Hey John I think I saw that Pietenpol last year just north of the ultralight area. Am I correct?

Yep, it was also featured in Sport Aviation.

I love the fact that he made a carb heat muff out of a Marvel Mystery Oil can.

Even cooler is the Model A engine, modified for aircraft use.

That is just one of the reasons Oshkosh and the EAA are so popular. You can go there and see history, and it flew in.

I also thought the MMO can was a special touch.

My first airplane ride was in a plane with a cloth covered, wood spar wing.

I still smile at that when I look down on the cloud tops while at work aloft all these 31 years later. I have seen a lot of changes in this industry in that time. I get F/O's these days that have never dealt with carb ice, have no idea what a fan marker is, have no tailwheel time, have never had a wet footprint, and think the C6b is a little blue pill.

My favourite ride after all these years was a trip to Idlewild from LAX in a TWA Sleeper. Yes, a Connie with curtains. I am probably dating myself here, but I was 6 or 7 years old. I was next to the window, about 15 feet behind the wing. Left LAX at 3-ish in the afternoon, had a real dinner (with linen napkins and real silverware), then climbed into a bunk and supposedly to sleep all night. I, of course, stared out the window all night, and watched the lights of all the towns and the darkened farmland slide under the wing in the moonlight. Watched the tongues of flame from the exhausts lengthen and shorten as the plane climbed over the rockies and the occasional buildups. Saw the sun rise over Ohio. I have had lots of incredible experiences aloft since then, but none as special as that.

These days, I can watch the changes in the contrails in the aft looking exterior camera. Yesterday was so warm at FL450 that even the cooling turbines were leaving contrails.

Some things never change.

Singpilot, I am heading out Sunday morning 7/25 in my Pacer. What day are you arriving?

Check out eaa.org, my wife is in the front seat of the Cub on the top right side of the new opening page. Her first husband (long story)restored that Cub and EAA took pictures at Sun & Fun. They must sell these pictures because we see this Cub on a lot of "win a J3 Cub advertisements".

I just had to cancel my airline res. A bunch of my captains have come down with some sort of summer flu going around. I missed it because I was in Dallas all week on my every six month refresher. I leave Tuesday for Nice, France until Sunday the first. I'll be going overhead, 9 miles up on that Sunday, maybe we can set up a comm check. I could s-turn the contrail at 500 knots true. I leave southern France at 10am local, which puts me over OSH at 3pm-ish Sunday afternoon.