Airplanes and Airstreams

I went to another fly-in this last Saturday. It was called "Airplanes and Airstreams". This is like a wings and wheels, but you've got old and new travel trailers and they're all the "Airstream" brand. There was about 7 of those and maybe 12 or so airplanes on the ground at one time with some coming and going. It was way too hot for me and I stayed in the shade as much as I could. I saw some Horn Point guys. Some Light Sport guys. It was a kind of hazy day, and some said we would get T-storms but they never came. I went over to ESN afterwards because there was a Yak/Formation training event going on. And I had heard they had cars there too. But it was all over when I got there. And the restaurant was closed. And the hanger that has the rich guy and all his toys was closed up tight. I was hoping he might still be having an open house and maybe free food! The guys got a Spitfire. He's got a P-40. An L-39 Chek Jet, and the list goes on. Corvettes too. I don't know him, or his name, but I've been in that hangar and it's pretty cool. Before I sign off. I want to tell you about my flight over to the Airstreams event. I was so hot preflighting my plane and had the door and window open, but it would not cool off inside. How could it. It was in the nineties. I taxi out and the prop blast helps, but it's warm air. After takeoff I climbed to 8 thousand feet and got above the clouds. For a 40 mile flight. It felt good though. It was 49 degrees. I circled around and let the skin of 009 cold soak a little and I put myself over the vor radial and distance from SBY. Then I circled down and the clouds gave me a big hole and at 5 thousand I was below the clouds and back in the haze. I didn't have GPS coordinates, but the radial/dme had me right over it. It was easy to spot once I saw those travel trailers. I made a low pass and hot dogged around to land. Taxied up the XW runway to the end of the line and swung the plane around to park, shut down and push back. Pushed back into the bean field. The beans were about 8 in. tall. I climbed down into those beans, which looked good, considering the sere weather. And I walked through them around the wing and onto the turf taxiway. That's my kind of fly-in. GAI ::::+::::

Changes and Mixed Blessings

I'm really thinking about letting my medical expire next month. And then carrying on flying light sport and gliders. So I'd wind up getting rid of the CherOH kee. Which would be too bad. But I have a buyer for the CherOH kee. My nephew George. He'd rather buy it 2 years down the road, but I may be ready to sell sooner than that. So what kind of LSA should I get? I'm thinking of an aeronca 7AC. A Champ. Or maybe a 7FC Tri Champ. Remember those? The Tri may not be light sport. Some had 3 seats, and were too heavy.I can let my medical lapse and fly light sport without it. As long as I havn't been denied a medical. With my two special issuances involved, the FAA might need more info about something. A glitch. The AME, who is giving me the medical is not supposed to let me walk away from a medical I have begun by turning in the application. This light sport don't-need-medical is a tricky little slope if you are like me and are getting older and already have some challanges. The bottom line seems to be that eventually I will lose my medical. If I am denied the medical, then I can't fly under light sport rules because of the denial. And if I pass the medical which requires lots of work on my part gathering paperwork and tests from from different sources over six weeks, and then I still have to take the medical every year (due to the special issuances.) If I am denied, I can try to jump through even more hoops and get the medical back. Then I might not want to risk another medical for fear of being denied. I guess since I know that sooner or later I'll be denied, I'm thinking, let it expire, then I know I safely have Light Sport. I could still do a new log book for a new pilot now and then in the "Champ" or whatever I will own. I could still instruct a bit if I wanted to. I really hesitate to instruct because I feel that the students should go to the young guys coming up, and the career CFI's who need the work for a living. I had my chance to do that instructing and it was a great experience and an entry level into a career that served me well. It's someone else's turn now. I was talking about this dilema of Airman Medical vs Light Sport Rules with a bud of mine. He said that one of my regular trips is up to Dover to have the plane worked on, or fly gliders. He asked if that would work just as well in a "Champ". I know what he's saying, and he's right. It would be just as good--even better. I hate to give up the 140 and all that kind of flying. I thought it would be for another ten years maybe. But this is life...... We watch our parents die..... Then we die. In the face of that, I may have to go Light Sport. Most of my "aviation" world is riding a mower anyway. GAI ::::+::::

the longest day

This last Saturday we went to a fly-in at Crisfield. The blue crab capital of the country. I'm not a huge crab fan. Every time I eat crabs, I wind up getting new lessons all over again on how to "pick" the crab meat. But I love crab cakes. So am I still a Marylander? My buddy "Click" has the use of the professor's airplane, a 152. So he and his wife drove over here and took that plane and wife and I took the CherOH kee. Off we went. A beautiful day. About 40 miles south. Nice airport. Laid back. Not a beehive of planes. Maybe a dozen. A pretty M 21. A light sport Rans 6. Three ercoupes!..... actually one was an Alon. My little M 10 would have fit in nice! Sigh. A basic Arrow which I liked a lot. A 140 Cherokee older than mine. Homebuilts that I don't know the names of. Crabs and Corn on the Cob and "Smith Island Cake" was the menu. My wife doesn't eat crabs and I don't eat corn, so we split an order nicely. I try hard not to eat sweets and I didn't, but the Smith Island Cake looked like the best dessert I have ever seen. Wife said it was very good. Some nice conversations and a new friend or two I invited to my two upcoming parties... and it was time to head north. I wanted fuel and a coffee stop in Cambridge, so both planes stopped in there. Now it was Coconut Cake! Now we were in air conditioning. My son called from home asking where we were because he wanted to go out on Saturday night and was tired of watching the kittens and dogs. We would be home soon. That last little 12 mile leg to our place was the nicest of all. It was getting just a bit cooler. 80 instead of 90. Perfect. We landed and tied down the 152. Click and his wife let me tour them around in the golf cart a bit and show them some of my projects, and wife's garden. It cooled off a little more. Then they headed off to Annapolis. My son said he was going to see his buddy's band play at a place in Cambridge called "Jimmie and sooks". So he took off. My wife took care of the barn, the kittens, the dogs. She said she was tired and I said I was too. After a pause I said, " hey I need to get some stuff at WalMart why don't we spy on son at this bar in Cambridge, if we can find it?" I was really surprised when she said, "OK". What a cap off to a really great day. It was a fun kind of grill, raw bar, seafood, tavern, kind of place. I had two nice drafts. And wings too. Poor son. You're twenty one, out with your buds, and your parents show up. My wife considered the cake, to make it three, but only for a moment. It was one of the nicest days ever. Tonight I'm off to the western shore to a solstice fire. Summer is here and it's off to a flying start. Happy first day of summer my friends. GAI ::::+::::

Lovin' the DC-3

I wrote a post a while back about the alphabet groups I do and don't want to belong to. I never did get around to joining the EAA. You can't join them all. It's too much dues. So I pay up every year for the AOPA. I've been in EAA in the past, but I'm not an aircraft builder and I never did like the EAA for reasons I don't even remember. But now there has been a flap between EAA and the DC-3 people who are having the big "Fly over" with 75 DC-3's. EAA has taken the stance that Oshkosh is theirs, and they will run the DC-3 deal. Now I kinda remember what I didn't like about EAA. Every year at Lakeland I would ask about the relationship between EAA and the "Sun N Fun" organization. Every year I was told that EAA runs sun n fun and that EAA has nothing to do with sun n fun. In the same sentence. Every year. If I were a DC-3 owner and was all set to meet up this summer with 74 other DC-3's in Illinois for some formation flying, I'd be pretty excited and happy. What a great summer endeavor. A record setting civilian aluminum overcast. History making. If I were in that wonderful group of guys I would right now be saying: F--- the EAA! F--- Oshkosh! I just wouldn't be able to say it fast enough. GAI ::::+::::

Psychology 101 for aging pilots

Two aviation weather jargon terms meaning low IFR weather are "Socked in" and "Fogged in". Well I've combined the two terms into a new term to describe my little farm airstrip. "Sogged in". I've now paid for four months of tie down at Cambridge, where my Cher OH kee sits. My airstrip is closed indefinitely. To say it is soggy is an understatement. I've been considering putting an "X" on the middle of the strip, but I havn't figured out a good way to do it. Most everyone who might come in is savvy enough to know not to try it without calling me. But I still worry a little. I was lucky to get the M 10 and the Cher OH kee out when the gettin' was good. I really can't complain. In the twelve years of having the landing strip, this three month stretch is the first time the strip has ever been closed for a whole season. And it's the first time I've actually had to buy monthly tie down somewhere to keep operating. Yes, I've had floods and storms, but I've worked around them and moved the plane for a week or two. Even through two hurricanes. If I could only have the airstrip for three seasons a year I would still work hard to have it. I love everything about it. I even love mowing it. Most of the time. The airstrip has kind of "framed" or "defined" who I am in a way. The same way I had a certain "identity" when I was an airline pilot. Before I retired I used to think that I would retire when I lost my medical, or when I reached age sixty. I never dreamed I would walk out the door with only what seems like a split second decision to quit. And I was not sixty and I had a brand new first class medical in my pocket. I don't know whether early retirement was the right decision for me at that time. But it sure feels right. I know why it feels right. Because of an interesting thing called "cognitive dissidence". If I learned about it in college forty years ago I sure had forgotten about it. But my friend the professor mentioned it to me once and it cleared up something in my mind about why some idiot friend of mine was acting a certain way. That was years ago and now I've read books about it. Cognitive dissidence causes you to set up rationale in your mind to justify the things that you do. Or say, or think, or believe. So I "know" I made the right decision to retire because: I was sick of the job, the industry was no fun anymore, the airline was bankrupt, I was tired of the commute... whine.. whine.. blah blah... But if I had stayed on at good ole "Northworst" (now Delta) I would have also "known" I had made the right decision because: son was still in college, build up bigger retirement, keep the ego/identity I felt as a successful pilot blah..blah.. No matter what I did I would be right. We all want to be right very very much. So we make our decisions "right" by finding supporting information and ignoring non supporting information. I do it. We all do it. When the professor first mentioned it to me I didn't realize what a huge thing it is in all of our minds. When you gain insight into the way you think, you can sometimes make yourself more at peace and less confused. Am I too old to learn this stuff? Set in my ways? I hope not. A part time hobby of mine has become the study of how I can grow old gracefully, and happily and quietly yield to the things I can not control, and be somewhat proactive about what I can control. I really thought I would be troubled after I retired about not having the identity of an "airline pilot". This, and would I have enough money, were the two big fears. Well, good ole cognitive dissidence took care of it. Once retirement was a done deal and there was no turning back, my mind wouldn't even let me doubt. I've got some good buddies out there who are pro pilots and my age who have not retired and are maybe thinking about it. You guys can retire anytime you want and you'll never look back. Remember I told you so! Oh, and the money? No need to worry there. That one is easy. There is never enough money!

Legacy

Hey my dear friends who are kind of digital communicators. e mail is just great, and i love voice mail on my cell phone which works for me 24-7. but i just can't get into text. I guess i can send and receive messages crudely, but it's difficult to type. if i got good at it i guess it would be ok. Wife and I went to the auto auction tonight. It's up at Dover, DE. We were going to dine at "Jimmies" which is this famous place that all my friends that go to the beach on 404 know about. But we got a late start. we didn't get to have dinner, so I ate at the sale. A hot dog and small chili. Wife had a "Clementine" she had brought and we found my 8 pack reeses cups in the truck. I was craving coffee. You have to put up 400 bucks just to bid at this auction. It was cold. It was loud. It was very fast. Except when you were waiting in line to sign in and back out. that was too slow for me and i opted for waiting till today to go back and settle up. I bought a little 16 year old car for $1200 and it probably won't make it home, let alone thru inspection. Speaking of auctions. One week ago and two weeks ago tonight i went to a different auction, the one at American Corner. It's just junk every thurs night, but I like it. Two Thursdays ago I bought a ceder chest for 80 bucks and gave it to Wife. Even though it's not fancy or perfect, she likes it. I bought a few boxes of vinyl 45 records too. Then last week Wife came along to see what else they have. We wound up buying a really nice quality futon. And a couple of cool old tables I want to make into a computer desk. I bought a set of seven nickels for twelve dollars. Ever heard of a "shield" nickel? I bought some cool little tools. For two dollars I bought a bunch of old picture frames for hangar art in the man-cave. Anyway this could be an inexpensive hobby. But I spent $1200 tonight so I gotta cut it out. You should check out the auction. DVD's are about 50 cents if you buy a bunch. Books are really cheap. the furniture is fun, but not always cheap. Do you think maybe I'm settling in to retirement? LLITTY ::::+::::

the other blog is up

Call my other blog the evil twin. It's me, but I'll gripe about organized religion. It's still me, Mr. General Aviation Guy. but I will Geezer Rant. I've got three posts up on it. You can find it by clicking here on"complete profile" then scroll down to "my blogs" and then just click on LloydLou I Talk to You. It's odd that after wanting to branch away from General Aviation( and I intend to keep posting on GA Informal cause I love it) I seemed to have written a post about aviation sort of. In the new blog. About logging time. Hey I just write it down. I'm not organized. I was in Las Vegas for a week and I got a little behind. I'm due to talk about my soggy but drying out airstrip and my PA 28 which will be coming home soon. And now no more music stories and stuff here. I'll be back to just GA flyin. My buddy is getting a Decathlon and I want to tell you about him and the airplane when it comes. And I want to talk about when I got fired from Central American Airways, a DC-3 outfit back in the day. And when I almost got fired from Nicholson for being involved in the Dynamo Dave incident. Yes read blog #2. I'm looking forward to posting there. But I'll be here on old #1 too. And where will I find the time for all this posting? Here's where: there is less to do around here in the dark of winter. The next GA mission will be picking up the PA 28 and bringing her home from Mr. Mechanic. First nice day I gotta get the Cadet over to Easton for it's transponder check. That will mean talking to a control tower. And eating lunch at the Airport cafe. Eric, would you like to go with?