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The gift of Giving

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Now that Christmas is over and we’ve counted our blessings, it’s time for me to take a more  cold hearted look at the season of giving: Consider four families. Everybody gets gifts. For simplicity we assume similiar socio-economic standings and all families are friendly with each other. So A gives to B, C and D, so does family B who gives gifts to A, C and D and so on.

Again for simplicity picture each gift to be a $100 bill. So A gives $100 to B, C and D. Now instead of following the families around, let’s follow the $100 bill. A gives to B, B gives to C who gives to D who gives to A.

The dollar bill just came back to A! How amazing! The same circle exists for A giving to the other families. Everybody gave a gift and nobody has spent any actual money. So in an ideal world you’ve given the gift of giving for free!!

What you’ve created is happiness out of nothing. – Now that is something!

 

Happy New Year 2018!

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Feeling good about the new year? Excellent! Let me rock your boat a little.

Where have you been for the last three days? – And why? I know you have the answer. Or you *think* you do. You can account for every minute of that time period, no problem. Or can you really? Because if you’re like the rest of us you’ve spent about 25-30% of your time unaccounted for. How’s that you might ask? Because you slept. We all do. But why do we sleep? Well, experts want you to believe that it is to recuperate, to give your brain and body a break. To dream. Or to sleep-walk. See, where I’m going with this?

The truth is: we have no freaking clue why we sleep. And that’s amazing. For all we know, aliens could come and take us every night. Admittedly, not very likely. But impossible?

So here we are on planet earth, living our oh-so orderly lives under the impression of total control, yet we can’t account for 25-33% of the times of our lives for what and why we’re doing something. Think about that!

Happy 2/3rd of the new year 2018!

 

Airplane upgrade dreams – 2017

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Currently I fly a Grumman Tiger AA-5B – an airplane that meets almost all my needs.

For family transportation it would be nice to have a roomier cabin and 50 more horsepower to better get out of high altitude airports. At 130 kts it’s no slouch and it sips gas at only 10 gph. With 52gph, it has 500NM legs – more than the family can usually bear. So at $80/hr wet ($4.30/gal) with a $35/hr maintenance reserve included the Tiger is hard to beat…

But pilots wouldn’t be pilots, if they weren’t dreaming of the next airplane. Possible upgrades for us include:

  • Piper PA-24 Comanche B/C – budget long range hauler at 155-160kts. Old.
  • Mooney Ovation – What’s not to like? Price? Leaky wet wing tanks – 175kts
  • Cessna 177 Cardinal Turbo – 165 kts, roomy.
  • Beechcraft Bonanza P-33, S-33 – cracked spar A/D,
  • Mooney 201  – J-Model – efficient, cramped back seats, 155 kts
  • Cessna 210L – 6 seats, 165 kts, finicky retractable gear system, cracked spar A/D
  • Beechcraft A36 – 6 seats, 170kts, control harmony, but high price, cracked spar A/D
  • A G2 or older steam gauge SR-22 – Parachute, Modern Design, Fix gear 165kts
  • An even older Piper Malibu (1987) – 200kts – six seats – insurability!
  • Lancair 360 – 190kts – 2 seats – Experimental
  • RV-4 – fun, no payload, low range – 160kts

Unrelated a link to a great aircraft comparison article: https://airfactsjournal.com/2014/10/retractable-singles-good-fad-ugly/