 8:00am, just before launching from Livermore. Ray McCrea is flying his yellow Long-EZ and I'm in my Vari-Eze. Our goal was to make it to Madison, South Dakota before sunset. |
 Lake Tahoe. |
 Our first fuel stop in Wendover, Utah. The aircrew of the Enola Gay trained here during WWII. |
 My trusty little pony. |
 Heading
for the Great
Salt Lake. |
 It started to get murky over Utah. My Vari-Eze is a speck in this shot. |
 We dodged rain showers across Utah and Wyoming. |
 The Missouri River. |
 We made it! 6.5 flying hours later we're on the ramp at Madison, South Dakota. Now if we can only figure out how to get to the hotel in a town without a taxi. |
 |
 A 1929 Ford Trimotor at Oshkosh. Ray and I took a ride on a showery morning. |
 |
 |
 Taxiing out for takeoff. |
 The main airshow area is off in
the distance, but you can see how many people fly in and camp next to
their planes.
|
 Cruising over the town at 600
ft. The three big radials rumbled in a soothing way and the view
was fantastic. I can't help but think that even with all the
noise and the slow speed, cruising across the country at 3000 ft. in a
Trimotor would be more fun than flying in a modern jet airliner.
|
 A beautiful Lockheed
Constellation.
|
 Half of the distinctive tail.
|
 A wonderful mural in the lounge
of the Constellation. Those were
the days when air travel still retained some of its glamor!
|
 The Constellation cockpit.
Just out view is the engineer's station - a cozy little spot with 157
gauges to watch.
|
 F-8 ???
I'm too lazy to look it up... |
 |
 |
 L-39, right?
|
 |
 |
 |
 We left Oshkosh on Saturday
morning and were soon cruising over the green fields of Minnesota.
|
 I think those are the Grand
Tetons...
|
 Western Wyoming or Idaho...
|
 Afternoon practice sesson for
the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. They played Rismky-Korsakov's
Scheherezade that night. It was amazing!
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