America the Beautiful

[StuBob]

Great writing, great photos, and an uncommonly frank and authentic spiritual perspective. Thanks!

[David Paule]

Sure enjoying the story and those great photos.

Modest recommendation: on tiedown knots, ditch those knots that you're using, they won't hold up to a real blow. They'll slide up the rope and things will get sloppy and loose and the plane will start rocking and eventually something will break. Instead, use three half-hitches after pulling the ropes just as tight as you can get them -- don't use chocks while doing this. I tie one main, then the other one, cranking down on it, and then the tail, pulling the plane back as I do for more tightness.

When the length of the ropes permit, I double-up the rope. The idea is to gain more stiffness. Anything to keep the plane from moving around.

I learned this after some 100+ mph winds at the Boulder Airport in 1981 or 1982. We lost about a dozen airplanes. I walked among the wreckage examining what failed, and among the survivors, examining what worked.

Dave

[Jaknjoan]

Scott,

Your epic flight around our great country, your excellent travelog and high quality photos in my opinion is the best I've ever seen posted in the Forums. I read every word.

Jake Thiessen
Independence, Or

[diamond]

Originally Posted by Jaknjoan

Scott,

Your epic flight around our great country, your excellent travelog and high quality photos in my opinion is the best I've ever seen posted in the Forums. I read every word.

Jake Thiessen
Independence, Or

ditto
Thanks for being real. Keep bringing it.

[jfrank71]

Amazing story. Keep it coming. A true inspiration to take a trip myself.
Thanks!

[Bill Boyd]

Scott,

Sincerest thanks for the write-up. I feel a twinge of completely selfish regret that your great adventure is ended and did not include a dog-leg further inland to my little piece of Virginia, where Lorri and I would have welcomed you and sent you on your way provendered and hopefully refreshed, certainly prayed-for. How I wish that I had at least heard of the trip before you got underway.

Maybe next time.

Also keeping a wary watchful eye on the apocalyptic developments at this time in our nation's struggle to keep our republic,

-Bill

[Paul Pajak]

Just AWESOME!

[HAMFLYER]

Beautiful airplane....the story was mind grabbing and interesting...pictures outstanding...we need more of this..

[daddyman]

Originally Posted by Scott Chastain

On the morning of the 29th, after two full days of mountain biking Sedona and Cottonwood, the T-storms were becoming even more violent in the Moab, UT and Leadville, CO areas. I elected to make a mad dash for Santa Fe, N.M., skirting a nasty cell to the north of me. At Santa Fe, I fueled up, then headed to Sonora, TX (KSOA). I would spend one night there:



While I was in there cooking up a bowl of stew, I was greeted by a gracious RV-10 builder/pilot (remaining here anonymous as a courtesy to his privacy) who gave me the keys to his Jeep. I used the Jeep to explore historic downtown Sonora and the Caverns of Sonora---an amazing 2-hour spelunking tour that rivals, even surpasses in some cases, the beauty Carlsbad Caverns:

Scooter,
What a trip.
I've been to some of your places, and always wanted to land at Sedona.
Great flying.
Daddyman

[TFeeney]

Reading every word with admiration. Thanks for taking the time - its great motivation for the build for sure, but also a great reference for the beauty of the nation.

After seeing the DC post and knowing how much walking you must have done, I was surprised to see the comment about "pacing the runway" at the end of the day. Your pedometer must be smoking...