Tales from the Log of the Ruptured Duck

[Kayak Jack]

Pretty much, yeah. An interesting sortie.

A side note. In camp, Al would try to place the throne on a high bluff, clearly and openly overlooking the river. A couple of times, I had to feign a casual attitude and easy posture, as I waved to paddlers going by.

 

[Wannabe]

A very good tale. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Bob

 

[oldsparkey]

We have the same thrown down here , Harry McDonald made one from a folding chair that we used on a lot of trips and would place it on a ridge overlooking the river when ever we could.
All I know is that Harry has had his for a really long time and we always had it on our trips when all of us ( including Al ) would hit the rivers.

 

[Kayak Jack]

I think maybe Al got the idea from Harry's. Bluffs over rivers tend to be a bit higher in Michigan than in Florida. Not as high as in Arizona, though. Climbing up out of Grand Canyon to use the throne would not work well for me.

And, Ron and I found that river bluffs in Texas were not as high as we wanted them to be. An "insadvertent" release from Possum Dam left us scrambling. Question: how in hell do you "accidently" let out half a reservoir?

 

[oldsparkey]

Bluffs over rivers tend to be a bit higher in Michigan than in Florida.

That's why , down here in Florida , we consider B.H.Don'tmakeit's book "100 Yards to the outhouse" to be a fiction and not factual. :lol:

 

[beekeeper]

I think maybe Al got the idea from Harry's. Bluffs over rivers tend to be a bit higher in Michigan than in Florida. quote]

In Louisiana a "bluff" by the river is called a levee. :roll:

beekeeper

 

[Kayak Jack]

Just Passing Time With Friends

Well, despite beautiful weather, we didn't fly on either Saturday the 4th of July, or on Sunday. This morning, after getting my Son off toward home after his visit over the weekend, we sauntered into the Bestseller's Coffee Shop. An hour or so with friends there, and I started to get serious about where we would fly.

Last night, I looked at our route over some lakes and streams spread across SE'ly Michigan. It dips down into Indiana 15-20 miles, and then tracks N'ly along strings of lakes to towns that just happen to have good places to eat. But, high humidity promised haze and reduced visibility, so we opted for a shorter hop. Charlotte's Fitch Beach Field KFPK would suffice. I had to tear Julie away from the triangular golf peg game we'd brought in from Cracker Barrel, and we pulled the Duck out onto our taxiway.

We've made this trip a fair number of times, but it's always interesting. That haze I mentioned had reduced visibility from 10 to 5-6 miles. Fortunately, nothing came hurtling out of the gloom and headed our way. At Charlotte, we discovered Todd, the FBO manager, and Bruce, a retired Navy aviator who used to plop F-4s onto carriers. They were just finishing lunch.

Todd's wife celebrated a birthday over the weekend. Lots of conversation about how they met, early years, and future plans. Bruce, Julie, and I mainly listened. Well, I did heckle him a little bit. We asked for the courtesy car - an ex patrol car for Michigan State Police. The key's hidden in the freezer. sigh

On the way into town, we thought we'd forego the standby local restaurant, and give Big Boy a try. Salads seemed about right. A BLT salad and a Caesar salad seemed as though they would fit the bill. And they were pretty good, too. But, on the way back to the field, we decided that the Eaton Place (named after its tesident county, Eaton County) will remain our reliable standby.

While we were gone, Bruce had added oil to the oleo strut on the nose of the Duck. Air on top of that and the strut is FULLY extended. The Duck is so nose high, it trys to take off early. Oh well, it'll settle in.

Winds were good, and takeoff was quick and easy, even though field elevatioon is 879' (the ground), and density altitude was 2,400' (the air). We'd cheated death twice, so we put the Duck to bed, washed and waxed bugs off the windscreen and wings, and came home. Once home, I got a call to let me know I'd forgotten a dental appointment.

OOPS! I'd cheated death three times!

 

[Kayak Jack]

Young Eagles

Being the pilot of the Ruptured Duck brings me into contact with a wider aviation community. Several years ago, I joined our local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). Regardless of the fact that a Cessna 172 is arguably the LEAST experimental aircraft in the world, I joined EAA. I joined for the people, not for the planes.

EAA has a program called Young Eagles. Kids from 8-17 years of age get their first airplane ride for free. I don't qualify yet to be a pilot for this, so I'm on the perimeter. This morning - bright and sunny - there were 40 -50 cars of families that showed up. Wayyy too many; I expect that some of them went home disappointed. But - watching families with kids that are clean, obviously loved, and rambunctious as they relax, play, and cavort while they wait - is reassuring. Good families are both appealing and fulfilling to me.

Julie and I helped a bit around the edges, then got out of the way, retreating to the Bestsellers Coffee Shop. Even in downtown Mason, Michigan, families were out in force. On Maple Street, a farmers' market had all kinds of goodies for sale. One and a half blocks away, the local museum had a yard sale for artists and craftsmen with more kinds of goodies for sale. And - no surprise here - both the coffee shop and next door ice cream shop were doing a standing room only business.

It is a pleasure to enjoy this country of freedom in which we live. To all the people who have tread here before my time, the ones who lived, worked, sacrificed, and built for this culture and this country - my profound thanks. God bless you.

 

[Kayak Jack]

56th Anniversary, A Picnic, and Overflights

Our Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) chapter is celebrating its 56th anniversary this year. Last year, I'd organized our parties. The outdoors one was in our hangar with smoked pork sandwiches, pot luck, lemonade, baked beans, etc. They liked it so well that we duplicated it again this year. The caterer is a young fellow I helped raise when he was a Boy Scout. (He is a good student and became an Eagle Scout.)

Julie's baked beans disappeared completely; and almost all of my cornbread did too. It was my first potato salad this tear - finally making summer's arrival official. Wonderful salads, brownies, and lotsa chips added to the calories.

We'd gathered in my hangar a coiple of hours early, and I was giving plane rides. Julie's sons, Marty and Jon, hadn't been up in the Duck before, so we went up. I flew each of them around Pleasant Lake, about 20 miles SE'ly of the field. An island punctuates the lake, and a golf course borders its east bank. From 1,000' up, we could see three guys trying to fish, and about 15 inconsiderate boaters running around them. Some people just have no couth at all. Oddly, we saw no golfers strewn out out on the course. Maybe it was too warm, I don't know.

Back closer to the airfield, is a cloverleaf on US-27. The NE'ly quadrant of it is where they hold a big steam show every year, starting on the last Friday of July. Big huffer-puffers chug around pulling wagons, plowing ground, running saw mills and an old threshing machine. Aye god - THAT'S raw power.

Back at the hangar, Julie's grandkids were playing with a couple of those triangular golf peg games from Cracker Barrel. Funny, how something simple like that - without any electronics - still interests kids. Meanwhile, Julie was playing checkers with a grandson, and showing him where the bear went through the buckwheat too!

It turns out that the Ruptured Duck brings more than one kind of pleasure. Yes, watching the pretty countryside slide by underneat is interesting and enjoyable. So is gathering with family, with the Duck being a member of our family. Life is good.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Michigan - the Water Wonderland

There's a state that calls itself the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Michigan has over 11,000. Julie and I flew over, say, 30-40 of them today. (Plus, some fields with standing water that're not in the 11,000 count). Lakes with picturesque islands, lakes with cottages, lakes without either islands or cottages, lakes where someone was trying to catch fish, lakes with moss and duckweed, lakes clear as glass, lakes of many descriptions are all about us.

Flowing into, out of, and in between most of these lakes are natural streams and manmade channels. Swimming around through all of these watershed networks are fish. Fish that some consider to be prime eating - bluegills, sunfish, perch, rock bass, large mouth bass, small mouth bass, walleyed pike, trout of many varieties, salmon, etc. There are other varieties of fish that Mother Nature made for her own reasons, and not for human entertainment.

In between and wrapped all around these water features are farms, small towns, a few state and federal prisons, cities, towers (aye god there are WAY too many of these things penetrating my air space), colleges, high schools, grade schools, businisses of all kinds, factories, geometric waste water ponds, large buildings filled with growing chickens and/or turkeys, paddocks with horses prancing around, the Michigan International Speedway, a few dozen airfields with sod runways, a half dozen with hard surfaced runways, and homes all over the place.

Lacing all this together, we overfly roads - roads of all kinds. At least four Interstate Highways are traced across the mitten state. Today, along with GPS, I used one of those interstates to confirm my position. And then we slud along a US highway until Mason Jewett Field KTEW was in sight. Air Traffic Control released us as we neared, and we entered the traffic pattern. It was a fairly good landing, and we'd cheated death again.

We put the Duck to bed, and went to Bestsellers for lunch. It's nice to be able to do things like this.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Legal Releases

Part of the kind of flying that I do in the Duck, includes taking people for rides. It's a part that I enjoy a lot. Sharing this (darned near a) miracle of flight with others provides both fun and fulfillment to the cockles of this geezer's heart. But, there are risks, other than normal ones, involved in flying, driving, boating, and just Life in general. Some folks are willing to punish you for doing them a favor.

So, I had an attorney-type friend help me draw up a legal release form. It's a regrettable and unsavory concept, and I feel that way even considering it. But, facts are facts. And, Mark Twain observed that, "Man, is the only animal that blushes -or needs to!" So, I have to protect myself, prophylactically speaking, to take folks for a ride. sigh

A good friend had asked me if I could take his granddaughters for a ride. "Sure thing, Kev. Let me get you the release forms for a parent to sign." Well, as it turns out, my secretary hasn't gotten around to getting this thing typed up into an emailable format yet. So yesterday, we flew hard copies over to Owosso Community Airport KRNP, he picked us up, we had lunch at his deli, and he can give them to his daughter.

Soon now, we'll coordinate schedules for them and me, and get the girls into the air. It's always interesting - usually in a good way - to observe someone in their first flight. Especially kids, they are more open and less restrained than adults. Smiles and giggles are common; so is open amazement. Once in a while, anxiety shows up in a tense grimace of their face. But that fades away into a grin as they wave to family on the ground, and watch as trees and fields slip by at 100 mph.

They realize that we've cheated death again.

 

[Wannabe]

Jack,
It is a crying Shame that we have to have every kind act we do be Lawyer proof. It is not a good sign of the State of our society.
Bob

 

[Kayak Jack]

Bob, I regretfully have to sgree. Dark corners of human nature have been exploited by profit seeking sttorneys, and politicians seeking votes

 

[Kayak Jack]

Here's To Old Friends

Nearly 60 years ago, I met a new friend, Al Botamer. We were naive, young, college freshmen starting at Michigan State College. The next year it became Michigan State University. We met, became friends, hunted deer together (that's another whole story), were in ROTC together, graduated, and went separate ways. He was Coast Guard and then in family business. I was in the Air Force, and then eventually worked with the Stste of Michigan. After about 40 years, I tracked him back down.

Since then, we've remained in contact. The past few days, both Al and his sweet wife Dixie were here visiting with Julie and me. I finally got him into the Ruptured Duck and up in the air. We toured the local countryside, counted a lot of cornstalks, verified fields of soy beans, and noticed that a few wheat fields have already been combined. A few of those oval race tracks slid by under us too. Some - maybe even all - of these are where trotters are trained. Those horses that don't gallop, but run really fast while towing a racing sulky along behind are the ones I'm talking about here.

On our next flight, not a long one, we practiced landings - some better than others. Thunderstorms, and some common everyday rainstorms, were dancing around within a few miles of the field. So, we remained in the traffic pattern where we could recover quickly if need be. As it turned out, we didn't need to. But - when we came out of the restaurant a couple of hours later, roads were all wet. One of those rainstorms had marched through about a mile or two N'ly of the field.

It was an emotional visit. We never know how much time any of us have left. None of us know when, or if, we'll see each other again. We hope and we plan. We make promises - to others and to ourselves - that there will be more good times. And we intend to keep those promises. We silently hope that all of that can come to pass.

 

[beekeeper]

Glad you made contact with your friend. Old friends are great, and older friends are really special. We should make time for both. This post hit home for me because my neighbor passed away a few weeks ago. We were not bosom buddies nor pals, but he was a good neighbor and a friend. He had cancer and could not speak in the last few weeks. That made it difficult to visit. One day I saw him sitting on his steps and I went over to see him. He was trying to make a phone call and as usual he would not let me help with the call or him getting to his feet. I awkwardly wished him to feel better and left. He died that night in his sleep. Glad I went over.
Today it is easy for friends and families to become separated. Older folks also deal with living longer than their friends. We should count our blessings and try to stay close to our friends.

bee

 

[Kayak Jack]

Good on ya, JD. I'll bet that fella appreciated your attention, even if he didn't know how to show his appreciation. Sometimes,when others pay us a compliment or a kindness, we can become embarrassed or socially clumsy. Maybe your neighbor suffered like that?

 

[Kayak Jack]

Glider Training Camp and Crop Dusters

Today, Julie and I flew to Ionia and landed at their community air field, KY70. We've come close to landing here several times, after running the Maple River. Today, we made it. Wow - a lot of activity here

Western Michigan University is running a glider training camp for a gaggle of high school juniors. At the end of the camp - every kid will have soloed in a glider! In my book, THAT'S a good program. We geezers often shake our heads in disappointment at the younger generation, sometimes with good reason. But here, HERE guys, are kids learning how to fly airplanes - airplanes with no engines, and flying them by themselves. Aye god, that's a GOOD thing to be doing with kids.

Also parked on the ramp, were two, large tanker trucks. After the air field manager finished explaining the glider training, I had to ask,"What's going on out there?", pointing to the tankers. "The Schiffer boys are here spraying fields."

I've landed at their private field, 3S5, with their cousin, Dan. These two, John and Al Schiffer, are engineers (one is an aeronautical engineer and the other is a mechanical engineer), pilots, and business men. They were here at Ionia with two, big turboprop ag tractors. Each one has a turboprop engine producing 650 shaft horsepower. That's over 5 times what the Ruptured Duck works with. These fellows have designed and patented a dispensing unit (engineer speak for a spray bar) for neutored gypsy moths. The moths live and mate - but non-productively. Shooting blanks.

As we took off, both crop dusters has preceeded us, and were already working. We flew upstream along the Maple River. It's a bushy, messy river. When we drew straight south of the Gratiot County Air Field, we turned left and flew to that field, KAMN. This is the field where Julie and I stumbled into a pancake breakfast last year. And, just to be polite, we ate a second breakfast. ahem. But today, it was deserted. So, we taxied back and took off for home.

Back at Mason Jewett Field, the landing pattern got exciting all of a sudden. Winds were nesrly a pefect crosswind, so I elected to land on runway 28. As we turned left base, Julie touched my arm pretty excitedly, and pointed out front. There, in our 12o'clock, was another plane! At first, it looked like he was going into final about 15-20 seconds ahead of us. Then I could see that he was actally further out. I called on the radio,"Aircraft on final into Mason. I didn't hear you on the radio. What are your intentions?"

"Actually, I'm on a downwind for 10". Note: this put us landing on opposite ends of the same runway, headed towards each other.
"OK. I'm on final for 28. And traffic for 10 is right hand, not left".
"Go ahead and land on 28. I'll do a long base and final".
I landed as he was turning final out there. Kind of neat to watch, and anxiety producing at the same time. We cleared the runway, he landed, and we both taxied up to the apron. Turns out, he had two, large, tanker trucks here just like Schiffers did at Ionia. I was looking to refuel, and he was going to refill his spray tanks. He walked over, we shook hands and introduced ourselves. Heck of a nice guy. I'll have to get to know him better.

We put the Duck to bed, rubbed her down, and put a double messure of oats into her manger. We'd done three landings, one of'em a greaser. We'd cheated death again - three times. Time for lunch.

 

[Wannabe]

Ag pilots are a different breed of Cats.
Bob

 

[tx river rat]

And most ag pilots are dam good.
Ron

 

[Wannabe]

If they are not good, they don't last.
Bob