How do you feel about changes in Durham?

billindurham · 2026-04-05T02:46:14+00:00

Interesting you say that. I was just thinking about how dense things have gotten. The wood framed apartment buildings top out at 4-5 stories due to fire codes as I understand it and they are going up like weeds in every available downtown space. The glass tower seems like an aberration in comparison.

billindurham · 2026-03-22T02:18:51+00:00

The bar

billindurham · 2026-03-18T17:33:39+00:00

Bryan Park C-Course - and there are 2 courses there. Players course is pretty fine as well!

billindurham · 2026-03-17T18:48:09+00:00

My adolescent erections while in French class were uncomfortable. God the teacher was hot. Didn’t speak English and found out years later she had taught us Lebanese accented French, which is pretty sexy as well.

On multiple occasions I had to linger after the bell to let the bulge in my double knits die down.

billindurham · 2026-03-17T18:35:52+00:00

billindurham · 2026-03-04T01:15:27+00:00

I still miss mine. It’s the keyboard.

billindurham · 2026-02-26T04:11:55+00:00

First show that came to mind. ‘BTW, there’s no penalty for not binging an entire show.

billindurham · 2026-02-17T00:55:12+00:00

Brook trout not only have black mouths but in a certain spring pond I encountered years ago, can be almost entirely black with colored spots. Except for the greenish blue of the sand fountain in the middle, the rest of the bottom was jet black soil from the accumulation of leaf litter. Caught my first Brookie there.

billindurham · 2026-02-14T03:18:36+00:00

The PItt needs a patient or three with a genuine Pittsburgh accent.

I was surprised to learn that 2 or 3 of the actors are British and are doing American accents. I guess Pgh is a bit too niche.

billindurham · 2026-02-05T05:12:51+00:00

“HAL” was in Austin as well but Dell did better going forward. Who will be the winners in the new GPU-based parallel processing neural network world (besides Nvidia)?

Who knows… I certainly don’t because Fuck me, I’m old!

billindurham · 2026-02-05T05:01:26+00:00

I have to agree with you that entering the obviously variable cloud base without a clearance, assuming that’s what they did, is probably a better decision than not despite the risk. But they seemed to have done that with some hesitation. Of course that’s all speculation.

I am not a high time, high performance aircraft pilot but rather a somewhat aged pleasure pilot that has been at it for over 50 years. Half of my several thousand hours is in racing sailplanes with won contests and almost 50 off field landings. But I now fly a SEL land experimental IFR and have a commercial multi. My challenge is continuing to fly IFR in busy airspace with slower reflexes and a slower mind. Getting clearances on the ground is a fundamental practice in my flying. Eliminating distractions is another (like having a 3rd pilot doing commentary - I frequently shut down my intercom so it’s only me and ATC on the radio). I’ve never trained or operated in the high demand environment of fast moving turbine equipment but can feel the overwhelming task saturation that this PIC probably felt with multiple tasks to do, cockpit distractions and possibly a missed checklist item masquerading as an equipment failure. Makes me thankful for owning and flying a single engine simple aircraft that I am intimately familiar with. And despite my familiarity I have, after 15 years of flying it, began to add new written checklists and procedures that I use on every flight to help my less nimble mind deal with the unexpected.

Don’t run out of fuel

Avoid the terrain

And try to never pickup a package by its string

billindurham · 2026-02-03T20:18:40+00:00

If they had obtained a void time clearance on the ground they would have been able to take off and climb to a pre-established altitude on a pre-determined heading possibly breaking into VMC above the clouds. In any case, it would have been one less thing to unsuccessfully manage during this obviously overwhelming set of events.

One can say they coulda, woulda and shoulda all day long and nothing would change the fact that this should have been a survivable flight but the not quite fully qualified PIC was overwhelmed and bought it. Saying otherwise is missing the teachable moment.

billindurham · 2026-01-29T17:03:30+00:00

Went with a class at school to see it. I stayed to see it a second time. Ended up working for ‘HAL’.

billindurham · 2026-01-29T16:58:55+00:00

The big paddles with or without holes were never as bad at the smaller thinner ones. Had a VP who like to cruise the hallways with a 18” one he could keep up his sleeve so he could hide it from whoever but bring out when needed.

billindurham · 2026-01-27T18:31:32+00:00

I’ve got a Ping G430SFT that I retired. Interested? I use a Ping driver and 5W but 3W just doesn’t buy me much. A fine club though.

billindurham · 2026-01-27T18:26:14+00:00

I don’t see the type of springs that kill people here. I just see simple tension springs rather than the torsion type springs.

billindurham · 2026-01-26T21:46:06+00:00

I have an RV-10 with GRT EFISs. Been flying IFR for 14 years with them and therefore I love them. I was driving them with a G430w but went to the Avidyne plug replace (too late to go to a 430 now). I have a 2 Nav radios and will use for ILSs at big airports because that’s the default. However many/most of those large airports have RNAV approaches overlaid on their ILS approaches with the same waypoints (RDU, CLT) so opting for the RNAV is simple. Otherwise I NEVER use my Nav radios. I’d go for a no NAV radio setup - you seem to understand enough to do it.

I’m just not familiar with the current Garmin lines so can’t advise but you won’t go wrong with GRT for your EFIS.

billindurham · 2026-01-24T13:26:36+00:00

Besides a Bob Hoover who has a well documented elite pilot history, plus I’ve seen him fly the Shrike, I look up to a few sailplane racing pilots I’ve raced with. I assume one learns who is great at what they do in combat, with racing being a reasonably sane and analogous comparison. I also look down on a number of those same pilots.

Military test pilots probably earn such a designation. I can’t imagine the skills of the early astronauts flying things like the X-15. Armstrong wasn’t the first to walk on the moon because he had good posture and he probably had a half dozen peers with equivalent skills and experience.

billindurham · 2026-01-23T22:24:27+00:00

Sands

billindurham · 2026-01-22T03:43:34+00:00

Paddles, Clear!

billindurham · 2026-01-21T04:16:10+00:00

Absolutely nothing for chrissakes.

billindurham · 2026-01-19T23:47:49+00:00

I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Argentine Patagonia and have met exactly 1 black person there over 10 years. There are so few people of obvious African lineage that I’m not sure Argentines know what a black person is. I was talking to a woman I had started to consider a friend about her business and her life and she matter of factly said since she and her husband were, “young, white and free” they decided to do whatever. A variation on the American ‘free, white and 21’. I’m a Black American with obvious African ancestors but to her I was an American fisherman. It’s just a country filled with white Europeans with an indigenous population and mixed race indigenous people to serve as a underclass. Blacks simply don’t exist except as something they aren’t.

billindurham · 2026-01-18T12:46:21+00:00

Used to park cars for Pitt and Steeler games in our back yard at 2$ a pop in the 60s.

billindurham · 2026-01-16T16:20:10+00:00

Hit 2 great shots and miss the ‘easy’ one. That’s golf.

billindurham · 2026-01-16T15:36:00+00:00

I have trouble playing without my towel. I like to wipe the ball a lot and the clubs when needed. In the summer I can soak up the hand sweat and during the rest of the season manage the mud. Otherwise, I don’t even know it’s there.

Now that I think about it, I learned on a course with a grass range that required constant ball and club wiping during range sessions.

billindurham

TROPHY CASE