Log 111 - Flights, fixes and Meeting Jack Wiegand

I had a chance to take my friend Kurt to Orcas Island and San Juan Island. We walked into towns East Sound and Friday Harbor respectively. We also flew over Roche Harbor and Stuart Island along with searching for whales but we didn't see any. I've landed the glasair at the dirt strip on Stuart Island. Last week, I landed at Monroe, First Field to walk into the Evergreen State Fair but it seemed very tight and lots of foot traffic and cars from the fair. I want to get more comfortable with small fields in the glasair.

Yesterday, I changed out my main left tire. It was wearing much more than the right tire. I think the reason is, this tire is at least 30 years old. It came with the original kit and I never changed it. I had a spare but will make this my spare now. I made a test flight of the new tire and it performed as good as a tire can perform in the air :).

I also wanted to mention an event that was early July. I happened to be going to Arlington for fuel and did hear that Jack Wiegand was making a stop there on his record breaking flight, the youngest person to fly around the world solo. He did this in a Mooney. Turned out, they were celebrating and he was there so we stayed to listen and gawk at his plane and hear about a great achievement. Jack info is at http://www.solo2013.com . He was very humble, still a little raw around the neck from his survival suit, very ambitious and just a great kid. This would be his last stop before closing his final leg of the trip to California, his home near Sacramento.

July 2013 - Jack Wiegand before his last leg of his record

 flight around the world.

Log 110 Flight with Paul Dees & Visiting Arnold Ebeneter at Harvey Field

Monday, I finally got Paul to come with me for a flight. Paul is a top notch aero guy at Boeing, a good friend and hang glider buddy. Paul and others helped install the glasair wing to fuselage. He got fairly comfortable quickly in the plane. We worked some thermals near Monroe, headed up past Arlington and flew around some hang gliding sites on the way to the north cascades highway, back down to Camino Island, Whidbey Island and back to Paine Field.

Paul Dees as a copilot for the day.

Arnold Ebeneter - Photo taken after one of his record setting flights. Arnold is a mentor and an icon.

Tuesday, I flew into Harvey Field for the first time and got Arnold Ebeneter to sign my log as of May, for my Bi-annual flight review. It counts when you get a taildragger endorsement so he signed. Arnold got a look at my plane and had just a few comments about speed, economy and what to do about some wheel wear. First time into Harvey and everything was great except there was a tractor who stopped to watch me about 50 ft east of the runway working near the south end. Taking off, I almost went off the left of the runway till my nose tilted up, but it was OK. Harvey field has a very skinny runway with hardly any visuals on the left side of the plane but all was good. I have over 80 hours on the glasair and it was a good decision to wait a while for flying into small or tight fields.

Log 109 - Flights and Larry Warner

I just posted yesterday but had another little flight today. It was a beautiful day to fly west so I left Paine field heading towards Pt Townsend thinking about Pt Angeles or the pacific coast. On the way out was Diamond Point and wouldn't mind some company so I flew out of the rising air, down to Diamond Point. I've posted in the past that Diamond Point is a beautiful place where my plane was started by Sam. The neighbor, Larry Warner is still and I can say AVID. Larry is pushing along, living in an extremely cool hangar and just back from a walk on the beach with his girlfriend Nancy and their dogs. He was willing to go on a flight with me so, we headed west, staying along the coastline past and around Sequim and almost to Port Angeles. From there, we heading into the hills, up close to the clouds, and pointed back east towards Seattle, then back to Diamond Point.

It was a pleasure to take Larry up and I think it took a while to sing in that he was making another flight of his life. We had a good time and it was nice to see Larry again!

2013aug18 - Another wispy over pt Townsend. Whidbey island in the distance.

2013aug18 - Larry Werner, friend and neighbor of the late Sam Mrackovich. Larry helped Sam with parts of the glasair while Sam was still around.

I did head back to my hangar and started some long awaited maintenance. I changed oil, checked all spark plugs, cleaned the engine area, fixed the headlight, fabbed a new headlight bracket, installed a new forward facing camera and checked most of the bolts around the engine for anything loose. It was in surprisingly good condition and now ready to fly again!

Log 108 - 80+ hrs, Mustang Show, Arlington and other fun

Flight#..heck, I don't know. 80+ hrs in the glasair. Today, I flew to the Props & Ponies show at Skagit Regional Airport.

2013aug17 - My glasair at Mustang show, Skagit Valley

I ran into my Friend Jake Schultz who introduced me to Bill Anders. Bill is an astronaut on Apollo 8. He's famous for his photo taken back at the earth and saying,"We went to the moon, and discovered the earth". He was the pilot on the lunar module and the first manned lunar orbit mission. Jake was helping out with the show. It was also good to run into Bob Summers, old hang glider pilot friend, and see friend, Kevin, Comanche Pilot of Arlington.

I did a fly-by and headed for the hills. Near the Canadian border was the Can-Am hang gliding and paragliding event I was missing near Abbotsford, BC. Launch was cloudy so I flew a few passes by the landing field then headed to Anacortes. They had a little get-together just ending so I headed to Arlington to top off and to visit Bill, Terry, Dan and a few other friends. They were having a potluck so I stayed for a short time to visit than headed home.

2013aug17 - Terry's hangar at Arlington

The glasair is flying great. I adjusted the ailerons and still tweaking to make it fly straight but almost there. A few other issues to work on but all is great with the plane.

Log 107 - More Flying

Over the Cascades westbound from Chelan

Arlington Airshow at Paraphernalia party

Portland International Airport northbound

So, I haven't written for a while but been busy flying. I've flown to Prosser fly-in, the Fantasy field fly-in, Chelan a bunch of times. I go to the islands (san juans), Sequim, Pt Angeles, Tacoma Narrows and other places often. I just go cruising around locally sometimes and many trips around Arlington. I've taken a bunch of friends including Aarin Rinn and Kurt Hartzog lately. The Arlington Fly-In was really fun too. Lately I flew with Rodney Tong in his Rutan Long EZ and we got some pics here. Other than that, the plane is flying great! I have some cleaning and checking to do but all is good and will save some of the work for when the weather turns worse.