Thursday, December 17 — In at 7:20. Phot’d an Air Tractor through the fence, about to depart for home base in northern IL. Processed pictures most of the morning. Spent half an hour with the 1/48 Me-262 in the office modeling table when visitors crewing a new Phenom 300 came it. Had a fine visit. Captain was very impressed. His dad was a gunner in B-24s. He has a Monogram B-24D kit that has collected dust for years. He promised to start building it soon. Then he showed me the 300, an astoundingly modern machine. Not a “steam gage” on the entire panel. Took a BUNCH of pictures. Returned to the model table and three minutes later the pilot of a CJ2 visited; showed me his bird inside and out and visited the Kits, Processing and Research Rooms upstairs. Terrific to see two similar business jets, parked next to each other on the ramp. Ate a Subway sandwich from the Terminal Subway at my office desk, and for some reason I felt very tired minutes after. After fighting it for half an hour, processing pictures, I could not concentrate . . . went upstairs and napped probably two and a half hours on the cot. The cot HELPS! I awoke about 6:30 and spent the rest of the evening working in the Process Room totally rearranging the shelves close to the door and the former bathroom. REAL PROGRESS. Sorted recent decals. Better arranged the old newspapers I REALLY need to scan while I can. At least they’re out of direct sunlight now. Back to office about 9:30 and departed for grocer. Decided I needed something more nutritious than extra crunchy Jif for dinner which I’ve been eating before bedtime since last Monday. So I ate a nice grocery store plastic box salad from my medium-size aluminum sauce pan, drank a little Carlo Rossi, went to bed and slept very well. Day rating: A.
The past few days have been extraordinarily busy. A volunteer for a few hours a couple of days a week out here would be a big help. I will post more pictures from yesterday when time permits. In the meantime, here are pictures of of Alex Kwiatkowski (right) the CFI who remembered meeting me earlier this year when he and his father and I chatted at the Chanute Air Museum. That’s his student pilot, about to return to Lewis University in Romeoville, IL the evening of December 16. The bottom pic is NetJet Captain Craig, one happy Phenom 300 pilot lighting up the panel for me December 17.
Abe Lincoln's Air Force 