Russ’s Back Yard

[micropedes1]

Just pulled back in to the driveway at home. Whew! What a whirlwind trip. My 20 foot trailer is piled high with wings, fuselage, motors, props, etc. All the necessary parts to BUILD an experimental craft. My mostly vacant machine shop is about to get a real project.

I would love to have a Dehaviland Beaver. Alas, $250-300K is outta my price range. Same for a Helios Courier at $160K. Dunno what y'all have been up to in the interim winter months while our gold mining equipment is slowly rusting away, but this old man has been completing an A&P aircraft certification. It is not like I am going to do it to make a living now that I am a certified old fart (maybe I am just certifiable). But it does put me in the unique position of working on my own craft. And the $8K that I spent this past weekend is a mere drop in the bucket compared to all the money that I have wasted on other hair-brained gold related schemes.

I dunno which is worse: building dredges that I cannot legally use or building planes that may never fly!

[russau]

Well a safe trip home is good news and a load of parts for a new project is nice also ! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family and to all!

[Joe S (AK)]

SEE! There you go! A certified source for acquired wisdom of the ages.

I thought that might pull LEONARD out from that early winter shell.

Joe

[golden optimist]

I got your email Joe. I'm just slow in responding. One of these evenings.

Leonard

[OKJohn]

This thread is old and cold, but I thought I would mention a point that was brought up.

I attended Parks College back in the '80s, and got my degree there. It closed its doors in the 2000s and folded into the St Louis University Frost Campus (west of downtown). I'm not sure if they still offer A&P training or maintain a flightline.

Back in the day, Parks was the best at aviation and related training. A lot of really good engineers, pilots, mechanics, and other professionals came out of that shop.

OKJohn