Air-Minded: IL-2 Restoration Photoblog

Work continues on Pima Air & Space Museum’s IL-2 Shturmovik. The fuselage is largely finished, the engine is in, the wings have been fabricated from original blueprints and are awaiting installation, and the propeller, damaged when the Shturmovik’s pilot crash-landed on a frozen lake near the Russian village of Zamejie on January 28, 1944, is being hammered […]

Air-Minded: Son of Non-Starter (Updated 7/25/18)

See my earlier speculations on the possibility of new F-15s for the USAF: The Non-Starter Option? Non-Starter Option Revisited The first post addressed three “legacy” fighter aircraft still in production for overseas customers (F/A-18, F-16, and F-15), and wondered if the US military might be talked into extending the lives of its own fleets by buying new ones. […]

Wednesday Bag o’ Staples

Progress report: my knee still aches (with occasional sharp nerve twinges) and I still walk like Festus, but the home exercise routine is going well, the outpatient physical therapy at the orthopedic institute even better, and the swelling has almost disappeared. Tomorrow I see the surgeon who replaced my knee and who will, I hope, […]

Thursday Bag o’ Schnozz

I steeled myself for a stern lecture and a return to white pads and tape, but the dermatologist’s nurse practitioner (the nice one!) took one look at my skin graft Tuesday and said “Let your nose shine out upon the world for all to see.” So here it is, in its bumpy, slightly discolored, W.C. […]

I Wouldn’t Join Any Group That Would Have Me

Why the Groucho Marx title? I’m thinking about social media groups this morning. A friend recently encouraged me join a Facebook group called AtomPunk, where members post graphics and photos from the Atomic 50s. I like that sort of thing so I signed up, and my news feed was immediately flooded with Leave it to Beaver and […]

Home from the Wars

If you visit this little blog, you probably know I had my right knee replaced Tuesday morning. They had me up and walking in the hallway of Tucson Orthopedic Institute later that afternoon. But not much. They pushed me harder Wednesday, when Donna took this photo: Yesterday they sent me home. So far this morning […]