Category Archives: CAF

February 15, 2016 · 22:48

A Moment Alone With The Planes

Our CAF hangar & museum is closed on Mondays. I was there today because our annual audit was starting with folks flying in from our headquarters in Texas. There were a half dozen others there during the day, taking care of this task or that, but for the most part we had it to ourselves. After the auditors left at 17:00, jet lagged, looking for dinner and a horizontal soft place, I spent a few minutes walking around to lock up.

Since starting the day job at Habitat for Humanity, there have been several times when I’ve found myself the last one and/or the only one in the hangar. A couple of these times I’ve gotten a really strong, emotional feeling about the experience. All of the other times it’s been dark and a bit spooky, but tonight it was just quiet and I finally recognized it when it hit me again.

I was alone in a hangar with a PT-19, an SNJ-5, an F8-F Bearcat, an F6-F Hellcat, and a P-51 Mustang. Except for the creaking of the hangar in the wind (and it was windy!) it was quiet. By being a CAF member, a SoCal Wing member, and a staff member I was here with actual, honest-to-God, flying airplanes which were the ones which I had dreamed of and fantasized about when I was a kid. I could touch them, smell them, watch them drip oil (if they’re not dripping oil they’re probably out of oil…), and look at them as closely as I wanted.

I had been up flying in three of these planes. Because I’m also a pilot, once I get current again after my long layoff from the left seat, I can start looking at training to actually fly some of these planes myself, both solo and carrying passengers. It’s a stretch, but it’s not completely outside the realm of possibility that I could someday fly a Bearcat, Hellcat, Zero, B-25, Spitfire, or Mustang.

That feeling? It was the ten-year-old inside of me letting me know that this was really, really freakin’ cool, and I needed to remember that more often. This was the message from the past that said that I have made many of my dreams come true.

There are now other dreams, bigger dreams – but none of that diminishes the dreams of the ten-year-old who can now touch that Bearcat, fly in that P-51, or learn to fly that PT-19.

It’s a sense of wonder, realized.

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February 13, 2016 · 23:13

Steel Rising – Part Nine

It’s been about two months since the last update. Most of what’s been happening since then is not terribly photogenic – installing interior walls where needed, putting together the bathrooms, getting all the little finishing touches finished. We’re not 100% there but most of what we have to do is our own “tenant improvement” work, such as putting in a kitchen and facilities so that we can rent out the hangar for events such as weddings, dinners, fundraisers, quinceañeras, movie location shoots, and so on.

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From just outside – two bombers take up a lot of space. Our PBJ on the left, the AAF’s “Executive Sweet” B-25 on the right.

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From just inside.

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“Executive Sweet” and CAF SoCal’s Spitfire.

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The CAF’s PBJ, soon to be flying again!

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A pair of T-34s, owned by CAF SoCal members. And yes, that’s a really honkin’ big flag back there.

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February 10, 2016 · 23:59

23:54 Already?

A little over three years ago there was a bit of terror going on in my head. After five years in which I was putting myself through college and surviving by working at least one and sometimes two full-time jobs, then spending about thirty-five years of dealing with both family and “career” where the demands of the job often involved 60, 70, 80 or more hours per week, and at one time packing an MBA program in on top of that, I all of a sudden had “nothing” to do.

Facing unemployment, I didn’t know if I could stand not being busier than God.

Let me tell you, three years of getting used to not being busier than God is NOT good preparation for going back to being busier than God, working full-time plus, and making a bit of time for The Long-Suffering Wife, and taking care of my CAF duties, and trying to get a couple hours of sleep every now and then, and keep this website going.

23:59. Push the button

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February 9, 2016 · 23:34

It’s Not Good To Mock Murphy

It occurs to me tonight, while muttering under my breath and using terms of which my mother would have never approved, that our pal Murphy is not an imp, a pixie, a pookah, gremlin, or scamp. Nope, he’s an extortionist. And a particularly stupid one at that.

Foggy alley. Cobblestones. Night. A lone streetlight shines. Against it leans Murphy, casually threatening as you approach.

“Hey, Willett! I hear you used that fancy website of yours to poke a little fun at your truly. That’s not a nice thing.”

“It was just a little lark, Murph, I didn’t mean nothin’ by it.”

“Yeah, sure you didn’t. Say, that’s a nice run of decent luck you’ve got there. Be a pity if something were to happen to it…”

The reason that I think he’s a particular bad, stupid extortionist is that he hasn’t told me what he wants! What good is messing with people and threatening them so they’ll do what you want them to do, if you don’t tell them what it is that you want them to do?!

Moron.

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January 25, 2016 · 22:44

China Doll & Moonlight

While looking at the pretty lights around the runway and taxiways at night, it’s often good to turn around and look behind you.

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The full moon, remnants of the day’s clouds, more runway lights, and a plane that should be flying again.

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January 24, 2016 · 22:05

The Ramp At Night

I mentioned that I was at the hangar late last night. One of the things I think is marvelous and beautiful is the sight of an airport at night.

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There are different colored lights everywhere, indicating different things. Unlike an urban neighborhood, which might be just a half-mile or so away, there typically aren’t any street lights or the like, so it’s one of the darker places you’ll find in the average city. This means that you can see the stars better. With planes moving about with their own strobe lights on, there’s quite a difference between the dark all around and the brightly colored pinpoints of light – blue, green, red, yellow, white. Sort of like the sky above, but a bit more bright and colorful to the naked eye.

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January 23, 2016 · 23:08

Many Warbirds On The Ramp Today

T’was a very long day at the hangar, but as with the long days at the new office, a very long day was not necessarily a very bad one, or even a not good one. (A subtle, but important, distinction.)

There were a lot of planes out on the ramp today (click on the picture to blow it up nice and big!):

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From left to right are our green A6M3 “Zero,” a grey T-6 “Texan” that was visiting from the Condor Squadron out of Van Nuys Airport, the blue F6F “Hellcat,” our brown and green camouflage Mk XVI “Spitfire,” our P-51 “Mustang,”, our C-46 “Commando,” the AAF’s C-47 “Skytrain” which is being restored, and at the far right, our SNJ-4.

All of the fighters were out in part because there was a big event being set up in that open hangar on the far right, but also because they flew today in honor of Joe Peppito, a long-time CAF SoCal member who passed away in December.

The C-46 was Joe’s baby. It would be fantastic to see here restored and made airworthy again. Anyone know anyone with about $500,000 or so that they would like to donate to get her flying, perhaps with your name painted on the side? Tax deductible!

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January 22, 2016 · 22:48

Deep – Not Wide

One of my thoughts about my current state (when I have time to think) is that I’ve flipped my state of existence since I started this new job.

I used to be “a mile wide and an inch deep,” and that only got worse when I was unemployed. That’s one of the reasons that I had to impose some discipline on my routine and make sure that certain things got done every day come hell or high water. Otherwise I would have been off like a butterfly, from one interesting thing to another. Good things I might add, creative things for the most part, stimulating things. It’s not like I was watching soap operas or old TV reruns for hours and hours at a time with a six-pack and a half-gallon of cookie dough ice cream. Nonetheless, there needed to be a certain amount of focus and I had to impose it.

Now on the other hand, between all of the time and brain power I’m putting into the new job (which is going extremely well, thank you for asking!) and the T&BP that I have to keep putting in (at least a minimal amount, I don’t have that much left) into the CAF responsibilities, plus the time that The Long-Suffering Wife gets (which in no way says it’s a bad thing in any way, quite the opposite, but I’m doing some accounting here) – well, I now feel like I’m as deep as the Marianas Trench but about as wide as a straw.

It’s quite a change.

Moderation in all things, so I’m hoping that as I get more settled in at work, and as we get past the multiple year-end audits at both the office and the CAF (it’s an occupational hazard to being a financial and accounting dude in real life), the balance will come back to the center.

Then there’s another thing. When I was going out to the hangar at 35 to 45 minutes each way, or back when I was working the old job with a similar commute to Encino, there was lots of time to just think each day. You don’t really have to use your higher cognitive functions to drive in 5 mph traffic. Now that I’m literally ten minutes from work, I’ve lost most of that time. If there’s such a thing as a downside to a ten-minute commute, that might be it.

Finally, as I’ve been writing this I’ve been having some serious, world class, weapons grade deja vu. I could swear that I’ve written pretty much this same thing in the last month, but for the life of me I can’t see where it was. So if this sounds really familiar – yes, I am losing it a bit. Thanks!

But it’s a good thing.

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January 2, 2016 · 23:27

The First Beautiful Sunset Of 2016

Well, at least is the first beautiful one in Southern California.

It might also be a rare sight for a few days here. That El Niño thing appears to finally be targeting SoCal – the fifteen day forecast currently shows seven of those days with a 50% or greater chance of rain. After four solid years of serious drought we need the rain, but after four solid years of serious drought the ground is baked & hard & burned so any hard rain to start off will just run off and cause flooding and mudslides.

Welcome to SoCal, where the four seasons are Shaking, Burning, Flooding, and Boring!

Tonight I was getting ready to leave the CAF hangar in Camarillo just before sunset and saw the storm front moving in from the north and west.

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On the hills at the north end of Camarillo, across the runway and the 101 Freeway, you can see bright flashes off of the windows of several houses that are lined up just right.

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Our C-46, “China Doll.”

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Looking back to the west from “China Doll,” three of our four hangars.

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From the parking lot, just after the sun disappeared out over the Pacific.

 

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January 1, 2016 · 22:51

2016 – Known Knowns

Yesterday I looked back at my highly dynamic, roller coaster, schizophrenic year in 2015. Today, let’s see what’s on the horizon for 2016, at least as well as we can see anything into the future.

The two big events I see are a “milestone” birthday (inevitable) and a change in residence for the first time in over twenty-five years (very high probability). As for the first, if you can’t avoid something like that, you might as well screw around with it and everything associated with it, so stand by. As for the second, with the pets all gone and the kids all grown and moved out, it’s not only unnecessary for The Long-Suffering Wife and me to occupy a five-bedroom home by ourselves, it’s downright silly. And expensive.

Along with that necessary move will be the associated task of sorting through twenty-five-plus years of stuff. I’m sure there will be much grumbling and pissing and moaning and complaining as we have to go through room after room and do the “toss/donate/keep” determination. (FYI, I’ll be the one doing the whining – I like stuff.) But that process actually started earlier in 2015, so now I just need to get it in gear big time.

I expect much of the first part of 2016 to be occupied primarily by me work schedules between my paid, full-time job at Habitat For Humanity and my unpaid, part-time job at CAF Socal. It’s obvious which one has priority, but I’ll be busy with both of them doing taxes, year-end closing, and audits through March and April, as well as simply getting settled into the job at Habitat.

It’s unlikely that we’ll be doing anywhere near as much travelling as I did last year, simply because I won’t have any accrued vacation time until at least the end of the year. We would like to get to New York City in July for our 15th anniversary, or to Kansas City for Worldcon in August, but it might at best be one or the other. Or it might just be three-day weekends where we have holidays. We’ll see.

In addition, my opportunities to go to any NASA Socials will be severely restricted do to employment commitments. As Super Chicken said, “You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!”

I would like to start flying again this year. I’ll need to get my medical certification current (not that big of a deal) and I’ll need to get a few hours of lessons under my belt to become comfortable in the cockpit again (it’s been three years), but after that I’ll simply need to start building up some time and getting my flying skills re-honed. Once that happens, there are opportunities at the CAF to start training and qualifying to fly aircraft there, starting with our PT-19 trainer. That will be a big highlight for the 2016.

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but another personal goal this year will be to get back to running. As much as I hate thinking about going out, particularly when it’s cold or wet (or hot or dry), that’s just the “bad brain” talking. I know that I feel better after a run, and I feel better overall about myself and everything else when I’m running regularly. It’s time to start again.

Oh, and if my beloved Chiefs can win the Super Bowl, my beloved Kings can win the Stanley Cup, and my beloved Angels could win the World Series, that would be great as well. Just a suggestion for any of the gods that might be listening who think I’ve been good and need a treat or reward. (What? Oh, yeah. Well… Okay.)

If that sounds a lot less “dynamic” than 2015, bordering on outright boring and dull, well, that will be okay with me. I burned enough adrenaline in 2015, both good and bad. I suspect I’ll be busy as hell all year and stressed with time pressures from a number of sources, but I’m hoping that it’s nothing life and death. Literally.

What does your 2016 look like?

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