters.

She was also a trophy winner too (see below).  I actually had this car long enough that I actually had to spend money on new tires....not cheap.

It"s a winner!

2010, 2014, 2004 (l to r)

Radio Controlled

Well, after winning class C6B (sixth generation Corvettes came out in 2005), and class B would indicate a model newer the 2008 when the newer engine LS-3 was installed.  Winning this class in 2013, I started looking at the newest Corvette C-7.  The model changed in 2014, after nine years of the sixth generation style.  My dear wife even bought one for me, with a smaller version thrown in for good measure.  Radio Controlled cars, no matter how nice a Christmas gift in 2014, left me unfulfilled.  So, it was only a matter of time before I graduated to a seventh generation Corvette.  And of course, it had to be red.  I'd started out with 5th generation blue Corvettes, but after that first red one, I was hooked.  The current red is called Torch Red, but like prior generations, they're all "Re-Sale Red".  On one of our Corvette Club trips, I shot the picture of the three red cars parked dockside, with a C-6 (mine at that point) a C-7 and a C-5 parked left to right.

This is my current Corvette, a 2015, which turned 5.001 miles today as I pulled into our garage.

This car is awesome, but that stick shift ultimately proved detrimental during "season" which on Longboat Key refers to the time when the northerners come down and clog the roads.  During season,  one can literally take one hour to get off the island and onto a two lane road.  The trick, therefore, is to leave early before people headed to the beach clog the roads.  And to come back pretty much near dusk.  Don't even think about going out for dinner during the months of January through April.

And with that advice, I end this epistle - yesterday was Corvettes on the circle - a C-7 from our club (one of three) won the class I shared - it was yellow, while our other club members car was also red.
Guess we both slipped on a banana peel, eh?

Night lights and night flights of fancy

new lighting in our courtyard

I recently become aware of a brand new blog, being written by a pilot friend, and it reminded me that I'd probably not written much since the big Kiwanis fundraiser in early December.

But what topic would be appropriate?  I decided to put together two events from the past week, night lights and last night's first night flight.   So, I've cobbled together the appropriate pictures, and here it goes.....

A glorious sunset.....thank you, Lord

That picture at the bottom shows the aircraft prior to being used.  You'll note there is a nice warm plane cover on her (she being 817 Sierra Papa), which of course would have to be removed prior to flight - as I discovered, night flying has SOME visibility, while flying with the windshield totally covered does not.  Back to the story.

I left the house for my first lesson in the required ten takeoff-and-full-stop landings requirement for a private pilots license around 2230 Zulu (or 6:30 PM CST for those who have yet to master this GMT stuff).  The landscape lights were NOT on, as they are now on a photo cell and it wasn't dark enough.  They would greet me upon my return however.

The sky looks magnificent at nautical twilight, and sunsets in Florida are just magnificent anyway - last night was no different than the night I had snapped the photo chosen.  Oh, nautical twilight is that period one hour following actual sunset, but does not count as night flying - it had to be actual night time for the required number of ten takeoffs and landings.  Last night I flew for exactly one hour, per the Hobbs meter in 7SP - its the device that measures time spent actually flying.  In the case of a flight school, it also measures "billable hours".

I could probably go into HOW it works, but then you'd not care, and its not on my test away.  The tachometer measure actually engine running time, so one knows when to change the oil and other important stuff.  I have to record both times in and out - I think of them as Calvin and Hobbs.  That of course was a wonderful comic strip, not longer written about a young boy and his anthropomorphic Tiger.  Perhaps Seven Sierra Papa will be my tiger.

And, once again I digress - back to last night and it was a very cold night, with some moonlight over Sarasota Bay as I flew six of my required minimum ten takeoffs and landings to a full stop within exactly one hour.  I would not have gotten six full stop landings into an hour during the day at SRQ, but a night it (sort of like Longboat Key) slows appreciably and by nine PM they're ready to roll up the runways.   So much so, that the tower was very gracious to offer me the opportunity to "back taxi" each time, thus saving time and fuel.  So, fuel cost would run about $55 for ten gallons used.

Had I done this with a school plane, I'd have to add in the $160 per hour rental fee, but owing my own aircraft negated that cost.  So the total cost was $65 for the flight instructor, who was a bit concerned about my approaches, but seemed to like my landings.  I was only concerned that every time I went for the flaps I'd end up brushing her knees and get distracted.  Maybe I should fly those last four with Sherman, my other instructor.  Sherman soloed me down in Venice, but Elina has yet to turn me loose at SRQ (Sarasota Bradenton International).  When she says I'm ready to do those solo cross-country trips (having done my three required with an instructor aboard), I'll be like Calvin in his final comic strip appearance after 3,150 episodes.  It showed he and Hobbes with his sled on a freshly fallen snow,  ready to face the wonder of what lay beyond.  Turning to his tiger, he simply said "It's a magical world, ol' buddy.......let;s go exploring."

My two vehicles for flights of fancy.  The license plate holder reads "too close for missiles, switching to guns."