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Had a wonderful dinner with bad spaghetti and great flying stories!
November 2024. Writing eclipsed a lot of flying this past summer. I still miss the Husky and the 182 is cool but not that much fun. Ah well, not such bad first world problems.
I was super lucky to get time to play with the T-34! I think I ended up at around 50 hours but that was some kick-ass flying! This is probably 2000-ish.
Of the many airplanes I've had the privilege and pleasure of owning, this was one of the most fun. It's a Maule M4-210C and I think it was a 1966. After getting my TW endorsement in it Kasey and I did some amazing Idaho, Arizona and Oregon trips in it! I sold it when we bought the farm (read that any way you like). It needed an engine overhaul and fabric, and I had no time to give it.
One of us needs a shave.
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Sam enjoying island life during the Orcas Fly in.
Les V took this photo. What I see is a lucky guy right there.
Angela, Steve and Sam as passengers. Great day!
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Not my favorite spot. There is water under the fog.
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Yes I am lined up with the runway. Grass is so much easier on bigb tires!
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Yup, that's pretty much FAA approved lawn furniture right there.
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I had to steal Sam's water dish to heat the part for press fitting.
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Update, June 2023. I flew the plane a bit and then rolled it back into the hangar and took it apart for paint and that's where I am right now. Stripping went from December to June. I had thought of running a strip club as a pretty good retirement gig but, as with everything, context counts. So, I just want everything covered and to be done with it! Today was acid washing and alodineing some of the removable bits and shooting epoxy primer on other parts. Granted, I have been only working about 3 or 4 hours most days, so it isn't all bad. Stay tuned!
This page is somewhat of a timeline of my aviation playing but its also a bit jumbled up. As the webmaster of our site, I find site management a little crazy making. I use Weebly, the only thing I know how to use at all, and it's either not intuitive or I am stupid. The truth is probably in between those things. The result, either way, is that the pages are more thrown together than organized or linear. Then again, there's no commercial intent and no money to be made here, which means it's for the enjoyment of the viewers. Further considering that, there are no viewers (okay maybe one or two a year) means that it's not worth the grief to do battle over. So, you get what you get. I do hope you find looking at this stuff enjoyable. Chris
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The angled green pieces are
part of a Cessna service kit that we added. The lower green pieces are Acorn's reinforcement stuff. Those lower pieces are backed by some substantial additions of doubles and triplers on the other side of the firewall. Winter or 21 and on into June of 22 was occupied with firewall
mods, motor install and replacement of all of the engine management gauges with the MVP-50. The firewall mods are basically all of Acorn Welding's Seaplanes West float plane mods, including the much stouter engine mount. My goal was just to overcome the 182's traditional weak spot, the firewall, for more off road capability. Someday it may involve floats too, who knows. 
This is the 182 panel before
I attacked it. 
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We installed a GLAP 1/4" windshield, a HUGE debacle! The shipper basically lost it and then wouldn't respond for long enough that they then switched to saying it had been lost too long for them to respond about. It took about four months of chasing it down to and get it. The funny part though, is that I planned ahead enough that, it came on the day I was actually ready to install it. No slowdown, just some lost sleep and a slight depletion in the universe's allotted number of swear words. In the end, it's awesome!
This is the mostly finished
version. Michael Thomas did a beautiful job of CNC machining the panels for me. I haven't changed out any radios yet. that's still to come as is, probably a glass panel on the left side. The EI MVP-50 on the right is freaking awesome though! |
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That's a good hangar. Dad's paintings, my dog and bush wheels.
Threw the 8.50's on for a bit.
The grass is too soggy and the sound of those bushwheels leaving money on the pavement drives me crazy. |
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Sam and I flew out to camp at Orcas, apparently so that he could meet all of the islanders. At one point, while we were walking in the town of East sound, a person we had not yet encountered walked up, pointed at the dog and asked if that was Sam. He is pretty likeable.
Wow, November 1, 2020. The Skywagon got traded for a Husky and then I bought a 182. The Husky is currently in a messy hangar and the 182 is sitting outside waiting to be flown!
Here is the Husky but this isn't my hangar. Stay tuned for more, sooner or later...
Since hangars are in short supply at BVS, I didn't get one until 8/1/2020. The Husky, unfortunately had to sit outside but it did get these fancy covers! I also couldn't bring myself to wear down the Bushwheels and so bought these infinitely cheaper Dessers. As of today, the 31's are serving as a coffee table in the hangar.
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The Husky is back on the big wheels now and also got a Gross weight increase mod and extended heavy duty landing gear installed during the March Annual. My plan was to sell the Husky but it's just a kick in the butt and I haven't gotten myself to do that. Maybe tomorrow.
And here is the 182. My plan is to basically duplicate the 206/180 panels and interiors that I did. Got some work to do.
Never content, I traded out the stock gear for Floats Alaska 3" extended, heavy duty gear. A bonus that I hadn't thought of is that the 3"vertical extension translates into an 8" wider footprint. The Husky was already easy to land but that, along with the SKS kit, made it amazingly easier! I also added the Aviat service kit that raised the gross weight by 90 pounds and did some paint touch up. All of that was done under the wonderful supervision of my aviation savior, Mike V!
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Thank you Chris Thompson for more awesome photos!
Chris's amazing work can be found at www.Christhompson.smugmug.com 
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1954 Cessna 180,
O470J 225HP, ~425 SMOH, ~3640TTAF. Airframe refurbish in 2016, new wiring and cables including all cabin heat and air controls, throttle, prop and mixture, all trim cables, chains and jack screws. All gauges rebuilt or new (except DG). GMA340 audio, GNS430W with CDI/GS, SL40. New EI gauges including fuel flow, volts/amps, tach, manifold psi, oil temp/psi, clock and EGT/CHT. A panel mount CO detector and an Appereo transponder with ADSB in/out. Visual alarm lights were installed for starter engage, oil temp/psi, volts/amps, alt inop and CHT/EGT. Mods include Horton STOL, VG’s, 6" bubble windows, firewall battery, Plane Power Alternator, Selkirk interior and nose bowl, extended baggage, Lake View jump seats, Vee brace, PPonk gear brace, strobes, Door Stewards, Avion yokes, cowl gill vents, Monarch caps, etc. well documented with STC’s and 337’s. All four seats have non retracting, 4 point harnesses. 
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Thanks Chris Thompson for your amazing eye and photography skills!
A Great day with Larry!
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Just about the best day ever! Larry Becker gave me an awesome checkout in his Lake Amphib but that was after giving me some incredible instruction in my own plane. We did slow flight and stalls and then some short field stuff and then landed at his strip. I thought I was feeling lucky to be getting a right seat in his Lake, little did I know what an awesome all around day that was going to be! Thank you Larry!!
The Super Cub
The trip for the SuperCub was great. I just missed getting snarled up on the way home in a snow storm with everybody else in the mid west. Buck and Dennis's help, horsepower and an all night drive got me out just in front of the mess!
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Thanks to Buck and Dennis for making me an amazing deal and for being awesome and helpful!
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The Pawnee |
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The Pawnee was basically a bucket list item. Now checked off, the Pawnee is towing gliders for Treasure Valley Community College in Idaho. I brought home an RV8 project in 2018 as the next aviation energy investment but one morning in December, while drinking coffee and cruising the aviation sales sites, I found a Super Cub project. THAT grabbed me and by the end of the day we had everything in escrow with all documents signed and pending. 2600 miles to West Virginia and skating some crappy weather on the way back and that Super Cub is sitting next to the RV8 project. So many airplanes, so little time.
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For pilots, Our farm is located about 30 minutes by car from KBVS.
Currently there is a loaner car available if you don't mind a Volkswagen stick shift. The cottage scheduling can be seen at WWW.VRBO.COM/633042.
Currently there is a loaner car available if you don't mind a Volkswagen stick shift. The cottage scheduling can be seen at WWW.VRBO.COM/633042.
Chris Thompson, a natural photographer AND pilot!
We made it to Arlington for the fly in and, of course, to sit and watch the mayhem of arriving traffic, always my favorite.
Here is our 2016 project. We rolled N3179C into the hangar in January and immediately commenced sweating and bleeding and rolled it back out and flung it into the air in early September. Super special thanks to good friend Mike VanderWol for his knowledge, patience, support and supervision. This project literally would not have happened without all of the above from Mike.
The short version is that we stripped it from the firewall aft inside and out and then basically rebuilt, rewired and rearranged just about everything as well as adding a bunch of mods. I think the grand total of the paperwork that got sent to OK city included close to 20 337's.
It wasn't the definition of fun exactly, between work that paid me (my job) and work that I was paying to do, but in the end it was very satisfying. It did continually baffle me though, as it seemed like that this should be a zero sum equation where the paid work neutralized the pay-to-work but that version of physics is apparently only applicable in another parallel universe.
The short version is that we stripped it from the firewall aft inside and out and then basically rebuilt, rewired and rearranged just about everything as well as adding a bunch of mods. I think the grand total of the paperwork that got sent to OK city included close to 20 337's.
It wasn't the definition of fun exactly, between work that paid me (my job) and work that I was paying to do, but in the end it was very satisfying. It did continually baffle me though, as it seemed like that this should be a zero sum equation where the paid work neutralized the pay-to-work but that version of physics is apparently only applicable in another parallel universe.
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Here are some shots of the 206. That interior redo was about 2010. It was fun but thirsty!
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