Down, I wonder if there's a divorce lawyer in this crowd. With a good one you may just be able to keep BOTH pieces of that Twist. Or, you might consider making a flying wing outta the piece that has the wing and the OS 61--if she lets ya keep that end.

Boy, and I thought I had a rough day, not being able to maiden the Voyager. The engine won't run without a velocity stack, of some sort, AND the cowl, said Down. Note: don't EVER argue with an engineer-type. It's like wrestling with pigs: you get very, VERY dirty--and the pigs LIKE it. The pusher prop pulls the fuel out of the ST .51's carb. I proved Down rr.. rig.... I proved Down... not wrong by changing out the pusher prop for a puller prop. The #$%^% engine worked fine then. Damn.

We flew from 8:30 to 5 p.m. Seven fliers, 10 planes. And Down, with buddy cord, helped Wyld Weasel and his boy (8-9 yrs old? No real names mentioned here, but call him Jake) get their aircore trainer working and in the air. Down ALSO helped Rick get his squirrely as heck, on the ground, J-3 Cub (2 lbs?) in the air. I tried twice and put the thing in the snowbank, first one side, then the other--no damage to the J-3. Rick and I both agreed it was Down's turn to try--and, by golly, he got it in the AIR! for at least 5 yards--before the bird hit the 1 inch by seven foot sappling stuck in the bank that the snow plows use to demark the side of the road. The J-3 may not fly again. The engine ended up in the cockpit. Rick HATES the bird, with consequent distaste of ever spending time on it.

And I thought I had a rough day.

And I want to remind Down, so he won't feel TOO bad about the divorce, that 1) we DID see him, while hovering, touch that Twist's tail in the snow; and 2) he had the longest flight of the day (however untimed!). His Hirundo glider, with 4 minute fuel engine, had made a 13 minute flight earlier in the day, but at 4 pm he put it up again, found a thermal, and flew with a bald eagle, mostly ABOVE it! for AT LEAST 20 minutes, maybe 25. The eagle, insulted by the Hirundo's performance, finally beat his wings, east, right out of the thermal--which Down kept using. Beeyoutiful flight. I went to the middle of the pond, searching for perfections in the day, to catch the Hirundo on landing, but it was going too fast, Down said, and he put it over my head--to save my hands.

For me the piece de resistance of the day was with Jake. First, he flew with Down on the buddy cord for the first time, ever--and did some very reasonable loops and one inverted flight, short, and the trainer lives on for next weekend. SECOND!!! For Jake I dropped some parachutes from the Big Stik, just so he could watch them fall. He wanted to CATCH them, of course. Impossible, but kids think impossibly, so us jaded elder's KNOW. Last week he gave me a little man, one of his toys, tied to a plastic chute. We dropped it today, but it was too light. THEN, after I learned the wind a bit, which was different at 500 feet than it was a 10, I dropped one of my own chutes with a small bolt attached to a plastic, Wal-Mart shopping bag. It took a long time coming down, TWISTIN as it did. I had time to dive the Stik, land it on the pond, kill the engine, and watch. It went over my head toward the cars, but on the pond side of the road... where Jake waited... then ran... then caught the parachute in his hand.

I told Jake, "Anyone who can catch a parachute like that can do anything in his life he chooses." So be it.

That's TWISTIN, March 26, 2006. Amen.