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This week I am getting my sea legs while adjusting motion parameters on the new Level C King Air 200 full-motion simulator at work. In addition to being my first motion sim, this is the highest-level simulator the company has produced to date. So far I have spent most of my time in the instructor cab, bobbing and heaving and shaking at the whim of another engineer in the cockpit, trying to adjust the amplitudes and frequencies of our bobbing and heaving and shaking to accurately represent various airsickness-inducing maneuvers. Some parameters got adjusted, but mostly I got queasy. The instructor cab has no windows and only a partial view of the visual scene, so it was a bit like trying to compose an email, below-deck in a canoe, on the ocean, in a hurricane. But that was yesterday. Today, I felt queasy only after returning to my desk, so we’re making progress. And it’s really much more fun when you’re sitting in the cockpit.

Our Flügtag contraption did not fly very far, becoming another entry in the annals of ill-fated, single-point aeronautical designs. Our downfall was a pulley system that got disqualified at the last minute, leaving us a scant 8 mph of airspeed to lift a glider designed for 20. Not that we’re bitter; it’s all about next year. Here are the Flügstones, pre-plummet:

Emily, I had every intention of posting Freda’s wedding photos tonight, but I just realized that they’re stuck on my laptop, which is stuck at work. I will bring it home tomorrow, promise.

I was going to mention Jenni’s upcoming nuptials, but Katie beat me to it. Katie failed to mention, however, that the nuptials are occurring in Jamaica, and I won’t speculate on the role Rachel’s “destination wedding” prodding played in that decision. In any case, congratulations to Jenni and Bill.

So this month I have an excuse for not updating more regularly: I have been exiled to Arizona for two weeks. Fortunately the workload has been relatively light, and Rachel was able to join me for the weekend. Here we are, amongst the vortices and kooks of Sedona (kooks not pictured):

Also of note: we narrowly missed a Kerry rally while passing through Flagstaff. Word has it, he fought in Vietnam.

Aerogeek Tuesday: Long-lost Greek wedding photos and full Flugtag coverage, 9/8c.