Pre-Flight

Ralph Sickinger

SO, why "R2"? I've been asked a number of times, "Shouldn't it be 'R3' now?", but "R2"  has nothing to do with my pilot rating. (That's what my license plate is for.) I moved out to the Washington area from Michigan 14 years ago, and settled in Reston. When I first started to participate in club activities, no one ever remembered my last name; but if I told them that I was from Reston, suddenly a lightbulb would go on and the response was always "Oh, yeah! Ralph from Reston!" I think that Matthew (I have a comment for everything) Graham might have had something to do with it, too. Anyway, somehow that just stuck, and I've been known as "Ralph from Reston" ever since. (Never mind that I've lived in Bowie, Maryland for 3 years now...) I got tired of typing all that out in my online posts, so I shortened it to "R2". (Actually, it's " R-squared", but "R-two" is easier to say, and anyway, there's no "squared" symbol on the keyboard.)

The point of this, is that I used to live in Reston. I had a nice little townhouse where I lived with my two cats, "Ice" and "Tiger". I'm really more of a dog person by nature, but cats are a whole lot easier to take care of. (Especially when you want to take off for a whole weekend to do something silly, like going hang gliding for instance.) Still, the cats are good company when I get back home, and they've been responsible for their share of entertaining moments.

As an example: before I got the town-house, I had a one-bedroom apartment (yes, in Reston) with a balcony out the back. I was up on the third floor, and with no trees anywhere close to the balcony, it seemed like a safe enough place to let the cats out for some fresh air and sun. One beautiful Spring day, I'm getting ready for work, and I've left the sliding glass door open so the cats can enjoy the weather. I came out of the shower and saw Tiger at the end of the hallway; he was focused on something, but I couldn't tell what. I went to investigate, and found him looking at Ice, with this "What have you got there?"  expression on his face. Meanwhile, Ice is staring back at him with a big old starling in his mouth, with an expression on hisface that said "It's mine, and you can't have it!" So I'm looking at this scene, trying to figure out what to do. (Just to recap: I'm still damp, I'm wearing a towel, there is a live bird in my living room clamped in the jaws of a well-armed cat, who is obviously prepared to defend his "prize".) I'm also kind of wondering "How in the world...??" I mean, how would he catch a bird on a 10'x4' concrete balcony? Did the bird land on it? And if so, why? And how in the world does a bird miss a 16-pound cat in the middle of wide-open concrete? It's not like there was any place for him to hide! In the end, I decided that (a) any bird that is that stupid, probably deserves his fate, and (2) I never liked starlings anyway. (They're noisy, and they smell bad.) So, as I looked at my cat, zealously holding on to his catch, I finally decided "Fine; you caught him... he's all yours!"

Anyway, there's a lesson to be learned here. Obviously, this bird suffered from really poor "situational awareness". It also failed to adequately assess it's intended landing area for potential hazards. Just something to keep in mind when you fly, especially if you're considering X-C flights and landings in unfamiliar fields. After all, you never know WHAT might be waiting for you when you come down!  (Beware of large, white cats, among other things.) So, be careful out there!

A few additional thoughts: this has been a slow month; the biggest event being the parachute repack.  I'd like to thank Brian for not only putting on a fantastic event, but taking time to write an informative and entertaining account of the process. Id like to welcome Lauren Tjaden as a [hopefully] regular contributor to the newsletter;  her article is just as entertaining.  Last but not least, our Flight Director now has space for a regular column, tentatively titled Thinkin About. I hope you all like what weve done! ~ R2