Charlee and Jason Olcott,he is a boy is our ward and in Charlee's class
He is very intelligent and sweet.
The Sharks of Beachland Elementary - Class of 2010
Graduation Night, getting her portfolio!
Walking in to Graduation.
Haley and Charlee!!Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Charlee's 5th grade graduation
Charlee and Jason Olcott, The Sharks of Beachland Elementary - Class of 2010Graduation Night, getting her portfolio!Walking in to Graduation. Haley and Charlee!!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Reilly's School Stuff
Reilly and his two school buds!!
More school friends!!
Reilly was the Author and Illustrator of a Bare Book. More to come on that. He wrote a full story and illustrated
Reilly and his school class and their Bare Books.
Peace out man!!
Reilly and his school class and their Bare Books.
Peace out man!!Stage Check
June 4, 2010
Went for my Stage Check ride. That is like a pre-test for the FAA check ride. Brian, the Stage checker, had me plan a route from Ft. Pierce to Key West Int. a 3 hour flight in a Cessna 172. The flight was scheduled for 11:00 am, this is me we are talking about so you know how smooth this is going to be, however I got a phone call at 9:30 saying they moved the flight up to 10:00. I hadn’t even finished my flight plan, you can’t do those too early because winds and temperatures never stay the same (stupid weather), it takes me usually and hour or two to crank one out now I only have thirty minutes. I finished it in time and I am pretty sure I stayed in the United States although I didn’t know Florida had a San Diego, and I was also pretty certain that I would never see winds greater than 15,000 miles an hour. It’s amazing what you can do in a hurry if you need to bad enough. Enough of that boring stuff.
We walked out to the plane N739FC, I did my pre-flight inspection perfectly. Engine started perfectly, I flipped the Flaps up switch and heard what sounded like an aluminum can being slowly crushed. NOT GOOD!!! So we brought the flaps back down and raised them again watching the flaps. About half way up, the flap looked like it fell off the track. Brian looked at me and said, “What are you going to do?” I realized that my best learning experiences have always come after making a really dumb decision, but I wasn’t in the mood to learn anything that day, so I calmly told Mike I wouldn’t fly this plane. He laughed and said that I had an amazing Falsetto voice, but had a hard time hearing because all the dogs were barking. We walked to the mechanics and had them take a look, one brought out a pair of sheet metal cutters and cut off a chunk of skin that had broken loose and got wedged in the track. Good to go I was told. Yee Haw, I get to fly.
We took off, turned south for my route. Hit the first way point almost perfectly, hit the second waypoint spot on. Brian turns to me and says, “Bad weather we have to divert, take me to Okeechobee.” Hehehe, this pilot was prepared, I already had that stuff figured out, so I turned to 270 degrees that is west for you ground based people (Jo Erickson). Now Brian goes where are we? I pull out my map open it up, select two different VORs (radio beams that come from towers). Remember I am still flying in the air. With my map open, I have to draw two straight lines from the VOR stations. I have to open my map bigger. Find the VOR, meanwhile the wind is pushing my plane up, down, left, right, once or twice I think I was upside down. Finally I get my lines drawn and tell Brian I am right here. He says prove it. I am right in the middle of three airports according to the map (sectional) I start looking at the ground. I don’t see no friggin runway. I consult the map again, I know I am there, I look to the ground again still no runway. Brian takes the plane and immediately dives, and I am NOT kidding when I say dive, I know what color a stomach is because I saw mine floating above me. Anyway, he tells me we are on base, I still don’t see the runway, then he turns on final. Finally I see a long backyard. Is that it? That piece of grass that looks just like the field next to it? The one surrounded by trees? Yep.
Now we climb back up and he says close your eyes, ok, Brian you have the plane, he responds with No. Umm Brian, you want me to fly the plane with my eyes closed? I hear a yes. Ok, I close my eyes and fly, now the devil next to me says turn left. OK, a start my left turn, WITH MY EYES CLOSED. Whoever said ribs are meant to contain and protect your heart is a liar because mine was bouncing off the windshield or at least I think it was because my EYES WERE CLOSED. Soon Satan says now turn to your right, so I turn to my right. I swear I thought I was in a dive so I pulled up, now I felt I was climbing so I pushed the nose back down, now I felt I was banking too steeply to the right so I turned to the left, but I was supposed to be turning right, so I turned back to the right, but I am climbing so I push the nose over. Now Brian says open your eyes. I was 100% positive I was in a right turn dive. I mean I would have bet my life on it. I opened my eyes and beheld beautiful blue dirt. Ahh beautiful blue dir…..blue dirt??? Since when is dirt blue? I quickly scan my instruments, Holy Cow, I am in a climbing left turn. Full throttle, level the wings, bring the nose down. Brian says good job. Now I know why they don’t allow students to carry guns.
Next Brian says lets do slow flight, I ace that, then he says power off stall, my favorite. Chop the throttle, maintain altitude, wait for the stall horn, I hear that, wait for the buffeting of the wings, I feel that, wait for the stall (the plane quits flying and just falls from the sky), I don’t feel it. That plane wouldn’t stall, I had full back pressure trying to get the nose up to help it stall, it NEVER stalled. I guess I passed that that. We recover and Brian says your lost where are you? I immediately reach for the radio to call somebody and let them know I am lost (prior experience with that one) the devil says you have no radio. I am in a Cessna 172 they don’t go very fast and I was just shown where I was less than 5 minutes earlier I had to be in the vicinity still. I start my VOR vectoring when Satan says now you have no engine. At that point a very interesting weather phenomenom occurred, it started raining inside the cabin. It was soaking my map. I tossed everything in the back seat, and started my mantra; aviate (fly the plane), navigate (put it somewhere), communicate (brilliant with no radio) I pick a spot to do my emergency landing, go through the checklist. We descend to about 600 feet when Brian said I’d done a pretty good job. Lets go back to the airport.
We arrive over the airport and I discover a 4 billion knot crosswind. Even Brian asks if I can land in it. Whereupon I reverted back to my previous learning experience, my greatest learning came after a dumb decision. I confidently say I’ll never know unless I try. So down I go, crabbing into the wind. If you want to see some cool landing go to Youtube and type crosswind landings. I make the worst landing of my life, I hear the tires skidding crosswise, the runway is over a hundred feet wide and I used all of it. But Brian said considering the crosswind I did a pretty good job.
I am scheduled for my FAA checkride Wednesday.
Went for my Stage Check ride. That is like a pre-test for the FAA check ride. Brian, the Stage checker, had me plan a route from Ft. Pierce to Key West Int. a 3 hour flight in a Cessna 172. The flight was scheduled for 11:00 am, this is me we are talking about so you know how smooth this is going to be, however I got a phone call at 9:30 saying they moved the flight up to 10:00. I hadn’t even finished my flight plan, you can’t do those too early because winds and temperatures never stay the same (stupid weather), it takes me usually and hour or two to crank one out now I only have thirty minutes. I finished it in time and I am pretty sure I stayed in the United States although I didn’t know Florida had a San Diego, and I was also pretty certain that I would never see winds greater than 15,000 miles an hour. It’s amazing what you can do in a hurry if you need to bad enough. Enough of that boring stuff.
We walked out to the plane N739FC, I did my pre-flight inspection perfectly. Engine started perfectly, I flipped the Flaps up switch and heard what sounded like an aluminum can being slowly crushed. NOT GOOD!!! So we brought the flaps back down and raised them again watching the flaps. About half way up, the flap looked like it fell off the track. Brian looked at me and said, “What are you going to do?” I realized that my best learning experiences have always come after making a really dumb decision, but I wasn’t in the mood to learn anything that day, so I calmly told Mike I wouldn’t fly this plane. He laughed and said that I had an amazing Falsetto voice, but had a hard time hearing because all the dogs were barking. We walked to the mechanics and had them take a look, one brought out a pair of sheet metal cutters and cut off a chunk of skin that had broken loose and got wedged in the track. Good to go I was told. Yee Haw, I get to fly.
We took off, turned south for my route. Hit the first way point almost perfectly, hit the second waypoint spot on. Brian turns to me and says, “Bad weather we have to divert, take me to Okeechobee.” Hehehe, this pilot was prepared, I already had that stuff figured out, so I turned to 270 degrees that is west for you ground based people (Jo Erickson). Now Brian goes where are we? I pull out my map open it up, select two different VORs (radio beams that come from towers). Remember I am still flying in the air. With my map open, I have to draw two straight lines from the VOR stations. I have to open my map bigger. Find the VOR, meanwhile the wind is pushing my plane up, down, left, right, once or twice I think I was upside down. Finally I get my lines drawn and tell Brian I am right here. He says prove it. I am right in the middle of three airports according to the map (sectional) I start looking at the ground. I don’t see no friggin runway. I consult the map again, I know I am there, I look to the ground again still no runway. Brian takes the plane and immediately dives, and I am NOT kidding when I say dive, I know what color a stomach is because I saw mine floating above me. Anyway, he tells me we are on base, I still don’t see the runway, then he turns on final. Finally I see a long backyard. Is that it? That piece of grass that looks just like the field next to it? The one surrounded by trees? Yep.
Now we climb back up and he says close your eyes, ok, Brian you have the plane, he responds with No. Umm Brian, you want me to fly the plane with my eyes closed? I hear a yes. Ok, I close my eyes and fly, now the devil next to me says turn left. OK, a start my left turn, WITH MY EYES CLOSED. Whoever said ribs are meant to contain and protect your heart is a liar because mine was bouncing off the windshield or at least I think it was because my EYES WERE CLOSED. Soon Satan says now turn to your right, so I turn to my right. I swear I thought I was in a dive so I pulled up, now I felt I was climbing so I pushed the nose back down, now I felt I was banking too steeply to the right so I turned to the left, but I was supposed to be turning right, so I turned back to the right, but I am climbing so I push the nose over. Now Brian says open your eyes. I was 100% positive I was in a right turn dive. I mean I would have bet my life on it. I opened my eyes and beheld beautiful blue dirt. Ahh beautiful blue dir…..blue dirt??? Since when is dirt blue? I quickly scan my instruments, Holy Cow, I am in a climbing left turn. Full throttle, level the wings, bring the nose down. Brian says good job. Now I know why they don’t allow students to carry guns.
Next Brian says lets do slow flight, I ace that, then he says power off stall, my favorite. Chop the throttle, maintain altitude, wait for the stall horn, I hear that, wait for the buffeting of the wings, I feel that, wait for the stall (the plane quits flying and just falls from the sky), I don’t feel it. That plane wouldn’t stall, I had full back pressure trying to get the nose up to help it stall, it NEVER stalled. I guess I passed that that. We recover and Brian says your lost where are you? I immediately reach for the radio to call somebody and let them know I am lost (prior experience with that one) the devil says you have no radio. I am in a Cessna 172 they don’t go very fast and I was just shown where I was less than 5 minutes earlier I had to be in the vicinity still. I start my VOR vectoring when Satan says now you have no engine. At that point a very interesting weather phenomenom occurred, it started raining inside the cabin. It was soaking my map. I tossed everything in the back seat, and started my mantra; aviate (fly the plane), navigate (put it somewhere), communicate (brilliant with no radio) I pick a spot to do my emergency landing, go through the checklist. We descend to about 600 feet when Brian said I’d done a pretty good job. Lets go back to the airport.
We arrive over the airport and I discover a 4 billion knot crosswind. Even Brian asks if I can land in it. Whereupon I reverted back to my previous learning experience, my greatest learning came after a dumb decision. I confidently say I’ll never know unless I try. So down I go, crabbing into the wind. If you want to see some cool landing go to Youtube and type crosswind landings. I make the worst landing of my life, I hear the tires skidding crosswise, the runway is over a hundred feet wide and I used all of it. But Brian said considering the crosswind I did a pretty good job.
I am scheduled for my FAA checkride Wednesday.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Picture of Me
So I was told I never have pictures of me on here, so here you go.
Self portrates. Goofy!!!
Reilly's Pinewood Derby
We had to add some weight at the last minute, Notice the fishing weights are his rockets.
Do you like Reilly's new haircut, too.
He said his hair was sticking to him.
Bro Olcott, he is the hubby of our Cub master.
Do you like Reilly's new haircut, too.He said his hair was sticking to him.
Bro Olcott, he is the hubby of our Cub master. Reilly was blessed this year, and was able to do two pinewood derby's. Since it was the first time anyone here had done this. We only did a first place and then everyone got awards. It was really fun and the kids had so much fun.
Brenden's Hair
Sorry's it so dark, can't get flash to work. He has his old hair cut, couldn't stand it anymore.
I think it looks much better short.
Lots of hair
Look its on his neck and touching his ears. Driving him crazy.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Tuesday
Happy news, Reilly's bike was found by a kid in the complex, the brake wires are broken, but he uses his feet to stop most of the time, so he doesn't care. Not good on his shoes though.
He's just happy!!
His bike was by our back door and he forgot to lock it up, so I think someone just took it for a joy ride.
He is Healthy and Happy now.
Charlee now has the Fever thing that Reilly had.
I told the nurse we are never this sick and she told me this is pretty common for people that move to a new state. New allergies, new viruses, more stress because it is a new environment. She said give it 6 months and they will be fine. Hopefully she is right.
Brenden is doing a night flight tonight. We are so excited for him.
He's just happy!!
His bike was by our back door and he forgot to lock it up, so I think someone just took it for a joy ride.
He is Healthy and Happy now.
Charlee now has the Fever thing that Reilly had.
I told the nurse we are never this sick and she told me this is pretty common for people that move to a new state. New allergies, new viruses, more stress because it is a new environment. She said give it 6 months and they will be fine. Hopefully she is right.
Brenden is doing a night flight tonight. We are so excited for him.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Update on our lives.
Things have been very busy this last couple of weeks.
Charlee has cheer twice a week from right after school, she changes in the vehicle. She is home on Tuesday about 5;30 ish and on Thursday they have tumbling after cheer, so she doesn't get home until almost 7pm. Long days make for a tired girl. After cheer it is then homework and off to bed, even if it is early, usually it's not. She can read and rest.
Between Reilly being sick again one day and well the next, then sick the next. I have been off schedule. Plus we had an emotional morning because his BICYCLE was STOLEN. He went from being devastated to being very angry. It will be a little bit before we can get him a new one. Hope school goes OK today, I did give his teacher a heads up, in case drama started. Poor boy. Another reason he wants to go home. He keeps telling me he wants to go live back in AZ with BJ and Joni, because he hates it here. Another reason is that he misses 'his' riding lawn mower. He loved mowing the lawn. He has to learn to deal and adjust, change is very hard for him. He loves the beach and likes having sidewalks to ride on instead of dirt.
Brenden has been flying almost everyday and then homework and school the rest of the time. Two weeks ago he helped teach a motorcycle class, MTII. Went well, but he was so tired afterwards, I personally don't think it is worth it. But we will see.
On to me, Nicole, I am the one that keeps everyone organized and drives everyone around. also I am assistant cub scout leader and a primary teacher. Love both jobs. I am learning to love the differences between Arizona and Florida. I love the beach and don't really mind the humidity too much. OK I am lying about that, but at least it is not painful for me to go outside now. Only wet. LOL
Charlee has cheer twice a week from right after school, she changes in the vehicle. She is home on Tuesday about 5;30 ish and on Thursday they have tumbling after cheer, so she doesn't get home until almost 7pm. Long days make for a tired girl. After cheer it is then homework and off to bed, even if it is early, usually it's not. She can read and rest.
Between Reilly being sick again one day and well the next, then sick the next. I have been off schedule. Plus we had an emotional morning because his BICYCLE was STOLEN. He went from being devastated to being very angry. It will be a little bit before we can get him a new one. Hope school goes OK today, I did give his teacher a heads up, in case drama started. Poor boy. Another reason he wants to go home. He keeps telling me he wants to go live back in AZ with BJ and Joni, because he hates it here. Another reason is that he misses 'his' riding lawn mower. He loved mowing the lawn. He has to learn to deal and adjust, change is very hard for him. He loves the beach and likes having sidewalks to ride on instead of dirt.
Brenden has been flying almost everyday and then homework and school the rest of the time. Two weeks ago he helped teach a motorcycle class, MTII. Went well, but he was so tired afterwards, I personally don't think it is worth it. But we will see.
On to me, Nicole, I am the one that keeps everyone organized and drives everyone around. also I am assistant cub scout leader and a primary teacher. Love both jobs. I am learning to love the differences between Arizona and Florida. I love the beach and don't really mind the humidity too much. OK I am lying about that, but at least it is not painful for me to go outside now. Only wet. LOL
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Coconut and Reilly
Reilly has been fascinated with coconuts since you can find then all over the place. We finally allowed him to bring one home. He wanted pictures taken and put on the blog so everyone (especially Coda) could see it.
The back ground in the picture is out our back door.
Brenden first flight - Friday
So after only 5 days of school, Brenden has his first day of flying.
He LOVED it.
He has lots of school work.This is his instructor pilot and the plane he went up in.
Written by Brenden Riggs
Went for my first flight friday. Pretty uneventful, at least pretty uneventful in my world. I flew mostly in Arizona, smooth air, big runways, no trees, and a VASI. A VASI is a set of light that let you know if you are descending on the proper angle.
We took off, flew around did a few maneuvers and then Mike (my instructor) and I headed back to the airport to practise some landings. I was told to descend to 1000 ft above the ground. HOLY COW, who let the bucking bronco out, we were bouncing all over the place, I think I lost a contact lens which is horrible because I don't wear any. Then as we get closer to the runway I asked Mike where the VASI lights were whereupon I was informed this particular runway doesn't have any, but aim for the four digit number numbers at the end. I must have been seeing double because runways only have two digit numbers. I stuffed my eyeballs back into my head, don't really recall if they bounced out or if I opened them too wide, that isn't important. So I aim for this black strip of pavement that is moving all over the place, the lower I get the rougher the flight. We get closer to the runway and had a great landing. Let me define landings: A good landing is anything you walk away from, a great landing is one where you can use the plane again. I had sixteen touchdowns in that one landing, but my instructor said I couldn't count them as individual landings. Darn, i would have had enough landings on that one flight to get my license. Then Mike has the audacity to say, "lets do it again!" Glad he is braver than I am. So off we go to attempt another landing. Still bumpy, we circle around and come back for another landing. This time I am ready, coming in at proper speed, and altitude, raise the nose just before my wheels contact the ground, suddenly I am 30 feet back into the air. Stall warning blaring. A stall is pretty much falling out of the sky, bad things happen if you stall very close to the ground. I jam the throttle to full, lower the nose to get airspeed. We recover just fine, Mike looks over at me and says, "that will cover your missed approach lesson for today". We circle around, get clearance for the main runway, yeehaw VASI, there I make a beautiful landing. Taxi back to the parking spot, open the doors so all the water (Mike said sweat, but I don't believe him, it is humid here in Florida) could pour out. I can't wait for Monday to do it all again.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
I Pod Humor
Brenden is now using my I POD Touch,
(Look out world, he is in the modern age)
and I was showing him how to use it.
I told him to just start playing with it and before I knew it he was laughing his head off, uncontrollably.
He said the I Pod bounced when it came to the top or bottom of the information. If you have a I Pod touch or something like it you know what I mean. He just thought it was so funny that it actually bounced.
He laughed so hard, it was contagious!!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Brenden's first day of school
Brenden is starting school today. He is going to Aviator College in Fort Pierce, Fl.
He was really cute today, (oh wait men aren't cute, manly is a better word). He was nervous and excited. I know he will do a great job!!! I am very proud of him.
He looked so handsome in his tan pants and white shirt.
He even had a hair cut, so he would look nice.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
March 2010 Our first trip to beach
It was cold out so we didn't think anyone would want to get wet
Boy were we wrong!!! 
Charlee getting hit by a wave
playing in the waves We were all soaked by the time we went home.
The water is awesome and the sand is soft.
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