Friday, January 13, 2006

Time to Update my blog

Our son's two boys, Aaron and Andrew. Typical teenagers....





Our 40-year old son, Joe. He is senior pastor of Calvary Temple Assembly of God in Birmingham, AL. We're proud of him!





Awww! She is so happy now. Her husband Joe is a great son-in-law. Too many Joes in this family!





Our three granddaughters, Sheri's girls- so beautiful! We are blessed with five grandchildren and 3 step-grandchildren, Joe's kids.



Sheri and Joe saying their vows.



I have been so remiss in updating this blog! So sorry that my last post was in November and here it is January. A lot has happened, God has been good to us and our family.

Our daughter got married on Dec 2, a marriage made in Heaven. We flew out to Colorado Springs for the event, and they almost had to drag me onto the plane to return to Georgia! Lord knows I love Colorado! I'll attach some pictures of the wedding and other stuff from the trip. Sheri has a great husband, I know he will take care of her and he is a terrific son-in-law. We are so happy for her. Her husband's name: Joe!

This morning I received an email from an old friend with whom I was stationed some 25 years ago in Taiwan, Joe Alt. We were really close friends and I'm so glad he found me. That's 2 folks from CCK AB with whom I correspond, and one from Utapao, Thailand.

If you want a great thrill, log on to Google Earth. You can zoom in on any place in the world from satellite images, and it's a lot of fun. Try it!

OK, here's the pictures:

Jenny and me at the wedding


Hope you enjoyed this slightly messed-up post. I'll try to be more prompt in posting from now on.

Joe the senior.....

Thursday, November 03, 2005

The Vietnam Veteran Thoughts

These days it seems the Vietnam war period is like ancient history. Those days are now so long ago that they seem like maybe another life, or something I read in a book somewhere. It was a time when I was young, my body responded well when it had demands placed on it, while today I seem to have trouble just getting around. I wake up and discover that I'm in my sixties. How did that happen? I still remember growing up in the '50's, like it was yesterday. I took my brother-in-law flying yesterday - he grew up across the street from me. We flew over our home town, Lumber City, GA, and he took pictures of the house that he grew up in, while the place I lived in is now a vacant lot. Someone bought the house after Mama died, and they tore down the house. The school where we attended, 2 blocks from home, has been torn down, and the whole town looks like a ghost town. Sad, sad. Flying around yesterday in my Cessna 172 was a real joy. Weather was clear and the ohly drawback was the haze. For most of the year around here, the haze goes up to about 10,000 feet, and it takes a lot of pushing and shoving to get a 172 up that high. Problem with the haze is that the higher you fly, the less you can see on the ground. We stayed between 2,000 and 3,000 feet most of the time, landing for a pit stop at Hazlehurst's little airport. Then, back into the air, and about 30 minutes back to Swainsboro, where the plane is based. It was just a nice day for flying, and we both had a blast. Next time I go to my orthopedic doc in Columbus, I think I'll take Mike with me for company. You can refer back to some of my earlier entries about flying to Columbus.

OK, that's it for now. I have to get out of here and work on my ham radio, call sign W1FKY....

73,
Joe

Previous List Random Join Next Viper's Vietnam Veteran Page
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Sunday, October 09, 2005

MY WISH FOR MY KIDS AND GRANDKIDS:

You get the A's, and I have the B's for you:

1. Be Grateful. Be thankful to God for all His blessings, be thankful for all you have and for all that He has made you.

2. Be Smart. Do your best always to excel in all things. Apply yourself as "a workman that needs not to be ashamed." God expects your best, so give the best you have in all things.

3. Be clean. The world is full of sleaze and filth. You are better than that. Keep yourself, your body, your heart, and your mind, clean and spotless in every respect. Sleaze only destroys, and the outcome of filth is always destruction.

4. Be True. Shakespeare said, "..To thine ownself be true..." Be faithful and true in all that you are. Be true to God, to your loved ones, and to yourself. Truth always wins in the end!

5. Be humble. You are not your own, but God's. He has given you much, and you owe everything to Him. Never exalt yourself at the expense of others, it's ugly. Be humble before God and He will exalt you.

6. Be prayerful. Your relationship with God is all-important. You can never have a relationship with anyone if you never talk to them. Pray in praise to God for His goodness, pray in thanksgiving for His gifts, pray in humility for His greatness in you, and pray in submission to His will in your life. Pray in love for His love, and for the love He has given you by sending His Son Jesus to be the sacrifice for your sins. Seek His guidance and you can never go wrong.



Keep these B's as a gift from me, and from a loving and kind God, hold them dear to your heart, and God will always hold you close to His heart.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Last of the pictures

EMA vehicles at Welcome center



Clothing giveaway




The first pictures are the last ones in this series... Please leave your comments!

What they Are Doing in Georgia

Georgia Welcome Center, I-20. Trailer is comm center, tent is free food to anyone



Giving away free clothes by volunteers


Free food tent


Family & Children's Services volunteers


Comm trailer




More pictures...

Trees down everywhere


houses destroyed




More:

More pictures...

Buildings, vehicles, blown into piles...



Gulfport


Picaune, MS


Gulfport church


Another destroyed billboard


More:

More Katrina pictures

Many traffic lights just blown away...



Intersection in Gulfport


Hwy 49 in Gulfport


Billboards along I-10, just blown over...


More:

More pictures

Ham operators. This was the guy on the HF radio. He is blind, but a great operator...




More ham operators arrive in the parking lot. We took over an elementary school in Gulfport...


Along Popps Ferry Road in Biloxi


Planning session in the school


More pictures of MS:

More Katrina pictures

A damaged church in Gulfport



The Durango, replacing the van


Along I-10 in Mississippi


Along Popps Ferry Road in Biloxi


A damaged building in Gulfport.
Here are more pictures from the trip:

My van, loaded for the trip:



The transmission gave up the ghost less than 100 miles into the trip. Had to change to the Durango...

Thursday, August 04, 2005

It's Been a While!

Wow, I just looked at my blog, and it's been a while since I posted anything! OK, here we go. I have a new plane to fly. It's a Cessna 172, otherwise known as a Skyhawk. A 1976 model, it has a new paint job, a totally new panel, with the newest Garmin 430 navigation system, which has a moving map and is just so wonderful to use. The engine has about 1200 hours left TBO, and it flies much faster than my old Cherokee. I just went yesterday to check out in it, and had an hour of very enjoyable flying with the instructor at Sasser Aviation, the FBO at Emanuel County airport in Swainsboro, GA. Already have three flights scheduled, including one to Birmingham, AL, to visit our son and his family.

I will be going out tomorrow for an hour or so, just for fun, so we'll post another blog after the flight.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Time to fly again

I can't stand it any more! Ground-bound too long, and the last few flights have been those transportation-type of let's go from here to there and return. No real fun of grabbing for aky, turning upside down, spinning, and all that other aerobatic jazz that sets flying apart from every other single thing in existence!

OK, today's the day! I have to get some sleep, and then if the plane is available, I'm off to the really wild blue yonder! Yeah, baby! Now it's off to bed for a little early morning shut-eye!

Can we talk later, folks? See ya!

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Into the Dark

One of our readers made the comment some time ago that he wanted to hear more about flying. Here we go, my last trip, made last month,

Bobby had left 44355 out of the hangar, under the lights next to the terminal, as I had told him I was going to leave before daylight. Since night flying is inherently more dangerous than flying in daylight, I have developed a habit over the years of doing an especially thorough preflight if I'm going to be up there when the sun isn't shining on my plane. So, at 4:30 am, I was out on the ramp, going over Cherokee 44355 with my fine-tooth comb. It was especially humid that morning, so it took a lot of toweling to get the windscreen clear enough to see out of. That done, a good look inside the engine compartment.

We have a relatively new engine in the plane, it had at the time about 25 hours on it, so that alone takes a close look. The good thing is, after about 10 hours if nothing quits, it's probably not going to. I was a bit surprised that it started a lot easier than I was accustomed to, and idled a lot smoother than the old engine did. Idling the engine, I started out for the end of the runway, checking avionics and instruments as I taxiied down to the end of runway 24, the one most aligned to my route of departure.

The destination was Columbus, Georgia, a distance according to the charts, of 133 miles, about one hour and ten minutes flying time, at a compass heading of about 280 degrees. Nice, easy route, no difficult places to traverse. There was one restricted area around Warner Robins AFB, to my right, north, and one restricted area to my left, Fort Benning, as I approached Columbus.

Engine runup showed all gages in the green, everything working normally, and I was ready to go. Aligning on the runway, I "poured the coal" to it, and the 160hp Lycoming pushed us rapidly toward the rotation speed of 60 knots. When the airspeed indicator shows 60, you just ease back on the yoke and hold it there, and when it hits 70, the plane somewhat magically lifts off and heads into the "wild blue - er, strike that, - black yonder". It always feels like magic to me, even with a lot of years and a lot of hours of flying. It never gets old, and I never get tired of flying, just gets more enjoyable every time I get to go flying. That opportunity is less than ever as of late, as I'm living on just my miniscule retirement and my wife's nursing salary. I'd love to work at anything that comes up, but that just isn't happening right now, there seems to be no open jobs around our small town. When I do find one, the flying is gonna be back up there!

Back to the early morning flight -- as the plane lifted off the runway, I maintained runway heading, 240 degrees, as we gained altitude. Although I knew it was black dark, it was a little surprising just how few lights were visible on the ground. Right away I was on the gages, no horizon visible, few lights, and a big dark hole that we were flying into. No problem, with all my experience, I have done a lot of night flying and have always loved it. Flying at night, the lights are pretty, the sky is majestic, and it is just really enjoyable. At around 1,000 feet altitude, I turned right to course 280, centering up the GPS, showing 130 miles to go. I love GPS, it's the best thing since enclosed cockpits!

Staying on instruments, I started a cruise-climb to 6500 feet, above the low-hanging scud, and under a bright, starlit sky. It was just beautiful! Before reaching altitude, about five minutes after departure, we contacted Jacksonville Center, the controlling radar control center for our area. Although a flight under VFR, visual flight rules, doesn't require contact with anyone, I always get in touch and under control, because it's safer that way. That means I have someone on the ground watching after me, keeping me informed of any traffic that might conflict with me, letting me know if any weather is developing ahead of me.

"Jacksonville Center, cherokee 44355," I spoke,

"Cherokee 44355, Jacksonville center, go ahead," came the reply.

"We're off from Vidalia about five minutes ago, squawking VFR, would like flight following."

"44355, squawk 3265," came the reply, giving me a code to dial in on my transponder. The transponder, which responds when it is hit by a radar pulse, gives positive identification to the aircraft's return on the radar screen in front of the controller. Without the transponder, the controller doesn't have a very good radar return, but with the boosted signal from the transponder, they have a much better look at the aircraft. Being VFR, the controller doesn't give us an assigned altitude while in uncontrolled airspace, and the transponder includes altitude information in its reply. On we went, boring a hole in the night sky, keeping a watch outside for any flashing lights that would indicate the presence of traffic.

It was a smooth, uneventful flight, no surprises, and really enjoyable. About an hour later, descending to a lower altitude, and under control of Atlanta Approach, we got ready to land at CSG, Columbus airport. Day had dawned, bringing blue skies overhead, and a good view of the ground below. Approach had kept me clear of any restricted airspace, and about ten miles out, we had the field in sight. Once I mentioned that fact to the approach controller, he authorized a frequency change to the tower frequency, where we received landing clearance.

Reducing power, I brought the speed down to less than 100 knots, where I could drop flaps. On the downwind leg, parallel to the runway, I dropped the first notch of flaps, which allowed a nose-down attitude, and then turned base, which is perpendicular to the runway. Another notch of flaps, reducing power to 1600 RPM, we started down to around 800 feet, and turned final with about 500 feet. Seeing that I was a bit high, I put in all the flaps and pushed the nose over for a steep approach, rounding out right over the end of the runway. With a short "squeak," the tires touches, and we were down. Another nice flight was over, and it was off to the doctor's office a few blocks from the airport for my doctor's appointment. Returning later in the day will be our next adventure in flying.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Michael Jackson Trial Over: Verdict, "Not Guilty"

The jury in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial today returned verdicts of "not guilty" on all ten counts with which he was charged. The high-profile case, which has seized headlines over the past four months, ended with the court clerk reading the resounding "not guilty" verdicts one after the other. Millions, who had been closely watching and listening, were stunned by the "clean sweep" accomplished by defense attorney Tom Meseareau. Very few people interviewed over the past few days, thought the singer would be cleared of every single charge, bringing about the disbelief of so many.

After the verdict was delivered, the Jackson family re-entered their characteristic black SUV's and returned to Jackson's Neverland Ranch. Jackson flashed the "peace sign" as they left the courthouse, looking very much relieved that the weight of doubt had been lifted from Mr. Jackson's shoulders.

The complete story has been filed on Blogger News Network, which can be reached simply by this link. Further reports will be posted there, and the reader is invited to click on the link for much more information.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

A report comes from DADMANLY about the insensitivity of the press to the grief of families who have lost a loved one on the battlefield in Iraq. This so strongly supports my long-time belief that the press should be limited in their ability to move around near battlefronts. It is unconscionable that they should be contacting the families of casualties in the States before they are officially notified of death or injury by proper military authority.

I know from having personally been involved in it, that notifying family members of a loss is a very stressful and heavily painful time, and proper handling is imperative. Come on, media members, show some human compassion and feeling! Suppose you were in their shoes? This is a time for prayer, love, and caring, not running off to file a story.

You can be sure that this patriotic flyer of airplanes spends time daily in prayer for our military folks, especially for the ones who are exposed to such danger as combat, and for their families, who worry so much about them. May God watch over them and may He give them peace in the midst of confusion and care.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005


Herky Birds Arrive At Aviano AB, Italy in 1991 Posted by Hello

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

My Apology

It is unconscionable that I missed posting on Memorial Day. For a patriot and a flyer it is inexcusable. I could blame my broke foot but that is not the cause. I will post a proper message in the next couple of days in between doctor appointments. Forgive me!

Joe Comer

ZIn the meantime, I refer you to the following post by a brave soldier:

Saturday, May 28, 2005


We Took This the Night Before My Foot Surgery Posted by Hello


Vidalia Airpatch Seen From the Approach Pattern. I land At The Far End Coming Toward Current Position. Posted by Hello


Now That's a Happy Pilot! Posted by Hello


Last Week Flying to Columbus: Great Day For Flying Posted by Hello