Tag Archives: airplanes

Volunteering

Wings

We are back in Gilroy California. Last spring I spent some time volunteering at the Wings of History Air Museum. See my blog for May 12, 2009, https://www.dinsmore-enterprises.com/20090512.html

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.

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Volunteering

Playing With Airplanes:

When I was a boy I built model airplanes and dreamed of flying. As a teenager a buddy and I took over a botched P-38 Lightning, “Comet Really Flies Kit.” It was supposed to be powered by rubber bands. We had to create some of the bulkheads from the plans, since the preprinted wood had been broken and mutilated. We almost finished it when we got a brilliant idea. We each had a small Cox “Thimble Drone, 0.049 cu. in.” gas airplane engine from our multi-crashed trainer airplanes. We would install these engines in this tiny little airplane with 36 inch wingspan. To make a long story short we succeeded even beyond our grandest dreams and flew this airplane on control lines for hours and hours.

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Travels

Ode to a Pie:

O Lemon Meringue Pie, I yearn for your flavor;
‘Tis always a delight, ’tis wondrous to savor;
I wait a whole year for your taste.

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.

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Travels

Mittry Lake

Sometimes our life is one long campout. This has been one of those weeks. We joined up with a small group of friends near Yuma, AZ. We were camped on the desert on the shores of a small backwater off of the Colorado River called Mittry Lake. We were almost roughing it. We had no electric, no running water, no cable TV, no cell phone and no internet. We did have sparkling clear skies and a full moon each night. We sang songs around the campfire, had pot luck meals and coyotes yelping right under our windows in the middle of the night.

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Travels

Thanksgiving:.

We are here in Gilroy California observing old family traditions with our son, Glen and his family, Barb, Cody, Patrick, Bryce and now Lizy, Smellfish, Marlin, Sunny and Chocolaté. Yes the turkey is in the oven. The gals will be “slaving over a hot stove all day” to bring us two kinds of dressing, sweet potatoes, home stewed cranberry sauce, three kinds of pie and all of the trimmings. Continue reading Thanksgiving:. →