2009 Highland Cross Country

Last January, Madison had knee surgery to repair a nagging injury sustained a few years prior. Little did we know the long range effect this would have on our family. Madison had a few complications from the surgery and was FINALLY released from physical therapy in June. She immediately tested the knee out with some morning runs around the neighborhood. While on one of her runs, she ran into a friend who was on the high schools cross country team. He invited her to a XC training session the next day. Madison had a great time and told Reagan about "certain boys" who were also at the training session. Raegan then decided she wanted to go. After a week or so of training, they were talked into running with the Cross Country team this fall. The rest is history!

Madison and Raegan both had a great year and improved on their times every race. This was the first time Madison had to manage her blood sugars while taking on such a dedicated work out schedule. Just finishing a race became a challenge itself. Telling the difference between fatigue and a low blood sugar is not easy.

It was also a nice change from the 13 years of dance recitals and competitions!!!

Madison at the Bob Conley Invite



Raegan at the Southern Idaho Invitational held at Pomerelle Ski Resort. Raegan is on her second of two 800ft vertical climbs (1,600ft total)!!! I was proud of her..... The course was littered with casualties. Next time you see Raegan, ask her about "The HILL"!



Highland High School Cross Country
2009 District Champions

International Space Station and STS-129 II

On Wednesday evening(Nov 25th), the ISS and Space Shuttle STS-129 had another favorable flyover (SE Idaho). This time, the Shuttle had just separated from the ISS in preparation of a Friday return to Earth. I always love to watch the ISS flyover, but it is a special occasion when the Shuttle and Space Station are separated and flying in formation.

On Wednesday we set up our observing site at the soccer fields just north of our house. The flyover started to the NW and ended to the SE.

The ISS was just ahead of the Shuttle. The path splits the constellation Andromeda. If you look "real" close you can see the smudge of M31 the Andromeda Galaxy!

Follow the link to orient yourself with the starts in the picture to the constellation Andromeda. Hint: ISS and Shuttle slice Andromeda in half.

Madison, Raegan and Kennedy enjoy the flyover. I told them to stand still and point for this 25 second exposure. Can you see the cars passing on the street (Olympus Drive) just in front of the houses?



While I was out, I took about an 8 minute exposure of the sky facing North. In the center is the "Celestial North Pole". With the Moon and city lights, the image was pretty washed out.

International Space Station and STS-129

With the Space Shuttle due to retire next year, I'm taking every opportunity to observe flyovers when the Shuttle is in flight. The Shuttle is currently docked to the ISS. On Monday, I hurried home from work and had about 5 minutes to gather the family and set up the camera. The Shuttle is currently docked to the ISS (until early Wednesday morning Nov 25, 2009). The street lights in my backyard are a problem, but I didn't have enough time to find a better location. Besides, it was COLD out!

ISS and STS-129, November 23, 2009 6:37PM MST

Shot is taken from my back porch looking NW. The four brighter starts just to the left of the ISS track is the head of Draco the Dragon. The bright star in the top left of the image is Vega in the constellation Lyra. The orange looking streaks are from the streetlights in my backyard. With the long exposure you can see visible star trails, especially to the bottom left of the image. The North Star is just out of view top right thus the shorter trails in the top right portion of the image. The image was taken with a Nikon D40, 18mm, F/5, Exposure 77.7 seconds.

Labor Day Breakfast

Over Labor Day weekend, I took a quick trip with Gordon Nielson to Smiley Creek for breakfast. Not a bad thing to do on a beautiful Saturday morning. We left Pocatello around 7:00am and headed towards Twin Falls for a little sight seeing. We then turned north and flew over Hailey and Ketchum and then dropped over Galena Pass into the Sawtooth Valley where the Smiley Creek Airport is located. As you walk over to the local cafe, you cross a little footbridge which spans (no bigger than a ditch) the headwaters of the Salmon River.

Final approach at Smiley Creek runway 14. This is my first flight into an airport with a grass strip. Note the brush trail to the right of the landing strip which contains the Salmon River.

Looking North up the Sawtooth Valley. What a neat setting.

Breakfast is just across the Salmon River which is in the brush right behind me.

Gordon cleans the windshield on his plane. What a nice ride!



Redfish Lake in Sawthooth Valley. Stanley is just to the north.



The Sawthooth Range with 22 peaks over 10,000 ft



Heading east from the Sawtooths, we intecept Lost River Range which includes the 12,668 ft Mt Borah, the highest point in Idaho. This shot is from the north side of the peak.



SW side of Mt Borah



13,500 ft! This is the highest I have flown in a private plane!



If you look close, you can see the climbers on Mt Borah.



Autopilot Stinks!



We passed just to the north of Craters of the Moon National Monument on our way home to Pocatello.



Back to Pocatello with a feather landing on runway 21. Nice job Gordon!

Park City Live 3

The 3rd Annual Fantasy Football Draft took place in Park City the last weekend in August. It is always good to see everyone and spend a few days having a good time together. We had our regular flag football game and played a little wii and a lot of Scum.

The Fantasy Draft is just an excuse to get together. We also went to he Olympic Park and watched an areal show. We had intended to ride the bobsled, but some stupid "clothing" company had rented the whole facility for the day. Oh well we will do it next year!!

Post game pictures with no injuries this year!!

Group Photo at the Olympic Park. What Nerds, we had "official lanyards"

International Space Station and STS-128

One of my favorite past times is watching the International Space Station fly overhead. Most evenings you can spot the space station just after sunset. With a little help from the internet, you can get get information on where to look and when. One of the best sites to get this information is called "Heavens Above". You can follow the link below to check it out.

Heavens-Above

On September 9th our family viewed the ISS flyover with Space Shuttle. The shuttle (STS-128) had just departed the ISS in preparation for its return to Earth on the 11th. The shuttle flew by first and was about minute ahead of the ISS. Traveling at 4.5 miles per second, that translates to roughly 270 miles.

The Space Shuttle (STS-128) passes through Ursa Major (Big Dipper)



The ISS is obviously brighter than the Shuttle as it fly's overhead. This is about a 25 second exposure.

The ISS passes through Cassiopeia and Andromeda. One cool thing about this picture is you can actually see M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) in this photo if you look real close!

Ares I Ground Test

On Thursday September 10th, ATK performed a ground test of the Ares I booster at their facility near Promontory Utah. The test was originally scheduled for August 27th and was scrubbed with 20 seconds to go in the countdown. I was very disappointed to say the least because I went out of my way to get there.

I was now even more committed to make it to this event and hoped I would not make the long trip again to be denied!

I was not disappointed. The light from the plume was about as intense as looking at the sun.

During the test an extreme amount of energy was released by this bad boy..... The booster was about 1.3 miles away from the public observing area. The booster is producing about 3.6 Million pounds of thrust for over two minutes.

You can read more about the booster from the ATK press release found at this link:

http://atk.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=118&item=956

My test firing video:

Airshow at Hill AFB

One of the events our family looks forward to every other year is the airshow at Hill Air Force Base. The Thunderbird Air Demonstration Team is the highlight of the trip. Braving the crowd of nearly 100,000 is a test of nerves. This year we were lucky enough to have some nice weather with mild temperatures. I think I took about 500 pictures at the show (I have a hard time containing myself at these events).

Highlight of the trip is always meeting one of the pilots. This year it was Major Sean Gustafson (#4 slot). Major Gustafson is the first Air Force Reserve pilot to be chosen for the Thunderbird Air Demonstration Team since its inception in 1953

Precise in all they do!

Diamond formation with Mt. Ogden in the background

Diamond formation performing a loop

Reflection Pass! Note the inverted #5 which makes it right side up when the plane is upside down??

Slow Pass

Delta Formation

The 9G turn. Note the vapor off the wings!

Calypso Pass with the familiar Francis Peak in the background

Calypso Pass

Girls having a good time?



OTHER AIRSHOW HIGHLIGHTS

Heritage Flight with F-15, P-51 and F-4

F-4 high speed pass. One of the sexiest planes around!

P-51 Mustang. This plane purrs like a kitten. It gives me chills every time I see this plane fly.

Oracle Acrobatic Team. Just watching these guys tumble around makes me get sick.

Oracle plane in a hammer head maneuver

C-17 taking off. This is one cool airplane!

C-17 demonstrating some of its capabilities. They demonstrated a short field landing that was very impressive.

Cirrus Acrobatic Team

Cirrus getting a little sideways!

F-22 Raptor. They did not fly an F-22 this year, but if you ever get a chance to see one fly, take advantage. This aircraft kicks butt! It would be neat to see the F-22 in Thunderbird colors.

F-16 from the local Hill Fighter Squadron.