Tales from the Log of the Ruptured Duck

[Kayak Jack]

SUB SONIC RECCE

"GIB (Gal In Back) to pilot. No advancing columns of enemy tanks sighted. But, a herd of buffalo accompanied by three giraffes are off our right wing." My back seater is also the recon gal, and she was reporting in.
"Thanks, GIB. Make a note of it. Do you see any enemy convoys out there? Carriers, battleships, destroyers?"
"Just a rowboat, sir."

Weather here today is text book perfect. Rather than ride the bikes today, we chose to fly. The poor Duck hasn't been out of her hangar in a couple of months, and she actually whimpered to get out. A gentle S'ly breeze made it picnic weather. Just right

The mean, little man who lives in my nose strut had let out all the air. So I had to air that up. Nose tire too.. We taxied down to the fuel pumps, filled up, and waited a few minutes in case there was any water. I wanted it to have time to settle down, and travel over to the low point on the tank bottom so it would come out the sump drain. And, no water! Perfect.

After take off, we flew W'ly to Charlotte, then turned gently left to a SW'ly heading. About 15 miles down the road that way is the jerkwater town of Olivet. A left turn and a half put us on an E'ly heading toward Leslie. On this track, we thread the needle in between towers. Several pretty, little lakes dot the fields of soy beans and corn. Oats and wheat are all harvested and gone. We were surprised that there wasn't anybody fishing! The perfect day for it. Maybe they'd forgotten to sprinkle their lawn yesterday and pick up night crawlers last night?

After an hour in the air, we returned home. Fall colors are just beginning to peek out of hiding, and in only a few places. Soon, all the woods around here will be all ablaze with bright reds, rich orange, and raucous yellows. Pumpkin pies, cider & donuts, popcorn and apples! I like fall season the bestest.

 

[Wannabe]

Wow! It's be a while since I have been flying. I enjoyed flying around seeing the sights on a nice day. Thanks for the ride Jack. Let's do this again soon.
Bob

 

[Kayak Jack]

Glad to have you aboard, Bob, and others too. No need to bring along a sandwich, the Duck seeks out watering holes and beaneries.

I've got a taxidermist buddy who will mount one of hose giraffes from yesterday. Julie and I are mulling it over - should we put him in the basement with his head up in the living room, or put him in the living room with his head up in the bedroom?

 

[Kayak Jack]

BIENNIAL FLIGHT REVIEW

Every two years, private pilots participate in a flight review. Appropriately, it's labled as a biennial review. One hour of ground training, and one hour of flight training. I always learn some new things, and get reminded of things I'd previously learned.

Deanna accomplished the ground training with me over lunch a couple or three weeks ago. Today, we were able to match schedules and weather. We started out with some ground reference maneuvers: S turns along a road and turns about a point. I did fairly well, but not as good as I could/should have. But, at least my mistakes were calmly done and smoothly executed.

Then, we did some steep turns. I've never been a fan of those, but did OK nonetheless. Then something the modified wings are quite good at - slow flight. Before the Duck would waddle badly in slow flight. At 65mph it was very loose and waddley After the Short Take Off and Landing (STOL) kit was installed, it is better. Today, at 60mph, it was docile and predictable. We did two, power off stalls, and both times it recovered easily, and with LESS THAN 100 feet of altitude loss! That is 300-400' less than it had ever done with the originsl wings.

A couple more steep turns, and we headed home. Cheated desth again.

Oh, and the scenery was beautiful!

 

[Kayak Jack]

AN INTERESTING DAY

The Duck has been resting for a couple of months. Instead of going flying, we've been riding our bikes. With good weather forecasted for today, we redied ourselves. I usually fly in mornings, but other tasks took priority this morning. We ended up getting airborne about 3:00 in the afternoon.

Weather had been moving in from the northwest, but had slowed down, giving us more time. Jackson, about 30 miles S'ly of our home field, has more than its share of fog and clouds. I had originally intended to fly west, then SW'ly, but a couple of thousand feet above ground kevel, it was quite hazy. We couldn't see more than a couple of miles ahead looking westerly, toward the sun. Hazy bright flooded our eyes. Flight Following had us on radar, and there was no traffic out there. Still, it appeared foolhardy to continue the planned route.

Turning, we retraced our route, and flew on past Mason. Going back to the east, visibility was maybe 4/5 miles with the sun to our backs. No pretty, fall colors were evident. No reds or oranges at all. The brightest color available was patches of bright, irridescent green. Winter wheat, planted a month and a half ago, is up and healthy. It will grow and hold under the snow. A year from now, some of us will be enjoying biscuits, pancakes, bagels, etc. from some of this wheat. Today, it grows and gives us some oxygen.

Our runway at Mason Jewett Field KTEW is east-west, 10-28. Wind on the ground today was southerly at 5-10. 800-1,000 feet above the ground, it was 25. My first landing attempt ended up being a go around. The wind had drifted us about 450 feet too far to the north. Hit the throttle, take off carb heat, raise the flaps, get back lined back up over the runway, call position and intentions, turn into a right hand crosswind leg, turn right onto downwind leg, reannounce position, come abeam the numbers at the far end of the runway, throttle back to 1,500 RPM, 10 degrees flaps, begin descent, bank some to the left to gain more clearance from the runway in this right-hand traffic pattern, call out base leg, initiate a long 180 turn to the right, set flaps to 20 degrees, add a bit of power to clear buildings, 30 degree flaps, left rudder and right ailerons, power to idle, hold alignment, set down right main gear - left main - nose gear, roll to turn off, call clear of the active runway. Having cheated death again, we taxied up to the fuel pits.

Flying a machine that is heavier than air is basically math and physics. Engineers can predict and explain it all with math and physics. But when it's you personnaly up there, even on a simple flight like I do with the Duck, math cannot explain it. Not at all. That's something else, altogether.

 

[Wannabe]

Thanks Jack, I was starting to get Duck withdrawal. When does the trees start turning up there? I figured you would have already been awash in fall colors.
Bob

 

[Kayak Jack]

Fall colors have come - and gone - here, Bob. We enjoyed them this year, as we do every year. The color wave starts kn Michigan's upper peninsula (we simply refer to it as "the U.P.", and folks from up there sre "yoopers") in maybe late Auhust, but surely by September. It sweeps southward, reaching us in south-central Michigan in September, maybe early October.

Brisk, bright sunny weather gives us Indian summer, football Sarurdays, and deer hunting. Bike riding and flying are at their prettiest and most scenic. Yesterday was a weaker version of that. Today, it's just drizzly. sigh

 

[Wannabe]

Weather is getting nasty up there. Looked a minute ago and there is 15F. temps in N. Dakota. I'll keep the 63F. I have right now. By the way, I am picking tomatoes and ground cherrys. Picked my first sugar snap pea yesterday.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Frost got my tomatoes. I haven't grown any Oregon sugar snap peas in years. They are GOOD.

 

[oldsparkey]

Trying something different ..... Took a couple of clay pots and filled them with a 50-50 mix of sand and potting soil. Then took some cloves of Garlic and put one clove in the center of each pot , root part down at 2 2/1 inches and covered them up.
I have green shoots about 4 inches tall and doubling right now.
If Google is correct I will have fresh Garlic about May to enjoy.

 

[Kayak Jack]

I'm glad it sprouted for you. Some store-bought garlic cloves are sprayed to prevent sprouting. Now, you will be able to grow your own garlic. You might start another pot each month, for the next 11 months. Then, you would have a fresh crop clming on each month. And no werewolves.

 

[Wannabe]

Jack, I planted Oregon Sugar Pods this year. They are starting to bloom.

 

[oldsparkey]

And no werewolves.

I was wondering why the neighbors packed up over night and left. Darn it was even during the full moon.

 

[Kayak Jack]

They're good raw, in salads; steamed as a veggie; cooked in soups and stews; etc. I'm dehydrating meat (chicken and hamburg), and veggies (corn, peas, carrots, mushrooms, green and red sweet peppers, etc. to build up meals for camp. I should have dried some sugar pods instead of regular peas. Next time.
It's surprising how many good meals cann be assembled like that. I add boiling water, let rehydrate, and eat. Home made instead of store bought.

 

[oldsparkey]

It's surprising how many good meals cann be assembled like that. I add boiling water, let rehydrate, and eat.

If you are carrying a week or more of food in a backpack , dehydrated is the only way to go. The simplest way to enjoy a stress and work free meal on the trail is with Freezer bag cooking.

Pack the dehydrated items for a single meal in a freezer bag with the amount of water needed to re-hydrate it marked on the outside. Spices and condiments can be in a snack sized zip lock packed inside with the rest.. If you vacuum pack the meal at home and add one of the oxygen absorption packs. Make sure to remove it before adding the water to everything.

In camp bring the water to a near boil and add it to the dehydrated food in the bag. Stir it to mix the water and the dehydrated items then set the bag in a cosy** and wait about 10 minutes , then enjoy your meal.

Clean up is even easier , lick the spoon and put the bag in your trash bag.
Normally the bag from the 1st meal becomes the trash bag.
** A cosy is a insulated bag the freezer bag fits inside of to retain heat and to complete the cooking cycle. The cosys are either home made or purchased.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Your description fits mine to a T. It works very well.

We need to invent a more masculine term than "cozy". It brings to mind two, gray haired grannies, hunkering over a porceline teapot that is covered with a crocheted cozy. Let's generate a better moniker!

My "insulator"/"hotpack"/"keeper"/"whatever" is made from a chunk of closed cell foam pad (one of those ugly, blue things from WallyWorld's camping section). It was a piece about 30" about 14". I folded it over almost double, duct taped the sides, with a 6" flap that folds over the opening like an envelope. The finished insulator should accomodate a gallon Ziplock bag, with at least a quart of water and food in it. Test it with a quart of cold water in the Ziplock bag in case you need to adjust size or shape. Start out making it a bit larger than you think it should be. When not in use, this insulator/hotpack/whatever also serves as a cushion to sit on.

Like Chuck, I store the components inside a gallon Ziplock, and pack it into a vacuum bag, and seal it. Seasonings can be twisted into a 10" square of plastic wrap. Unwrap and add them to the mix. Unlike Chuck, when I'm done, I burn the bags. The spoon, after being licked clean, can then be sanitized with waterless hand cleaner. Or, wiped on your pants.

A really good filler for dehydrated soups and stews is dehydrated cabbage. Good vitamins, fiber, flavor, etc.

 

[oldsparkey]

I cheat and get the dehydrated Vegetable Soup mix ( http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/Dried-Vegetable-Soup-Mix-12-oz_p_1867.html ) from Harmony House along with a container of the dehydrated Cabbage.
Three tablespoons of the vegy soup mix ( It's a 6 water to 1 mix ) and two tablespoons of the Cabbage makes a good soup and especially a tasty addition to some Ramen noodles , along with a splash of hot sauce.
Check out Harmony House ( http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/ ) they have all sorts of vegetables , fruits and berries already dehydrated or freeze dried.

My insulated ( stuff it & set it aside ) hot-pack is a generic one that takes a quart size zip lock bag.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Knorr soups are good too. I sometimes make a rice pilaf by adding Knorr Spring Garden Vegetable soup to brown rice. Add a can of chicken, and it's a whole meal.

It is much easier to have some nice meals right off the grocery shelf today. Much improved in ladt 5-10 years.

 

[Kayak Jack]

BASICMED

Over a year ago, Congress passed a law about Class 3 flight medicals. In a nutshell, I no longer deal with a flight surgeon. I now go to my family doctor - who, of course, is already familiar with my medical history.

Last year, FAA Medical Section dragged out my medical procedure 5-6 months. The issues that they agonized over are not even mentioned on the BasicMed checklist. The administrivia that is their hesrt and soul were conspicuous by their absence. I took a training course to teach identifying how to look for situations, conditions, or symptoms where I should elect to not fly. I'm more informed now.

While there are still areas or improvement, this is miles ahead of before.

 

[oldsparkey]

BASICMED
While there are still areas or improvement, this is miles ahead of before.

Look out for any detours in that road , they can be a bitch.