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2014/09/24 Private Track Day on 3 mile track with the 650S

π 2014-09-24 01:01 in Cars, Ncars

I was supposed to be in Taiwan this week, but due to weather we had to postpone, which turned out great because this gave me a chance to attend a private track day and try my 650S on the 3 mile track to see how it would do. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling at my top that day, so my driving was inconsistent and I never got a full lap where I did everything right, but I still got to try the car and managed a few 2:01 laps (my timer said 2:00 once, but it looks like it was wrong).

The organizers are also in the habbit of doing some drag races to compare cars, and it turns out that I won against a F458 Speciale, Aventador, and 650hp racecar :) (actually I lost to the aventador once when I started in the wrong gear, but won best 2 out of 3):

A few car pictures:

Before lunch time, we lined up for some drag racing (from a running start):

Before enjoying lunch:

In the afternoon, I tried to rest a bit to be more focussed, and as luck would have it, I again scored my best lap of the day on my last session, just before having to stop due to having melted my rear brake pads :)

Thanks much to the organizers and participants, it was great fun.

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2014/09/24 Flight to Willows and improved Bay Tour on the way back

π 2014-09-24 01:01 in Flying, Nflying

Getting to Willows that morning wasn't too bad once I got on top of the clouds. I had filed an IFR flight plan, but I was running late, knew the IFR release would take a while, and knew I could get on top VFR, so I turned left/west after takeoff (the wrong direction), got on top, and since Norcal was very busy with existing traffic, instead of getting a Bravo Clearance to cross, I just went around south and crossed at 3500ft quicker than I could have made a request from the controller who was rapid firing to a bunch of existing planes.

someone got to willows with a nicer ride than I did :)

On the way back, it got a bit more interesting. Forecast was for a 5000ft overcast in PAO, so my plan was to fly through oakland and stay under the cloud layer so as not to get trapped on top, but over Oakland, the clouds got as low as the hills I usually cross over, so I ended up flying over the water at 300ft for a while and the controller routed me towards SFO instead. I got an improvised bay tour out of it, and I ended up flying over the bay with San Francisco on my right. By the bay bridge, I figured I'd be better overflying between 2 spans of the bridge instead of the last span and the city since that would put me too close to densely populated area. Interestingly, I ended up having to climb back from 500ft to 3500ft (on top) after that due to headings from the controllers, and needing to stay clear of clouds (going under over san francisco and hills didn't look safe). Eventually I got a hole over Palo Alto and came back down that way. That made for some interesting pictures. I could of course have flown IFR, but the rental plane I had was a backup plane, it was old, and I preferred flying VFR with it than trusting a single VOR needle without any panel GPS in actual IMC if I could avoid it (I did have hand held GPS).

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2014/09/20 Another Beyond Wonderland at Shoreline

π 2014-09-20 01:01 in Clubbing, Festivals

After really enjoying Beyond Wonderland last year and I Love this City the previous year, both at shoreline, I got tickets as soon as they became available this year. Unfortunately, I had a trip to Taiwan sunday which was going to make me miss the 2nd day, but for better or for worse, we postponed our trip after finding out a typhoon was going through the day we were going to land. In turn, this meant I could go both days, and this was great news since there was even more Trance on sunday than saturday.

While the show was fantastic, crowd watching was also fun. The best part were the deluted christians who were there sunday at the entrance telling people to wear more clothes and that jesus would forgive them if they did. I'm glad they had nothing better to do that day, they provided entertainment while we were waiting in line.

very nice makeup

But what's up with all those people wearing those Batman Bane like face masks made out of beads. Is that really supposed to be cool? I'm really not seeing it, and I don't think it's just me :)

So, let's replay the events. Saturday, there was a good line by 15:30 already:

I barely got there in time for Oakey:

err, ok I guess :)

The catterpillar was very well animated:

Doh, shouldn't have done that :)

almost burning man-like from this distance

And the evening ended with Above and Beyond I had seen just weeks before at burning man, but sure didn't mind seeing again, great set again :)

Here are a few sets from that day:

Oakey:

DieselBoy:

Mat Zo:

Krewella:

Above and Beyond:

Sunday, I showed up bright and early at 13:00 for Dyloot, he's a local who plays awesome melodic trance:

google glass, nice..

Dyloot's:

Jordan Suckley:

Marlo:

Myonn and Shane 54:

Orjan Nilsen:

Andrew Rayel:

Aly and Fila:

Next, came Orjan Nilsen. Awesome Trance set:

Then came Andrew Rayel:

Last, but not least, half of Aly and Fila: While for me, it wasn't as nice than Andrew or Orjan, Marlo, or Dyloot in my opinion, but it was still a good way to end the night :)

This was an awesome two days, I sure hope we get more of those in the coming years. Thanks Insomniac and Livenation.

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2014/09/18 A Few Hours in San Francisco

π 2014-09-18 01:01 in Outings

I happened to be in San Francisco with a bike and a few hours to kill, so I biked around for a few pictures :)

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2014/09/18 Quick Visit of SFO Office

π 2014-09-18 01:01 in Google

I had to be in San Francisco one day, so I went into the office and did a quick visit while there. Nice digs...

visitor dogs are welcome :)

nice lunch spot

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2014/09/11 Breaking in my 650S at Thunderhill

π 2014-09-11 01:01 in Cars, Ncars

It arrived at Thunderhill with barely 300 miles, not quite the recommended break in period :) but at the same time you're not supposed to baby an engine when it's new, for its valves to seat properly, you're actually supposed to rev it and work through multiple parts of the RPM band, so I made sure to do that :)

I still suck at the full track, but managed a 3.36. That will give me a benchmark to beat next time :)

I made a nice flight back with David and have pictures here

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2014/09/11 Scenic Flight Back from Willows Through Sonoma, Napa, Marin, Fogged in San Francisco, SFO Airport, and Stanford

π 2014-09-11 01:01 in Flying, Nflying

After a good day at Thunderhill, I flew back with David and took the scenic route to make the flight worth it for him :)

Besides the pictures below, you can also look at the album photo for this flight.

Maxwell VOR

Sears Point

Eh, that's the EVA plane I'll be taking in 10 days :)

The new SFO tower

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2014/09/04 650S Delivery

π 2014-09-04 01:01 in Cars, Ncars

After the possible traction control problem I had with my MP4-12C, it ended up making more sense to swap cars, so I ordered about the same car from the 650S line. It's mostly the same platform with many improvements. I missed out on most of the track season this year, so looking forward to catching up :)

Alessandro took beautiful pictures, here are a few:

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