August 10 – Cross Country Fly Day

August 10, 2016Fly DaysDWMack

August 10, 2016: This cross country flight from my airport in Benton Harbor (KBEH) Michigan, was a little different than normal. I flew over to Philips Field (KMGC) in Michigan City Indiana to rendezvous with my flight buddy who was flying to Rochelle Municipal airport (KRPJ) in Illinois to attend a luncheon. This was our first time flying a long distance together, him in his Piper J-3 Cub and me in the Clown plane which is a Cessna 150c. Generally he is flying a Piper Warrior and the one having to fly slower to stay with me. Today though “We” were “cruising” at 80 mph ALL THE WAY THERE and BACK…. It was exhausting but fun, sort of, and I did save a lot of avigas because of it. Flying that slow enabled me to take some nice shots of Thornton Quarry as we passed over it on the way home.

Mr. Dave in his J-3 Cub over Illinois

Thornton Quarry Illinois — Thornton Quarry in Illinois is one of the worlds largest aggregate quarries in the world. It was formed when the Michigan Basin was covered in sea water more than 400 million years ago and resulted in a 300 million -year old source of limestone. As a side note, the pool of water top left is part of the Chicago “Deep Tunnel Project” and is capable of holding 9 billion gallons of flood water. The multi lane road down the middle is I-94.

August 3 – “Summerfest” at Skydive Chicago

August 3, 2016SkydivingDWMack

Summerfest at SkyDive Chicago – July 30 to August 3, 2016: I spent 5 days at Skydive Chicago’s 15th annual “Summerfest” which continues to grow with each passing year bringing jumpers from all over the world together and is set to pave the way for the future of all that is boogie awesomeness.

13902610_10210565808681746_2449176533447809072_n-my-sleeping-quarters — **My Sleeping Quarters during the visit.**

**Skyvan full of jumpers on jump run (at 13,000 feet)**

I was last out saying good by to the empty skyvan

I was last out saying good by to the empty Skyvan

Cotton fields in the sky above Ottawa , Il.

Landing near the peas

Landing near the pea pit.

Nice Day, Nice Jump..

Nice Day, Nice Jump..

July 25 – Visiting Oshkosh

July 25, 2016Fly DaysDWMack

July 25, 2016: Had a great visit to the “2016 AirVenture Air Show and Expo”held at the Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH), Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Just a couple of photos to get the feel of the trip.

EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association)

EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association)

Water drop demonstration

July 12, 2016 – Niles River Diving

July 12, 2016ScubaDWMack

"Grubbing" finds from the St. Joseph river off Riverview park in Niles, Michigan. — “Grubbing” finds from the St. Joseph river in front of Riverview Park in Niles, Michigan.

July 12, 2016: Grubbing is the “art” of locating items on the river bottom that might have value. Today’s effort was geared to recovering bottles and items that just looked interesting. The real work is cleaning your finds and figuring which ones to toss (or give) away. Keepers are generally the stone ware jugs and pots, highly embossed bottles, and those with interesting shapes.