It was only recently brought to my attention that the site was not available to IE users. This was due to a Microsoft bug.

The workaround is in place and you should now be able view the site in IE.

I learned a few weeks ago that pilots are eligible to registrar .aero domain names. The original intention of this new top level domain was to give the aerospace industry a better “presence” on the web.

The entity responsible for this TLD is called SITA. Which may sound familiar as they create the communications systems for air traffic control, airlines, etc…

Getting your .aero domain involves a verification step to prove that you are a pilot. I did this by e-mailing SITA a copy of my pilot license. You can also fax …

I get a lot of comment spam. 99.9% of it is blocked because I don’t allow URLs in my comments.

Unfortunately this causes a few legitimate comments to end up being deleted because they contain urls.

From now on, you will have to prove you are human by entering in a code before hitting the submit button. You will only see if if you have javascript enabled.

If for whatever reason you cannot post a comment, please let me know so I can fix the problem.

I’ve added a new category to the website called “Australia”.

I’m planning a trip back to the land down under and I am looking into getting a PPL license down there so that I can fly.

I think it would be awesome to be able to rent a plane in Sydney, or Perth, and see the land from the air.

Right now the trip is tentatively scheduled for sometime in 2008.

A buddy of mine told me today that a squatter had registered flywithblake.com.

I’m not sure if I should feel honoured (that my site is large enough for a squatter to care) or angry.

Don’t worry, I wont be buying flywithblake.com for any amount of money!

I’ve removed the Google Ads. They’ve only earned me $4.35USD since the site launched last December.

In it’s place i’ve put a list of the days i’m scheduled to fly. I wrote a script that will automatically download the data from the site that Toronto Airways uses to schedule its planes and instructors.

The list is long, since I have many future bookings. I might shrink it down later.

I have added two new features to the website.

1. Weather. The latest weather forecast for Buttonville is now displayed on the left hand side of the site. The data is decoded from the latest METAR for CYKZ using PHP Weather.

2. Detailed Cost Breakdown. I added a new page that gives you the cost breakdown (by category and item) of my training. You can access it by clicking on the “money spent” total at the left.

I plan on adding a similar breakdown for hours flown. An online log book feature.

I’ve added a few things to the site:

By The Numbers: Added number of entries
Random Photo: Added a photo (was getting sick of the “test photo”) with titles
Last Updated: A new section that will display the last updated dates of the Ground School and Links sections
Ground School: Added a “quick links” nav bar at the top to quickly filter ground school entries by category
RSS Feeds: You can now add this site to your RSS reader

Some items i’m working on include a “more details” page for the “by the numbers” section. You …

Welcome everyone. This website is now officially live! I just sent out an email to all my friends letting them know.

Feel free to read any of the previous posts!

There are still a few bugs with the site that I will be working on in the next few days.

I encourage everyone to sign up for site updates (on the left hand side of the page). Don’t worry, I promise you wont get any spam!

The website has been launched with some things not working properly yet. The reason for this is so that I can start recording items even before the site is finished.

Also please be patient if some of the site formatting is broken or not readable. Any feedback is also welcome (via email) is also welcome!

I encourage everyone to sign up for the site update emails, so that you know exactly when the website has been updated!