Savannah-Tom wrote:

zane wrote:
Dragged the strip at Table Rock near Medford, stopped in at Ashland, and come home.

How did it look? I've been wanting to go there again.
tom

It looked pretty good. I've heard rumors of some assholes putting head sized rocks on the runway as booby-traps, but I couldn't see them from my drag run. I have a video of it I'll post in a few days.

Started out in McCall, flew to Hells Canyon. First stop, Sluice Creek, Big Bar, Pittsburg, Dug Bar, Salmon Bar, and Lunch in Grangeville. Two SuperCubs, Life is good. Too smokey anywhere else!

IdahoSupercub

Practiced my wheel landings at TTD for an hour. I was having some issues but got it sorted out.

Then went 10 min north to Mr. Eds/Denis place, Goheen, Wa. a nice grass strip. Then Denis and I went around in his Maule with 180HP. We flew down the Columbia River a while and back to Day Break another grass strip. Then back to Goheen. The weather could not have been better.

There sure is a difference in the 180HP VS 235HP I'm glad I can tell the difference, because the 235 in my Maule sure drinks a lot more gas. Oh well you know what they say. Horse power cost money. So.......how fast do you want to go? Cheers...Rob

This past Saturday the son of some close friends was getting married on the beach in Cape Cod. My wife and I took the day off and flew up to Hyannis on Friday morning. It was a delightful flight past the New York skyline, over the Hudson River Valley, past West Point, south of Boston, and down to the Cape.

Barnstable is fair size municipal airport (class D). We had a straight in landing to 15 from out over the blue waters of the bay. My wife had not flown into this size airport before with me. Since I am one of those detestable Maule drivers, she was used to small grass fields. Final is usually a ten to 15 second affair. In this case we were on a 10 mile final and since it was a big runway, it looked much closer than it actually was. She became concerned about how long it took to get to the runway!

Needless to say, this is a rich area and we were real odd balls dragging our tail among all the private jets and fancy twins. The tower guys had fun asking us to not take too long taxing to the first turnoff since we only used the first couple hundred feet of the runway. I was real tempted to land crosswise and tell them that their runway was real nice but I didn't understand why it was so wide!

Since the flight was about 2.6 hours instead of a 10-12 hour drive, we had a great time on our way from the airport up to Provincetown enjoying all the little shops along the way.

There was a pizza party and surf fishing on the beach that night. Interesting fishing. Whatever was out there just bit the lures in half!

The small wedding on Saturday was great! Lots of fun. You know how it is when you only get to see people at weddings and funerals.

We flew back Sunday morning. A Piaggio P.180 Avanti took off right before us. When the tower gave us clearance to roll they said there were bets on how much runway we would need with a 12kt headwind. Guess those guys don't get to see airplanes costing less than a million bucks real often.

Best we could get because of broken clouds was less that 4,000 feet but it was sparkeling day on the way back.

Flew (in a helicopter) a 5 hr mission in Afghanistan. 75' AGL, 120 kts, NVG's, 0% illumination with 2 miles visibility and haze. Not to mention the "other" inherent hazards.

I can't wait to get back home and find a friendly gravel bar in the Cub.

Mike-

stearmann4 wrote:Flew (in a helicopter) a 5 hr mission in Afghanistan. 75' AGL, 120 kts, NVG's, 0% illumination with 2 miles visibility and haze. Not to mention the "other" inherent hazards.

I can't wait to get back home and find a friendly gravel bar in the Cub.

Mike-

Assuming you get home, believe it or not you will miss that flying. And thank you for having such a tough job and mostly for the sacrifices you are making!

I can't imagine ever really missing it? It'll be make good stories for the kids someday, but I'll take my Cub on floats any day! The job is my pleasure. The occasional cruising of BCP and SC.org are my momentary escapes.

Mike-

I second a64pilot's statement, Thanks Mike!

I'll third it. Thanks for your service Mike. Be safe and come home soon.

So, is your Cub safely parked in a hanger awaiting your return or did you actually let someone fly it while you are gone? I don't know, wouldn't that fall into the same category of letting someone sleep with your wife/girlfriend. I mean, sacred is sacred. Of course, I guess it would be better that the aircraft is flown since you have probably been deployed for quite a while.

Take care.

stearmann4 wrote:I can't imagine ever really missing it? It'll be make good stories for the kids someday, but I'll take my Cub on floats any day! The job is my pleasure. The occasional cruising of BCP and SC.org are my momentary escapes.

Mike-

Hey Mike,

You got what you need over there? I have a whole passel of flying magazines I would be happy to box up and send over if you would like them. Anything else you need?

Rod

Grassstrippilot wrote:So, is your Cub safely parked in a hanger awaiting your return or did you actually let someone fly it while you are gone?

Actually, my Cub's down in Santa Paula, CA as we speak after an engine look by Al Ball, and some fabric work. Yes, I am letting a friend of mine fly it back to WA next week. However, he flies a P-51, F4F, and a P-47 for a local museum, so I went out on a limb in assuming he could handle that much power.

I would absolutely love some flying magazines if you guys don't mind some postage. Even 3-year old Trade-A-Planes will suffice. I'll be returning home mid-Nov, so I figure Oct 20th is about the cut-off.
Sincerely,

Mike Rutledge
PRG 6-4
APO AE 09354

Mike, my thanks also for being over there in harm's way, doing a tough job for all of us here at home.
Did you ever figure out what caused the engine to quit?

Eric

Eric,

It was determined after a fuel anaylsis, that I pumped some bad gas in NORCAL. I called the small airport where I suspect it occured. Not for purpose of litagation of any sort, just informational. I have no desire whatsoever, without conclusive evidence to join the law-suit happy legions in this country. No damage the plane, and it gave me a good opportunity to get some work done I might have not gotten otherwise.

Fuel was actually our last suspect. After several days of checking cylinders, scoping, etc, the shop drained the fuel and it just "smelled weird". Not like MMO/TCP, etc. So, it went to an aviation fuel tester.

Looking forward to flying with you guys this winter. I was only able to make it to the Snohomish SC fly-in in June before I left.

Mike-

We flew into Spanish Springs last Saturday. Nice spot and great hospitality. The thought crossed my mind that the runway would be pretty sporting in a P-51 and the like. Was anyone on this board there for the original races back in 1966-67? Inquiring mind wants to know . . .

CAVU

jmtgt wrote:The Spanish Springs you flew into is a new location as of the early 1970s. When the races were in that valley, the aiport was in the middle of the valley. I was not even born back then but that is the story.
J

Thanks, JMTGT. That makes sense. I didn't know the airport had moved. I'd still like to hear the story.

CAVU

Flew over to Cricket Field for an EAA Fly-In. Met some nice folks and saw some great airplanes. Looked for the thread on sunglasses, but couldn't find it...was thinking that MTV said he liked the Sereghetti's. I have about 4 pair and they list for $100-$150, you can find them on sale at Big 5 Sports for about $40. They are good. I'm changing the prop on one of those windmills on Monday. The prop hub is 265' up and each blade is 40 meters (ravi- how many feet is that?)...three blade job, very cool scimitar shape. Its the Klondike wind farm near Wasco, OR so I may fly to work tomorrow.

So the topic of the class photo assignment was "landscape"... For those of you that know the Flagstaff (NAU) area we decided that everyone would be shooting the San Fransisco peaks... We decided to hit the desert near the four corners area. The shoot was in black and white, and of course did not include the plane. But I thought I'd share this digi photo of the area. It was a very fun place.

TTD 1 hour. Landing practice. Cook the water out of the oil and knock the rust out of the cylinders. My goal is to fly at least once a week. Cheers...Rob

KBGE,
The goal was to fly 100 young eagles because it's the 100th anniversary of aviation in Georgia or something. If you haven't flown any young eagles before,I recommend it.

I finally have something meaningfull to contribute to this post.
.3 on the tach to the island compared to a 1.5 hour car ride, 20 minute ferry ride and then another 6 miles on the levy.