Trip to Arizona & California
Last week I flew down to Phoenix to attend our annual budget review meeting. That consisted of a day locked in a hotel conference room poring over hundreds of PowerPoint slides... the next day I flew down to Los Angeles to spend some time at Flabob airport, at the invitation of its owner, Tom Wathen. The last part of the trip was at Van Nuys, where we unveiled Harrison Ford as the national chairman of the Young Eagles program. It's something I've had to keep secret for a while, seeing as how it was a big announcement and all that. Although I did leave a clue a couple of weeks ago... There's more information, including video clips from the press conference, at the Young Eagles website. All very exciting really, and great news for EAA and Young Eagles. Harrison Ford is a nice bloke, "just another pilot" really, apart from a general absence of ego... Spending time with him was a bit weird. It was like having a long lost uncle in the room, someone who's part of the family (we all grew up with his face being very familiar) but somehow isn't part of the family.
Anyway, I've got a new toy in the form of a digital video camera, a little Sony Handycam which I'm most delighted with. I took it on my travels in lieu of the still camera and captured about an hour of various travels. The following shots are stills from the video.
Childish humour captured waiting for the flight from Milwaukee to Phoenix. British people would call it a bum bag.
Tom Wathen picked me up from the airport and gave me a ride to Flabob in a Jensen Interceptor, which he hailed as a great British sports car. I was embarrassed to confess that I'd nver heard of one. But having looked them up on the web, indeed they are. So here's a picture of Flabob as shot from a Jensen Interceptor. Flabob has a history back to 1925. Tom saved it from destruction about 3 years ago, and has breathed wonderful new life into the place. More information here if you're interested. Tom Wathen is a rare example... someone who has been extremely successful in business, but managed to do so while apparently making zero enemies, in fact, people usually consider him one of the nicest people they ever met, the kind of person that brightens up a room when he walks in it.
On Saturday John Lyon took over escort duties from Tom W and was wonderful at it. We had breakfast in the excellent airport cafe at Flabob, then went along to see The Aeronca Project in action, where 22 kids are restoring a 1941 Aeronca Chief to flying condition. They're under adult supervision, but are doing eall the actual hands on work themselves. It's been ongoing for 2-3 years, working every Saturday morning. The kids get 1 hour of free flight instruction for every day they work, sponsored by the Wathen Foundation. They are very hopeful of flying it to Oshkosh '04. I think they'll do well to get it to Oshkosh '05 but this does not diminish my admiration for an inspiring project. Next, John took me to the March Firld Museum which tells the history of a large military air base from WW1 to the present. They had an enormous amount of small artifacts, and a few planes, in a large hangar and then a very large outdoor collection (part of which is pictured below). It's the kind of place that doesn't look like it has a lot of money to splash around, but is surviving on high octane volunteerism. Good look to them, there was a nice spirit around the place and they had a great collection.
More childish humour spied in the March Field museum...
(Apparently it means Surface Analysis). We also visited the Planes of Fame Museum at Chino. They have a spectacularly large and impressive collection of warbirds. This shows a weird looking Mk19 Spitfire with a Griffon 58 & contra-rotating props from a Shackleton. The Me163 is a fibreglass replica but they did have an original Japanese knock-off of the 163. The aeroplane collection is as good as you will see in any private museum (and better than many national collections), dotted all over with rarities like the Northrop flying wing. Most of their stuff is in flying condition. On the day I was there they were offering rides in a P-51 for $595... tempting but did not partake. As a Museum it's mediocre. They rely on having great planes - an aircraft enthusiasts' dream palace - but have not put effort into much else.
I stayed in the Airtel Plaza hotel at Van Nuys, CA - which was also the location of the press conference with Harrison Ford on Monday. It's right on the airport, and they very kindly sorted me out with a room overlooking the runway. I opened the window and was taking some video of the airport when whooooom a P-51 Mustang did a low fast flypast. The picture doesn't really capture it... anyway, at this moment the Airtel Plaza seemed like ther best hotel in the world!
I must admit that after a while the excitement of having a runway right outside the window did begin to wear off a bit, when I realised that there were jets taking off and landing incessantly... I mean every couple of minutes. Someone said it's the busiest GA airport inthe country and I can believe it.
We interviewed Harrison Ford in the Raytheon hangar at Van Nuys, in front of his immaculate De Havilland Beaver. The interview was for Sport Aviation magazine but our TV guys also filmed it for future use. It was not ideal conditions with lots of jet noice outside and a trapped bird twittering in the hangar. Especially as he is very quiet-spoken, almost to the point of being shy. Then someone called the airport police, who showed up claiming we needed a permit to film on their property. So it all took some smoothing over, but we ended up in good shape.
Harrison posing for photographs with some kids. The young man on the left wants to be the first teenager in space. Wearing a black flight suit in the hot California sunshine, he certainly showed that he has the willpower to endure physical extremes...
Harrison cracks his famous winning smile at the press conference.
Rusty Sachs needed a check out in the Aztec, so Sean and he flew down to pick me up from Milwaukee. This saved me a car rental and a lot of time and hassle, and it was nice to fly back up to Oshkosh in the sunshine!
Our house, snapped on approach to Rwy 9
It was good to get away from Oshkosh for a few days. I came back feeling quite refreshed and reinvigorated. Although I'd been working while away "a change is as good as a rest".
12:29:03 AM 
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