The Wedemeyer Family

I got home the other day and found a terrible smell upstairs in the computer room. Unfortunately, I am familiar with the terrible smells that computers can make, based on my experiences with burning and damaging computer components.

I tracked the smell to my Linux storage server that also serves as my MythTV backend. In case you don’t know, this is the device that does all my TV recording (like a TiVo). Finding the source of the smell was only the first part, as I now had to figure out which of my components had gone bad.

Luckily, I know a good place to go for computer questions: Anandtech Forums. As soon as I posted my question, I started getting some answers.

The most intriguing response was about bad capacitors. Apparently, due to some industrial espionage, there are millions of bad capacitors floating around that have been incorporated into all sorts of electronics. You can get the full story at www.badcaps.net. They had some photos of what bad capacitors would look like, so I got out the digital camera and went hunting.

The results were a little surprising, and also a little disappointing. I’m always happy to track down the root problem of a computer crash, but when it’s the motherboard, that’s about as bad as it can get. This means that I need to find a new motherboard, gut the old machine, and transfer all the components over to the new motherboard. Considering my luck with hardware, this is a significant endeavor!

Anyways, have a look at some of the pictures I took of my leaking capacitors. You can see the brown corrosion spots on the tops where the fluid is leaking out.

I am kind of discouraged right now. I went to Julien PA in August 2005 for glider training hoping to get a glider rating on my commercial pilot certificate, but weather and other things did not help and I finished the week having soloed but with no rating. To go back would take another week’s vacation and about $2500, so instead I decided to join the Cumberland (MD) Soaring Group which would enable me to continue to take lessons from instructor members of the club and fly in the club gliders. For $800 fee and $20 per month dues I am part owner of 5 gliders and a tow plane, a 150-150 (Cessna 150 with 150 hp motor). I thought I could easily complete my training there, but it is about a 2 hour drive, and I can only go there on weekends when I am not on call which is alternate weekends. Since the club members work during the week, activity only occurs on weekends. The weather is out of synch with my call schedule, and I can only fly with one of two instructors who may not be there, and there is no flying unless a tow pilot comes too. The result has been that I can fly a couple of times, then can’t do it again for a month or more. I have gotten worse instead of better and now am not flying as well as I did when I started. My friend, Dennis, has nearly finished his commercial rating in the time I have been dawdling, and he has confirmed what I suspected, that the instructors are not eager to fly with me any more, so I have begun to consider taking another week’s vacation and going to a part of the country where the weather is uniformly good for gliding, like the Southwest US. I have flown over that area in airliners and have driven through a couple of time, but have never spent any time there and this would be an opportunity to explore. The more I think about it, the more I want to go, not just for the glider training but for the geography. I found the website for a commercial glider operation in Marfa Texas which sounds good http://www.flygliders.com . It is near Big Bend National Park, about midway between El Paso and Midland. Glider flying can go on year round they say except when the wind from the southwest is too strong. I think I am going to try it. I only need to satisfy myself that the training is good. The operator I flew with in PA has warned me that there are many “mills” at which I can get a rating without adequate training, but of course he doesn’t think of his own operation that way, and he would like to get my business. Mostly, I think I will teach myself, but I cannot get into the air without an instructor. I have flown the 150 towing the gliders, and I think it is a blast, although there is some danger. If the glider flies too high he can lift the tail of the tow plane causing it to dive, and the tow pilot cannot do anything about it except try to detach from the glider. Close to the ground it can be deadly. My goal is to have my rating so that I can take some of you with me in a glider, maybe when we have the party in the fall. The Soaring Group is proposing an amendment to the bylaws which would consider grandchildren part of the family for membership purposes which would make it easier for me to fly Jacobo, Terri and Blossom when I get rated. Even though I am fed up with the process right now, I am still excited about flying the gliders and will get it done somehow.