The replacement drive for the Micro-Dragon arrived today. Now begins the long process of setting it up. Ubuntu went on much easier this time. I used a USB drive rather then trying to install over the network. The server end was up in no time.
More work on landings, and I'm getting better. My approaches are now pretty good--I am no longer dive-bombing the runway because of coming in too high. My glide slope and speeds are good. What I need to master is my hover and flare. I like to level-off too high, and then not flare enough. While this gets the plane on the ground, it's not as soft as it could be if I were to execute the procedure correctly. My flight instructor pretty much stays quiet during my landings, and then offers pointers for how I could improve.
Between touch-and-goes we took a break to review: stalls and engine failures were on the list. I feel pretty comfortable with the procedure for both of these, so we didn't spend too much time on it. So my instructor decided to add something new into the mix: steep turns.
None of my turns have exceeded 30 degrees of bank, but we can turn faster--much faster as I would quickly find out. We did a 45 degree turn. What is different is the addition of more engine power to maintain speed, and the use of the rudder. When I first did this I was surprised at how fast the airplane was turning--it was really moving. You are not suppose to watch the interments for this turn, so I had to look out the window and get comfortable with where the horizon was for a level turn--you don't want to loss altitude.
I didn't get a perfect landing, but I was getting close. More practice!
Did a little work on the webserver hard drive. I started by putting the drive into the Blue-Dragon and seeing what I could see. The answer: not much. I was unable to mount the drive so even run the SMART tools. So I tried to do a basic sector-by-sector copy. That didn't work out so well either. The result: I can't get much off the dead drive.
I noticed the website was acting a little strange this morning. It didn't want to load the images on the page. So I decided I would give Apache a restart. But when I logged into the server, it failed to load much of anything. So, I decided to give the server a reboot. It never came back.
It is my guess that the hard drive has died. I'm not sure what kind of error it has, but it's bad. I don't have time to work on it, and I don't have a backup server setup. Do DrQue.net has to suffer through some down-time.
Today was an other round of Humans Vs. Zombies. I don't participate in competitive activities, but I had to come out for the event. So I dressed in my medieval outfit. My story: I was preparing to siege a castle be catapulting zombies over the wall. But my mage got drunk and messed up the re-animate spell. Instead of raising the dead, my mage sent me into the future to a location with undead. So my goal was to collect a bunch of zombies and take them back with me this. Time with my new mage Xix—my old mage didn't survive having his head placed on a pike.
We consume a loaf of bread made of 5 cups in about 20 minutes--fresh bread just doesn't last. So I decided trying an increase in the loaf size. Pictured is an 11 cup loaf which I hope will last a little longer. This is right at the edge of what my mixer can knead. Picture by Steve.
