Post about me? What a Shock.

My wife is very skilled at using the computer. She has taken courses in the various graphic arts programs, and has a home business that creates web sites and graphic features and things like that. You are reading me on the simplest blog site there is. Because I'm cheap, and I can do pretty much nothing on the computer. Anyway, when my son was here before the fall semester started, he shot a little footage of me with mother's camera. Wife has promised me she will take the footage and build a video out of it for YouTube, or whatever. We want to use a song I recorded as the music behind the video. The song is "Someday Soon". It should have a scene of a pilot leaving home to go on a trip. It won't match the story line of the song, because the song is about a 21 year old kid in the rodeo. My son is 21, and I wanted it to be about him. But he wanted to do the behind camera. Anyway, I've seen some really cool vids lately and I can't wait to see what wife and son have come up with on this one. I can't say when it will be out. Wait. I'll go ask her right now when it will be back on the front burner, and in fact be done. OK I just asked her. She said "Someday Soon" GA Informal ::::+::::

Hell no I don't believe in your God

I've been retired from my job for 2 years now. And I still cannot properly answer the most common question I get from friends and family. Lloyd, now that you've retired, what are you going to do? This is a really loaded question. It seems simple on the surface, but it isn't. I used to try to accurately and honestly answer the question. But I can't. From now on I shall answer with this: "I don't know. What are you going to do when you retire?" Folks who have already retired don't ask this. Have you ever been asked: " Do you believe in God?" Another loaded question. When I try to answer this one I don't get very far without the asker saying something like "It's a yes or no question". At that point I say that we need to define God before I can answer yes or no. There are thousands of dead gods no one believes in any more, and opinions vary about the gods that are still around. And each person believes that the god they believe in is the God. I can guarantee that once the asker defines his God, I can safely say "no, hell no". But why go through that? The perfect answer is the one I will use for the retirement question. "I don't know". Now there is the snapshot answer about retirement. That's the "what I seem to be into right now" answer. Right now I'm into clearing brush. Mowing season is over, almost. I don't have a big farm, but I do have some woods. And some woods near the house and airstrip. Those woods can be made much nicer by clearing out the dead wood, pruning, making paths, cutting briers,etc. I have enough of this that I could do it as a hobby for the rest of my wretched life. I love doing this. But I don't want to do it all day. Or every day. Or with a deadline or schedule. Ask me tomorrow, "Lloyd, now you're retired, What are you gonna do?" I'll say, "Clear brush".

Nick Lowe NickLowe Nick Lowe I Read a Lot

I guess this is one of those times when my post is not gonna be about General Aviation. I simply have to review and debrief the concert I saw the other night in Easton. It was at the Avalon. It was kind of a last minute thing. I had heard that Bill Kirchen was to be there performing as a warm-up act for Nick Lowe. I'm a huge Kirchen fan as you guys know. We were lucky to get the last couple of tickets. My friend Clark and his wife came also. I had only just barely heard of Nick Lowe. So before the show I had Googled him up. He's an aging Geezer rocker like Kirchen. He's my age. He is from the late British Invasion era. He was in a band with Dave Edmunds called Rockpile. He writes really amazing songs. In the States he is best known for a song called "I Knew the Bride" , which was covered by everyone. Another hit was "Cruel to be Kind". But I was going to the Avalon to see Kirchen, the "second" act. So we get there and I notice on the stage while we wait for the show to start that there is Kirchen's ancient Telecaster and an amp or two and that's it. No drum set, no bass, no keyboards etc. Clark and I are thinking what the heck is this. Neither of these guys is a solo act. These are not folk singers. But I like solo guitar stuff so I'm thinking this is good. And it was good. Really good. Kirchen came out and played by himself and did all the wicked runs and licks and crazy effects that he's so respected for. My wife had never seen him before. So I was happy and knew I had gotten my money's worth. Clark and I got to talk to Kirchen during the intermission and of course we were star struck and he was nice like he always is. Then the house lights came up and down and it was time to wander back to our seats with our beverages. Nick Lowe came out and just started playing and singing. He was solo. He had a head of silver hair, not too long. He had a voice of pure gold, like Nat King Cole. He had phrasing and timing like Sinatra. He had choppy, hooky, lyrics like Zevon. He had an acoustic guitar. He played it cleanly with 40 years of rhythm built in. I had a wonderful time being out of myself for about an hour and was a new forever fan of Nick Lowe. Damn he was good. I got double my money's worth. Can I pick em or what? Toward the end of his set he sang "Cruel to be Kind" and it brought the house down. With the audience in the palm of his hand he segued into "I Knew the Bride" and Bill Kirchen snuck out on the stage behind him and picked up his Telecaster and we got to see the two old pros who had toured together so well and so often. So now every night I pull up my YouTube channel. I have favorited about a dozen Nick Lowe songs. But my favorite of those is a tune about a guy who has lost his love somehow and is bewailing his fate. "I read a lot, not just magazines. Blue doesn't describe it somehow. You'll find me in a world of fantasy, population one, that's me. If you ask me how I stop, contemplating what I now have not....... I'll reply... I read a lot"

She's Now a Blonde.

Last Wednesday the weather was pristine. I wanted to fly my M-10 to Cambridge for fun and to gas up and to try out the new battery I had just put in the night before. It was a pain in the butt putting the battery in. You have to take out the pilot's seat. Then unscrew two floor boards. Then remove the battery hold down assembly. Then remove the terminal contacts. Then yank the battery. Then put the new one in and put it all back together. I paid a little more when I ordered the battery to get a sealed unit. I hate adding acid. I would have spilled it. I'm a lousy mechanic. In fact, I dropped a bolt into the wing when it slipped out of my fingers. I was very lucky and able to find and recover that bolt. I always do something clumsy like that. I'm really good at some certain mechanic type stuff though. For instance, I get the oldies station playing loud in the hangar. I cuss at everything. I have a really nice lunch, no matter how involved I get in the project. I don't let not having the proper tool get in the way of doing the job. Also, I lay out all the parts and tools and stuff, then goof off for a while and my wife and others can see from the hangar how hard I am working and how important my project is. I employ alchohol, tobacco and firearms for the project too. And I know in advance the project is going to be harder than I think. I try not to actually use a wrench or screw driver because I round off nuts and screw heads. I had a mechanic tell me I could help once on an annual. My job was simple. Go to town and get sandwiches and sodas. So I did that and asked him what I could do next. He said nothing right now but later on you could go to town and get coffee. Well anyway I had the new battery and I flew to Cambridge for fuel and it was a great flight. I had coffee there and ran into an RV-8 guy. I had seen him at both Essex and Bay Bridge and his aircraft is a prize winner. I flew home and had another nice 12 mile flight. I got out the mower and started quickly mowing because my buddy Clark was supposed to fly in. I was mowing the centerline in case he came in sooner rather than later. I was almost done when I looked up and saw the RV-8. It was coming in on final for my east runway. I pulled the mower off to the side. The RV gave me a low pass that made my day. He came across fast and flat and low and turned on the smoke system the whole length. He zoomed out and set up a 180 to come back in to 27. I move the mower down the runway to a turn off. He lands the the beautiful 8 like a feather. Then I see Clark on base in a Warrior. I have two planes land in a span of two minutes. After having no planes visit in weeks. After a short visit Clark left and we watched. When the RV left, wife came out to watch with me at the wind sock. The RV launched and flattened out and gave us a nice pullup/smoke/chandelle. Thanks you guys for comin' in. ::::+:::: PS ...... while I went to CGE, wife went to hairdresser. She's now a blonde. GA Informal.

Hemingway's

Essex Skypark was so nice that I decided to go out in the M-10 on the next Saturday. That was last weekend. I went to Bay Bridge, known as w29. It was a gathering for some young eagle rides and a few seminars and the grand opening of a new hangar. I have been "propping" the M-10 since Horn Point, which is really no problem. My friend Pablo met me at w29 and we hung out and told stories of our glory days while we watched a wonderful new generation of pilots do their thing with Light Sport Airplanes. In fact, the operation at W29 with their new hangar is now the largest LSA dealer and flyer in the US. Someone was explaining to me how a Tacnam Siera could go 115 knots on 5 GPH and my mind started to wander. I was looking across the field at "Hemingway's" which is a touristy restaurant that overlooks the bay. It's all different now. Built up. New roads and buildings. I was remembering when I was a college kid, and found ways to get to fly airplanes. And tried to find ways to impress girls. Taking a girl for an airplane ride to Hemingways was a guaranteed great date. When I first started doing this, it was with Brinkerhoff's Colt. Later it was his 172. Then when I first started instructing, I would use the trainers after hours. Later when I instructed out at Cumberland, I'd borrow an airplane from there. After that it was in my own airplane. My first plane was a 7eca citabria. It would do the Bay Bridge run well. But for "dates" you want side by side seating. In the early eighties I had this Warrior II. One day my friend "Billy", who was kind of a scoundrel and a ne'er- do- well was going to go flying with me. I "owed" him a flight for doing work on my little condo. Actually I owed him nothing because he had been using my car while i was gone on trips, and using the condo while he was "working" on it. He was taking his redneck bar girls up there all the time. Anyway I had this part time redheaded girlfriend and I was taking her to Hemingways and Billy was tagging along. We took off from Suburban and Billy was in the right seat and the redhead was in the back. After we got going I showed Billy how to fly the plane for about one minute. Then I climbed in the back with the redhead and let Billy play pilot. I guess that was pretty dumb and illegal. At one point, as he adjusted the throttle and turned a little more toward the bay bridge, he said over his shoulder "it's pretty much like drivin' a boat isn't it"? I said "yeah" and continued cuddling with the girl. Later at the restaurant, Billy was getting loud and obnoxious as he often did with a few drinks in him. People were starting to stare. One guy got up and came over to Billy and said "How do you keep an asshole in suspense?" Without hesitation, Billy stole the punchline and said, "I'll tell you tomorrow". This particular flight to Bay Bridge did not yield me the after dinner one- on- one result I had been hoping for. But it wasn't the last flight I made to W29. There were many more to come all the way up to the present day. My wife refuses to fly in to Hemingways with me because it's where I took "all those girls". But she likes Bay Bridge and we've flown in there to eat at Kent Manor Inn, and also the Gourmet Gas Station. A few years back we drove to Hemingways, but there was a one hour wait and we went to a place called Annies instead. So wife has still never been to Hemingway's. GA Informal ::::+::::

Air Fair 100

I guess it's time for me to write a debrief/review of the College Park Air Fair 100. I've said it before- this blog always comes back to my old neighborhood. College Park Airport. I've been putting this off, because there is so much to say, and yet there is nothing I can say. Air Fair 100 was about a month ago. It celebrated the 100 yr. anniversary of the Wright brothers teaching the US Army to fly airplanes at College Park in 1909. I thought it would be really nice to take the M10 Cadet to College Park for this event. The Cadet ties into the ERCO story which is one of the major historical items on the long list of the College Park heritage. I contacted the people at CGS airport and inquired about flying the Cadet in. I was concerned about flying into the FRZ which is a no-fly zone in the middle of the DC SFRA. I had heard that there would be "waivers" available to get planes in and out for the event. But I never heard from the folks at CGS, and one day I just decided to forget about flying the m10 in there. I was very relieved when I made that decision. I didn't want the day to be anything about me. I wanted to just soak up some final closure emotions about the place where I learned to fly. So when that Saturday came, I drove my car to College Park. I paid $4. admission. I spent about 6 hrs. there. I spent another 3 hrs. in the town of College Park around the U of Maryland campus. Then another 3 hrs. at a friend's place in the old neighborhood debriefing. I have very mixed emotions about the whole day. In general, it was fun. An airshow. I think my biggest impression was that it was an airshow. With aerobatics and everything. At an airport that normally you can't even fly into without an act of Congress. It's not a real airport. It's owned by the government. There are curfews. There are restrictions. there are rules upon rules. there are limitations. There are violations waiting to be passed out. There are locks on all the propellers. No one is flying. No one is allowed to fly. The hangars and buildings that used to serve the airport now are for police and bureaucrats. So to see that airport having an airshow was quite a surprise. Whoever had the political clout to get that show approved by the TSA, has got some real political connections. Perhaps that person should use their power to get the rules lightened up the other 364 days of the year. If it's safe to have an airshow there on one day, why not just let general aviation have the airspace back and get rid of the stupid ADIZ. The ADIZ only stops good guys. The terrorists don't care about it. They have their own agenda and it's unlikely they will fool around with little airplanes. Another thing about the airshow that surprised me was that it was kind of "big time". The acts that were there were the national kind, not the local. It was great and I loved it, but it wasn't about College Park like I thought it would be. That kind of show could've been anywhere. This leads me into another thing that surprised me. Even though the day was supposed to celebrate the history of College Park as the nations oldest airport, there was really no mention of any of the history during the live announcements that went on all day. The museum was there and open. It was free too, with your Air Fair admission. Yet it was never mentioned on the PA. And the entrance to the museum was hidden way down at the east end and you had to walk down and find it by yourself. Early in the day, they rolled out the Wright Flyer, built by a company called "the Wright Experience". This was built for the College Park Airport museum. That roll out event was great, and the airplane is perfect. But that was the end of any mention of College Park's history. It seemed odd to me that the largest building there, the hangar, was not only off limits, but not even mentioned, noted or commemorated with a sign. That hangar building was one of the original four airmail hangars from the twenties. To the folks watching the big commercial airshow that was just a police hangar. There was no mention or commemoration or sign marker of the railroad tracks running along the west end of the runway. Where the Metro trains can now be seen. The railbed was there when the Wrights were there. The very first telegraph message went along that railbed. To the folks watching the generic airshow, it was just the Metrorail going by. There are many more examples. No mention of the first woman to be carried aloft heavier than air. First bomb drop, first radio comm from an aircraft. First guy to get killed in military airplane. Post war production of 5000 civilian nose wheel non spinable general aviation airplanes. The only attention to Airmail was a small tent where the post office would postmark for you a commemorative envelope or card. That was great. But nobody had been invited to bring in any mail planes or dress from the period. No barnstormer era planes or dress No mention of any history. I would say the Air Fair 100 event was a huge success as an airshow. You saw the show, bought a t shirt, had a burger, went home in time to watch sports on TV. The event was a dismal failure as an historical celebration. It was a great opportunity lost. Never again will it be 100 yrs. since the Wrights flew at College Park. I had fun watching the airshow. I like airshows. But when I think of the College Park Aerodrome, and the Wrights, the pioneers, the airmail pilots, the barnstormers, ERCO, Berliner, Brinkerhoff, I'm sad. It could have been about them. Their ghosts could have walked around with us. But it was instead about NCPPC showing that they know how to put on a real world class airshow. And the TSA relaxing their insane rules one day a year at their whim. GAI ::::+::::

Essex Skypark

Essex Skypark is an airport just 3 or 4 miles from Baltimore. Last year I took the M10 Cadet there to the "Wings and Wheels". I was impressed with how small it was. And how laid back. And how nice it was in general. So of course I wanted to go this year. So today, Saturday, was Essex. I had stayed up too late last night. I got a late start. I wandered out to the hangar at ten AM with my coffee. I opened the hangar doors, and sipped more coffee. I had a trickle charger on the M-10's failing battery. I took that off, and sipped more coffee. I checked the oil. More coffee. God, the little airplane was filthy. Hanger dust, bird droppings. I had no time to wash it. I cleaned the plexiglass, cause you gotta see. I loaded up some stuff: a little cooler, a tool caddy full of cleaning stuff, paper towels, and the new sectional and the new area chart. The GPS, fresh batteries for the GPS, an extra shirt, chocks, and other stuff. I rolled it out and sumped it. I was all set and climbed in, good to go. I hit the starter which is this pull knob you really have to yank. There was this pitiful, weak, movement of the prop. It went about 4 inches and couldn't overcome compression. So now I have a choice of scrubbing the event, using jumper cables, or propping it. I could go and find my wife and have her help me. This was all gonna take time. You should never prop a plane by yourself. You should never let yourself be hurried. I had no real reason to hurry. But I turned on the mags, cracked the throttle and threw a chock under the nose wheel. I swung the prop, no fire. Once again, and she fired up and ran like a dream. I couldn't pull the chock because it was stuck. The M10 has no parking brake. So I jumped back in and warmed her up and got the radios and stuff on. It took full throttle to jump that chock. Soon I was climbing northwest toward Baltimore. God, it was beautiful. The weather was perfect. From over Preston, 3 miles from my house, at eleven hundred feet I could see the Bay Bridge and downtown Baltimore. And that's a good thing too because to navigate into Essex, without talking to controllers (which I didn't want to do) you have to do it just right. There's at least 4 different airspace things going on to get into this cute little woodsy pretty airpark that is 2000 feet long. Shorter than my backyard strip. There is the dreaded DC ADIZ/SFRA. There is the BWI class B you gotta stay under. There is restricted Area 4001B which is always hot. And last but not least, Essex is in the Martin State tower's traffic area. Is that class D? So 42V and I did this little dance and had fun and talked to no one. Once at the fly in, I wandered around and looked at every car and every airplane . It was small and friendly and wonderful. Everyone was doing fly-bys. I ate a cheeseburger. I stared at a Detomaso Pantera for a long time. I chatted with these folks who had a 1957 310 which was gorgeous. They were from my home town. I had a hot dog. I chatted with the guy giving rides in the Stearman. I thought he might have a battery I could buy. I chatted with the car people and some nice locals. There were some nice folks who were kind of a blue collar crowd and some cute looking girls. Airshow babes are usually rare. I went back to my M10 on the flightline and started cleaning it up. Folks came and looked at me and 42V. And I watched every single fly-by. There was a nice fly- by done by two RV's in formation. Every takeoff and landing done by the local Stearman was a fly- by and a show in itself. The very best "fly-by" was when the Cessna 310 left. I knew he was gonna come back around. When he turned onto final his rollout was a precision snap locked to the extended centerline of the runway. His final was an energy managed descent to the deck. He went down that whole runway like he was on rails, with the prop tips close enough to the asphalt to give us all a real thrill. And fast? Oh yea. It was one of the best fly-ins I'd ever been to. When the sun started to go down, they passed out trophies and I started to look for somebody to prop me. I found a J-3 guy who was very nice. Soon I was back over the bay and leaving the mean airspace behind. I was a little low on fuel and I wanted to keep the outing going, so I stopped into Bay Bridge Airport. They have a self serve fuel set-up. I ran into a friend or two. I bought coffee at the gourmet gas station. (Yes, there is a gourmet gas station there.) Then my friend propped me and I was off for home. Couldn't be prettier. I turned off the radio and the GPS and just went from cow pasture to toolshed. Then I beat up Eric's place and my place. It was such a good day, I had to tell you about it. Even though the M10's airspeed didn't work and the cig lighter CB was popped and of course no battery, she performed like a charm. Whoever gets her for the 24K I am asking is gonna have one heck of a nice little classic. Oh, and the sunset I watched with wife was spectacular. Maybe I'll go to Campell Soup tomorrow! Or wait till I get a new battery............. GA Informal.