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I LOVE MONDAYS

chrispratt

Well Known Member
What better way to spend a beautiful Monday than some formation flying on the way to get barbecue. I have a friend visiting from Thailand and wanted to introduce him to the RV world and create a ?Kodak Moment? (as they used to say when Kodak was still around).

I bribed my friend Danny King (RV-8 Beautiful Doll) to fly formation with the offer of free barbecue from The Hard 8 in Stephenville, Texas. It was a tough negotiation but he finally caved ;). My wife ? the photographer - sat in back of Danny?s -8 while I took our friend with me.

Danny led on the flight to Stephenville (KSEP)


Ready for takeoff from Aero valley (52F)


Beautiful Doll - can't believe it's been flying almost 20 years and still looks so good. Danny keeps it immaculate.


Looks even better from close up.


Getting ready for my close-up.


The Hard 8 was ready...


...and so were we.


I led on the way home to Aero Valley (52F)


Our friend Anthony from Thailand loved the flight. I think I see an RV-grin.


A clean belly -- how'd that happen?


If you are building an RV - this is meant as inspiration. It really is worth the effort. And somehow the barbecue tastes better when you fly to get it.

Chris

P.S. I would have posted these Monday but I have discovered that the new iPhone iOS defaults to a new file format called .HEIC which no one but Apple uses. Thanks for telling us Apple (sarcasm):rolleyes:. I use SmugMug for forum postings because it?s so easy, but SmugMug won?t accept .HEIC files (apparently no one else will either). I now have a free app that will convert .HEIC to JPG. Just in case you have an iPhone you might want to download the HEIC Converter app.
 
Glad to see you are still having a reprieve from the rain. I got my RV8 to 52H last weekend for paint @ GLO from Cincinnati, after waiting out the weather for several days. Of course it all moved up the Ohio River valley, and it is still sitting here..... nice airport - 52H.
 
Chris, Another way if you are using a Mac and Apple's "Photos" program. I just uploaded a .HEIC pic I took Saturday with an iPhone 7 to SmugMug, but not directly from the iPhone.

I uploaded the pic from the iPhone to Apple's Photos program first (I store all my pics in Photos, but not in the Cloud). I then dragged the pic from Photos to SmugMug. Turns out that Apple's Photos program automatically converts the file to .JPEG when the file is dragged from Photos.

BTW, in the iPhone Settings --> Camera --> Formats, you can select "Most Compatible" instead of "High Efficiency", which save the pics as .JPEG files instead of .HEIC files.

Thank you Carl. I'm discovering some of this the hard way. I appreciate the suggestion and will try that with SmugMug this evening. It will certainly save some extra steps and aggravation.

Chris
 
Glad to see you are still having a reprieve from the rain. I got my RV8 to 52H last weekend for paint @ GLO from Cincinnati, after waiting out the weather for several days. Of course it all moved up the Ohio River valley, and it is still sitting here..... nice airport - 52H.

Just when we thought we were out of the rain, it pulled us back in, to paraphrase the Godfather. Rained all day Wednesday, but the weekend was Beautiful with a capital B.

Chris
 
Hey Carl, I think that Howard used to belong to a friend of mine. My friend had his in Placerville CA years ago. It was fun to ride in and huge inside. Boy was it loud!
 
Carl (RV8JD) - if you're reading this your suggestion works. With Apple's "Photo" open on my iMac you can drag an HEIC formatted photo into SmugMug where it will appear as a JPG file. Thanks, this will save a lot of time.

Chris
 
Hey Scott, I just dropped my -8 at Glo Custom for paint--saw your bird in the same hanger. I'll be back to 52F in 10 days or so and check on both of our planes--if you would like, I'll send you a pic of yours at that time.
 
Danny's Beautiful Doll

Chris, great pictures! I am glad that you gave experience to your Hong Kong friend.

My pilot friend from Finland visited us couple of months ago and non pilot friend visited from Taiwan. I took pilot friend from 52F to GLE to show how GA works here. His first reaction was that airspace here is little busier than in Finland. I can tell that it is a lot busier. Friend from Taiwan was impressed that you can build your own aircraft and fly it :)!

I have seen Danny taking good care of his "Beautiful Doll" inside and outside. Great story to listen how he painted his cowling couple of years ago.
 
Thank you for the comments. My friend was surprised when I told him there were no charges for landing fees or using the airspace for smaller planes. He was impressed with the whole idea. Can't do that easily or cheaply in Thailand.

His comments were a timely reminder of how free we are in the USA and how we should cherish and protect that freedom.

Chris
 
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