Flying Thread

[fj1289]

There have been some good thread hijacks about flying of late - so here's a thread for that!

Here's my ride for this week:


At Navy Fallon taking part in an exercise - didn't expected to be squeegeeing snow off the plane in the Nevada desert!

[Waiex191]

Home base - C77

[Waiex191]

Takeoff from Cottonwood Airport, Rockford, IL

[fj1289]

Nice pic with the tail wheel up!

[Waiex191]

Nice pic with the tail wheel up!

Thanks!  Somebody with a big camera snapped it on departure.  He sent it to a Chicagoland buddy of mine that also has a Sonex, who sent it to me.  That's my desktop background at work now. 

I'm currently ballasting up to GW and beyond as part of my flight test.  I've mostly tamed the oil so it stays in the engine. 

[Pat Conlon]

There is something about all that polished aluminum that excites me....

[Waiex191]

There is something about all that polished aluminum that excites me....

Me too - especially the 20 lb of weight savings!

[Waiex191]

 Sunrise over the home airport. I'm doing max GW testing.

Afterwards I rode my FJ to work.

[great white]

My office:









Well, my former office. They medically retired me a touch more than 2 years ago.

The Wing Surgeon looked at me one day on my annual aircrew medical and said "I just can't let you do this to yourself anymore" and that was that. No complaints, it was time for me to go (although it took a couple weeks for me to calm down enough to realize he was right) and the "golden parachute" is very generous...

[great white]

One more:

[great white]

Found a couple more on my phone:





And here I am officiating the "retirement ceremony" for a good friend of mine:

[fj1289]

Awesome!

I've seen a few of those at various fields in the Canadian territories.

[FJ1200W]

I've always enjoyed flying, albeit mostly commercial.
When we lived in St. Joseph, Missouri, one of the best technicians in the area flew ultra-lites.
He ended up with a neat little Red Barron looking little plane.
He said it was a lot harder to fly than it was to ride a motorcycle, I have no reason to doubt him.
He ended up crashing it and being killed, but he was doing what he loved, and that's not a bad way to go.  
Note: He did not crash during the flight pictured. It was a couple years later.

[Waiex191]

Interesting perspective. I'm not sure I would rate flying as harder. Much less to crash into.  Less people trying to kill you.

[fj1289]

The office for this week:



Ferry flight to Germany.