Hahah this is hilarious. A bit over the top perhaps, but it makes my job sound really exciting.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/40265281#40265281

Lots of good pictures of the BN-350 and the waste casks I've come to know and love so well.

I spent all of today learning to fly my Cessna 182. I can't legally fly it solo (and I wouldn't be covered by insurance) until I get a high performance aircraft endorsement from a CFI, so that was today's goal.

Michael drove up to Los Alamos and met me at the airport terminal to discuss some of the differences between the 182 and the 172s that I have been flying up to this point. The most significant is that this airplane has a constant-speed propeller, which I had never used before. We went over the theory of manifold pressure and talked through the practical implications of how the existence of the propeller control changes how we make power changes, etc. Also discussed the cowl vents which are another new feature in this plane.

Next, it was off to the airplane to go through the panel in detail and make sure I understood what everything did. Michael had a good laugh at the "shotgun style" panel layout (meaning that instruments are just strewn about randomly as if shot from a shotgun) and the "coffee-grinder style" ADF receiver (it has an egregious number of settings and controls for such a simple instrument; I'll take a picture of it someday).

The flight itself was reasonably uneventful. I flew from Los Alamos south to the usual practice area by Cochiti reservoir, where we did some steep turns, slow flight, and stalls. Continuing south, I flew to Belen, just south of Albuquerque, and did a series of touch and go's there. Heading back north, I did a single touch-and-go at the Albuquerque International Sunport just for kicks, then continued on to Santa Fe, where we stopped for a late lunch. While on the ground, we ran a weight and balance and discovered that in our takeoff configuration we were outside the envelope by a bit. Oops. I guess that explains why it seemed so nose-heavy on takeoff. Turns out that having 370 pounds of passengers in the front seats and nothing in the back with full fuel is a no-no in this plane. But only by a bit.

After lunch, the weather had really picked up and it was getting quite windy. I decided to fly back to Los Alamos. It was getting pretty bumpy in the air, and the winds at LAM were really not favorable for landing—a very gusty strong quartering tailwind. I would never have tried to land like that if I didn't have a 4000-hour pilot sitting next to me. While the landing turned out to be fine from a technical perspective, it was a terrifying experience. I'm glad I was able to perform well under pressure, but I was rattled.

I'm still not comfortable with the systems on board the 182 like I am in the 172, but I've got a handle on the basics. Michael was happy enough with how I did that he wrote out the high performance endorsement, which entitles me to legally fly the plane solo. Tomorrow we'll continue the transition training in the morning, but this time I'll fly to Santa Fe to pick him up.

I've been working on this since I started in safeguards back in 2005. It's great to see this task finally completed. And now I can finally talk about what we were up to over there. And, of course, now we get to look forward to the next thing, whatever that may be...

Nina and I have successfully returned from the icy summit of Kilimanjaro and are back in the crushing atmosphere of Arusha, Tanzania. At 5,985 meters (19,340'), it is the highest point either of us has ever climbed to. Both of us fared quite well, with Nina being the strongest member of the team. The hike down, beginning with over 9,000' of descent on summit day and another 4,500' the next day, was the hardest part. We are quite sore.

Today we fly to Zanzibar for a bit of recuperation. Lots of pictures to come, slowly, once we return. Stay tuned.