Everything Nonfiction

Review of Blindsight

Review of Blindsight directed by Lucy Walker
Rating ****

When I first read about this documentary, I thought it was about the story of Eric Weihenmayer, who became the first blind person to scale Mt Everest. If you look at the image used to promote the film, you see a lone individual with arms upraised. But just minutes into the film it becomes apparent that this is not Eric's story at all. This is the story of six blind children from Tibet who embark on a journey with Eric to scale a mountain next to Everest.

The whole thing starts with a letter to Eric from Sabriye Tenberken, who runs a school for the blind in Tibet. Sabriye invites Eric to Tibet to speak with her students about his amazing accomplishment. Eric comes up with the idea of selecting six students to embark on a climb to Lhakpa Ri, a peak near Everest.

Each of the six blind students has their own individual guide to help them scale the mountain. They undergo some minimal training before heading out to the Himalayas. Interspersed with the story of the climb expedition are the individual stories of the six children. This is where the film excels. The problems we deal with daily don't come close to the hardships these children have had.

All of the children stand out in their own way. There's Gynshen (I think this is the right name), who's mother diminishes him and talks about what a relief it was to get rid of him (all while he's standing there listening). There's Tashi, who's story is right out of Slumdog Millionaire. He's taken from his family and forced to beg for a couple who beats him when he doesn't produce. He eventually runs away, but he's blind and unable to do much of anything without assistance. His reunion with his family is one of the more emotional scenes in the movie.

The whole idea behind the film, though, is flawed. Eric grew up in the Rockies. He's a trained climber. He's experienced. Just because he was able to climb Mt. Everest doesn't mean that he can take any blind kid off the street and give them a few days of training and expect them to do the same. The mountain that is his goal is over 23,000 feet high. And they are planning to do this climb without oxygen. Had they chosen a more reasonable goal, I think they would have accomplished more.

Despite what happens on the mountain (no spoiler here), there's no doubt that the six children who undertook this challenge have gained much from the experience and continue to benefit from their participation. The filmmakers give updates on all of the children at the end of the film. Gynshen's story was my favorite. he started his own Braille publishing company and has done well enough that he sends money back to his family. Watching his mother talk about her son with pride says everything about this movie and what it's about.

The DVD had some extras worth watching. You can find out more at www.blindsightthemovie.com.

Why Planes Crash (a clip from the MSNBC documentary)

If you haven't had a chance to see the MSNBC documentary Why Planes Crash: Brace for Impact, here's a very good clip about the ALM ditching. I'm on for about ten seconds.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

November view from the cockpit (Windows 7 theme)

I'm an early adopter. So as soon as Windows 7 came out I decided to upgrade both my desktop and laptop. So far I've been pretty happy. It's cleaner, simpler, and seems faster. One of the new features I like is the ability to use themes. I'm sure that themes were available in earlier versions, but I never used them. In Windows 7 you can change themes in about two seconds. One of the the reasons I've been doing these "view from the cockpit" posts is because I use the images as my desktop background. I switch to a new image every month, so I thought why not share these images with other people.

This month I am offering my first Windows 7 theme consisting of eight of the very best images from my collection. This theme is called cloudscape. To use this theme on you're Windows 7 computer, just download the themepack to your computer (put it in a folder called my themes). Then doubleclick the file. That's all there is to it.

 

My take on the Northwest 188 incident

I'll say up front that I in no way take what happened aboard Northwest 188 lightly. The pilots made a very serious mistake that can't be explained away. At the same time, they made a mistake. People make mistakes. They have admitted their mistake and, as far as I know, have been totally truthful in telling the authorities what happened. So while the media, and just about everyone else, is out to crucify these guys, I see it as an opportunity to learn from what happened and possibly make some changes that might help prevent a similar thing from happening again.

Now the traveling public may find this hard to believe, but overflying a fix where an action is required and that action not taking place is not that uncommon of an occurrence. A good example is overflying a top of descent point and not beginning a descent or requesting a descent. Let's say that you're a couple of miles away from the top of descent and just as you're about to ask for lower you get a call from the flight attendant. So you get involved in dealing with whatever issue the flight attendant has and pass right over the TOD. It happens. The difference might be that the other pilot catches it and brings it to the flying pilot's attention. Maybe the controller sees that the crew hasn't asked for lower and assigns them a lower altitude. In either case the error chain has been broken.

The reason flying is so safe is because there is redundancy and safeguards that are in place to catch errors as they happen before they can cascade into more serious problems. The perfect flight is a goal seldom achieved. For the Northwest crew to make the mistake they made there had to be a series of errors that went unchecked. First there is the loss of communications. It happens all the time. A missed hand-off. A distraction. It's night time. There isn't a lot of chatter going on. After a while the crew realizes that they haven't heard anything so they get on the radio and try to reestablish contact. Sometimes a controller might enlist the aid of another aircraft to try and reach the out-of-contact plane. Sometimes the controller might have another plane contact their company dispatch and have an ACARS message sent directly to the plane. This usually solves the problem. From what I've read, all of this took place but the Northwest crew still didn't realize that they were out of radio contact for an extended period of time.

The crew says that they were using their laptops and were discussing a new crew scheduling system and simply lost track of time and failed to monitor the progress of the flight. That is a hard thing for any pilot to admit to. But it sounds sincere to me. It's what happened. Because they had their laptops in front of them they missed the numerous messages flashing on their flight displays. Should they have been checking those displays? Obviously.

More than likely the crew must have been cleared directly to a fix, either an arrival fix or perhaps even the airport itself. So there would have been very little turning going on, which might have refocused their attention. There wasn't any weather to contend with, so that was another opportunity they would have had to avert their mistake. There may be more information to come out of the investigation that may shed even more light on this incident. So I won't speculate any further than I already have. But there are a number of issues that I plan to comment on as this incident progresses: the role automation may have played; the role of the media in how they routinely get things wrong; the problems associated with long times in cruise flight with automated aircraft; the arguments for and against airline policies that prohibit the use of personal laptops in the cockpit. That last one deserves a quick final comment.

The Airbus operating manual or FCOM is provided in digital form. I don't know for positive that Northwest has laptops on board with the FCOM installed. But I do know that many airlines do. So if a crew is permitted to open a laptop in a noncritical phase of flight to review something in the manual, how is that more safe than a pilot looking at a new crew scheduling system on his personal laptop?

Review of American Violet

Review of American Violet directed by Tim Disney and written by Bill Haney
Rating ****

I am drawn to stories of injustice, especially those dealing with wrongful conviction. This story is about prosecutorial misconduct with an underlying theme of racism. The case in question here deals with the practice of one Texas District Attorney who orchestrated drug raids in poverty stricken black neighborhoods where they rounded up just about everyone in sight and then charged them with drug trafficking. They did this with little or no evidence. 

Why would someone do this? Once these individuals were in custody, their bail bonds were set so high that they couldn't possibly make them. They were then pressured into accepting plea bargains where they would plead guilty and then be released. The DA was thus able to show a high level of convictions, which he was then able to parlay into additional federal funds. The impact on those who were caught up in this injustice suffered greatly. Those who accepted the plea bargains had to face an already bleak situation with the added burden of being convicted felons, thus severely hampering their ability to get jobs and federal assistance. Those who decided to fight the charges were assigned a public attorney who couldn't care less about the outcomes of his clients' cases. The film didn't go into any specifics, but the implication was that those who chose to fight most certainly lost and were given lengthly prison sentences as a result. This all changed when the ACLU got involved and decided to go after the DA with a law suit filed by one of those wrongfully charged.

The person the ACLU decided to back was Dee Roberts, played here by Nicole Behaire. Remember, this is based on a true story. Not knowing the details of the real case, I can't say how accurately the story told in the film follows the actual case. But it isn't an overstatement that Dee took a very large gamble in going after the DA. If she lost she could have received a lengthly prison sentence. She also had the possibility of losing her children.

To help navigate the local legal system, the ACLU hired local lawyer Sam Conroy, pplayed by Will Patton. Once the case was laid out in pretrial hearings and the state's lone witness was shown to be not credible, all charges were dropped. Dee and the ACLU, however, decided to continue with the lawsuit in order to stop the practice of the unlawful drug raids.

While the outcome isn't really in question, getting there is nonetheless compelling. There are a number of notewortrhy performances. Nicole Behaire, Will Patton, Xzibit, Tim Blake Nelson, and Michael O'keefe all give believable portrayals. The story jumps around a bit as the filmmakers try to condense the story into a two hour film, but for the most part they succeed.

At the end of the movie there is a short superimposed update on a few of the main characters. From this we learn that the DA involved in this case had won re-election. Let's hope that now that this film is out the voters won't make the same mistake.

The only extras on the disc is an audio commentary, which I haven't gotten to yet but plan to. I would have liked to have seen a little something on the actual case. The web site for the movie was also lacking any pertinent information about the real Dee Roberts.

Review of Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst

Review of Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst directed by Robert Stone
Rating *****

One of the great things about art is that once it enters the public domain it remains there for eternity, waiting to be discovered anew. The Internet makes everything accessible. This documentary was first released in 2003. I'm not exactly sure how it came to my attention. I think I might have been browsing new DVD releases on the Blockbuster site. How I learned about it isn't important, what is important is that I discovered it. Had this film been released this year I would still have found it just as smart, interesting, and entertaining.

I was seventeen when Patty Hearst was kidnapped. It was a sensational story that I followed like everyone else in the country. But my parents weren't readers and neither was I at the time. So my version of the story came solely from the nightly news. This film gives a much more complete picture of what took place.

The story is told through a combination of interviews, movie clips, and archival footage. Interestingly, some of the main people involved in this story, including Patty Hearst, aren't included in the interviews. More on that later. The film relies heavily on interviews with two men: Russ Little and Mike Bortin. Both were members of the group who pulled off the kidnapping, but neither of them took part or were even aware of the plot. Russ Little was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the killing of a black school administrator. In the film, he claims to have had nothing to do with the killing, and I find him believable. His fate was ultimately tied to the actions of the other members of the SLA or Symbionese Liberation Army. Mike Bortin joined the group after the kidnapping. Having been there at the time and knowing the participants, but without having any fear of self incrimination, both men are able to tell their story in an unbiased manner.

For anyone who isn't familiar with the Patty Hearst story, and that could be a lot people under the age of thirty, Patty was the daughter of William Randolph Hearst, a wealthy media magnate. What makes the story so compelling is that Patty eventually sympathized with her captors and even took place in some criminal activities, including a bank robbery. She went from kidnapped victim to wanted terrorist. When she was eventually captured she was put on trial and eventually sentenced to seven years in prison.

The filmmaker claims, and I believe rightfully so, that the Patty Hearst story was the first time where a news event became a worldwide media event. Thanks in large part to new technology that allowed for live news broadcasts. Today a news story can travel the world in a matter of seconds. Satellite TV, the Internet, blogs, Twitter, all of this can catapult a story into the limelight with great alacrity. Here are just two examples: the ditching of Flight 1549 and balloon boy.

But that isn't the only prescient thing about this film. The whole idea of political terrorism can be seen in the actions of the SLA. The film was released six years ago about an event that took place more than thirty years ago, and it is still relevant today.

The disc has a number of extras including an excellent audio commentary by director Robert Stone. In the commentary, he explains his reasoning for not including interviews with Patty Hearst and some of the other central characters. He makes some good points, but I would have loved to have heard from Patty herself about the film even if it would have been as an extra on the DVD. This film might be six years old, but it was new for me. And if you haven't seen it, add it to your queue right now.

Review of Look me in the eye by John Elder Robinson

Review of Look me in the eye by John Elder Robinson
Rating ***

This book is a memoir written by the brother of the author of Running With Scissors, Augusten Burroughs. Unlike most people who have read Look me in the eye, I have not read Augusten's book, though I probably will read it now. I give a lot of credit to people who see one author have a lot of success with a book and then decide that they have something to add and can do just as good a job. Frank McCourt's brother wrote his own memoir after Angela'a Ashesbecame a best seller. I haven't read it, but the book has done well. Some of the soldiers covered in Mark Bowden's Blackhawk Down wrote their own book. One of the boat captains in the story A Perfect Stormhas written a couple of successful books. A lot of good books don't make it because they can't find an audience. So there's nothing wrong with riding the coattails of another book.

There have been a lot of memoir's written about dysfunctional families. The Robison family certainly falls into this category. But this book deals more with the author's struggle to make it in a world while dealing with Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism.

Anyone who knows someone with this syndrome should read this book. There is a lot of insight that can be gained from learning from someone who has dealt with it and continues to deal with Asperger's. The author states that he could easily have turned inward and might have even become more savant-like had he not met a few people in his life that challenged him to deal with his problems in communication and social interactions. While he had difficulties as a result of Asperger's, his problems were not all that far removed from the problems we all face.

There's a lot of humor in the book. I enjoyed reading about his time working with KISS and his work with sound and effects. But the book is lacking in conflict. The dysfunctional family is covered only briefly. The recent memoir Crazy For The Stormby Norman Ollestad had a plane crash as a major conflict. I tend to be drawn more to these types of stories.

Where The Wild (Weird) Things Are

Review of Where The Wild (Weird) Things Are
Rating *

The last time I wrote a review about a movie that wasn't a nonfiction film was for the movie There Will Be Blood. I was peeved at the time that the movie was being touted as a best picture candidate. I didn't agree. Now I've heard the same thing about this ridiculous movie. I had the misfortune of having to sit though this movie yesterday. We had three movies in mind but the times didn't work out, so we decided to give this one a chance. After all, some critics are calling this an instant classic. Iv'e heard it described as magical, wondrous, imaginative. Entertainment Weeklygave it an A. I'm here to tell you that there is nothing in this movie that is magical or wondrous. How about dreary, boring, drab, and sophomoric?

I've been duped before by movie critics who apparently have never read the children's story The Emperor's New Clothes. So let me be the first to say it: the emperor is naked. He's not wearing a stitch. If this movie doesn't show an 80% drop in ticket sales by this time next week I'd be surprised. Film critics apparently can't think for themselves. They all jump on a bandwagon and no one has the guts to jump off and say "wait a minute." Here are just a few of the movies that I've been duped into seeing: Eyes Wide Shut, The Blair Witch Project, Open Water, Borat.

This movie fails on every level, but the blame mostly lies with director and co-writer Spike Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers. It's as if they went with the very first thing that popped into their minds and never bothered to do a rewrite. The plot, expanded from a ten sentence children's book that I have not read, is lamer than a children's cartoon. Poor Max is upset because he's not getting any attention. So he escapes to a mysterious island where people in goofy puppet costumes waddle around in a mystical forest that looks more like the woods on the outskirts of a salvage yard.

I know this is supposed to be a children's movie. But there isn't anything in this movie that could possibly appeal to anyone but maybe a boy the exact same age as Max. There's no humor. The soundtrack is annoying, the individual puppet characters are caricatures of caricatures. There were four people in the theater when we walked in. One old guy left half way through never to return.

Getting a film made these days is hard. And I give credit to everyone involved in taking a story from idea to finished product. I don't blame the actors. But this film was doomed from day one when they decided to go with the screenplay that was turned in. I've said it before. If it ain't on the page it won't be on the stage.

Review of Notorious by George Tillman, Jr.

Review of Notorious written by Cheo Hodari Coker and Reggie Rock Bythewood and directed by George Tillman, Jr.
Rating ****

I'm not a fan of RAP or Hip Hop. Every now and then I'll hear something I like. For the most part, though, I'm a smooth jazz and country fan. I'm also a fan of good stories, and this story of the short life of rapper Christopher "Biggie" Wallace is a good one.

My introduction to this story was a recent documentary I watched but didn't review. The documentary was called Notorious: Bigger Than Life. I liked the documentary, but it was missing one major component. It had none of the rapper's music. I'm sure it had to do with rights issues; but watching a documentary about a performer without seeing any of his performances is like watching the movie Seabiscuit with all the race scenes having been cut. So I rented this movie to give me a better sense of what all the hype was about.

In many ways, this film is just another music biop along the lines of Walk The Line and Ray - two films I liked a great deal. It had many of the same elements: a difficult childhood, drugs, affairs, etc. But I would also say that the quality of this film was on par with those other two films. The acting, directing, cinematography, and writing were all top notch. Jamal Woolard, who portrayed Biggie and who was making his first film appearance, did a remarkable job. Much of the film was filmed on location, which lent authenticity to the story.

With any biop like this, the one thing that everyone wants to see is what this person was like before they made it big. It's the same draw as American Idol, only in the latter case you get to wittiness it as it's happening. In the case of Christopher Wallace, he was a low level drug dealer who grew up in a single parent household run by his mother Voletta Wallace played expertly by Angela Bassett. His only skill other than drug dealing was an ability to write and rap rhymes. One of the more amazing things about this story is that his quick rise to fame and fortune came about after just one album. He was murdered just as his second album was about to be released.

I'm all about pulling for the underdog. I like a success story as much as anyone, but I can't put rappers in the same league as musicians who write and compose their own material and struggle for years to make it. It's almost like all you have to do is come up with a clever nickname like say Little Kim or 50 Cent or Tupac and you're halfway there. Throw in some demeaning lyrics and you'll have your own crib in no time. Still you can't knock success. If it were that easy I'd put out a rap album. Maybe I'd call myself Fly Boy. That has a rapper sound to it, doesn't it?

But back to the film. In the end the filmmakers achieve their goal which is to portray real people and events in a fully believable manner. The tragedy of this story is the role the media played in dramatizing a rivalry that didn't exist.

The DVD had a number of extras and surprises. For example, I was surprised to learn that the boy who played Christopher Wallace as a child was his actual son. I was also surprised to learn that Voletta Wallace was as involved as she was in bringing this story to film. Besides a making of doc there were two audio commentaries. This disc belongs on my best of 2009 list.

Review of Touching The Void

Review of Touching The Void Directed by Kevin MacDonald
Rating *****

Touching the Voidtells the true story of two climbers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, who set out to climb one of the highest mountain peaks in Peru -- the Siula Grande. The documentary is based on the book written by Joe Simpson.

The Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes is a 21,000 foot mountain that no other climber had conquered, at least not from the west face. The book from which this documentary is based on is an international best seller. But telling the story through film presented a number of difficulties that doomed earlier attempts. Besides the dangerous location, the story involves just two climbers who become separated on the way down from the mountain. How then do you keep the story moving? Even when the two climbers are together dialogue between them would have been difficult. The director, Kevin MacDonald, came up with an ingenious (and I think totally original) idea of having the two climbers tell their story in a conversational manner while depicting the scenes through accurate recreations. The end result is a hybrid nonfiction film/documentary.

The recreation of the climb and of the events that followed were so authentic that I had, at first, thought that I was watching the actual climb and descent. It wasn't until Joe Simpson broke his leg in a fall that I realized that I was watching a recreation.

The main drama in this story begins when Joe Simpson slides down the face of the mountain and ends up breaking his leg. This happens early on in the descent. When his climbing partner, Simon Yates, reaches him, he has a difficult decision to make. Getting an injured climber down from a peak in the conditions that existed was practically impossible. But Simon came up with a plan to lower Joe using two ropes tied together. It was dangerous and difficult. At one point Joe finds himself dangling over a crevice in midair. Simon can't see what has happened to his friend; he can only feel the weight at the end of the line. After contemplating his options, Simon makes the decision to cut the rope. He is sure that he is sending his friend to his death, but Joe survives the fall. Simon climbs down the mountain and joins up with another companion who had remained behind at the base camp.

Joe soon realizes that he can't just stay where he is. His only chance for survival is to find a way out of the crevice and down the mountain. And he has to do this with a broken leg and no food and water. It's a survival story every bit as compelling as the Endurance story.

The recreation of this story is first rate both in the cinematography and in the acting by Brendan Mackey who portrays Joe Simpson and Nicholas Aaron who portrays Simon Yates. I've read climbing stories before, but not being a climber it was hard for me to visualize what I was reading. This film brings the story to life in a way that could not have been more realistic unless you had been there on the mountain.

The DVD has some excellent extras that complete the story. This is a first rate documentary that I highly recommend.

October view from the cockpit

Life has kept me away from the cockpit temporarily, so I've had to go into my archive to find an image for this month. This is a picture of my community. I'll give away an autographed copy of 35 Miles From Shore to the first person who can identify my house in this picture. It's called "Home."

Click here for the high res copy. 

If I knew then

If you could travel back in time and meet yourself as a teenager, what three things would you tell yourself?
Submitted by Digital Scrapbooking.

1. You have to approach the girl. Don't wait for her to approach you.

2. Buy stock in that computer company you liked so much. The one called Apple.

3. Don't sweat the small stuff: It's all small stuff.

Review of Horse Soldiers

Review of Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton
rating *** 1/2

The story told in the book Horse Soldiers is a modern day western. Not only do we have American special force soldiers riding into battle atop horses alongside Afghan fighters, the story has many of the same plot devices, including a siege at a wood and mud fort. The one difference is that this story is true and it took place not long after the hijackings of September 11, 2001.

The story has plenty of drama to keep a reader's interest, but a wide cast of characters makes it difficult to get emotionally involved with any of them. The one person I had the most sympathy for was John Walker Lindh, whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For that he was branded a traitor and is serving a prison sentence that offers no chance of parole until 2022. If there is any justice, it's that many of the government officials who attacked Lindh, without any real knowledge of what he was actually guilty of, are now facing charges of their own.

One other individual who stood out in this story was the Afghan warlord Dostum. He is a colorful character who at one moment displays a sense of humor as he taunts his opposing forces, and who at the same time is willing to kill without compunction. The special force soldiers, however, tend to blend together.

The main goal of the special force soldiers was to enlist the help of the Norther Alliance in ridding the country of the Taliban. If ever there was a regime that needed to be ousted it was the Taliban. Those loonies deserve to live out their miserable lives in caves. The SF guys were equipped with communication gear and lasers used for directing air strikes. The bombs that were dropped as a result of their efforts hit their intended targets maybe half the time. Those that missed either blew up dirt or killed innocent people.

The climatic scene involves the rebellion of Taliban fighters who at first surrendered and then staged a planned attack that was meant to divert attention while other Taliban fighters entered the city. This is by far the most dramatic part of the book. Everything else leads up to this singular event.

While I enjoyed this book and can recommend it, a better book covering a similar topic is the book Lone Survivorby Marcus Luttrell.

The demise of LangaAir

So what happened to LangaAir? LangaAir was, up until five days ago, a flight school. I happened to work there as a flight instructor. I wasn't doing it as a career choice. Let's just say that I was between jobs and looking for something different to do while I waited for things to turn around. I was eighteen years old the last time I gave any flight instruction. A lot has changed since then.

The last plane I flew before making the switch to flight instructing was an Airbus 320. Going from an A320 to C172 is a bit of a culture shock. I hadn't flown a single engine aircraft in over thirty years. Once I accepted the fact that this was going to be my new office, I started to enjoy it. One thing I've learned while accumulating close to 18,000 hours is that, for the most part, airplanes fly the same. You pull back on the controls and the plane climbs. You push forward and it descends.

Things were slow at first at Langa. LangaAir, which had been in business in Alton, Illinois for some twenty years, had just expanded to Chesterfield at the Spirit of St. Louis airport after the demise of another flight school several months earlier. Scott Langa, the son of original owner Irv Langa, was running the operation at Spirit. Scott is a smart, hard working, ambitious, and honest individual. I was immediately impressed with what he was able to accomplish in such a short time. The fact that he was able to expand at all during one of the worst economic downturns in four decades says a lot. Let's face it, flying isn't cheap. But Scott knew the business and knew how to attract customers. And little by little the customers came. There were the renters: pilot's already qualified but in need of an aircraft to rent. There were the club members: these were qualified pilots who wanted to fly more than just once or twice a year. And then there were the students.

In the short time that I was at Langa I saw every type of student: the career minded eighteen year olds; the twenty-something adventure seekers; the older mid-thirties and mid-forties students who had always dreamed about learning to fly and now were in a position to do just that; and even some who were too young to actually get a license but had parents willing to shell out $200 an hour just so they could occupy their kid's time with something constructive. Every week potential new students walked through the doors wanting information about learning to fly. From my perch looking on from the outside it looked like Scott was doing everything right. All you had to do was Google flight instruction and St. Louis and LangaAir was the number one search result. Links to the LangaAir web site were everywhere. Every pilot in St. Louis and anyone who ever even remotely thought about learning to fly received a flyer in the mail. At Spirit we were set up to give the FAA required knowledge tests. We offered training in G1000 equipped Skyhawks. We even had one of the newer Elite simulators installed so we could give simulator training on days when the other planes were grounded due to weather.

So what happened? I really don't know what happened. I suspect that an overly ambitious expansion and a tight credit market are to blame. I don't fault anyone in the company. Everyone I met was top notch. For those who are affected by this turn of events, I hope that things will work out in your favor. I hope to see everyone flying again soon.

The picture to the right is one of my students who had just soloed. We gave him a new "I just soloed at Langa" shirt.

September view from the cockpit

This one is called twists and turns. It's a visual metaphor for a life's journey. It is particularly apt in my case.

  Click here for the high res version.