Close to a week of work.

The Tamiya F4U "Birdcage" Corsair is coming along nicely.  It's a real pleasure to work on such a finely engineered kit.

1/32 scale Pratt & Whitney R2800.

Can you spot the company logo?

Back side.

Compete with intake and exhaust pipes.

Spare no expense!

Skyler's Civil Air Patrol squadron had to switch buildings due to a contract change with the National Guard.  Now they are across the street from the armory in the Army Aviation facility.  Talk about fancy!

Patches under glass, and pilots of the year names on the Huey tailrotor.

P.T. was on the ramp!

Main hangar.  Blackhawk helicopters in for maintenance.

Look at the toolboxes!

High water!

 The State is releasing tons of water into the Jordan River from Utah lake due to last year and this year's excessive snowpack.  As a result, the river is raging!

Water on the trail near Gardner Village.

I don't think I've ever seen the river this full or running this fast.

Full!

Pausing to film the TRAX train passing over the bridge.

Water level under the rail bridge.

Pile-O-nuggets.

Despite being almost 13(!), he still loves his chicken nuggets!

He knew I was taking this picture, he's really not sad at all. :)

100%!

 

Yep.

Drone Academy practicing.

Since Altair joined the CAP as a senior member, she's been tasked with helping with the Drone Academy training for the cadets.  Part of this is flying any kind of drone for 4 hours.(!)  She got about 30 minutes in Saturday despite the windy conditions. 

Getting ready to fly.  He was acting like a butt.

First try.

Flying!

He brought his RC airplane and flew it too.

Go Navy!

WOW!

1/32nd scale amazingness!

I started on the Tamiya 1/32 scale Vought F4 "Birdcage" Corsair last weekend. Whoa.  The detail is insane!

100% stock, no aftermarket parts in the cockpit.  Wow!

Another holiday, another reason to eat some beef!

Valenitne's Day is pretty low key around here after 22 years.  I did however make a delicious Prime Rib for the occasion.

100% USDA prime beef from Costco!

Not shown, the delicious pre-dinner spinach salad withe blue cheese crumbles and dressing. Yum!

 

First Sergeant, report!

 He is now in charge of Bravo Flight.

Senior Cadet Sponsor.

Altair has now joined the Civil Air Patrol as a Cadet Sponsor to Skyler.  She's always willing to help out when needed, I'm just a little concerned she doesn't have the time to spare.

Complete with a Senior Member uniform!

AT&T long lines nuclear hardened underground bunker!

Whoa.

Edit, apparently this got taken down.  The guy works for AT&T so maybe they got mad.  

Park flying.

He took his park flyer RC plane down to the park yesterday afternoon.  It may have ended up in a nearby yard and he had to go knock on their door to retrieve it.  

Getting ready.

Flying!

Such concentration!

I can't imagine doing this job.

The Kennecott smokestack received a paint job on the upper 1/3rd this summer. We saw the scaffolding around the middle, pretty sure the crew had to rappel down the sides from the top.  Nope, not for me!

Complete with company logo.

Who wants a blood clot!?

We were at Costco yesterday and happened to look at new couches since we desperately need to replace ours.  They had a power recliner version that seemed nice until Altair tried to recline, way too low of a headrest!

Her feet are above her head!  

We'll keep shopping for couches elsewhere.

50 years of the F-16!

January 20th is the day the F-16 first "flew" albeit, accidentally. 

From Wikipedia:

 Its actual first flight occurred accidentally during a high-speed taxi test on 20 January 1974. While gathering speed, a roll-control oscillation caused a fin of the port-side wingtip-mounted missile and then the starboard stabilator to scrape the ground, and the aircraft then began to veer off the runway. The test pilot, Phil Oestricher, decided to lift off to avoid a potential crash, safely landing six minutes later. The slight damage was quickly repaired and the official first flight occurred on time.

The BBC wrote a nice piece about the F-16 at 50 which you can read here.

An F-16 from Hill Air Force Base taking off from Nellis AFB in Las Vegas.

A terrible day, but at least we have a distraction.

5 years ago today, we lost Mom to pancreatic cancer.  Somehow this month hasn't sucked as bad as years past.  It might be the weather, it might be staying busy with hobbies and puzzles.  

Today, we got up at 5:45 to get Skyler to the Armory for a SAREX practice mission.  They were coordinating with 3 aircraft, each flying 2 sorties.  Such an amazing organization and happy for the much needed distraction today.

Everyone getting ready this morning and boarding the van.  Skyler was in the second row, middle seat.  

They were headed north of Utah Lake to simulate a 7.0 earthquake.

On the bench.

Despite several model kits that I already have, I started working on the latest release from Tamiya, the F-35B kit that was released right before Christmas.  

I'm modeling this as the first F-35B to roll off the assembly line in Fort Worth, Texas way back in 2007 that Altair & I worked on while we were both at ATK Aerospace.

Actual aircraft on the line.

Lift fan and partial cockpit.

Lower lift fan and nose gear bay.

Lift fan housing.

Custom Tamiya paint mix to match the Lockheed turquoise primer.

Weapons bay.

Assembled and painted.

Engine structure.

Upper fuselage showing the lift fan and auxiliary intake.

Proud Cadet Mom.

Taller than her for months now.

Their new Squadron Commander Liz also ranked up, she's now a First Lieutenant.  Our Squadron's two Officers "pinned" her new bars on.

 

Rank up to an N.C.O!

Presenting Staff Sergeant Kaminski!

4 members of his Squadron were able to rank up last night.  

He's doing really good, he's accomplished ranking up in what the CAP has outlined taking 8 months, in only 7 months.  Good job Skyler!

Salute!

I found this pic that another cadet took of Skyler on the day we laid wreaths for Wreaths Across America last month.

Pretty cool!

Haha!

 

Feeding 4,000 Cadets at the USAFA.

Now I want a steak!

The United States Air Force Academy.

Skyler seems really interested in attending the Academy.

It's my Sister's birthday today!

She's my only sibling and I honestly cannot imagine not having her in my life.  She sews, she can bind books(!), she's Skyler's favorite aunt (and the only one that wants anything to do with him), and she is an excellent copywriter and editor.  (My grammar on this blog probably drives her bananas.)

Happy Birthday Karen!

She's been like this as long as I can remember, always smiling and happy!  

 Note how not-happy Skyler is to be caught on the Merry-go-round at Lagoon earlier this year.

First Day Hike 2024.

We headed out to Antelope Island State Park and hiked with a ranger and a few hundred others yesterday afternoon.   Despite the bad air, and me overcoming the cold Skyler gave me, it was nice.

Headed out.  We were late due to the park entrance congestion.

Lots of people on the trail just ahead.

I spotted a coyote on the beach looking for birds.

Our destination was the point on the left of the picture.

Interactive exhibits along the way.