Ketchup - Some Mustard too

Summer included an Oshkosh trip by Aaron and I, another trip or two by Chris to the UAE, Aaron joining the Macintosh laptop cult (not a bad thing though), a trip to Michigan, tennis, flying, etc. Some recent news is Rachel received the first Fred Kacena private pilot flight training scholarship from EAA240 along with student material and a couple of extra free flight hours from New Garden airport. Very nice and now that her HS tennis season wrapped up she will be getting to work on the flying lessons soon since the PSAT test is next weekend. Stay tuned for that. Both kids also got a couple of sail plane flights in. The glider instructor was amazed how well Aaron could fly correctly behind the tow plane. Hmmm. Yesterday Chris and I went to

Block Island with Rich and Pat. Up the Hudson one way (click here to watch a 7 minute video of the Hudson) and down LOOOONG Island on the return. Click here for video of the landing on runway 28. The RVs made the round trip on one tank of gas. 1.6 hours up and 1.5 hours back. Amazing. Click here for more Hudson River and more BI pics.

May/June so far...

School's out (straight A's for both kids so we broke down and got them Samsung Instincts for atta' boys since we're currently hooked into Sprint and Sprint just came out with a terriffic family share plan with unlimited internet, data, texting, music, gps, & TV in the offering), Chris went to the United Arab Emerites for work and there's been some flying done. She had a great time and was impressed with the people and facilities but 2 weeks was a bit much and they didn't get the contract signed so they'll have to go back in July. Homes seem to be pretty large, if you can afford it, to facilitate large families where the men and women intentionally spend time in separate rooms I guess 'cuz that's what seems to be the norm. There's a lot of interesting cultural tid bits. Just ask Chris about BMOs and the new Upper Darby in the UAE. Click here to see about 200 pictures of the visit. Yesterday Aaron and I flew (here's video of the new RV-8 paint scheme on arrival) to Lockhaven for the annual Piper (mostly Cubs) pilgrimage to tour the old factory and museum. Pretty funny going to a major fly-in and only seeing 2 RVs. I still haven't flown in a Cub or Vagabond! I've logged time in different versions of champs and Taylor Craft but have escaped the Cub lure so far. Here's a typical ground ops scene video next to the grass strip. Everitt flew the Wildcat there and here's a video of it landing. There's a low quality and high quality version, watch the high one. Here's another one of the Wildcat doing a slow flyby. Finally, one of the items that really caught my attention was a model of the LST set up to launch cubs back in WWII. I read about this before but the model really put things in perspective.

One up, one down, one undecided

The 8 came home yesterday! I feel the project is complete and time to move on the next big project! I've been itching to start it but needed to wait until the 8 got painted for closure on it. The new guy is a Secret so don't pester me. I haven't told you up 'til now an am not going to cave in ;-)

The Expedition made a 'very bad' metallic, mechanical/engine sound on the way home from the airport and died in the middle of the busy road. It had to be towed to a Ford dealer. After only 143K miles of the easy life which didn't include towing or heavy loads on the "much ballyhood" Triton 5.4 liter V8, it let go internally and froze up! Dealer says engine needs to just be replaced. I was reminded that Ford stood for Found On Road Dead. Perfect. Good thing we had the next car picked out anyway. It's a Honda. I should have stuck with a Honda when I got the Ford. I went against my better judgement at the time and part of the rationalization was "Heck, with that big V8, it should last 20 years". Ha, jokes on me. The Accord that was "old" when I got the Ford is still alive and well and has 173K miles on it and doesn't make any of the aggravating squeeks and other noised the Ford was making lately. How do they stay in business?

The Nagel Grandparents are in town so they came out to New Garden to take a look at the plane and there's a lot of family stuff going on like Aaron's Confirmation and Baptism today....so here's some random photos from this week so far including one where my 4 month late Birthday cake is trying to singe my eyebrows off, our EAA240 chapter breakfast and a picture of Jim Russell who painted the plane and Rich Zeidman who flew me down... Since Jackson's birthday is in a couple of weeks we decided to embarrass him too with a photo of him behind a cake but notice how he takes to it so well? Proof birthdays like your 16 one is a hell of a lot more fun than one like your 40 something one!

Surprise!

Rich's 60 Birthday celebration was last Sunday. It was the place to be so we were! Here's a link so some more pictures. A lot of flights were had on that day. We had to ground Rich from having fun flying to cut the cake. This is the first time I've seen Rob & Dale, Doug and Rich's planes all together at once. All painted by the same shop in Vermont and look great. Mine on the other hand, currently looks like a beginner graffiti gang took at it as you can see here.

April's happennings

Two of our babies are getting "Dolled Up" this month. Friday, Rachel (baby #1) and Liza spent 20 hours getting ready for the 4 hours of the event that was the Soph Hop at the HS. It was the sophomore formal.






Saturday, the 8 (baby #4 behind Aaron and Dakota) was delivered to Jim Russell at Chorman to finally get painted! It's been over 2 years since first flight and almost that long since the day I called him and asked when I could get in. It's a 16 month wait! I had some awesome help from Mike Parry, John Leslie and Rich Zeidman. It took us 3 hours to disassemble what needed to come off. It's going to be 2 full days getting it back together when I pick it up in 2 weeks. Notice I don't call it a her or a him or have some goofy ass name for it? Well, I figure you either are or aren't the type that does that sort of thing, nothing in between. I am not and it seemed dorky when picking out the paint scheme to even consider going that route and getting some nose art along those lines. It's an 8. I provide the soul when we fly and I like it that way.

Aaron's freshman tennis experience is an eye opener. He is playing #3 dubs. He was thrown in with the JV ranks the first week of practice while the varsity went to a different complex. It took a week to rise to the top of of the JV scene and get moved up to varsity but by then the coach, who according the couple of kids I talked with pretty much had his mind made up before the season began who was going to play what from last year, didn't give the 2 or 3 kids that moved up with Aaron much of a chance to vie for the top dubs in direct real 2 out 3 set challenge matches and no chance at singles. They didn't get to challenge anyone at singles, which is where he, like most, plays better. The first school match was after the second week of practice so he had one week at the varsity level and then the show started. He and his dubs partner did pretty good the first couple of weeks but then became beatable in close matches, along with other dubs teams and the coach felt he needed to rotate players around in the dubs world halfway through the short season. At practice, one day after his one match at # 2 dubs with a new partner where they won against Marple Newtown 1,2, they lost a challenge match to the new #3 dubs and got shellacked. So he's back down to #3 dubs again and won't play in the playoffs as only 3 singles and 2 dubs play. Hopefully it will motivate him to play more tournaments and get his ranking up where it should be since that's what the coach seems to care about before the season begins next year so the coach will consider him seriously for singles. It seems the coach has his mind made up mostly well ahead of time and the very few challenge matches are for confirmation more than for open mindedness when it comes to singles even though in Aaron's case the coach has never seen him ever play before, probably doesn't know who his private coach is, doesn't know his year around tennis schedule, who he plays, what the results are or how much he plays weekly etc. 2 of the singles players are seniors so he'll have a real chance next year now that he won't have to waste the first week in JV tennis and he'll be able to get in on the singles challenge matches right after the bat. Like I said, it was a real eye opener but I think he's stayed pretty positive and for sure he really likes being on the team and likes that camaraderie. It's been good for overall for him for sure. We'll have to take some pictures next week at a match. The school took some but I don't know where they are.

Spring Break 2008 - click on the pics to make 'em full size

Wow, its been 2 months since I updated this? Well, a lot of life happened. The highlights are Aaron made the Varsity tennis team at Strath Haven HS, we did our spring break trip to Florida and had a fantastic time and I still don't have a paint scheme finalized for the RV-8 BUT I do have a date of 21 April at the paint shop. Here's some random photos of the trip. We started off spending the first night in Fayetville NC at the Meades. Old Florida friends of ours. Shannon is still in the Air Force working special ops and spending a lot of time TDY at MacDill AFB. Darby, their 'baby' is now a beautiful teenager as you can see from the macbook photos. She said she wants to go to the Air Force Academy and become a physician. Right now she has to settle for rock climbing, basketball and soccer. I hope some of that go get 'em military attitude rubbed off on my kids a bit. There must have been something in that Brevard County water we were all drinking back when all these families we know were just parents and no kids. Everyone had kids and they are all good looking and smart! It's also not surprising that most of the families we visited were all in the Air Force at Patrick AFB and we were all young officers. There is something special about military. You can never really leave it. Needless to say we hit a lot of spots and didn't have the camera handy everywhere we went or every house we stopped at to say hi to old friends. Florida brought out its best for us: Great weather for a change, great food and great friends who still look the same but man how their kids have GROWN taller and older looking!

We had a wonderful evening at the Acostas. The girls went from cute little waist highs to little women. How did that happen? Here they are dressed to go to their dance class.

And here are Avelina and Alexandra in Cocoa Village just chillin out. These kids are just so well mannered and pretty. Does Avelina's eyes ever stop sparkling or that smile ever quit? Alexandra is going to attract a lot of boys. I hope Rick is ready for that...she's in HS now so its going to start any second! Probably already has but Alexandra is smart enough to keep a thing or two from Dad.

Yes, the weather was chamber of commerce pretty much the whole time. I got to spend Sunday at the Tico Airshow in Titusville, most of Monday flying around with Rick Caldwell while the everyone else was in Cocoa Village, Wednesday was the obligatory Ron Jon's surf shop, dinosaur store, beach walking and eating type day, Thursday it actually rained in the morning which was our Golf Day so that got rained. Instead I went to Patrick AFB and hung out 3 or 4 hours reminiscing over the years I was stationed there as an engineer working on the "Eastern Test Range" before and after it transitioned ESMC to the 45th Space Wing. They took down my tennis courts and left it a parking lot! Bums. Thursday night we spent at the Broomfields. Aaron and Chris got hot rod rides in their Factory Five Cobra replica car. I WANT ONE! And I want their house. It's still an amazing place even after all these years. I'd definitely have a float plane (probably just an ultralight type deal made a couple miles away at the Rockledge airport) if I had this spot. To be able to walk out onto their private boat ramp each night would be amazing. OK, boat dock picture coming. This is the Indian River and that's Merrit Island in the background. Below is Sarah, Katie and Rachel on their Gazebo on their "beach"! Tough life... We're so proud Katie stuck with tennis and now plays for Viera HS. They all started out in little tot tennis at Suntree Country Club.

Well, I could go on and on - so I will a little more to prove it. We also had dinner at the Bergins and they are also just another one of those super special families. Dave still works at the Cape as an engineer, the two oldest are getting electrical engineering degrees at USF, the third 'baby' (that's how I remember him anyway!) is in high school now and wants to be a physician. Mom is a nurse so this one, Adam, must have more Mom than Dad and no doubt will be better off for it! The youngest, Christopher, will no doubt turn out well too. All smart kids with wonderful manners - just like their parents. Simply amazing. Jean's Birthday was on Wednesday so Wednesday night we had dinner at her boyfriend Don's house. Very nice house and he was a gracious host. I can see why Jean hangs out by his heated pool a lot! The restaurants in Brevard county blow away the ones we have around here. Philly area is WAY overrated when it comes to restaurants and shopping. I have to mention that my old Schoolies seafood restaurant at Cape Canaveral is long gone. The new owners/new building version looked like it didn't make it and was closed down - I ate there once and they couldn't begin to match the cool hole in the wall 'dump' ambiance and awesome taste the original spot was famous for. No finer fresh fish sandwiches were ever made but across the street is a good second place restaurant, Grills Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar. We like it a lot too and luckily it's still there. Their conch fritters are still the best ever the huge public boat ramps are still there as well as the local for hire fishing boats so it's a fun place to hang out. If there were any ELV or shuttle launches it would also be a perfect spot to see them while eating and drinking. On the day we went we got to see a loggerhead turtle swim up to the ramp and check us out. I would be remiss though if I didn't bring up Taco City. The Hombre is still damn good and we like it so much we went there twice. Luckily it's still mostly a local place and still has the local atmosphere. Most of our beach shots were shot behind it. Here's a slideshow with all the pictures we took.

Thank you Dr. King, Thank you Abe Lincoln!

My dad would have been in a good mood today. The Republican that he was, born a Quaker and growing up in the shadow of the Levi Coffin House (I think it used to belong to a relative at one time - here's a list of Indiana Macy's who operated the underground railroad), he would be talking of Abe Lincoln, the Underground Railroad that his hometown enabled and how proud he was to serve his country for over 40 years combined as an enlisted man in WWII and later for ~ 40 years as a US DOD civil service employee mostly stationed overseas. These days, when I seemingly randomely think of my dad, I tend to remember him as the old man who ran the electrical and fabrication shop on the flightline at Lajes Field Air Force Base, the Azores, Portugal when I was a kid. I still remember the young GIs using metal brakes and such to make parts out of aluminum to patch up the old transport planes that passed through there. These were the days before the C-141 pretty much took over all the day to day long haul heavy loads. You could still see piston powered planes on the ramp daily like the C-124 and C-118.

No surprise I "volunteered" to be the parent to stay home with the kids today who have the day off on account of MLK holiday and turned the day into an airplane project day. It was WAAYYY too cold to fly. A bottle of water I left in the plane was frozen solid. Aaron took all the screws out that held the rear baggage compartment together and we came right back home with the rear shelf. I spent the rest of the day doing what I used to do hours on end for years on end, fabricate aircraft parts.

I modded the rear shelf so that I can open it up anytime to access the battery and the elevator bellcrank assembly. It should be standard RV-8 design and many others have done this mod already. It was fun and I forgot how tiring this type of work actually is and what a hell of a mess I could make in the basement in no time at all. Here's all you get for hours of trouble.

When Hell Freezes Over, or maybe just to Vermont and back...

This is what Southern Vermont/Albany NY area looked like today. Compared to the greater Philly area, Winters are serious up there I can tell! After the snowiest December on record, so they said, there was still a bunch of it on the ground and the areas where it melted the frozen ground seemed to keep it from weeping into the ground and instead areas were flooded. Looked like pictures of Holland or something like that. We new we Philly boys were cold weather light-weights when one or two of the locals were walking around the airport in T-shirts while I was digging for my top jacket as soon as I crawled out of my plane! Dale, Doug, Rob and I flew up there to pick up Dale and Rob's RV-7A from J&M Aviation. The 2 week paint job quote turned into an 8 week 'ordeal' for robdale. They missed some fantastic Thanksgiving through Christmas flying weather so they were bummin'. They also had some expectation/price squabble issues. They were quoted 4500 plus a couple hundred extra for the pearl paint they decided later they wanted. The bill they got today was $6900. Quite a shock. After negotiations I think the out the door final bill was $6100. That's around the quote I was 'tentatively' given but still no final word for me since he wanted to think about it some more. Sigh. Well robdale's painted plane did look nice. Rob did the test flight and complained of some bad elevator and aileron shock in slow flight/flare attitude. Turned out they didn't install the wing root fairing/rubber seal and the turbulence through there was a real eye-opener for Rob. Once we all finally got ready to leave, Rob had to turnaround and land do to fuel pouring out of a wing tank cap that just wasn't sealing right. Exciting day all around. Don't worry, everyone eventually got their planes home and I don't think Rob even chipped any of the paint yet on the new RV. There's always tomorrow...but it is obvious that there's habits that develop that will have to change to protect the finish. I can't show you the scenery where we were flying a couple hundred feet between mountain tops and cloud bottoms. A plane like and RV gives one a false sense of near invulnerability and makes one too brave at times I think. What looked like was going to be just a few minute of fun flying turned into more of an adventure than we wanted and the clouds kept getting lower or each new wave of mountains larger. Anyway, the turbulence of the wind over the mountain tops made it all but impossible at times to even tune a radio. The blurry pictures below are from today and what it felt like sometimes. Anyway, we took the long way back around the mountains and the total flight time was exactly the same according to my GPS. Fun, really. We're sickos but our wives still love us. Usually.

York Fly-out

Yesterday was just one of those days that turns out better than if you had tried to plan it. Got up early and took GA newbie George Johnson to York PA with me for our first 2008 EAA 240 fly out. George got to fly Cirrus chase from the back of the '8 by following Mike, Jim, Jeff and Harv in the spaceship one Cirrus. That sucker is loaded but it kept up with the '8 fine in cruise. Below you can see the star wars panel making it too easy for Mike to line up his strafing run on the unsuspecting farm house located off the end of runway 31 at York. Mike pretended to overshoot the runway to achieve this optimal angle of attack.

I'm pretty sure that's what they said because if anyone knew how much processing power that plane had they'd never believe anyone flying it could ever fly a less than perfect pattern. No way. After a filling breakfast and dropping George off at New Garden, I flew to Wilmington and snuggled the '8 into Rich Zeidman's toasty hangar where Matt Noto, Rich and I did some progressive conditional inspection checks on his RV-7 and my RV-8. My cylinder leak check results were good and no one get whacked by a runaway blade in the process. Later that evening it was on to Media to meet Rich and Pat for dinner and drinks.

New Year's resolution leads to a balanced life.

Heck, it was only 20 degrees with slight winds so with balmy conditions like that Christine and I headed to Lancaster airport so we could pay $265 to hangout on the ramp periodically running up the engine to hurricane force winds (talk about wind chill!) while patient Mark from Sensenich prop services fiddled with small weights on the starting ring. Before the balancing act there were times when I'd try to cruise at 23 squared but the noise and vibration just wasn't nice so I often cruised with settings above 2350. Well, after over an hour of tinkering between 2500 and 2300 RPM readings on his computer, we settled on minimizing the IPS at 2300 RPM and hit a home run. Below are the results on paper and on the flight home I cruised at 2300 squared and enjoyed it for the first time in this plane. What a difference. I think I could even start to tell the difference while taxiing but I definately could in the air. Glad I kept the only NYs resolution I've ever remember making! If you haven't done this yet to your homebuilt, DO IT SOON!

We did some catching up!

Christmas 2007 was great! My sister and her family were in town from Las Vegas and the weather was fantastic so got some flights in with the RV-8. That included flying my brother-in-law Mike Lim, friend Mike McGlade and Rachel's boyfriend Jackson for their first ever RV/small GA plane flights. That's always extra rewarding, taking up newbies and giving them the stick. I'm still off work! Spending time learning Perl and finalizing my RV8 paint scheme. Naturally Christine and I don't like the same paint schemes as "the best" but there's a middle ground I'm warming up to....but I'm not letting the cat out of the bag just yet.

Here's Christine, Brady, Rachel and Joshua hamming it up! Those boys are just too much fun. We'd like to steal them for a couple of years.