Breaking away from the habit of my dull, conservative life. I want to teach myself new, crazy, strange, fun, habits that will break me out of my shell and show myself I CAN!
Flying the Mooney was such a great experience that I wanted more. This time I flew a Boeing 747 simulator. All I really know is that it's a huge airplane. If I remember this correctly the airplane itself weighs 300,000 pounds, when it's topped off with fuel it's now 600,000 pounds, and with cargo it's about 900,000 pounds. Keeping that in mind when flying this airplane it was a lot harder to move the controls. Luckily I didn't have to worry about adjusting any knobs, my copilot did that, but trying to keep an 1/8 of an inch box in the middle of two cross hairs is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. The simulator moved around realistically with a very complicated hydraulic system. It had ample energy being pumped into the machine to make it run. The cockpit was pulled from a pre-existing Boeing 747 and rewired to fit into the simulator. The outside view is pulled from Google earth. And there you have a very sophisticated and very expensive simulator. Pilots are trained on it and have to pass a test before they are allowed to get into a real airplane. An interesting fact that I learned is that pilots put on autopilot as soon as they take off and can land with it. What an easy job right? But since this is the new normal for young students learning to fly they don't have that much experience flying the plane manually. Basically they suck at flying. On the other hand it's becoming harder for older pilots to fly because all the new planes are installed with advanced touch screen technology. Flying is completely safe. Besides that my favorite part was the night time flying it looked like star wars.
Dave Milne (left) was my copilot, Serge Cote my dad, and Robert Keegan (right) ran the simulator.
Outside of the simulator.
The extensive hydraulic system and electronic hookups underneath the simulator.
All of the blue boxes run the system for the simulator.
Entering the cockpit.
Behind the pilot seat, the person who sits here is the flight engineer. He watches and controls fuel, pneumatics, electric, hydraulics, and auxiliary power.
For one of my experiences I wanted to include my mom, Deanna Cote. I asked her if there was anything she always wanted to learn but never was able to get around to it. We narrowed down the list to jewelry making. She has had a huge box of beads stored away in the attic for years and never used them. Now was our chance. There are so many styles, materials, and methods to making jewelry to choose from. My friend suggested wire wrapping, it's the hot new thing to do. So after a few Youtube videos and hundreds of Pinterest pictures we decided on a few necklaces. We picked out our beads and wrapped them with wire. It's as simple as that. Anything hands on I usually pick up quickly and I found that I really enjoyed wire wrapping. After just a few hours I felt like an expert. I kept on going after the first one and wrapped a Petoskey stone. What I liked about this project the most was the freedom of creativity. Just go with the natural flow of the stone and wire, somehow it will always turn out nice.
My mom's necklace (left) and my necklace (right). We hammered the main piece to flatten it, found beads to fit between the wire, and used a smaller gage wire to attach the beads.
The Petoskey stone wrapped with different gage wires and small beads.
My dad, Serge Cote, has been working with airplanes most of his life. Growing up we would go to the air show every summer and see all kinds of airplanes show off their stuff. I would sit inside the cockpit and wonder why in the world do they need so many buttons and gages. It must be a really hard thing to do, fly a plane. These machines are too sophisticated for me but it looks like fun. That's what I thought, but this experience changed my mind. Going into this I wasn't sure how I would react I knew that I was scared of heights but I can handle commercial flights. I also love to drive cars and boats, would an airplane be any different? Actually not really. We took off the runway and up into the air. Climbing to 4,000 feet we were just below the never ending sheet of clouds that covered the sky. The pilot, Wes Shartle, adjusted a few things and took his hands off the controls. I was flying. At this point I realized this is too easy. The airplane was moving straight into the horizon. All I had to worry about was rolling the plane left and right with the aileron. If I turned around a total 360 the plane would gradually get lower to the ground, and going past 360 the plane could eventually spiral down to the ground, not good. To get back to the right height I had to roll out and ascend. Next my gage knowledge was tested by Wes placing a map in my view so I wasn't able to see outside. All I had to do was make sure the plane was flying on the horizon line. I had to be careful with controlling the elevators, flaps on the back of the plane, because quick movements made the plane drop or rise fast, giving me that strange stomach feeling. The only other control I had to worry about was the foot pedals, they controlled the rudder turning the plane left and right. Wes was a great instructor and he told me I did very well for my first time, encouraging me to get my license. One of my favorite experiences so far.
We flew a Mooney, it's a small plane built for speed.
Serge Cote (left) and the pilot, Wes Shartle (right).
Cooking food is a mystery to me. I've tried several times and pretty much every time has been chaotic. I wish I had the knowledge to throw random ingredients into a pot and have it come out delicious. But that takes practice in the kitchen. One thing that makes cooking crazy is not knowing how to use the tools correctly. My boyfriend, Nathan Atkinson, and culinary student poured his knowledge of knife cuts into my hands. There are several types of cuts such as julienne, brunoise, and batonnet. Each one has a specific size. The importance of knife cuts is efficiency in the kitchen, it's a nice way to display food, and it makes it easier to fit on your utensils and in your mouth. One thing I got in trouble for was slide the knife edge across the cutting board because it ruins the knife edge. The best part to use is the back, spine, of the knife to clear food of the board. It's as easy as flipping the knife over. The food industry is some serious business. I'm one baby step closer to surviving.
When it comes to handling dangerous items I get a little nervous. For the most part I try to stay away from them. I wasn't really sure how I felt about guns so I decided to test them out at the gun range. My friend Kiyo Nakagawa and my brother Ben Cote guided me through a series of hand guns: a Glock 17, Walther PPQ, and Sig 1911. The first two are .09 mm and the Sig was .45 in. People who work in law enforcement carry a Glock 17; one, because they are reliable, and two, because they are really easy to use. To me it looks like an old fashioned game boy with it's blocky facade. The Sig 1911 was my favorite, mostly because it looked bad ass. It was intimidating at first but I got used to handling the power. The only thing I know about the Walther PPQ is that it's German made. I still haven't made up my mind about owning a gun but I had a TON of fun! Next time I'm thinking shot guns.
Glock 17 (bottom) and Walther PPQ (top) disassembled for cleaning.
Cleaning duty. This is the Sig 1911.
Kiyo Nakagawa (left) and Ben Cote (right) thanks for the help and the guns.
Glock 17, Walther PPQ, Sig 1911, and Steyr (left to right). I also shot the Steyr 40 caliber but it's not in the video.
I am going to admit to you that I am a horrible dancer. I will step on your feet and I don't have any rhythm. This is something I've been meaning to work on for a couple years and I finally have the option to. To give you a teaser I will be learning to swing dance so maybe that will help with the feet part. Break dancing will help with keeping a beat.
Eric Tian showed me the basics of break dancing. He took me through a combination including Indian Step, Top Rock, Drop Down, 6-Step, 3-Step, and ending with Baby Freeze. Top Rock takes awhile to get the footwork down, once that's done it's a lot easier to go fast, which is how it's meant to be. Baby Freeze requires balancing your body and ab strength, which I don't really have. In the end I still need practice, I came out with a break dance set and bruised knees. It was worth it.
I am surrounded by friends who skateboard. When we would hang out in the summer time they would pull out their skateboard and play skate. I would sit on the sidelines and watch them land crazy tricks. The whole time thinking how in the world do they do that? Up until this point skateboarding seemed dangerous and kind of scary. But now, to me it's fun, thrilling, and it consumes you're mind. It motivates you to keep trying, you can't stop until you land the trick. Even if you're completely exhausted, you don't care, you just want to achieve something that's within arms reach. Determination.
My friend Andy Kapelanski is a boss at skateboarding, atleast to me, so I asked him to show me the way. After two hours and several fails I finally landed and ollie. So check-ch-check it out. There is a longer video that we made where Andy shows how to skateboard for beginners. See what-wha-what's it all about. Work-wa-work it out. Let's turn this party out!
To give you more of an idea of what I plan on doing, this past weekend my friend Casey Follen taught me how to play the Marimba. She showed me how to hold the sticks, keep a beat, and stretches for the hands and arms. In two hours I was able to play a song, although it is very simple it's still a complete song. I have several new situations on my list. It could be as simple as successfully performing a magic trick or as complicated as drifting a race car. I would love to hear any suggestions you have.
