Drove it!

Finally a nice day and since it was a bit breezy, I chose to drive the 981 Boxster instead of fly my RC planes.  I first went to get gas at the Chevron on Hwy 22 just west of Salem.  Headed from there on 22 into Dallas, and then south on 223 (Kings Hwy).  I turned back east after five minutes, onto the Monmouth Hwy (I think).  That road was about 10 minutes of ecstacy with some nice curves and hills, AND no traffic going my way.  One short stretch of straight flat road allowed me to scoot up to  90mph very effortlessly yet smoothly.  That straight ends in a 20mph 90 degree hard left, so it was fun.  I wonder how many drivers have missed that curve in the dark!  From there I went through Monmouth and Independence, then turned north on Independence Hwy, east on 22 and up Doaks Ferry to home.  That drive was just over an hour, averaged about 25mpg, and covered about 50 miles.  Top up all the way since it was 60F.

Later in the day, Tad came over in his 991 Carrera S and wanted to drive.  With Tad leading, we went east on Orchard Hgts, north on Wallace, west and north on Brush College, further north on Spring Valley Rd, then back south on Wallace thence Doaks Ferry to home. That cruise was just under 20 miles and about 30 minutes.  By now the temp was nearly 70F, so I drove top down and could hear my engine even better...I LOVE IT!

It really is so exciting to hear those two Porsche flat sixes and exhausts as we accelerate down those country roads and curves.  The sound and the experience is like a drug.  I find myself grinning the whole time.  One driver in an SUV waived to us at the beginning of our drive, and then a school crossing lady guard waved at me at the end near Brush College Elementary.  All in all, I put about 70 joyful miles on the Brown Bomber today!

KRCA Warbird Weekend

Doug had his impressive H9 B-25, not yet ready for flight!

I will report just briefly on this annual event that our club held this weekend.  The weather was better on Saturday than Sunday, so more pilots, planes, and audience were present on Saturday.  The weather was much windier, greyer, and slightly damp on Sunday.  I would say we had maybe 7 pilots on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.  Maybe 10 spectators in all on Saturday, just a couple on Sunday.  I took the T-28 and P-47 to the event on Saturday, and had 3 flights with the former, and one with the latter.  Re the T-28, one or the other main LG wheel doors broke on two of my three landings.  Landings were just a challenge with the crosswind. of maybe 5mph.  I managed a really nice tail high main gear landing with the P-47 somehow.  Both planes flew well and the engines ran nicely.

Knowing that winds would be higher on Sunday, I opted to take just the T-28 AND my SNAFU.  The latter loves to play in the wind, which it did lots of on Sunday.  I might have had 5 flights with it.  I left the T-28 in the truck.  With just a few pilots and planes on Sunday we did not even have a static display on the runway like Saturday.  BTW on Saturday, the Keizer Times photographer came out and took many snapshots of the planes and pilots.  I made a lot of low passes for him, and maybe I or the P-47 will be in one because he took many photos of the P-47 in the air, and asked me to identify the type of plane after he was done.  :)  Too bad we don't get that newspaper but I hope Ron will share his!

981's in Paradise!

I was in Honolulu May 6-13, 2013 with my wife, son, and his wife.  I was there to see my 92 year young mom, but managed a couple fun occasions involving the 981!

Just a couple days before flying to HI, my license plate bracket sold on P-9. When I checked the buyer info, I found he lives in HI just a few miles from my mom's house where I would be staying. I was able to contact him via e-mail before the trip to ask him if he wanted to wait for me to ship the bracket to him after returning from the trip, or if he would like hand delivery in Honolulu where he could also show me his 981 Boxster. I was happy he chose the latter. So last Tuesday after work, he dropped by my mom's house to get the bracket. I am real happy I got to meet Colin, who comes to this forum now and then. He has the moniker motenai which he says means bad luck with women, haha.  He drove his white 981S with blue top and blue interior....very SWEET looking Boxster. Colin bought the car just two weeks earlier off the lot of Porsche of Hawaii. No fair, no waiting, lol. Anyway, we struck up a good 30 minute discussion in the dark in front of the garage, but Chuck activated the bright security lights there.  We talked about his options and experience so far. He's in the US Navy and is going to be transferring soon from HI to Florida, and taking the car from the West Coast on a nice cross country jaunt. I am really impressed by this young man, and am happy I got to meet him. I thanked him for serving our country...we are in good hands if he represents the service men and women protecting our nation. Darn, I did not get any pics of Colin and his Boxster S. I guess it still qualifies as my first sighting of a 981 in the wild!  I was real happy that Sue and Chuck got to see what my Boxster looks like, but in a different color.

On Thursday, my son and I went to Porsche of Hawaii for the fun of it. Saw several 981 Boxsters there, and one basalt black 981 Cayman. It was the day of their "launch" of the new Cayman, so we suspect they had more there which were probably being detailed, since their website says they have three Cayman's. Oh, one of the Boxsters was lime-gold and that really is striking in bright Hawaii sunlight! A few pics are attached.

We went into the parts shop, and I couldn't help myself....I bought a couple of their own license plate frames and baseball caps. Very nice souvenirs of our visit there!

While standing outside the parts store, two very cool F-22's passed low over the buildings, probably on their way to landing at HNL.  We learned later that each costs about $150M!!  This pic shows one F-22 between the coconut trees.

We saw lots of 911's, Cayenne's, and a couple older Boxster's on the roads. Definitely way more than I see around the small city of Salem, OR, but there has to be lots more money in Honolulu!

Non 981 related...we were landing last night at PDX and were less than a mile from the runway, and on final approach. All of a sudden the pilot hits full throttle and pulls up quickly. Turns out a military plane touched down just ahead of us and blew a tire. We would have been 20 minutes early. Instead we ended up circling, then going to Seattle, landing, refueling, and waiting for PDX to open again. Turned out to be a 3 hour delay, but I lived to tell the story and drive my 981 again. All is good, haha!

It was a good trip, mostly I was there to visit my mom and spend lots of time with her, but managed to squeeze in the 981 outings which were great fun.

Sports Car Cruising with my Sons!

Tad, Jer, and I had a nice 100 mile cruise today.  What I thought should be about 1.5 hours on the map turned into about 3.5 hours in real time counting stops here and there.  From West Salem he headed out on 22 to Lyons.

We stopped at an elementary school in Lyons to change who leads, put the tops down (for those who are able, haha), and for Jer to pee in the bushes, lol!  Here we are at the school.

We took 226 to Scio from here. What a nice discovery this highway turned out to be!  It has nice curves at the beginning which stretch out to bigger sweepers and straights as you head further southwest.  Going the opposite direction we passed about 5 Miatas, the last of whose driver gave us a wholehearted wave over his windshield!  

When we reached Scio, we turned north and turned into a high school for a few more pics!

Now we drove through Stayton and into Sublimity for this photo op in front of a mural on a building.

Next we turned toward Silver Falls State Park, this turned out to be a mistake!  At this point we already could tell it was windy because lots of little leaves and seed pods were being blown awry and into our cars.  Tad put his windows up while Jer and put our tops and windows up!  But that should have been a clue to turn around.  We did not and were surprised to see how much crap falls out of a forest when the wind his howling!  Branches and boughs of needles were all over the road.  One two foot bough fell and hit my windshield, flew over the car, and then Tad says it hit his 911 too.  Oh boy, we just high tailed it through the forest as fast as we could.  We went to a clean rest area in Silverton, and it turned out to be all locked up today.  No peeing there!  Shortly afterwards we found a DQ to eat at and pee, haha. From there it was a non-eventful drive on Silverton Rd back to Salem, thence West Salem.  Just 100 miles but we all were beat by the driving and the time it took to accomplish.  FUN though, and a great hobby to share with Tad and Jeremy!

Giles 202 in the Gusts

Another breezy day of up to 10mph at times...we need a wind meter at the field!  Of course it was crosswind, this time from the North.  I got 3 fun flights in with the Giles.  First flight and the engine was slightly rich, second bordering on leaning out at times, and third just right.  Sounds like Goldilocks!  The Giles was its groovy self on rails and unlimited verticals...what fun to fly this thing.  Al, Mike, and Ken were there too.

Sbach 342

Had a good 4 flights with the Sbach 342 today.  Joe even came out mid-week, and Rudy and Mike were there too.  Gorgeous day, cloudless sky, over 70F, but pretty breezy from the NW to NE, basically always crosswind to our main runway.  The weather channels said 5-15mph; my guess is perhaps 10mph max.  It did make landings touchy at times.  The Sbach really performed well today, running strong, no glitches in the engine.  Hovers are getting better, but the plane is so good at pattern maneuvers too, so it just makes for a wide variety of capabilities and enjoyment.