Bill Bobzien
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ajustmachine.com
Bill Bobzien
@ajustmachine.com
87 followers 110 following 19 posts
Software developer and student pilot living and working in the Research Triangle.
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Reminded me of this shirt that I bought when I visited.
A dark-grey T-shirt with "What part of Eyjafjallajökull don't you understand?" written on it. "Eyjafjallajökull" is in white letters, and the rest of the lettering is orange.
September 18, 2025 at 11:33 AM
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Toasting my oldest son's last night in Colorado, using pre-mixed Cosmopolitans in hotel paper cups. Because we are classy like that.
A toast, using a pair of Hampton Inn paper cups. My son, face unseen, is in the background, wearing a crimson shirt and black jeans, sitting in a reddish-orange chair. Part of a black leather jacket can be seen hanging on the back of the chair.
May 20, 2025 at 3:03 AM
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Went to the Wings Over Wayne air show at Seymour-Johnson AFB yesterday. I haven't been to an airshow in about four years, and I haven't seen the Thunderbirds in at least 15 years, maybe more, so I'm glad I got the chance to go.
A Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star trainer aircraft flying inverted during a roll maneuver over Seymour-Johnon Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina on May 3, 2025. This aircraft is known as "Ace Maker III" and is flown by Gregory "Wired" Colyer of Ace Maker Aviation, LLC. It is a silver jet aircraft with a two-seat tandem cockpit and large fuel tanks on the tips of each wing, painted with US Air Force markings, and featuring prominent yellow bands near the wing tips and wrapped diagonally around the fuselage behind the cockpit. There are white, wispy clouds in the background. An F-15E Strike Eagle of the 4th Fighter wing making a steeply-banked turn, with two flares that it just launched trailing behind it. The engine exhausts are glowing since the aircraft's afterburners are on. The aircraft has a high wing and twin vertical stabilizers. Condensation is forming on top of the wings. There is a large, wispy white cloud in the background. Thunderbirds #1 - #4 during the "echelon pass in review" maneuver. Each single-engine F-16C Fighting Falcon is a fighter jet with a pointed nose and swept wings, painted white with red and dark blue accents, along with US Air Force markings. The aircraft are in almost a straight line, and so close that they appear stacked on top of each other. There are puffy white clouds in the background at the bottom of the photograph. Pilots are Lt. Col. Nathan Malafa (#1), Maj. Joshua Burress(#2), Lt. Col. Ian Lee (#3), and Maj. Tyler Clark (#4). Thunderbird #6, piloted by Maj. Laney Schol, in a climb. The F-16C is painted white with red and dark blue accents, and a stylized dark blue thunderbird (a bird-like spirit from the traditions of North American indigenous peoples) covers most of the bottom of the aircraft. Smoke trails from the tail of the aircraft, and a bit of cloud is visible in the bottom-left corner of the photograph.
May 4, 2025 at 9:16 PM
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A group of parked single-engine airplanes at a small airport. A mixture of high wings and low. They are white with various colors of trim, mostly shades of red, but some black and blue colors as well. In the background is a taxiway and a runway, separated by grass, with yellow chevrons on the runway to indicate a displaced threshold. Some construction equipment (the reason for the displaced threshold) is visible near the taxiway, while farther back is a small white building with red stripes, and some equipment on red-and-white striped masts, plus the airport wind sock. In the distance are some green trees. Over it all is a blue sky with some hazy white clouds.
November 24, 2024 at 7:53 PM
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June of this year at midnight.
The Sun Voyager sculpture in Reykjavík, Iceland, at midnight in June 2024. It is a polished metal sculpture resembling a boat. There are rocks, plants, and a walkway in the foreground, and the harbor is in the background. The sky is cloudy. The sun is below the horizon but still lights up the sky with a yellow color.
November 18, 2024 at 12:52 PM
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Had my fifth lesson yesterday. First time doing ground reference maneuvers. S-turns, turn about a point x2, rectangular course x2 (for certain values of "rectangular"), then two turns about the same point.
A screenshot from the FlightAware website (www.flightaware.com) showing my ground track yesterday. It is a green line over a map in shades of blue.
October 26, 2024 at 2:33 PM
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Took my first two flying lessons this weekend. I'm so grateful that I finally have a chance to fulfill my lifelong goal of becoming a pilot!
The plane I flew for my first two lessons. It is a Piper Cherokee Warrior II, a single-engine, propeller-driven airplane. The photo shows it parked after my first lesson, at Raleigh Executive Jetport in Sanford, NC. It is painted white, with dark- and light-blue trim. The registration number "N8080A" is painted in dark blue on the rear of the fuselage. Clouds partially cover the evening sky. A screenshot from the FlightAware website showing the path of my first lesson. It shows a green line looping in various directions over a map drawn in different shades of blue. A small green dot is labeled "TTA", the code for Raleigh Executive Jetport, which is where the flight began and ended. Another screenshot from the FlightAware website showing the path of my second lesson. Like the screensot of the first lesson, it shows a green line looping in various directions over a map drawn in different shades of blue. A small green dot is labeled "TTA", the code for Raleigh Executive Jetport, which is where the flight began and ended. A photo of the first page of my pilot's log book, showing a record of my first two lessons. It is a wide, hard-bound book with a dark cover. The pages are white with black print along with grey-shaded highlights for certain information. The two handwritten entries show that I flew a Piper Cherokee Warrior II, registration number N8080A, from and then back to KTTA, Raleigh Executive Jetport, on October 4 and October 6, 2024, for 1.2 hours of dual instruction each time.
October 6, 2024 at 8:52 PM