Online, Up, Running, and Long Overdue

As many of my loyal readers know, I have been a working photographer most of my adult life, with my very first encounter with something called "film" happening as far back as about 1966. Between then and now, I have shot just about everything you can name. And while this post is not technically about aviation, it IS about an aviator. Here's a look at Av8rdan's photo career:

My first gig with a camera was to play around with Papa Louie's police cameras. He was in charge of the Identification Bureau of the Fresno Police Department, about as close to CSI: Fresno as I ever got. He'd bring home all the photo gear required to photograph a crime scene, and we'd go out and shoot a few pics on the City of Fresno's dime. That led to my first actual "gig" as Boy Scout Troop 51's photographer, at the mature age of 12.

I have written about my journalism career here before, but not about the wrecks. The very last newspaper assignment as a full-time paid staffer was completed in 1988 was when a dude in an El Camino slammed full speed into the back of a tractor-trailer rig, and jammed he and his ride under the back bumper of the trailer. As the fire guys were using the Jaws of Life® to cut up his previous sweet Camino, and while I banged away to take photos, some kid came up to me and said "you newspaper guys really like the bloody ones, huh?" I quit the paper the next week. Then there were was Bridezilla:

Like any "pro" photographer, I did try weddings, but on the very first shoot, the Groomsmen started hitting the beer keg well before the ceremony, so they were not in ANY mood to have some goober they did not know take their picture. So I swore off weddings in an attempt to avoid the Bride from hell and her parents, and try to stay sane. I moved on to try studio work, with my own storefront, etc. This was inside the same 1906 building in Reedley, CA that Besaw the Photographer was using at the turn of the century. History or not, that didn't pan out either, as I didn't have the patience to wait for screaming kids to stop throwing their tizzy fits so I could shoot their pudgy little mug.

Over the last few years as I moved to digital, I began selling stock photos worldwide on Alamy.com. This was a decent deal, but when istockphoto came on the scene and bludgeoned the price of stock photography from maybe $300 for a 8.5" x 11" magazine quality shot to $10 for wall sized, it spelled the end of selling stock online.

But through it all, I have amassed a huge collection of digital imagery, enough to stuff three external firewire drives, including a sweet Ultramax 1TB beauty. So in an attempt to provide a shot in the arm to my photo business, I have gone in yet another direction:

I have been the "official" cast photographer for Fresno Grand Opera for maybe eight seasons now, and twice a year, I go to the William Saroyan Theatre in Fresno and shoot their wonderful operas. After using a few of these images in media and advertising pieces, they would languish on my drives, serving no purpose but to take up space. And more recently, I have had the privilege of photographing the beautiful dancers of Eugene Ballet Company, trying to stay out of the way of the company's "official" lensmen. Again, after shooting these photos and using them for my wife's Ballet Insider Pre-show lectures, the images would sit and basically rot. So I have made deals with both companies to offer these images online though my new Online Photo Marketplace, and will be giving back a fairly generous portion of the gross sales as a donation.

As I set up this "store" on Smugmug, I will finally be presenting my work in a way that offers a high-quality line of real merchandise. Prints of my images will of course be available, but it goes far beyond that to offer photo merchandise such as apparel, mugs, and various other non-mainstream ways to display images on your wall. But what has me over the moon is this:

Before I set this store up, I searched all over for a hosting site that offered commercially-licensed digital downloads, where I could set the price to agencies, creatives and graphic designers. This SmugMug site now makes that happen, and essentially creates my very own branded stock photo site. With my own stock photo presence, I can work to drive traffic there, and once the visitor arrives, there will be zero competition from other photographers for their attention and dollar. Sure, I can't price my work like the large high-end stock sites such as Getty, but at the same time I can offer them at prices that respect my talent and years of experience. And I don't feel like a whore by selling them on sites that only charge $1-10 for commercial stock images.

If you are interested in seeing my new work, here is a complete listing of the galleries currently up and running:

Stock Photography by Dan Pimentel

Eugene Ballet Company

Fresno Grand Opera

And yes, when you visit there, you will see no aircraft, not even a hint about aviation. But trust me, that is coming. I just don't have enough released aircraft imagery right now to make up a gallery. So no airplanes, not now. But, if you really need a humongous framed canvas print of one of Eugene Ballet's graceful stars doing a Grand jeté across the stage, I'm your guy.

Years Later, Sport Pilot is Still a LegitPilot's License, Just Ask Dorothy!

I remember a conversation I had a few summers ago at Oshkosh with a guy who was waiting in line like me to order a bratwurst cooked on the “World’s Largest Grill”, which happened to be as big as a semi-truck. Maybe it’s because the grill is 45 feet long, or maybe because it’s Oshkosh, but the sausages just taste perfect back there. I’ve had the same sausages here, cooked on my grill, and they do not compare.

After I mentioned to the guy in line about the large number of Light Sport airplanes on display over at the LSA Mall, he started a surprisingly heated rant about how Sport Pilot will only create "half-trained wannabes" that will be a danger to the “real” (his words) pilots up there.

I tried to tell him in a polite way he was wrong, but he quickly got that look in his eye like he’d really like to cram his CAT DIESEL POWER cap down my liberal Oregonian throat. So I backed off, and figured maybe he was the guy driving the semi-truck sized grill around, or was just plain ornery.

But the conversation stuck with me. I’ll admit that I was late to jump the Sport Pilot train too, but am now on board 150 percent. A large part of my conversion has to do with one of my former CFIs.

About the same time I was back there in Cheese Country USA, that CFI, Dorothy Schick, was also roaming Wittman Regional Airport, test flying some LSA planes and learning all she could about the new (to her) types of powerplants, including the Rotax 912. She was planning to soon take delivery of an Icarus C42 LSA, and was planning to throw everything she has at promoting Sport Pilot.

And about those guys who still think that Sport Pilots will be a danger, I have one question: Do they actually think Dorothy – OR ANY CFI – is going to sign off anyone to go take their FAA check ride without knowing that he or she can safely fly? In order for any goofball Sport Pilot to get up there and be a “danger”, they first have to buffalo Dorothy or some other CFI into believing they can operate an LSA.

But even if you somehow bamboozle your way past Dorothy, you still have to demonstrate to the FAA examiner that you can fly safely. The chances of anyone dangerous slipping through those checks and balances is almost a mathematical impossibility. It will not happen, case closed.

When TakeWing and other flight schools send these new Sport Pilots skyward, they will be welcome in my sky. The reason is simple: Without new flight students, the GA pilot population will continue to shrink as the senior sticks lose their medicals. Sport Pilot gets people started, and I predict (as does Dorothy) that quite a few of these new LSA aviators will eventually push onward to obtain their private certificates and even an instrument rating.

BTW, this post was not intended to be a commercial, but it IS my blog, so I'll promote someone when they deserve it. If you want to learn Sport Pilot from one of the most progressive Sport Pilot Schools in the Northwest, contact Dorothy Schick at (541) 895-5935 or email her here.

And if you see Redneck Bratwurst line guy any time soon, offer to take him flying with your freshly-minted Sport Pilot license in your sparkling new Light Sport plane. Only one thing though – he might have to lose a couple of hundred pounds to keep you under gross takeoff weight.

IFR: You Had Better Know What the Hell to Do...Now!

For my regular readers of this blog, you know I went through quite a lengthy process earning my instrument rating, passing my check ride in March of 2009. My long training was due to a number of things, mostly weather issues and schedule conflicts with my CFI-I, Jim Hunt of Eugene. But these excuses pale in comparison to the real reason it took me a while to earn that rating:

IFR training is hard.

Of course, this is not news to anyone. I like to think of earning an IFR training to sort of like earning a Master's Degree, it is a distant relative to primary training, but it adds a great deal of required elements to the stick and rudder skills you learned to earn your PPL.

This weekend, I found out while IFR training is so difficult. This one flight made me thankful I choose a CFI-I that did not let me slack, and made sure I knew the material well enough to fly safe, not just pass a check ride. Here is how this all came down:

On Saturday, a nice happy mound of high pressure sat comfortably over Western Oregon, with "clear and a million" forecast from the coast to the dry side over in Bend/Redmond. So we launched to Cape Blanco State Airport (5S6), which has trails leading from the end of the runway to gorgeous Blacklock Point, overlooking a dramatic view of the Pacific and Cape Blanco itself. The forecast WX was to be VFR all day, with "light rain" predicted in North Bend, the nearest real weather to 5S6 later in the evening. As we plodded on towards our destination, my first hint that the WX guessers might have gotten this all wrong was that we were only making 75 knots of ground speed, in a plane that sees 120-125 in a no-wind situation.

We "arrived" in gusty winds at Cape Blanco that required what felt like full deflections a few times to keep Katy's wings something akin to level. It was a challenging approach that I did not want to make again...so I worked it until we slipped below the tree line and things mellowed out a bit, allowing a landing that did not contain one ounce of grease. It was worth the trouble to get on the ground:

Cape Blanco State Airport sits about 3/4 of a mile inland from a large cliff overlooking the stunning scenery of Oregon's Pacific Coast. The hike from the approach end of runway 14 takes a meandering route through groves of firs and ceders that at times blocks out the sun entirely. It was the kind of hike that makes me fall in love with my state...peaceful, at one with nature, and with only one other human on the trail.

We parked ourselves behind a clump of seagrass to block the chilly wind blasting out of 270 off the sea, and as I gobbled down a welcome tuna sandwich, I gazed to the northwest and watched as some fairly ominous clouds rolled towards land. We had just flown in generally from that direction, and with the exception of a slight layer of clouds at 3,000 msl, the rest of Oregon was clear. Back at the plane, I used Foreflight Mobile on my iphone to check weather and everything still looked very much VFR. KOTH at North Bend – about 20NM north – was 7,500 overcast, and Eugene was broken 25,000. I made the decision to not file IFR because every clue I had screamed VFR for the trip home:

We launched into that same gusty wind, and it had picked up to an estimated 14G35. I aimed Katy north towards KOTH and as we climbed out over a small ridge east of the airport, it was easy to see that visibility was going down fast. How the WX instruments at KOTH could say this was 7,500 overcast is a mystery, it was clearly more like 2,000 overcast. With a known MEA to Eugene of 5,000, I realized this was quickly going to become an IFR flight. I also did not want to attempt a gut-wrench of an approach back to 5S6.

I pulled out the L1/L2 IFR low enroute chart and quickly jotted "OTH V121 EUG 5K" on my kneeboard. But with the deck lowering and the busier airspace of North Bend maybe 10NM away, I pulled from all of that "hard" instrument training Jim had given me, and went to work:

After slowing Katy to "thinking speed", I called Seattle Center to file en route. This was one tip Jim gave me that was golden...always know the frequency of the "Center" who owns your airspace. I had put the ILS plate into KOTH on the yoke, and right there was 121.4 for ZSE. ATC took the request, and soon I was climbing through the soup towards the North Bend VOR. What saved this flight was my CFI-Is insistence that I be prepared, and then to just think things through in their logical order. I handled the radios well because I had the right plates and charts already pulled. I flew level and on course with the help of my S-Tec 50 autopilot, which kept us on airway perfectly. We leveled at 5,000 and were in and out of the clouds until maybe 10NM SW of KEUG, where the arrival back at home was a non-event.

This was another of those "lessons learned" flights that seem to happen quite frequently to this relatively new IFR stick. On three different occasions since earning my ticket, the WX guessers were off and I had to use everything in my IFR toolkit to cause a safe outcome to the flight. But what is the major takeaway here is that I HAD this IFR skill set in the first place. When flights into IMC can go so terribly wrong in an instant, you had better know what to do...NOW.

That, my flying friends, is why IFR training is hard. Because if were easy, pilots would not be prepared for these kinds of flights, and souls would perish. So, if you are now – or may be in the future – hiring a CFI-I to earn your IFR ticket, find one that will wring you out, beat you up, and slap you around until you learn this stuff instinctively.

I am sure as hell glad I did.

Sometimes an Airplane is the PerfectPlace to Let Go of an Old Friend

Today I found myself going flying, alone. I do enjoy flying somewhere fun with my life/business partner Julie, but as any pilot knows, being up there as Pilot-in-Command – alone – is one of the best experiences we aviators get to enjoy. Here's why:

To me, there is something extremely spiritual about flying. I don't spend much time inside the confines of any church, I spend my time thanking God for my flying skills while slipping surly bonds at a few thousand feet AGL. When I fly alone, the waves of daily thoughts that flood this busy human's brain melt away, and my usually overloaded noggin can focus on flight. Gliding along, free for the most part from the confines of gravity, I can concentrate on stick and rudder things. But once fat and happy in level cruise, I can allow myself to do the best sort of reflection.

After doing a number of things today for home and family, I found myself at the departure end of Eugene's 16R...ready to blast off to nowhere in particular. So I launched and headed west, towards the beautiful Oregon Coast. After a smooth, effortless climb out, I leveled at 6,500MSL. The sun was thinking seriously about setting, and the reflections off the water were breathtaking. Without a schedule or even a destination, and with the autopilot keeping Katy at 270 degrees and spot on the altitude, my thoughts wandered to something that has been heavy on my mind for the last 48 hours.

Sage.

For those who follow my Tweets, we had to end our family dog's life this past Friday. After 15 active years, our beloved Keeshond, Sage, had lost functionality in his back legs, and struggled to walk and could barely stand to pee or poo. He had always been an energetic guy, never missing an opportunity to chase a wild turkey or deer from our property. But in the last month, he had lost the freedom to move, and as his condition worsened, we knew it was time. I was almost relieved with the Mobile Vet showed up and told us Sage was actually much sicker than we had realized. It made "the decision" the right one. So as I flew west today, this is the kind of things that slipped in and out of my brain:

After 15 years of dog ownership, your furry friend becomes a legitimate member of the family. You get into a routine, get the paper in the A.M., let the dog out to water a tree. When you come home, he is at the tall window at the front of the house, and you can see the "Doggie in the Window" jump with excitement as soon as he realizes it is us coming up the hill. As I flew along today, it sunk in that this is all gone now. No more walks, no more giving him treats for barking and scaring the deer away from our garden. Up there, away from life's demands, I was able to get right with the decision we made, and started to believe it really was the final act of love to have the vet start the injection.

Now I get it that everyone says their dog is the smartest around. But did YOUR dog ever have his own email address? Yes, that's right, Sage was the only dog I know that was online and dialed in, and was the source behind our first Sage Advice column on our very first ad agency website. People would click the icon showing his smiling snout, and email us advertising questions, hoping to get some "Sage" advice. We'd reply in his "voice", it was all pretty cheesy but great fun too. Yes, this dog new the difference between work and play:

For those of you who have ever known a Keeshond, they are incredible dogs. Probably their most valuable asset is their undeniable love for their owners, and being very social, they MUST be by their humans at all times. We have taken Sage to work his entire life, and he has had several jobs. He guarded the back room at our picture framing shop, and greeted "his" customers at Visions Gallery, the fine art space we owned back in the day. He was the official greeter and recipient of 1,000 hugs a day during his daily visits to Julie's classical ballet school, The Dancers Place. And these days, when not on guard against the dreaded deer or scheming against the wild turkeys that literally waltz behind the studio, Sage HAD to position himself between our two offices. When Julie throws on the headset and moves gracefully around the studio on a conference call, Sage would continually have to re-position himself to remain exactly between the two of us.

Yes, as pet owners, we know our time with these precious good friends is limited. We were blessed with 15 great years with Sage, and while he never got to experience flight with me, he will someday. That's because he is waiting in that wonderful meadow that lies just this side of The Rainbow Bridge. And one day, when I Go West, I will meet up with Sage again, and together we will cross that bridge to the other side. When we arrive, we'll get to fly all day with Papa Louie and the many others who have passed before us. I kinda sorta have a hunch that Amelia will take a liking to everyone's favorite pup, that is, if she can manage to get him to come down from Doolittle's B-25.

Once this dog gets a look down on Heaven with his cold, wet nose pushed tight onto the plexiglass of the Mitchell's nose gunner's pod while his new friend Jimmy buzzes the grounded clowns over in Airplane Hell, I believe Sage will become the ultimate aviator dog. And when Doolittle is flying high and the OAT is sub-zero, he's going to want this lovable furball lying across his feet, keeping them warm just like 1,000s of Keeshonds have done for generations of barge Captains in Holland.

Goodbye, my friend, and thank you for teaching me what it means to love unconditionally.

NGP 'eRumors' and Other Online Myths

For as long as the Internets have been around, people have been posting all sorts of wild stories about every conceivable subject, including aviation. These tales are called “Urban Myths” on the street, and “eRumors” online.

Recently I found a site called truthorfiction.com that serves the web community by delving into many of these stories and either proves them to be truth, or debunks them as fiction.

On their aviation page, here the kind of headlines that have been posted:

Pictures of the sound barrier-Disputed!

Satellite Pictures of Shuttle Columbia Disintegrating-Fiction!

Carrier pictures of secret new stealth fighter?-Fiction!

Advanced Russian fighters found in the sand in Iraq-Truth!

New Boeing 797 Giant "Blended Wing" Passenger Airliner-Fiction!

The Pentagon was not struck by a hijacked jet on September 11-Fiction!

Jet fighters' formation spells USA-Fiction!

The one that caught my eye was the headline about one of aviation's hottest eRumors, the Boeing 797. Truthorfiction.com investigated, and here is their response:

The story says that the Boeing Company is developing a radical new passenger jetliner that will carry 1,000 passengers. It's designated the 797 and is a "blended wing" design looking a lot like the old flying wing experiments of the 50's. TruthOrFiction.com went straight to the source, the Boeing Company. A spokesperson said that it is not true that Boeing is developing a commercial blended wing aircraft. He asked that we help stop the perpetuation of the story. What is true, according to Boeing, is that Boeing Phantom Works, the company's advanced research and development organization, is doing research on the blended wing body design as a potential military aircraft. Boeing has built a scale model to test its low-speed flying characteristics in a wind tunnel.

So I thought that in the interest of starting more eRumors, I'd post the photo above of Cessna's new NGP, caught on the super-secret Av8rdan SpyCam a couple of years ago. The photo clearly shows that Cessna has now chosen the power for the nextGen aircraft. Engineers in Independence and Wichita have chosen to mount four AlliedSignal ALF502R jet engines on the NGP, each producing 6,700 pounds of takeoff thrust. This same engine was used successfully on the BAE-146 jet airliner for many years:

A super-secret anonymous source close to the Cessna Skunk Works revealed the company's choice of four jet engines producing 26,800 pounds of takeoff thrust on an airframe weighing an estimated 3,100 pounds. “We wanted the NGP to be able to cruise in the 700-850 mph range,” the super secret anonymous source said. “We wanted a takeoff run of 12-18 feet, and wanted the owner to be able to fly a typical $100 hamburger run of 250NM in about 15 minutes, wheels up to wheels down. The weight of the four ALF502Rs do however cut into the full-fuel payload somewhat, but even so, the NGP will still be able to safely carry the pilot and one small Chihuahua aloft.”

The power of the Internets to start these crazy eRumors is immense. Now all I have to do is sit back and watch this rumor of a jet-powered NGP explode across cyberspace.

Or not.

Formation Flight Organizers Announce"Top Secret" 40th Entry is Rare DC-2!

The organizers of the massive and historic DC-3/C-47 formation flight into Airventure 2010's opening day have finally announced the details on that closely-guarded aircraft that is now signed up to complete the 40-plane armada.

There has been a fair amount of speculation as to the identify of this aircraft, but nobody in my aviation community guessed this one:

The plane is a extremely rare 1934 DC-2, one of only two remaining in the world. It is owned by the Seattle Museum of Flight and is based at Van Nuys Airport (VNY)
 in California. The Captain that will guide N1934D on the formation flight is also pretty well-known around VNY: Clay Lacy.

Here is the information, verbatim from www.thelasttime.org:

This Douglas DC-2 is one of only two examples remaining in the world. Built in 1934, it was first sold to Pan Am and saw service in South America for many years as an early South American Airliner. It returned to the United States and eventually wound up in the Dakotas owned by Johnson Flying service and was used as a smoke jump aircraft dropping firefighters into US forestry areas as well as training jumpers on practice runs.

It was recognized as a national treasure and bought by the Douglas Historical Society and remained in California roughly 1972-1985.

The aircraft was used often by the Douglas Corporation to entertain guests and VIP's by giving them rides in the rare and historic aircraft.

The aircraft was eventually parked and remained out of service for many years at Santa Monica in unairworthy
condition. The Douglas Historical Society arranged to have it towed during the middle of the night to a hanger in Long Beach where work could be done to bring it back to life. From here it was eventually sold to Brice McCan who, in turn, donated it to the Museum of Flight in Seattle in early 2000.

The aircraft returned one more time to California, arriving in Van Nuys where Clay Lacy got involved and helped with the total restoration of the aircraft. This work was performed in 2005 through late 2006.

Clay flew the famous DC-2 back to Seattle where it remained as a static display, still in need of much needed engine work in order to return it to operational status. Clay Lacy returned to Seattle this year and flew it back to Van Nuys again where both engines were removed and overhauled. The aircraft is now in perfect condition and owned by the Museum of Flight in Seattle, but work to return it once again to the air is being provided by Clay Lacy Aviation, Inc.

The aircraft has a MGTOW of only 19,200 pounds, and is flown normally around 14,000 pounds. It holds 600 gallons of fuel, and can remain airborne for almost 8 hours.

The aircraft has rarely been seen in flight at any airshows since 1985, and has never been to Oshkosh for AirVenture.

This aircraft will be flown by Clay Lacy and will be one of the lead aircraft in the 40 ship mass formation arrival. It will be available for viewing and photos at KSQI July 23-25 and will be on the ground at AirVenture from July 26-31.

So if having 39 DC-3s and C-47s all in one giant formation wasn't enough to get you to Airventure this year, you can now add one DC-2 to the mix. Given that 411, you have absolutely no excuse not to put this on the calendar. If you live in the Midwest, I highly recommend hanging out at KSQI on 7/24 and 7/25 the weekend before the formation flight, where the sky and ramp will be thick with everyone's favorite airframe.

But please, no drooling....

Can One Airplane Make a Huge Difference in Our GA Community? Yes, but Only if He's PaintedBright Yellow and Smiles a Lot!

One by one, nine busloads of school kids ramble out of Wheaton, MN, aimed at a small airport just southwest of town. As the first bus full of curious children gets close to their destination, eyes widen inside the bus as the "Smile in the Sky" comes into view. It doesn't take long for those small faces to break out in grins, smiles and laughter. As the very same time, dreams are being born, and the hearts of these kids are soon melted like the frozen Northern tundra on a hot spring afternoon.

Yeah, Duggy can do that to kids.

As each bus drops off another load of kids, the result is the same. They are led inside Duggy, the happiest airplane in the sky, where they learn about flying, about dreaming, and are exposed to a world filled with big round engines, flight decks full of excitement, and a crew that has the same wide smiles that the kids loved seeing on the nose of the most visible and most important DC-3 flying today.

When you think about how many kids were turned on to flying in just this one stop on Duggy's schedule, it is very easy to see why this big, bright yellow flying machine is so critically important to the growth of tomorrow's GA community.

As our community fights its way out of the recent downturn, it has made me think about what I could do as one person to help build up our pilot ranks now, and long into the future. It is no secret that kids love airplanes, and once exposed to aviation, a few of them end up at a flight school later in life taking flying lessons:

In 2010, I am throwing everything I have in my skill set at two causes...getting kids exciting about flying, and encouraging more females to become pilots. To bring women into flying, I am fully supporting Lynda Meeks and her Girls With Wings program. As for the kids, I have chosen to back Team Duggy, as I see this wonderful airplane and his crew as a bright yellow beacon of hope for cultivating young minds into new pilots.

If you're on my bandwagon, then you'll enjoy the ride on this series of posts as I highlight the Duggy operation from now through late July when he joins 39 of his DC-3/C-47 friends for a little formation fun flying into EAA Airventure 2010. If you only have a passing fascination with DC-3s, I hope to provide enough color and background to keep you tuning in. But if you are like me and have a rapidly growing passion for the "Smile in the Sky", you will LOVE this ride.

As this series begins, I will explain how a surplus airframe stranded in a cold Canadian auction yard ends up as a fully-operational Dream Machine. We will learn how the sketches of a 12-year-old kid in Ohio comes to life and ends up as one of the star attractions every summer in Aeroshell Square. This, my friends, is a backstory for the ages.

Come with me as I progress through this journey into Duggyland, where I will describe some of what it takes to keep a vintage 1942 Howitzer hauler flying. We'll discover the mountain of money it has taken to turn surplus aviation hardware into a fun, fantastic fantasy launcher, and see why it is critically important that the public and large aviation corporations remember this operation when cutting those tax-deductible donation checks in the future.

When spring erupts up in Fargo, ND – where Duggy lives – I hope to bring you more stories of more dreams launched inside this beautiful brute, as he makes his way from school to school on a mission now being organized by the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission. If you're like me and love hearing about smiling kids gazing at big, honkin' airplanes, then watch for some of this good stuff coming here soon.

And, of course, this all will lead up to the Grand Finale. That's when I will take you, my loyal readers, on the journey of a lifetime as we go inside Team Duggy for several days as he leaves Fargo and arrives in Rock Falls, IL to stage for the big Airventure formation flight on opening day. I intend to photograph this flight start to finish, and write about it from every available angle. And yes, we ARE a team:

O.K., you know what my part of all this will be. As I push on to bring as much positive publicity as I can to Duggy and the dedicated team who keeps him warming those hearts, I will pray that you do your part in this equation. That will be to soak up every word on this blog, bookmark the posts and send them to as many people you can using the convenient "share" button at the end of each post. Tell them to gather up as many kids as they can and immediately go to Duggy.com. Tell them to make sure to seek out the "Smile in the Sky" and get those kids inside so their dreams can be launched, today. And as I tweet about this story series, please remember to "retweet" @Av8rdan whenever I talk about Duggy, which as you might expect, will be often.

Together, we can do this. If we all get behind this operation, we CAN inspire new pilots, this I know. And give me the latitude to take this journey even if you begin thinking it's becoming Duggy 24x7 around here, because you MUST look at the bigger picture. If you promise to tell enough people to go discover the magic that Duggy can bring into kids lives, I promise that some of those little dreamers will be pilots someday.