New Photos

We made some new photos for the church directory.

Really Big Catfish.

Last Friday, nine of us went to Squaw Creek which had recently been reopened after 9-11 security shutdowns around nuclear facilities. We took two boats, five of us on one and four on the other. Each boat had a fishing master that managed the boat and baited the hooks, etc. We did hold the pole and real them in. You know, the fun stuff. We caught hundreds of catfish, mostly about 1 to 2 pounds. In addition, I caught two rather large catfish, maybe as much as about ten pounds each, maybe less. We didn't have any good fish scales. The guys gave me the fillets of the large catfish and I thought that was right. However, when I go home with them, Lee told me that we should have thrown the larger catfish back and kept the smaller ones. They taste better. So anyway, it was fun. One of the guys said that it wasn't fair for me to catch both the big catfish.

History of the Mach 2.1 B-58 - "HUSTLER"

Tuesday, 15 June 2010, 1900 hours

Mr. Jay Miller, International Aviation Historian and Photographer presented previously unpublished information and visuals of the Convair B-58 Supersonic Bomber at 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth, Texas. There were about 150 people in attendance, mostly grey haired men who used to work for Convair, General Dynamics at the bomber plant. He showed some old film clips of the No. 1 B-58 first flights and the Air Launched Ballistic Missile (ALBM) tests based from Eglin AFB, Florida. The No. 1 B-58 launched the ALBM at Mach 1.46 and 2.0. , four launches total. The program was considered a success even though there were several problems. These test launches were conducted about 1958/59. I was the flight control technical rep operating in the control tower during the first flight that occurred during the afternoon of 11 November 1956. The meeting lasted over two hours, including free discussion, questions, and answers from the audience. We talked about the loss of test pilot Ray Tenhoff in 1960, the loss of B-58 No. 5 over Lawton, Okla, the development and test of the crew module with black bears as occupants during the test. A good time was had by all.

February 2010 in Ridglea

It snowed in February 2010 in Fort Worth, Texas. I measured 12 1/2 inches using a yard stick. It started snowing before daylight and snowed all day. His is a picture of the snow from our front porch looking towards the SouthSouthEast.

B-58A Hustler

This is a picture of a later B-58A flying. It was a beautiful high performance aircraft. It had a three-man crew and could fly above Mach 2.0 at 50,000 feet altitude. Chief Test Pilot B. A. Erickson flew one from Fort Worth to Southern California at over 600 mph and never got above 500 feet.

B-58A No. 1 Return Component

This aircraft flew for the first time in mid November 1956. It was October the 42nd. We were working on it around the clock the week before this first flight on Sunday afternoon. Yours truly was the flight controls representative in the control tower during the first flight.

Kidney Transplant

Wednesday, 23 September 2009 at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital the kidney transplant procedure was accomplished. Both the donor, Steve Watson and the recipient, Justin Hopper are doing well as of 11:00am on Friday.Thanks to everyone for their prayers and well wishes. A magnificent event.