Hey folks,

Out here in Ely, Nevada (Where ?) out in the middle of nowhere and I'm having MINI withdraw ! I need my Wensleydale, this Dodge turbo 3500 is neat but it ain't no Cooper !

Its been a rough past two weeks, last week my mom had a heart attack and ended up in the hospital thankfully she got there in time and a stint was installed and she's now out and recovering - whew......

Here at work we had "issues" and then I failed miserably with a take-off attempt and broke the plane ending our mission here - not good. My only excuse is the runway was 25' narrower than our minimum required, basically we took a chance and paid for it

So, on to Salt Lake City and then to another base of operations for another demo, this one promises to be good and the runway is 200' wide so I can't miss

Hope everyone is doing ok......

Cheers, Mike

Couldn't believe my eyes when this '69 Cougar Eliminator drove past me in Ely, Nevada of all places.....a '70 Cougar was my first car.

 

Mike, best of luck on the next operation, hope all goes well.

 

wow.

hope things get better for you....

best wishes for your mom

 

Hey Mike,

Sorry to hear about your Mom, best wishes for a speedy recovery for her.

We'll keep our fingers crossed for your next flight.

Cheers.

P.S. Is that a 5 star hotel that you're staying at ?

 

Hope everything turns out for the better, Mike. Let us know how things go.

Glenn

 

Hey folks ! I'm back ! The second week went a little better but was far from acceptable, lack of management and preperation but at least the second plane survived.

Mom is doing well, she's stopped smoking and appears to be eating better. Thanks for the thoughts.

On my front, I broke out in some weird rash that looks like major poison ivy but I was not exposed to any, very strange......its just starting to clear up after the Doc hooked me up with some drugs......I think 2008 will be one of those years I want to forget (except for the MINI events )

Right now its confirmed that I will be out of the country in October, off to Italy and then I plan a few days in England. Might try and see if I can got to the MINI factory in Oxford (plan to hits some Inspector Morse/Lewis hangouts too) or possibly the Mclaren facility in Woking.

Not sure about this weekend yet.

I would still like to plan the late night run for sometime in late October and also the Sunday Car show / run / lunch at Burtonsville, early November.

Mike

 

Some pics



Here's the pilot's view of what I'm up against, that road gets real narrow when things get going fast. The nose wheel hit a small bump just after this picture was taken, combined with a crosswind at my back, the plane lost heading to the right, I attempted to correct but failed to catch it fast enough and went off the road.



Right now I'm pissed saying "I knew this was going to happen ! " in the next instance the nose wheel caught the edge of the pavement and she went up on her nose causing what I call "Extensive minor damage"



I think this picture says it all, (that's me in the light gray shirt) I take my job and my performance all to the heart - I keep trying to tell myself that even Lewis Hamilton makes costly mistakes by his own hands that lets his co-workers down, it doesn't really help though.....



This is the airfield we operated from in Utah - Known for its "X-files" operations including UFO's and Chemical testing

 

Hey! If you get over to the McLaren shops, look around for a big binder that I lost around there somewhere.... You can't miss it, its red and says "Ferrari" on it.

 

Its probably next to the blue and yellow one that says "Renault Secrets" with the inscription "To Ron from Alonso"