December 2006 Archives

Last Friday at 12:01pm Sydney Claire was born at Dupont Hospital in Fort Wayne, IN. Delivery, by Jill's account, was much different than Hale or Addi's -- much easier. We're just happy to have her home.

The stats were: born December 22, 2006; 7lbs even; 18 1/2 inches long; due January 10, 2007.

Just for fun, here are the links to the entries for Hale and Addison.

For those of you that aren't on our Christmas Card list... well, you all might be on there... anyway, here is our Christmas Card for this year. A take on the Brady Bunch!

Next year we'll really be able to fill out the matrix. Until then, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

For those that don't know everyone, from the top left: Chip, Kevin, Ross, then Hale, Baby Sydney, Addison, then Wiley, Jill, and Dave Jones.

Let me just say that I am not going (to be able) to get used to this, but yesterday I returned from a whirlwind flight down to Florida to look at some property. What made this trip a little different is that I was riding on a businessman's Beechcraft King Air 90 instead of standing in line at the the United desk at FWA.

Some things I learned flying out of Fort Wayne's executive terminal:

• You don't have to pay for leaving your vehicle in the parking lot


• There are no lines for check-in


• The TVs in waiting area are huge plasmas and the chairs are large and comfortable -- did I mention the bathroom was done in granite?


• A non-pilot can actually see what's going on in the cockpit and listen in to the radio chatter and not be considered a potential threat to the flight


• Noise canceling headphones are great!


• What seems too close for comfort to me is actually thousands of feet of separation


• Military aircraft can't "lock on" to small planes anymore without tons of proximity alerts going off (but they used to do this a lot) -- Now they lock on to combines


• The GPS system on our plane was tied into a Navigation system getting info over XM's satellite

And much more. For a few more days I think our flight information will be on FlightAware's website (N427RB), but you can also track the flights of more interesting planes like Phil Knight's Gulfstream V, John Travolta's Boeing 707-100, the Colts' chartered Boeing 757-200, the Detroit Piston's McDonnell Douglas DC-9-10, and a huge list of NASCAR planes. Many others can be found here.

Interesting times, flying the friendly skies.

Update: Some more interesting ones include Tony Stewart, Jim Irsay, and the Indiana Hoosiers' entourage N184K and N284K.