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Showing posts from June 12, 2011

Upper Peninsula Michigan and Auction Win Outcomes

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I was up in Wisconsin and the UP (upper peninsula) in Michigan. It was a lot of driving after launching/landing in Appleton WI. I got an item off the bucket list by driving across the "Mighty Mac". Altough it was built in the late '50s. It is still the longest suspension span in the Northern hemisphere. It is a crazy long bridge with a crazy long suspension span. It was good to see the bridge in context of the seemingly endless forests of Northern Wisconsin and Michigan. The culture in the two haves of Michigan are noticibly different as you might expect. Great time meeting with folks both in WI and MI. The tractor I won in auction, seems to have paid off. This time I beat the odds. It was a really good deal. I have the "no-key, non-running, may have hydraulic problems, unknown hours" -auction win, running well with minimal cost and time. I have some more tweaks, maintenance and minor fixes but the major risks are gone.
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The sad news yesterday was that the Liberty Belle B-17 burned up. I toured the plane a few months ago. I took the pics, but not the one on flames. Thank god they had a good place to land and everybody got out. Gasoline! and lots of it.
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The past week has been a blur. DJ has been in Atlanta for a few weeks. We went and saw Loretta Lynn in concert. What a trip. She won't be doing a whole bunch more concerts, I suspect. The weather up in NY continues to be difficult. If it isn't bridges washed out, it is high winds ripping barn roofs off like mine. The neighbors barn roof got wrapped around the wires. OK, already, I understand about the destructive aspects of weather and time. I cropped one of the photos from last weeks air show. It is pretty unbelievable what some of these guys do especially when I find myself a bit to the left or right of the center-line all to often on landing. I expect to be in the air pretty much every few days for the rest of the summer. The high temps certainly affect aircraft performance. Just because an airplane has four seats doesn't mean it can carry four people. When it is 95 degrees out the newer 172s can only carry 2 people my size, full fuel and a sandwich or two. ...