17 Feb., 2009 -- Gray day

Work work work. Sorting and emailing the stuff I stacked up yesterday!

This is probably the grayest day in history. Windy, too.

16 Feb., 2009 -- Flight today

Clouds finally moved out! Clear skies! Perfect weather for aerial photos.

There is some green stuff growing out there, not much, though.
Mostly the ground is brown and uninteresting.

Except for Stockton Lake... it's always blue and beautiful. Saw one boat.

Don was leaving on his bike after I landed.

And then, Ben landed in Don's old Luscombe.

Even Fonda got to fly!

15 Feb., 2009 -- To Oklahoma tomorrow!

Fly to OK tomorrow to shoot pictures.

Ok, I had to make up this picture. I updated three gps units today,
hadn't done the new map data since 2007. I forgot to take a picture
of my daily accomplishment, so I grabbed a gps image off of Ebay,
and superimposed it with the tangle of cables and cords.
Garmin has raised their rates from $35 per gps unit to $50 each.
You can do the math.

14 Feb., 2009 -- Valentine's Day

At our regular Experimental Aircraft Assn. meeting in Willow Springs, after pot luck lunch (or before or during), we sampled sumptuous sweets. These were the most interesting photos of the day!

No, this one wasn't edible. Didn't get a box of chocolates for breakfast, like Fonda did!

13 Feb., 2009 -- Flight planning

Worked on maps yesterday, forgot to take any pictures. Have a flight to OK soon, and have to be ready when the sun shines again.

12 Feb., 2009 -- I've seen that airplane before...

Yes, it's old 71Fox out for an afternoon spin around the neighborhood!
Many of us trained in that 150. Now it lives down the road in Mansfield.

11 Feb., 2009 -- UFOs, but don't panic!

Tried to take a picture of the moon over the lights of town
with the little Canon pointnshoot. Don't panic, this is a composite
of two pictures.

This is moonwriting. Take time exposures of the moon, move the camera around like a "luny" person, and then assemble the letters into one picture. We've had over 2 inches of rain, the sky finally cleared, and I didn't want to take another picture of mud.

10 Feb., 2009 -- Train truck

Back to St. John's this afternoon for a bone density test (I passed, I have bones). No, that's not me in the helicopter. I just liked the composition.

Almost home, ooops, wait a few minutes for the train, well, not the train, but the train truck, or whatever you want to call that. One guy can put that truck on the tracks. I think that's possibly more dangerous than flying, puttering along on the tracks in a truck...

And look at all that water vapor! Doesn't look like there's a dry spot in the country. Tonight it's raining, with thunder and tornado watches. Oh, boy. More mud in the driveway.

9 Feb., 2009 -- Mucky Munday

Rain. Wind. half inch. 44 mph. 60 degrees. Muck. More coming tomorrow.

Satellite weather images.

8 Feb., 2009 -- Why, oh why...

At the Jacksonville, Arkansas Community Center where the Flight Instructor clinic was going on, I wandered around outside to get some area pictures. There, on old tracks that disappeared into the sod, was this magnificent old caboose that had been nicely painted and restored.
I was really angered at the graffiti splattered all over it. The interior was trashed and painted with obscenities.


In Mtn. Grove, the old salvaged and restored caboose had to be fenced in because the same thing was happening, back in the 80's.