Dave, that is a nice plant! It looks a lot like my Aerides oderata, but mine is not as big! My plant has a spike now, too. It was covered with sugary sap for the last two weeks. I just rinsed it off every day with the hose. I was afraid it would attract the wrong kind of bugs. It has started to form buds now (lots of them!) and it is not nearly so sticky. Here are some pics from a couple weeks ago.