Let it go, let it go

[cjsmith]

MANY things freecycled this weekend, including some stuff I am stunned that anyone took. Rob was gracious enough to list it all and arrange for pickups.

People claimed, get this,
- complete plans, blueprints and instructions for building a Lancair IV! (THREE responses!)
- a big bag of towels dating back to our first apartment together
- 80 empty wine bottles
- a car stereo from approximately 1987
- used pillows
- three years of aviation magazines
- sheets and pillowcases worn to wonderful softness, and frayed a bit
- some really bad books
- a candle/incense holder that's basically a sand-pit on a stand (so top-heavy that if you breathe on it it pours sand all over your floor)
- a light fixture that looks like a War of the Worlds ship landing

Plus some stuff that was probably useful. It's amazing.

(Now if they'd only come and pick it up.)

I've also thrown away a big pile of crap. I finally pitched the model airplane my ex-housemate started building. I had to admit that no, I am never going to finish someone else's model airplane. I can't even get my butt in gear to finish MY model airplane. I also admitted that I am never going to find a lovely dark green laundry bin to replace my broken one, and I pulled the spare one out of the upstairs closet to use. Poof, no more duct-taped broken handles. In retrospect I'm amazed I stuck with that thing for so long. (Hey, Bay Area people, if any of you are still reading: how do you recycle an entire laundry basket?)

That upstairs room is starting to look almost nice. Next weekend we do the OTHER closet.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It is indeed a stunningly sweet plane. I hate the side stick, but it's a very fast plane. They brag that it's the fastest piston single out there, "and if you got an extra engine and put it in the back seat, it'd be the fastest twin". I don't know how homebuilders' actual numbers tend to compare to the specs on the web site. I guess I could ask a coworker of mine who has built the pressurized one.

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

I've never flown a sidestick aircraft so I couldn't possibly have an informed opinion there. It amazes me that the Lancair compares so well to something like a SR22 -- I saw one of those on the ramp at C83 the other day and they really are pretty little planes.

I'd still like a DA42 TDI, though. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I know many people love the side stick, but I hate it. I have shorter arms (per unit body height) than the average pilot, given that the average pilot is male. The side stick just DOES NOT WORK for me.

I suspect the Lancair's faster for two reasons. First, it has retractable gear. (A homebuilt retract! You can see why *I* am not using these plans. I could make a serious mess with this.) Plus the Lancair has a monster engine. They recommend builders install the Continental TSIO-550, at 350hp.

Eyeballing the designs, they both look very sleek sitting there on the ramp. Smooth composite construction, minimized drag. Too bad they both have that awful, awful side stick! :-(

The Twinstar? Nice. I've never sat in one myself. Pricey, of course! But then so is everything else we've mentioned. :-)

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

I'm a little taller than average (although I'm not sure what the average height of a pilot is), but I still haven't flown/sat in a sidestick plane. In fact I think the only plane I've sat in with a stick at all was a T-38 (now, if that isn't a pilot's wet dream, I don't know what is!).

A homebuilt retractable seems pretty terrifying to me. :-) With that being said, I always liked the lines of retractables better. No clue why.

And hey, go NYSE:CRM go! ;-) Of course, I imagine I'd actually need a license first, regardless....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love center sticks, just not the side ones. (Hey, no Freudian comments from the peanut gallery out there.) And if NYSE:CRM puts you in a position to buy a Twinstar, the money spent getting a license would be a drop in the bucket! Retire, take up flying -- sounds good to me!