On the Ramp Right Now!

Cribbs74 wrote:Nice pics Kim!

I guess I need to start posting some pics too. I run into all kinds of stuff while working. It gets kind of mundane for me, I get bored with the military stuff and I would rather see the private planes! I am headed to another AFB on Friday to do a restoral on a Glideslope I can get some video of B1's taking off as I will only be a few 100 feet off threshold.

Ron, you ever come out to Nellis AFB?

Reading about being 100 feet off of threshold reminded my of my younger days, when I was about 17 we would burn some herb and lay on the runway 9R at MIA.
You could park and climb about 4 foot fence to get to the threshold, boys will be boys.

Obviously not a lot going on lately...but a guy works with what he gets:

That is hilarious. MY EARS!... man, that's one tall Easter Bunny.

RknRusty wrote: That is hilarious. MY EARS!... man, that's one tall Easter Bunny.

My buddy's daughter, Nora, wasn't too sure about the huge bunny...

I know I've posted some Sky King references here before, but another one might be OK. A fellow stopped in recently with a sick right engine (plugged fuel injector), and I took advantage of his delay to capture a few photos.

With it's swept fin and rudder, this is not the model of 310 that I always associated with The Flying Cowboy...earlier models had the 'square tail' that I always thought looked exactly like that of a P-51. It DID still have the raked front strut and 'jet exhaust' nacelles (which were later by-passed in many) that made it so cool in my childhood eyes. Even the much-maligned 'Tuna Tanks' out at it's wingtips looked good to me...resembling the tip tanks of jet fighters of the 50's.

I recently read (somewhere) that at least one of this version was used for promotional tours and airshow visits back in the day of the Sky King series.









Ain't nobody cooler:



A previous visitor and earlier 'Square Tail' model.

Yup....you've gotta love Sky King and the early Cessna 310.......classic!

xplaneguy wrote:Yup....you've gotta love Sky King and the early Cessna 310.......classic!

Yeah...influence and inspiration...of course, I DID grow up believing that any pilot worth his salt always packed a sandbag in his plane...just in case the Sheriff needed him to drop it on some fleeing bank robbers...

Still don't know if it's that bad an idea...

Don't see many over wing exhaust 310's around any more. They are a true a
American classic. I love the look of the tuna tanks.

While my dad was on Embassy duty in Chile he had enough free time to get pilot rated through the Chilen Air-Force including instrument and multi engine ratings

His next assignment was as commander Hawthorn Nevada Army ammunition depot ( now closed)
He has one Cessna 310 and a assigned Lt to pilot it. I remember the Lt grousing a lot because his cushy job did not yield the stick /log book time he desired for his future airline pilot career. My dad did not like this grousing so he would fly the plane all the time except for letting the LT get his monthly minimums to stay rated and current

I got to fly it once with my dad over the vast Nevada ammo bunker complex

Previously I had flown 150s and 170s...the 310 was a Cadillac and fun to fly.....in fact I was most amazed at how noise free the cabin was

Always wanted to model the bird...a favorite of mine

I never saw one SkyKing episode when it was on TV cuz we were overseas those years

Yeah, it was a Saturday Morning ritual for me. I had collected several Cereal Premium 'Songbirds' that came (I think) in boxes of Shredded Wheat and others. I used scissors to cut the prop blades and landing gear from them...giving them an in-flight look. Somehow NONE of these little plastic planes stayed with me through the decades, and I guess they're big time collectables now.



I'm gonna eventually get a DVD set of the series and enjoy watching them...cheesiness or not.

I own the complete series DVD box set, worth every cent! Currently on sale too!

http://www.skyking.com/store.php/skyking/pg12551/our_store

xplaneguy wrote:I own the complete series DVD box set, worth every cent! Currently on sale too!

http://www.skyking.com/store.php/skyking/pg12551/our_store

THANKS!   Now, in the background...the sound of PayPal spooling up....

A little off the beaten path for this thread (or maybe not, considering the Easter Bunny Episode):  Our local airport occasionally hosts school tours, for which, I'll usually tagged to share with our assistant airport manager Katrina Amos.

Katrina gives the kids some info about the operation of the airport (all of this is geared to the age group of the kids), while I walk them across the ramp and through our main hangar.  The interest level can vary wildly, especially with older groups (up past 10 or so), but we all know that kids can STILL be absorbing info even if they seem a little indifferent, so we try to keep the tour popping.

The tour we had this week was one of the most enjoyable because EVERYONE was into the whole airplane thing, even the grown-ups.  Our big bunch of second graders from Trinity Lutheran School was REALLY enjoying their field trip, making the tour almost run it 'self.

After a walk through the terminal, Katrina lead them outside to gather next to our control tower as I called up Larry Davis, our chief ATC guy.  The steps up to the top are too steep and narrow for large tours, but Larry came through for the kids by opening the door to the catwalk and waving down to the group (AND snapping a photo).

Heading over to the big hangar, it was my turn, and I had plenty of material to work with.  A friend of mine was starting up his 150, and got an enthusiastic send-off worthy of a 1930's adventurer leaving for the Amazon.  My buddy John, one of our IA's, was promoted to 'Airplane Doctor' as he turned wrenches on a Bonanza, and everybody had fun learning new words like: Pilatus, aileron, and cleco (fasteners protruding from Todd's 1947 Bonanza rebuild project).

Bev, with Skybound Aviation, then took them over to see and touch the Remos light-sport trainers they operate, and I fell back into the title of kid-herder.

Not a bad day.

Our band of second graders is captured by the cell phone camera of Larry the Tower Guy.

Kim wrote:

xplaneguy wrote:I own the complete series DVD box set, worth every cent! Currently on sale too!

http://www.skyking.com/store.php/skyking/pg12551/our_store

THANKS!   Now, in the background...the sound of PayPal spooling up....

You can get a taste, 5 episodes, for $5.99 at TCM (Turner Classic Movies) Lot's of other aviation oriented movies there too. Island in the sky etc. TCM my favorite channel, no bleep button necessary.

http://shop.tcm.com/sky-king-01/644827450121

Well I was enjoying one of the SkyKing episodes on U tube , thought I would get back here and say THANKS . That's cool with the second graders coming to the airport sounds like they had a good time , I can understand how they are more easily entertained ! Heck a little model flying would have been nice but am sure you cant do that while everthing is working . Eric

Stopping in for a quick fill-up and off again, this Velocity parked for a few minutes on out ramp yesterday.

Back in the 1980's, Burt Rutan inspired swept-wing, composite pusher/canards like this dominated the convention at Oshkosh, even inspiring Beechcraft to create a corporate version called the Starship. A lot of us thought THIS was gonna be the shape of everything new.

As with so much in aviation, things didn't turn quite like we thought they might, but there are still a lot of these super efficient homebuilts cruising around the country.









A rare Starship that occasionally visits our airport:

I have always loved the look of pusher canards, and wish the 'fad' had caught on. Only wish there were some good kits or plans for a 1/2A sized one that I could build!!

The ass-backwards airplane lover Dan

EDIT - Woohoo! found a plan for the VariEZE on Outerzone, and it's 1/2A too!

http://www.patscustom-models.com/Songbird.htm

Carnards always remind me of John Denvers tragic death off the coast of California in one. What a loss of talent, loved his music, still do.

Conventional wisdom says he ran out of gas when he neglected to change fuel feeds, or something similiar.

Even though these sleek little canard home builts never became the bulk of what is being produced today, a lot was gained from them. Every time you see a plane like a Lanceair or Cirrus you are looking at a lot of the innovations used on these home builts.

I thought Beech bought back all the Star Ships. It would be cool if there are still some out there.

fit90 wrote:I thought Beech bought back all the Star Ships.  It would be cool if there are still some out there.

nine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_Starship
at least 6 years ago there were 9.