March 15, 2006

"Days Gone By"

Carl B. Jordan of Port Charlotte, Florida went to his personal archives this week and sent us this image of his father getting ready to take a pipe-smoking 90-year-old lady on her first airplane ride.  The passenger (who reminded Carl of Li'l Abner's pipe-smoking Mammy Yokum) takes a moment to pose on the wing of the plane — an Alexander "Long Wing" Eaglerock.

As for Carl's father, he went on to serve a 33-year stint as a pilot for American Airlines.  Having soloed in a Curtiss Jenny, he "literally went from Jennys to jets" — a distinction we thought worth mentioning.

"Burning Spirit"

Dan Valentine of London, England (U.K.) is back again this week, with one of our favorite heavy iron photos from recent months.

"Déjà Vu"

Jakob Adolf of Herten, Germany takes us off the beaten path — to the island republic of Madagascar, where the Ankìzy Fund has opened four new airstrips to help with their educational and humanitarian efforts.

"I Love Being a Grandfather"

It's all a question of scale in this photo from Jim Tompkins of Lawrenceville, Georgia.  The lad in the photo is Jim's grandson, Addison Nash, and the event is the Joe Nall Giant Scale Model Fly-In.

"Over and Out"

Another semi-regular "POTW" contributor, Max Haynes of Maple Grove, Minnesota steps up to the plate in our time of need.  This vertigo-inducing shot was taken by Max while flying in an AT-6 piloted by Tim Barzen.  That's the B-25 Miss Mitchell soaring beneath/above Max's camera.  You can see more of Max's pictures of her here.

Ryan Lunde of Laramie, Wyoming kicks off the "stranded rotorcraft" section of our feature this week.  This U.S. Army Apache helicopter was stranded at Laramie Regional Airport by winter weather.

Squadron Leader Anand Lulay of the Air Force Academy at Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (India) faces a worse predicament in this photo.  Anand recounts "a hair-raising experience I had while on assignment in the Karakoram Mountains.  The tail boom of the helicopter is hanging over a precipice, a vertical drop of more than 2,000 feet."  The helipad itself sat at 21,000 feet above sea level!

Whew.  Makes us nervous just looking at the photos!

We have to confess — in an effort to trim this week's entries, we almost dropped this photo from Renee Gerez of Don Torcuato, Buenos Aires (Argentina).  But then we read the comments — Renee snapped this shot on her way home from an EAA Chapter 722 fly-in ... on her Sony W800 cell phone!

As the best cell phone photo we've received to date, this one made it back into the runners-up circle.  Ain't technology grand?

"Bet You Can't Identify This Aircraft"

Douglas Stead of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia (Canada) challenges us to a game we haven't played in a while:  Name That Aircraft.  We don't like to make this a regular feature, but it's fun from time to time — so, to close out this week's edition of "POTW," here are Doug's hints:

• It is a war bird, but not an L-19.

• Only 130 where built.

• Has a 340 hp Lycoming, GW 4000 lbss, fixed leading-edge slots, very STOL, 4 seat, and back window lift to allow loading of a stretcher when used as an air ambulance.

• But also has hard points for carrying a machine-gun pack under each wing.

• This aircraft has been totally redone, inside and out, from its original military gray paint and has been panel-updated with a Dynon D10A EFIS and JPI 930 graphic engine monitor fuel totalizer.

"Don't cheat and look up the registration now."

(Sorry, Doug — we already did.  But we won't spoil everyone else's fun!)