Kicking off the 2013 Flying Season

This last month has been quite tumultuous for my family.  We suffered the tragic death of my aunt that was visiting here on vacation.  Taking care of all the multitude of issues surrounding that event has been extremely time consuming and mentally tasking.

As a result, I wasn't able the get the Eagle ready for IAC 67's Acro Camp for my partners.  They're all quite nice about it, but I still feel I let them down.  But now the Eagle is flying again, one last little project of replacing the oil door rivets and she'll be fit for acro.  The wheel pants will take a while longer, but that can wait.

I have been flying between Renton and Everett a few times getting ready for Paine Field Aviation Day that was on May 18th.  Other than the weather forecasters scaring away a good number of our expected guests, the event was a great time!

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021013820_painefieldaviationxml.html

I had a lot of fun working with my friends, and two of the best announcers in the business, Roy Hafeli and Ken Hildebrandt of H2A2 Air Show Announcers.  They just ROCK!

So here we are at the beginning of June, and as I look at my calendar for the next four months, there will be a whole lotta flyin' going on!

Second time around.

So, in my last post I put the comment, "And once again, I'm embarking on a journey to build a flying aircraft."  Yep, this isn't my first attempt, although the first one was basically youthful dreaming.

Back in the 1980's I worked at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.  Someone had donated a collection of sad looking parts that were supposed to be a helicopter.  The MoF had little interest in the project and it was stacked behind the Red Barn under a tree and pretty much ignored.

After a year or so I approached the MoF about taking on the project myself, transporting the collection of pieces home and restoring the helicopter to its former glory.  They seemed eager to get rid of the "wreck" so I got the go ahead fairly easily.

The aircraft was the Monte Copter Model 12, not really a household name.  

A local Seattlite by the name of Maurice Ramme believed the simplicity of "cold-jet" rotor tip drive technology would make the dream of "An aircraft in every garage" a reality.  The exhaust of the engine is routed up through the rotorshaft and out the tips of the rotors.  This eliminates the need for a tailrotor as there is no torque being applied to the main rotor.

He built the Model 10 as a proof of concept vehicle.  The Model 12 was more refined and designed to test various engines.  Originally with a single O-290, 135hp piston engine, and later (as seen above) with two 160shp turbine engines.  The end result was supposed to be the Model 15 Triphibian, an helicopter with wheels and a hull for water operations.  It's Seattle after all, everyone has a boat!

Of course I thought I could restore the aircraft to flight... How hard could it be?

So I spent a summer cleaning parts and researching the design to find out as much as possible.  Never was able to find any plans or drawings though.  But that was a moot point, by mid-summer my father informed the family we were moving back overseas and there was no way he was paying for storage of the Monte Copter.

Back to the MoF it went.  They found a Boy Scout Troop that was interested in taking on the project, but when I returned from overseas, they couldn't find any contact info for them.

So now it's 2013 and I have the Acro Sport project kicking off.  Made me wonder what ever happened to the Monte Copter Model 12.  The Internet is a wonderful tool, a quick search today found this picture from 2010.

Both the Model 12 and the Model 15 are at the Classic Rotors helicopter museum in Ramona, California.  From the picture, not much has been done since I last saw her.  But I hope they do finish the restoration of such a unique aircraft.

A special kind of insanity

Lots of aviation activity this last week, three days of aerial event meetings in a row. All of them are struggling a bit with this sequestration crap, the loss of US Military support really hurts the bottom line. The average air show spectator comes out for that high tech hardware, 2013 is going to test our ability to make these events attractive for Joe Q. Public.

The weather was good enough to fly to at least one of the meetings. It was a nice break in the work day.

So, a few weeks ago I'm reading through Biplaneforum.com, like I do on a daily basis, and in the classified section is a guy selling a few sets of airplane plans, one being an Acro Sport II. So I think to myself, "Hey, that'd be cool to have those plans just in case I want to build an Acro Sport!" (That's how I ended up with my Pitts, Sonerai and Fly Baby plans...). So I post on the board, "Are the ASII plans still available?" That's when it started...

Yes, they were available, and minutes later I get a private message from another forum member, "Are you thinking of building an Acro Sport?" Loaded question. "Why yes I am." Which is followed by a picture from him of a welded up fuselage sitting on gear and he wrote something like, "Let's make a deal!" And a deal was made...

So, now I have a set of plans and fuselage sitting in my hangar next to the Wolf Pitts. And once again, I'm embarking on a journey to build a flying aircraft. The journey will not be swift, cheap or easy, but it will be gratifying.

Let the insanity begin...

Busy Weekend

Last Friday after posting here I headed on down to Renton airport to continue the dis-assembly of Double Eagle.  The group made a lot of progress over the weekend, getting the damaged gear off, and a temporary set installed, removing the wing and clearing the area for the welder to do his magic on the fuselage.

I met with the welder this morning, it's going to be a bigger job than hoped to fix the left side tubing.  He's bringing another experienced aircraft welder to the airport this weekend, hopefully we'll have an assessment thereafter on time and expense.

The gear will be shipped out this week once Grove confirms they can fix our set.  And we will be dropping off the wing with our A&P on Wednesday.  There still are a lot of items to do for the condition inspection, so we'll be busy for a while.

So the middle of last week I get an email from my friend Jerry asking if I would be willing to fly is Cessna 172 from Boeing Field to Ephrata to pick him up after he drops off his Extra 300 there for the season.

The weather was predicted to be beautiful, his Cessna just had all sorts of new electronic goodies installed and I really didn't need to be in the Eagle hangar all day... 

...So off I went!

 

The Northwest just rocks when the sun is out!

 

I enjoyed playing with the new Aspen and Garmin equipment.  Now that we have decided to upgrade the panel of N2134Y, perhaps I should make some suggestions.

One last thought, on Friday I got on my soapbox about the pending tower closures.  I received a couple emails from that post, one criticizing my point and saying other funding sources weren't an option.  In this morning's aviation press I see an article about the Texas Department of Transportation having made the decision to fund the towers in their state that are on the chopping block.  Yes, it is possible to keep the towers open, if the desire is there.

My Thoughts on Tower Closures

There seems to be, as always, a lot of misinformation and sound bytes being bantered around about the pending closure of 149 control towers.  Much of the blame in the public outcry, Washington DC and the press is laid upon the FAA's feet.

However, that doesn't seem to be where it should lie.  Yes, the FAA did cut funding for all the contract towers that aren't getting additional Congressional funding.  But that doesn't mean the towers have to close.  That just means the FAA isn't going to pay for them.

You see, a tower does not have to be funded by the FAA.  The controllers in these 149 towers are employees of a private company.  That company could very well continue to offer controller services from other sources of funding.  For instance, a city owned airport could continue the funding of a tower if they felt it was a necessity for their airport.

Here is some text from the FAA Guidance in regards to these tower closures:

When the FAA ceases funding for control tower operations, the airport operator has a choice. The airport operator may choose to operate as a non-towered airport. The airport operator may also choose to continue providing tower services as a non-Federal control tower. The decision made by the airport operator will most likely affect what happens with the existing tower structure and the equipment inside.

So, bottom line is that it's not the FAA's "fault".  If blame has to be assigned, look at the airport owners and companies that provide tower controller services.

Now it's time to go to the hangar and work on the Eagle...

Just when you think you're ahead of the game...

Lots of stresses in life at the moment... work, vendors, family and now airplane woes again...

Unfortunately one of my partners took a wild ride while landing the Eagle yesterday, ground looped her on his second landing of the day.  While he walked away no worse for wear (thankfully!), Double Eagle has been admitted to intensive care for some first aid.

Initial inspections show that we need to replace the gear, wheel pants, one wheel, and all the gear mounting hardware.

  

The right wingtip scraped along the ground for a bit, so at least some fabric work will be needed.  I stuck a bore-scope through a rip in the fabric to see if there was any damage, didn't see anything of significance.  But a closer look will be needed at the spar and aileron attach points.

Along with this damage, the fuselage tubing is broken on both sides by the landing gear.  There is a suggested reinforcing of this area by the factory, I think it's time we do that mod.  Even though it means taking the engine off the airplane.  Hell, I did that with the Wolf Pitts six times last summer!

We have an aerobatic training camp in May, so the goal is to get her flying again in April.  It'll take a lot of work, but I think the group can do it.  Tomorrow I meet with some A&P's to review my initial assessment.  Hopefully I'm not too far off...

Sunny Saturday

Had a board of directors meeting for the Arlington Fly In yesterday and the weather was forecasted to get clear and sunny about half way through the meeting. Leaving home I checked weather and despite the cold, the ceilings were nice and high.

Off to the airport, pulled out the Wolf Pitts and headed up to the meeting. Afterwards, one of the attendees, Mark Peterson, caught me on video leaving on my way home. It's a great 7 minutes showing the activities you see on a sunny Saturday here in the Great Northwest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2_ycxNOK68

Playing Catch Up

Dammit.  Three months into the new year an no posts?  What's up with that?  Not a whole lot of actual flying for me recently, but that's about to change.

December was the ICAS convention in Vegas.  That's were the whole air show family gets together to plan out the next year.  The Federal budget is wreaking havoc on the air show industry, causing cancellations of all military support and many, if not most, big air shows on bases.  Sad state of affairs.

Other than some fun IAC, WPA and PSAAC club meetings, only one other notable event.  Attended the Northwest Council of Air Shows (NWCAS) the first weekend in March.  Got to climb into the cockpit of the Shuttle Trainer and get a personal tour by John Creighton.  That along with a great presentation earlier in the day on U-2 operations by "Huggy" Huggins made for a very educational day!

 

Next up is the annual Condition Inspection for the Eagle.  Then Paine Field Aviation Day and Acro Camp in May.

See you in the pattern!

Flying Home

The second weekend in November was the Tequila Cup acro contest.  I had left my Pitts in Tucson after the US Nationals with the plan of flying the Cup and then home. 

The weekend before we flew commercial down to Phoenix to visit some friends and family.  And me being who I am, we stopped by the Scottsdale Air Fair to check out that event.  It's a small event but had a number of jets there that surprised me.  Well done!

The Tequila Cup contest went fine, it was nice to get one more in at the end of the season.  There were some fun events around the contest, but most of all hanging with my friends was the best.  In the end, I did walk away with third place in Intermediate.  Next year... Advanced!

The flight home was a great end to the two month round trip.  It took a day longer than anticipated due to weather.  Not sure if I'd want to make this trek again in Winter while flying a heaterless, drafty airplane!

Monday the 12th

KAVQ KBLH KAPV KMAE KDVO

Nothing too exciting this day.  Lots of desert, frustrated that the batteries fell out of my camera before Edwards and I couldn't reach them.  Thought for a second about taking the ones out of my GPS, but decided better of it...  I was amazed at the smog as I crossed the hills east of the LA Basin.  Persisted well north of the metro area.

Tuesday the 13th

KDVO KRDD KLMT KLKV 

This day was a bit more challenging.  Clouds were at the top of the hills crossing from Redding to Klamath Falls.  No real options in case of power failure other than the occasional clearing and my chute.  Once north of Klamath Falls, the clouds went from the surface to over 10,000, I was at both those extremes.  After a bit of back and forth, called it a day and headed for Lake County hoping for cheap hangar, car and hotel.

During my search for a path to Redmond, I was using flight following, which wasn't an issue at 10K.  When I decided to take a peek underneath, I lost radar services at about 7K.  Center notified me that I was too low and radar services were terminated, to which I acknowledged and squawked VFR.  I guess they never heard my radio call.  After I had been in Lakeview for an hour or so I got a call from the FAA saying they were looking for me.  That was shortly followed by a call from USAF SAR.  And not long after that a message through this board from a member who works for the NTSB asking how I liked Lakeview!

Lesson learned, when Center says services terminated, frequency change approved, hang around on the freq for a minute to make sure they heard you acknowledge!

Wednesday the 14th

KLKV KBDN KDLS KTTD KRNT

Based on the weather briefing, this should have been a fairly straightforward flight.  Bend was not my original choice for a stop, I wanted to land at Redmond to check it out.  However, en-route from Lake County it went from clear to 200' overcast.  As I approached I could see a band of low clouds covering about a 10 square mile area.  But Bend was clear so no problem scooting over there.

The hop to The Dalles was without issue.  From there it should have been non-stop to Renton.  However, north if the metro Portland area clouds were to the ground and a solid overcast beyond.  So I turned around and landed at Troutdale, grabbed some fuel, warmed up and checked WSDOT webcams.  By then Kelso and Toledo were under big holes.  Fired up to head north and go over on top.  However, by then it had cleared underneath so I just shot up I-5 to Chehalis, then direct to over Puyallup and on home.

Overall a fun and challenging cross country.  Cold and weather played a big role in decision making, some better than others.

I took a number of pictures, if interested.

The Rest of September's Adventure

Well, I made it all the way to Texas, and then on to Tucson. My schedule was pretty packed so I wasn't able to make regular updates as I had hoped. 

Rawlins, Wyoming was a neat surprise.  The guy at the FBO came out to guide me to a parking spot and immediately pulled out his camera and started taking pictures.

He couldn't have been more friendly, even brought the (free) courtesy car out to the airplane so didn't have to carry my bag across the ramp.  The car was great, a mid-1990's Thunderbird with a stick shift! Actually pretty fun to drive.  Off I went in search of a hotel room, of which there weren't many.  Lots of hotels, but all booked.  Finally found one with a restaurant and after a crappy steak, headed off to bed.

The next stop was Greeley, Colorado.  A nice airport with friendly staff in the very modern FBO.  While refueling, ran into another IAC member and Skybolt pilot that was local to the field.  Damn if I can remember his name though... Had to tear myself away from biplane and acro talk to get on with my journey.

In Hugoton, Kansas a local pilot observed that my little Pitts wouldn't be so great for dusting crops. Guess I won't bother going to duster school...  That was a long leg of my flight, the last 20 minutes I just wanted OUT of the cockpit.

My last stop before my destination was Elk City, Oklahoma.  Yet another character of an airport employee.  Guided me to a parking spot a few feet from the fuel truck, but on the wrong side.  Repositioned the truck by drive down the ramp 100 yards or so.  Kept me laughing with his political commentary of current events. 

From there it was a straight shot to Denison and the US National Aerobatic Contest!

Had a great time at Nationals again, I can see how going can be addicting. Once you start to create the friendships with folks around the country, you look forward to seeing them every year. They always have one or two photographers there, you can see all the pictures here. I ended up 11th out of 19 in my category, not too bad considering I hadn't flown the Wolf Pitts most of the summer!

Once the Nationals was over, I had to wait one more day for the weather to clear.  But on Sunday the 30th I launched for Marana, Arizona.  The first stop was Sweetwater, Texas.

I swear the guy there walked straight out of a Dukes of Hazard episode.  It was fantastic!  Rebel flag hat, cut off shirt, homemade tattoos... Couldn't have scripted it better myself.  I poke fun but he was really friendly and ran back inside to get a camera to take pictures of the Wolf Pitts.

Next was Pecos, Texas, a small town pretty much on the Mexican border.  A really nice couple was at the airport office and she guided me to a parking spot while he got the gas truck.  I didn't stay too long as there were some thunderstorms brewing. She offered some free water after I paid for the fuel.  Had to make sure the cows grazing by the runway didn't decide to cross during my takeoff roll...

Had to navigate around the line of thunderstorms to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  They must have stretched 100 miles north.  After a while I heard one of the other competitors trying to communicate with Albuquerque Center to find a way around the storms, but they couldn't get clear communications.  After a bit of frustration on both ends, I offered up the route I had just flow to the other pilot via Center.  Thankfully, she heard me just fine and was able to get around them safely.

A quick gas stop at Las Cruces and I was racing the sunset to Tucson.  I must say, the landscape from Pecos to Tucson was some of the most desolate and beautiful I've seen.  I'll have to go back and explore someday.  Shortly before sunset I made it to Marana and was met with a beer from my friend Will Allen, he'd arrived there a day earlier.

Now the Wolf Pitts is tucked away in Arizona awaiting my return to bring her home.  But first, we'll fly the Tequila Cup aerobatic contest in November.

Washington to Wyoming

It all looked so simple during planning. Plug the airports into the GPS, climb to 11,500 for the best winds and enjoy the view. Oh... no.... Can't be that easy! Just for fun, Mother Nature decided to throw in a bunch of smoke from forest fires!

Had to double back once north of Boise, the smoke got so think I couldn't see the ground anymore. Never did see Boise, and I was within 10 miles of downtown! Wasn't until Wyoming that visibility got above 5 miles.

The front of my airplane has a thin layer of ash on it from the fires. All that crap is floating up there for us to suck in our engines and lungs. Pretty amazing.

Spending the night in Rawlins, Wyoming. This is as far as I could get safely before sunset. I was ready anyway to get out of the cockpit, 5 hours is a lot when most of my flights are only 15 minutes!

Tomorrow I'll stop in Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma before arriving in Texas. Unless the smoke is thick in the morning, there's no reason not to finish the journey tomorrow.

More then!

Practice is Over!

The fifth day of practice has come to an end here is smoky Ephrata. Over 200 forest fires in Eastern Washington has severely reduced visibility. Made for some interesting training when you can't see the horizon!

Many, many thanks to the exceptional Lew Shattuck for spending his time driving all the way over here  to provide me my own personal aerobatic camp!  He is a critiquer extraordinaire, clearly explaining and fixing problems with my flying.  I am extremely fortunate for his assistance.

While at Nationals, I'll be sharing the Wolf Pitts with an Aussie named Ben. He came here to Ephrata to get familiar with N240WP, and did quite well for the most part. He'll be some competition down in Texas.  It's cool to watch someone else fly the Wolf Pitts, otherwise I never get to hear how wonderful the airplane sounds!  Ben is a good pilot and he's taking care of the airplane, can't ask for much more.

Tomorrow morning I start my trek to Texas. I'm hoping to make it to at least Rock Springs, Wyoming.  Maybe Laramie, or maybe even Cheyenne, but probably not.  The key is to just go one leg at a time and see where I end up.

Should be some fantastic scenery....

Renton to Ephrata

Well, the first leg of my journey is complete. Chose to leave a day early as the weather is supposed to turn ugly overnight and that would have kept me in Seattle until the afternoon or even Sunday.

The first cross country flight after major maintenance is always a little unnerving. But except for a few (imagined) noises, everything was fine.

Passed four impressive forest fires, but silly me had my camera and cell phone where I couldn't get to them. The picture below is of the sun around 6pm in a cloudless sky. The iPhone camera doesn't do it justice, the color was a deep pink.

Now to get ready for five days for practice to get back in the groove...

Cutting Corners

One of my key mentors in airplane ownership is a guy named Dave Womeldorff. He was the driving force behind the creation of my Eagle partnership back in the late 1970's and has taught me a lot about maintaining airplanes.

He has a couple mantras that are painfully true. "Anything you do, you'll do three times before it's right." and "There's a right way and a wrong way."

After my initial test flight there was a bit of oil leaking. We identified the culprit, the oil pressure line fitting, but to fix it required removing the engine... again... Something I wasn't too hip on.

The general consensus was that it would be fine for my trek to Texas and I could wait until I got back to fix it proper. One suggestion I got, and followed, was to put some fuel tank sealant around the fitting. That slowed down the leak quite a bit.

"There's a right way and a wrong way."

That phrase kept me up at night. Dammit. So yesterday I pulled the engine to fix the fitting. Removed the sealant gooped on there and put some correct thread sealant on the fitting.

Still leaked. Dammit.

Got a new fitting and again, pulled the engine to replace the fitting entirely. Turns out I did damage it while putting it in and that's where the new leak was from.

9 hours after I got to the airport the engine was started for a second time... NO LEAKS!

"Anything you do, you'll do three times before it's right."

1. Sealant
2. Damaged fitting
3. New fitting

Funny how he's so right on all this...

Tomorrow the adventure begins!

Flying Truck

Helped a friend out today by transporting his broken canopy to a shop for repair. The traffic between Renton and Arlington is abysmal weekdays, it could easily be a 4 hour project to get there and back.

In an airplane, 25 minutes each way.

These are the times I'm glad I keep my share in the Cessna partnership.

Well now..... did I ever drop the ball on this one, eh?  Not a single post since May, and yet I've done so much this Summer of 2012!  Let's see...

• Flew out to Ranger Creek May 12 to help clean up the strip for the summer.
• Was the Air Boss for Paine Field General Aviation Day on May 19th.
• Organized the Great Northwest Air Race III on June 16th.
• Competed in the Eagle at Apple Cup on June 22nd & 23rd.
• Was the Air Boss for the Freedom Fair Wings & Wheels on July 1st and Air Show on July 4th.
• Was Air Ops Manager for the Arlington Fly In July 11th through15th.
• Flew the Eagle to Cut Bank, Montana for the CAN-AM Aerobatic Challenge on July 27th and 28th.
• Was the SeaFair Air Boss for both the Fleet Arrival and Boeing Air Show the first week in August.
• Flew down to Lewiston with PSAAC to run the Snake River in a jet boat on August 11th.
• Was the Contest Director and a safety pilot for the Beaver State Aerobatic Contest on August 24th & 25th.
• And just completed a gig as Air Boss at the Vintage Aviation Weekend on September 1st.

And through all that continued to work on the Wolf Pitts and run my business.  >>whew!<<  No wonder I'm so tired!  But now the Wolf Pitts is back in the air with all new hoses, some new baffling and a number of overhauled components.  And I'm about to embark the be biggest adventure of the summer!

This weekend I'm doing some advanced spin training with Rich Stowell.  One of my Eagle partners convinced him to come to Seattle and do some one-on-one work with a group of us.

On the 15th I'll be heading to Ephrata for 5 days of aerobatic training, then off to Grayson County Airport in Denison, Texas for the US Nationals.  I will make it a point to update the blog during the trek there the contest, and then to Tuscon where I plan to leave the Wolf Pitts until a contest in November.

Let the fun begin!

Trials and Triumphs

As March drew to a close, the Eagle's condition inspection was complete and she was airborne again, it was time to turn my attention to the Wolf Pitts.  One diversion first, help a fellow Eagle pilot with a fuel flow issue he'd been having.  Checked the whole system but found no issues other than the wobble pump couldn't be opened to look at the filter.  Someone had put some Lock-Tite type adhesive on the threads and it was very difficult to open.  So we removed it for him to send out for rebuild, hopefully the state of the filter will tell us more.

So back in February I had a fuel line fail, which was a signal to me to replace my hoses, 15 years is long enough on one set.  Two other needed projects included removing the right magneto for it's 500 hour inspection (about 500 hours late..) and removing my wobble pump for overhaul.  It gets very difficult to operate when the temperature rises above 85 degrees.

Down to the hangar I go with wrench in hand!  First off, get the fluids out of the system, fuel and oil.  Lift the tail, open the fuel drain and start emptying into 5 gallon cans.  Then I open the oil quick drain valve to empty the case.  Eventually, I see oil all over my drip pan.  Huh, everything from the drain valve is going into my oil can, whats up?  Big streak of oil down the firewall... uh oh...

As the season ended in 2011, I noticed more and more oil on the belly.  I spent a couple weekends chasing down possibilities when I found that a number of my hose clamps were loose.  Triumphantly, I tightened them all thinking I found the oil leak.  Nope, if found an oil leak.  Turns out my prop governor is leaking where it mates to the adapter plate.

A quick assessment revealed the only way to properly remove the governor is to pull the engine off the airplane. Crap.

I haven't even started my annual condition inspection yet and I'm looking at $2,500+/- in new parts, inspections and repairs.  Gotta love airplane ownership!!

Don't get me wrong, I love the Wolf Pitts and wouldn't trade it for any other airplane out there.  And I knew that I was facing issues like this before I ever got in her to fly home.  15  years and 1000 hard aerobatic hours are tough on an airframe.  But as he current caretaker, I'm glad to put in the time.

But I need to end this post on a high note...  Last Saturday was Arlington Airport Appreciation Day.  Since KAWO does so much for the Arlington Fly In and has to be the greatest general aviation airport on the planet, I felt that I had to take part.  I hopped up with the Eagle and flew a few Young Eagle rides.

My favorites were two 16 year old twins that had never been in an airplane before.  Not even a big aluminum mailing tube.  They showed up at 8am to help set up and planned on leaving after helping tear everything down.  When we had to wait for a rain burst to pass through, they offered to help wipe down the Eagle.  Very polite and considerate boys.

The flights were great, both did a fantastic job flying the airplane, both showed some real enthusiasm and wonder at the experience.  That is the reason I like to fly Young Eagles.  Unfortunately, kids like these are far and few between.  I hope it made a big enough impression that we'll see them around the airport again.

Ended the day with watching a local B-26 Invader pilot beat up the pattern at Renton when I got back.  The sound of the radials is pure heaven....

Last weekend was a busy flying weekend... finally!

Friday I had a meeting up at Paine Field in Everett for a Aviation Day planning.  It was a beautiful day other than the choppy turbulence.  Got a little lost taxiing on the airport with all the 787's and 747's parked all over the place awaiting engines.  Sorry, no pics of that this time, I'll get some at the next meeting.

The flight home was very serene with some great cloud formations over the Cascades and Olympics.

Saturday morning I had a Manager's meeting for the Arlington Fly In.  Another beautiful flight with a few low clouds in the valleys.  But this flight, both ways, was quite smooth.

That afternoon I flew one more time.  This was an aerobatic flight, no pictures, can't have loose items  floating around the cockpit.  This flight was with another pilot from Germany, he flies competition over there and was in Seattle to take delivery of a 737 for the airline he works for.  We had fun as he flew the Eagle, an airplane he's not that familiar with.  We put +6 and -4 on the G-meter in a few flubbed maneuvers.

Talking with him re-enforced how lucky we are to live and fly in the US.  Costs and regulations in Germany are quickly making flying the realm of only those of means.  $12/gallon gas.... flight plan requirements... landing fees... licensing requirements and costs....  We certainly are privileged, but must never give up the fight to keep it that way!