I just got the final results in from my Oshkosh sales.  While I didn’t sell as many Gee Bee Books as last year, I definitely sold more product!  Last year was the first year the book came out and I sold 420, although I did run out of books with three more days left of the Fly-In.  This year I sold 350 Gee Bee Books, as well as, 100 Audio Experience CD’s, and 120 Wizard of Orlampa DVD’s.   EAA rolled out the red carpet for me and gave me my own spot, Kermit’s Corner, in the EAA Wearhouse Merchandise building near Aeroshell Square.

kermit's corner

I introduced two showings of the Wizard of Orlampa in the EAA Museum Theater and got a great response.  When I arrived for my second showing on Thursday morning, the AV guy came out and told me it was the biggest crowd he had seen all week!  All the seats were filled with many people sitting in the aisles!  I also got a chance to read the Gee Bee Book several times at Kid Venture and gave away six Gee Bee Books as prizes.

Handing out three Gee Bee Books after reading to the crowd!

Handing out three Gee Bee Books as prizes after reading to the crowd!

On Thursday night, at the Young Eagles event, I was an auction item and my Vision Tour package including an airplane flight raised $4000!  All in all it was a great trip!

Kermit

Posted by on Saturday, August 15, 2009
Filed in: Ford Trimotor, Kermit Weeks
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Built Ford Tough!

Cropped Ford 1

I recently visited my Ford 4AT Tri-Motor project going together slowly in Michigan at Great Lakes Aviation.  It had an interesting history and was flown by Island Airways to haul school kids and mail from Port Clinton, OH to a small island in Lake Erie.  They owned several Fords over the years and this was the first one they purchased and the last one they sold as it had smaller and more fuel-efficient engines for what they needed it for.  I acquired the aircraft in the late 1980’s and flew it back from California to Florida in only 4 1/2 days!

DSC04303

Unfortunately, this was one of my aircraft that was highly damaged by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The day before the Hurricane, I flew it down to the Homestead Airport about 20 miles away and put it in a big concrete hangar with many other aircraft looking to dodge the storm.  That night it hit landfall as only one of two Catagory 5 Hurricane’s ever to hit our country with sustained winds of 165 mph, gusting to almost 200!  After several days of disbelief and digging out of the collapsed hangar at the Weeks Air Museum, I borrowed a small plane and flew down to check on the Ford.  I was in shock when I got there.  The hangar doors had all blown off, an 18-wheel semi-tractor trailer fuel truck had been blown over on its side, pushed all the way across the hangar floor by the wind, and then smashing into the Ford!  The fuselage was twisted in half aft of the passenger door and both wings had been ripped off!

Right Outboard Wing - Check out those Multiple Spars!

Right Outboard Wing - Check out those Multiple Spars!

It had been several years since I had seen the project and great progress had been made on the center-section and wing panels.  It has been somewhat of a slow restoration because I have another Ford 5AT Tri-Motor to fly at Fantasy of Flight.  On one of my early visits, while the fuselage was going together, I happened to notice they were riveting the skins on with AN470 Universal head rivets.  These rivets became popular around WWII but the Ford had been built in 1928.  I questioned this and asked, knowing full well the answer, “Didn’t they use round head rivets originally?” The owner replied, “Yes, but when the aircraft had been damaged previously in an accident it had been repaired with the later rivets.” I made them drill all the rivets out and replace them with the original round-style head!

When completed, it will sport a washroom with a wooden toilet complimented by a small sign, “Don’t use the toilet over populated areas!” It will also be the only airliner in the world I know of where a passenger can slide their window back and hang their arm out the side!

Kermit

Posted by on Saturday, August 15, 2009
Filed in: Grumman Duck, Kermit Weeks
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Save the Ducks!

I recently got a picture update of my Grumman Duck project in Wichita, KS.  I’ve owned this aircraft since the mid-1980’s and it has been a avery slow back-burner project.

Grumman Duck Fuselage under going long-term restoration

Grumman Duck Fuselage under going long-term restoration

It has an interesting history and one time held the longest water-taxi record in the world!  It’s previous owner, Sam Poole, from Lake Alfred, FL was using it for hauling supplies up the Amazon when one day his left float hit a submerged log.  This careened him to the left where he found himself heading for, and then up, the riverbank.  He closed the throttle as he found himself climbing rather steeply up the side of the river!  As he began to slide backwards, he gunned the throttle to slow his tailslide back down to the river.  After inspecting the damage, he decided it was not safe to fly and began what became a 400 mile taxi down the Amazon!  Along the way, he picked up a couple of nuns that needed a ride but, as the river began to wander back and forth, he realized he would not have enough fuel.  He made some makeshift repairs and took-off with the nuns to complete the journey!  Later, after being repaired and working some more, The Duck ended back up at the headwaters on the Amazon in Leticia, Colombia.  Over time it became un-airworthy and began to languish.  Sam went back, took it apart, and brought it out onboard a cargo plane to Lake Alfred, FL.  I heard about it and stopped by one day on my way to look at property for Fantasy of Flight.  We struck a deal and I became a double-Duck owner!

Inverted Duck Hull being prepared for new Belly Skins

Inverted Duck Hull being prepared for new Belly Skins

I have actually been the largest owner of Ducks since the US Navy in WWII, owning four!  The first I purchased and flew in the early 1980’s, eventually donating it to the Weeks Air Museum.  We rebuilt it in Miami in the colors of the Candy Clipper and it is currently on display at Fantasy of Flight.  The second Duck is mentioned above and the third was acquired as part of the Tallmantz Collection in 1985 and starred in the movie Murphy’s War with Peter O’Toole.  It later became part of a trade to the US Air Force Museum for my P-35A Seversky.   My fourth Duck was acquired from the San Diego Air & Space Museum and traded for the Grumman F3F Flying Barrel currently on display at Fantasy of Flight.

I love the Duck and have had a lot of fun flying them over the years.  One of my more memorable moments was flying the Candy Clipper over one weekend to Cypress Gardens for a Hydroplane Race.  After talking to a couple of the skiers on the shoreline, we came up with a plan to to spruce up the show by letting them ski behind the Duck!  On our second pass, one actually kicked off his ski and began to barefoot in front of the somewhat stunned crowd!

Duck towing Skiers for Cypress Gardens Show!

Duck towing Skiers for Cypress Gardens Show!

If you want to see it fly, I will be splashing about during our upcoming first annual Last Big Splash this September 26th and 27th.  Hope to see you there!

Kermit

Travelair 1I recently test flew our Travelair 4000 after a complete top-overhaul by our engine restoration specialist, Andy Salter.  The aircraft sports a Wright J-5, which is the same engine that safely took Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic in 1927.  This particular airplane had been out of license for eight years so it was great to get it flying again!  Andy is currently working on building up another J-5 to power our Spirit of St. Louis replica.  This is an extremely rare running engine and is possibly one of the very few, if not the only Wright J-5 engine currently flying!

One of the reasons we got it in the air again is there is a possibility of doing some movie work with it within the next year or so.  If this happens, we will use the Spirit engine as a back-up and when any filming is completed, we would then install it on our Spirit of St. Louis replica.  One of the small tweaks we need to do is to adjust the pitch angle on the ground adjustable propellor, as it is a bit coarse right now.  It currently has a higher cruise than normal, but needs a bit more horsepower for take-off and climb.  This can be accomplished by flattening out the pitch angel on the prop to allow the engine to turn up a bit more rpm on take-off, which translates to more horsepower.  Currently, it’s like taking off in a car in third gear.  It takes a bit to get going, but once you get leveled off, and up to speed, it goes!Travelair 2

If you are in the Central Florida area this weekend, you can see it fly at Fantasy of Flight in conjunction with a Barnstormers Event we’re doing July 25th and 26th.  I won’t be able to fly as I will be heading towards the Oshkosh Fly-In that begins next Monday, July 27th to sell and autograph my products in the EAA Wearhouse near Aeroshell Square, Monday through Thursday.

I hope you can make it out to Fantasy of Flight this weekend, but if you find yourself up at Oshkosh, come by and say Hello!

Kermit

I recently got a chance to tour George Griffith around Fantasy of Flight and share my Vision of where we’re headed.  George has been connected to The Monroe Institute (TMI) since just before its founder, Bob Monroe, passed away at 80 in 1995.  George is the current Chairman of the Board and was recommended by the President, Skip Atwater, he needed to meet me and visit Fantasy of Flight as a “must see” stop!  I was honored both Skip and George took the time to come by and see the potential of what we’re trying to accomplish.

Blog-Shot-w-George-GriffithDuring George’s visit, I also got a chance to tell him about the progress on my Book “The Journey Never Ends,” which is a ten-Program chronicle of my exploration of consciousness experiences at TMI over a two-year period.  I’ve pretty much finished the beginning of the Book and am narrowing down on the editing of the ten-Program Chapters.  Most of this process is just going over and over the material making small editing changes.  My main hurdle will be to corral in all this information into a great summary, which I currently have in rough form.  I made significant progress on a recent vacation while in the mountains of Utah and am looking forward to finding the time to finish it up.  There will be a number of  approvals I’ll need to get from The Monroe Institute, as some of the information in the Book included is proprietary.

I feel this Book has tremendous potential to help the Monroe cause as well as anyone that reads it.  I hope to have a completed manuscript before the end of the year to submit for their approval.  Regardless, of whether it becomes public, or not, it was an amazing journey for me that was nothing short of phenomenally transformational!

Kermit

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