Poking Around at FFZ

I went up to Falcon Field today to shoot a few touch and goes to stay current. The FBO called while I was on my way there to tell me the plane I had booked had just been grounded for a maintenance issue. There was no other airplane available so I didn't get to fly and decided to shoot a few pictures instead. It was as great day for that as it was for flying, perfect weather and lots of activity. In the space of 15 minutes I saw this beautiful Stearman, a Russsian Yak, a B-25, a Twin Beech and a candy-apple red Aeronca Champ.

It was some consolation for not getting to fly myself but after 30+ years of it, I'm used to this happening once in a while. I'd rather wait and fly another day than take off in an aircraft that's having issues.



The Stearman and the Yak took off one right after the other and immediately broke to the left, almost right over where I was standing and giving me a perfect profile for the pictures. Showoffs. I think I'm going to have to find out who owns these babies and chat them up a little. Who knows. I might be able to cadge a ride out of them.




I haven't seen this B-25 around FFZ before. I suspect it's visiting the Commemorative Air Force Museum down at the other end of the field.

I'm Hooked

Newly Minted Firefly Junkie

No, not the small self-lighting bugs, the TV series "Firefly". I've always been a fan of science fiction, specifically space science fiction, ever since I saw the first Star Wars (or is it the fourth?) in the theater ( The rest of those are a subject for another post). This one-season (2002) series is one of my favorites. I just discovered it and its theatrical movie sequel (2005) "Serenity" recently. I was turned on to it by several blogs, most notably Instapundit (who in turn links to several reviews), Vodkapundit, and most recently Samizdata's Johnathan Pearce . When I took the quiz linked to by Johnathan and came up as most likely to be a Serenity crewmember, I finally had to buy the series and check it out. This is all your fault guys.

I saw all 14 episodes, including 3 that never made it onto the air, in about 3 sittings. Fox had a real winner on its hands here but really screwed it up by showing it out of order. Consequently, the first two episodes (in lieu of a pilot) which were really quite critical for laying the groundwork were shown back to back as the last two episodes in the series and 3 completed episodes were never shown at all. If I had watched them in the order shown, I might have found the story a bit lacking in coherence. That being said though, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole series.

The basic basic story line is that several hundred years into the future, humans have migrated away from an over-populated earth and colonized a number of planets. There are a number of "core" planets and many less developed ones, at ever increasing distance from the core. The series has an American old-west sensibility. It's kind of the Wild West with spaceships. There has been a war between the core planets, known as the Alliance, and the outer planets, known as the Independents with the latter coming out on the losing end. It all has a very post Civil War (US) feel.

The nine-member crew of Serenity consists of a couple of former Independent soldiers, including the Captain, and various people, each with a story (Whenever the Captain walks into a bar, every eye is on him. None are on stalks.). It's not just about one person and that makes for some very good story possibilities and creator Joss Whedon doesn't pass any up. The crew live on the fringes of human-occupied space, eking out a living moving cargo in Serenity, sort of a space-borne tramp steamer, some legitimate, some not, while trying to avoid drawing unwelcome Alliance attention.

I don't want to say more because I'm afraid I'll end up putting spoilers in. You really need to see the series to appreciate it . If you're not sure, rent the movie, Serenity first. That was what hooked me and if you like sci-fi and westerns, you'll like this.