The Shop

Another great day to fly today, so I made the half hour hop over to Darke Co. - Versailles (KVES) to visit my family. I made an easy 160 knots at 2450 rpm and the air was glass smooth at 3500'. Visibility was good, but we're getting to the point in a nice lingering high pressure area when it starts getting hazy. I give it a 50-50 chance that we get reduced visibility over the next few days, and I am convinced that my forecast is at least as reliable as what you can get on TV given that their forecasts are only right about half the time, as conventional wisdom has it anyway.

The first task of the fly-in visits is to take my gal pal Faygo for a walk. You may remember her from a previous posting:



The weeds are in full bloom, and I could feel the pollen making an assault on the back of my throat, but you have to admit that they grow some pretty fine looking weeds out in the country:





After lunch, I went to visit my brother's shop. It's always interesting to see what he's working on, but I'm particularly interested in the status of the lawn statue he's been making for me. He's always been both mechanically and artistically talented, but this thing just blows me away:



It's made out of 3/16" or 1/4" steel plate, and it weighs at least 35 or 40 pounds. I'd guess the wing span to be about a yard. The propeller is cut out of tempered glass. He had a stand, also steel, done for it that stood around eight feet high and positioned the airplane as if it were in the second quarter of a loop, but he's decided to change that and replace it with something different. Once that's done, the statue will be installed in my front yard for all to see. I can't wait!

A couple of other neat things were going on, including another addition to the MG collection, which now is up to three cars:



Propped against a wall was my old racing kart:



I ought to dust that thing off and see if I can get a few bucks for it on eBay. The engine might still be worth something, but I doubt if a chassis that old would be competitive. I could drive it around in my neighborhood, but it's a fair bet someone would complain about the noise or the fact that I was ripping around at 70mph. I know I would!

This was old Harley was another new arrival:



It's apparently a 350cc Italian-built model from back in Harley's difficult years in the mid-70s.

The flight back was a bit bumpier, as was the landing for a MadCo fuel stop. I'm having a real problem with the narrower runways at the county airports, but I'm making terrific wheel landings back at Bolton. I think I'm flaring high over the narrower runways, but if it were the width of the runway causing problems with my height perception (which can happen according to the pilot training books) I would expect to be flaring too late, not too early. The narrower runway would make me think I was higher than I actually was, not lower. Well, for whatever reason a large portion of my landings at anyplace but Bolton have been pretty far below standards. Not that little things like that detract for another great day in the RV, though, because they most certainly don't. It's just a personal score card kind of thing and I've been in a bit of a slump lately.