July 22 update

July 15

 

Today's excitement was ... I assisted some neighbours in capturing a rattlesnake, then I relocated it. While we were walking Bo, and chatting with a neighbour, Ron, another neighbour, Betty came running down the road with her little dog Spencer, screaming in terror about a rattlesnake in her rock wall. Ron grabbed a rake, and we headed for Betty's. Her husband Dave was standing by their rock wall looking perplexed. There was a large, apparently very angry rattlesnake tucked in amongst the rocks, rattling its tail loudly, and flicking its forked tongue at us. Another neighbour, Jon, arrived with a big stick. Ron with his rake, and Jon with his big stick, began to try to get the rattlesnake out from the rocks. I headed for home to put on a pair of welding gloves, with leather gauntlets almost to the elbows. I thought maybe if they flipped the snake out onto the road, and held it down with the rake or stick, I could grab it and toss it into a garbage can.

By the time I returned a minute or two later, they had managed to flip the snake out onto the road, and then into a garbage can using the rake. I volunteered to relocate one very angry rattlesnake. I drove a few miles down the road, and released it on a dirt road leading up into the mountains. Boy ... it sure seemed angry ! I guess being whacked around with a stick and rake, then being trapped inside a hot plastic garbage can for awhile will do that to a rattlesnake. HA HA HA !

It was neat. I've never had the opportunity to hear an angry rattlesnake before. It sure can make a lot of noise with that rattle on its tail. And while I knew that this area is the northernmost "finger" of the Sonoran Desert, I didn't know we have rattlesnakes here. Watch out, Bo !

 

July 18

 

Today I resumed my life as a pilot at Southern Skies Aviation in Penticton. I have only flown once in the last 3½ years. To the surprise of both me and my flight instructor / examiner, my flying skills are not as rusty as we both expected them to be. I flew 1.1 hours in Cessna 172 C-GXTN ( X-ray Tango November ). Southern Skies' two Cessna 172's are both much older models than I am used to flying, so many of the controls and instruments are a slightly different design, in slightly different locations than I am accustomed to. We did upper air exercises over Lake Okanagan between Summerland and Peachland, steep turns at 45 degrees of bank, slow flight, stalls, and full power climbing turn stalls into incipient spins. Just like riding a bicycle ! We did a simulated engine failure forced approach. Aced it ! We did some touch and go circuits, including a high, hot, sideslip approach, and a full flaps approach. I will need at least one, maybe two more dual flights to be proficient enough to be allowed to sign out the aircraft for solo flight, and won't be allowed to fly outside the Okanagan Valley until I complete their mountain flying course this fall. I had a very brief mountain flying introduction / orientation at Boundary Bay ( just outside Vancouver ) in 1986 when we came out to see Expo 86, but ... well, that was 21 years ago.

Next summer ... aerobatics training in their Citabria. Woo-Hoo ... loops and rolls !

 

DSK