http://www.clusterballoon.com/assets/OshkoshCluster.mpg

Sun n' Fun

Flew the Cub down to Sun n' Fun... 31.8 flying hours in 8 days (compared to about 26 hours in the whole of 2007!) Full flying log is reproduced below along with photos.



Saturday April 5th 2008

1 Oshkosh (KOSH) - Poplar Grove, IL (C77)
1:35
100.2nm

2: Poplar Grove, IL (C77) to Kentland, IN (50I)
1:35 (3:10)
113.2nm (213.4)

3: Kentland, IN (50I) to Grissom, IN (KBFR)
1:40 (4:50)
123.7nm (337.1)

4: Grissom, IN (KBFR) to Bowling Green, KY (KBWG)
1:20 (6:10)
112.5nm (449.6)

Sunday April 6th 2008

5: Bowling Green, KY (KBWG) to Murfreesboro, TN (KMBT)
0:45 (6:55)
65.3nm (514.9)

5(a): Murfreesboro, TN (KMBT) to Murfreesboro, TN (KMBT)
0:15 (7:10)
10nm (524.9)

6: Murfreesboro, TN (KMBT) to Madison County, AL (KMDQ)
0:45 (7:55)
61.6nm (586.5)

7: Madison County, AL (KMDQ) to Anniston, AL (KANB)
1:10 (9:05)
83.9nm (670.4)

8: Anniston, AL (KANB) to Souther Flying Field, GA (KACJ)
1:40 (10:45)
122.2nm (792.6)

9: Souther, GA (KACJ) to Valdosta, GA (KVLD)
1:10 (11:55)
92.4nm (885)

Monday April 7th 2008

10: Valdosta, GA (KVLD) to Ocala, FL (KOCF)
1:25 (13:20)
110.9nm (995.9)

11: Ocala, FL(KOCF) to Okechobee, FL (KOBE)
1:35 (14:55)
135.5nm (1130.4)

12: Okeechobee, FL (KOBE) to North Perry, FL (KHWO)
1:05 (16:00)
82.7nm (1213.1)

Tuesday April 8th 2008

13: North Perry, FL (KHWO) to Sebring, FL (KSEF)
1:20 (17:20)
105.4nm (1318.5)
Dodging rain showers

14: Sebring, FL (KSEF) to Lakeland, FL (KLAL)
0:50 (18:10)
48.1nm (1366.6)

Thursday April 10th 2008

15: Lakeland Fl (KLAL) to Flying Ten, FL (0J8)
1:10 (19:20)
101.1nm (1467.7)

16: Flying Ten, FL (0J8) to Lake City, FL (KLCQ)
0:25 (19:45)
34nm (1501.7)

17: Lake City, FL (KLCQ) to Donalsonville, GA (17J)
1:30 (20:15)
128.7nm (1630.4)

18: Donalsonville, GA (17J) to Sylacauga, AL (KSCD)
1:40 (21:55)
148.8nm (1779.2)

Friday April 11th, 2008 - - abandoned due wx

Saturday April 12th

19: Sylacauga, AL (KSCD) to Tullahoma, TN (KTHA)
1:40 (23:35)
132.5nm (1911.7)

20: Tullahoma, TN (KTHA) to Madisonville, KY (2I0)
1:40 (25:15)
130.9nm (2042.6)

21: Madisonville, KY (2I0) to Robinson, IL (KRSV)
1:15 (26:30)
100.4nm (2143)

22: Robinson, IL (KRSV) to Coles County, IL (KMTO)
0:45 (27:15)
40.3nm (2183.3)

Sunday April 13th 2008

23: Coles County, IL (KMTO) to Paxton, IL (1C1)
0:55 (28.10)
58.7nm (2242)

24: Paxton, IL (1C1) to Greater Kankakee, IL (KIKK)
0.40 (28.50)
39.5nm (2281.5)

25: Greater Kankakee, IL (KIKK) to Westosha, WI (5K6)
1:20 (30.10)
88nm (2369.5)

26: Westosha, WI (5K6) to East Troy, WI (57C)
0:20 (30.50)
18.5nm (2388)

27: East Troy, WI (57C) to Oshkosh, WI (KOSH)
1:00 (31:50)
71.7nm (2459.7)

TT 31:50

Distance 2,460 nautical miles
2,829 miles

Av. Speed 77.36 knots
88.96 mph

Fuel consumed - approx 190 gallons
Oil consumed – approx 5 quarts

Why we fly!

Wade Elliott's goal against Sunderland

Basketball game

We went to watch the Milwaukee Bucks play basketball on Saturday evening, the first time I've been to an NBA game. The Bucks team came out before the game to apologize to the fans for how bad they are... seriously, they did! Something for Burnley to think about.

They lost the game to the Charlotte Bobcats by 20 points or so. This photo is a pretty good capturing of what a fun experience was had by all during the game....

BUT!!! Ultimately there was a smile on everyone's face. Our gracious host Scott Fisher let us fly his indoor advertising blimp after the game. It's pretty big, about the size of a transit van.

Janet concentrating hard, it's quite difficult to fly. Scott had to intervene several times to avoid bumping into the jumbotrons or people!

Janet looks particularly anxious about my efforts...

My Best Friend

xxxxx

Dreams can come true

I met the Milwaukee Brewers' Racing Sausages at Christmas in the Air. It was quite amusing when Santa arrived in the Bell 47, the downwash from the helicopter rotor blades nearly blew the sausages over!

Mike Love

I got my photo taken with Beach Boys frontman Mike Love after their concert on AirVenture opening day in July.

Jenny's First Aeroplane Ride

We flew the Pacer to Shawano for a lakeside lunch on Thanksgiving Day.

Jenny in the Oshkosh Dog Park

Plane Pull

Rick, Brian, Bob, Tom & me took 3rd place out of 7 in the staff plane-pull contest. This was a respectable finish seeing as how I had to carry the old guys :-)

Update

She's called Jenny... like the aeroplane. She licks my face to wake me up and licks my feet every time I come out of the shower.

New Lodger

With 2 girls in the house I am now officially outnumbered. She doesn't have a name yet, but she's here to stay...

Rachel

My sister Rachel went to Barcelona and had an enormous glass of beer!

Cub flypast

Alden Frautschy captured video of me taking the Cub off from Munsil's last Saturday (on his cellphone, so it's not great video quality).

Mystery Pacer Arrives!

Janet retrieved the Mystery Pacer from Arkansas this weekend. She did the flight nonstop in 4 hrs 10 minutes which we worked out to be an average speed of 148mph.














With its new friend the clipped-wing Cub in the hangar we just had built.














Cockpit view... there's another 2 seats in the back and a big luggage compartment

Test

Reno & Mojave

Made my first visit to the Reno Air Races, which I've wanted to visit for quite some time. Although I've heard & read a lot about it, seen the photos, videos etc - - it's one of those things that you have to see and experience yourself to truly understand. Seeing the aeroplanes racing at hundreds of miles an hour at low level, framed against the mountains was quite spectacular. And the fascinating pits area revealed yet another facet in the seemingly infinite patchwork of aviation.

Paul & Audrey took me out on the flightline where there was a fantastic view of all the races. It became a somewhat hazardous location when Kent Pietsch did his comedy flying routine (as was proven the next day when Kent threw a tyre out of his aeroplane and it put a big dent in Paul and Audrey's car).


It was quite a social time... I saw Kermit Weeks, Bill Harrison, Jimmy Leeward & Don Taylor amongst others. Hooked up with Rand Siegfried & family on Sunday, and flew with them in Rand's Baron to Palo Alto that evening. The next day Rand let me fly the Baron down to Lancaster which was a lot of fun as I've never really flown a twin before.

Met Jim Soyk in Lancaster where we interviewed Pop Rutan, then up to Mojave where we interviewed Burt Rutan and Dick Rutan.

New trainies

I designed these on the NikeID website and less than 2 weeks later, they were delivered. And all for not much more than a normal pair of trainers ($65).

"m... m... m... my Corona"

New wheels

The "BURNLEY" plates are now proudly displayed on our new TT... I'm liking the Bose sound system.

N71370

We got some air-to-air photos of the Cub over Lake Winnebago. Janet was flying the photo plane with Jim Koepnick behind the lens; me & Gregg were in the Cub. The first photo here is just about as perfect as a composition can get, obeying the rule of thirds, lake framing the plane, great clouds & city of Oshkosh in the background.

From http://www.darnone.co.uk/trust/news_detail.asp?newsID=57

Why I Support the Clarets Trust -
Adam Smith - 09/02/2006

We continue our series where we catch up with famous, fanatical and far-flung Clarets Trust members, who tell us their Claret tales and explain why they got involved in the Trust. For the latest, we hop from Mauritius to the United States where exiled Claret Adam Smith explains how a love of flying (that’s him in the picture and yes, he is wearing a Burnley shirt) led him to Wisconsin.



How did you come to be living in the US and how do you follow the Clarets from afar? Do you manage to get over for games occasionally?

I was born and raised in Burnley, went away to university at Leeds, then St Andrews, and never came back! I spent the early years of my working life in Scotland, first managing a small museum in Methil (home of East Fife FC) and later running the National Museum of Flight near Edinburgh. While there, I learned to fly and also met my wife Janet, who is an airline pilot.

I moved to the USA exactly five years ago to take up a job in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. To most people, this is an unremarkable Midwestern town that builds military vehicles (Oshkosh Truck), makes children's clothes (Oshkosh B'Gosh) and has long, cold winters. However, in the world of aviation, Oshkosh is truly the equivalent of Mecca. All aviators will get here at least once in their lifetime, or they will die trying. The world's largest air show takes place here each summer, when about 10,000 aeroplanes will land and park on the airport during the course of a week, and 750,000 people will show up to see them.

I help to organise the air show (www.airventure.org), and keep myself busy the rest of the year running the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Museum (200 aircraft on display - www.airventuremuseum.org ); EAA aircraft operations (we keep about ten historic aircraft flying, including a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber from World War II - www.b17.org); and EAA Young Eagles (www.youngeagles.org), which allows 100,000 children each year to receive a free flight in a small aeroplane. Harrison Ford is a very active supporter of our Young Eagles work - it is fun to have found myself working with someone I once owned a plastic doll of!

On average I see the Clarets play "in the flesh" about three times a year. This is usually at Christmas when I'm home visiting family, and twice I've slogged it across the Atlantic to attend a single game. The first was the 0-2 defeat at Watford in the quarter final of the FA Cup, and believe me it was a long journey home after that performance. In fact, I did the whole 8,000 mile round trip in just two days! The second visit was a little better - the 0-0 home draw with Blackburn last year.

The internet has been a wonderful thing for exiles. In fact, I'm more in touch now than I ever was when living in Scotland. The Clarets World service has been a wonderful friend, through Phil Bird's excellent live commentary (I am one of those people that likes a totally biased-in-our-favour commentator), video interviews and the ability to see all the goals a day or two after each game. And of course there's the Clarets Mad message board.

I'm excited about the additional connection the internet will ultimately bring for exiles. Right now we can see glimpses of the future, in the way that I could sit in my home in Oshkosh and watch - live over the internet - the FA Cup replay at Ewood last year, and the Wolves game earlier this season. Currently this is all 100% unofficial, but the technology already exists, and it will surely not be long before someone finds a way to commercialise it properly. Cricket got its act together in the summer and had an official paid service that let me watch the Ashes live over the web... so c'mon football, I'm getting tired of Taiwanese commentary.

Have you any particular memories of greatest Burnley matches or favourite players?

I have many great Burnley memories, but if I had to choose just one, it would be The Orient Game in May 1987. As with so many other people, it was a huge event in my relationship with Burnley Football Club. After that day, everything was different.

I had an unusual start. Our dad claims that back in the 1960s many people supported BOTH Burnley and Blackburn Rovers, and would alternate their Saturdays between the two. No rivalry, supporters of both teams. Now, he's the only person I've ever met that can actually substantiate this claim but, to be fair, he truly lived by the philosophy of a "pure supporter of East Lancashire football". So as a child, for every game I can remember at the Turf watching Hamilton, Dobson and Flynn ; I can remember an equivalent game at Ewood watching Fazackerley, Brotherston and Garner.

The Orient Game changed all that. It was a special, indescribable day. No one that was there will ever forget it, and, thankfully, it was a day of catharsis, and the beginning of a revival and renewal for the club. When we sung "we'll support you ever more" it was more than a song, it was a pledge for life. I still have the Orient programme framed up on my wall at home. Of course, in romanticising that game we sometimes forget how hopelessly crap the team were...

Like many people, I look on the years that followed with great fondness, particularly the camaraderie, humour, highs and lows as we struggled to get out of Division Four. And if ever I'm feeling down and want to give myself a lift, I conjure up the memory of John Francis scoring the last minute winner at York five years later to secure the Championship. I was right behind the goal and, thus far, there has been no greater moment of pure, unadulterated joy in all my life.

Why did you feel it was important to join the Clarets Trust. As an exile, what would you like to see it focussing on?

I joined the Trust for a couple of reasons, one short-term, and one long-term. In the short-term, I think it's healthy for the fans to be organised, to have an independent voice, and be able to have some input and influence over decision-making. I was pleased to see the Trust recently making representations about the silly surcharge, and encourage and endorse the Trust to act on my behalf in examples like this.

In the long-term I dream that one day the club will be collectively owned by its community (its fans), and see the Trust as the most practical and likely way that this can be accomplished. I would like to see the Trust focus strongly on this specific goal, through building ownership of shares. I hope the Trust does not get side-tracked from this and do not want to wait for a crisis to arrive before we get serious about the task in hand. It's a lofty goal, and will likely take years, but it's the right thing to do. In any case, for the foreseeable future, any money contributed through share purchases will directly assist the club's day-to-day operations.

Thanks very much for Adam for taking the time to respond to our questions. If you’re a Clarets Trust member who’d like to be featured in this section, please contact us.

Clarets Trust

Now that I can post videos on the blog, here's Micah Hyde's goal against Blackburn from a year ago. This was captured on my computer in Oshkosh and has subsequently traveled all round the internet... I just found it on YouTube and can therefore paste it in here:

Coming soon...




Note - all posts prior to this one have been cut & pasted from my previous blog, which may, or may not, still exist in all its finery at http://radio.weblogs.com/0132739/

Apologies for the missing photos, formatting etc

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Introducing the world's most beautiful aeroplane...

The EAA photo pilots and photographers were looking for a practice session last Friday evening so we shot the Citabria. It was fun flying formation with the Cessna 210, and Jim Koepnick got some AWESOME pictures!


Note pilot wearing Burnley top :-)



Pure art... for this shot alone it was worth the extra money to get the stars painted on the new wing last winter!





























Gone fishin'

On Sunday we flew the Archer 150 miles each way up to Washington Island to go fishing... and in the entire afternoon 3 of us caught a grand total of ONE fish... and it must have been all of 4 inches long... The next day we took a 5 minute drive down to the EAA pond and between the three of us caught... SEVENTY TWO fish in one afternoon. A much better result!
Matt caught a nice bass.
And me a catfish.

On the sacred tundra...

Jim Soyk shoots video for the big screen at Lambeau Field, which gave Howard the opportunity to be his "cable boy" for the Packers' pre-season game with reigning Superbowl champs the New England Patriots.

Thursday, August 11, 2005
Scream for me, Oshkosh!

After all the excitement and hard work of the fly-in it's usually a good idea to take a long weekend to recover. About 3 weeks ago Janet sent me the following cryptic message:

"Can you mark Friday, Aug. 5th off all day, please. Its a surprise, and I'm not telling you what, but if your foot were well rested and able to operate rudder pedals, that would be a great help ;)"

As instructed, I presented myself at the Weeks hangar at 11am - thinking she'd probably fixed me up with a ride in an exciting aeroplane. It couldn't be a long trip away because, as Janet knows, I'm going to Ozzfest tomorrow to see Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath. Maybe she's lined up a bit of formation flying with the T-6 people, or? more hopefully... Jimmy Leeward hasn?t taken his Mustang home yet...

No sign of Janet on arrival, but Gregg was there blowing up the tyres on the Citabria. So we stood around chatting and I said after all the build-up this had better be a good surprise, like, none of the $100 hamburger nonsense. Gregg's enigmatic smile raised my hopes, but they soon fell again as I saw Janet taxiing over in her own plane. As they got closer I spotted a tousle-haired young lad in the back of the Nanchang. "Oh, Janet?s taken John Hopkins' son flying again" I said to Gregg.

They shut down and I ambled over to find out from Janet what the big surprise was. The next words out of my mouth were -

"F------g hell !!!"

Disembarking from the back seat of Janet's plane - instantly recognizable now - is none other than Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson!

Now... a bit of context here... a quick web search tells me that Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills" was released in February 1982. I bought that 7" at 11 years of age when it was in the charts, and remember taking it to the Rosehill Junior School disco and asking the DJ (headteacher Mr Pilborough) to play it. "Pilly" had a good look at the sleeve and said to me "Adam, the kind of music you listen to says a lot about the kind of person you are." I didn"t quite understand what he was talking about at the time, but the words stayed with me.

Anyway, the point is that for the past 23 years (yikes) I?ve been listening to Maiden, analyzing their sleeve art, going to their concerts, wearing their t-shirts, watching their videos & DVDs, visiting their website... and here, getting out of Janet's plane grinning all over his face, shaking my hand and talking to me is their legendary frontman Bruce Dickinson!

Janet, this is definitely a good surprise!

In the past few years Bruce's love for aviation has become well-known. He's often flown the band around on tour, and when not with Iron Maiden, flies a Boeing 757 for UK charter company Astreus. As long-time readers will recall about 18 months ago Bruce flew Daniel (and 100 other fans) on flight 666 from London to Maiden's show in Dublin. He's recently done a TV show with Discovery called Flying Heavy Metal. Janet tracked him down through an airline pilots' website and didn't find it too hard tempt him up to Oshkosh on his day off before the show on Saturday.

Although I was still in total "shock & awe" from the surprise, within about 10 minutes of conversation it was abundantly clear that Bruce is (a) very passionate and knowledgeable about aviation and (b) a top bloke. The former always helps with the latter, but he's also intelligent, funny and easy to be around.

We hung around Weeks chewing the fat, then went to buy some sushi & sandwiches from Pick n' Save where Bruce had to pay because I forgot my wallet... oops! I wasn't thinking too straight for the first couple of hours. There's a young lad works on the checkout that I've talked to a few times because he wears an Iron Maiden t-shirt under his Pick n' Save uniform... sadly he wasn't working but just wait 'til I see him again!

I called Howard in Burnley who was not 100% believing the incredible story I was telling until Bruce took the phone and talked to him!! LOL.

Later in the afternoon we went over to Pioneer where Bruce flew in the Travel Air and did a nice low pass, then we toured the Museum.

Next, back to Weeks from where Bruce & I went up in the Citabria to get his 3rd new aircraft type in his logbook for the day. We flew a low approach down Munsil's strip, did some stalls, steep turns and wingovers, one of which turned into a stall turn. Bruce has done some instructing in Decathlons so it wasn?t too much of a shock and he did a very nice job. Even the landing wasn?t a disaster and much better than I would do in a 757 J

Dinner and a few Spotted Cows at the Vintage with Gregg & Trish, back to our house for some kip, then up bright & early next morning for seats on a post-maintenance shakeout flight in the B-17 with the Air Academy interns on board. Turned my back for a minute and Bruce charmed his way into the left seat grinning all over his face J

Bruce next got to transition over to Pioneer with Sean in the Spirit of St Louis replica. Two more types in the logbook before breakfast? left seat in a B-17 and NX-211? why do the words 'spawny get' come to mind??!

We hooked up with Jim Soyk who had been on the original Ozzfest trip with me & Gregg. We had tickets for 3 very ordinary seats on the pavilion, but when Bruce made a phone call and started talking about "the very best backstage passes"... we were all smiling! After lunch at our house and Janet took Bruce back down to Milwaukee where he had an appointment with a Lear 45...

Burnley have lost their first game of the season but nothing can spoil this day. Anyway, we?ve had a great day in the cricket and look all set to level the Ashes series at 1-1.

Jim, Gregg and I shot down to the basement, turned up the amps and, bashed out some serious ROCK for an hour, before hooking up with Sean and heading down to East Troy where we rendezvoused with Janet. She had dropped Bruce off at Mitchell Field and hopped over to East Troy in the Nanchang. Bruce made a spectacular arrival (warning, 10MB download) in the Learjet, from which he dispensed tins of Boddingtons after landing.

A van had been sent to pick us up and we are whisked through all the gates to the backstage area, and deposited right in the middle of the rock n' roll circus. Wow. A bloke is shouting "get out of the way, Ozzy's coming through" as Bruce leads us towards the Maiden dressing rooms and suddenly you remember that the pilot you've been hanging out with for the past 24 hours is actually a major rock star... people are anxious to please. There's some food laid out at one end of Maiden's dressing room and some Coronas get cracked and downed without touching the sides... adrenaline is working overtime. Steve Harris walks in and starts fixing himself a butty. Steve Harris! Legend! Like Bruce, he looks in better shape than I do and we talk about football for a bit.

Bruce is very generous with his time and takes us all up onto the stage area for a look around. We see how all the equipment is set up, how the crews move the different sets on and off the stage... we even see how the big Eddie works but are sworn to secrecy! Even though it's very exciting to be here and to see all this, I can see how the glamour would eventually become ordinary. These people are working, just like anyplace else

Bruce goes to get changed & massaged and we watch Mudvayne from backstage. Not my thing, really, and the sound is poor - all double bass drum. The crowd seems moderately interested at best. We head backstage but are thwarted in our effort to get some food & drink. It doesn't matter. There's Adrian Smith having a last minute tab before the show, there's Nicko & Janick.

I am calling Daniel & Howard back home and babbling with excitement.

Doctor Doctor by UFO plays over the PA, the sign that Maiden are about to come on stage. I make it through the security cordon but the rest are stopped until rescued by Bruce, who escorts us to a good viewing spot. The Ides of March intro tape plays and Maiden kick into gear.

I won't share the setlist because Daniel is seeing them at Leeds in 2 weeks and doesn't want it spoiled. But it was bloody good? all classics off the first 4 albums. I've seen Maiden from the other side of the fence plenty of times and had already formed a high opinion of Bruce's ability as a frontman. From the band side of the stage, it's even more obvious. A master at work. The same crowd that had been almost apathetic for Mudvayne were gradually brought to life and Maiden left the stage an hour later with the whole place on its feet.

There was a nice security guard backstage who showed the best place to view from and brought water for us to drink. He had an Iron Maiden tattoo and said that the song Hallowed Be Thy Name meant a lot to him because he'd been on death row for 10 years and, at one point, 4 hours away from being executed... said he listened to it a lot during the 11 years they had him banged up inside... I got his name and his story actually checks out. Surreal.

As soon as Iron Maiden finished, the atmosphere changed? Black Sabbath?s security got aggressive and threw us first out of the stage area, then out of the backstage area completely into the main public arena. The clock had struck midnight and the fairytale was coming to an end. We stayed and watched most of the Sabbath set. Ozzy has not been well but I thought he sung pretty well, and the band sounded good. Geezer Butler is a legend. After Tomorrow was the highlight for me. Without transport (Bruce had to head off with the band) we snuck out a back entrance rather than get mixed up with 35,000 concertgoers. After some anxiety when every single taxi company refused to come and pick us up from a nearby hotel (because of the congestion) we hitched a ride with 2 pizza delivery people.
Janet and I stayed in East Troy overnight and overflew the Alpine Valley amphitheater the next morning. Stopped in Watertown for lunch on the way back up to Osh Vegas.
I told Janet that I've been to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen and I've been to 10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister, but - to me - it wasn't as exciting as that. And I really mean that, it was the surprise of a lifetime!
So that's the words. Gregg has very kindly dumped all the pictures everyone took (the good, the bad, and the ones with me in them) into a gallery on his website.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005
AirVenture 2005...
...was a great success and despite the usual 10 day run of 18 hour workdays, it was easily the most enjoyable of the five fly-ins I've been through. Apart from one bad storm on the first night the weather was perfect, the attractions (both aircraft and human) were spectacular and the crowds were large.
Full photo gallery can be found here.
Janet got to sit in SpaceShipOne when it stopped in Madison. She flew on the photo/video mission on the way up to Oshkosh.
The arrival of SpaceShipOne and White Knight is one of the most amazing things I've witnessed at an air show. 100,000 people in total silence... in awe at what they were seeing.
Paul Allen, Burt Rutan, Brian Binnie (Scotland's first astronaut, I discovered) and Mike Melvill. Can't say enough good things about the people from Scaled Composites - Mike & Burt in particular. People that have achieved incredible things, and manage to be wonderful human beings too.
There was a tornado warning on the Monday night and some torrential downpours. We got quite wet tying SpaceShipOne and White Knight down on the ramp in case the winds got strong (thankfully they didn't) .
Richard Branson came to sell the first commercial tickets for a ride into space with Virgin Galactic, and also to welcome his pal Steve Fossett who arrived in GlobalFlyer. Later in the week a woman asked me to sign her hat. She thought I was Richard Branson. Honestly!
GlobalFlyer

Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Messed up my foot playing football. Put me on crutches but did make the BBC website...

Monday, July 04, 2005
The Vivkers Vimy replica stopped in at Pioneer Airport before heading to Canada and then Newfoundland to re-create Alcock and Brown's first transatlantic crossing of 1919.
Janet sat in the Vimy cockpit. Incidentally the way to remember which person was the pilot and which was the navigator is "Alcock up fromnt and Brown behind"
We took a minibus down to Chicago on May 28th for USA vs England at Solider Field. It was the first time I've ever seen a full England International live. We cooked out and a seagull crapped on Gregg's bratwurst.
Claret4Blue off the Claretsmad message board saw my Burnley flag and came over for a beer. There was an amusing bloke from Wolverhampton who was good at swearing.
Soldier Field.
Found my ideal car!
This lovely Burnley flag cost me a large bedsheet, 3 tins of spray paint and lots of masking tape. Some bugger nicked it at the end of the game.
There was quite a good crowd of about 50,000 of which at least 2/3 were English
England fielded a very weak team but Kieron Richardson scored a loverly free kick on hs debut after 3 minutes, bagged another before halftime and we always looked like winners. USA pulled one back in the 2nd half - final score 2-1
The real action came in the car park afterwards.
Daniel flying the 210 up to Duluth in March
Inside the impressive Cirrus factory
One of the new build Me-262s at Arlington, WA.
The amazing Skeeter Carlson EAA#322 at his home near Spokane, WA where he keeps an array of interesting aeroplanes (including an original Thomas Morse Scout from WW1) tucked away in hangars like the one behind him here.
Reggie went off to a new family in March.
One last cuddle

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Celebrating the gaining of the famous "green card"... 2 years ahead of schedule!!
They can't get rid of me now

Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Burnley vs Blackburn
The first game (the one I went to see) was a 0-0 draw. Cracking atmosphere, as expected - but a virtually chance-less game.
For the replay I managed to find a live web stream coming from China, recorded it, and watched it last night, while drinking lots of beer to calm the nerves. Janet said I was making Reggie nervous by shouting too much. Rovers scored a scabby deflected goal to go 1-0 up, then Micah Hyde scored a wondrous equaliser just before halftime.
Unfortunately Rovers got the winner 4 minutes before the end. The Beast's face says it all.
Anyway, over the two games, although we still haven't beaten them since 1979, the lads did us proud. We'll beat them one day.

Sunday, February 06, 2005
House Guest
We are looking after a little dog called Reggie while his owner has an operation. He's settled in just fine. He's a bit overweight so Janet bought him diet dog food and has been taking him on lots of walks.

Saturday, February 05, 2005
Memories...
...of the 1991 play-offs vs Torquay. Burnley are losing 2-0, destined for another year in the depths of the Forth Division. A small plane flies over Turf Moor towing a banner that reads "STAYING DOWN 4 EVER LUV ROVERS HA HA HA". Rumour has it that the ugly gap-toothed Blackburn Rovers striker Simon Garner paid for it...
One of the most annoying things about it was that, deep down, you respected that in fact it was an impressive piece of one-upmanship. Just one episode in a local rivalry stretching back over 125 years...
It is to avenge moments such as this that I am heading home on a 3 day trip to see Burnley vs Blackburn on Sunday Feb 20th. It's a silly thing to do. Only one outcome would make it a good decision - a Burnley win. Which, of course, is unlikely. However, if they did win, and I wasn't there...
The last time I did this was Watford away in the FA Cup quarter final a couple of years ago. We lost 2-0 and it was a very long journey home.

Sunday, January 30, 2005
The Opossum
We had a visit today from a little furry creature... an Opossum - North America's only marsupial. Aaaaah isn't it cute.



















They only come out during the day when it's very cold and snowy, and when they're hungry. It was so grateful for the biscuit we put out that it left a little "parting gift" on our deck as I took a few more photos... thanks mate!

Skiplane fly-in '05

We tried to get the skiplane fly-in going last weekend, but the weather didn't co-operate. So we postponed for a week and tried again yesterday. About a dozen skiplanes passed through during the day which was quite a bit less than the 40 we had registered. However, it was a good day. We made enough chilli for 300 people and it was virtually all gone by mid-afternoon.
One brave chap flew open cockpit in his ultralight (foreground of next picture) from Oconomowoc. Try saying that after a few beers.

In the foreground of this next shot is the Pioneer Airport Live Webcam which I went up to clean because it had some dirt on it. And also to take video of aeroplanes from the roof. Except the video camera isn't working properly.

Friday, January 21, 2005
"LOL"
On Tuesday, Burnley beat Liverpool in the FA Cup for the first time in 52 years :-) It was only the second time since I moved to the USA that the Clarets have been live on mainstream TV over here. Sean kindly taped it for me, I avoided the score all afternoon and watched it in the evening. Traore put through his own goal in ridiculous fashion to give us a famous 1-0 victory. Thanks to The Sun, we can watch the famous moment over and over again!
Bournemouth at home in Round 4. Strangely I'm less confident about that than I was about Liverpool.


















"Greetings!" to my new-old keyboard
Thanks to the wondrous eBay I got myself, very cheaply, a Yamaha PSS-680 in great condition and full working order. By modern standards it is not a fantastic keyboard, but it's as good as anything you can get for $200, and this was $23 plus shipping!
...and, of course, this is John Shuttleworth's keyboard!
9:50:15 PM
Christmas Present
For Christmas, Janet had Dave Matheny (who is a writer and illustrator for Sport Pilot magazine) do a lovely original illustration of the Citabria, emphasising the aerobatics theme. Thanks Janet :-)
We now have a matching pair, as last year I had Dave do an illustration of Janet's Nanchang for her birthday, emphasising the Chinese-aeroplane-being-chased-by-tartan-clad-Chinese/Scottish dragon-with-enigmatic-message-in-Chinese-characters theme.

Thursday, January 13, 2005
Old Film
A few years ago a large collection of over 800 films was found in Blackburn dating from the first decade of the 20th century... incredibly one of the films shows a game from 1902 - Burnley vs Manchester United. What a fantastic find.
They found films there dating from the Boer War - having received telegrams from South Africa detailing the action, the film makers got a crowd of people together and re-enacted the battles on the moors outside Blackburn!10:19:23 PM comment [
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Ebay
Thanks to Ebay I got my hands on a print of the famous painting of Jimmy Robson scoring Burnley's goal in the 1962 FA Cup Final, which unfortunately we lost 3-1 to Tottenham Hostpur. This was the 100th FA Cup goal to be scored at Wembley Stadium, in the 100th anniversary year of the Football Association. (In)famous Burnley Chairman Bob Lord commissioned Terence Cuneo (famous for his paintings of steam railway locomotives) to paint the picture, which still hangs at FA Headquarters. Bob Lord had a print sent to every senior club in the land - the one I found is addressed to Corinthian Casuals. One of these was on Ebay about 4 years ago being sold by Grimsby Town - this is the first one I've seen since then and I got it for a good price :-) For the first time I used an auction sniper to submit a bid with 5 seconds remaining - worked out pretty well.

Sunday, October 17, 2004
AirVenture
British Wings & Wheels
Good Ol' Days
The Swallow restoration finally got finished
Got the B-17 home
SpaceShipOne wins the X-Prize
1.1 millionth Young Eagle was flown
World's first private astronaut Mike Melvill spoke at our December 17th banquet. There's a streaming video of Mike's talk here (well worth watching, he was fantastic).

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

I stood on the Museum roof and captured a shot of aP-51 Mustang doing a low approach during the "Mustangs & Mustangs" event.

Saturday, June 26, 2004
Here we go with the
Long-Awaited Giant Update!

Flew back to England at the end of May for Dad's surprise 60th birthday party at Burnley Cricket Club. The intricate deception plan paid off pretty well... a true surprise!

Dad had four pints!

Next day the whole family set off for what turned out to be an excellent week in south-west Ireland. Maybe it's because I'm living in America now, but I was really knocked out by what seemed like an incredible proliferation of well-preserved castles, monasteries etc - there seemed to be something round every corner. We flew Ryanair from Manchester to Dublin and spent the first night at New Bridge, Co. Kildare near the Curragh racecourse. Next day, on the drive to Kilkenny, we visited the Dunmore Caves where a guide (who could have stepped right out of Father Ted) showed us round. As well as the usual stalagmites and stalagtites, these caves have a bit of human history - the Vikings massacred "hundreds" of people there in approx 928AD. In 1999 one of the guides found a hoard of 10th century coins and other bits & pieces that I later saw in the National Museum in Dublin.


We looked round Kilkenny Castle which despite being 12th century in origin was a bit dull due to a poor guide and having been completely gentrified. We were cheered up in the evening by a good feed, ceilidh band and some Guinness in a local pub. Spent the night in Kilkenny. Next day on the drive to Waterford we stopped to see Kells Priory. I think the signwriter ran out of space...

This was the only sign we saw at Kells Priory, but despite the lack of interpretation it was a great place to visit and there was enough information in the Rough Guide to make some sense of it. Founded in 1193 it is an incredibly well preserved and unspoiled medieval Priory. (No connection to the Book of Kells, by the way, although I did later go and see the Book of Kells at Trinity College in Dublin).

Daniel was wearing his "Beefy" Botham t-shirt.

A few miles down the road from Kells Priory was Jerpoint Abbey, another well preserved monastic site. There were some really beautiful carvings on the gravestones. These three reminded me of Geddy, Alex & Neil.

Sorry no photos of Waterford where we looked round their Museum which won Museum of the Year a couple of years back. I was a bit disappointed with lack of artifacts from their famed excavations of the Viking & medieval city, but there was one outstanding item, a complete 13th Century longbow that looked like it had been made yesterday. We neither visited nor bought Waterford Crystal... nice work team! On the drive from Waterford to Glendalough we stopped at Hook Head lighthouse which is reputed to have been founded in the 6th century. Most of what stands today was built in the 13th century... that's an old lighthouse by anyone's standards.

All these "photos" are stills pulled off the video camera, by the way. I have forgotten to get some of our next stop - Glendalough. We stayed in a beautful old hotel which had a real sense of old Victorian hotel grandeur about it (Prince Albert stayed there once). Glendalough is in a gorgeous valley complete with yet another monastery. The next day we drove up to the hugely impressive Newgrange complex of prehistoric tombs and monuments. There's a lot of information (and much better photos than mine) here if you're interested.

The main passage tomb:

Carved entrance stone.

Standing stones

Illicit shot taken inside the passage tomb.

We finished our week in Ireland with a couple of days in Dublin, where the main excitement was Gerry Adams walking into our hotel bar late on the first night. Mum saw him at breakfast the next day and said he had a nice smile.... Other highlights were seeing the Book of Kells and the National Museum of Ireland (which is 10 times better than the Museum of Scotland in telling the history of the nation and has 100 times better artifacts on display). We went to see "Troy" which despite having Brad Pitt in it was OK. The biggest and best feed of the whole trip was in a Dublin fish & chip shop. Ending this holiday report on a food theme is quite appropriate because despite vague intentions to eat less, I stuffed myself every single day with full Irish breakfasts, & restaurant meals.

Work news - I'll cover with links:

D-Day stuff

B-17 mess gets a bit better

Ultralight Day

Ford Tri-Motor goes on tour

Spitfire Day

Flying news - I've put quite a few hours on the Citabria recently and started aerobatics lessons with Bill Bruns who is a true professional, excellent to learn from.

Sports news - "All the best" to Steve Cotterill as new Burnley manager, he's got his work cut out, starting with no money to spend and only half a team. The cricketers did well beating New Zealand 3-0 in fine style. Euro 2004 has come and gone from England's perspective, me following it by internet radio and 10 minutes of highlights of each game in the evening after it was played. It won't be long before we get live TV over the internet for the major championships (I hope). I've started playing football in the summer league which is a good thing as I am embarrassingly un-fit. Too much food, too much ale & too little exercise is catching up with me. We lost the first game and our goalkeeper broke his ankle. We drew the second game and one of the opposition broke their ankle. We lost the third game and no-one broke their ankle.

Music News - On June 7th I went with Gregg Deimer, Tim Johnson and Jeff Propson to see Rush at the Marcus Ampitheater in Milwaukee. As expected, the boys did the business once again!! Three almost impossibly talented musicians, on stage for a glorious 3 hours. Every one of them on completely top form and not a note wrong all night. Alex has lost a few pounds since the last tour. Seats were pretty good, close enough to have a reasonable sight of the band but far enough to get a really good sound mix and see the lights & screens. It was 90 degrees so the Millers were going down fast all around - indeed the bars were posting the "sold out" notices at 10pm. There is something about the amphitheatre venue that is quite special. You have the true outdoor feel with the sun going down on the crowd etc but the sound is way better. As the light fades during the first set the smoke & lights start punching off the stage. etc I can't provide any commentary on the setlist because Daniel says he doesn't want me to spoil the surprise in September.

I have been listening to Evanescence a fair bit and my great recent music find has been Sharing The Groove from which I have now downloaded about 10 bootleg concerts from various bands, all of which have been high quality. You need BitTorrent.

Last Thursday, depressed by England getting knocked out of Euro 2004, I decided to cheer myself up by flying the Citabria down to see The Darkness play at Summerfest in Milwaukee. Janet came along to suffer my bad landings and we stayed overnight in an airport hotel. It was a good gig. The Wildhearts were in support and very impressive, and The Darkness were on good form again. Only complaints are watery beer $4 for a small plastic cup, and silly benches that you had to stand on to see the bands, and were dangerous. Great free fireworks show.

Computer games news: Spending way too much time on www.playforyourclub.com and stick cricket. I did get Burnley's high score of 159,900 on pfyc two leagues ago. Have made it to World 7 on Super Mario Brothers 3 on the Game Boy and am still sulking about the outstanding EA Sports Cricket 2004 not being released on Playstation 2 in the USA. However, PC version is ordered.

And that's quite enough for now!!!

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Introducing the Claretwagen

The long-awaited Claretmobile got out of the paint shop about 10 days ago and finally today we had some sunshine and a bit of time to take photos of it. Ugly car, great paint scheme! It's a VW "Thing" - which traces its lineage back to the Kubelwagen, the nearest the Wehrmacht had to a Jeep in WW2.
















Jimmy Neutron
The "Boy Genius" Jimmy Neutron paid a visit today to help open the new KidVenture Gallery in the Museum. Turns out he's a Claret...













We started working on concepts for the gallery in September 2002 so it's been a long haul. I'm pretty pleased with it but more importantly the kids seem happy in there, which is the object of the exercise.

Sunday, May 09, 2004

Cabin fever

I have been cooped up in the house for 2 straight days recuperating from having my wisdom teeth taken out. I'm gradually working my way through Secret Weapons Over Normandy on the Playstation 2; finally read the outstanding book First Light by Geoffery Wellum which some very kind person that I can't remember bought me for Christmas; and am now reading an interesting book about the battle for Caen and breakout from Normandy in the summer of 1944. Monty has sometimes taken a lot of stick for the way he handled it - particularly from the Americans who made much faster progress - but it was interesting to read that the Germans had 14 crack divisions and 600 tanks (including many Tigers) against 14 divisions of British and Canadians, whereas the 19 American divisions faced just 9 German divisions & 100 tanks of which none were the dreaded Tigers.

In between all that I've doodled so much on various guitars that my fingers are almost as red raw as my gums.

And having spent the last 8 years trying, I'm finally bored of surfing the internet....
Going back to work on Monday seems like a great idea.

Thanks for the memories, Glen & Stan, sad to see you go :-

Friday

I had my four wisdom teeth and one other tooth extracted. Writing 2 days later I feel very fortunate that everything seems to have gone well, with minimal pain, bleeding & swelling in contrast to the many grim predictions I received beforehand!

Wednesday

At about 5:00pm on Wedneday I remarked that it had been one of the best working days I'd had in years... famous last words!

In the morning I was talking to some curators at the Smithsonian about the whereabouts of a radio controlled Quetzalcoatlus Northropi model that aviation legend Paul MacCready built for them about 20 years ago.

For some time I've been thinking that it would be great to do an exhibition about prehistoric flight. If there's one thing that kids like more than aeroplanes, it's dinosaurs, so if we brought the two subjects together, it could be fun.

Anyway 30 minutes after the call to the National Air & Space Museum, I receive a call to say that John & Martha King (expected guests) were bringing a couple of unexpected guests with them... Charles Lindbergh's grandson Erik who is always fun to have around, and - incredibly - Paul MacCready! Who - even more incredibly - still has the 36 foot wingspan QN model and said he'd let us borrow it! This has to be one of the most serendipitous happenings of my entire life. (And that was the first time I ever tried to spell serendipitous.) Anyway it was fun spending time with Dr MacCready who is a fascinating person even if he wasn't lending us flying dinosaurs. Here's a story about the visit from the EAA website.

Later in the day we opened a new exhibition of Jim Koepnick's work in the Museum. Jim is one of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet and is a great photographer. He has just completed 20 years working for EAA so we asked him to select his favourite photos from that time. Jim was in the middle of a great presentation about his work when I got called out to get the bad news about the B-17... which put the dampeners on a great day.

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Buggeration

The landing gear collapsed on our B-17 as it landed at Van Nuys airport in California yesterday evening. Up until that point it had been a very nice day... There's a video of it happening on http://www.cbs2.com/ Nobody got hurt, thankfully, but the aeroplane is a bit bashed up. So, this has been keeping me somewhat "busy"...

Monday, May 03, 2004

Metallica...

... has destroyed my eardrums for about the next 3 days! This was the first time I'd seen them since Donington in 1991. It was in the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, which is basically a big dome. There were probably 10 thousand there. I read somewhere it was the smallest arena they were playing on the whole tour. It sold out in 22 minutes, apparently, so eBay supplied ours.

Support was Godsmack, who are quite a big band in this part of the world. They were OK but don't do a whole lot for me, a bit samey. The most interesting bit was when the lead singer jumped on a second drum kit and did a "duelling drums" routine with the main drummer, including a bit of Rush thrown in there (YYZ).

Intermission saw various females competing to show their bare breasts. An interesting slice of American rock-concert culture... The stage was in the middle of the arena, and we got a standing spot in the second row back, so a pretty good view really.

My best recollection of the set list (not entirely in order) is:

Blackened (quality)
Ride the Lightning (quality)
Fuel (mucho pyro & flames, OK)
Welcome Home (Sanitarium) (OK)
Creeping Death (quality)
No Leaf Clover (OK)Frantic (crap)
Dirty Window (crap)Sad But True (quality)
Master of Puppets (easily the stand out track of the night, first time I've heard them play it all the way through rather than cutting it short halfway through).
I Disappear (OK)
Battery (quality... Hetfield stormed over to bash out the opening riff, but 5 feet in front of me)One (loudest pyro ever in the intro, fingers in ears, percussion bouncing off my chest)
Enter Sandman (OK)
Nothing Else Matters (OK, tho' he sings the whole thing an octave down)
St Anger (crap)
Die, Die My Darling (OK)
Dyer's Eve (OK)

Highpoints: Great view, revolving stage, close proximity, Kirk really on his game, reasonable coverage of Ride, Puppets & Justice. Nostalgia factor... heck, this is METALLICA up there!

Big Lowpoints: All tracks off the abysmal St Anger. Simply not worthy of the mighty Metallica. Sounded just as bad live as the CD and took all the energy out of the crowd when they got played. The telling moment is that Rob Trujillo put his bass down for half of St Anger and started dancing... you never noticed he'd stopped playing.

Lesser lowpoints: Crummy sound due to revolving stage. Sometimes it was great but when certain speakers revolved away from you, things like the lead guitar & vocals disappeared from the mix for minutes. (There was an upside in that during blackened & Creeping Death we could hear nothing but James' rhythm guitar which is no bad thing). Girls in the front row moaning incessantly about being pushed... what do you expect, you're in the front row of a Metallica concert?!?! Nothing played off Kill 'Em All - when on this tour so far they've played Hit the Lights, Whiplash, Phantom Lord, 4 Horsemen, Seek & Destroy & Metal Militia.
Overall 6 or a 7 out of 10. Somehow I'd hoped it would be better. They played a good professional show but lacking in passion a bit - Hetfield going through the motions a bit, I thought. I'll not be hurrying back to see them - maybe in another 13 years.

So The Darkness have the lead so far this year and are returning to Milwaukee June 24 - but Rush have 3 bites at the cherry this year starting June 7 - only 5 weeks away!

Wednesday, March 31, 2004

The Darkness?



Some time ago Janet laid her hands on the only photograph that ever seems to have been taken while I had long hair, and this "mysteriously" found its way into circulation by email...
The Darkness in Milwaukee on March 26th, kicking off their first US tour, were pretty magnificent. When I bought the tickets a few months ago it was for a small club, a few hundred capacity. Eventually it was a sell-out of a 3800 capacity hall. They are getting pretty big over here and have sold out the entire tour. Things happen fast, it's only about a year since Daniel alerted me to their presence as a completely unsigned band with a good live reputation. It was a young audience, I must have been one of the oldest people there. Yes, it seems like the great wheel of rock is turning once again... the torch is being passed to a new generation.
Anyway, if ever there were any doubt that The Darkness were taking the mickey, it is now completely dispelled. They are for real. And Justin is a true rock star.

Sunday, March 14, 2004

Well done England

I thought I'd spend at least part of a lazy Sunday listening to the ball by ball commentary of the 4th day of the England - West Indies test match on the internet radio... got the computer fired up this morning and discovered the game was already over, having bowled the Windies out for a paltry 47. This brought back memories of the West Indies tour 10 years ago. I was drinking beer in the Central at St Andrews and watching the cricket on TV. I thought it was the highlights, because every minute or two Curtly Ambrose was celebrating the fall of another wicket. Actually, it was live, he was almost single handedly skittling us out for about 46. Revenge is sweet.

Trip to Arizona & California

Last week I flew down to Phoenix to attend our annual budget review meeting. That consisted of a day locked in a hotel conference room poring over hundreds of PowerPoint slides... the next day I flew down to Los Angeles to spend some time at Flabob airport, at the invitation of its owner, Tom Wathen. The last part of the trip was at Van Nuys, where we unveiled Harrison Ford as the national chairman of the Young Eagles program. It's something I've had to keep secret for a while, seeing as how it was a big announcement and all that. Although I did leave a clue a couple of weeks ago... There's more information, including video clips from the press conference, at the Young Eagles website. All very exciting really, and great news for EAA and Young Eagles. Harrison Ford is a nice bloke, "just another pilot" really, apart from a general absence of ego... Spending time with him was a bit weird. It was like having a long lost uncle in the room, someone who's part of the family (we all grew up with his face being very familiar) but somehow isn't part of the family.

Anyway, I've got a new toy in the form of a digital video camera, a little Sony Handycam which I'm most delighted with. I took it on my travels in lieu of the still camera and captured about an hour of various travels. The following shots are stills from the video.
Childish humour captured waiting for the flight from Milwaukee to Phoenix. British people would call it a bum bag.

Tom Wathen picked me up from the airport and gave me a ride to Flabob in a Jensen Interceptor, which he hailed as a great British sports car. I was embarrassed to confess that I'd nver heard of one. But having looked them up on the web, indeed they are. So here's a picture of Flabob as shot from a Jensen Interceptor. Flabob has a history back to 1925. Tom saved it from destruction about 3 years ago, and has breathed wonderful new life into the place. More information here if you're interested. Tom Wathen is a rare example... someone who has been extremely successful in business, but managed to do so while apparently making zero enemies, in fact, people usually consider him one of the nicest people they ever met, the kind of person that brightens up a room when he walks in it.

On Saturday John Lyon took over escort duties from Tom W and was wonderful at it. We had breakfast in the excellent airport cafe at Flabob, then went along to see The Aeronca Project in action, where 22 kids are restoring a 1941 Aeronca Chief to flying condition. They're under adult supervision, but are doing eall the actual hands on work themselves. It's been ongoing for 2-3 years, working every Saturday morning. The kids get 1 hour of free flight instruction for every day they work, sponsored by the Wathen Foundation. They are very hopeful of flying it to Oshkosh '04. I think they'll do well to get it to Oshkosh '05 but this does not diminish my admiration for an inspiring project. Next, John took me to the March Firld Museum which tells the history of a large military air base from WW1 to the present. They had an enormous amount of small artifacts, and a few planes, in a large hangar and then a very large outdoor collection (part of which is pictured below). It's the kind of place that doesn't look like it has a lot of money to splash around, but is surviving on high octane volunteerism. Good look to them, there was a nice spirit around the place and they had a great collection.

We also visited the Planes of Fame Museum at Chino. They have a spectacularly large and impressive collection of warbirds. This shows a weird looking Mk19 Spitfire with a Griffon 58 & contra-rotating props from a Shackleton. The Me163 is a fibreglass replica but they did have an original Japanese knock-off of the 163. The aeroplane collection is as good as you will see in any private museum (and better than many national collections), dotted all over with rarities like the Northrop flying wing. Most of their stuff is in flying condition. On the day I was there they were offering rides in a P-51 for $595... tempting but did not partake. As a Museum it's mediocre. They rely on having great planes - an aircraft enthusiasts' dream palace - but have not put effort into much else.

I stayed in the Airtel Plaza hotel at Van Nuys, CA - which was also the location of the press conference with Harrison Ford on Monday. It's right on the airport, and they very kindly sorted me out with a room overlooking the runway. I opened the window and was taking some video of the airport when whooooom a P-51 Mustang did a low fast flypast. The picture doesn't really capture it... anyway, at this moment the Airtel Plaza seemed like ther best hotel in the world!
I must admit that after a while the excitement of having a runway right outside the window did begin to wear off a bit, when I realised that there were jets taking off and landing incessantly... I mean every couple of minutes. Someone said it's the busiest GA airport inthe country and I can believe it.

We interviewed Harrison Ford in the Raytheon hangar at Van Nuys, in front of his immaculate De Havilland Beaver. The interview was for Sport Aviation magazine but our TV guys also filmed it for future use. It was not ideal conditions with lots of jet noice outside and a trapped bird twittering in the hangar. Especially as he is very quiet-spoken, almost to the point of being shy. Then someone called the airport police, who showed up claiming we needed a permit to film on their property. So it all took some smoothing over, but we ended up in good shape.
Harrison posing for photographs with some kids. The young man on the left wants to be the first teenager in space. Wearing a black flight suit in the hot California sunshine, he certainly showed that he has the willpower to endure physical extremes...

Harrison cracks his famous winning smile at the press conference.

Rusty Sachs needed a check out in the Aztec, so Sean and he flew down to pick me up from Milwaukee. This saved me a car rental and a lot of time and hassle, and it was nice to fly back up to Oshkosh in the sunshine!

Our house, snapped on approach to Rwy 9

It was good to get away from Oshkosh for a few days. I came back feeling quite refreshed and reinvigorated. Although I'd been working while away "a change is as good as a rest".

New Guitar

Forgot to mention that I got a new guitar... a sparkly purple Fender Stratocaster, and very pleased I am with it too. Oh, and I got a Dunlop CryBaby wah-wah for that classic 70s porn film sound.

Friday, February 27, 2004

Tuskegee Airmen

We had two of the original Tuskegee Airmen in the Museum on Wednesday evening, which you can read about here and here and here and here and here. It was a great night. Each of them was a good speaker with a thought-provoking story to tell. Dr Macon in particular had the crowd in the palm of his hand and took the whole thing onto a different level. You have this idea that maybe you'll hear some good ol' war stories and maybe some sentimental words about how the Tuskegee Airmen fought for their civil liberties. But Macon painted an extremely vivid picture of what it was like, and did a splendid job of taking us all back in time whilst, simultaneously, everything he said was relevant to today. The only thing missing was that Bob Martin never told the story he'd told over dinner the night before about why he called his P-51 after the girlfriend he'd never taken to bed... however there were children in the audience so perhaps that was for the best! As I thanked them for their contributions I said that I've had a lot of people come to the various museums I've worked at over the years to give talks, and this was right up there at the top of the list of the best ones ever. I meant it too.

Recent news in brief

Weekend before last Janet and I went to the famous-for-being-expensive Treasury restaurant in Ripon, which is housed in an old bank. By careful manipulation of the tip, a meal for two came to $99.99 so I didn't spend $100 on it, honest. We spent the weekend in the lodge at the Mecan River Outfitters and very nice it was too. Sorry no photos, didn't take the camera. We did about 10 miles on cross country skis on Saturday, and 0 miles cross country skiing on Sunday owing to severe blistering of the feet! Skiing through the forest trails was great even if I did fall over about 5 times for every once that Janet did. On Sunday we flew round Lake Winnebago in the Citabria (there was a 2-lane ice road right across the lake with lots of vehicular traffic) and I dropped Janet off at the airport in Appleton to collect her car. Another busy week at work just flew by...

This weekend just gone I hung around the house on Saturday, listened to the match on internet radio and hurt my vocal cords when Super Glen knocked in a winner just as it seemed to be heading for 0-0. A vital win. Bought tickets to see The Darkness in Milwaukee on March 26th. I flew the Citabria for an hour in the afternoon and made myself mildly sick doing too many steep turns. In the evening it was EAA Chapter 252's annual banquet in the Museum. They did very well and had 150 people in attendance. I was on the program of speakers and just spoke off the cuff for a while, reflecting somewhat on it being exactly 3 years since I came to America. I can do this OK if I've had just the right amount of beer - i.e. enough to be oiled but not so much as to be incoherent! They are a nice bunch of people. There was a silent auction and I bid on a couple of small things... but Janet secretly bid on - and won - the top item, a 1 hour aerobatic flight with Sean D. Tucker which she promptly presented to me as a birthday present! So a bigger cheque ended up being written than was expected, but it will be an interesting experience - he's a larger than life character, as you will see if you care to watch the video clip we've got up on the Museum website here. I have to go to California to take the flight, but have got two other reasons to go there soon. Thanks Janet! Sunday was spent cooped up in the office catching up work :(

Monday, January 26, 2004

Battery

On Friday evening Sean, Gregg and I went to see the "official" Metallica tribute band... "Battery". Now I'm suspicious of any band that claims it is an officially endorsed tribute, and more suspicious still when I can't find a website about them.

As soon as they walk on stage it's clear why they haven't got a website. See, if you have a website you would have to put pictures of the band on it and maybe some sound clips too. And I guarantee no one would ever go and see a 20 stone James Hetfield who can't sing flanked by a 14 year old Kirk Hammett who's out of time with the rest of the band. To be fair the guitar sound was pretty authentic and the bass blayer was Cliff Burton reincarnate - but no more than 4/10 overall.

Ski-plane Fly-in

Well who would have believed it. I went to bed on Thursday evening thinking there was no way the ski-plane fly in would happen, and we were heading for our second "no-plane fly-in" in succession. There was hardly any snow on the runway and the weather forecast said we'd be lucky to get an inch. Wonderfully, it snowed almost all day on Friday! And even better, there wasn't a cloud in the sky on Saturday, with light winds. Official report & photos here: http://www.eaa.org/communications/eaanews/040126_skiplane.html

Monday, January 19, 2004

Bruise

Janet says she has got a bruise on her bottom. See photo below for reason. Note the very small hill that she just tried to ski down...



















"Slog On, Captain Oates"

Sunday, January 18, 2004

Instant Hangover Cure

Having sensibly abandonded the car at the Hawthorne Suites last night we decided to work off our hangovers by cross-country skiing across the fields to retrieve it. As can be seen from the photos it was a glorious sunny day. What the photos don't reveal is that it was minus 15 C with a biting wind that penetrated any tiny crack in your clothing. I was glad of my new beard to keep my face warm. Anyway it was fun, cross country skiing is just about the best way to exercise that I can think of.

At journey's end Janet's photo brief was to capture the new "Grizzly Adam" look, including the impressive icicles that had formed on my moustache during the skiing. Erm, this is what resulted...





























Basement Days Re-visited

It was the somewhat belated staff Christmas Party yesterday. The drinking began at 4.00pm round at Sean's house so I was somewhat the worse for wear by the time these pictures were taken in our basement sometime after midnight... earlier I was very ill-advised and tried to sing Bohemian Rhapsody on the karaoke, ouch. The star of the show was our mechanic Jonah who did a perfect Axl Rose impression that had everyone in stitches, in fact we were so impressed we re-convened back at our house and turned up the amps for a reprise!

















As you can see from the photo quality
Janet had a few also. Here's Sean "singing" Harvester of Sorrow. This was about the time that Gregg stomped on his bass drum so hard he broke the skin...

















Jonah and Trish doing Sweet Child 'o Mine, while I do my best to look like The Edge out of U2 with my ski hat on and beard (the sounds were'nt coming out as good, sadly)

T-6

Janet and Sean flew to Delaware to pick up this T-6 that is coming to the Museum. It is one of only two that are known to exist that actually flew with the Tuskegee Airmen during WW2. It is probably the only plane known to exist that is registered in Delaware and actually in Delaware... everyone else registers their plane there as a tax-dodge.

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Citabria - N998B

OK, now I've discovered how to post photographs, here are some of what is, unquestionably, the most beautiful aeroplane in the world!