and there are a lot of pilots here. That crash took place near the "People's Republic of Boulder." What amazes me is that a private plane crash makes the news in other states. To me, it's no bigger a news story than an auto accident. The kid crashing into the building is different, though.

I didn't get to fly this weekend even though the weather was good around here. First, I had to work on a rush project, 10 hours yesterday and another 5 today. Second, my plane is down for maintenance. It's either a blown voltage regulator or alternator. We hope to have it fixed in the next week or so.

I last flew it a few days after Christmas. Just for grins, I'd flown down to Oklahoma and was comfortably cruising home. I was over Pueblo when the electrical system started acting funny. Pueblo Approach said they couldn't read my transponder signal any more and my radios started fading. Add to that both fuel gauges went to zero and it made for an uncomfortable trip the last 40 miles. Fortunately, I had just enough juice to power one radio. That let me hear the traffic pattern was empty. Without electrical power, I couldn't lower my flaps so I had to make a clean landing. We have flap gap seals on our plane to reduce drag so it floated like crazy. You can't just force a plane on the ground when it wants to keep flying. All in all, it was a memorable trip. I'd also flown the day before when the winds were much stronger. At one point, my GPS was reporting a groundspeed of 152 knots. That must've been one boomer of a tailwind!