Fargo, North Dakota.

I’ve been overloaded this week on aviation. The Blue Angels performed last weekend here. I did some glider towing for one of our pilots to take his glider checkride, our glider (with that pilot) spent this weekend at the Northern Neighbors Day Airshow at Minot Air Force Base, and I spent the last two days working with Air Force and Civil Air Patrol National staff as we concluded the North Dakota Wing’s Compliance Inspection (a close-up look at our state operations that happens every four years. (We came away from that inspection looking good with only a few bits of administrivia that need to be addressed in the next several weeks.)

About the photo: Nothing Runs, er, ah, Flies like a Deere. This Vans R8A is a homebuilt aircraft that was sitting on the ramp at Fargo last weekend. I was struck by the interesting paint scheme. The aircraft has two seats for a cosy tandem configuration. On this bright, sunny day, my Samsung Cell Phone decided to set the lens to f/1.7, 1/5000 sec., ISO-50.

I’ll be taking some time off from flying this week and it’s a good chance the next time I see the inside of an airplane, it will be an airliner on the third week of August. I will be headed for the annual Civil Air Patrol summer conference, this year being held in Anaheim, California.

John Steiner