First off my sincere gratitude to the Airmen, Soldiers,Marines, and Sailors who gave me my freedom.

We are at the Central Oregon place whooping it up. Going quad riding and shooting.

We flew to visit some friends in fayettenam, nc. Had a great time catching up last night and will be taking them flying today. The weather seems to be cooperating for our preferred departure day, too. Looks like it's going to be a great weekend!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Going to a COPA for kids event in Whitehorse, Yukon. Will introduce some youngsters to flying and general aviation.

Weather's looking great! Flying the family down to grandma's cabin for the weekend.

I'll be going to my friend Russ's annual fly-in breakfast. Have to drive in this year, because the exhaust system for my airplane hasn't arrived yet. It's always a fun event, much like old fashioned fly-ins to a grass strip, with just about everybody knowing everybody else. In past years we've had flour bombing contests, and of course, every landing is "judged" and "critiqued", all in good-natured fun.

Cary

Windy, rainy, and generally shitty around Puget Sound today.

Same here in Alberta hotrod. We had just over 3/4" of rain yesterday and overnight, 500 foot ceilings and muddy now. Wife is gone to a wedding, so I'm being lazy and getting a few of my items packed up so we can move in a week.

I'm just around the corner from Hotrod's hangar so am seeing the same crappy weather. It is slowly turning flyable, but it's still cold and uninviting right now. By Monday the skies will clear and the temperatures will edge back into the 60s. By Wednesday we'll likely see temps over 70 degrees with the skies remaining clear. So I'll celebrate my warrior brothers quietly this weekend and get my Garmin updated for more flying joy on Memorial Day itself. As a past artillery officer, I might take our dog for a hike around the decommissioned coastal defense batteries that are now Fort Worden State Park.

Noticeably busy in my neck of the woods, helps that the weather is excellent today. Met five visiting planes in the course of a short x-c today, loaned a vehicle to one of the crews, Glider tows happening over Clear, so much more radio traffic than back in January!
-DP

CAVU here at the cabin (Kneeland, CA). Not a bad scenario at all.



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Headed out tomorrow to guide a three day fishing trip. Did get a great flight in this evening. Will be thinking of all of our vets over the next few days. My dad was one of 9 people to survive out of his entire company during a three day battle in January 1945. He ended up wounded behind enemy lines, made his way out and spent the next 9 months in the hospital. Without all of them we would not have all of the freedoms that we enjoy today.

Pete

Well it cleared up and I managed to get out. Apparently I need to clean my belly more then every 2 years...

I finally got to take my 94 year old, World War Two Veteran grandpa for a flight in the new plane today. He flew P-40s and P-39s in the South Pacific. He got to rip around in P-51s once he got back stateside. It was an honor to share the cockpit with him again. This pic is from the gopro on a base to final turn for lunch. I hope he enjoyed it as much as i did.

North Coast this weekend. Flew most of the day. Lunch in PC, low and slow up the coast to Manzanita with several beach "spot checks" along the way. Stay safe everyone.


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Happy Memorial Day everyone. We got our first camp out of the season in and the first in the new plane. It was a nice night down at Ibex. Allen joined us and the next morning Pittsdriver and a few others dropped in to say hi. BBQing up in Idaho tomorrow with family.

Beach combing PWS. Found all sorts of junk to bring home.

On the way out to Russ's fly-in in the morning, I'm picking up an old aviator, age 95, who was a B-29 flight engineer on missions over Japan. Hope he's not too upset about riding in my new RAV4.

There are fewer and fewer of The Greatest Generation left, and so many of them died in the War, in Korea, and in Viet Nam, not to mention all those who gave all more recently in the Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

I posted this on Facebook a couple of days ago. I hope you'll all appreciate it, too.

Cary


As we celebrate Memorial Day this weekend, we are honoring our fallen military, those who gave their lives in the service of our nation. A few days ago marked the 68th anniversary of the day my Daddy gave his life, when his Wyoming Air Guard P-51 crashed near Hillsdale, Wyoming, on what was supposed to be a routine training flight. This is his story, my way of honoring him.

I remember that day as if it happened as recently as last week. It was late in the afternoon, and Ma said, “I wonder where your father is. He promised to be home early.” Then she sent us outside. My little Sister and I were playing in the front yard of our home, when a Chevy sedan squealed to a stop at the curb. Two men got out, and one of them asked if our Mommy was at home. They knocked on the door, and Ma called to us to come inside. They started to tell us what had happened, and Ma burst into tears. When it sank into my 4 year old mind that Daddy was dead, I started beating on one of the men, “You killed my Daddy!”

Eventually I calmed down, and Ma sent my Sister and me upstairs. I guess that she didn’t want us to hear the details. But I learned many years later that the details she was told were wrong.

You see, for years I was angry with Daddy for leaving us, because Ma was told that he was hot-dogging, being careless. I blamed him, because our lives were made more difficult without him; we had no TV, we had no car, we went without things that our friends had, because we couldn’t afford it. I was personally told that same story many years later, by a man who was putting together a history of the Wyoming Air Guard. That was the unofficial story, which started from the very moment the accident was first reported. But that story wasn’t true.

A few years ago, I learned the truth. From the time of the accident until only about 10 years ago, the official military accident report was classified, unavailable to anyone except those “with the need to know”. As a result, it had not been reported that Daddy’s instructor, flying in another airplane, had instructed him to do a “victory roll” without proper training and with insufficient altitude. This same instructor gave other pilots bad instruction, and others also died during that same time period because of him. But because of military secrecy, those who really should have known and could have done something about it didn’t have the information they needed. After the report was declassified, I obtained a copy.

Daddy had flown B-25s in training, but his Army Air Corps service during WWII was as a copilot in C-47s. He had been awarded the Air Medal for one of his missions, a relief flight in New Guinea which saved countless American lives. When he left the Army Air Corps and we moved to Cheyenne, it was natural for him to join the Wyoming Air Guard. Soon the Air Guard obtained a fleet of P-51s, and of course, every pilot wanted to fly that superb airplane. Because most of them had flown bombers and cargo aircraft during the War, the transition training for most of them was inadequate. They spent only 4 hours in an AT-6 military trainer (both the student and instructor in the same airplane), and then they flew the P-51 (single seaters, so that the instructor flew in another airplane).

Daddy was brand new to the P-51. The first hour in the P-51 was in the airport traffic pattern, taking off and landing. He was in only his second hour, which was supposed to be a high speed instructional cruise flight as his instructor’s wingman, getting accustomed to handling an airplane which in level flight cruised at over 300 mph. They were not supposed to do any aerobatics during that flight. In fact, aerobatics below 20,000’ above sea level were prohibited by AAC regulation during training; but they were flying at only 12,000’, when the instructor pilot ordered Daddy to follow him through a victory roll. Daddy tried, but because he had no training in aerobatics and so little experience in the airplane, he lost control while it was upside down, and it fell into a spin.

Another flight of P-51s were in the area at a higher altitude, and their pilots observed what happened. They saw Daddy’s airplane fall into the spin, and that Daddy did what he had been taught to do to get out of the spin. They reported that he succeeded in stopping the turning, but by then he was too close to the ground and could not pull up in time. You see, a P-51 makes approximately 2 1/2 turns after full anti-spin controls are used before it stops turning, and each turn causes it to lose nearly 2,500’. By then the airplane is in a steep dive, and it takes more altitude to level off. With less than 6000’ between their flight altitude and the ground, it was impossible for him to recover. He hit the ground at an enormous airspeed, and our lives were forever changed.

For awhile after learning what had really happened, I was angry with the instructor, and I was angry with all those who had misled us over the years about the details of the accident. Most importantly, though, I was no longer angry with my Daddy. What happened is in the past. Now all I want to do is honor him. He died all too soon, less than a month after his 29th birthday. He was a real hero during WWII, and he was a patriot serving his country, our country, to the end.

Thank you, Daddy, for your service, and for leaving me with a legacy of flight. I also served in the Air Force, and only 10 days after my own 29th birthday, I took my first flight lesson. For more than 43 years, I’ve been among those who, in the words of John Gillespie Magee, have “slipped the surly bonds of earth, and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings”. I would not have done any of that, without your example. I am so grateful to you.

Thanks for sharing Cary. Between your story and Evans picture they both shed light on how great our Country once was and can be. I was just saying to my wife that I was unpleasantly surprised at how little the purpose of Memorial Day has been talked about. I've been to several picnics over the last couple of days with no mention of our fallen heroes. Many people have no idea what these guys go through wether it be in the past or present. I really think a lot of people truly don't know what Memorial Day or any other patriotic holiday represents. I make it a point to say thank you or even buy a meal for anyone I see wearing that retired cap. You can look in there eyes and see that glazed sparkle when you thank them. I urge you all to get out of your comfort zone maybe and just start up a conversation. Never know where it may lead you and there is not many left from that generation.


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That's quite a story Cary. God bless you man, and Rest in Peace to all the fallen over the generations.

My nephew and I helped cook for about 250 at our church. Tri-Tip and honey dijon chicken on the Traeger grills. We started on Friday evening with prep and finished up today at about 1PM.

Eight or ten plane formation fly-over of the Veteran's Memorial, at the end of the Memorial Day Parade here. Weather willing.....

MTV