Yooper Rocketman

I have a drain oil burner permit, allowing all drain oil to be burned by approved oil burning furnaces, at my dealership. We also have a million BTU wood boiler. We CAN dispose our oil filters through normal trash collection but I’ve never felt that was a good environmental decision. We throw a few oil filters in the wood stove every time we fill it, and actually save them through the summer to burn during the winter. We are also able to crush them and recycle, but again, find we’re introducing oil into the environment. The metal recycling center has NO PROBLEM accepting burnt out oil filters and we’re introducing no more hazard to the environment than we would if we could totally extract the oil from the filters and burn the oil in an oil furnace. Probably not exactly a government approved method, but then when does best practices follow with governmental rules? Tom

Looks like Oshkosh. Camping there now could be done sans an air conditioner!! Tom

You headed down alone? My wife, despite just 3.5 hours from the U.P. to our Spruce Creek, FL home, will not do a short trip. If it's not at least 10-14 days, don't bother asking her to go. In the back of my mind, I'm wondering how many U.P. (snowbound) "available" woman might LOVE to go to Florida for a 3-4 day weekend? I regress.......... Tom

Agree with @Andy95W but I got beat up pretty bad here a few years ago expressing my frustration with Sun & Fun. After 30 years at Oshkosh, it simply doesn’t compare. That said, it’s a great spring Aviation event, in warm weather, for snowbound and “tired of winter” northerners and locals that DON’T make the trek to the greatest aviation show in the world in July in Wisconsin. The vendor participation is decent and the air show acts were pretty good as well. My frustration, as a builder with specific goals for my attendance, was the much lower participation of builder planes AND (especially) being locked out of the display area for experimental aircraft during show times. Pretty much eliminated the main reason I attended the show. Having a winter home at Spruce Creek in Florida and being down there in April, I would love to bring my 2018 Lindy Award winning Lancair over there during the show, but with such limited access to my plane by the public during the show and the horrific dirt I see accumulated on aircraft that ARE displayed, barring changes I will likely continue as an occasional “drive in” attendee and just appreciate an Aviation event at a time of the year most of the country is still reeling from the rages of Mother Nature and winter. So YES ....... it’s worth your time to attend. Just be realistic with your goals, especially if you’re a regular attendee of Oshkosh. Tom

Just had the same thing at Ann Arbor, MI (KARB) on Sunday. I was 15 minutes out picking up ATIS, got the full ATIS like usual and then a notice "THE AIRPORT WAS CLOSED" until 2000 local time (it was around noon). I was still with Cleveland Center so asked them what was up? He called and verified and then asked my intentions (he explained it was because the runway was solid ice). I asked if he would check Willow Run / KYIP, as I had noticed quite a few runways there were NOTAM'ed closed when I left Florida (there was no NOTAM's on ARB). He verified they were open, only in the last hour, so I diverted to there. Fuel was $2.50 a gallon more, but service was very good. Tom

Headed back to snow country after almost 2 weeks at our Florida Spruce Creek home today. Got a call Friday morning for a Med flight from ARB to CMX. Decided it was more efficient for us to pick her up on our way back than someone fly from the U.P. to get her. Headed to Ann Arbor this morning and when I picked up ATIS 15 minutes out, found the airport WAS CLOSED! Ice on the runway. Luckily Willow Run (Yipsilanti) was open. After some logistics getting my patient from Ann Arbor to KYIP, we headed north with serious headwinds and got her home. Although my wife wasn’t impressed about adding two more legs to a non-stop Florida to the U.P. trip, her enthusiasm changed when the patient literally lost it emotionally thanking us for the impact we made on her life today. And why don’t more pilots do these trips????? Tom https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20200112/1330Z/7FL6/KYIP https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20200112/1645Z/KYIP/KCMX

I could NEVER disclose the price he was giving our mercy flight organization as he deep discounted the labor, had a huge discount on the Garmin product he was passing on to us for the ability to demo the install AND due to support he obtained from Garmin. In addition, his 3 man shop, 5 years ago, now has 30+ employees. He is expanding so fast he can't keep up with everything like he would like. This is a A+ business owner. We'll figure it out. The amount of support he has done for our organization far exceeds any negative from this situation. Thanks again Peter for the help on this!! Tom

Oh boy. Thanks @PTK Here’s the text I just got from the shop owner. This will get interesting. Tom

I had heard a while back one of the Garmin Experimental products (thought is was the G5) couldn’t replace a flight director. Was told that by the same shop when I was installing one in my Rocket. This is the same shop that now said we could replace all steam gauges with the G3X, and asked twice prior to today if this Garmin package would drive our A/P. This was predicated by an intermittent failure of the attitude in the FD and huge discounting by the shop. Guess I’ll find out if they missed something or they know something different. Either way I’m glad I posted now before they/we get surprised during or after the install. Tom

Here’s the list the G3X will drive. I think they already have some completed installs flying. Tom

Just confirmed for the THIRD TIME with both the shop owner and the avionics manager, that combo WILL DRIVE our KFC 200. It IS the G3X driving the A/P though, not the G5 ( I initially said I didn’t know how they were doing it). Tom

Don't know what I'm missing but our Mercy Flight 1986 BE-36 is getting all the steam gauges pulled for a G5/G3X installation, and it will be driving a King A/P.. Our local FBO / maintenance facility is a pretty big and current Garmin Dealer. They assured us this package will drive our legacy AP. Scheduled for a couple months out. They know something we don't know? Tom

Ah Paul, that's not much crosswind. You're still looking out the windshield, not the side window. Nice updates on one of my bucket list trips!! Tom

I might be able to help you with that! Tom

So is that a two seater? I guess if it was a trainer it would be. Looks like this one is based in Greeley CO. Must have been an interesting flight to Port Orange Is that what you have? Tom