Off topic - The world is on fire

Headed north on a business trip yesterday. Flew over parts of Northern California that are battling forest fires. Most of the airspace around Redding and points north into Oregon were covered in smoke. I snagged these photos from my window seat (Embraer 190 if you're curious). That's smoke you're looking at, not clouds...

Gauges are here for the F/O

Received a note from Carlos asking whether the Flight Illusion gauges fit the FlyEngravity panel. Those of you with great long term memory will recall I had similar problems with the Captain's side. If not, here's a short cut: http://boeing737flightsim.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-can-see-clearly-now-ash-clouds-are.html

I did meet up with Mark from Flight Illusion a couple of years back and asked why didn't line up the holes in his gauges with what must be the most popular panels (FlyEngravity). He said he would think about it so it was with some hope that action had been taken before I purchased the latest batch. To answer Carlos' question, here are some photos. First the brake pressure gauge:

No. The screw holes in the gauge are in the corners, the drill holes in the panel are aligned along the center. will be using double sided tape again to install this one. Incidentally, after 2 years of Californian climate, the double sided tape trick is still work, nothing has fallen off.... yet.
Now the chrono.

Looking good! Screw holes in all 4 corners. Let's drop it in there and see how it lines up:

Fail.

An Olympic update from my brother-in-law (wait, didn't it end already?) on the British term Anorak. If you scroll to the bottom of this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19093328 you'll get the latest. Apparently we're harmless - good to know.

And finally, the blog of the fantastic Andre who must hold the world record for building his own 737 shell! http://boeing737simulator.blogspot.com The man is on fire...