Leaving the Arizona Sun for Chicago Rain

We had a few days home (a rare thing indeed these past few months), and Gladys had a chance to spend some time with our favorite mechanics at Embraer. They always take such great care of us. I’m just glad that they are so close…just an eight-minute flight to get us there for some updates!

It’s the weirdest thing…but I always miss her. When I get to see Gladys again, no matter how long it’s been, it’s nothing but a pleasure.

We picked up the airplane from maintenance at Willy Gateway Airport to fly to Chicago Midway to meet a few passengers. We were set to finish our evening in Dallas, where I got a whole evening and morning with my sister, brother-in-law, and two nephews!

What a treat!

A little sunburst action behind the Embraer Service Center hangar today! Cue the angels!

I would much rather have people in back for every flight, but occasionally we get these empty legs to pick people up. I had their blankets washed and their snacks ready for our few days on the road.

Let’s go get some passengers!

Willy Gateway is the perfect setting for several airplane manufacturers to set up maintenance facilities. Until Hawker Beechcraft went bankrupt this past year and shut their facility down, there were three service centers on the field!

They must have gotten a good price on land…since all three of them are right next to each other!

As we were taxiing to the runway, I grabbed one last shot of our beloved maintenance hangar. We’ve spent lots of quality time here working out some bugs on such a new-to-the-world airplane.

It happens with any new airplane.

Willy Gateway is in the southeast corner of the Valley of the Sun. It is the perfect location for flight schools, and there are plenty on the field!

In fact, my favorite school in the world, The University of North Dakota John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, even has a satellite campus here. And with three-hundred and sixty four flying days a year, it’s a great place to get started in aviation.

Hint hint…

Eek! Here are some of their airplanes now! In fact, I’ve flown that Piper Seminole on the end! It was named Sioux 97, using the last two numbers of the N-Number.

After flying for a few years at the main campus airport in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the airplanes are sent to the satellite campuses all over the country. They switched back to Cessna airplanes a few years ago, as you can see here. (sniff sniff)

This makes me miss Grand Forks. Maybe I’ll go visit this summer! There is now a direct flight from this very airport!

Some government airplanes have been parked here for a while. You can tell because their flaps have started to lose their hydraulic pressure to hold them in place. Can you see them hanging down on the wing near the body of the airplane?

Once the engines start up, hydraulic pressure is sent right back to them to retract them into proper place.

And now you know!

And we’re off!

You can plainly see that I was wearing a zebra-stripe cardigan today for work. Sorry. It kind of interfered with some pictures.

Dang zebras. They always ruin the party.

We passed some pretty mountains on our climb towards the east. Our flight will take just over two hours to get into Chicago Midway today.

But the weather won’t be nearly this nice, so kiss it goodbye!

It kept getting flatter and flatter as we made our way east. I am starting to think there’s a reason that they call them The Great Plains!

Here is the airport diagram to Chicago Midway Airport, which is just south and west of downtown. It is a popular reliever airport for Chicago O’Hare. And it is a hub for Southwest Airlines, since they avoid big airports where other guys are based.

In this case, United and American.

So Midway is crazy busy because of all the Southwest guys and all of the corporate guys!

We started our descent into the rainy muck that is Chicago. But it would be worse…it could be snowy muck.

Yuck!

This was our view for the last twenty minutes of the flight as we made our way into Chicago this afternoon. Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) all the way!

We were soon on the ground and taxiing to the ramp. We tried a new FBO today, since our last one had gone under. Another sign of the times?

Actually, this is my first time to Chicago with this new job, so we could have gone anywhere we wanted. We chose Atlantic Aviation, and they were wonderful!

They even marshaled us in to the ramp. Thanks, guys!

But I always get worried when the locals are bundled up in heavy coats and hats. I think this warm-blooded girl is in trouble!

We parked and cleaned Gladys up. We will only be here for a few hours before our passengers arrive for our flight to Dallas.

But you know what? A few hours is plenty of time to drive the half-mile to Giordano’s to get some lunch! Yippeeeeeee!

As you can see, lots of private airplanes were visiting the lovely weather in Chicago today. The far-left is a Westwind. I’m always worried that they will scrape their bellies when landing because they sit so low to the ground. Then we have a Citation Excel, which is oh-so pretty. And last but not least…a Beechjet, which is what I used to fly.

Have I mentioned lately how very much I love Gladys?

The winds were terrible today in The Windy City. I was anxious to be on our way to bluer skies!

Bye, Southwest! Have a good flight!

Now, let’s go get some lunch Chicago lunch!

Spotlight Feature – A Woodworking Developer

Hubby often shows his coworkers some of the projects that he has accomplished in our house. They were especially impressed with his woodworking skills when it came to building our buffet from scratch. Then, he made a giant desk out of an old door and recycled cabinets. His coworkers always ooooed and ahhhhed over such expertise.

He is the hero at work, no doubt. And not just because he has fierce computer skills.

One guy in particular noticed that Hubby was a miracle worker. And then he realized that he could show off some of his own wood skills right here on this ol’ blog! Hubby asked if I would be willing to spotlight his coworker’s work, and I was all for it!

So today, I’m featuring one of Hubby’s coworker’s projects. We’ll call him Woody, to protect the guilty innocent. And he made a super-cool kid truck out of wood.

His first step was wood selection.

In his own words, Woody says, “First select the wood that will be used for the project. I like to use two shades of wood that contrast. A darker color for the body (or you can stain when done) and lighter for the wheels. For the body in this set of pictures, I got a standard 1”x5” piece of red oak from the local hardware store. A good hard wood is preferred for the body due to the variety of drill press/holes drilled. This will reduce blowout on the reverse side. For the wheels, any kind of generic white wood is good. This time I used a simple pine. For axels, ¼” dowels are used (any type).”

Woody continued, “Now that you have the wood selected, take your pattern and trace the body onto the wood. There is no need at this time to locate the axels or window holes, or to trace the wheels since that will be done later. The wheels will be cut using a 2” hole saw.”

In Woody’s words, “Use the band saw to quickly rough out the cut. If you are using more of a hard wood like the red oak in this picture, you will want to take your time and be precise with your cuts. The harder the wood, the more difficult it is to sand, and the more likely you will have burn marks when sanding.”

Looks like Woody did a great job completing the rough cut on the band saw to give a good initial look of the truck body!

Woody says, “Use a palm sander to perform any sanding and smoothing of the sides and light touch-up to the edges. If more touch-up is needed on the edges, a belt sander is recommended. I use a simple 1” belt sander for most of the touch-up in this photo.”

Hubby and I have a similar palm sander and love it like a small child!

It’s drill press time! Let’s make some wheels!

Woody continues, “Using a 2” hole saw with a good side slot for removing the piece, you can quickly cut out the uniform circles needed for the four wheels. Make sure that your pilot bit is ¼” to match the diameter of your dowel/axels. This is a quick process to get consistent results.”

A great tip from Woody, “It is sometimes helpful to clamp the piece of wood to the drill press while drilling the wheels. I have also found it particularly useful to use a good clean piece of wood behind the piece you are cutting to obtain a cleaner cut on the backside of the wood.”

“Once you’ve cut through the piece of wood, your wheel will be lodged in the hole saw bit. You will need to use a small flat screw driver to remove it carefully from the hole saw bit. You will want to be careful at this point that you don’t pry too hard and mar the piece of wood that will be your wheel. If you do happen to get some marring, don’t panic…this can always be the inside of the wheel, as the inside is hardly seen.”

Now it’s time to head back to the belt sander.

Woody says, “After the wheels are all cut, take them over to the 1” belt sander for touch-up. Using the belt, you can quickly smooth out the edges of the wheel. I found it easiest to use a palm sander to smooth out the sides of the wheel.”

“Using a paper template and push pins, push a hole thru the paper pattern and into your truck wood body. This will give you the precise location of your axels and window pilot holes. I keep two patterns. One is made of wood to more easily trace the initial body of the truck. The other is paper for this push pin section of the piece.”

Let’s drill some axels!

“Use a 9/32” drill bit to drill the axel holes. This hole is ever so slightly larger than the ¼” diameter axels which will allow them to roll smoothly. Either hold the piece firm to a backer piece of wood, or use clamps to ensure the piece does not move.”

Next up is to drill some window holes.

Woody says, “Each window starts as a hole in the drill press on either side of the window. One window is 3/8” in diameter, while the other is 5/8”. Using the push pin holes in the step above, you can locate these four holes to start the window creation process.”

“Once you have the four holes that make up the two windows, you will want to use a straight edge to trace straight lines between each of the two window holes.”

“With the lines in place, use a scroll saw to thread the blade through the holes in the previous step and cut out the windows.”

Now we’re ready to add some axel holes.

Woody continues, “The last step in fabrication is to cut the axels. Our piece in this picture measures 2 ¼” wide. This is two wheels at ¾” each and one body section at ¾”. I like to leave ¼” extra in the axel to allow for spacing from the body. So each axel is cut at 2 ½” wide. After cutting them on the band saw, I use the 1” belt sander above to round over the outer edges for better fit into the wheels.”

It is just a computer guy thing to be so patient?

“Now that all pieces are cut, it is important to dry fit everything. Place the axels into the wheels to ensure a proper fit. If any fine tuning is needed, now is the time.”

Now comes the making-it-pretty step of staining.

Woody says, “Salad bowl finish is preferred on a project like this. This toy is used by little kids who may be teething. Salad bowl finish is a safe product to ensure there is no danger to young children. I would recommend getting a good box of disposable latex gloves as well. This will save a lot of hassle come clean up time.”

“I prefer to do at least two coats of salad bowl finish. In between coats, find a good dry/warm place to let the pieces set.”

This is always the hardest part for me…the dry time!

The finished product!

Woody ends by saying, “Once everything is finished, it’s time to assemble. I first assemble one side of each wheel by gluing the axel into one of the wheels (for each axel). Once that sets, I thread each axel thru the truck body and glue the other wheel to the other side of the axel. Make sure to apply glue after threading the axel through the truck body or you will yell at yourself. And there you have it. A fun little project that will bring smiles to the little ones in your life.”

When I was reading through his process and admiring the pictures, I was so impressed with Woody’s skills! His tutorial is wonderful enough that you could follow these steps to make your own!

I guess Hubby isn’t the only one at work who is also handy with a saw…

Capote is not Kaput

Hubby has been spending the past several months doing projects with his Scouts to prep them for their Mountain Man Rendezvous.

Doesn’t that sound like fun? A bunch of grown men with beards, and a bunch of teenage boys…with no beards? Running around in the forest pretending it’s the 1800s?

One project that took a few weeks to complete was helping the boys sew their own wool capote mountain man coats for the cold weekend in the hills. Hubby did everything from ordering the blankets to devising the best way for them to trace the pattern outline with chalk!

He even enlisted some local gals in our church to help each boy…kind of the buddy system. She didn’t sew it for the kid but instead taught him how and supervised his work to make sure that he didn’t get three arms and no hole for the head.

Hubby is always looking for ways to teach them to fish, and not just to hand them dinner. Know what I mean?

But he was so busy helping the boys get ready that he didn’t have time to sew his own capote. And a man without a capote at this shindig? Well, that certainly wouldn’t do!

My bestest friend, Ann, even volunteered to come supervise his evening of domestic labor!

Deep down, I think that Hubby was really hoping that Ann would just show up and do the hard work for him. But, just like he wouldn’t let her with the boys, she didn’t hand him anything!

She simply showed him how to do it and then watched to prevent any mistakes.

So far, so good! We need some arms, though!

Ann is a super-experienced sewing extraordinaire. I am…well, not. I can’t even hem pants. Sheesh, it’s pathetic. So I’m really glad that she offered to bring her sewing machine and expertise to help Hubby prepare for the camping trip.

We even set up a temporary sewing site for Hubby to work. After measurements for his arms were taken, the pins were added to hold things in place while the sewing happened.

I learned a thing or two tonight as well, just from watching!

While they worked, I made some dinner. This was Day Two of my healthy transformation, and actually the very day that I hired Lindsey to help me meet my weight-loss goals!

So salad for dinner it was!

I’m wondering if these pictures can be used for blackmailing purposes some day. It’s not very often that a wife gets to admire her husband hard at work on a sewing machine, huh?

But I was proud of him for sticking with it. Sometimes, when Ann and I got distracted with some nice visiting, Hubby patiently waited until we could give attention back to him when he was ready for the next step.

He is The World’s Most Patient Man, after all.

One arm done! Looking good!

It was time to decide where to hem the cuff to give him enough warmth without being in the way. Ann knew all of these measurements and even how to mark them! Fascinating! I don’t know nuthin’!

Did I mention that Hubby sewed this entire thing himself?! So impressive!

Lookin’ good, Babe! Isn’t he a handsome man? Even when wearing a homemade wool coat, he looks handsome.

That’s hard to pull off for most guys.

Meanwhile, the marinated chicken had been grilled and was ready for consumption atop some beautiful mixed greens!

Hubby is such a supportive champ. He will eat anything that I make. Isn’t that crazy how much power I have over our diet and what we eat?!

Eating healthy has been so nice. I found this saying that I totally agree with: Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels.

So true!

Nice capote, Hubby. You look all back-woodsy now!