Thursday, September 1, 2022
Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, September 1, 1942. Casper Air Base gets the thumbs up.
Monday, August 8, 2022
Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, August 8, 1922. An eventful Tuesday.
Tuesday, August 8, 1922. An eventful Tuesday.
Here's more on the story involved in the photograph appearing above.
1922 - Into the Grand Canyon and Out Again by Airplane
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Lex Anteinternet: Airborne
Airborne
I flew this week for the first time since COVID hit.
Before that, I used to travel a lot for work.
I'm not a natural traveler, so it's never been something that I really enjoyed, even though I usually enjoy seeing any place that I go to. That is, I don't enjoy the process of traveling much, and I don't enjoy thinking about traveling. My father was the same way, and nearly all of the long distance traveling he'd done had been due to the Air Force.
Occupational traveling, so to speak.
Most of my traveling has been that way as well.
This is 2022, and to be accurate, the last time I flew somewhere was in 2019. I can't really recall the last time I flew anywhere, or to where, but the mostly likely spot would be Denver, as I used to fly to Denver and back in a day routinely. COVID ended that as when COVID hit, it dropped air travel down to nothing for obvious reasons, and when it came back, the number of flights in and out of here locally were cut significantly. The red eye to Denver was a casualty of that. The one to Salt Lake also went away, although I think that was even prior to that.
I used to also fly a lot to Texas for depositions. I'm not sure of when I last did that, but it was before COVID. Zoom took over most of that, so it's rarely done now.
One major thing I worked on should have had trips to South Carolina, Arizona and Illinois, but did not. All of those were done via Zoom. It worked out okay, I guess, but I can't say that I'm a fan even now. It's good enough, however, that you acclimate yourself to it and begin to believe that it's good enough
Anyhow, some travel is slowly coming back, and earlier this week I flew to Oklahoma City.
I've been to OKC before, the first time in 1982 when an airliner discharged me there after having taken off from Cheyenne. Their terminal was much more primitive, by my recollection, at the time, and we did the classic old-fashioned walk down airliner stairs, which is seemingly a rarity now, across the tarmac and into the terminal, and then on to a bus, which went to Ft. Sill.
More recently, and in different circumstances, I've flown to Denver and boarded a large Boeing airliner. Based upon another one of our blogs, the last time I was there was in 2014. On that trip I went with two other lawyers, one of whom I knew really well, and it was a fun trip. We flew from OKC to Houston after that, that time on a small commuter jet. Since that time, he's passed away, having only been retired for a year or so when he became very ill and died.
As noted, we flew from Denver to OKC in a big airliner on that occasion.
Not this time.
Locally I boarded a Bombardier CRJ200 and then, to my surprise, in Denver boarded a second CRJ200.
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, June 14, 1922. Birth of Robin Olds
Wednesday, June 14, 1922. Birth of Robin Olds
Legendary fighter pilot Robert "Robin" Olds, Jr., son of an Army Air Corps officer of the same name, was born this day in Hawaii.
He became a triple ace, scoring kills in World War Two, Korea and Vietnam, and retired as a Brigadier General in 1973. His father had been a Major General.
Olds was a larger than life character in every way. He was married for many years to starlet Ella Raines, although their marriage eventually ended in divorce and he remarried (he still came in at half the total number of marriages than his father). His penchant for drinking likely kept him from rising higher in the Air Force than he did. He served on the Steamboat Springs Planning Commission in retirement.
He died in 2007 at age 84.
Saturday, June 11, 2022
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Saturday, April 16, 2022
SkyStar Kitfox III
This Skystar Kitfox III was spotted with its wings folded back, and on a flatbed trailer in Mills, Wyoming.
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Bell UH-1 with Nose Mount
This is a UH-1, a "Huey", in Casper, Wyoming painted in old Vietnam War era camouflage. It's fitted with a nose mount, which can house cameras and electronic devices. Nose mounts were fitted to UH-1s during the Vietnam War, and they continue to be offered for commercial UH-1s.
The odd thing about this helicopter is that even though it retains the USAF or US Army Vietnam era camouflage scheme, it lacks national markings, which most surplus aircraft which retain military paint schemes do. Additionally, I could not see a registration number on it anywhere. That may be because I took this photograph from a distance, with an iPhone, and it could be painted in black on the dark green aft of the helicopter. It obviously should have this painted on it.
When I happened to arrive at the airport on the day this photo was taken, a crew was standing by it as the refueling truck was getting ready, and they were having their photograph taken. I thought they were a military crew, but I wasn't paying much attention. UH-1s are no longer in common US use, but the UH-1N is still used by the USAF in connection with nuclear missiles and missile silos, and that variant does in fact often have the nose mount fitting, although it should have USAF markings and this old camouflage scheme would be a surprise.
Monday, April 11, 2022
Practice Fire Suppression Airplane Mock Aircraft.
The Aerodrome: Practice Fire Suppression Airplane Mock Up, Casper...: These are all photographs of a very realistic looking mock up of a mid sized passenger jet being built out of steel at Pepper Tank in Casper...
And here it is now that it has been placed in use.
Monday, January 24, 2022
United Airlines has asked for $1,000,000
from the Federal Government in order to keep air travel open on United flights from Cody (Yellowstone Regional Airport) to Denver.