Breriot XI bis, First US Air Mail, 1911

Of course there was lots of air show goings on. There was flight after flight of War Birds including the only flying B-29, “Fifi.” Every hour we would watch the departure of two airliners from the 1920’s; a pair of Ford Tri-Motors.
We were able to walk almost right up to the active runways and watch the planes landing and later departing. It is an amazing sight to watch two and even three small general aviation airplanes landing on the same runway at the same time. Then a minute later two or three more planes do it again. We listened in on the air traffic controller’s frequency with my hand-held Ham radio. Instructions would go something like this… “Cessna over the gravel pit, waggle your wings. Good waggle, you are number two to land on runway 27, cleared to land on the green dot.” The second later it was… “Citation, as soon as you have you plane under control, turn left into the grass, follow the volunteers to parking, welcome to Oshkosh.” Each runway had a set of huge painted dots at 1/3 and 2/3 of the runway. Each was a different color, red, green, purple and pink. I kept thinking what if the pilot is color blind?

Traffic Jam at EAA Flyin on last day

Classroom Team: Mike, Dave and Gary Fabric Covered a Horizontal Stabilizer

Frazier Lake Airport from the Air

Judy, Glen and I headed over there on Saturday, December 4^th. Here is a photo of the airport from the air. I borrowed it from the airnav.com web page since we were flying low when we arrived at the airport. From the photo you can see two of this unique airport’s features. It has two parallel runways, the first is designated 5/23 indicating it runs from north east to south west. This runway is made of grass sod. The only one in the state of California. The second parallel runway is designated 5W/23W. Take a close look at the photo and see if you can determine what the “W” stands for.

Wright Whirlwind Engine and Cowling

The day we visited the grass sod runway was closed and we were able to walk out on the runway. It is 100 feet wide and 2500 feet long. Interestingly enough the taxiways are paved. The runway has a nice crown and it is perfectly level from end to end.

Many of the hangers were open to the public, and the owners were always keen to tell you about their airplanes. The most popular airplane was the Piper J3 Cub and several closely related Pipers from the early years of flying. Many of the Pipers were resplendent in their Piper Yellow livery. Several more were in various stages of restoration. Probably half of the aircraft based at this field are antiques and there is a good sprinkling of experimental on-of-a-kind aircraft also.

Curtis Wright Flying Service from 1929

We were nearing the end of the rows of hangers before we came upon Jerry’s hangers. We ooh’d and aah’d over his 1945 vintage Taylorcraft, and then he showed us his pride and joy, his 1929 Travel Air. Jerry has spent twenty one years restoring this aircraft to mint condition. Jerry has been flying it since 2007 and has won several grand prizes at antique aircraft competitions.

Jerry and the Tail Feathers of the Travel Air

I took some other photos but the strong backlight from the door washed them out.

Have you figured out my earlier question? The designation 5W/23W is for a water landing area.They have literally dug a 3000 foot ditch, 60 feet wide and about

Wright Aircraft Engines Spinner

If you happen by Gilroy on the first weekend of any month, it would be worth your effort to look up this little puddle-jumper airport. While you are in the neighborhood look up the Wings of History Museum in nearby San Martin.

You might find our RV parked out front and I might be inside helping to restore an antique airplane.

Holiday greetings from Gilroy and hugs for everyone.

Gary and Judy

Glen Preps the Cabinet

This project started at Christmas time, 2009. This link will take you to Glen’s, “Salty Geek” blog for commentary on the construction details. After waiting for a couple months for the paint to dry, Glen decided to strip the latex paint off and we have now opted for automotive paint. That brings us to the Prop Shop. Gary and grandson Patrick are volunteers at the Wings of History Museum. We got permission to use the Prop Shop paint booth and spray equipment to do the project over the weekend. The project started when Gary and Patrick drove to Hollister, CA on Friday and assembled the supplies to paint a primer and Raven Black Acrylic finish on the cabinet.

Glen is Priming the Cabinet

On Saturday Glen and I worked through the afternoon getting two coats of primer on. Then on Sunday we sanded most of it back off to get a nice smooth substrate for the finish coat.

Our quart of Raven Black was barely enough to coat everything. We spent most of the time Sunday afternoon watching paint dry. Even at that we rushed the last coat on the doors. We had used paper towels to protect the stool we were using to position the doors for painting. You guessed it; the paper towels stuck to the paint on the back sides of the doors. We saved the last of the paint in the gun, (about an ounce,) and we will sand the fibers out and blend the scarred area with a paint pen. (I hope) Our fall-back position will be to create a vibrant graphic in two panels detailing the operation of the filters. We will laminate them and mount them strategically on the backs of the two doors. It is cheaper than buying more paint.

If any of our readers are going to be in the Gilroy, (San Jose,) area of California this weekend we invite you to drop by and visit us. We will be helping out at the Wings of History Museum’s annual open house and fly-in. It is beside the South County Airport in San Martin, CA. Here are the co-ordinates, N 37 04.721, W 121 36.064. Yes, you can fly-in, but there is plenty of parking also. We will be glad to show you around the museum, even the Prop Shop and paint booth. Here is a link to Wings of History. After volunteering we will once again start moseying back toward the Pacific Northwest.

We will see all of our Oregon friends when we get there.

Gary and Judy

First and foremost we are still traveling, and still having fun. We have been doing this for five and a half years now. This year we relocated 101 times and that is in line with previous two years. In 2005 we toured Canada all the way to Newfoundland and moved 169 times. Similarly in 2007 we moved 125 times on our trip to Alaska. In 2009 we drove 10,504 miles and that averages about 104 miles per move.

Besides the mileage on Arcturus, we also ride and walk a lot. We rode Path another 2086 miles, walked 236 miles and canoed 4.7 miles.

For the past three weeks we have been hanging out in Gilroy with our son’s family. For New Year’s Eve we attended a party with them at Allen V. ‘s home. Allen is the Scoutmaster for the grandsons’ scout troups. The feature dish for the feast was the Italian dish bagna caoda. The dish was a lot like a vegetable fondu. The pot contained a lethal mixture of olive oil, sardines and lots of garlic. It was delicious, but it was an eight Tums night.

Tomorrow we will be back on the road headed for southern California to Indeo for an RVer’s rally. We usually run into many of our RV friends at these rallys. Perhaps we will see some of you there.

Security Airster Wing Spar With Bushings in Place

Turning a Bushing

I have been volunteering at the Wings of History Air Museum. Here are a couple photos of the wing spar for the Security Airster showing the bushings I have been turning on the lathe. The bushings help spread the stress where metal parts meet the spruce spars. You can check out other work I have done at the museum by clicking the “museums” tag in the Tag Cloud at the left side of the screen.

Good bye and Happy New Year from Gilroy California.

Gary and Judy

At that time I was helping build a new wing for a Pietenpol, “Air Camper” that had landed in a plowed field after an engine failure. When I got back today the crew was still working on the wings for the Pietenpol. They have the fabric stretched over the left wing and it has been stretched drum tight and saturated with nitro dope.

Our task today was to finish stitching the fabric to the ribs of the wing. Two persons stand on opposite sides if the wing which is upturned in a cradle. The one person with a twelve inch needle and a long hank of waxed string starts by pushing the needle through one of the pre-marked and punched stitching holes in the fabric. The second person watches for the shadow of the needle and the prick of the point and guides the first person until the needle slides through the hole. You then pull through most of the string and slide the needle through the marked hole on the opposite side of the rib. Guided by prompts from the first person you try to stab the needle through the hole next to the starting point. The first person ties a special knot and leads to the next set of holes.

There are over thirty ribs on this wing and the tying stations are about every four inches, so you can see that there are hundreds of stitches that must be made. At first I was helping Vern and Todd doing the catching and returning from the top side of the wing. By the end of the day they had taught me to tie the knots so I could do either job.

I have a couple of photos on the web site, see www.dinsmore-enterprises.com/20091103.html

Today we welcome a new reader to our tribe. Sophia of Santa Clara.

And now to all our friends and relations across the country; Don’t forget to take time to have some fun.

Gary and Judy

Todd Knotting a
Stitch on the Under Side of the Wing

The Pietenpol Left Wing Last May

Many times over the years I have returned to my modeling roots, but mostly these days I get my thrills by flying the Microsoft Flight Simulator program.

These last two weeks I have been able to play with the real thing, so to speak. I have been volunteering my time at the Wings of History, Air Museum. This group meets for about five hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and they restore antique aircraft. I have joined forces as a rote apprentice with Steve and Jerry and I am helping restore a 1934 Pietenpol “Air Camper” designed by Bernard Pietenpol to be built by home builders in the grand old days of barn-stormers. It uses a Ford, Model “B” engine for power. Our task is to build a right wing for the aircraft to replace one destroyed in a landing incident. So far all our efforts have been centered around duplicating the broken wing spars out of two of the most beautiful straight grained spruce beams I have ever seen. We spend hours meticulously measuring the broken wing and the intact left wing and duplicating the position of every fitting and rib assembly on the new spars.

The longer story of the “Air Camper” is that it was restored by this same group last year. One of the pilots flew the restored aircraft to an air show fly-in and returned to San Martin. A second fly-in was planned but part way there the Model “B” engine seized up. Now the “Old Pilots’” definition of a “successful landing” is one that you get to walk away from. An “excellent landing,” on the other hand, is one where you can use the aircraft again. The pilot made a “successful” dead stick landing in a plowed field.

What a thrill to work with these pioneers of aviation, the people and the aircraft. These folks are intensely interested in these antique airplanes. One gentleman, showing me around the grounds brought me up in front of the most derelict skeleton of a fuselage and glowed as he explained the wonderful qualities of the airplane and showed me bare wing skeletons propped up in a rack behind the museum. Through his eyes I could almost see the trim lines of an Avro “Avian” rolling along a grass runway and climbing into the sky.

Here is a link to the Wings of History web site and the Pietenpol “Air Camper”

We are still in the Gilroy California area. We will be watching grandson, Cody graduate from high school on Saturday. The weather is predicted to be toasty warm. And yes I see what you folks are getting in the Pacific Northwest. We will try to drag some of this sunny weather along with us when we come.

Love to all, Gary and Judy.

P-38 Lightning Control Line Model,Wingspan 36" Power: Cox Thimble Drone 0.049 cu. in. model airplane engines. Built c. 1956

Your tart lemon filling, such a rich golden hue;
The meringue peaks and valleys, delightful to view;
Until April each year I must wait.

The tart taste of lemons, an aroma so fine;
A crisp golden shell, so complete and divine;
I get a year older with haste.

Once such a prize, with a friend I did stake;
Play chess; to the winner, a present we’d make.
We’d both win in the end, it was fate.

Our wives caught on; compared notes so they did;
“Lost again? Tisk tisk, who’re you trying to kid?”
Now rationed you are by my Mate.

Here is the story of Judy’s wonderful lemon meringue pie. You see I once was a bachelor. Oh yes, I know it seems like a century ago, but time passes fast when you are having fun, and to me it seems like only a few weeks ago. My sisters and sisters-in-law are laughing now, it has been a wonderful forty four years.

I digress! Once when I was a young man this wonderful lady would bake me a pie to take back with me to my lonely railroad depots. I would think lovely thoughts of her all week long. Her father never complained to me, but he must have noticed the wonderful aroma of a lemon meringue pie or a cherry cream pie and then never even get a taste. Well of course I married that lovely young lady and over the years she has always made ‘the’ best lemon meringue pie, bar none.

Once a friend and I cooked up a cute little scheme to get more pie. We played correspondence chess. That is where you write the moves on a piece of paper and pass the game back and fourth each day at work. It would take a couple weeks to play a full game. To make it interesting we would bet a slice of our wives’ lemon meringue pie. Of course we were careful to take turns loosing so one wife didn’t get overburdened. You realize that even the looser got some pie also. In fact the looser stood to get at least a couple slices of pie and the winner would only get one. But of course the looser needed to have his ego assuaged more than the winner.

As fate would have it the gal’s started comparing notes and we got busted. I think that is about when the rationing started happening. Sure it was more than once a year, but as likely as not the pie was for the Church bazaar. (So that is how Judy’s Dad, Pat, must have felt.) I would have to stand in line to buy a slice of my own pie. To top that off Judy’s pies always attracted a lot of attention and if I didn’t get there early enough the plate would be empty.

Now I must wait until my birthday each year for my Lemon Meringue Pie and for our anniversary each February for my Cherry Cream Pie. At least that way I look forward to getting older each year. It also helps me focus on that important date in February so I never forget our anniversary.

We are within ten miles of completing our winter tour loop today. We are parked at the Elks Lodge in Hollister, CA. This park is within a hundred yards of the active runway of a small town airport and an active glider and skydiving base. It is like having our own air show all weekend long. In addition there is a small air museum here and several war-birds are based here. Glen and the grand sons were with me today and we watched a North American AT-6 land then walked out and talked to the pilot and walked around the plane. Later we saw a P-51, Mustang land and taxi within a hundred feet of where we were walking. Later another Mustang and a Hawker Sea-Fury landed in close order. The museum has a pair of vintage Stearman Biplanes, a standard trainer in WWII Army Air Corps. One was home today the other landed in the late afternoon, and it was a beautiful sight to see it swoop down on the runway and land gently in the brisk breeze. I think I could have run alongside during its rollout. It must have used all of 50 feet of runway.

We close with love for all and hope your spring season is progressing as nicely as ours.

Gary and Judy

A pie so noteworthy is deserving of a moment of fame. There is a photo at www.dinsmore-enterprises.com/20090426.html

O Lemon Meringue Pie, I yearn for your flavor;

During the days we rode the bicycle, hiked and canoed the lake. Mittry is a small reed enclosed lake with meandering channels and lots of wildlife. We saw Egrets, Herons, Coots, Ducks, Hawks, Osprey and a few thousand swallows. In the canoe we would drift through an opening in the reeds and watch the birds up-close and undisturbed.

Yesterday we joined friends Tom and Margie at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma for an Air Show. There were the usual collection of aerobatic flying acts plus we got to witness a B-1 Lancer over-flight and a re-enactment of the Zeros and torpedo planes attacking Pearl Harbor. There were only six AT-6′s and BT-13′s flying in the re-enactment. The pilots, however, did an excellent job of creating the feeling of the confusion of a real battle, and the pyrotechnics team added to the realism. I found myself all choked up at the end.

Today we traveled back to the relative civilization of Quartzsite, AZ. We how have cell phone and internet. We will still be “boon-docking,” that is no water or electric. Our Solar panels keep up with the power demand just fine. Tonight we will be hanging out with a group of Bluegrass people doing our picking and grinning. This is the simple life, and it suites us just fine.

Hugs to all from the Arizona Desert

Gary and Judy

Egrets on Mittry Lake, Yuma AZ

Hi tech problems:
Loading the new flight simulator program highlighted a problem that I have been having with my computer. In the last month or so it has became just plain s…l…o…w. The new program simply froze it in its tracks. Not only that program but any program we ran would fail at unpredictable moments. Glen and I started sleuthing and discovered the computer was communicating with only a third of its memory. Long story short…, we replaced the memory, no help; we taped pressure pads at critical points of the motherboard to get better connections, no help; we did incantations and sacrificed the entrails of an old computer; the hex remained. Obviously the only reasonable solution is a bran new computer. A new ThinkPad T60 will replace the three year old ThinkPad T30. It will be double the older computer in nearly every respect: Double speed, 2 GHz; double memory, 1.5 GB; and nearly double hard drive; 100 GB. Incredibly this comes at nearly half the cost in just three and a half years. When I bought the replacement memory I did a bit of reminiscing to back in about 1980 when we first bought a small home computer called a Compu-Color. I hand wire-wrapped a small circuit board with nine computer memory chips and built a 16 kilobyte memory module for only $75. This was a big savings over the $300 the manufacturer wanted. The memory in the new computer at that $75 price would have cost over 7 million dollars in 1980. That is only 26 years ago. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in 1968 using a computer that pales in comparison to the computer in my PDA.

So when you sit down at the Thanksgiving table with your family and friends around you, take a moment to think about the high tech revolution that has taken place before our very eyes. Computers are everywhere, in our cars, our telephones even our toys. We have incredible health care, the safest food and water supply and the freedom to roam and still communicate with all our family and friends. Just a 150 years ago the state of the art communication was the Pony Express; St Louis to San Francisco in only ten days. Think about where the technology can take us in the next three years or ten years. I simply cannot imagine twenty five years. So, gather your family around you and fasten your seat belts. What ever it is, it is going to be a wild and exciting ride.

Skipper Judy and Son Glen

Model Cruiser Built by Judy's Brother, Lloyd Starr

We got an early start this morning from Benson Arizona, one of our Escapee Co-Op parks. We planned a short drive, and we pulled into the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, just after it opened. We spent most of the day looking over the museum airplanes. We also took a bus ride tour to the Davis-Monahan Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center. That is a big name that boils down to an acronym, AMARC, and is a parking lot for over 4,000 military airplanes of about every type you can think of. Red Bearon, my Beanie Babies aviator bear, got to get up close to several airplanes and get his picture taken. I think his favorite was the Super Guppy built in 1962 to carry Apollo space craft components. Check out the photo below. You will have to squint to see him, he is pretty small.

We send our New Year’s greeting so all of our friends and relatives.

Love from Gary and Judy.

By the way, you can hardly call this roughing it. We have cell phone, internet and electricity. It might get down to freezing tonight, however.

Gary

Red Bearon Checks Out the Super Guppy

Cactus Trail in Tucson Mountain Park