April 5, 2022
So during my condition inspection I made a bad decision. I used a block of wood in between my wing jack and my wing, and that block did not match the shape of the jack stand. Lowering the jack the block rotated and flipped out putting two small dents in the bottom of my wing. Fuck me. My fault, dumb…
March 17, 2022
A big day is coming up on April 11th, I’ll be heading to Hibbing, Minnesota to drop off N241VP at Midwest Aircraft Refinishing. Before painting I had one last little project I wanted to get completed. Flyboy Accessories manufactures a high quality, stainless steel tow bar/tug guard for the nose wheel. I picked it up a few months ago and…
March 11, 2022
I customized my Condition Inspection checklist based on Walt’s (EXP Aircraft Services LLC) checklist. I also added some frequently needed documents/information to the end of my document. Here is a link to my checklist As with building, there was a learning curve this year that added a good amount of extra time and effort. Next year I think the Condition…
February 19, 2022
Our neighbor in Steamboat Essi is from Rovaniemi. She was a great help reaching out to friends for suggestions on what we should see and do while visiting Finland. Even better than that assistance was the offer to stay with her parents. How cool is that! The only challenge is that her Mom (Leena) doesn’t speak any English and her…
February 14, 2022
You know how some of those things you see on the internet look like amazing experiences and you jump on board before thinking it through? Yeah, this was one of those. On paper an Snow/Ice village sounds really fun. In reality it is fucking cold. I know, that is pretty obvious. We arrived at the SnowVillage around 2:00pm and were…
February 12, 2022
I was pretty excited to spend two days mushing Siberian huskies, Jean was a bit more reserved. She was worried it might be too much but in the end it was a highlight of the trip for both of us. It is not hard to find a Husky experience (safari) in Finland but in doing research I learned many farms/companies…
February 10, 2022
The Korouoma gorge was formed over a million years ago and in the winter a chain of fourteen frozen waterfall form. It is an easy drive from Posio, about thirty minutes. Probably about 90 minutes from Rovaniemi, if you are coming from that direction. Directions, this is the road to take to the trail head: Saukkovaarantie, 97815 Posio, Finland From…
December 31, 2021
Total flight time was 169.0 hours (309 days from first flight to NYE, just over 10 months of flying) All told I flew to 15 states; Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Missouri, and South Carolina Hard to tell exactly the number of miles flown but it is around 30,000.…
November 29, 2021
Hot on the tail of our big North and South Carolina trip we had to load up the plane and head south to Las Vegas. Weather permitting it is a short three hour flight but over some nasty terrain should there be an issue. The side benefit is that the views are breathtaking… Oh and on the way out we…
November 15, 2021
Just about a year ago my childhood friend (and maker) Andrew came and spent 10 day helping me build N241VP. It was such a blast working together and it only seemed fair to make a visit out to his home in North Carolina. First, it is a haul to get there from Steamboat, so we opted to break the flight…
October 3, 2021
I have a group of friends who I met whitewater kayaking and we have been doing a yearly mountain biking trips for a number of years. Last year we were overwhelmed with the crowds at Cuyuna and with my friend Nora moving to Duluth we decided to change it up and use her house as a base for the weekend.…
September 29, 2021
We have been big supporters of Travail for a number of years and it is hands down our favorite restaurant. We celebrated NYE 2020 there with our daughter and then…covid hit. This was our first time back since then and it was great to enjoy their wonderful food and see all the chefs back doing what they love to do.