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INTRODUCTION - ED in Missouri

10 posts in this topic

Posted (edited)

JOEY,

I know you had good intentions on starting this - but IMO, we dont want to scroll down 600 introductions to find one flyer - Therefore, I think each of us should make our own post.

I dont have a lot to confess to - my current wife thinks I am a Sweetheart, and I will try to fake it on here! The X's know I am just an old Curmudgeon - Look it up!

I have to confess to being a prolific writer (Read that as BS'r), and have published several articles in machinists books.

71 years old - born and raised from Louisiana to Michigan, with Missouri Bootheel as the middle ground, and Home. Grew up in Cropduster outfit, and drove Stearmans when about 10 years old. Model airplane builder until old enough to solo "real planes". Flew L-19 Birddog, L-20 Beaver, and a little bit H-13 Bell 47, in Army, 1960's in Germany.

Flew search and rescue with USAF/CAP for 11 years. Retired again as supervisor with Coast Guard.

Commercial Pilot training on GI bill, while doing Toolmaker Apprenticeship at Chrysler. Early retirement at age 50 and went to Alaska and got AMT / A&P at University of Alaska, Anchorage. Owned about a dozen planes and flew several more - NEVER WRECKED OR BENT ONE THO! Not even my Ercoupe, which someone had rigged wrong.

Went down the experimental road and studied Aircraft design for the last 16 years. Got my first Kitfox in a box of wreckage in 1995 - Started building a copy then, and abandaned it when I bought a KF2, and a Maule M4C -

Now trying to finish another scratchbuilt clone with lots of mods like ailerons and flaps instead of flaperons that I started 16 years ago, and had it almost finished until it fell off of the top of my trailer when moving back to Missouri in 2007. No photos for now, but hopefully will post some in next year or so. Waiting for fuselage to come back from paint shop while I extend leading edges on wings. Using Reductions EA-81 and Warp Drive hub and planning on Whirwind Razerblades for the fan. Got almost enough spare parts for someone to build a Kitfox I, clone.

Really enjoy a site where you can be honest and speak your mind without being banned as a nonconformist.

Enjoy talking to all of you about anything, and have learned a lot from you all.

How's that for some BS Leni?

GOOD FLYING, ED IN MO

Edited by Ed In Missouri
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Posted

Well Ed, I wouldn't call that BS... that was just a straight up snapshot. To be considered BS there has to be someplace in the story that involves the old... "hey ya'll hold my beer n watch this shit" :lmao:

:BC:

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Posted (edited)

Well Ed, I wouldn't call that BS... that was just a straight up snapshot. To be considered BS there has to be someplace in the story that involves the old... "hey ya'll hold my beer n watch this shit" :lmao:/>/>/>/>/>

:BC:/>/>/>/>/>

I had lots of those to tell, but want some of what I put on here to be believable. Will let you hold the title - FOR NOW ! Ever hear about the 2 guys who painted the Apache N-numbers with gray, washable paint and flew it under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis just as it was finished - They are still being hunted ! :lol:/>/>/>/>

Hmm - when was I doing my commercial twin engine training - Hmm

ED

Edited by Ed In Missouri

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Posted

I had lots of those to tell, but want some of what I put on here to be believable. Will let you hold the title - FOR NOW ! Ever hear about the 2 guys who painted the Apache N-numbers with gray, washable paint and flew it under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis just as it was finished - They are still being hunted ! smilielol.gif/>/>/>/>

Hmm - when was I doing my commercial twin engine training - Hmm

ED

There are some stories I dont tell on here... they are only for sitting around the campfire when no cameras are rolling :lol:

My title was bestowed on me on the Matronics list by Mr. Jetpilot during a heated battle of the wits (he lost) and it led to us both being banned for a bit of time.. I about drove the poor mods crazy over there cause it only takes a couple minutes to make a new email and get back on through a proxy server and drive them crazy trying to figure out who I really was today :lmao: I guess I had way too much time on my hands at work

:BC:

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Posted

There are some stories I dont tell on here... they are only for sitting around the campfire when no cameras are rolling :lol:/>

My title was bestowed on me on the Matronics list by Mr. Jetpilot during a heated battle of the wits (he lost) and it led to us both being banned for a bit of time.. I about drove the poor mods crazy over there cause it only takes a couple minutes to make a new email and get back on through a proxy server and drive them crazy trying to figure out who I really was today :lmao:/> I guess I had way too much time on my hands at work

:BC:/>

I dont like playing games - but its OK for others to have fun - I am just such an old curmudgeon that I am fed up with the rules the Fathers of American Aviation have put in place some 90 years ago that I think they suck!

And, I went thru all the "schooling" to get their "licenses"!

I am also such a "non-conformist" that even the kits offered do not suit me - I have to build and fly MINE! :lol:

ED in MO

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Posted

Ed- how'd you like flying the L-19? I have seen a few around and they look like quite the aircraft. Did you get much time in them? I think someone out near Birchwood has one of the Italian turbine Bird-Dogs. He had it out at the aviation tradeshow a few years ago, interesting machine.

 

-Nate

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Posted (edited)

Ed- how'd you like flying the L-19? I have seen a few around and they look like quite the aircraft. Did you get much time in them? I think someone out near Birchwood has one of the Italian turbine Bird-Dogs. He had it out at the aviation tradeshow a few years ago, interesting machine.

 

-Nate

Nate,

The Birddog was the hottest thing I got to fly in the Army - Big engine (at that time), constant-speed prop, and 60 degree flaps. Flying into military fields is exciting too, since you don't follow the civilian rules and patterns. The only time I felt like I was in a "pipsqueak" was when two fighter-jets came upon my tail over Germany and each did a barrel-roll as they passed by at about 500 mph just off of each of my wingtips! I think I was one of their "kills" for that day!

I wanted to buy one after I got discharged, but young and dumb, and still needing education, I was told that it could not be licensed for civilians because of the 60 degree flaps. I came back to the U.S.A. and started commercial pilot training. Only years later, when prices on the L-19 were so high that I couldn't afford one, did I find out that my earlier information was wrong.

Oh well, now we have more "high performance" planes to fly, like the Avid and Kitfox. :lol:

ED in MO

Edited by Ed In Missouri

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Posted (edited)

post-399-0-01724900-1368669128_thumb.jpgTrying to download for Nate, a photo of L-19 Birddog with 7th Army markings flying over Germany.  Note - this is an older model, smaller engine, fixed prop.

ED in MO

Edited by Ed In Missouri
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Posted

I enjoyed the post I am a member of a local eaa chapter and there are not alot of young people in the chapter maybe 2 people in their 40's and I don't fit in the cat..... I am 63 and I enjoy setting and talking to the chapter members that are older than me they are a wealth of infromation and experences..... I am glad that they will take time and set talk about their experences....it is a real pleasure to just set down and talk because in todays world everything is rush here and rush there it is to fast pace sometimes you just got to stop and smell the roses along the way and take the time to help someone to get the pace slowed down so they can enjoy  thangs  a little more....

Bob in Florida

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Posted (edited)

Bob,

This is a great site to be on - Young or Old, most know something, and most are willing to share and ask questions - You just have to figure out which of the answers suit your needs.

Great bunch of flyers/builders on here - and you don't get banned for your opinions, or your mistakes, or disagreements, like on some other sites - I think I lasted less than an hour on some of them, because I "think outside the box"!

EDMO

Edited by Ed In Missouri

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