Lakeathon Blog Central

Here is the nerve center...I'm testing sending entries from my phone.

Wow! This really works! I can post entries from my phone...

Tomorrow: Aerial blogging

Lakeathon III! (Friday evening)

Lakeathon 2007 officially kicked off tonight with the Welcome Buffet Dinner, co-sponsored by AirSure Limited, Phoenix Aviation Managers, and Amphibians Plus in Bartow, FL.

Prior to that, I got in some more water practice time, mostly near Winter Haven, before heading the 10 miles or so down to the Bartow, FL airport--sort of the aerial center of gravity for Lakeathon. On one lake, I found myself on a parallel approach with a bright yellow Super Cub from Jack Brown's Seaplane Base, located adjacent to the Winter Haven airport. I've spent a little time doing recurrent training at Brown's, and highly recommend it for a basic SES rating--very organized and professional. Of course, "floats 'ain't boats", so learning the Lake has been an expanded education.

I tied down at Bartow, in front of Harry and Cathy Shannon's Amphibians Plus. The ramp is really starting to fill up with Lakes (above); I expect even more may show up by tomorrow. It's kind of like coming to your native land after living in a foreign country. At most airports a Lake is a curiosity. Here, it's the majority.

[Note: In an attempt to avoid conflicts with Sun 'n Fun traffic, some of the tiedowns have "reserved for Lake Amphibian Flyers Club" signs in them. If you're coming for Lakeathon, find any of these spots for tying down, but stay away from the easternmost 3 rows (on your right as you face the tower from the runways); they're reserved for the maintenance shops at that end of the field.]

After a Holiday Inn shuttle ride back over to Winter Haven to retrieve my rental car, I headed back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool before the dinner.

During the cocktail hour I got a chance to meet a number of other Lake owners, including fellow "newbie" owners Rick and Diane Williams, from Bloomington, MN. They bought their LA-4-180 last summer, only a couple of months before Barb and I, and have been enjoying it a lot (tho' they, too complain of heater troubles...must be a northerner thing.) Rather than fly all the way from MN with a balky heater, they decided to let the pros do the flying. Rick's hopeful of getting to fly with others who have an aircraft down here at Lakeathon. I offered ours, but the back seat is out for the trip, so one of them would have to stay behind. Anyone else here who might have space, give Rick a shout.

Dinner was fine, but the highlight was Ed McNeil's video chronicle of his flight to Alaska with the Tuxills, Tom & Sue. Set to classical music, it was majestic, with expansive vistas and some really cool formation flying shots. (Someone said Ed was actually flying formation while doing the filming...I've done formation flying and I find it hard to believe. It takes enormous concentration to stay in position...I'd be hard pressed to handle a camera at the same time.)

The schedule has Ed telling more about his Alaska adventure, including a Q&A session tomorrow night. We're seeing if there's a way we can post his presentation on the blog for those who can't be here...if this isn't inspiring to Lake pilots, nothing is.

Sun 'n Fun Seaplane Changes for '07

After the presentation, Sue Stewart introduced me to Bill Gillespie and his wife, P.J. Together, they volunteer to run the seaplane operation at Sun 'n Fun. Bill asked me to make mention of the fact that the plans for the seaplane Splash-In are different this year than in past years.

In particular, the factory-built seaplane splash-in--formerly held on Friday--has been moved to Thursday, April 19, so that the Seaplane Dinner won't conflict with the Sun 'n Fun night airshow, Friday evening. Also, the specific location on Lake Parker has been moved.

Pilots must register and get a pre-flight briefing to participate. Details are available on the Sun 'n Fun website at: http://www.sun-n-fun.org/content/interior.asp?section=flyin&body=convsch/seaplanes

Bill also asked me to pass along the document below: Info for driving to the Splash-In at Lake Parker:

That's it for tonight. Big day tomorrow...first full day of seminars and LAFC flying. (Also, Marc R.'s got me making a noontime presentation on the new website. Guess I'd better get my stuff together before turning in.)

Below: Official program from Lakeathon 2007, for those who can't make it:
(Sorry for the quality...I don't have a scanner here, only my digital camera.)

Lakeathon II! (Midday Friday)

Friday, noonish:
Well, setup is well under way, and check-in has begun.

I finally got to meet Marc Rodstein (left), our fearless leader, in person, after months of working with him on the LAFC website.

Marc was busy setting up the meeting hall, while his lovely wife Jill, along with Judy Staber and Barb Fioravanti are checking people in as they arrive.

John Staber is set up to sell Lake paraphrenalia in the hotel lobby; I couldn't resist a t-shirt, tote bag, and a copy of his new "History of the Lake Amphibian, 1946-2006". There is some tremendous stuff on it, and the $60 suggested donation goes to the project to restore Skimmer One, the original XC-1 Skimmer prototype that started the legacy.

I'm heading off to the airport to practice some more today, before the festivities begin tonight. Winds seem light and the sky is a beautiful clear blue. Tomorrow's looking good, too, tho' Sunday forecasts cooler temps, isolated t-storms and high winds. I'm hoping it'll give me a chance to practice the "high seas" techniques I haven't had a chance to experience yet.

Phase III: Lakeathon! (Early arrivals)

Today (Friday 4/13) is technically the first day of Lakeathon, but yesterday was the day that many started arriving for the festivities.


I've traded voice mail messages with Marc Rodstein, and know he's here, but haven't connected up yet. I did, however, last night get to meet one of the "personalities" of the Lake Amphib Flyers Club forum:

The famous Pete "Puddle Jumper" Hartmann! (see above, with Paul Furnee)

Paul Furnee (another regular LAFC poster) invited me to tag along for dinner with him, his wife Paula, Pete, and Bob and Sharon Stebbins of Utah and Florida (see left).

We went to a great little seafood restaurant: Harry's Old Place. Wish I'd brought my GPS so I could give you the coordinates. It's on a lake, tho' it looked kind of small from where we are. The food was excellent, and so was the company. There really is something special about a community of aircraft owners and pilots, especially one that shares so many operational quirks as Lake owners.

I had a great time, and am all looking forward to meeting more of the "clan" this weekend.

Phase II: Getting My Water Wings

As mentioned earlier, I've been a seaplane pilot since the 1990's, but had only accumulated about 20 hours seaplane time before last summer. After buying N8012D, I got checked out for land ops right away, but a series of glitches (hydraulic pressure, tachometer, etc.) combined with weather conspired to keep me from water ops training until winter came along.

When the ice around Chicago finally melted, I tried to schedule as much flight time as possible before leaving for Lakeathon, but managed only a single afternoon's worth of splashing around the Chain of Lakes. So ultimately, I decided to leave early for Lakeathon and spend time working on my checkout down here at Winter Haven, with Paul Furnee of Aircraft Innovation.

As most members of the Lake Amphib Flyers Club probably know, Paul (left) is one of the leading authorities on flying and maintaining Lakes. He used to live in New Hampshire and worked for Lake Aircraft, including helping to redesign the Buccaneer as the 4-6 place Renegade. More than that, he has thousands of hours flying and instructing in Lakes, and knows the pedigree and flight characteristics of virtually every Lake out there. I was amazed at the things he can tell me about my own plane.

When I originally contacted Paul for this trip, I had forgotten that I had met him back in 2003, when I first started to consider Lake ownership, and had gone for a familiarization flight with one of his instructors in one of his aircraft. (That had constituted all of my Lake time before buying N8012D.) I had also introduced myself (again, as it turns out) at Oshkosh last summer.

I arrived Tuesday, April 10 after an IFR flight from Tampa, with the airport at minimums for the VOR-DME A approach. After scrounging Paul from the hangar, we spent time with him looking over the plane and asking me about it. Within 10 minutes he had inflated my nose strut, and added nitrogen to my hydraulic accumulator, which improved the operation of the system immensely. He also had explained to me how the system works, and why it's so important to have a pre-charge of 350-400 psi in the accumulator to speed operation of the gear and flaps and reduce wear on the hydraulic pump.

As we talked, the weather improved, but never got terrific, with low scud and hazy visibilities. We took off anyway and spent a couple of hours flying into the numerous lakes surrounding the Winter Haven/Lakeland/Bowman area. (See day 1 flight, left).

Paul showed me numerous tricks for improving my water operations. Three in particular were very helpful:

I had always been nervous and uncomfortable doing step work, particularly step turns, because they feel so uncoordinated and unstable. He demonstrated for me how--if the speed is kept low, about 30 kts--the airplane can be trimmed to run on the step hands-off. He also showed me how the pitch angle on the step makes a huge difference in pitch stability (porpoising), and how you can use this to your advantage if you want to make a tight turn (putting the nose down carefully while on the step will tend to tighten the turn.)

After I was more comfortable on the step, he showed me a step-turn exercise where I made continuous figure-8's, crossing our own wake in the center with the wings level, and then turning to the opposite direction to do it again. This exercise has been very useful to me in getting comfortable with the plane on the water.

To get a flavor for the correct step-landing attitude and how power settings affect the approach, Paul had me choose a rather large lake, make a normal approach, and then fly literally inches over the surface indefinitely, finding the attitude and power setting that kept the aircraft just kissing the tops of the highest waves. The attitude and "picture" from the pilot's seat during this are those to look for when I'm doing a normal step landing, and the power setting is just a smidge (1-2" of manifold pressure) higher than the one to use when doing glassy water landings.

One lake that is excellent for practice in the area is Lake Mattie (N28 08.291 W81 46.924). No one lives on the lake, except on the south side of the inlet along the western shore. If you avoid flying over that house, you can practice to your heart's content without bothering anyone.

After a couple of hours, we headed back as noon approached. When we checked weather it was threatening for the entire afternoon, so Paul cut me loose and I got my rental car and checked into the Holiday Inn (Lakeathon Central) to unpack and catch a nap. (Remember, it'd been practically non-stop flying since Easter Sunday afternoon for me.)

The next morning, I headed back to the airport. We took off and headed north, splashing into numerous lakes along the way and practicing much of what I'd learned the day before. (See Day 2 map, below.) We also did some "high altitude" (high altitude in a seaplane is a relative term...maybe 3,000 feet) flying in which he demonstrated different flight characteristics of the aircraft.

Our plane doesn't have bat wings or vortex generators, so Paul demonstrated to me the pronounced "burble" that occurs power-on with flaps up at around 70-75 mph. It's not a stall, but it so disrupts the airflow over the wings that the airplane will neither climb nor accelerate in level flight. We also did some stalls and emergency procedures (extending the gear with zero hydraulic pressure, simulated engine failure with a turn back to the airport at 500', etc.)

[By the way, we found that if you lose your engine at 500' over the departure end of the runway (or in this case lake), you can execute a 180 degree turn back to the landing surface, but only if you dramatically lower the nose to build up speed to 80+ mph, and crank it around with 60 degrees of bank. The picture from the windshield is pretty dramatic (think diving sideways straight down for the shoreline), and you lose altitude like a wounded piano, but you do level out over the water with enough speed to be able level out and land. If you were trying to hit the runway you took off from I think you'd be in trouble. About the best you could do would be land in the grass parallel to it. In our case there wasn't enough altitude to execute the sidestep necessary to get back aligned with our original course. Fortunately, if you use a high bank angle, you don't move far laterally from your original course line.]


For lunch we landed in a lake and went to a restaurant called Gator Joe's (left, N29 02.412 W81 55.712; could be a fun fly-out destination this weekend). The food was interesting...I had the "Gator Philly" sandwich, sort of a Philly cheese steak sandwich made with deep fried alligator meat. (I thought it tasted more like fish than chicken.)

There's enough room on the beach for a few Lakes, and a ramp directly to the right (east) that could accommodate up to 3, if they reposition the old sailboat that's adjacent, as we suggested during our stop.

After lunch, we headed back to GIF, splashing into numerous lakes along the way.



After a couple of hour break, we saddled up again and this time headed east, to the lakes south of Orlando and Kissimee, FL. There are some fairly large lakes over that way, many of which are connected by a series of canals maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. The canals are virtually deserted (an occasional fisherman was all I saw), and reportedly connect all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. They are dead straight for miles, wide enough to land on, and full of wildlife (including scores of real live gators!) They make an excellent practice are for river (constrained area) and crosswind operations. Plus you can watch in fascination as the gators swirl into the water from the bank as you step taxi along for mile after mile.

The three lakes we flew in (and the canals that connect them) are Lake Hatchineha (N28 01.417 W81 22.166,) Cypress Lake (N28 04.748 W81 19.531,) and Lake Tohopekaliga (N28 10.057 W81 22.048.) The two canals were the Hatchineha Canal (N28 02.806 W81 20.558) and the South Port Canal (N28 06.400 W81 20.837.) Be careful with the latter--there is a lock/dam at the northern end, with wires across it, and a radio tower with hard-to-see guy wires adjacent. Give it a wide berth.

On our way back, we also dropped into Lake Russel (N28 08.056 W81 25.005), a cypress-lined lake that is virtually impossible to access except by air. There is a nice sand beach on the eastern shore partially hidden behind the weeds. There, Paul demonstrated to me a technique for turning the aircraft around without effort:

If the bottom is relatively flat and sandy, drive up on to the sand, wheels-up, in displacement taxi, until the keel is firmly anchored on the bottom. Then just give it about half to 3/4 throttle while holding full rudder (left seems to work well). The aircraft can't move because it's anchored, and the airflow over the rudder will pivot you around on a dime! When you're ready to depart, just give it a blast of throttle and you're off!

Paul also demonstrated how you can taxi through weeds like an airboat. After all there's no water prop to foul!

When we got back to GIF, Paul suggested that the next day I take my time and come in when I felt like it.

I slept in a bit, therefore, on Thursday, and got to the airport about 10:30. I helped Paul with his website, and then he said to me, "What you need to do is go flying by yourself."

Yesss! It felt a lot like 33 years ago when my instructor stepped out to let me fly my first solo. Paul suggested a lunch stop in downtown Winter Haven at the Harbor Side restaurant. On the map, it looked a little scary, smaller in diameter than the length of the GIF runway, but he assured me I'd be fine.

I took off, and flew over to Lake Mattie for a while, to brush up on all I'd learned: step taxiing, glassy water landings, flying one inch over the surface, power off landings, full-stall landings, etc. When I felt ready, I headed south to Lake Shipp (N28 00.208 W81 44.505). After circling twice to get the full picture, I set up for a landing, came in over the canal north to Lake May, and landed, no sweat.

I taxied over to the beach adjacent to the Harbor Side (N27 59.907 W81 44.279), and tied up to a picnic table. The lake bottom is fairly steep there, and the light wind was blowing on shore. I didn't pay too much attention, but when I came out from lunch, I found that the aircraft had pivoted in the wind until the left wing was nearly against another picnic table. As Paul told me, "I'll learn a lot in the next hundred hours." Mental note: make sure there are no adjacent obstructions in case the aircraft moves in the wind...

After lunch I taxied out, and--given my nervousness about the lake size--decided on a step-turn takeoff to minimize space needed. Turns out I had plenty of room anyway, but it gave me good practice, and I was on my way.

I headed back east to play in and around the canals again, and spent probably an hour just puttering around doing takeoffs, landings, frog-hops over fishermen in boats, and looking for gators (see right, below). I got in some actual glassy water work on one lake--wow, can that be deceiving--and kept working on my step technique. I'm coming to appreciate how much a Lake is an attitude-sensitive airplane. If you get the landing attitude right, all's well, but if you land a little nose high (too slow) or nose low (too fast) you're in for a little excitement. One landing had 3 or 4 ever-increasing bounces until I transitioned to a full-stall landing to let it settle down.

Turns out you can get a cell signal out there on the canals (at least on Verizon), so I sent a couple of messages with photos to Barb.

On my way back, I literally landed in every lake that crossed my path, including the one right under the approach to runway 29 back at Winter Haven. (There wasn't anybody in the pattern at the time.)

When I got back to GIF, I had a smile on my face a mile wide (see left). Now THAT's the reason I became a seaplane pilot. It's the closest thing I've ever felt to being a bird.


Paul says that it'd be good to get some heavy-water work in if we can; other than that I'm pretty much good to go. The weather for Sunday's looking a little wild and woolly, so we may do some flying then. In the meantime, it's time for Phase III: Lakeathon!


PS -- The one thing that Paul impressed upon me is there's only one REALLY, REALLY important rule. Don't land in the water with your gear down. Everything else you can survive, but that's a real killer.

Phase I: The Trip from Chicago

(actually from Kenosha)

About 4 years ago, I met an 11-year old young man from Chicago who wants to be a naval aviator. I met him at a Young Eagles rally at Meigs Field (boy, there's a whole other story), when I flew him and his mom. Turns out he's wanted to fly since he as 4.

Since he was a neighbor of ours, we flew over our neighborhood--we lived in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago at the time. Afterwards, I offered his mom to mentor him if he still wanted to become a pilot. Over the past several years, my friend Josh and I have had a number of exciting flight-related experiences together. (See picture of us looking kind of dorky in a Blue Angels cockpit at Oshkosh, left.) It looks likely he'll start his training this year, as he's now 15, and can solo when he's 16.

Anyway, during the planning of this trip, it occurred to me that Josh might like to see what a looonng cross-country is like. It required missing a day of school, but his mom said OK, and he and I departed Kenosha, WI on Sunday, April 8.

The trip was to be a Tuskegee Airmen retrospective.

Our first stop was planned for Freeman Field, in Seymour, IN, site of the famed "Freeman Field Mutiny" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Field_Mutiny), an event that eventually helped lead to today's integrated U.S. military. As a result of my involvement with Friends of Meigs Field in Chicago, I've gotten to know quite a number of original Tuskegee Airmen, including men who were part of the mutiny at the southern Indiana airfield when they were denied entry to the "instructors-only" (read: white-only) officers' club.

We left for the airport after Easter church service, and departed Kenosha in mid-afternoon in near-freezing temps. About halfway to Seymour, we discovered that the heater was blowing cold air. We got to Freeman Field about 6:30 P.M., only to find it deserted and locked up. We're told there's a nice museum of the airport's military history, but we can only vouch for what we could see from the locked door. We refilled at the self-serve pump, ate (very) cold chicken (it had been sitting under the heater vent), shivered for a photo and jumped in again to take off for Chattanooga.

Because of the cold temps, we decided not to follow our original IFR plan and instead stayed low(er) where the air wasn't quite so frigid. Even so, our fingers and toes barely made it to CHA.

The next morning, we took off and headed VFR for Tuskegee, AL, where--thanks to Bennie McRae (http://www.bjmjr.net/ww2/taaf.htm) we had been put in touch with the current owners of the formerly abandoned Tuskegee Army Air Field. (Note: There is a National Park historical site being developed at Moton Field, the municipal airport for Tuskegee, but it was originally only an outlying practice field for the Airmen, who were based at the Army Air Field, aka Sharpe Field.)

Thanks to Mr. McRae, we were able to contact Mr. Guice Slawson, whose family now owns the property as part of their lumber business. Thankfully, Mr. Slawson and others in his family understand aviation, and have preserved the reconstructed single runway that prior owners had constructed on the site of the old runway 14-32 when they had hoped to develop it as a hunting preserve. The airport (AL73) is again shown on sectional charts, though it is listed as private, requiring advance permission to land.

We arrived over the field around noon on Monday, circled a couple of times, and made a low pass to check runway conditions. We then landed to the northwest, and taxied up to a black pickup, from which emerged a friendly and welcoming southern gentleman, Mr. Guice (Guy) Slawson.

Guy turns out to be not only pro-aviation--a pilot, actually--but a former naval aviator himself, who gave Josh some excellent advice about pursuing careers flying jets for the Navy. Guy used to fly A-6's (still in service today as E-6B's, I believe) and has over 300 carrier traps.

Guy graciously drove us around the grounds of the old airfield, most of which is now overgrown. Only two buildings with intact walls still exist; what he believes are the old post office and the water plant. Chimneys still stand where other buildings stood, but none of the hangars, admin buildings, or barracks exist, and even the streets--complete with curbs--are fading under the sand and debris.

It was a particular thrill to stand in the center of the traffic circle, where likely stood the base flagpole and where "Reveille" and "Taps" likely sounded every day the field was in use by the Army.

At the end of the tour, Guy showed us the hunting lodge the prior owners had built--now used for family gatherings--complete with a 15-foot stuffed alligator.

By the end of the tour, we were running short on time--Josh had to make an 8:30 commercial flight from Tampa back to Chicago. We made a quick stop at nearby Moton Field, originally pencilled in as a fuel stop, but no 100LL is available. Nevertheless, it again was a thrill to land on the same runway the original Tuskegee Airmen used for practice.

After that, it was "thottle to the firewall". A quick-turn stop in Eufala, AL (pr. "you folla?") for fuel preceded a pretty wet and choppy IFR flight into Tampa International. We made it by 7:30, and the crack staff at Tampa Jet Center ("voted best in FL" the sign says), drove us all the way around the field to the American Airlines gate, where Josh made his flight with about 15 minutes to spare.

When I returned to the plane for the last leg to Winter Haven, I was in for a rude surprise. All of a sudden the nav lights/instrument lights circuit breaker started tripping, indicating a short of some kind. Rudimentary debugging didn't help, so it was off to the airport Hilton for an unscheduled overnight. (Incidentally, TACAir in Chattanooga has a much better corporate rate at the local Hampton Inn than Tampa Jet has at the Hilton. And the Hilton dings you another $10 for internet access.)

The next morning looked great at TPA, but IFR at Winter Haven (GIF), so I filed instruments and was off. Enroute, a Saberliner in front of me had to make the missed approach a couple of times before he got in. I got real life holding practice (a rarity in my experience) over Lakeland VOR, but eventually got cleared in and made it, first shot. (Probably 'cause my cruise speed's way lower than the Saberliner...you couldn't see the airport 'til you were nearly on top of it.)

Upon arrival, I was directed to the office in the back and met up with Mr. Paul Furnee (Lake expert and fellow computer geek) for my intro into Lake water flying.

But that's the subject of Phase II: Getting My Water Wings

PS -- Paul showed me how to push the overheat reset switch on the heater, and now it works fine. If you own a Lake and don't know how to do this, either get someone to show you, or don't fly north in the winter!

About your correspondent...

First, a little about me...

I'm a 49-year old, ~1,000 hour private pilot, Single Engine Land and Sea, who loves seaplane flying, but has never owned an aircraft before last year. For 30+ years I was able to get along by renting, borrowing or otherwise cadging other peoples' wings, but eventually the urge got too strong.

Turns out, you can hardly rent seaplanes (neither floats nor hulls), at least not around Glenview, IL (a NW Chicago suburb where I live with my favorite person, my wife Barb. More on her in a sec.)

So...I (read "we" meaning Barb and I) finally caved...after a long search and much research, we bought N8012D, Fred Weber's old Buc, a 1981 model, S/N 1066, with about 3,200 hours on it.

Initially a series of logisitics, mechanical glitches, and bad weather prevented me from getting checked out on water (for insurance purposes, that is. I've been a SES since the 90's, but mostly in floats, and Airsure gives Lake pilots a nice discount for training with their approved instructors.)

Eventually winter hit, and all of the water was of the very hard type. When spring rolled around, I tried (and tried) to get some hours in with George Mangel from Galt airport (10C), but we only managed one day with a couple of hours on the Chain of Lakes north of Chicago; nice, but not enough for a full checkout. (It got so bad that you could practically predict bad weather by the days I was planning to fly.)

I'd been planning to fly to Lakeathon anyway (and I've been checked out for land ops since we bought the plane), so I changed the itinerary to leave a number of days early, to get some water instruction with one of the best, Paul Furnee, of Aircraft Innovation in Winter Haven this week.

This required one major sacrifice: Tonight (literally tonight) is Barb and my 21st anniversary, and, because she has to work, we're 1,000 miles apart. Fortunately, she's wonderfully understanding about my obsession with (oops I mean interest in) water flying--she's not a pilot, but a happy and helpful co-pilot. So, we're planning a celebration next week, when she arrives in Miami and I pick her up for a week in the Keys. I love her (and miss her) tremendously!

So, stand by for Phase I of this blog: The story of the Trip from Chicago...

Welcome to Lakeathon (almost) Live 2007

As the webmaster of the new Lake Amphibian Flyers Club website (www.lakeflyers.com), I've been looking for ways to take advantage of the 'net to help club members stay in touch, learn more about the "breed", and disseminate information on operations, maintenance, flight safety, places to fly and any other relevant info.

As most members know, this weekend (4/13-16/2007) is Lakeathon 2007, the annual convention of Lake owners, pilots, and afcionados held annually in Bartow, FL.

Lately, I've read several posts on the LAFC members' forum (http://forums.delphiforums.com/lakeamphibs/, c'mon join up so you can participate!) from Lakers who can't make it this year, so it occurred to me that a blog might be a way for members-in-absentia to follow some of the activities.

Hence, lakeathon.blogspot.com is born.

As I'm a relatively new Lake owner I'm hopeful that my "newbie" perspective will add something to the coverage for both Lakeathon vets and those who have never been to one.

This is also my first effort at blogging. Hopefully it'll be a balance of interesting stuff without TMI (too much information, a habit I sometimes have.)

Anyway, feel free to leave your feedback, and I'll try to take it into account.

Steve Whitney
N8012D