Folks, here it is, on YouTube. These British comedy actors really had their act together one year before the current problems:

Enjoy, if you can.

Actually, this is just a little site that I developed for my personal use. At the time that I decided to write it, I couldn’t find any other site that would do this. I have since found several, and I will join the fray.

Hyperbod will log your weight online, and make a weight graph.

Please excuse my absense from the podcasting arena. I have not given it up, and I appreciate all those of you who have downloaded and listened to my rantings.

So what? So I haven’t recorded a podcast since… since… when? Please listen to others’ podcasts, and, if you happen to be in Oshkosh, drop by and see the aviation podcasters after the airshow on Friday, Aug 1st in one of the pavilion tents. I don’t think that I will be there, as I will be arriving earlier in the week and probably leaving for home before the Podapalooza. Also, having not recorded a podcast since the last Oshkosh, I feel personally unqualified to be a part of the panel.

If you are traveling to Oshkosh, and would like to say “Hi”, we will probably be in the pet section of Camp Scholler with our brown Jeep Grand Cherokee, and our new Hi-Lo trailer. Look for the license plate “P’DCAST” on the SUV.

See you there!

Len

Now that I’ve been promoted on Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code episode 727 (about 10 minutes into the show), it’s time to start producing more episodes of the FPP.

It’s going into full production, although it’s a design introduced 18 years ago, before the fall of the Soviet Union. It is going to be a direct replacement for the Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer.

And, for comparison purposes, here is the USA’s Lockheed F-22 Raptor:

You all know how much I like aviation history… especially airline history. Enjoy!

Okay, you may be able to hear our baby boy, Alan, trying to podcast from the audience. Anyway, here is the Pilotcast roundtable hangar flying from the EAA Fly In in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. See the next post for my blog entry, and photos.

You can download the mp3 file directly here:

To pilots here in North America, Oshkosh is the pilgrimage of the flier. For one week each year, around the end of July/beginning of August, Wittman Field (KOSH) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin becomes the busiest airport in the world. Here are the details of my visit:

My family drove to Bedford, Massachusetts to borrow my mother’s Class B Motorhome. It was in need of a lot of attention, as the routine maintenance had been neglected, and it had a pretty nasty water leak. We did some work on it in Mom’s driveway, and took off back home, with a quick stop to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water house in Pennsylvania.

After returning home and working on the water problem, we sent our daughter off with some friends to Colorado (for some reason, our 15 year old didn’t want to go to the airshow), and departed the house on Tuesday, late afternoon. Tuesday night we spent freelance camping en route in the van, and Wednesday stopped in Beloit, WI to get a LP gas problem fixed and to buy a pair of new RV batteries. We arrived in Oshkosh later that afternoon. We paid our $19 per night to stay in Camp Scholler, and found a spot in the pet area. So, it was me, Inna, Alan and Sima (our Yorkie) staying in the miniature motorhome.

Thursday morning, we rose, used the community showers, and made our way out to Airventure, where we took in the static displays, and listened to separate forums hosted by Chuck Yeager and Bob Hoover. We watched the aerial shows, heard a violin concert in the Theater in the Woods, and returned to the van to a nice meal of beef stew. As with last year, we arrived in Oshkosh at about the same time that the rain did, so the shows were abbreviated.

Traveling with our 5 month old was difficult, but it seems that the EAA has families in mind. We found diaper changing stations in a couple of places, fully stocked with all sizes of disposable diapers, as well as a “Mother/Baby Hanger” where mothers and babies can do what they do, with an outdoor waiting area for the dads.

Friday, we had some more fun watching the dogs from the US Customs and Border Protection agency sniff out drugs and contraband from suitcases on stage. I watched forums on GPS and WAAS, and flying cars, while Inna watched the airshow again. Tragically, this was the afternoon when two P-51 Mustangs collided with each other on landing, killing pilot Gerald S. Beck, 58, of Wahpeton, North Dakota.

Pilotcast Podcast-Palooza

At 5:30, in the GAMA pavillion (#2) I was invited by the Pilotcast guys to join them and representatives of Uncontrolled Airspace, Airspeed Online, Ultraflight Radio, The Finer Points, the CFIcast, and the Student Pilot Flight Podlog in a round-table discussion/hangar flying talk which will be available soon on the Pilotcast site. I may also put the mp3 in the Flying Pilot podcast feed.

After this, Inna and I took a walk around all of the airplane tie-downs to see what we want to buy or build.

Saturday morning, I took a workshop in composite construction, where we took a flat square of foam, filled it in with epoxy mixed with microballoons, covered it with fiberglass cloth, and coated the whole thing with epoxy resin. Afterword, the whole thing was covered with a dacron sheet. It turned out pretty well. I was pretty tired when I attended the briefing for the fabric covering workshop, so I ended up skipping the practical portion, but learned a lot in the presentation.

World War II Bombers

In the Saturday airshow, there was a formation of WWII bombers, a B-17, a B-24, and three B-25s. Also, there was the highly anticipated demonstration of the F-22 Raptor. It astonishes me each time I see it fly straight up, run out of speed, and simply nose over and accelerate again perfectly horizontally. Oh the technology of vectored thrust!

3 Generations of Air Force Fighters

Later, the F22 was joined by a P-38 and F-86 in an Air Force Heritage formation flight.

Saturday night, we saw the 1942 John Wayne movie The Flying Tigers at the fly-in theater. Inna and I both enjoyed it, and Alan seemed to enjoy it as well, at least during the times that he was awake.

Oh, I’m not going to talk about all of the commercial displays. You can read about them in many other places, with new VLJs, (Very Light Jets), LSAs (Light Sport Aircraft), and flying cars. Just visit Airventure.org to see them for yourself. I did pick up the book about Captain Jeppessen, and will talk about him and his little black book on a future podcast.

Today we listen to a conversation that I had with my first officer on a recent flight. Todd, in his spare time, flies for an organization called “Freedom Flight” in the Dallas Fort Worth Texas region. He talks about the organization, and his flights in support of Hurricane Katrina relief.

The podcast is here:

Freedom Flight website.

I heard from my good friend, American Airlines Retired Captain John Halliday. John’s book Flying Through Midnight was released in the same general time frame as my own book, The World At My Feet.

John tells me the paperback version is starting to show up in Wal-Marts and other major outlets, and I wanted to let you know as well as give you a new link for this book. When I first mentioned Flying Through Midnight upon its release a couple of years ago, many of my readers immediately read it, then wrote to tell me how much they enjoyed it. Here is how one reader put it:

One of the best books I have ever read, and could serve as a guidebook for living. You are a philosopher, poet, humanist, and gifted writer. There were so many lessons to be learned regarding friendship, loyalty, and thinking outside the box that I read the book a second time in order the fully grasp these lessons. Who can ever forget Wiley, Jack, Charles, Ty or the Hawk, Desktop, and the Church of the Air Force. Your endless patience with Rich, your regard for Tonto, and your gift of tools to Toothless revealed your character. The way you wove the music of the day into daily events and the symbolism of the rocks was pure genius. The lyrics of those songs will forever remind me of the stories in the book. In skimming over the Mekong River on the return trip from Long Tien, I felt the sense of triumph and relief of you and the crew at having survived the impossible. Thank you for helping me to understand the role of politics in deadly conflicts. Your father's observation that you were lambs led to slaughter was right on. The news bulletin interrupting the Lawrence Welk show describing "the event" would have been unbelievable had I not just read your book of what really happens in war. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You are truly one incredibly brave and humble American.
– Ruth Daniel

When I read Flying Through Midnight myself, I was just incredulous. I didn’t know John very well yet, and didn’t appreciate the scope of this true-life adventure. This is truly one of the most thrilling and unbelievable stories—aviation or otherwise—I’ve ever read and I am proud to call John my friend. You can find more information about it here:
My Space .

I’ve now posted the first part of “Cookie Run,” accessible through the Table Of Contents . Some of my readers who go back a few years may remember this from a previous Blog entry, and I later decided to include it in my sequel. In the very first part of this chapter I’ve described a photo mission for my airline, taken at Mt. McKinley. The photo appears among many others in The World At My Feet as well as in my Photo Gallery. The link appears in my “A Much Younger Cap’n Meryl” Album: Photos

"The World At My Feet" and "Flights of Whimsy" is now a
permanent offer in our Gift Ideas area at
fromthecockpit.com. Just $25 for both books,
shipped anywhere in the world for free for a
savings of $12.85.