Summer Summary Pt. 4: Thunder Over Michigan 2016

     Last year I got the ride in the B-25 Yankee Warrior.  This year my mission was a ride in the B-17 Yankee Lady.  The date of the sortie was set for Sunday August 21, 2016.  There were early concerns about the weather, but the storms moved through the day before, leaving us with a favorable forecast.  We arrived just as the gates opened at 9:00 a.m. and I checked in at the flight booth right away.  Before long, we were transported to the aircraft, briefed and seated.  I took my position in the left side of the radio room as the crew went through their checklists.  Yankee Lady is a workhorse; she's used to the routine and fired right up, ready to go.
     The flight... was great.  This was my third B-17 flight, and they were all wonderful.  On this day, the sun, clouds and wind created conditions that made the aircraft dance a bit in the air... but the Yankee Lady is a graceful dancer, and it made the experience even better.  I made the most of my time in the air, explored as much of the aircraft as possible, and got a fair amout of video.  I tried to keep the video clips short; I wanted samples of all aspects of the flight, but I also wanted to put the camera down and enjoy the moment, too.  I think I succeeded in both.   I put together a movie of the experience for my YouTube channel; it can be found here: Yankee Lady Flight
     I didn't take that many still photos of the flight experience, but here are a few of my favorites:

     We flew to the west over the farmland and also orbited Ann Arbor and the U of M campus.  By the time we approached Willow Run to land, other warbirds had taken to the skies, and we were greeted by P-51s buzzing the field as we taxiied in, and the B-25 Yankee Warrior took the runway for takeoff as we cleared the active.  After we shut down and exited the aircraft, we were gathered together to help perform a ceremony of gratitude for a WWII Navy veteran who had shared the flight with us.  I didn't get his name... but it was an honor to be a part of the ceremony and capture it on video.  Mission Accomplished.

     After that experience, I thought the airshow would seem tame... possibly even boring after my extensive AirVenture exposure.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  It was a completely different show from any other I'd ever seen, and the weather conditions made for some spectacular photo opportunities.  I ended up shooting more than 850 photos... about ten times more than I thought I would.  When I uploaded them to my computer, I found myself laughing in astonishment at how the clouds, the lighting and the aircraft came together to help me capture some truly excellent photos.  It inspired me to create a slideshow for my YouTube channel.  It may seem like overkill to make two movies of the same event, but for me it was two events: the flight and the airshow.  The flight was captured by mostly video and the airshow was all photos.  The photos might be my best ever, and I didn't want to leave any out, so I had to make the slideshow.  Here's the link: Thunder Over Michigan 2016 Slideshow

     It's difficult to select just a few to share here, but I'll give you a baker's dozen for a teaser:

     The Yankee Air Museum staff in charge of organizing the Thunder Over Michigan Airshow make some great improvements over last year.  Handicapped parking was now on pavement instead of the grass field; things seemed much more organized; all the volunteers had smiles and great attitudes; the flightline layout was much-improved, allowing the general airshow attendees equal viewing access as the suite patrons... and the airshow itself was masterfully conceived and executed.  We watched the last flights from the vantage point of our excellent parking spot, and as a result getting out after the show ahead of the crowd was easy.

     I want to thank Andy McKee and Razor & Tie Music Publishing for allowing me to use Andy's music on the slide show.  I didn't want to publish this post until the slideshow was published, and I didn't want to publish the slideshow without Andy's music, and I didn't want to use his music without permission... so all's well that ends well.

     Speaking of which, well... I should end this post.  The next installment will be after the Sherwin-Williams Training Program and other ventures and adventures.  Stay tuned...

Summer Summary Pt. 3: Building My Wing Stand

     Once things had calmed down after my return from OSH, I could get back into getting more flight instruction and other prep work.  Around mid-August I bought the materials required to build my wing stand, based on these plans found on the internet, which I modified slightly.  There are a lot of different designs out there, but I liked this one the most.  It's simple and it holds the wings securely.

     I used two 10' 2x6s, six 8' 2x4s, 12' of carpet runner 26" wide with rubber backing, and four large casters (two with brakes; two without).  I cut all my lengths in advance and used good wood glue and screws to assemble it.  Instead of the stud plates shown in this drawing, I cut triangular gusset plates out of 1/4" plywood to reinforce the center studs on both sides and some side studs.  I will have to wait until I have the wings on it to determine the right anchor point for the outboard carpet ends and attach and trim them.  But it's essentially ready to go, and it was a very quick and easy build.

Summer Summary Pt. 2: AirVenture 2016

     Last year was so fantastic, I couldn't help but wonder what this year would be like.  Would it be better?  Worse?  The same?  Different?  One way or another I would find out... and as it turns out, it was all of the above.

     My planned schedule was the same as last year.  On Friday July 22 I would take the S.S. Badger across Lake Michigan, set up camp and then check into the Hilton Garden Inn for two nights.  I would begin camping Sunday, and stay until Saturday July 30 before catching the return ferry at 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning.  If a room became available Thursday or Friday night, I might book it.

     The Thursday before departure there was the usual EAA 113 general meeting, and I wanted to attend.  Since Hwy. 275 was open southbound but closed northbound, I decided to head directly to Ludington after the meeting instead of fighting congestion and losing valuable time trying to get back home.  There were other issues right from the beginning... the truck's entertainment system stopped working the minute I left, but reset after shutting the truck off (and a call to Ford Customer Service).  There were other unexpected road closures enroute, but eventually I made it up to the ferry dock and slept for a few hours in the truck.

     The sunrise was beautiful; much better than the chilly fog that greeted me last year.  I had reserved a stateroom for the round trip this time, so I slept a few more hours enroute.  In the Manitowoc Harbor there was a very low fog layer over the water, literally adding an air of mystery to our arrival.

     More road and highway construction impeded my journey from Manitowoc to OSH, but I made it safely by midday.  I set up camp in the oppressive heat and humidity, sweating buckets until I could head to the Hilton Garden Inn.  My Hilton HHonors membership allowed me the luxury of advance online check-in and I was able to secure a 3rd floor room with a runway view.

     I got set up at my favorite table at the bar and had a few drinks before dinner while taking pictures, texting with Amy and making audio recordings.  While I was there I got a call from the Grove Aircraft Landing Gear Systems saying that their production run had started, and they took my deposit on my airfoil gear.  Just another busy day as an important aviation executive.  Life was good.

     After dinner I retired to my room for some bookkeeping and an early bedtime.  I caught a beautiful sunrise the next morning... without the massive thunderstorm this time.

     After breakfast I went over to the campsite to finish some of the setup.  Although I was still in my favorite area behind the Fly-In Theater, all the good treeline spots had been reserved early with the usual camping-sticker-on-a-stick and border tape.  I decided to try a tricky little corner setup which had a good view, but the compromise was that I was directly behind the Theater screen and the access road was directly in front of my tent.  That decision would prove to be somewhat unwise as the week progressed.

     I returned to my hotel room, and I wasn't feeling very well.  I felt a pain that seemed to radiate around the right side of my abdomen from the back to the front.  After laying down for awhile I started to feel a little better, so I grabbed some beer from my cooler and took airplane photos from my room for a few hours before having an early dinner.

     Rain moved in that evening, so I spent the time in my room planning my agenda for the week.  Eventually I went down to the hotel bar to see what might be going on there.  I thought to myself, wouldn't it be funny if Steve Thorne happened to be there... and my jaw hit the floor when I walked in and saw Steve at a table with his producer James, cameraman Brock and Cessna pilot Larry who had flown them into OSH!  He waved me over to the table we all hung out for about a half hour while they waited for their ride to their overnight destination. I had planned to get together with Steve at some point during the week, and our paths did cross quite often during AirVenture, but that first chance meeting at the hotel was a pretty amazing surprise.

     I went to bed early again that evening, but thunderstorms came through in the middle of the night and woke me up numerous times.  Eventually the weather subsided, and I checked out and went over to the campsite.  I did some exploring of the homebuilt area, taking a lot of photos of RV-8s.  Here are just a few samples:

     I wanted to stay longer and explore further, but I was already exhausted,  The trams started running later than expected so I did a lot more walking than I had planned for that morning.  Some of the bike corral locations had been eliminated or moved, so I had to find the new ones and revise future routing accordingly.  The very high temps and high humidity also took their toll, and I had to return to my campsite to rest.  Later I got up and walked over to the SOS Brothers tent for dinner and spent that evening at the Fly In Theater; the features were Above And Beyond and the remastered One Six Right.

     Monday morning was bright and clear, and I awoke in time to catch the sunrise.

     I headed up to the flightline and wandered about taking photos.  When the Van's tent opened up I picked up some shirts, hats and my banquet ticket, then I headed for the Vendors Hangar area and did some more business.  I talked to Superior, Barrett, Aerotronics, Garmin, Oregon Aero and many others.  Also said hi to Steve, James & Brock at the Bose tent.  I found Scott Thompson's RV-8 in the homebuilt parking. I took a bunch of photos and left my card by his tailwheel.  I returned to my tent in time to watch the day's airshow, trying my best to enjoy it in the stifling heat and humidity.  After years of watching videos about the Martin Mars water bomber, it was excellent to watch it perform a water drop right in front of me.

     Remembering how quickly the kegs run dry at the VAF Social, I got there early and enjoyed some Spotted Cow and socializing until the abdominal pain returned, and I had to retreat to the tent until it subsided.  That evening I went up to the flightline with the intention of watching the WWI aircraft flight demonstration, chatting briefly with Kermit Weeks by his Albatross.  But suddenly things came to a halt as I sensed a commotion and saw smoke coming from the runway.  I maneuvered through the crowd just in time to see the A-26 Invader "Silver Dragon" slide to a stop on its nose, props bent and engines smoking.  The nose gear had obviously failed.  By the time I made it to the flightline boundary the crash trucks had arrived and the crew was clambering out the top rear hatch to safety; it appeared that no one was injured.  Fortunately there was no fire, and although seriously damaged, the aircraft was intact and appeared to be repairable.  Another photographer showed me some incredible photos he had gotten of the aircraft on short final, with the nose gear only partially deployed and the wheel sideways.  The crew had tried in vain to solve the problem in the air, and eventually had to face one scary landing.  A very sad sight to see, but still relieved that it didn't turn out much worse than it did.  The airport remained closed while they figured out the best way to remove the aircraft from the runway.  I wanted to attend the Martin Mars presentation at Theater in the Woods that night, but I also wanted to see the Silver Dragon raised and towed... and it was getting dark fast, so it looked like I wouldn't see either.  I watched the hot air balloons get inflated for another display that didn't happen, and eventually caught about 5 minutes of the Martin Mars Q&A, then retired.

     Tuesday morning I awoke before dawn, and took advantage of the timing to make it to the flightline to capture another great sunrise.  I took photos of the aircraft in and around AeroShell Square before grabbing the usual coffee and donuts from the Red Barn Store.  From there I headed over to the Pioneer Aerodrome to catch a couple of helicopter rides.  It was worth getting there early to be one of the first passengers.

     It was supposed to be another scorcher, and I wasn't ready to face another day of that so I decided to spend most of the day at the EAA Museum.  I caught a presentation on the SR-71 that was very interesting, and examined some of the exhibits in closer detail.  That afternoon I returned to camp to watch the second half of the airshow before attending the Vans Banquet.  I was hoping to track down Scott Thompson... and fate made that easy by putting us together in the appetizer line.  We sat together during dinner and had some good conversation... including a big surprise for me.  As it turns out, he knew someone that was my next door neighbor when I was a kid!  She had become a horse trainer, but was also an air traffic controller in CA for awhile... and so was Scott.  That just amazed me.  The banquet was a good time with good food and friends.  By the time I got back to camp, I was too tired to attend the movie at the Fly-In Theater... but I have seen The Martian several times, so I just listened to the soundtrack from my tent, visualizing the scenes until I fell asleep.

     Wednesday morning it was time for some housekeeping; battery charging, shower, etc.  My small folding stool finally collapsed for good, so I headed to the Fly Mart and found a decent replacement at a good price.  It was handily portable, and would serve me well on future trips to the flightline.  I felt like some kind of airshow soldier with the camera bag and camp chair strapped on, so I couldn't resist asking someone to take my photo.

     From there I went to the warbirds, looking for familiar aircraft and catching some activity on Runway 9/27.  Soon it was time for Budd Davisson's forum on the Pitts.  During that presentation a thunderstorm rolled through... but it was gone by the time Budd was finished, so it was really good timing.  It looked like more was on the way though, so rather than wait on trams, I walked quickly all the way from the forum area to my tent.  Made good time and got good exercise, then rested briefly before making beer run in the pickup to get some Spotted Cow stocked up for the EAA 113 Spaghetti Feed scheduled for the next night.  Watched the airshow from my campsite, had dinner at SOS Brothers, and watched the night airshow and fireworks from my campsite.

     More rain hit at midnight and carried on into early Thursday morning... and it was starting to get me down.  I've been spoiled by mostly great weather on my other OSH visits, and now I was getting a taste of the average... and my general dislike of rain was beginning to spoil the experience for me.  In between fronts, I hopped into the truck, determined to go somewhere else,,, anywhere else... I wanted to put the break in breakfast.  I eventually went into Fon Du Lac and had a good meal at Faro's Family Restaurant, which lifted my spirits.  I swung by the seaplane base and caught a glimpse of the Martin Mars anchored by the Seaplane Base.  I didn't stop because the drizzle had started up again so I went back to my campsite and grumbled in my tent.  The abdominal pain chose this time to return with a vengeance... bad... and I finally decided I'd better head to the clinic.  The staff there confirmed my suspicions that it was likely to be the early stages of kidney stones.  They suggested hyper-hydrating; drinking as much water as possible and urinating as much as possible in order to pass the crystals that eventually form the stones.  I returned to camp and followed their advice; it helped a lot, and since then I've kept hydrated and haven't had a reoccurrence.

     Later that afternoon, I felt well enough to return to the Warbird area and tour some more.  I went to the shuttle area for the north side just as more rain hit.  I had my umbrella with me, and stayed under the semi-permeable cover at the stop... but it didn't help much and I got rather wet.  Got off the bus at the Hilton to check on a room, but there were no vacancies, so I gave up on that possibility this year.  Shuttled and trammed my way back to camp, and eventually took the pickup over to the far end of Camp Schollar to Jim Trick's campsite to attend the EAA 113 Spaghetti Feed.  Fortunately the weather gave us a break, and it was a fun evening.  I returned to my campsite after dark and ended up watching The Guardian at the Fly-In Theater before turning in for the night.

     Friday morning was gray but not raining yet, so I jumped back in the truck after breakfast and got the photo of the moored Martin Mars using my zoom lens and shooting from the truck on the road between two homes.  Again, not the best day to visit the seaplane base, so went back to camp and road/trammed to the Ultralight area.  The weather was bearable, so I explored my way north from there through the classics and over by the flightline so that I would arrive at the Vintage area in time to catch some antique engine runs.  I got back to camp right before the annoying drizzle began, so I sat in the truck (by now nicknamed the Super Duty Studio) and ranted my frustration into my audio recorder.  In addition to the weather, I was also frustrated by my location.  I had a great view and it was easy to get to anywhere... but I hadn't realized how much traffic would be using the dirt road that crossed ten feet in front of my tent.  It wasn't an issue last year when it was a true dead-end; only foot traffic could use it as a through route... and my view was out the back of my campsite so I wasn't disturbed.  But this year  they widened the narrow gate to allow ATV access.  As a result, a lot of airshow workers used it as their commute route in addition to the campers.  The traffic and lack of privacy did get on my nerves quite a bit, so I learned a valuable lesson this year: keep all roads at my back at all costs.  It got even more interesting when EAA security closed that access road to all traffic Friday evening, just as I was trying to return from an ice restocking run.  They were allowing selected vehicles to pass, but warned everyone that the road would be closed completely from 5:00 p.m. to about 10:00 p.m.  That was ok with me though.  Just as the airshow started, the weather cleared and my spirits lifted.  I enjoyed chatting with the security guy posted at my end of the closure while sipping scotch and watching the airshow.  It was another great show that night with the Snowbirds topping the show.  Later on I figured out the reason for the security: Harrison Ford made an appearance at the Fly-In Theater to introduce the new Star Wars movie.  They needed to be able to get his police escort in and out of the area smoothly.  The Theater lawn was totally packed but it was easy for me to walk over and watch his entrance and introduction.  I didn't stay for the movie though... after Harrison Ford left I retreated to my tent and was asleep in no time.

      Saturday's weather was excellent.  After breakfast I headed to the forum area to catch Budd Davisson talking about aerobatics.  From there, I finally got a chance to see the Valdez STOL presentation in the Ultralight area.  Those were the last two scheduled events I had in my plans.  I could have stayed for the Saturday afternoon airshow... but to be honest, I was done, and ready to head down the road.  I packed up camp and got out of Camp Scholler at 1:00 p.m.; one hour too late to get a refund for that day, but oh well... I don't think I could have gotten out at noon in any case.  Since I had the rest of the day to kill, I decided to go around the south end of Lake Winnebago and take a scenic route that would be new to me.  On the way I decided that I would visit the EAA Seaplane Base for real.  The weather was great and it was along my route, so I paid the parking fee and made a quick tour.  Not much different from other years... except of course for that great big beautiful Martin Mars flying boat moored offshore.  That was definitely worth the admission.

     On the east side of Lake Winnebago, I saw a sign for a vista point.  I stopped in, and was glad I did.  If I lived in the area, it would have definitely been a hangout spot for me.

     The rest of the drive to Manitowoc was pleasant and relaxing.  Nice easy pace; no traffic; no crowds; beautiful country under beautiful skies.  It was just what I needed,  When I got into town I went straight to the Courthouse Pub and had a few excellent Deschutes Obsidian Stouts.  The beer tasted so good, and I was in such a good mood, it inspired me to write a song: "Beer O'Clock In Manitowoc".  Corny?  Maybe... but it was one of those songs that just wrote itself; I was just holding the pencil.  After awhile I had an excellent dinner, and headed to the Fat Seagull Fest a few blocks down.  Last year I recorded Charley Bucket there; this year I did the same thing for BoomBoxx.  Good band; good guys... good times!

     When the band finished I drove the short distance to the ferry dock, got checked in and rested on the patio chairs until the S.S. Badger arrived.  It wasn't long before I was in my stateroom snoring.  I set my alarm so that I'd have time to get up, get out and see our approach to Ludington.

     The drive home was uneventful, uncrowded and pleasant.  I wanted to stop somewhere for coffee and breakfast, but for miles and miles I was the only car on the road, and I wanted to enjoy that as long as it lasted.  I finally stopped at the Leo's Coney Island right by the house, which supplied me with the last punchline of the trip.  Even though it had been a long trip and I was tired, I guess I've got the hang of the new truck... especially the backup camera.  Check out this parking job... specifically, the bike rack straddling the post.  I should have yelled "TAA DAAA!"...

     What will next year hold?  I honestly have no idea.  If I'm still fully immersed in building, I may not want to take the week off to attend AirVenture.  Or I may have important business there.  Or I may fly in with a friend, a DCT alumnus or take another trip in the Yankee Air Museum's C-47.  I just don't know yet.... but whatever happens, it will be reported here.  But you knew that.