Now what do I do?

Get my old prop fixed, I guess.
Clean the plane, for 20 hours.
Count my blessings
Go through 400 GB worth of pictures and video

Welcome home Chris.

Great job! Looked like an amazing journey, one that you will look back on fondly for the next 48 years.

cafi

Awesome Job!! From the purchase, to the restoration, documentation, and finally the trip. Thank you Chris and everyone involved. Well done, indeed.

Bill

1 Month
26 States
7258 Miles
99.8 Hours
141 Landings
459 Gallons of gas
3 oil changes
7 wingmen
420 Gigabytes of pictures and video
Highest airport: Greater Green River Intergalactic (48U) - 7182 feet
Lowest airport: Calexico (CXL) - 6 feet
Number of electronic device battery charges: 324
Number of pens lost inside cabin: 3
Number it times having to go back to last stop: 2


I'm thinkin' you might have to go back to work to pay for that trip! Following the spot for you and your mom was great fun, still watching your moms spot in upper Mich. Epic trip, and well done to everyone that had a hand in it.

That freakin' waterbag.....

Good job Chris. Congrats and well done.

did your mom's car hang in there pulling the trailer?? and how many miles did she drive?

Chris, write a book about it! Oh wait, somebody already did that... :lol:

Welcome back, it was a great trip and a privilege to be involved in the small way that we were.

When are you going to let me fly that plane?

sj

Tom needs some help with hios plane but he has the same problem you had until you sol your J3.

Congrats Chris and April, what a journey!!! I bet you sure have some stories. Going to OSH? Now, how about selling me those Bushwheels?
Blue Skies,
Denny

So the point of the water bag was: There was no point to the water bag! And, I had to read the whole dang book to find that out. You are a sly one Chris.

Ralph

Ralf said:

So the point of the water bag was: There was no point to the water bag! And, I had to read the whole dang book to find that out. You are a sly one Chris.

Ralph

Click to expand...

Ralph go back and read it again and report back on the water bag. Test to follow.

Glenn

Go fly the last .2 and make it an even 100 hours. And I am not even OCD but that bugs me. BTW Georgia Bill and I flew a meager 25 hours for our part of the journey. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Glenn, you are the one that needs to need to reread the book.

Ralph

There was kind of a point to the waterbag. The argument between Rink on the payphone in El Paso with his father back at home was one of the funniest parts of the book for me.

In the spring of 2012 at the Pierce Aero seminar, I was speaking with Bill Duncan. I was going to buy one of his 5 gallon bags that an also be a water bag. We were talking about what I was going to use it for when he said that his product wasn't the best for met. "What you need is one of those canvas waterbags. You'll be able to find those anywhere out west here." I was trying to hold a straight face, as he is a pretty serious guy, and I didn't think he would see the humor. What it took to find was ebay or friends from the internet to find one for the journey west bound.

Missing from our Video with Rinker the day we left was him talking about the waterbag. "After I did the book I'd get a few waterbags per week in the mail. My daughter would come from the mail box and say 'Daddy we got another waterbag'. Damn all the F$&&$*ing waterbags. I got a ton of them."

Just FYI, I did use a plastic waterbag on the return trip. My mom had purchased it with the clear label "WATER BAG" on the front of it. I had only about a gallon in it and would use it for Lenny and for safety sake since I was traveling alone. I can tell you that due to the amount of cotter pins throughout the cockpit, that water bags do not make sense. I held some water but there was certainly some leaking out the drain holes at every stop.

Steve Pierce said:

Tom needs some help with hios plane but he has the same problem you had until you sol your J3.

Click to expand...

Chris, I Hope you didn't burn up all your vaca time. I "helped" you for two weeks, so... Ha ha

Maybe during the seminar I can "help" you too