Sylvia's Journal

The FAA may request to re-examine a pilot. This authority is found in 49 U.S.C. §44709. In pilot’s jargon, this is called the 709 checkride. I was informed of this necessity back in August in the letter Sita claimed came from a robot. I finally took that test this morning. I had to show up at 9 AM at Hanscom Airfield in Bedford and report to the examiner. This meant I had to leave Beverly about 30 minutes earlier.

I had reserved the plane at 8 AM. When it is below freezing temperatures, the plane does not start easily. We use gas heaters that blow hot air around the motor. I have come to supplement this mechanical intervention with Arne’s magic touch. But Arne was in warm Florida and his daughter Wendy does not claim to have that touch. In fact we couldn’t even get the heaters to work. At times like that I can become superstitious and I was ready to cancel my checkride. But may be there was Arne’s touch after all and it works even from a distance. Someone got the blowers to work and after 10 minutes of heat I was able to start the plane on first try.

I was nervous. I had not flown since the first day of January. And I realized that I had not really researched what a checkride really entailed. When I looked it up on the internet I found descriptions that ranged from complete full-fledged re-examinations (re-testing my entire private pilot credentials) to a couple of take-offs and landings. I pulled out my study books and tried to activate dormant knowledge between the early hours of 6 and 8 AM. That would not have been enough for a complete re-examination, but it was enough for what I ended up doing. I was primarily tested on landing on the first 1000 feet of the runway, something I had been practicing quite a bit with Arne. And so I did well and passed.

Flying at Hanscom is a challenge because there is much commercial traffic and many large jets. Compared to Beverly Airport, Hanscom is like a big city. I was even guided to my parking spot by people with orange glow sticks in their hands, just like a big jet. It felt very grown up.

Back home I found a piece of paper stuck to the front door and signed by neighbor Ted that alerted us to another septic system crisis. And so we had another shitload carted away for hundreds of dollars and now we can flush again. When I grew up in Holland I never thought much about sewerage. It was something automatic that happened underground. Here, away from the town sewer lines, on the rocky shores of Lobster Cove, like it or not, we are frequently confronted with our own waste and its finicky disposal.

Sita wrote us enthusiastically about the events at the WEF. She (de)scribed a session about technology and development where all the high and mighty of the world of development and technology came together. We are talking top of the food chain. Sita’s WEF art made it into the ‘warped world of France’s most reviled/loved blogger’ (Sita’s words, not mine). You can see a few glimpses on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/v/iLwPXQZ77DY).