Pip, We Have Great Expectations
This is the story of Pip, the Border Collie. Like Dickens’s Pip, this Pip came from humble beginnings and then apparently had a setback of sorts.
Barrett and Pip in Quincy, Florida
Don Bennett, son Barrett and Pip next to Don's Piper Cherokee Arrow
Pip in flight, 7,500 feet over central Florida.
Pip arriving at Vero Beach, Florida
Pip greeting Mary from Starfish Border Collie Rescue
I don’t know how Pip ended up in a rescue shelter in Birmingham, Alabama, and it’s not germane. Upon arrival though, he tested positive for heartworm and was so emaciated and malnourished that he can hardly get around by himself. Pip deserves better.
Saturday, Pip traveled from Birmingham to Vero Beach, FL, where he was delivered to a Border Collie rescue center. I was a part of his trip. I am a volunteer pilot in the Pilots ‘n Paws organization that coordinates these airborne rescues. But it’s so much more than just the flying part. Here are some of the players.
Carolyn volunteered to pick Pip up at the shelter when they opened at 9 a.m. sharp (Central Time). Phil, the shelter operator, was there to get Pip ready for transport and prepare his paperwork. Carolyn was out the door at 9:05 headed for the airport to meet the first leg’s pilot, Don, and his son Barrett. On the way, Pip had a pretty major accident in Carolyn’s new car, so that should have been the first clue that something was not quite right with him. Carolyn found a hose at the airport and she and Don were able to get Pip cleaned up for the flight. I had communicated with Don via e-mail and we had decided on Quincy, FL as a suitable location for the handoff. His flight time was 1:45 and mine 1:44, so I just needed to know approximately when Don was departing to get going myself. Coordinating all of this was Nancy who was the originator of this rescue. What a great help she was (that and the ‘Reply to All’ button on e-mail!) getting this all put together. There is so much more going on behind the scenes of one of these rescues than you realize.
I called Don’s cell as I was sitting on the ramp with the engine running, and he said he was just about ready to go “wheels up.” So I taxied out and took off from Vero enroute to Quincy. It was one of those drop-dead gorgeous days to fly, not a cloud in the sky and light winds. By the time I got to Quincy, I could hear Don on the radio reporting 4 miles out, so as it worked out, I dropped in right behind him in the traffic pattern and we landed almost in tandem at 1 p.m. straight up.
I met Don and his son Barrett at the fuel pump. Pip looked pretty good, but you could tell he was a little weak. When I went over to pet him I was shocked that I could feel his spinal column almost as if it were a skeleton. His coat was hiding that bag of bones that he had become. I thought he looked dehydrated so I offered him some water but he refused it. However, Barrett told me a little later that he was able to get Pip to take a drink. Pip seemed to be aware that we were trying to help him—his tail was between his legs but he would faintly wag it when petted.
Anyway, I loaded him up in the seat next to me and we were on our way back to Vero after about 20 minutes on the ground at Quincy. Pip promptly curled up and went to sleep next to me and would only stir occasionally as if to ask, “Are we there yet?” We landed at Vero about 3:15 p.m., so by this time Pip had had a long day!
Mary, the operator of Starfish Border Collie Rescue, was there to meet Pip. I highly recommend that you visit her web site and just peruse the Happy Tails section to get an idea of the great work she’s doing. If you can, please send her a contribution. Her organization is a non-profit.
So I get the report this morning as I write this that Pip has had a very serious setback and that Mary had to take him to the vet over the weekend where he is currently receiving a blood transfusion and intravenous fluids for dehydration. He is also on an antibiotic regimen for some kind of bug on top of everything else. Pip weighed in at 25 pounds—down from 40! I know the whole rescue team that bonded with Pip over the weekend is monitoring his condition. Pip, we have great expectations for you, lad. Be well!
[Update on 10-14-2010: Pip is now home from the vet having survived his crisis over the weekend. He is by no means out of the woods, and will have other issues to deal with (as he has been diagnosed as pretty severely anemic), and there are yet possibly undiscovered ailments pending the results of his blood work. But he is back at BCR, his digestive ailments under control, and apparently acting somewhat more like a normal Border Collie. His appetite has returned but he has to go slow with his intake for now. Best news, though, is that he’s hungry and happy.]
Chloe & Apollo
Chloe working out on Apollo this past Sunday, each is getting acquainted with the other. Apparently he doesn't understand English, only Dutch, so there is a language issue to overcome.
A 14-year-old riding a 7-year-old.
iPad as an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB)
I've been using an iPad as an EFB for a couple of months now and I like it a lot. It essentially contains all of the inflight publications required for IFR flight, thus eliminating the load of paper that would otherwise be on board. No more folding maps, looking for the right page in the approach book, maps blowing out of the airplane, I could go on. Plus it's got weather and I can flight plan and file it with the FAA... need I say more? Nope.
Here are a few pictures in flight. I just added a RAM mount that puts the iPad right where I can see it in flight. Did I mention that I like it?
Short final, you can see the VASI lights over the glareshield.
A Great Day in Miami
My neighbor, Ron, and I made our annual trek down to Miami for a day at the race track and an evening ball game on August 6th. Ron's a Cubs fan and I'm a Cardinals fan, so we have our mini cross-street rivalry going on. This year we picked a Cardinals game, last year the Cubs... playing the Marlins, of course.
Ron is the handicapper extraordinaire, so between us we picked a couple of winners and both walked away with more cash than we arrived with--giddyup!
We arrived in time for the last two races at Calder, here's our pick for the 9th race:
My pick for the 9th race, Kairos.
Kairos at the finish, a winner.
Last (10th) race:
Ron picked the #9 horse, Nicholas Vision.
At the 16th pole, Nicholas Vision a winner going away as it begins to rain.
Why's everyone so happy?
So after a successful day at the track, we moseyed over to the Marlins' stadium for a bite to eat. We had front-row box seats which entitled us to the Club Level restaurant:
Ron goes off his diet with a Giant Dog...
It was a great day: Cardinals won, Pujols hit a home run, and Wainwright pitched a shutout. Here are a few visuals:
Albert Pujols hitting his home run.
Matt Holliday stroking a double.
Adam Wainwright getting ready to lay down a bunt.
New Blended Airfoil Propeller
Had to go up today and clear my head. Actually, clear the vuvuzelas that had been buzzing in my head.
But mainly to fly off the 5 hour test flight period assigned by the FAA for my new prop. Why the new prop, I hear you ask? Several reasons. My original Hartzell prop was due its 6-year calendar inspection, so it all started with a simple inquiry as to the cost of this inspection. In the meantime, I had been following the development of the new "blended airfoil" propeller that I think was developed with Van's aircraft in mind and was being tuned to the RV's performance envelope. Van's was claiming an additional 3 knots true airspeed over the older model. Additionally, Hartzell has now pretty much eliminated all of the RPM restrictions that had plagued the older prop. Because of the unknown vibrational characteristics caused by the most common upgrades to our engines, e.g., electronic ignitions and higher compression pistons, Hartzell had issued a bulletin cautioning operation within certain RPM ranges, which really had been a nuisance. So when I immediately found a buyer for my old prop and realized that the net cost was going to be just over a thousand dollars, well, hell, let's go for it. No inspection required, no more RPM limitations, 3 knots more speed, and a pretty nice looking, high-tech prop to boot. It made perfect sense to me. Here's the new prop:
New Hartzell Blended Airfoil Prop
Flying around in circles can get pretty boring, so I took the camera and tripod along with me today to pass the time. I also have been testing an iPad and the Foreflight app as a possible replacement for most of the charts and other pubs required for IFR flight. And I took advantage of the time to practice some holding pattern entries at altitude, and on the autopilot, but, hey, it all counts towards IFR currency requirements.
Well, I haven't had much time lately for taking photos so I was glad I was able to shake off some of the cobwebs and get a few wide angle shots from the baggage compartment of my RV-6.
First thing I noticed was that my Koger sun shade was going to interfere with the lens' field of view, so I decided to slide it off the track and stow it.
Number 2 for takeoff behind a FlightSafety trainer.
I climbed up to 7,500 feet and checked out the prop, of course, but I also had a chance to observe the new GPS mode in the ForeFlight app on the iPad. So now you get enhanced geo-referencing, centers your chart on your position, posts relevant GPS data, and your course line is superimposed over the chart. Pretty cool. In a future post I will critique the iPad as an EFB and also the new RAM mount that I am expecting any day now. I'm currently using a special knee board for the iPad, but I think the RAM mount is going to be much better. You can see the RAM mount structure on the right side of the instrument panel where I had previously used it for my iPAQ PDA. This will adapt to the new iPad RAM mount. My hope is that the iPad is going to replace about 90% of the paper required to be on board.
Flying in a holding pattern at 7,500 feet.
I was also trying out a new shutter release cable seen here in my right hand, which is much more reliable than the wireless one I had been using. Yep, this is going to be just the ticket for inflight photography for sure. The wireless release had been intermittent, possibly being interfered with by the on board avionics.
Here we go down the beach on the way back home. Nice day today on the east coast of Florida.
And one more going down the beach:
I never get tired of this view!