Monday, August 22, 2011

August 21st....

In search of the elusive "two thumbs up" it was my turn to run the tow rig.  Today's judges would be  Mia and Mike B (from Spokane).

We had a real mish-mash of weather forecasts with the only constant being they all agreed it was going to be hot (mid to upper 90's F).  To that end we decided to go with the NOA soaring numbers (Spokane Soaring Forecast ) that called for light winds (with a morning northerly) and good lift up 10,000asl.

Mia was ready to tow at 1pm and with a 5-10 mph north wind, we started from L-Roads mid point setup.  From midpoint, we don't have as much road as we like but there is the option to cross the highway for an additional 1 mile..... with Mia checking for traffic (our own "eye in the sky") I got clearance to cross the highway. Mia only used a few additional yards then pinned off into lift and was soon climbing out.  Mike also towed north but decided to pin off without making me cross the highway .  For his reward, he proceeded to immediately sink out!... Personally, I thought he was just trying to show off his low save skills as he saved his flight by doing some dirt tango at 580ft agl, connecting and climbing out. 

Both pilots drifted south, describing the air as broke but regularly breaking through 7000ft asl.  At about 20km out, the number improved to 8000ft+, all in the blue (no Q's). Mia was first to decide to cross to toward Farmer (In the mean time, Mike continued south to our JBSR turnpoint on top of the Beezly hills).  After having returned the tow rig to Mansfield I was dutifully pursuing my team around the course in our trusty air conditioned Jetta Diesel Wagon...

Both pilots picked their way back to the tow site in light broken condition, occasionally getting over 9000ft asl.  Of course, by the time they arrived back at L-Road, the nice smooth wind that had been blowing ALL day, had dropped to nothing (Light and Vacuum... and hot). Landing in these conditions is a real challenge but both Mia and Mike, after more then 4 hours each in the air, did admirable jobs pulling off clean "nose up" landings.  For there reward... both were immediately served ice cold Becks beer from the ice filled cooler!

Mia's 92km FAI Triangle and Mikes 107 km FAI Triangle

Mikes Video of his flight:

I think I earned myself the double thumbs up for service. To be safe I also tossed in a trip to Lake Chelan for an evening swim and bought everybody dinner... man they are a tough crowd to please! My happy campers:

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Saturday, August 20, 2011

31 years.....

I'm married to a saint, Celebrating our 31'st anniversary the tradition of Johnny Walker Blue in Mansfield continues.

  With Hot stable looking air on the coast Mia and blasted over the Cascades for 2 days dirt and dust devils. NOA soaring is predicting some very nice blue conditions... XC skies ....not so much, we will see (I crew for Mia).

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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Last Flight (for this trip, August 13th)

Nothing inspirational in the forecast. Blue, south winds and only only a marginal soaring forecast.  Since we got blown out yesterday, we thought we should at least put in the effort.

Today when we arrived at the tow site, winds where way less then the previous day. There were some big dust devils in the neighbourhood but not as many in previous days.  Randy was expecting the wind to pick up, but I was hoping we could still do some flying so I rigged and was up on the truck before 1pm.

Mia delivered me down the tow road directly into some 1200fpm up while on tow.  I was near 1000ft agl when I pinned off. Of course as soon as I pinned off, the lift was gone?..... a quick downwind search and I was back into it and was climbing in a smooth 400fpm.  I found the lift surprisingly smooth, but there was definitely some drift (10-14mph out of the south), By the time I peaked out at 7600ft asl, I had drifted 3 km's north.  I decided that I would press directly south.

Heading south, given the winds, pretty much kept me in the thermal source/street. I managed slow progress south for about 20km's, consistently being able to top up and continue. (Randy decided that given my ATOS was having a slow go, he didn't bother to setup) . At the 20km mark, the bottom fell out and I could find no more thermals to further my progress. I landed after a brief unsuccessful attempt to pull off  a low save (drifting north 5km's in the process at less then 3500ft asl... or 800ft agl).

My short little XC.

After packing up, Mia and I headed back to Mansfield, picked up Randy and headed for one last trip Park Lake.  Later, Mia created a fantastic fish dinner on the barbeque. Life is good.

Sunday, August 14th looked like the weather was going to change for the worse, so this was our last flight for this trip. We expect to be back for an extended September Long Weekend... perhaps the weather God's will smile for that trip?

Will try to get a photo album up in the next few days along with a  whole bunch of GoPro footage.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Blown Out... (August 12th)

Didn't look to0 bad first thing in the morning but by the time we got to the tow site the devils where drifting at a pretty good speed from the south. The airspeed on the truck was 10-15mph... you can pretty much count on 20 -25 aloft so we called the day.

Randy for some deep R+R....

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Mia catching up on the Laundry....

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I worked on the Winch, trying to work out some bugs....

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Weekend weather not looking good.

Beware of the Big Blue Hole... (August 11th)

Mia and Randy are up in the tow rotation and yours truly running the rig. Conditions looked spectacular .... but things were not as they appeared.

Both Randy and Mia had plans to do a Banks Lake Crossing and return to Withrow or Waterville then back to Mansfield.  Mia towed first and connected immediately (with a 1700ft tow) and was up and away (getting to 7500ft asl before leaving the tow site)

Randy was next, with a 2000ft agl tow connected and climbed out to 8500ft asl and joined Mia heading east.

I packed up the rig and by the time I was out on the road for chase support Mia was crossing Banks heading east, soon after Randy also joined her. I did a quick trip down to Coulee city, short wait and they both announced they were heading back..... straight into a trap!

A big blue hole had formed on their return leg, along with a stiff south wind of 10 to 15 mph and the west side of the lake was scrubbed of lift. Randy landed first, Mia followed shortly there after with a sympathy landing (same field as Randy). With Q's surrounding the area Randy was in a grumpy mood.  It took three Beck's to cheer him up.  At least everybody was packed up with plenty of time for a nice afternoon at Park Lake.

Mia's Flight and Randy's Flight

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Now That's More Like It.... (August 10th)

Today I handed the keys for the winch over  to Randy. It would be his first solo introduction to operating our winch. He took several training tows last year and had "volunteered" to do his turn at the wheel.

Conditions have taken a real change with some sort of system passing through overnight.  Early in the day we had development over the Cascades and the Methow valley. Not much wind in the forecast and various soaring forecasts did call for some pretty good lift.

Randy gave me a real good tow to 2000ft agl when he got his first initiation to being a "Tow-Master".  The towline chute failed on release (we refer to the failure as "chute is snivelling") Some times the chute will pop open.... sometimes not. As it turned out, it when all the way to the ground. As I climbed in smooth cool lift, Randy had to trudge back down the road (I estimated at least 3000 ft), unclip the chute and trudge back in the hot sun to rewind the dropped line.  Oh well first tow resulted in the first pilot away!

Next Mia towed up. Again Randy got his initiation... Mia took a weak link failure at 900ft agl. She almost connect but had to land back at the setup for a perfect no wind landing.  Randy was quickly back, but this time Mia released at 900ft agl in strong lift and was up and away.

By this time I was heading west nearing Waterville (averaging 8500ft asl in the thermals).  About 75 miles north toward the Cascades there was spectacular over development. It caused me to keep a very careful eye on the conditions. Fortunately it stayed north for the whole day. 

Biting my nails

Mia was soon out on her course heading Withrow, I turned Waterville and was on my way to the SE. My route brought me into the "blue" and things began to fall apart quite rapidly. Soon I was clinging to every thermal trying to make my planned turnpoint and head back to the tow site to the north. Meanwhile, Mia was enjoyed some nice climbs to over 9000ft asl and decided not to venture in my direction to the east. Instead she back tracked toward the tow site under a solid line of Q's.

After my turnpoint, I ended up real low and drifting north up the tow road (as low as 3600 ft asl /1000ft agl). Eventually, my luck came back and I managed to arrive back at the start meeting Mia at 8000ft als. From there we both took our separate ways back to the Mansfield to arrive at the house for good landings and got to take down on the green grass of the front yard.

Nice to see some Q's for change.

Mia's Flight and My Flight

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Weather... or not.... (August 9th)

Here in the Columbia Basin we are sitting under a bit of a weather high but  an inversion has set in, pushing the top of usable lift down.  It's not "real" hot and just enough surface winds that seem to scrub off the thermals before they get a chance to get powerful enough to bust through the inversion. Useable lift forecasts have dropped below 8000ft asl while theoretical thermal tops remains high (10,000 +).  The net result is your lift is unreliable, often broken and you have to spend allot of time finding new lift and at the same time dealing with drift.  So? what can you do about the weather..... nothing..... you just give it a shot and see what happens.

Mia and Randy where scheduled to fly, my turn to run the rig. Being a good "Tow-Master" I gave it my best sales pitch to encourage the team to do some flying, Randy was sold and took the bait. Mia was a sceptic (and familiar with my "blowing smoke" sales pitch) but she did decide to set up.

Randy towed first, took a nice tow up to 2000ft agl and started scratching with a 10mph south wind. Later I found out he released after running into a "goofy spot" on the drum.... a section of loose line that was improperly rewound the day before. No big deal but he decided to pin off to be safe.

It was pretty clear that the day was soft as Randy almost sunk out back at takeoff, so Mia decided to "bag-it" while Randy worked with what he had.  He latched onto a big one and was climbing at 1000+fpm but it gave up at 7000ft asl so he headed toward the house in Mansfield. He landed at the house, not too impressed with the day so we all decided to trade the gliders in for towels at the beach and call it a day. Randy's Flight.

While Randy broke down, Mia and I took the tow vehicle a short distance out of town to pull all the line off of the winch (found nothing that would have caused any issues.... I think Randy cleared what ever was lurking on the drum!)   We pulled all the line off (down to the backup) and with Mia standing on the road 5500 feet from the truck holding the recovery chute, I hit the rewind and kite the towline back onto the truck.  The usual source of problems can be caused by letting the drum free wheel just prior to rewind, kind of like getting a birds nest on a fishing reel. Several big loops can form, then get covered over by the rewind. Most of the time they will just slip though and everything is fine, sometimes they can knot up and lock the towline blowing the weak link.  Not a bad thing if your taking a greedy tow to 2000 ft! but not a good thing if your just off the truck!

Projects completed we set off with steaks and beer for Summer Falls for some R+R at the beach. 

As usual, nobody down at Summer Falls. One sad point tho... the Park has been seeing more use this summer and with it has come the fact that people = garbage and abuse.  It's always hard to understand why people don't take the time to look after such a beautiful place . We arrived finding barbeque pits were full "stuff" with people tossing plastic, cloths and what ever else they could find into the pits. Well not obvious at first glance, the park is definitely showing the abuse.  We took the time to clean up one of the picknick areas, that we decided was the least gross... people can be pigs.

Summer Falls.... something to protect? :

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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Billy Burgers.... (August 8th)

Mia's turn to run the rig, Mike had to return to work, so his team replacement was newly arrived Randy Pankew (our token flex pilot). We had blue skies with lots high thin cloud and a forecast that produced mediocre numbers for the day. Not too inspiring but any day flying is better then a day at work.

Harvest has shifted into high gear with the town of Mansfield buzzing with trucks and activity. When we arrived at the tow site, the combines were cutting to the East of the tow road. Good news when it comes to thermal triggers (IMO), lots of machinery tends to create more trigger points. Even if this is not the case we suddenly have allot more landing options ;-)

Randy snuck in ahead of me for the first tow (the little weasel ;-) . He pulled a 2000 ft tow, released and was soon climbing through to 7000+ft als. I followed about 15 minutes later (excellent turnaround by the tow master Mia), I had been climbing like stink but Mia had to pass some traffic on the road so I hung on for another 1/2 mile for a 2000 ft tow. Having passed through and area of lift, I had to back track the 1/2 mile to source the lift and soon climbed up to 5500ft asl. For what ever reason I consistently found myself unable to get through 6000 so I decided to leave the tow site and head east to Banks Lake (after Randy). As I blundered along, Randy was on the radio saying things were not looking good and he was getting low (he eventually landed near Sims Corner). Not inspired, I continued east in a somewhat recreational mood.

I arrived at the edge of Banks Lake low and unable to continue on. For the next 45 minutes I played with low save after low save (I think my lowest save was less then 400 ft). Normally my stress level goes up when trying to dig it out of the dirt but the situation was quite relaxing.... LZ was right under me, the air was not radical, Mia was only a short distance away. If I sunk out I had a nice place to land, good wind (from the S-SE at 10-15km) and best of all cold beer and Park Lake where only a short drive away. After multiple excursions to 5500ft asl I made the decision to plunge east across banks lake (a very low crossing indeed).

As it happened, lift did get better on the east side of Bank's with climbs now getting me up over 7000ft. I slowly worked my way east to Wilbur Airport (my new goal for the day). Mia and Randy where waiting the airport when I arrived (of course now I was having trouble trying to find some sink!) As I approached to land I had to share the pattern with a V tailed Bonanza. I took advantage of a thermal to let the Bonanza go first then found sink to spiral down. There was a nice south wind and I lined up on the taxi way next to the hangers (the Bonanza was at the fuel pumps). Everything was looking sweat until a dust devil caught my right wing on touch down, a little bit of a skid that gave me some road rash on my right knee... then penalty for landing on the pavement (grass looked to be a little too tall between the strip and the taxi way). The peanut gallery had a few comments to chirp about my landing, to which I answered "I see a low tow in your future". ;-)

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A nice little flight of 70+km and 3.2 hours of lazy touring over the highlands of the basin. Thing is the real reason for Wilbur being goal was our tradition seeking out of the quintessential American classic burger joint....

P1020508 Billy Burgers, the Classic American diner. Simple food..... that you can eat with your hands! Definitely a "must stop" if your find yourself in the Wilbur area.

The trip home included the mandatory swim in Park Lake and the late evening cruse up L road (combines were running well into dark). Sad thing.... the days are getting shorter.

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Monday, August 8, 2011

In the Blue (August 7th)....

We had the typical morning north wind, classic "blue" conditions. Forecast, light with top of usable lift in the 7-8000ft asl range.  Mia and Mike were going to be my "children" for the day.... I was hoping to earn the coveted "two thumbs up" as Tow-Master.

Our morning briefings include laptops and smart phones all doing the XC Skies link and anything else that we can find.  Usually this process has two conclusions.. go flying .... or .... go to the lake.  It was close, but the "Go flying" vote was cast. 

Before loading up, we had a visitor this morning... the bird worlds version of an attack jet fighter:

Jetfighter

We were pretty sure this was an immature Coopers Hawk , the smaller cousin of the infamous Goshawk. They mainly hunt small birds (strangely none around during his visit?)... he seemed to be eyeing up our Cat Mber but was probably calculating the mayhem would probably be not worth the risk.   After about a half hour he blasted off in pursuit of breakfast, not sure if he was successful.

Our buddy from Chelan, Jeff showed up but was not flying and joined the ground crew for the day. We towed up Mia and Mike with 1200 ft tows, both had trouble getting away, but soon connected and were climbing through 7000 ft asl. With no real plans, Jeff and I where surprised that Mia suddenly decided that she was going to cross Banks Lake and head east to Govan (near Wilbur). Mia took off in the lead with Mike having to grovel near the West edge of Banks. Today our pilots had the pleasure of sharing skies with the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner , as it cruised up and down Banks Lake.... really need to look up how far the turbulence extends below these big birds. 

With Jeff and I crewing in the Suzuki, we chased our team out past Almira.  It was a slow go, broken climbs and not much of any sort of drift. Eventually Mike turned Govan and  headed North to get to the high ground, Mia turned short of Govan and started back on the south edge of the highlands. Mansfield was goal....

Mike was first to arrive for the Banks crossing, just over 8000ft asl, lost 500ft for the 2 mile gap, on the west side gained back to 8000..... then got hammered with turbulence (as he put it... with lots of vigorous hand gestures later that evening!). He got through the turb's and continued scratching toward Mansfield.

Mia was further south, crossed the lake with a similar experience... lots of turb's on the west side, but not so lucky to find anything more.   

Mike landed Mansfield, Mia landed just east of Saint Andrews.  Both describe landing in a total vacuum on the ground... from the sounds of it both had tail wind / thermal events. Mike tilled some soil with a nice soft belly landing, Mia much more enthusiastically terminated her landing with the pointy end stuck in the ground.  No bent parts so everybody was happy.

Mia's flight ended with a 91km flat triangle / out and return  and Mikes flight was not up as of my posting (there had been some issues with the OLC server.... looks like it was being "looked at") but I'm guessing his flight to be around 125km OR (both pilots logged 4+ hours of airtime).

More of the same weather is predicted over the next 3-5 days.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

One Week in August Begins....

It has been a mixed up season this year on the "Flats" of central Washington. Wheat harvest is way behind, the ground has moisture, the days are getting shorter.  We are down in Mansfield for one more week of trying to log some distances for the OLC.

For a change today was a typical August day (6th), with morning north winds, forecast included lift to 8000, hot and blue (no clouds expected).  The only thing that was a bit of a negative, XC Skies predicted a case of the "Blue Meenies" to the south across the lake (Blue being the colour of poor lift).

Mia was supposed to fly but was a little under the weather and agreed to be "tow-master" for the day. Mike and myself (two VR's) were the only ones on the rig. I did the first tow, had a real hot launch, not sure but our airspeed indicator may have been sticking?... with a 1400ft tow I connected and was climbing out. Mike towed next, again a 1400ft tow (pretty good tow for our mid-point north tow). He struggled a bit but was soon up and away.

Mike took this picture of me on the "Rig":

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Plan was to head to Wilson Creek (50km SE) despite the poor GFS forecast. We figured if we got the height we would rely on the "Thermal Tops" forecast instead. As it turned out, what ended up being poorly predicted was the low level winds. The closer we got to Wilson Creek the more the ground was being scrubbed off by 10-15mph winds.  I was ahead and 6km short of Wilson creek turn-point, struggling below 5500ft asl, I had made the mistake last year of trying to push my luck under these conditions an knew if I pressed any closer I would be toast so took the light lift and converted it to a nice gradual down wind drift... destination Wilbur.  Mike took my warning and abandoned the Wilson Creek turn and joined me on our next leg to Wilbur (Airport).

We both completed the 40km run to Wilbur and joined up over the airport (for me its pretty rare that I ever end up having to share a thermal out here!).  While we climbed I spotted some very high Q's that had formed NW of us and told Mike if we could connect we might have a very good chance of staying high (on the north edge of the plateau. The high ground (3000 ft ) is often very productive late in the day.  We both switched our "go to destination" to the tow site (50+km's) and left Wilbur at 8400ft, plunging NW  against a 10-15mph Westerly.   The clouds had disappeared but the lift remained.  I managed a climb to 9400, Mike struggled a bit and did not get quite as high  as I pushed west.

As it turned out, getting out ahead got me back to Mansfield, Mike being a little behind got the short end of the stick (lift) and got stuck on the East side of Banks Lake unable to get enough height to cross.  My faster line was not keeping me that high but it did get me near the edge of the lake where I managed a good climb past 8000ft asl, allowing me to cross west and into good smooth evening air near Sim's Corner.

Mike on the other hand, fought for more then an hour trying to climb out, unfortunately being stuck between 2800 and 5500ft meant having to fight 10-15mph drift and nothing would break through to allow him to move west.  Mia was dutifully providing support to Mike by having a windsock  at the ready.  Eventually, gravity won and he was forced to land.

At nearly the same time, I landed back in Mansfield and had carried my glider back to the front lawn. (5.7 hours 162km FAI triangle).  Cold beer, cool green lawn.... life is good.

Mike's Flight and My Flight

Mia arrived back with Mike,  disappointed as to not having made it back but happy to had a good landing, first trip across the lake and his longest flight ever on his VR (time wise)... and of course cold beer.  Looks like tomorrow... more of the same. 

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Our Flying on August 1st....

Late report on our flying on August 1st. I don't know how the others keep up with daily posting but I tend to find myself scrambling for time to make posts, especially when I have to take time out for editorial retractions ;-)

Mia's turn at running the rig. This morning Nicole (Nicole's Blog) stopped by after spreading bad weather over every contest she attended in the Rockies and Utah. We immediately told her to leave town as we were hoping to fly! We both skeptically eyed a 20kmph North wind that was blasting through Mansfield. I felt confident it was going to lay down (well sort of confident)... Nicole decided to head off toward the Butte and maybe back to Canada.

Mike on his VR was going to be my wing man for the day loaded up and headed off to L-Road. By 12, the winds started to subside (pretty typical event when we get north winds in the summer). It was basically "blue" with a few scattered Q's in the distant north. XC skies was all over the map when it came to the GFS, NAM and RCU forecasts, I was not overly optimistic but thought it was worth a try.

I took the first tow north from our Mid point start on L-Road and released with a 1200 ft tow, right over L + 13 and slowly began scratching my way into the day (drifting with the north wind). Our "plan" was.... If we got high we would head to Wilson Creek. Nope....I was having trouble getting over 6500asl so that was not happening. Plan B.... drift with the north wind to the Beezly hills up over Ephrata and try and put some sort of triangle together. If it ended in failure we would be closer to our favourite swimming hole at Park Lake.

As I crossed the highway at the south end of L-Road, Mike was off tow and scratching hard. Mia spent about 5 gallons of gas racing the tow rig up and down every road that was under Mike trying to break a thermal off. Mike stuck to it, climbed out and was 30 minutes behind, also struggling to get high.

Both of us took our time and wandered down wind. Mike was only 20 minutes behind as I turned our unofficial south turnpoint near the edge of the Beezly hills (50km out). At this point we were starting to get past 7500asl (I managed to milk some thermals near the turnpoint to 8300asl). We ran into one lone Sailplane pilot doing what the local pilots call the "power line patrol " Bob Firth's Sailplane flight....

I lead the way north bumping my way across Jameson Coulee (at a very low 6500asl and not many places to land), worked my way north to Farmer (again, my shadow, "Mike" was tagging along the same route). In the meantime, Mia was keeping close below us in support, there if we needed in wind info for an out landing.

I had pretty much given up on anything major and was simply trying to limp back to the tow site. I was just short of Withrow, climbing past 8600 it was time to turn for "goal". Mike pretty much did the same but slight further north at the Withrow turnpoint.

Mike near Withrow, looking over to Chelan Butte:

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The day was getting late and the air was supper soft, Still we pressed on. Just shy of the towsite, the decision was made to make Mansfield the goal and call it a day. I back tracked from near L-Road, Mike approached from the south side of town with both of us arriving at exactly the same height.

Mia advised us the LZ had little or no wind... or any wind that was there would come from every direction. I tried to spiral down ahead of Mike, only to blunder into lift and find myself at the same level again!... With Mia dutifully kicking dirt and holding a windsock the whole time I slipped back into another spiral and ended it with an dusty but OK landing, Mike pulled off a perfect landing (but a little short ;-) with a long walk... both in NO Wind. We both hiked the gliders back to the house, with Mia serving up a pair of nice cold Becks from the hanger fridge.

Officially, we acknowledged the fantastic work of our winch/crew with a dual "Thumbs Up":

DoubleThumbs

My Flight and Mike Bomstad's Flight

Both of us, ended with over 4 hours of airtime and 100+km's FAI triangles.... real hard work.. rewarded with Cold beer, bare feet on fresh cut grass and a Barbecued chicken dinner made by the best Tow Master ever.. (man can I suck up....)

I was also happy to hear that Robin Sather (a PG pilot from the Fraser Valley) managed an nice flight (Robin's Flight) off the Butte, along with Andrew Berkley (Andrew's Flight). Good job for both of these PG flying "Butt Heads". :-)

We did not bother to fly on Tuesday, lots of wild looking air up high and not much going on low down. We pulled the "pin" and headed back to Abbotsford for work but will be back on Friday night to put in one more week of chasing dust devils around the flats of Washington State.... sorry for the late posting.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Editorial Retraction.....

 

Well.... I've been advised that an Editorial retraction is in order. Apparently, I was under the false assumption that in my previously posted photograph of Mia with "two thumbs up" was in recognition of the fine and very high quality tow services provided by the day's "Tow-Master" (me). 

Mia  has pointed out that the photo represents her response to the question "so how was your flight ?".....  for some reason she felt the tow service only deserved a single "thumbs up". After 30 plus years of marriage.... I know what's good for me.... I retract and now advise that the photo of "two thumbs up" reflects the pilots opinion about the flying and not the tow services..... I also told her to start her own blog. I slept on the chesterfield ;-)