Rained out

I don't have an article in mind to present to you, my few and faithful readers. It's been so long since I've posted to you. Writers block? Blogger's block. I think laziness is a key factor here. Actually, for a retired guy, Ive been pretty busy. I have a big backlog on my "to do" list. It kind of stresses me in a way. I think rather than working harder, perhaps I can just shorten the "to do" list by crossing a few things off. Today, Saturday was to be the Crisfield fly in. A nice Eastern Shore Crab feast. This is so right up my alley. 40nm south of me. Small. Down home. I didn't have it on my calender at all. But a week or two ago my friend Ted e-mailed me about it and said he would be going weather permitting. Ted is a great guy. He really got started in flying just a few years ago. He lives in range of his local airport and just kept seeing the planes drifting around. So he kind of finds himself out at the airport. He hears himself scheduling a lesson. You, my friends, know the rest. After he has his license (wait pilots don't get licenses, they get certificates), after he has his license, he rents the planes there and takes some rides and some little trips. He realizes he wants to go when he wants to go. And he want to come back when he wants to come back. You see where he's going next. The airplane he bought is quite nice. A very clean Cardinal, low time, cream puff. He tweaked the avionics. That wasn't enough. He had a brand new paint job put on her. I know he's very conscientious. And has managed and set up his aircraft the way he wants. With an eye for safety and eliminating unknowns that looks professional. Someday I'll get a ride in that Cardinal and I'll give Ted some "dual" so I can log it along with him! One more thing about Ted. His local airport is in the Washington ADIZ/SFRA. From day one he's filed an IFR style flight plan for every flight. In and out. He's known it no other way. Anyway, back to Crisfield. So Ted is going. So I decide to go. I want to see Ted and he will have his lovely friend Roxie with him. Otherwise known as "the blonde". I shall write a post or two about her someday. If the statute of limitations has passed on our adventures! So I get on the e mail and two other friends like the Crisfield idea. It is very appealing in it's smallness. Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man, but I'm tired of Oshkosh and Lakeland. And my mind is working at 90 knots. Not Southwest or Northwest. Clark wants to go and has lined up one of the school's planes and his girlfriend, and gotten the day off. Also Steve. He was set up to come down from Fredneck er Fredrock er Frederick. So I guess we had a fly-out of four planes set to go to this little Crab fly-in. Alas we woke this morning, and it was raining on the Western Shore and headed this way. We scrubbed the deal. I must not have writers block if I can do a whole post about a fly-in that didn't happen. This month of June it has rained every day here except June 1. My strip is a little soft but still doing fairly well. I just want a dry- out for my little fly- in on July 25th. The record for planes on the ground in my back yard is six. I expect to beat that. And we're celebrating benchmark birthdays. My son- 21. Myself- 60.

Livingston Taylor Livingston Taylor

The other night wife and I went to live entertainment at the Avalon Theater in Easton. The week before it was a live show in Annapolis. I know it's not Broadway, but for us, it's bright lights, big city. It seems like my interest in singer-songwriter music keeps creeping into my aviation blog. And now it's happening again. At the Avalon we saw Livingston Taylor. He puts on such a warm and personal and funny show. I was blown away and forever impressed. The Avalon has a beautiful grand piano and excellent acoustics. What the hell does this have to do with aviation? You ask. At the end of the first set, Livingston was at the piano and he sang a song about the Wright Brothers. He mentioned that he loves flying and has a "rattley old airplane". He sang about Alaska too. Wife and I were spellbound. Usually I hang around for "meet and greet" after a show like this, especially when it's someone kind and accessible like Livingston. My man-cave is full of autographs. But we couldn't stay. It was the night I had to take son to BWI for the oh dark thirty flight. But I briefly saw Livingston during the intermission and interrupted him from a CD signing and asked him quickly what kind of plane he had. He said a 205 Cessna. I asked if that was like a 206 and he explained that it was the ancestor of the 210 series with a fixed gear. I quickly went back to my seat feeling a little bit guilty about butting in a line of folks who wanted to meet our one- man- show star. My wife asked where I had been during the intermission. I answered cavalierly, "Oh I was talking to Liv". Yesterday I cruised around the web and learned a lot about my new idol. He's about my age. His dad was a dean of a North Carolina Medical School. His mom is an artist who is still living at 86 yrs. old. All of the five kids had singing careers with recording contracts. The oldest Alex, has passed away. Livingston's brother "James" is a huge star of 40 years. The same night we saw Livingston, James was performing for Jay Leno's last Tonite Show. Today I went out to the hangar and looked through a box of old "AOPA Pilot" magazines. I found Livingston on the last page of the December 2006 issue. Now he's really my idol. Do you save those magazines? God I'm a pack rat. GA Informal.

Spring Classic.

June 1st.. Sure is a pretty day. My neighbor who farms tells me that this spring has been unseasonably cool and wet. His melons have had a false start. He will cut my hay this week. I can't cut the airstrip often enough. As I write this my buddy Russell is shooting some landings in a Cher Oh Kee. They taxi in and shut down and we chat for a while. I love the plane they are in. It's a 180. The last year of the hershey bar wing. 1975 I believe. So it's got the big interior, the console throttle and switches etc. This one has a wing leveler. Leather. Strobes. A 430. A Gizmo 396 to go with it. To me, this is the perfect GA aircraft. And here it was on my turf. I invited it to my fly-in on July 25. Hope to see it and you there. GA Informal.