Presentation at the Chicago Yacht Club
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Saturday, December 22, 2018
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.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
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.
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:
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
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.
Monday, December 3, 2018
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