Down in the Valley

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Observations from a day in the Phoenix area.

Yesterday, I spent much of the day in the Phoenix area and south of there. I’d like to note a few of my experiences.

Casa Grande

One of my errands yesterday was to take my 22-foot travel trailer, which I use primarily for “barnstorming gigs,” to the Casa Grande Airport. The COPPERSTATE Regional EAA Fly-In begins today and I’m one of two helicopter pilots who got a contract to offer helicopter rides.

RouteCasa Grande 109 miles south of Wickenburg, just off I-10 (see map). I was driving my husband Mike’s truck, a 3/4 ton Chevy SIlverado diesel pickup, towing the trailer. The truck, which normally has a lot of pep, drove as if I were hauling my old 13,000 pound horse trailer with living quarters rather than a 5,000-pound steel and cardboard — well, that’s what it seems like — RV. I was lucky to get it up to the speed limit on the highway. With high winds south of Phoenix, I wasn’t even able to get it up to the 75 mph limit. Later, I asked Mike about it. He says he thinks its wind resistance. The trailer has a flat front; the horse trailer was curved. The 218-mile round trip used up 3/4 tank of fuel.

ParkingIt wasn’t really clear until yesterday, when I arrived at the Casa Grand Airport, where I was supposed to set up. I found the spot described to me — a D-shaped bit of gravel (A on illustration) adjacent to the landing zone (LZ on illustration) and taxiway– and called the other pilot, Michael, to confirm with him. That was the spot.

I’d just hung up the phone when three guys rolled up on a golf cart. One of them was in charge of parking. He didn’t want me to park where Michael told me to.

I was kind of expecting this. Michael wanted me to park between the helicopter and a taxiway intersection. It would have been convenient for me and for passengers, but it was very close to helicopter parking and the taxiway. The parking guy was worried about the trailer blocking the view of pilots trying to taxi out. So he directed me to another spot nearby on gravel (B on illustration). It wasn’t as convenient a spot, but I had to agree that it was likely to be safer. And I didn’t think it was any less visible. So I called Michael again to reconfirm. He told me that was plan B and if I didn’t mind, it was fine with him.

Getting the trailer into the spot was a bit of a task. The parking guy wanted it lined up with the huge tent that had been erected there. I needed the door facing the landing zone. That means I had to drive the truck right toward the tent, get the trailer as close to the tent as possible, and still get the truck out. On my first try, I couldn’t get the trailer lined up with the tent, although the position wasn’t bad.

So I used my “helpless female routine.” Women who don’t know this routine are really missing out on something that can help them get assistance when they need it.

“I don’t drive this thing much,” I told the three men. “My husband usually does.” (That was a fib.) “If one of you are good at moving trailers around, be my guest.”

After a short debate, one of the men stepped forward. He got behind the wheel, did another circle in the gravelly area, and parked it almost where I’d had it, but with the truck pointing the other way. His companions directed him so he wouldn’t run over the taxiway light there and I kept him away from one of the tent stakes. I know it wasn’t quite as close to the tent as the parking guy wanted it, but it was lined up. They were all happy.

At this point, I’d identified myself as a helpless female who seldom dealt with trailers. So the three men came around the back of the truck to help me disconnect the trailer. This was very nice because the trailer has these sway bars attached to it that are heavy and difficult for me to disconnect. They disconnected them and I stowed them in the back of the truck. Then they guided me in the truck away from the trailer so I wouldn’t run over that darn taxiway light.

Then they got into the golf cart and rolled away.

But not before one of them asked me where I was coming in from.

“Wickenburg,” I said.

“Wickenburg!” he replied. “I didn’t think anyone lived there.”

“They don’t,” I told him.

I spent the next half hour organizing the trailer a bit and putting up a pair of rides signs so the folks setting up would know what the trailer was for. I also lugged the 4 6-1/2 gallon water containers I’d put in the back of the truck out of the truck. (In the old days, when I was younger and thinner and better looking, the helpless female routine would have had one of the guys volunteering to do this for me. Such are the pitfalls of middle age.) Then I locked up the trailer and started the long drive home.

Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa

On the way home, I had a stop to make at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa. This is a resort that’s part of a casino complex on the north end of the Gila River Indian Reservation.

The place is pretty new. I know because I learned to fly in Chandler, which isn’t far from there, and once in a while, my instructor and I would take the helicopter out to the Gila River to find the wild horses. There are an estimated 1,500 of them out there, although we never saw more than 100 or so at a time. The resort didn’t exist back then.

I was impressed by the place as I drove up to it. The entrance road winds through a desert golf course that has a flowing stream running through it. But this isn’t a 100-yard bit of water pumped through the desert. The stream goes on for over a mile, with small rapids, ponds, ducks, and riparian vegetation. It’s the kind of stream I’d want to hang out beside in the shade, on a summer day. (Not an Arizona summer day, of course. You’d bake.) The stream was full of water and at least 8 feet wide in most spots. Although it had to be man made — there are no natural streams like that in the area — even the Gila River is almost dry — it looked completely natural. Very nice.

I pulled up in front of the place and was flagged down by a valet parking guy. I asked for directions, then parked the truck myself down in a parking lot. I gathered the things I needed for my meeting and walked back up to the main building.

Inside, I was impressed again. The main building’s entrance is on the top of a hill. When you walk in, you’re faced with a huge wall of windows that look out onto the golf course and mountains. It was a two-story walk down stairs at the side of a rock face to get to the lower level lounge. The view was magnificent.

Now I’ve seen this kind of lobby in several hotels in the Phoenix area. The Hyatt at Gainey Ranch has one and so does the Westin Kierland. But neither are as dramatic and beautiful as this. I was really impressed.

And those of you who read my blog frequently know how seldom I’m really impressed.

I think the place would make a great getaway for Mike and me. Maybe early next season we’ll try a weekend there.

iPhone Spotting

I had my first iPhone “in the wild” spotting yesterday. (Keep in mind that most of Wickenburg’s population is somewhat technologically challenged, so I don’t get a chance to see much in the way of gadgets here in town.) It was in the parking lot for A.J.’s Fine Food (my favorite supermarket) on 67th Avenue at the Loop 101.

The guy was holding the phone in one hand and a pair of white earbuds hung from his ears. (For the record, I purposely bought black earphones for my iPod just so I wouldn’t look like an Apple fangirl.) He was talking loudly to someone about how he wasn’t interested in getting into a relationship. A young girl maybe 4 or 5 years old and holding a baby doll, was walking along with him, trying to keep up, trying to talk to him. He was completely ignoring her. I think that if someone had come up behind them and taken the kid away, he probably wouldn’t have noticed — or cared.

The guy struck me as a complete jerk.

I have more to say about iPhones, but I’ll save that for another post.

Is eBay for Suckers?

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I think it’s for people too lazy to do their homework.

If you’ve been following this blog, you know I’ve been spending a lot of time with photographers lately in some of the most outstanding scenic areas of Arizona. I’ve had a lot of downtime on these trips, waiting for passengers, etc. I brought along my Nikon D80 camera with the 3 lenses I used to use on my old film cameras, a pair of Nikon 6006s. (I still have those camera bodies in excellent condition. They’re great for anyone interested in working with film. Make me an offer.)

Again, I’m not a great photographer, but I do get lucky once in a while. It’s hard to come away without any good photos when you’re in a beautiful place and have a camera capable of storing 300+ 10-megapixel images on a single card. Digital cameras give us the luxury of experimentation without cost. We can try different lenses and different aperture or shutter speed settings. We can shoot a dozen photos of the same thing at different times of the day. Something has to come out okay or even — dare I say it? — good.

Wide Angle ExampleA lot of the photographers I’ve been working with — Mike Reyfman and Jon Davison come to mind — do a lot of work with wide angle lenses. The photos look great, the curvature gives the images a certain character. And Jon even showed me how to remove the curvature when it isn’t wanted (although I admit I forgot how; I’ll have to research that again in Photoshop documentation).

Wide Angle ExampleAlthough lens collection includes a 28-85 mm zoom lens, I only recently discovered that a 28 mm lens for a film camera doesn’t give you a 28 mm focal length on a digital camera. There’s a conversion factor, which I looked up for my camera: 1.5. That means the focal length of my lens is 1.5 times whatever the lens is labeled. So, for example, a 28 mm lens is resulting in a 42 mm focal length. (Please, someone, correct me if I’m getting this wrong. This is my understanding and I’m not an optics expert.)

This explains why I’m not getting the curvature effect I was looking for with my “wide angle” lens.

Wide Angle ExampleSo I did some research and found that Nikon makes a 18-55 mm lens. I saw the retail price and decided to see if I could do better on eBay. I did. I bought a used lens in pretty good (but not “mint,” as advertised) condition on eBay for $81 including shipping. I got to play with it on Sunday when we were goofing off at the local airport. The photos you see with this post are examples. I didn’t have much to work with in the way of subject matter, so I took a few shots of my car (parked in front of my hangar) and a cool little airplane sitting out on the ramp.

But, as I expected, this curvature wasn’t enough. I wanted more. It looked like I’d have to go with a fisheye lens, which I’d already been researching and bidding on on eBay. I kept losing the auctions. The lenses were going for $700+ and one used one slipped out of my grasp for $620. My top bid was in the low $500s, and even that was more money than I wanted to spend.

Then there’s the condition of the lens that arrived on Saturday. The seller said it was used, but also said it was in “mint” condition. In my mind, “mint” condition means perfect. It doesn’t mean dusty, like it’s been sitting on a shelf for half a year. It doesn’t mean accompanied by a skylight filter that has dust on both sides. And it certainly doesn’t mean dust on either end of the lens. This was not mint. I couldn’t complain because I thought I’d gotten a good deal, but I wasn’t about to spend $700 on another lens and have it arrive in the same condition. For that kind of money, I wanted a brand new lens in a box.

I lost my most recent bid on a 10.5 mm lens on eBay. Just for the hell of it, I decided to check Amazon.com. And guess what? They had the same lens, brand new in a box from a camera dealer, for $589 with free shipping.

So what the hell was I doing on eBay?

I bought the lens on Amazon.com.

I also learned a few valuable lessons here:

  • eBay should be the discount seller of last resort when buying an expensive item.
  • Buy used only when condition is not vitally important. (To me, it’s vital that photographic equipment be in pristine condition.)
  • Do your homework on an item’s pricing in at least four other places before placing any eBay bids.
  • And of course, the rule we should all know: don’t get auction fever when bidding on eBay.

The good news of all this is that I still have about $300 left from some “found money.” (I unexpectedly sold some post-level advertising on this site, resulting in a little windfall of mad money.) And when the new lens arrives, I know it’ll really be in “mint” condition.

A Computerless Day

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And on the seventh day, she shut off the computer.

A comment on my blog post, “Is Social Networking Sucking Your Life Away?,” got me seriously thinking about how often I use a computer when I really do have better things to do with my life.

Why We Use Computers

Well, obviously most people always have something better to do with their lives than sit in front of a computer. But I can’t deny certain reasons why we use computers:

  • To get work done. After all, a computer is a tool for getting many kinds of work done. So you may have to work with a computer every day just to get your work done. I use a computer for this reason quite often.
  • To relax and unwind after a long day at work or doing something intense. This is what the commenter said and I think it’s a perfectly legitimate reason to use a computer. After all, computers have become a hub for entertainment, with video games (but please don’t get me started on those), sites like YouTube, and sites that provide news and entertainment information. My husband watches TV to unwind in the evening, many people turn to their Internet-connected box. I admit that I do this once in a while, although I really prefer a good book or movie.
  • To communicate with others across long distances for free. iChat, Instant Messaging, Skype, and many other tools make it possible to use the Internet to keep in touch with friends and family members anywhere in the world. When Australian photographer Jon Davison was here last month, he used iChat on his MacBook to have a video chat with his girlfriend back home. It was amusing to see him walking around the house and yard with the computer, pointing its camera at the guest room he was staying in and the views of the mountains to the north. But heck, why not? Live audio and visual communication across thousands of miles to another continent for free? If I had anything to say to someone that far away, I’d be doing it, too. And, of course communication doesn’t have to be audio or visual — it could be a simple e-mail message.

When There Are No Days Off

But on Saturday, I spent nearly the whole day in front of my computer. I did a bunch of things, the most important of which was to create some marketing material I’ll need this week. But did I have to do it on a weekend? My husband was home from work, we’d cancelled two days of a helicopter gig in Wickieup due to wind, and we had both days unexpectedly free at the same time. Yet I was sitting in front of a box working with Photoshop and InDesign to create flyers and he was sitting in front of a different box watching sports.

One of the drawbacks to being a freelancer/business owner and working from home is that there’s often no distinction between work days and days off. After a very busy month and a half of hard work for both of my businesses, I’d completely lost the distinction. I’d fallen into the trap that made every day that I wasn’t flying a day that I could be working. Where were the days off?

So I took yesterday off — from using the computer.

A Day Away from the Computer

It was a conscious decision I made the night before, so it wasn’t difficult to get started on the right track.

The only tough parts for me were skipping my morning blog entry — which I like to do every morning, if I have time — and not checking the weather. I had plenty of time — I was up a 5 AM while Mike continued to sleep. I made my coffee and gave Alex the Bird his scrambled egg. But since I wasn’t going to start the day with a blog entry, what was I going to do? The answer was kill clutter.

Our kitchen has a built-in desk with cubbyholes above it. Over the years — and I do mean years — the desk and cubbyholes have become the gathering places for all kinds of loose papers and other items. I found expired car registrations, broken jewelry, the title for my Honda, photos taken and developed in 2001, business cards, and a lot more. I wound up throwing half the stuff out. Half of the rest was put away immediately. The rest — well, let’s just say the clutter has shifted to a new position. (I’ll deal with it today.)

Then Mike and I went to Wickenburg Airport to socialize with fellow pilots at the Sunday morning coffee and donuts. This was a “tradition” that I started back when I ran the FBO there and every FBO operator after me has done the same. (It’s actually a money-making proposition, with voluntary donations covering the cost of the coffee and the donuts, with plenty to spare.) It was cool and windy out, so most folks were inside the terminal. I spent quite some time with a newcomer, giving her a long list of flying destinations that included either restaurants or lodging or both. (In fact, I didn’t realize I had so much information in my head about that.) We also stopped by the hangar to drop off a few things and tidy up a bit. I got to play with my new 18-55mm camera lens, which we found in our mailbox on the way to the airport.

Back home, I did a bit more tidying up while Mike took his truck back out to help a friend move some furniture. By the time he was back, I’d brought our two horses up to the tack room and had prepared them for saddling. We went for a nice ride out in the desert behind our house. I’d brought my GPS with me and my point-and-shoot Canon camera. My goal is to match up photos with track points to put GPS info in the photos. (I discussed this in my recent post, “Day 5 on Google Earth,” and will go into greater detail when I actually achieve this goal.)

At one point, we stopped on top of a ridge that overlooked the whole west side of town. On one side was a golf course and hundreds houses. On the other side was rolling desert hills without a structure in sight. I commented to Mike how special the place was — the border between civilization and wilderness — and how terrible it was that greedy developers all over Arizona are trying so hard to replace the wilderness with tract housing. The scars on the land that will soon be Wickenburg Ranch — so clearly visible from our vantage point — really brought home this point. How long would it be before our vantage point on a horse trail would be the middle of someone’s living room or garage?

Wickenburg Panorama

Back home, it was difficult not to rush to the computer to offload the pictures and GPS tracklog. But I spent the next hour and a half doing something I hadn’t done in a long time: taking a nice long soak in the bathtub with a book.

Then, at 5, it was time for dinner with some friends. Jim and Judith have left Wickenburg for the Las Vegas area, with a second home on the California coast. They were in town this past weekend to finish packing up their house, which is for sale. (They want me to buy the house because it has a helipad and hangar, but I think their neighbors would kill me with the amount of flying I do.) We had dinner at their favorite restaurant in town, which is also one of ours: House Berlin. We had a great dinner, checked out their new car, and exchanged hugs and best wishes.

I finished up the day reading in bed while Mike watched the baseball game on television. I fell asleep early and woke well-rested.

I Did Cheat Twice

I do have to admit that I used my computer twice during the day.

The first time was when I went into my office to shut it down early in the morning. The computer starts each morning at 5 AM to gather my e-mail and download podcasts. When I went to shut it down, it was displaying an e-mail message about my eBay bidding status. I’m trying to buy a 10.5 mm lens for my Nikon D80 and I couldn’t resist seeing if I was still the winning bidder. I wasn’t. But the auction doesn’t end until today, so I still have a chance. I shut the computer down within 30 seconds.

Later in the day, I also used the computer to suck my existing track logs off my GPS. I wanted to start with a clean slate, but keep the existing data. The whole process took about 2 minutes.

I won’t argue that these two tiny uses “don’t count.” They do. But I’m not ashamed of them. And I’m extremely proud that I didn’t use my laptop, which sits in the kitchen these days, to check the weather. I was sorely tempted on several occasions.

Was it a Better Day without Computers?

Yes. It was. I spent time with my husband and critters and friends. I made a dent in some of the clutter in my house. I spent hours outdoors in fresh air on a beautiful day. What could be better on a computer?

So I think I might practice what I preach a little more often — maybe on Sundays.

Day 5 on Google Earth

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I really am a first order geek.

I recently wrote a lengthy account of my “Big September Gig,” in which I spent six days flying around northeastern Arizona with a team of 15 or so Russian photographers. You can read the first part of the story here.

On Day 5, I flew from Monument Valley to Shiprock Airport to Farmington Airport, by way of the San Juan River. What I didn’t mention in my account of that flight is that I had my GPS on and running, creating a track log of the trip. (Geek alert!)

Today, I was reading messages in an aerial photography forum I follow. One of the members, in an answer to another member, mentioned a Mac OS program called GPSPhotoLinker, which can link photographs to GPS data. I figured I’d pull the data off the GPS and record the coordinates of a photo location in the photo’s EXIF tags.

GPSPhotoLinkerI sucked the data off the GPS in Mac OS with a one-trick pony program called LoadMyTracks, which saves in both the GPX format I needed for GPSPhotoLinker and KML (Google Earth) format. I brought the file into TextWrangler, my text editor of choice, and deleted all the unnecessary data to trim down the file. Then I loaded it into GPSPhotoLinker, pointed the software to a folder containing the 18 or so photos I’d taken during the flight, and sat back to watch the results.

Disappointment. The clock on the damn camera was wrong. Since the software uses time to match coordinates with photos, there were no matches. I have to reset the clock on the camera — preferably with my computer so the time is right — and try again on another trip. But this gives me a geeky project to work on. (As if I needed another one.) When I get it all working smoothly, you’ll probably find an article about it here.

Google EarthAnyway, there is a side benefit to this. I also ran the KML version of the file though Google Earth. If you haven’t wasted time with Google Earth, you’re missing out on a great time-sucking experience. Without going into a full blown description or review, I’ll just say that you can take a GPS track, like the one from my trip, and open it in Google Earth. You can then do a “tour” that follows the track just like you’re flying along with me (but at least 3000 feet higher). If you’ve got nothing better to do, give it a try.

Fire Hazard Weather

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High wind and dry conditions are a bad mix.

I’ve been watching the northwestern Arizona weather carefully for the past few days, checking National Weather Service forecasts for Wickenburg (where I live) and Kingman. I had a flying gig at Wickieup this weekend and although I didn’t expect much revenue from it, it was an opportunity for Mike and I to escape home responsibilities for a few days and camp out with some extremely unusual folks. Wickieup is 2/3 of the way between Wickenburg and Kingman, so I figured that if I extrapolated between the two, I’d get a good forecast.

The forecast wasn’t good. It called for high winds — 30 mph or more — on Saturday and Sunday. Although I have flown (and I suppose I will fly) in winds up to 50 mph (not recommended, folks), the landing zone in Wickieup is on a narrow ridge with one way in and out while the event was going on. If the wind was coming from the northwest, I’d be operating with a tailwind, which is always a bad idea when you have a heavy load at 4,000+ feet elevation. The area is very mountainous, so all that wind going over the mountains would make for a rough ride. The end result: me operating in marginal conditions to give my passengers rides that they might not enjoy.

Since I’m just coming off a month-long period of heavy flying — I flew about 50 hours in the past 30 days — I decided that it just wasn’t worth it to spend the weekend. So we flew up for the day, did a few rides, watched the activities — more on that in another post — and flew home.

When we got home, I checked the weather again, mostly to make sure I’d made the right decision about the weekend. (I had.) The Wickenburg weather forecast included something I’d never seen before: a Fire Hazard Watch. Here’s what it said when I checked it again this morning:

...FIRE WEATHER WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING DUE TO STRONG AND GUSTY NORTH WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY..

A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IS DEVELOPING OVER THE WESTERN STATES THIS MORNING. THE COLD FRONT ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SYSTEM WAS LOCATED IN NEVADA AND WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE SOUTHWARD TODAY AND TONIGHT. SUSTAINED NORTH WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS APPROACHING 45 MPH MAY DEVELOP ON SUNDAY. IN ADDITION...VERY LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY CAN BE EXPECTED. THE COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS AND VERY LOW HUMIDITY MAY CREATE HAZARDOUS FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS.

(Sorry about the ALL CAPS, but that’s the way they publish them.)

This warning just emphasizes how dry it can be here in the desert. I can’t remember the last time it rained here — maybe a month ago? We have plenty of stretches where it doesn’t rain for two or more months. Not long ago, Phoenix had a record 143-day dry spell. That’s almost 5 months!

The weather, in case you’re wondering, is almost always clear here, with bright blue skies. During our dry season — which is 8 to 10 months out of the year — there are rarely any clouds at all. Sure it’s beautiful, but it gets a bit tedious at times. You find yourself wishing for some cloud activity. You find yourself wishing for rain.

Right now, there’s a fire burning north of Wickenburg, although I’m not sure exactly where. We saw the smoke as we flew home from Wickieup. I have a feeling it’s somewhere southwest of Williams, AZ, perhaps in the Big Chino Wash area. There was another one burning southeast of Flagstaff when I flew back from Flag with passengers last Friday. In this dryness, it doesn’t take much to get a fire going. And when the wind kicks up, a small fire can quickly turn into an out-of-control blaze.

Yet people will continue to toss their cigarette butts out their car windows as they drive on highways and back roads. I can see the results of their carelessness as I fly around the state. Acres and acres burned east of Vulture Mine Road just south of Wickenburg. More burned along I-40, I-10, I-17, and SR-89. Signs up and down the highways proclaim Fire Danger Extreme, but no one stops to think of the consequences of a tiny cigarette butt or the sparks from an ATV or dirt bike. Those signs are for other people.

While I don’t expect a fire to break out in the area this weekend, I hope one doesn’t. If it does, with the high winds that are expected, we could get clouds — clouds of smoke.