My friend from work and I went up for a night flight this past Friday.  I arrived at the airport rather early, so I ended up flying alone to do some aerobatics.  I think I was only up for about 25 minutes.  I was happy to see how smooth it was, which would be appreciated by my passenger.  Not long after I landed, my friend arrived.  We watched a large plane start up and take off before we climbed in Vyctor and set out around 9:30pm.  I told her we would climb to 3500 feet, which is the required altitude for planes in the Niagara Falls scenic circuit.  I hit 3500′ just before we were over Queenston.  I throttled down to cruise speed and my friend said “Oh, are we stopping?”  I said “Yes, we’re just going to pull over here, get out and take some pictures!”  We both had a good laugh.  We were over the Falls about 20 minutes before the fireworks started.  The view was amazing.  She was so impressed and couldn’t believe how different it was at night.  The coloured lights on the Falls were impressive:

A couple times, the spot lights hit Vyctor’s white wing and we thought the fireworks had started – it was so bright!  However, they didn’t start until 10:00pm.  It was nice that we were the only aircraft in the circuit.  There were tons of cars lined up on the road along the Falls, all watching the show.  Needless to say, we had the best seat in the house.  The show went on for almost 10 minutes!  It was amazing, especially when we were almost right over the pyrotechnics.

My friend was so happy with the flight.  That was the third time I’ve taken her up, but the first time at night.

Our landing was fun.  I showed her how I could turn on the runway lights by clicking my push-to-talk switch a few times.  I’m hoping I can go for another night flight again soon.

I was at the airport last night, with my Recreational Aircraft Association folks.  They are such a great bunch!  Our guest speaker last night builds and rides velomobiles .  They are aerodynamic, recumbent cycles.  Some of the ones they brought were also battery powered.  I wasn’t going to try one, thinking I would end up causing a scene (I was wearing a skirt and heels!)  However, since some of them were fully enclosed, I was pretty safe (as were the onlookers!).  It was a total blast to ride around the apron at the airport!  Everyone was having a good time.  I took some pictures with my phone’s camera, but haven’t sent them to my computer yet.  I’m also going to ask if anyone else there last night could email me some of the pics they took.

The meeting went very well.  Since the airport is under construction and totally torn up, I suggested everyone bring a flash light.  It wouldn’t be too safe walking back to their cars at night, considering the uneven and yucky ground.  I had two small flashlights, but was mostly pointing them behind me for the other people walking.  My shoes paid for this big-time.  Yucky is right!  My cats were quite shocked when I got home:

Instead of taking the time to clean them, I’m just waiting for the mud to dry, then I’m going to colour over it with a black marker.

Today’s symptoms: Feeling pretty good for most of the day.  My energy didn’t start to drop off until around 3:00 – surprising since my late night last night.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 6/15/2010 6:43 PM

Nothing fun and exciting has been going on with me lately.  Thus, the delay between the last few blogs. 

The weather last weekend was yucky, so I didn’t get to go flying.  Unfortunately, it looks like this weekend is going to be the same, if not worse.  I am, however, planning on taking up a friend from work tomorrow night.  We both want to fly over Niagara Falls to watch the fireworks show at 10:00 pm.  The clouds and rain are not supposed to roll in until after midnight – at least that was the last prediction.  I think it’s only fair that the weather stays nice enough to allow for my flight tomorrow night, since it will take away my joy and passion this weekend!  How rude!  I hope to have some nice pyrotechnic photos to show in my next blog.

Little Mya has become obsessed with running out into the hall whenever we open the door.  It wouldn’t be a big deal except for the fact that we live in an apartment and she meows constantly while she’s out there.  Fortunately, some of my neighbours are a little deaf…  Another thing they both do is run into my hoodie closet whenever I open it.  Yes, I have an entire closet dedicated to my hoodie collection.  Some women have purses and shoes, I have hoodies.  It’s all good:

At least I don’t have to worry about cat hair all over my clothes…

Today’s symptoms:  Feeling better today than I have all week.  My energy and mood have been down more than normal lately.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 6/10/2010 7:58 PM

Chuck and I took advantage of the nice weather this past weekend and flew down to the fly-in at the Downsview airport in Toronto.  Actually, I shouldn’t really say the weather was all that “nice” as it was quite hazy, then became windy once we got past Hamilton.  Here’s a shot of Toronto through the haze and smog:

 

The flight to the airport took less than 45 minutes, which was nice considering how bumpy and lumpy it was getting.

Once we touched down, there were many marshallers out to guide us to our parking spot:

Actually, we didn’t pull into the parking spot.  Instead, after I shut down, little Vyctor was escorted to his place.

I was actually surprised that there weren’t more planes there.

We wandered around to the vendors, then over to the museum.  Does this engine make my butt look big?

I was really happy to see the Silver Dart replica and a couple of its builders there.  Two are members of the

Recreational Aircraft Association (Niagara Chapter) .

Another nice treat was meeting hockey legend Johnny Bower:

My mother is a Maple Leafs fan, so I got her an autographed photo.

We were there for a couple of hours, then helped push Vyctor back to the taxiway:

I’m trying to pull Vyctor off a collision course with the other parked planes – it was really tight!

The flight back wasn’t quite as bumpy, which is typically nice for my passengers.  I don’t seem to mind so much.

Nothing too exciting planned for this week.  I’m hoping to go flying one day, but the weather doesn’t look too good for the next few days.

Today’s symptoms: I was really drained and weak by the time mid-afternoon rolled around.  It led to a boring evening and night of recovering in bed – blah!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 6/1/2010 8:23 PM

Chuck and I decided to take a flight on Sunday night to watch some of the fireworks.  I think the main displays were actually on Victoria Day, but we knew there would be a few of them the day before.  We took off just before dusk.  Our first stop was over Niagara Falls:

You can see the spot lights shining on the Canadian Falls in the above shot.  It was a very smooth flight, but it was more hazy than I thought it would be.  We couldn’t even see Toronto across the lake.

Here’s another angle of the Falls:

We watched a few small firework shows along the Lake Ontario shoreline, plus one out in Welland.  It was just after 10:00 pm when I decided to land.  Just then a nice show started over the Falls.  With Vyctor at full throttle, I told Chuck to lean forward as we raced toward the display of light!  We were belting along at 120 miles per hour.  Unfortunately we didn’t make it, and had to watch the grand finale from afar:

There is a firework display every Friday night over the Falls.  I’m hoping to go back up within the next couple of weeks for a closer viewing!

It was a really nice flight and Chuck seemed to really enjoy it.

Speaking of spectacular sights, check out this little display of insanity:

Abby looks like a pirate undergoing an exorcism!  Arrrrgh!

Today’s symptoms:  I actually felt decent today!  My fatigue level was more than tolerable and not too much pain either.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 5/25/2010 7:45 PM

I had something interesting happen yesterday.  I was driving through the parking lot at my apartment on the way to work.  I stopped when I noticed a small bird standing in the driveway.  I opened my door to see if he was ok and he flew right into my car!  He sat in the little compartment on the passenger’s side door:

When I tried to get him out, he jumped up on my finger and wouldn’t let go.  It was so cute!  The superintendent walked out and looked over at me with the bird.  I told him I may need help getting the little guy on his way.  He lifted it off my finger and it flew away.  I think that’s a reasonable excuse to be four minutes late for work that morning….

I visited with my mother today.  We just went to Tim Horton’s for a coffee, then to Shopper’s Drug Mart.  When we got back home, we decided to wash my car.  Jan did the exterior while I did the interior.  Lola Corolla looks so good now!

After cleaning the car, we worked on taking down her small dead tree by the porch.  I snapped the tree at the base with a couple of kicks.  Working on digging out the stump and roots was a little more time consuming.  At one point, I used every ounce of my weight to heave the stump loose:

Yes, my feet are off the ground, and no, the stump didn’t budge.  A few more digs and the stubborn thing finally gave in.

Today’s symptoms: Not feeling as bad as I have been for the last week.  I think it’s a sign of feeling well in the near future!  Yea, we’ll go with that!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 5/15/2010 6:05 PM

Today was my compressed day off.  Jan and I went over to the PEN Centre, just to wander around aimlessly.  There wasn’t too much else to do on this poopy weather day.  I gave her a couple things we picked up in Minnesota.  She really helped out with Mya and Abby – coming to the apartment twice a day for three days to feed them and give Abby her medication.  Such a good little mommy!

I was going through the pictures from Minnesota on Chuck’s camera.  I didn’t realize he took a picture of me in the flight simulator (mentioned in my previous blog entry):

Speaking of odd pictures, here’s one of my Mya doing her contortionist routine:

I wish I had more to report, but this hasn’t been the most exciting week of my life.  Hopefully something good will happen this weekend!

Today’s symptoms: Fatigue level was average but my jaw pain and body aches were worse than normal.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 5/13/2010 8:26 PM

Chuck and I flew into Minnesota out of Toronto this morning.  We are visiting the Mall of America, and it’s amazing! 

In Toronto, I couldn’t believe how long we were taxiing to our runway.  I thought we were going to have to refuel when we got there!  We passed some other cute planes on the way:

We hit some yucky weather when we arrived:

In Minnesota, we taxied past some Air Force aircraft on the way to the apron:

After checking into our hotel, we took the shuttle across the street to the mall.  I was really looking forward to the ACES Flight Simulator.  We headed there first and I joined three other people for the pre-flight instructional video.  We then went into our individual flight simulators.  We had headsets on so we could talk to each other and the “instructor.”  I chose to fly the P51 Mustang (from World War II).  We started the simulators in the air, so I didn’t have the pleasure of taking off.  I decided to try shooting down my fellow simulators right of the bat.  Unfortunately, my guns were disabled – bummer.  I let the staff guy know and he restarted my program to fix my weapons.  He then set me up for a full out dog fight.  Over 30 minutes, I was pretty sure I shot down three other planes.  When the simulation was over, I was surprised to hear I took down six!  The staff guy said that was really good.  It was a real rush and I may go back tomorrow.

After the simulator, we wandered over to the food court for some lunch.  As you can see from this picture, I was totally enthused about my massive salad:

The mall has a huge amusement park:

We ended up making a few really nice purchases.  We visited the Rockport store so Chuck could buy some new shoes.  We both noticed an amazing purse behind the counter.  Our sales-personage, Saroeum, brought the purse down off the shelf, and handed it over.  I felt guilty about buying it, but Chuck let me know that he didn’t share my feelings!  Here it is:

Isn’t it great?!  So unique looking!

Today’s symptoms: I cannot believe how long I made it today!  The fatigue wasn’t too bad.  I had the crushing pains in my hand again today, but not as bad as the last few days.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 5/7/2010 8:03 PM

I was able to take to the skies today, despite the high winds.  I bought a new headset at the Aviation Expo last weekend, so I needed to test it out.  Chuck and I are going to Minnesota this weekend, so no flying for moi.  The winds were 25 knots gusting 30 knots.  I was blowin’ in the wind – literally!  Fortunately, my new headset worked great!

When I got home, I decided to try and create a broccoli soup from a recipe a friend from work gave me.  I am surprised and impressed with her faith in me and my cooking skills (or lack thereof).  I was shocked that I was actually able to create an edible dish from scratch!  Go me!  The soup was yumalicious and very healthy.  I feel so domesticated.

I’m really looking forward to going to Minnesota this weekend.  Chuck and I will be heading to Toronto tomorrow and stay overnight near the airport.  Our flight leaves around 9:30 Friday morning.  We’re going to the Mall of America there.  It’s huge!  I’ll also be trying out the flight simulator .  I think the weekend will be a great get-away for both of us.

 A friend from work sent me this picture after spotting the town on the way to her property up North:

Sounds like a WONDERFUL place!

Symptoms for today: Just feeling a little drained, but nothing major.  I had some aches in my left hand during the morning, but nothing to write home about.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 5/5/2010 7:47 PM

I’ve been looking forward to today for a couple months now.  It was the first day of the Aviation Expo at the Hamilton Airport.  I was hoping to fly in, but the weather was a no-go.  The light rain was fine, but not the thunder storms.  I was shocked to see a few people did fly in during the storm!  Not a good idea!  Anyway, Chuck and I drove to the Airport this morning and arrived around 10:45.  There was a seminar run by Transport Canada that I wanted to attend.  I suggested to Chuck that he go wander around for a bit, because it would probably not be interesting to him at all.  I think he regretted not heeding my advice!  Oh well, it was only an hour and he survived.

We met up with a few of the folks from my RAA chapter.  I met a couple over by the National RAA booth.  I was happy to see our picture board standing proud!  I created the board with pictures of our members planes and projects.  One of our members made a really nice easel to display it on – I was really impressed with it!  A friend of mine (who is also a member) was nice enough to bring the board and easel to the Expo this morning.

Chuck and I had over two hours between the end of the first seminar and the second one, so we wandered around.  Due to the weather, the turn-out wasn’t as good as last year.

I was really looking forward to the second seminar.

Canadian Astronaut Dr. David Williams spoke to us for about an hour on his two missions into space.  It was amazing!  Some of the things he mentioned are just so hard to comprehend, such as the top speed of the space shuttle at 8 kilometers a second!  He had awesome pictures he took from space.  I had goose-bumps the whole time.  He was very nice and personable too.  He allowed us to take a picture with him:

The day was great (minus the fact that I couldn’t fly!)  I was considering going back tomorrow, only if I could fly there.  The weather is looking about the same as today though.  How pooped I am right now is well worth what I experienced today!  I think I’m going to scooch my kitties over a bit and flop on the bed.  I don’t really want to disturb them though – look how cute and content they are:

Today’s symptoms: A little more fatigued than normal, but was still able to last the day.  I think my body is starting to slip into a coma right now though…

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 5/1/2010 6:21 PM

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/27/2011 6:59 PM

Is it only Monday?  It feels like Friday….you know it’s a long day when…

I was speaking with my friend at work this morning. She was facing a window behind me.  She suddenly looked shocked and said “Oh my gosh!  A man just walked by the window!  All I saw were his legs!”  They are resurfacing the outside of our building, so there is scaffolding up.  The guy was obviously walking on the scaffolding.  I put my hand on her shoulder and said “Just think, this is what my short little mother sees everyday!  Unless she looks up, all she sees is legs!”  Tee Hee!

Not too much happened this weekend.  It was basically what I mentioned in my previous blog entry – cleaned the carpets and studied for a test.  However, there was one interesting little tidbit, which may lead to a very short-lived new blog segment.  It’s a new handy-man section I would like to try out.  Mind you, I can’t see it lasting too long.  Anyway, Chuck let me know that the door handle on the closet snapped in two.  I took it upon myself to investigate and ended up breaking it in another spot in the process.  Chuck wrote up the work order to bring to the superintendent, while I began to Elizafix the handle.  I found a small, curved brush that no one was using, and came up with the perfect solution:

Not only is it a functional door handle, but it’s also a nail cleaner!  Talk about multi-tasking!

I decided to tell Abby about my professional handy-man skills, which allowed me to Elizafix the door.  This was her response (even the lamb wasn’t amused):

Today’s symptoms: Not feeling too bad.  My jaw was hurting a little more than usual and a bit of a headache.  Still, the fatigue was better than it’s been over the last few weeks.  Yea!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/26/2010 8:07 PM

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/24/2011 7:13 PM

It’s been a few days since my last blog entry.  Reason – nothing exciting has happened over the last week!  Blah!  At least today was a little better.  Chuck, Jan and I went to Shea’s Performing Arts in Buffalo to see Jersey Boys .  Chuck and I watched it in Toronto a few months ago.  I’m really not sure which performance I enjoyed more.  They were both great!  We had pretty good seats too.

We had an interesting drive back, especially when we got to the Peace Bridge.  Just as we arrived at the rather long line for customs, the supervisor walked out close to our car, and start directing cars into the two far left lanes.  People were scrambling to get up to the newly opened lanes, causing a fair bit of yelling from frustrated drivers and the supervisor.  Man, people are so impatient anymore!  At least it was amusing for the people (like us) who were in no real rush.  It was also amusing when we got up to the pay booth.  Chuck asked the guy if the charge would go through on his Nexus card.  The guy was clearly in a rather giddy mood and told us that the charge would not go through Nexus on this bridge “never, never, never, NEVER, NEVER…..”  He must have said “never” a dozen times!  At least he knows how to make his job interesting.

I don’t have too much planned for tomorrow other than studying for some tests for work…just try to control your jealousy.  I was hoping to go for a flight, but the weather isn’t looking too good.  Oh, I plan on cleaning the carpets too.  Again, control your jealousy!

Today’s symptoms: Feeling quite fatigued and weak again.  I seem to be having a hard time climbing out of this rut I’ve been in lately.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/24/2010 8:27 PM

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/22/2011 6:52 PM

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/21/2011 7:04 PM

Even though we’re more than half way through April, it snowed for a few hours today.  How rude is that?  Tomorrow is supposed to be only a few degrees above zero, then it’s going to shoot up to 17 degrees on Wednesday.  Unfortunately, it’s going to be raining all day.

I’m hoping for some decent weather during the long Easter weekend.  I would really like to fly somewhere exciting (perhaps a little further than Welland).  I think there is a nice restaurant at the London Airport….hmmm….

Last week during the Marcel Dionne and Lizzy McFly event, I was interviewed by Mike from Niagara TV.  He did a really nice job.  You can check out the interview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bijU0OcDWO8&feature=channel_video_title

 OK, so there is my blog from yesterday that I was too tired to post.  As for today, I had a really productive day at work.  I felt pretty good too!  I’m still doing fairly well with the MS fatigue – it’s getting a bit better each day.  I think I mentioned that I had some blood work done before my CCSVI surgery, and it showed an elevated white blood cell count.  I had it repeated last week as per my neurologist’s request.  He asked that I stop the monthly IV infusions of Tysabri until we get this issue figured out.  I found out today that my white blood cell count is still elevated.  This means that the Tysabri is still on hold.  On a bright note, the fact that I have an infection (somewhere!) may be contributing to my tiredness.  I’m waiting for a call back from the neurologist’s office to see where we’re going from here.

People at my office are starting to comment about my increased energy, mainly because it has lead to an increase in silliness.  They’re finding it quite entertaining!

Today’s symptoms: I became fairly tired by around noon today, and it fluctuated throughout the afternoon.  It’s leveled off quite a bit this evening.  My jaw was really hurting today for some reason.  The jaw pain has been more than tolerable for more than a month now.  Hmmmm…..

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/19/2011 7:23 PM

The MS Walk was today and fortunately, the weather was good enough to fly over the Walk!  The Walk was to start at 9:00, so I made sure I was airborne by 8:40.  I headed over to Port Dalhousie and waited for a call from Chuck to let me know the Walk was underway.  There was a huge group of people standing together when I arrived.  After about 15 minutes of flying around, I figured the Walk would start any second.  I did a descent of about 500 feet, just to increase the sound of my engine and alert everyone to my presence.  As I later found out, I did this immediately after the MC announced that “Lizzy McFly would be flying over the Walk route for the third year in a row!”  Pure luck that my timing of the “dive” was right after he said that. 

 

Here is a picture of the group just before they started the Walk:

Chuck also took some pics on the ground of my plane:

I was always pretty good at “Where’s Waldo?” and was able to quickly spot Chuck and Jan in this picture:

Here’s a shot soon after the Walk started:

After flying over to Welland, I headed back to St. Catharines for a landing.  I decided to meet up with Jan and Chuck in Port Dalhousie.  I was greeted by a few people.  Many asked me if I could see them waving!

It was a great day and I’m looking forward to hearing how much money Niagara raised for MS!

Today’s symptoms: Feeling great in the morning, then a little weary in the afternoon.  Not too much else to report!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/18/2010 7:51 PM

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/17/2011 4:40 PM

Tomorrow is the big day – the MS Walk!  The weather is looking very iffy right now, as it is every year for the Walk.  The MS Society really needs to arrange things with Environment Canada a little better so there is sun!  Jan came to St. Catharines today and we dropped off my pledges.  As of today, I have raised over $7000!  Yea!  That more than doubles my initial goal.  I received some more pledges today after I dropped off the first batch, so Chuck and Jan will be submitting them tomorrow before the Walk.  They will be doing the Port Dalhousie route this year.  This is also the first place I will fly over, then to Chippawa, then Welland and back to Port Dalhousie.  When we get back from the Walk, Chuck and I will be doing the draws for the winners of the flights (everyone who donated at the Marcel Dionne MS fundraiser as well as a few people who brought in completed pledge sheets.)  I’m sure I will have some good pictures to share on my blog tomorrow!To change the topic, I would like to promote a new product that I just tried.  It’s called Bissell Ewww Dog Stain and Odor Remover .  Wow!  It works wonders on cat poopies on the carpet!  For some reason, Abby likes to poop on the floor a few times a month.  I think she has psychological issues.  Anyway, she did a dilly on the floor this morning and I used my Bissell Ewww….the carpet was like new after!  It was on sale at PetSmart last week.  I may go back soon and stock up!

Speaking of kitties, here is one of bug eyed Abby:

Today’s symptoms: Feel better today than I have in the last week.  I plan on getting a good sleep tonight so I’m well rested for the flight tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/17/2010 8:35 PM

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/16/2011 8:20 PM