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.