Cruising the neighborhood

[Bryan Cotton]

No pictures, but last night a neighbor invited everybody over to look at Saturn and some deep space objects. He has a little observatory between his house and hangar. We saw Saturn, its rings, and Titan. Then he aimed at cluster M13. Lots of stars. Another neighbor set his telescope up on the ramp so we could look at the moon. Had never seen the moon through a scope before. Man that is cool.

[Bryan Cotton]

Not quite the neighborhood- a bit north in Janesville Wisconsin where we went to a water ski show. They had a Robbie (R44 Astro, not Culver) giving rides for $20 a head. I had always hoped to get recurrent some day and take the boys but that seems more unrealistic as time goes on.


So, with Adam in front, Matthew and I in the back, off we went.


Helicopters are still the coolest means of aviation. I miss them.

[Bryan Cotton]

Mixmaster. We used a 337 gear retraction mechanism on the X2 with Ti legs.

This was on our morning bike ride.

[Bryan Cotton]

Some wings laying on the grass. May have been early Sonex prototypes.

[Bryan Cotton]

We are sleeping in a different airport neighborhood tonight. KRFD with a zillion other Boy Scouts for Aircamp. Here is a project I would like to get Matthew into. These guys licensed the tri-flyer plans to Popular Mechanics when they were still cool:



It is cold!

[Bryan Cotton]

The poor harley golf cart has not been out in a long while. It is busy storing wood in the warmish hangar. I stopped by to turn on the heat so it would be warmer when I came back from getting gas. Saw this Pawnee on the way out:

I have more hours in Pawnees than any other single type. Miss flying them dearly. I towed gliders, I was never a cropduster.

[Bryan Cotton]

The guys always have a lot of work clearing off the airport. A lot of the snow ends up by my hangar. We spend a bunch of time on these snow piles and when the conditions are right you can make a heck of a fort.

[Bryan Cotton]

Here Adam is cleverly disguised as a traffic cone. We were out skating and saw this Skybolt. They went up and flew some acro over the airport.

[SonexN76ET]

That picture reminds me of where I lived during high school at Brookridge airpark near Downers Grove. My neighbor had just finished building a Christen Eagle.

Thanks,

Jake

[Bryan Cotton]

I hope my kids have fond memories of airpark life! I just need to get back to flying.