Daily Pic

Autopilot installed! (just pitch servo for now). It took two days of crawling around in the fuselage and under the panel (I'm sore!) but it'll be great for future Oshkosh trips. Tested it on the way to breakfast this morning.

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Finally got to use aviation for practical purposes this weekend. The trip from Albany to visit friends on Long Island is a white-knuckle 4 hour car ride, but is a leisurely 80 minute flight. On the way home I was treated to a spectacular sight as the sun got below the high broken layer just as the last rays were peeking over the Catskills.

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Robert De Vries, the proud owner of this 1940 Ryan STM-2, submitted the following photo and note: "Recovered from the weeds in the Philippines in 1975, this WWII trainer flies again after 60 years. It was built by Ryan Aeronatical in San Diego and shipped to Java, now Indonesia, in December 1940. It was then evacuated to Australia in 1942 where it flew for the Royal Australian Air Force until 1944. Then used as a trainer in Hong Kong until 1952, then sold to a major in the Philippines and crashed in 1955. It is now based in San Luis Obispo, California
 
Some pics from yesterday when I went up to PDK to take my commercial checkride (https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/com...a-private-pilot-any-more.113968/#post-2606541)

When I got through, thunderstorms came through and I couldn't get out. My wife wasn't too far away at her mom and dad's house and came and picked me up and we started home to the south side of Atlanta. Unfortunately my car is way down at OPN and I'm going to have to figure out how to get back up there today to get the plane as she is working today. This was about 5:30, we got to the north of Atlanta in all the traffic and the weather started clearing up. So we turned around and went back through all the traffic to PDK and I just had a window to get out VFR. So I was able to get the plane back yesterday. First pic is the screen shot from Fightaware of my path home from PDK to OPN. 172 is me in the air on the way to the checkride. Archer is my instructor following me in his plane. All fair weather pics are on the way up, bad weather pics on the way back. And a Gulfstream at PDK. :D

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@BrianNC do you know a woman named Julie there in Thomason? I don’t know if she hangs out there or even flys GA. She flew with me at ASA, started as a FA, she’s probably a Capt there now. Real nice person.
 
@BrianNC do you know a woman named Julie there in Thomason? I don’t know if she hangs out there or even flys GA. She flew with me at ASA, started as a FA, she’s probably a Capt there now. Real nice person.

Sorry @mscard88, I don't. About the only people I know there are the guys that run the airport. Nobody else if hardly ever around.
 
Sorry @mscard88, I don't. About the only people I know there are the guys that run the airport. Nobody else if hardly ever around.

Yeah knew it’d be a long shot. She’s from there. Sweet lady. Helped and encouraged her and another FA when they started working on their certificates/ratings to become pilots at the airline, which they both achieved.
 
Yeah knew it’d be a long shot. She’s from there. Sweet lady. Helped and encouraged her and another FA when they started working on their certificates/ratings to become pilots at the airline, which they both achieved.

@mscard88 I've run across this twice in the past few weeks, one from a flight attendant talking to my DPE when I was up at PDK, and to one of the guys that run the airport in Thomaston the other day, that it seems I believe it's Delta will pay for flight attendants to get their ratings once they get their private.
 
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@mscard88 I've run across this twice in the past few weeks, one from a flight attendant talking to my DPE when I was up at PDK, and to one of the guys that run the airport in Thomaston the other day, that it seems I believe it's Delta will pay for flight attendants to get their ratings once they get their private.

Could be, I don’t know. I was at ASA, now ExpressJet.
 
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Thought this was a cool little Varga. Never seen one in person, but she was gassing up in Chickasha, OK headed to home to Colorado today. Looks like a fun bird.

Yeah, they do look like fun. There are two of them at my home drome of Cable, painted identically in white, red and black. They're always flying around in the pattern together.
 
Yeah, they do look like fun. There are two of them at my home drome of Cable, painted identically in white, red and black. They're always flying around in the pattern together.

The owner said this one spent much of it's life in Cali. The only guy I know to have flown one did so in Cali as well. There must be more of them out that way.
 
Mooney Fly-in at OWB.
I decided to bust up in there with a beat down rental 172..like a rebel.
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Also had our local EAA Young Eagles flights today.

Haven't seen OWB quite this busy before. Several of the Mooney's were shooting approaches with CFII's at the same time.
The controller (Class D) was a little overwhelmed. At one point he said "all Young Eagles just look out for each other and keep your distance" lol.
We had some fun with him when he asked how many more kids we had to fly, and replied 36. Even though we were finished.
A few minutes later I called him and told him never mind we were done, he got real excited and actually stuttered a time or two.
Fun day..
 

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Mooney Fly-in at OWB.
I decided to bust up in there with a beat down rental 172..like a rebel.
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Also had our local EAA Young Eagles flights today.

Haven't seen OWB quite this busy before. Several of the Mooney's were shooting approaches with CFII's at the same time.
The controller (Class D) was a little overwhelmed. At one point he said "all Young Eagles just look out for each other and keep your distance" lol.
We had some fun with him when he asked how many more kids we had to fly, and replied 36. Even though we were finished.
A few minutes later I called him and told him never mind we were done, he got real excited and actually stuttered a time or two.
Fun day..
Nice!!
 
KRKW. Rockwood, Tennessee. Closed for a few more days.RKW Closed.JPG
 
That’s pretty freakin cool!!!
Yeah, both were bucket list items after reading about the experiences here. This trip ranks #1 of all Xcountries for sure, and I've had a few in my lowly 172. :) Frankly, I was amazed how well my O300 did at +10k. I'd pull the throttle back, lean it out and enjoy <6.5 GPH fuel burn.
 
Lunch at Nu-Cavu at Kobelt Airport (N45) Saturday with my son in law, my new ride parked on the grass by the restaurant porch.

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Full circle, the first time I ever flew in a biplane was in a Stearman at Kobelt back in the '70s. A few years later I had my PPL and rented the same Stearman for the princely sum of $50/hour.
 
Finally uploaded a short video of my flight back from Stafford VA to Greenville KY. 6,500' over West Virginia mountains. Please excuse the less than stellar video quality of my IPhone.

 
We finally made it to Port Aransas / Mustang Island (by airline :oops:) and had the opportunity to stay at Amelia’s Landing. @Jay Honeck and Mary were excellent hosts and we had a blast. :)

Foto credit goes to Jay and while it is not a flying picture, you see four pilots :D

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We took some pictures with the drone:

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Padre Island

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On the flight from Houston to Detroit we saw extensive lightnings. The pics didn’t turn out good though...
 
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Last week I took two friends on an aerial tour of Chicago in the 172. Here're three pictures:
  • 31st Street Harbor, Chicago's newest harbor just south of Soldier Field (and north of Comiskey Park);
  • The skyline with Sears Tower (or whatever they call it now) to the right, as seen from the "Eisenhower transition" (KMDW tower clears you to follow I-290 west between their C-class, downtown, and ORD's 1900' B-class sector); at the time of our transition there were TFRs in effect for the Bears and the White Sox, but we were cleared to fly through them;
  • Fermi National Laboratory, once a powerful particle accelerator (now all experimental work is done at CERN in Geneva, often remotely by scientists housed at Fermilab).
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