Of Rodents, Men and Intentions...

Or to misquote some Scottish saying: "...oft gang aglae." (I think that's how it's spelt.)

Jay has had the misfortune for his engineering staff to suffer some rather severe medical problems, so progress has been non-existent. However, at a recent encounter (after the first flight of the Comper Swift he'd been renovating), he did say that we were 'the next cab off the rank'.  From that I'm assuming that he was referring to our aircraft and not speaking literally...

Meantime I have been preparing for the day when I can 'mount up' by taking more taildragger lessons in a Piper Pacer. Our CFI informs me that if I can master this particular beast I should have no trouble with the Nieuport. The problem is the mastering bit. Occasionally my landings are better than my take-offs and then I revert to the norm. Consistency is my problem at the moment. Although, saying that, I do presume that he means consistently OK rather than consistently bad...

To fill in time I've also made an attempt at writing a short book for the younger generation dealing with WW1 flying from an NZ perspective. I'm fortunate in having some offspring to do the critiquing before I try to find an illustrator to help in the collaboration. Seems the idea might be right, there's just a few questions about Target Audience Age Group, Plot Definitions and similar suggestions. I mentioned this to my favourite author recently (Derek Robinson) who told me that his wife just tells him to "nail his butt to the chair". From that you will gather that she is American...

And talking of America, what on earth will we do for entertainment once the Donald is gone? That's assuming that his bigger button hasn't been inadvertently pressed. The way his hands keep flying around that wouldn't be too hard, would it?