Sort of aviation related but had to take this picture of what landed at work today. Certainly nothing unusual in Fairbanks, Alaska but to see this setup come into the pattern in Florida is sort of ...................unusual. Had to watch him land, which is almost disappointing. Over the fence at walking speed......plop, roll 30', turn, taxi, stop. Takeoff: Runup, let off brakes, roll 30', climb at an extremely scary angle, roundover at 80' AGL and putt off for the horizon. I've seen choppers take up more airspace in the pattern. You can see the STOL add-ons but not sure if you can make out the VGs. There's a few Huskys set up sort of like this here but not one set of balloon tires.

Also note the add-on baggage compartment on the belly for those WalMart trips.

With those tires it looks like something out of a cartoon! All we need is to have some Warner Brothers characters go zipping through the picture.

Actually that's pretty normal in the frozen North. Pat Martin, an RC soaring competitor that I'm friends with has the exact same setup for a grocery getter for the wife. He lives in Northern Alaska and that's their family pickup truck.

I mentioned the length of the takeoff and landing roll from today. That was with the outside temps in the low 90's. Imagine if it was 30 degrees or lower and the resulting density altitude. I give you .............Alaskan version of a redneck tractor pull:

Alaska Bush Pilots Short Take Off Competition (0 min 59 sec)

Sean, what's the ray gun slung under the engine?

Originally Posted by Lil Stinkpot

Sean, what's the ray gun slung under the engine?

Good eye. That's what it is. It's for vaporizing Caribou on the runway.


Just kidding.

Not exactly sure on this particular setup but I'll take a stab based on my buddy's setup. It's a serious intake/alternate air configuration. Icing is a huge problem, particularly up there. When one air cleaner/air source gets plugged with ice build up, you have options. And you need them up in those parts. I've seen intakes 3/4s blocked with ice accumulation down here on a hot day. Up in the frozen North that stuff will make you break your tender pink bod in no time.

Apparently he makes trips to 82J regularly.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N276CC

Sure am glad I cleaned and rearranged 1 G in my Mac, you guys help me fillerup again
I remember the day i wasn't shiverin' I t looked like this!

Originally Posted by Lacquerhead

Apparently he makes trips to 82J regularly.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N276CC

That's news to me. I work at (83J Coastal) but we've got hangar space at 82J. I've never seen this particular bird before unless the Bush setup is new to it.

Cap'n, I don't know if I asked already, but... Are there plans for a ship like that?

That Cub is the coolest little shopping trolly !
I'll say it again Sean, I so want your job...

Like Sean told me Steveo.....get in line! I think that line would stretch from here in Az all the way to you in Oz.

PM me your e-mail address and I'll tell you of some plans I have in the works that you might be really interested in. The Brewers are going to be going "High Tech" !!!

Originally Posted by atmosteve

That Cub is the coolest little shopping trolly !
I'll say it again Sean, I so want your job...

I show all of these toys Steve but none of them belong to me except the models. Whoooppps, I forgot, the Oly III I built on here didn't belong to me either.

I will say I enjoy 18 days out of 20 at work. The other two suck.

The rest of the time is great. I have something hilarious happen almost daily so when I come home I always have a smile on my face and a story to tell the wife.

Yesterday was a great example. My boss bought me a kid. Ok, actually he hired a young guy to help me and I really needed one. I call him "tool" because he's the perfect worker and I get everything done a lot easier nowadays. He's also known as my Swiss Army Human cause he's really multi talented for someone so young. He picks up any new task, you only have to show him something once, no matter how complicated or new to him. The only complaint I have (and it's not really a complaint) is that sometimes he does his job too well. He has a tendency to go way overboard to please. That's a good thing and I'm sure he'll get in the groove soon enough.

I promised him when he started that I would teach him how to run heavy equipment. I'm sure you can imagine he got all excited about that. He's mastered all of the small stuff and has worked his way up to the big boys that can do a LOT of damage with little or no thought.

So, yesterday we decided to tackle getting rid of this pile of tree debris left over from a clearing job. I show him the basics of a Caterpillar D5, he drives it around some to get the hang of it and I tell him to dig a hole large enough to shove the debris into and then we'll push the dirt back over it. He starts going to town and I'm really impresses me with his smooth operation and making every lick count. I go to lunch and he states he wants to stay and get to a stopping point before shutting down. I leave and come back an hour later. As I drive across the property I look over to check on his progress and don't see him or the D5. I got distracted with someone else so I forgot about it. I figured he had driven the dozer over to the fueling bunker to fill it up. A while later he comes back from lunch, parks his car and starts walking the 1/2 mile over to that corner where we were dumping everything. I jump in the truck catch him and ask why he doesn't drive the D5 back over since we'll need it to push the dirt back into the hole.

"It's already over there".

"Where?"

"In the hole."



He gets in and we drive over there. We needed a hole about the size of a smaller mobile home to dump everything. He excavated an underground parking garage. Even the D5 looked small down in there.

No harm, no foul but, talk about results.

Originally Posted by Lil Stinkpot

Cap'n, I don't know if I asked already, but... Are there plans for a ship like that?

Yeah! check out the trailing streamers, that must be the Captains special combat version.

Originally Posted by scaflock

Like Sean told me Steveo.....get in line! I think that line would stretch from here in Az all the way to you in Oz.

PM me your e-mail address and I'll tell you of some plans I have in the works that you might be really interested in. The Brewers are going to be going "High Tech" !!!

Well, I've been reading the book by Ben Rich lately and you know what, I think, Jeff, you could give birth to a kind of RC thermal woody "Skunk Works" out on the remote plains of Arizona. Time will tell.


Good story Sean, yeah the younger they are the more eager they come sometimes. Sounds like you got lucky with that lad, someone to shape and mold into a useful mammal and workmate, well done! Cat D5, yeah I would do some damage in that, in record time I reckon.. The D5 could dig the bunkers for Jeff's special development operations centre under his property.
Cooler underground too, more stable place to brew ones ales, brilliant!

I have been thinking about building a scale U2 sloper when I have shop again, but with an aerobatic bent to it. Painted matt black of course. That would be quite cool.

Now, I better pm Jeff, and prepare myself to be sworn into secrecy with whole sincerity.
Later..