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Old 12-11-2017, 04:30 PM   #21
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Mike Lewis, that was a great travelog!

Regarding the yellow plane: it IS an Aeronca, from the prewar/wartime ‘Tandem’ series (TC, TL, TF) mostly known as the Aeronca Defender. This plane may well be a conversion of a surplus O-58 / L3, because the back windows don’t have the standard factory shape. It has the later Defender rudder shape.

These Aeroncas predated the postwar Champs, Chiefs, and Eggscape’s beautiful Aeronca Sedan.

Some tipoffs: The jury struts on this Aeronca are joined together at the top where they meet the wing spar. On a Cub the jury struts are spread the other direction.
This Aeronca has a single centered fuselage crease; a Cub has two creases, one is a stringer about 1/3 the way up the fuselage.
The back edge of the landing gear panel on the Defenders aren’t straight, they have a unique flair toward the rear.
This Aeronca has a conventional opening door, not like the Cub’s clamshell.

Like Ron in BC, I also spent much time scrunched with my sister in the FRONT seat of my dad’s Cub, and later in the BACK seat of his Aeronca Champ.
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Old 12-11-2017, 05:22 PM   #22
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The reason I thought the plane might be an Aeronca was that the fairings on the wheel struts didn't look like a Piper's, that and I thought the wingspan and length weren't right. I Googled Aeroncas and saw an Army trainer that had the same wheel strut. Thanks for the info.
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Old 12-11-2017, 05:25 PM   #23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by J&B Mitt View Post
Mike Lewis, that was a great travelog!

Regarding the yellow plane: it IS an Aeronca, from the prewar/wartime ‘Tandem’ series (TC, TL, TF) mostly known as the Aeronca Defender. This plane may well be a conversion of a surplus O-58 / L3, because the back windows don’t have the standard factory shape. It has the later Defender rudder shape.

These Aeroncas predated the postwar Champs, Chiefs, and Eggscape’s beautiful Aeronca Sedan.
Aha! Nice identification!
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Old 12-11-2017, 05:31 PM   #24
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One question: where in Albuquerque did you find any available walk-in campsite during Balloon Festival Week? Bluewater State Park is 130 miles away.
Well, I cheated: I used the military campground at Kirtland AFB at the edge of town. As a retired DoD civilian I'm eligible to use the military campgrounds, but when I do I try to stay out of the way. The campground is first-come, first-served, with no reservations. When I was in ABQ a couple of weeks before I asked the campground manager how much ahead of time I should arrive in order to get a spot. She suggested three days, but I made it four. I could only get a dry camping spot, but that was okay with me because it had cooled off by then.
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Old 12-11-2017, 05:39 PM   #25
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Some folk put bumper stickers on the bumper, Mike puts antennas.
Ron
Yeah. Bumper stickers attract too much attention.

My dad would plop me in the front seat of his plane and have me hold down the toe brakes while he turned the prop. More trust than I'll ever put in a kid.

And thanks for posing for the photo. Hope you don't mind that I included it in the book.
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Old 12-11-2017, 06:13 PM   #26
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Knowing the attention span of kids, that's scary. Chocks were invented for a reason.

Don't mind at all, I have one also, given the location I call it; A couple of cool dudes.

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Old 12-11-2017, 06:47 PM   #27
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I was a passenger in a Beaver one time.

Ah, Kirtland - I should have known. I tried getting in there with my VA card once. Couldn't get past the boys with the AR15's at the front gate. We'll be in San Diego mid-Jan and - just because it's there I'll try anyway to get into Fiddlers Cove. This worked for me once at a Navy conference center and RV park at Pacific Beach in Washington.
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Old 12-11-2017, 11:30 PM   #28
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Thank you sooo much for a great travelogue, Mike! We’re going to the 2018 Escape Rally and think we’d like to see Banff/Lake Louise areas while we’re in BC and your log will be a great source for our camping/traveling there! Can’t believe our good fortune! Also, was particularly interested in your travels in New Mexico and Grand Canyon which we may do in March or April; we’re very anxious to get an early start on the camping season with our new, 2017 19’ Escape trailer. Great resource for us and a wonderful record for you of your travels!
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Old 12-12-2017, 08:54 AM   #29
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Nice work Mike. I really appreciated the legible type and clean presentation; the descriptions of the photographs and the linear layout.
Carry on.
Thanks Glenn. That means a lot coming from a newspaperman. The large type and small page size are the defaults for the "ebook" template that I used, intended to be legible on a small screen like a tablet or cellphone. The large font size forced me to contain my blather to one or two short paragraphs per image, which is a good thing.
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Old 12-12-2017, 06:56 PM   #30
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Good job Mike! I thought I would just browse through it but I got involved.
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Old 12-13-2017, 05:49 AM   #31
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2017 travels

Great Mike What a nice travelog I looked at it cover to cover .It is inspiring me to go out West again and use our 21 . How was the mpg on the Tacoma pulling the 21 ?(thinking of getting a smaller TV maybe a Toyota 4runner?) also did you do this trip Solo ? We are down in SW fl. if you get down to naples area give a shout (PM) Jim W.
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Old 12-13-2017, 06:29 AM   #32
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Great Mike What a nice travelog I looked at it cover to cover .It is inspiring me to go out West again and use our 21 . How was the mpg on the Tacoma pulling the 21 ?(thinking of getting a smaller TV maybe a Toyota 4runner?) also did you do this trip Solo ? We are down in SW fl. if you get down to naples area give a shout (PM) Jim W.
Thanks, Jim. My Toyota gets a minimum of 13 MPG towing, 19-20 MPG when I'm not towing. The mileage seemed to be better at higher altitudes, 14 MPG, though I"m not sure why. Also, replacement Michelin tires must be a slightly different diameter, so my speedometer is 3% off. The mileage is actually a bit better than what I calculate from the odometer. I have a couple of spreadsheets about camping costs and truck mileage that I'll try to clean up and post in the next few days. And I travel by myself.

A recent thread about Tacomas indicated that the newer models produce a lot of engine noise when towing due to a different engine and transmission.
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Old 12-13-2017, 07:01 AM   #33
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mpg

We get about 11-12 mpg with a 07 Toyota Sequoia v-8 (4.7 L) and about 14-19 mpg around town and hwy . We've taken our 21 from Chicago to Naples Fl. thats were it was delivered . Then we did 5 weeks on Lake Tellico Tn. last Summer.
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Old 12-13-2017, 08:32 AM   #34
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Every year at around this time I write a travel diary of the trips I have taken during the year and give it to friends and family. This year I made a six-month trip through the West and Canada. Since the diary has photos and descriptions of some of the campgrounds I stayed in, I thought some of you might find it interesting. So I posted it to Google Drive. The file can be accessed via this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1heJ...Q94IQYPXYURD5H

Note-- this is a big PDF file: 80 MB, 249 pages. And there are no viruses.
Thanks Mike. I really enjoyed your writeup. One thing I did note was that inclement weather seems to follow you in your travels. There has got to be a way that you can market that talent and make a ton of money off of it.
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Old 12-13-2017, 09:58 AM   #35
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Thanks Mike. I really enjoyed your writeup. One thing I did note was that inclement weather seems to follow you in your travels. There has got to be a way that you can market that talent and make a ton of money off of it.
Ha! Indeed-- just follow the cloud. Curiously, my actual towing days were almost always sunny and dry, which was good. But the days in between were nasty at times.
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Old 12-13-2017, 12:15 PM   #36
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I enjoyed the read!
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Old 12-13-2017, 05:45 PM   #37
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Thanks Mike, I enjoyed browsing through your travel log. We are picking up our new 19’ Escape in January and your log gave us some ideas and suggestions for our future travels.
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