Sunday, July 29, 2012

Grand View


The view from 29,000 feet. . .  A small part of the Grand Canyon.  Flight 1687, San Diego to Minneapolis, July 26, 2012.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Barnstorming the Bush-N-Vine


As most of you know, the Jellystoners spend a lot of time at the Bush-N-Vine Produce Stand in York, South Carolina.  There are many reasons for this, but topping the list are York's grass runway, and the smoothie machine at the Bush-N-Vine.  Yes, they have great produce, but when the temperature is pushing ninety degrees, those ice cold smoothies really hit the spot!  It doesn't hurt that the people are friendly too!


Tuesday morning Brother Baker and I mounted the Jellystone GoPro video camera in the forward facing position on the right strut of 43 Bravo, and then set out to film another aviation masterpiece.  The plan for the shoot was a simple one.  Young Colin Baker, my Co-Star for the day, and I would fly over to York, South Carolina in the Hatz, while Brother Baker shot the video from 43 Bravo---tucked in at our eight o'clock position.  Like I said, it was a simple plan.  The descendants of Howard Hawks have little to worry about---at least from Jellystone Studios, anyway! 

The unedited video runs for twenty-seven minutes---which happens to be the amount of time it takes to swing the prop on the Luscombe, start the camera (it's a low budget operation, so there's no remote control), hop in the Hatz, taxi out to Runway 20, fly over to York, land on Runway 18, taxi back to the Bush-N-Vine, and then hop out and turn off the camera.  Once Brother Baker finishes editing, I suspect we will have a decent five minute video.  Unfortunately for my Co-Star, because of a missing seat cushion ( A Few Ounces Lighter, May 2012), he was not sitting high enough to be seen in the video.  Folks, you can skip the letters, I have already suggested he find a new agent!


We stepped up to the smoothie counter at about 12:30 PM.  It was already ninety degrees outside, so we ordered large, and then chatted with the good folks at the Bush-N-Vine as we sipped our strawberry smoothies.  Taylor, the young lady running the smoothie machine, happened to mention that she had never been in a small airplane.  Of course Brother Baker was all over that statement!  "Would you like a ride?" 


This is Taylor, about to depart on her first light airplane ride!


Taylor, with Colin, Joe, & 43 Bravo.


This is Mary, also from the Bush-N-Vine.


Mary & Joe after their flight.

What started out as an excuse to play with the video camera, turned in to good old fashioned barnstorming!  I wish I could say we were good cinematographers, but sadly, this is not the case.  If we had thought to reposition the camera, we could have captured Taylor's and Mary's enthusiasm, as they enjoyed their vintage airplane rides in the sky's above Bush-N-Vine Farms.  Maybe the "Brain Freeze" from the smoothies slowed us down! 

Gag Reel:

Video Joe

Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_grwWPF5w8&feature=plcp

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Missed Opportunity


I guess I should have stopped in for a reading. . .


Then I would have known I wasn't going to make that nine o'clock flight home Friday evening!


This is a MD-90 EEC.  Don't buy it if you see it on eBay.  It's broken.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

The Two Stooges


Since Brother Baker did such an outstanding job with his first video production, Brother Barbeau and I thought we would give it a try.  The plan was to mount the camera on the Hatz and then have Gary film yours truly in the Luscombe as we flew over to York, South Carolina for a little smoothie action at the Bush-N-Vine Produce Stand.  After a half hour of trying to figure out which strut would be the best for camera position---and not getting the results we were looking for---we eventually decided to just leave it where Joe had placed it.  Besides, it was getting hot outside and we had a movie to film!

After pulling the prop for me in 43 Bravo, Gary hit the "Action" switch on the Jellystone GoPro HD Hero 2 video camera, cranked the Hatz, and then followed me over to York, where lo and behold, the Bush-N-Vine was closed!  No Sunday smoothies for the Jellystoners!  Oh well, at least we had the video to look forward to---so we thought.

Back at Jellystone Air Park; we put the airplanes to bed and then high tailed it back to Gary's place to view the video.  After several attempts at downloading failed, we enlisted the help of Gary's son, Sam, who is home from UNC Asheville for the summer.  He determined there was nothing to download!  It seems Brother Barbeau and I are not as GoPro savvy as we thought we were!  Oh well, in our defense, Brother Baker had daughter Emma holding his hand for last week's "Quick Trip" video!

We'll figure it out eventually.  Or call Emma.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Jellystone Studios


Brother Baker has found a use for the old LF antenna mount on top of 43 Bravo's vertical stabilizer.  Behold!  The first YouTube video from Jellystone Studios:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkguWS9LWQw&feature=g-all-u