NEW BOOK

 

My book is now PUBLISHED - The WW2 Airplane Crash and my High Arctic Expeditions, available now on Amazon for $12.95 USD - AMAZON LINK - ORDER BOOK

Randy Swift Day Flight - VISIT TO LITTLE BOHEMIA; SITE OF THE 1934 DILLINGER SHOOTOUT WITH G-MEN

Join Me in the Cockpit - Flight Home from Minneapolis

Pratt & Whitney PT6A Installation

Here are some images from last week up at Wipair.

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Seaplane Arctic Expeditions - The Doomed Franklin Mission of 1845

Presentation at the Chicago Yacht Club

Seaplane Float Manufacturer - Trip to Wipair

Trip to check out to see how the annual process is going 

on our Cessna 208 Caravan Amphib.

Located at Flemming Field (KSGS) in Inver Grove Heights, a township in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area of Minnesota, Wipair, Inc. is the world leading premier float manufacturer for seaplanes.

Ben always had a strong interest in aviation long before he began working on Wipline floats. As a child, he built his own glider in the backyard of his parent’s home. Out of concern for his safety, his parents dismantled the aircraft before he could take it on its maiden voyage.

Ben eventually moved to California to work for Douglas Aircraft for a period of time. He was drafted into the Army Air Forces of the United States before Pearl Harbor and spent time working in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he developed a pre-oiling system to help the performance of the bombers. He was awarded several decorations by the military for this engineering contribution.

After WWII, Ben returned once again to his roots in Minnesota and continued his career in aviation, with empasis on innovation, and then founded the company in the 1959 by putting all of his ideas for improvement together and built a new revolutionary float design. 

Ben’s son Bob began working at Wipline Inc. in 1970 after receiving his aeronautical engineering degree from U of M and spending a few years working for Honeywell.In 1974 Bob expanded our range of services by founding Wipaire, Inc performing maintenance as a certified Cessna service center at Fleming Field.

Wipline Inc and Wipaire Inc came together in 1979 when Bob purchased Wipline Inc from his father. The 80’s kicked off with the introduction of the Wipline 6000 Float for the de Havilland Beaver and they skyrocketed from there to many more makes and models.  Wipaire celebrated 55 years of building Wipline floats in 2015. 

Today Wipair dominates the world as the top float manufacturer in the world.

Cessna 208 Caravan Trip To Grand Geneva Resort Airport

Day adventure flight - N188SF Caravan Amphibian; takeoff from Waukegan Airport 

in Illinois near Chicago, short enroute flight and landing at 

Grand Geneva Airport in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

My Flight To The Dick Proenneke Museum

Richard Proenneke followed his ultimate ambition beginning in the 1950’s by setting out to explore and then settle into an area within the untouched wilderness of Alaska. This area is located within a general region which is now called “The Lake Clark National Park”. 

Dick, as he was called, was dropped off by seaplane at an otherwise inaccessible place called Twin Lakes. He arrived in early spring - and during that summer and fall, he built from scratch his own log cabin, elevated food cache cabin and later a woodshed / workbench structure with other details. 

And there he lived alone with just the animals for 40 years. He possessed only the most basic essentials - and a canoe. 

He lived his life’s dream.

He in turn inspired thousands of people to go out and find their true wilderness and live the experience.

This video is my day trip to visit his museum, in the town adjacent to where Dick grew up. It is a fine tribute to him. The museum has a partial replica of the actual log cabin, along with many of Dick’s artifacts.

Today the log cabin at Twin Lakes, along with all of the structures that go along with it, are all preserved and guarded by the Park Service staff of The Lake Clark National Park. It is somewhere you can still visit by seaplane, and see it as it actually was when Dick was there.

Definitely a trip worth taking. 

Plane Crash

Last May of this year I was flying my vintage WW2 airplane home with a friend from Los Angeles - and at the worst possible place, the engine had a catastrophic failure, smoke, oil and fire from the front accrues the cockpit.  We had to parachute out into the wilderness, and no one knew.  

Read the report I gave to the NSTB and FAA, with images here:

TBM Avenger Blog Site (CLICK HERE)

PLANE CRASH VIDEO (below)
NBC5 TV Evening News Report

Bobcat at our Corn Feeder

This Bobcat is probably stalking the birds and squirrels.   I’m sure we’ll see him again soon, and also have to believe that the mama and siblings are close by.

2018 Father & Sons Trip to Alaska

NORTH TO ALASKA!

Back from Brisbane Austrailia with a TBM Avenger

The best of 3 TBM Avengers on the market was located in Brisbane, so we had to go see it.  The pre-buy inspection went well, so we made the deal. 











Right now it sits on a cargo ship somewhere in the west pacific, on it's way to Long Beach California.  We will be there for the ship's arrival October 15th, coordinate the delivery to Long Beach Airport by truck, then tune it up for the flight home.

Home will be at our hanger at Lakeland Airport (KARV) in Arbor Vitae (Woodruff/Minocqua) Wisconsin. 

Go to https://tbmavenger.blogspot.com/ and check it all out.
 

Moose Creek Cast-n-Blast 2015

The inaugural Moose Creek Cast-n-Blast - was a BLAST.

Definitely a great cast of characters.  

The boys flew up from Chicago Executive Airport in a King Air 300 and landed 1 hour later at Lakeland Airport in Arbor Vitae Wisconsin.  From there some of the boys flew with Ron in the Beaver on the 15 minute seaplane ride to Moose Creek Lodge, with the rest hauling most of the gear and goodies in the van with Andy.

First Blood - Immediately upon arrival, Ben Erskine expertly stalked and successfully shot a bird that was just off the main pier. The species of said bird is still under investigation.

Then the boys fanned out in groups into the woods looking for grouse.  Bill Birck drew second blood, a fine grouse, and then also quickly knocked down a woodcock.

David Burden and Randy Rich ventured to the weedy shallows in search of musky.  Suckers were dragged, but this year big old Oscar won.

Several hundred rounds of clays were shot, Bill Birck won Knockout.  Kellen Monti had a harder time hitting the clays with his pistol grip Mossberg defensive shotgun. While Randy Rich swung his shotgun, he gave Andy expert lessons on how to duck down.

Meals were outstanding with Stacy and Don cooking the feasts.  Dinner specialties included game appetizers,  and each night alternated first a seafood line up, then pasta, then steak.

After dinner each evening, it was all hands down to the Dillinger bar for cocktails, table shuffleboard, pool shootouts and watching the Cubs loose in the playoffs.  Well, there is always next year.

Bill Birck and Steve Levitas went predator hunting with Ron during the afternoon.

Randy Rich successfully stalked and killed a duck decoy.  A replica BB ridden mount can be found in the basement trophy area for future generations to marvel and learn from.

The ultimate duck hunt took place on the last evening, Saturday.  2 Polaris RZR's loaded with 5 guys, 2 labs, 1 trailer and gear including 3 kayaks and 1 canoe, followed by 5 on ATV's hit the Many Rock Road trail to the Black Lake 2 wilderness area.  There the group split into 2 regiments, one taking to the water and paddling to the south side of the lake, and then forming a picket line from the east beaver dam to the western edge of the willow marsh.  Group 2 followed the trail to the north river mouth.  Then the shooting started.  Wave after wave of ducks passed back and forth. As they came from the south, any that were missed were cleaned up by the group to the north at the river mouth, and vise versa.  Some beautiful teals and wood ducks were dispatched.  The highlight was the huge musky that exploded the water as he tried to devour one of the duck decoys.  Our black labs Rooster and Sadie did outstanding.

In the end, awards were given out in three categories:

MVP went to Bill Birck for his remarkable marksmanship and commitment to the outdoors.

Rookie of the Year was awarded to Kellen Monti for the event's only "double duck" take down.

Lastly, the Crappie Award went to Randy Rich for the stalk and take down of that deceptive little floating duck decoy!

Honorable Mention goes out to David Burden, Ben Irskine, Steve Levitas and Jack O'Brien.

Well done Gents on an amazing weekend!

Farther North, to Mercer Wisconsin

From Kodiak Lodge in Minocqua, we have now relocated the to a new base, further north to Mercer Wisconsin, on Lake of the Falls, which is the headwaters of the Turtle Flowage.  We are at the end of the road, on over 40 acres of woods and marsh, with Moose Creek meandering through the property, all completely surrounded by timber company and state forest land.