Friday, September 24, 2010

Aha! Found It! I think?

Found a box of parts with lots of pulleys in it at home. It was in a poly-whatever box along with about 30 inspection covers and the spinner for my prop. Must have gotten mixed up when I took the paint home.

I'll take it out tomorrow and see if they're the right size. There are also some pulleys inside the fuselage but I have them so hopefully I'm set.

Now where I'd put that....

I'm almost ready to cover the wings. I went to put on the aileron cable pulleys and I can't find the ones (there are two of the buggers) that go on the top of the wing.

I've looked in 7 boxes 6 times of all my parts and they're not there.

Crud...looks like another trip to Wicks.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Beautiful Night for a Balloon Glow.


Beautiful night on an early-fall evening in Forest Park as the Great St Louis Forest Park Balloon Race held it's annual Balloon Glow.
Plenty of food and drink, things to do for the kiddoes and a great weather had probably 100k people basking in the glowing balloons, taking pictures, chatting with friends and just enjoying the evening.
We all had a great time until Lindsay said "Put Lindsay to bed!" so we missed the end of the evening's fireworks.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Friends





My friends Don and Ann Pellegreno were up at Blakesburg, as usual. They brought their Fairchild XNQ-1 again for the celebration of Fairchilds. I've known this wonderful couple since I was Skyler's age as they were in the same EAA Chapter my dad was in Des Moines.
I had a great time talking with them and I really want to thank them again for letting Skyler and myself sit in the airplane. It's a beautiful, rare bird that they've saved and it just glowed sitting there on the flightline.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Blakesburg Report

Friday they closed the field due to strong crosswinds. The wind was really blowing but helped to dry out the 3" of rain the airport had received the previous day. A T-6 misjudged, landed long and groundlooped into the trees.

An AAA volunteer stands with a trophy which is supposedly from the Rhimes, France 1909 Air Gathering.
Andrew King fires up the Vintage Aero Flying Museum's replica Fokker D.VII in prep for a photo-shoot with my friend Gilles Auliard.

Russell Williams's Ryan SCW sits under the beautiful Blakesburg night sky.
Went out Saturday and looked in the Fly Market for parts for the Monosport for Glenn with our friend Wayne Muxlow. Wayne spotted one that Glenn needed and he bought that one.
Mike Gretz grabbed me on the way by for a picture op of a Trophy supposedly awared at the 1909 Rhiems Air Meet. The Air Power Museum is checking on the provenance of the trophy.
Hy-Vee did a superb job with the food again this year and we were never hungry. A little thirsty but if I'd take a water bottle with me that would be solved.
Went to the Aero-cinema Saturday evening to see Pearl again. I liked it even better the second time. DJ Carlton, the screenwriter, Angela Gair, Lucy in Pearl, David Mars (who supplied the Curtiss Robin for Pearl), Clay Adams, Ted Davis and Jim Hammond (Pilots who did the flying) were also on hand. It was a rather cool night, but the masses huddled and everyone seemed to enjoy the movie.

Saw a bunch of friends that I knew and was surprised by greetings from people I didn't that told me they read this blog and asked where Skyler was at the moment. Thank you all, it makes me feel like I haven't totally fallen off the face of the earth.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Headed up to Blakesburg this morning.

Sky and I will be fighting a strong headwind in the mighty Civic as we head up to the Antique Airplane Association Fly-In at Blakesburg, Ia today. If you like to see lots of vintage airplanes, this is the fly-in to go to.