"Jeddddddddddd; this here's Granny talkin'. Elly Mae sez you should take her raccoon grub outta one o' them there silos and fill it with that black gold bubblin' up out in the pasture."

(KPWM - Portland, Maine)

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Portland Int. Jetport 081310_2.jpg (244.3 KB)

In 6 weeks my brother will be getting married. After the wedding Brian and Babs will be headed off to their honeymoon. While they are away, I plan on doing a few things around the house.

I plan on doing these things so far:

filling up their bathroom with balloons
put aluminum foil on their utensils
confetti their socks
lipstick the mirrors
hard boil the eggs (if they have any)
pull the labels off the cans
change out the cabinets (put spices in the dish cabinets & vice versa)
sticky note their room
unplug the tv and cable boxes
turn on all the alarms in the house
dress up animals in their lingerie
put captions on all the pictures
rearrange the furniture

Nothing too bad. I wont toliet paper the yard, put chips or rice or cornflakes in the bed or switch out the salt with the sugar.

Oh and it all has to be pet friendly.

Anything else you guys can think of?

Today, I took my first Flight in over a month. I ended up taking my Dad up with me. It was the first time he had been in a GA Aircraft in over 25 years, but the first time he had been up with me. We had a blast, as I planed a nice local Flight around the area in which he grew up, and still works. It was nice to spend an hour or so Flying around with him.

Hi Folks.

Does anybody know of anyone in Texas who can authenticate WWII collectibles (without costing me an arm and leg)? I have what looks to be a WWII pilot's emergency sustenance vest that I'd like to get authenticated. I've shown it to a couple of WWII pilot vets who tell me it looks real to them, but to be honest it's in such good condition I'm a little skeptical. Doesn't look like it's ever been worn, and it looks so new that it could have been made yesterday. The tag on the inside says:

VEST, EMERGENCY SUSTENANCE
TYPE C-1
SPEC. NO. 3206
ORDER NO. W33-038-AC6640
SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
MFD. BY RELIANCE MFG. CO. CHICAGO, ILL
PROPERTY A.F. U.S. ARMY

It has the ARMY AIR FORCES logo stenciled on the front left breast area. Pockets in all the right places and labeled correctly. Pockets were empty though.

My searches on the web seem to indicate the data on the tag is correct, but I'd like to get someone who knows look at it and tell me if it's authentic or a replica. It came out of a trunk at an estate sale.

Thanks!

My eldest passed her check-ride yesterday evening in the 172. She was really happy to get it done and with no time to spare. She starts her Junior year Monday in MA and jumped on an airline this morning to get moved in. She wants to start on her instrument rating at North Hampton this fall.

The always dependable 172 lost it's alternator in the middle of her flight test on Friday. They had to finish up yesterday after I drove over and installed a rebuilt unit.

My son didn't get his done before he went off for his first year of college. He hopes to finish up during his Xmas break. It looks like the plane will be getting a much needed break.

Kevin

Can you spot the traffic? There's a P-51 there although it's a really poor shot of one:




These were parked near me:


I think they are from Luke AFB? If so, they are a long way from home.

I noticed some vultures off the runway during one of my takeoffs. The Mighty C-150 couldn't climb above them so I tried going underneath- about 3 of them must have thought I was a threat and dived past me, or they were showing off. It was surprising to see them so close like that as they dove past.

I've been reading trough Shelby Foote's three volume narrative on the Civil War and am completely engrossed in it. He has a wonderful perspective that is in marked contrast to other works I've read on the subject. He goes into depth on how Lincoln and Davis interacted with their generals; describes the setback and how some things went one way or another on the battle field for completely unexpected reasons.

I'd love to point out some passages. I'll have to look back to cite them. Wonderful perspective on how each leader dealt with very challenging political situations; examples of how Lincoln effectuated some situations in a manner that made it look like the free will of the other party were excellent.

A recent passage that really made an impression was when one Southern commander appealed to another for a diversion (Pemberton to Bragg). Bragg responded: ..by sending Forrest instructions to "throw his command rapidly over the Tennessee River and precipitate it upon the enemy's lines, break up rail roads, burn bridges, destroy depots, capture hospitals and guards, and harass him generally". (Volume two; page 65-66).

Ahhhh, the good old days!! Military orders I would have loved to have received back when I was on active duty.

And, Nathan Bedford Forrest performed them exquisitely from the Southern perspective at the expense of Grant<g>

One impression I have gained is how completely out matched the South was from the men and material perspective. At almost every turn, Union Armies were well manned, supplied and armed. Lincoln at one turn called for 300,000 volunteers. Lee only had 70,000 protecting Richmond.

In most matches, up to 1863 (which is where I am in the books), Union troops outnumber Southern forces by two to one or more. Union forces had supply trains bringing good quantities of weapons, ammunition, food and other supplies. The South was in a much less fortunate position. An advantage the South did have was it's internal RR system which could shuttle troops a supplies quickly from one point to another. As their defensive area got smaller, their RR system could respond faster (up to this point in the war).

Best,

Dave

I've been buried at work and haven't had time to fly when the club plane is available, so this week I thought "I'm gonna go fly!"

With hurricane Earl sucking all the moisture out of the air over Florida the usual afternoon thunderstorms are not happening. I scheduled the plane for 5:30 in the afternoon for Friday (yesterday as I write this). Then as an afterthought I called my dad and asked if he wanted to ride along.

It was hot but dry. After the normal preflight, I cranked up the Continental (this is a 1963 C-172A) and away we went. The wind was 240@9 and we used runway 25 so there was a little cross wind. We climbed out of KORL and headed off to the northwest. After reaching Apopka and the edge of KMCO's class B I headed up to 2500'. It was a little cooler up there, but not what you'd call cool. We flew around the western shoreline of Lake Apopka and over the gourdneck looking for the gourdneck spring. The sun was too far down to get a good look into the water, but it was nice ride anyway. I flew back over to the north side of the lake (one of the practice areas), did a couple of clearing turns and demonstrated just how benign a stall in this airplane is. (My dad learned to fly in Piper Cubs in the '50s, I don't normally demonstrate stalls to my passengers!). This 172 is much less abrupt than any of the newer ones I've flown. I'm not sure why.

Anyway, I headed back toward KORL and as we were flying along, looking around and chatting about how much all this has changed in the 50+ years we've lived in the area I realized I was still at 2500' and almost to the 1600' shelf of the class B. A 360 degree descending turn and I'm ready to head on in.

I asked for a touch and go and stay in the pattern and was cleared for the option on 25. I really enjoy the manual flaps on this early 172. I did a normal pattern approach, 1 notch on downwind, 2nd notch on base, 3rd notch and then 4th notch on final. With the wind right down the runway I flared, kept holding it off, more, more, then a very gentle touch down. I got 2 thumbs up from my dad.

With that, I cleaned up the airplane, and away we went. There was a plane waiting to take off and turn north so the tower asked me remain on upwind until they called my cross. This is a bit interesting as that takes you very close to the 900' shelf on the class B and over the highrise section of downtown Orlando. As hot as it was, I wasn't in much danger of violating the class B, but all those buildings coming closer and closer and even thoguht I cleared them just getting close to a tall structure really makes you notice you're way up in the air. So with a longer pattern I got to TPA before we got to mid-field (unusual in this airplane when it's this hot). I just throttled right back and didn't let the plane accelerate just to have to slow down to deploy the flaps. I repeated my prior pattern except I shortened the downwind a bit to compensate for the wind. As a result I came down faster and didn't pay as much attention to airspeed. I was just a bit fast at the flare and ballooned a bit. Then I flared perfectly, but about 2 feet in the air. THUMP! I should have cushioned it with the throttle, but I just didn't catch it in time. Sigh.

Third time's the charm. Once more around and this time I came in high, with full flaps (40 degrees) and used a long slip to get down to where I needed to be. It worked beautifully and I had the second really smooth landing of the day. And on that one, I quit.

After shutdown, my dad said "That was a really nice flight." and I had to agree. at 120 something hours spread over 6 years, I'm finally getting really comfortable just flying for fun. It's relaxing and I'm very thankful to be able to share it with my family and friends, and especially my dad. He's 78 and although he's in good health you never know how long you have to share things like this.

Anyway, it might not be a romantic as changing the oil :wink5:s5:, but I enjoyed it.

John

I was doing the LA Times crossword the other day.

There was a 3 letter word with the clue "Airport safety organization". Usually I'm pretty good at the layman aviation terms but this one had me stumped until I got 2 out of the 3 letters.

The answer iss TSA. It just did not fit my view of the world.

Joe

From a flyer that was dropped off at an FBO in Hickory, NC...

INDICATORS OF SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY INCLUDE:

* A customer that does not want to provide any identification or provides identification from a Southwest Border state or foreign country.
* A customer who insists on paying cash.
* A customer who displays numerous cellular telephones.
* Transfer of luggage or bags from one person or aircraft to another.
* Guards posted around the aircraft.
* Rents hangars for short periods of time.
* Excessive amount of luggage for only one person.
* Vague about their travel itinerary.
* Nervousness.
* Altered "N" numbers.
* Dirty undercarriage or tires.
* Uses self refueling very late at night or very early in the morning.
* Flying an aircraft that is worn out but has very nice GPS system.

These indicators are examples of possible suspicious activity that should be referred to law enforcement...

Okay, on any given normal flying day for me, probably five of the above "indicators" are true. I guess I can look forward to the government goons pointing guns at me next, right? And I don't think I'm in the minority.

http://www.komonews.com/news/national/102166699.html

This headline made me nervous... I have a friend who's in Dubai, flies for the same carrier--but he's getting checked out on the -800; this was a -400 enroute to Germany.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38996944...s-portland_or/



VIDEO: http://www.kgw.com/video/featured-vi...102182329.html

hope the hurricane treated y'all kindly!!! :eek

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