Where You Are Photos

Half a chain…

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Parking airplanes today at an EAA event. Free pancake breakfast and a Cub ride hopefully.

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@Toppometer. 31 in those modern measurements today. Getting a scorcher of a good summer in ol blighty.

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This is one of the aircraft I marshaled in, which at first look was an ordinary LanceAir.

However, after chatting with the builder pilot a few minutes, Bill Harrelson, I realized that this was a special aircraft indeed. Bill and his LanceAir, are the current speed and distance record holders for circumnavigating the earth via the poles for lightweight single engine aircraft. He is speaking at Oshkosh about his solo trip, or read about it here.

To my question of did he bring a friend along, “Just me and 15 fuel tanks.”

I’m riding heard on the right wing of this N2S (Stearman), while my friend and CFI, John watches the left.

The airport manager used her smile to talk me out of my Monkey bike for a few minutes. Once that I explained the shift pattern, she was good to go.

Sadly, weather moved in before I got my Cub ride. So, I stopped by the hanger to give her a gentle pat. “Soon baby. Soon.”

Loaded up and heading home - Honda in a Honda.

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Full Discloser: I think the term Warfighter is really, really, really, stupid.

Edit, screw it. Just because I love to whine about unnecessary jargon. I went to school out of state, and whenever I went home, my route took me through the, uh, lovely metropolis that is Dayton, Ohio. Part of that route is the I-70 / I-75 Interchange, which was rebuilt throughout the early '10s. As part of the general renovation, it was dubbed the FREEDOM VETERAN CROSSROADS.

What the hell, exactly, is a “freedom veteran”? Is it a veteran of freedom (i.e. someone who has experienced it)? is it a veteran who has experienced freedom? Is it a shameless combination of nouns spat out by the Patriotron 1776 TM name generator, that were algorithmically chosen to capitalize on a particular sense of sentiment? Knowing who was congressperson for that particular district at the time, I think I know the answer, but it never ceases to illicit a cringe from me.

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In the British Army the term was “Teeth Arms” always thought it sounded ridiculous.

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As a Brit I feel obligated to point out the savage irony of pointing attention towards the dentistry. :slight_smile:

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Lol.

For some reason I didn’t realize you are a Brit! How did that escape me?

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I haven’t lived there for 18 odd years, so more an ex-Brit, if there is such a thing. Canadian citizen, married an American and pay most of my taxes in the US, so I have lots of bases covered. :slight_smile:

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He likes ice hockey and posts photos of bears. He’s definitely in disguise!

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Okay glad to hear you do, it reminded me a bit when the Crytek dev’s made this game called WARFACE, on RPS back then everyone went on a merry round of making fun of that name.

Lancairs are great planes. But you can get one in a turboprop. Its a real rocketship.

@BeachAV8R would love it with a pt6 shoved in there

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No mixture. No shock cooling. I’m all about easy. I’ll take one please!

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I asked Harrelson a few more questions.

What was your typical cruise speed?
“215 kts indicated”

Did you wear a survival suite?
“I brought one, but decided not to wear it. No one would be coming to get me over the route that we chose.”

How did you stay awake during 2 day stints?
“Mostly adrenaline.”

Were you ever worried?
“I was never not worried. My state went from worried to very worried.”

You are a very brave and determined aviator Mr. Harrelson.
“Most of my friends label me a stupid one (big grin).”

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I could only imagine !!!

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What a story, what a daring pilot and what an amazingly capable little plane!

It must have been pretty sluggish with the full 361 gallons of fuel onboard…

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My project for the day. I’ve had the bezels for awhile, but stopped using them as i found them a bit redundant with the Hawg. However with the Hornet and Harrier lacking the display controls on the HOTAS like the Hawg, I figured it was finally time to break them back out.

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Apparently that is now known as a “level 3 heat alert”… :thinking:

My motorcycle might be my favourite subject to photograph, used the portrait mode at max on my Motorola Moto G6, then edited it in GIMP 2.8 by selecting the red with the magic wand tool, creating a new layer mask, duplicate and remove all the colours. Still playing around a bit with contrast but so far this is my favorite!

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