A little clarification

Okay, maybe a lot of clarification....

I got some feedback on my "I suspect was a 30 knot wind" statement yesterday. Allow me to clarify why I suspected that.

The following is a screenshot of a portion of the winds aloft chart for the northeast from the government-run Aviation Weather site. I took the screenshot at 8:00 this morning:

It shows Bradley airport (BDL) and Bangor airport (BGR) on September 5 at 06:00 UT. The date and time are labeled "DATA BASED ON 050600Z". Z means "Zulu" which is an odd way of saying Universal Time (or Greenwich Mean Time). What that means is this forcast was made at 2:00am EDT (EDT is 4 hours behind UT) and it was still valid at 8:00am EDT when I captured it.

The column headings indicate altitude in feet. The first column is the airport identifier, the second column is 3,000 feet, the third is 6,000 feet, etc...

The data in the column labeled "3000" indicates wind direction and speed. In the remaining columns, it contains wind direction, speed and temperature. The first two numbers are direction, the second two numbers are speed and the third set of numbers with a "+" or "-" is temp in celsius. Above 24000 feet the temps are all negative so they don't use a sign.

So that means that at 8:00 this morning, the winds at Bradley airport at 3000 feet were 3419. Interpret that correctly and you see the wind was out of 340° at 19 knots.

A quick check of the winds at ground level at Bradley showed "KBDL 051200Z 00000KT". In other words, dead calm - no direction and no speed.

Yesterday, when we were doing landings and takeoffs at Turners Falls, the windsock was almost straight out in a direct crosswind to runway 34 (340°). This means the wind was roughly out of 230°. Windsocks are weighted to represent a 15 knot when extended straight out. That means the wind at ground level was about 12-15 knots. Interpreting the general wind conditions in the northeast, you can always add about 15 knots for the first 3000 feet of altitude.

That, my friends, is how my flight instructor and I determined that we were dealing with 30 knot winds at 3000 feet and what made from some interesting steep turns and s-turns. Basically, we got our ass kicked. If I was by myself just flying for fun, I probably would have turned around and headed back to the airport. If I had passengers, I absolutely would have headed back to the airport.

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Time for an update on the cats:

Yes, they are now cats.
Yes, they still act like kittens.
Yes, they are stripping all the leaves off my wife's houseplants.
Yes, The Small Main Dog has accepted them as fellow pack members and playmates.

This has been your update on the cats.

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Time for an update on my grandson:

He's doing great.

This has been your update on my grandson.

No, I'm not going to post any pictures or information about him. The internet is a nasty place where some people are simply evil bastards who use information and photos in ways that you and I can't even imagine. My grandson does not deserve to become a spectacle on the internet. The only information I will give you is that he is happy, healthy and loved. Also, at the ripe old age of one month, he can probably pitch better than most of the Red Sox bullpen

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Here are some links:

• When I was a kid, I had two kinds of shoes: penny loafers for school (I went to a catholic school. We had to wear a uniform.) and Connies for everything else. It was either that or I would go barefoot. Back then, bikes had metal pedals with little spikes for grip. Trust me, you didn't want to ride a bike barefoot.



• Sometimes you're bug, sometimes you're the windshield.



• I've been to Summit. It's where 79 intersects with 90.



• Priests On A Floating Tiki Bar would be a great name for 1980's Hallmark Channel movie.