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 Previous Item - Story in EAA Experimenter mag
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On our way, almost |
|  Next Item - Every SeaRey in the World (almost)
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Thomas Brooks - Feb 13,2013
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454FB has departed Michigan and should be near X04 tomorrow evening. Sharon and I will be leaving for Tavaries early Sunday morning. We'll see all at P.A. on Tuesday.
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Daniel Paul Myers - Feb 14,2013
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Tom, did I send you hangar info yet ?
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Thomas Brooks - Feb 14,2013
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Yeah, Danny, Hanger 64, Dan Nickens should contact you tonight or tomorrow.
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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The crunchy white stuff is good incentive to get out of town. Though some seems to be melting, the forecast was for more to come, along with blustery winter winds. The weather window could be measured in hours. I didn’t stick around to check the forecast. I headed south as soon as the engine warmed up, which couldn’t be soon enough for thin Florida blood.
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Cold Start
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Most of the Michigan water was frozen over. There were vehicle tracks and ice fishing shacks. It might have been fun to try out the wheels on ice, but there was weather right behind. It wouldn’t be fun to be stuck out on an ice covered lake as the snow moved in.
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Open Water
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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The goal was to reach Cincinnati but first a snow squall had to move southeast. I had been tracking southwest to miss it, following the edges of the low clouds. The lights of Cincinnati showed it was just possible.<br /><br />I picked out an airport with hotels nearby: Blue Ash. Vaguely I remembered reading something about it recently. When I arrived, the yellow X’s were just visible in the last of the daylight. That left the big city airport Lunken just a few miles further for a twilight touchdown.<br />
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Not so warm Light of Nightfall
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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The forecast was cold with blustery winds. The low ceilings and visibility were an unwelcome addition. The ceiling lifted just enough for taxi. When I got to the runway, it was back to instrument conditions (I’m guessing 999’ instead of the required 1000’ below the clouds). The controller agreed that better conditions were ahead and let me go “Special VFR”.
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Low and Cold
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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It was supposed to get better as the sun came up. It did. The ground cleared of snow.
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Clearing Conditions
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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The Lexington-Blue Grass Army Depot stores a small portion of the U.S. Army chemical warfare agents, including nerve agents GB (sarin) and VX, and mustard gas. There is a small circle of airspace around it with the warning that pilots are “requested” to fly above 5000’ for reasons of “National InSecurity.” That’s all well and good when the clouds are higher. Besides, having been on ground level here back in the day, I elected to ignore the request.<br /><br />As I was passing over the Blackhawks I noticed a group of men. They were waving enthusiastically. Were they urging me away for reasons of National InSecurity? No. They were acknowledging the EagleRey’s tail feathers.<br />
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Warm Reception
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Just in time for crossing the Appalachians, the sky turns to blue.
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Blue Sky Big Rock
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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A coal mine nicely nestled in between the Appalachian ridges.
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Coal Patch
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Frank A. Carr - Feb 19,2013
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This scene is not nearly as ugly the wind farms in Banning Pass. OK, no politics, I'm just saying.<!-- >'"><br><font color=red size=6>' or > missing in user HTML. Please fix the HTML.</font> -->
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Remove the black coal and all you have left are some colorful tailings.
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Black Gone
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Ah, a nice water break and a great gravel bar to rest on!<br /><br />At least it looked like a gravel bar. It felt like a gravel bar. It didn’t roll like a gravel bar. It was a gravel encrusted mud bar. A subtle, but important difference if you’re working between weather fronts and don’t have the luxury of beach time.<br />
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Not Airborne
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Kenneth Leonard - Feb 17,2013
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That is an 'oh sh!t!' moment for sure. I found a paddle works as a shovel AND a wheel ramp.
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Leave it to the Corpse of Engineers to advertise a rock bar where a thinly veiled mud bar lurks waiting for unwary SeaRey pilots.
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False Advertising
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Frank A. Carr - Feb 19,2013
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Ah Ha, the Corpse lowered the lake level because the 1938 weather forecast suggested lots of rain this winter. It's in their procedures.<!-- >'"><br><font color=red size=6>' or > missing in user HTML. Please fix the HTML.</font> -->
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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A half hour later and there is at least one rock under one wheel.
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Up Later
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Don Maxwell - Feb 21,2013
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Hey, Dan, that lonely rock in the mudland reminds me of this ancient cryptogram about jarring the wilderness:<br /><br /><br />I placed a jar in Tennessee,<br />And round it was, upon a hill.<br />It made the slovenly wilderness<br />Surround that hill.<br /><br />The wilderness rose up to it,<br />And sprawled around, no longer wild.<br />The jar was round upon the ground<br />And tall and of a port in air.<br /><br />It took dominion every where.<br />The jar was gray and bare.<br />It did not give of bird or bush,<br />Like nothing else in Tennessee. <br /><br /> --Wallace Stevens, 1919<br /><br /><br />It may seem hard to decipher at first. But think how you feel, out in the wild, coming upon an empty beer bottle or styrofoam cup. Or a spent condom.
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Dan Nickens - Feb 21,2013
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Do you suppose, Don, that Mr. Stevens might have encountered my rock-encrusted mud mound while writing his poem? Elizabethton is not that far away. In 1918 there was no lake, but surely the bar was at that time a hill bearing bird and bush, likely completely enveloped by supremely slovenly wilderness. <br /><br />The TVA did it’s best to tame such pervasive wildness when it built the Norris Dam. Leave it to nature to thwart those efforts with a simple refusal to rain quite enough. Now our epitome of industrial imperialism, a SeaRey, is left to sink into the quagmire of a fossilized round hill like nothing else in Tennessee.<br />
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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It is winter in Tennessee. There is no one but a silly SeaRey pilot out on the lake. Well, almost no one. There is one fishercouple.<br /><br />One wary fishercouple. These guys circled the bar checking out the EagleRey. Finally the guy hailed me. “Need a pull?”<br /><br />Sure. That will make for a shorter day.<br /><br />“Well, if you were with the 82nd I wouldn’t have stopped. Seeing as how your 101st Airborne, I couldn’t leave a brother behind.”<br /><br />I reluctantly admitted I wasn’t 101st, but said the EagleRey’s owner was so qualified. That was enough.<br /><br />When I was finally back in the water, my benefactor confided: “I’ve done a lot of rescues, but I’ve never rescued a seaplane.”<br /><br />Log one.<br />
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Not the 82nd
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Oh, sure, it looks like a great beaching place! Not!
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Not Tempted
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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The little ponds were not tempting either.
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Not Tempting 2
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Running out of water and daylight.
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End of Line
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Are the guys from Blue Grass still after me?
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Black Shadow
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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By the time the EagleRey was secure, darkness was settling in. The only other guy at the airport was a flight instructor putting away his old tired Cessna 172. “I’ll take ya into town,” he offered. “It’s on my way.”<br /><br />An offer quickly accepted. On the way, however, I got a lesson in long term aviation. <br /><br />“It’s been fort y years since I started flying,” he explained, “flying choppers for the Army. Then they put me in a control tower. After I got out I started working at this airport. Been here ever since.”<br /><br />“How many years?”<br /><br />“Forty.” He paused. “I’ll be getting out soon. There just ain’t much happening here anymore anyways. A little sightseeing. $45 for 30 minutes. No students. Besides, my eyes are going. Got the glaucoma. Not bad enough to fix, but bad enough to fail the physical.”<br /><br />“You could still fly light aircraft.”<br /><br />“Don’t really want to, after all I did do.”<br /><br />“What will you do?”<br /><br />“Don’t know. Something else. Anything else, really.”<br /><br />Uh oh. He’s only been at it eight years longer than I have and he started eight years earlier. It was enough to give me unpleasant dreams.<br />
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Resting Under Red Skies
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Cold and foggy means a slow start to the home run.
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Cold Start 2
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Don Maxwell - Feb 17,2013
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Milledgeville, eh? Did you pay homage to Flannery O'Connor while you were there?
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Not just her, Don, but also Joel Chandler Harris from nearby Eatonton, Georgia.
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Don Maxwell - Feb 18,2013
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Good one, Dan! I didn't know they had lived that near each other--always associated him with Atlanta--although at different times. His Uncle Remus stories were as subversive as I guess he could get away with in the time and place. He must have had a bit of Br'er Rabbit in him. We used to hear trickster stories just like his in West Africa, especially in Yoruba folk tales and in written form in books like Amos Tutuola's <I>The Palm Wine Drinkard</I>.<!-- >'"><br><font color=red size=6>' or > missing in user HTML. Please fix the HTML.</font> -->
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Frank A. Carr - Feb 19,2013
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Snow on a SeaRey is simply an ugly sight.
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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When half the runway cleared up, it was more than enough room for a SeaRey departure.
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Half Clear
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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The gray line extending from the factory stacks had nothing to do with water vapor. As bad as it looked, there was even worse news: I had picked up a terrible tailwind.
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Not Fog
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Good old Georgia clay. Only it’s not red and it’s not sticky. It’s white and fine, Kaolin clay. Soon to be in fine china somewhere.
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Georgia Clay
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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It was great to be back in the land of green, even if it wasn’t perfect.
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Broken Green
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Flat farmland borders the great Okefenokee Swamp.
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Swamp s Edge
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Start of way down upon the Suwannee River.
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Headwaters
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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A sinkhole lake suitable for cow pooling.
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Cow Pool
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Dan Nickens - Feb 17,2013
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Not quite crossing Florida is a portion of the old Cross Florida Barge Canal, otherwise formerly known as the Ocklawaha River.<br /><br />The weather window forecasters were perfect. The clouds were just moving out of SeaRey Central when I arrived. It was good to go and even better to come back.<br />
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Crossing Florida
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Don Maxwell - Feb 17,2013
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Good trip, Dan. Thanks for the guided tour!
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Frank A. Carr - Feb 19,2013
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Thanks for another interesting trip-a-log Dan.
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Robert Charlwood Richardson - Feb 18,2013
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Dan - Love your tales of SR transport. One take away is that the EagleRey's Screaming Eagle proven a <br />real assett.
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Thomas Brooks - Feb 19,2013
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Can I have my plane back now, please.
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Dan Nickens - Feb 19,2013
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If you can find it, Thomas!<br /><br />Another take away, Rob, is to always use a professional pilot to ferry airplanes. If you just give the keys to any old recreational pilot it could end up stuck on a mud bar in outback Tennessee.
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