Another 'good one' gone.

From 1986 through 2005, I found myself in a position of losing more friends than any person my age should have to.  Some were really close friends.  Almost all of them died in hang gliding, paragliding or ultralight accidents.  Some, right in front of me.   It's a tough burden to bear.  Nonetheless, I would go through the pain of losing those friends many times over - just to experience the joy of knowing them.

John 'Wiley' Carlton - age 44, (who everyone knew as Wiley) was one of the planet's most talented pilots.  His 'claim' to fame in the hang gliding world was how good of a tug pilot he was.   Wiley flew 'tugs' for many of the flight parks -where you'd be pulled to altitude by an ultralight - instead of running off a mountain.  But Wiley could fly anything and fly it well!

Wiley was killed while crossing the road in Kill Devil Hills yesterday.  Hit by an ice cream truck.    It almost sounds like a joke doesn't it.  Fly every kind of aircraft that people label as crazy - then hit by the proverbial truck while crossing the road.

Wiley had a love for life and living it to the fullest.  I hadn't seen Wiley since I retired from the HG industry, but I'll never forget him.

Rest in peace Wiley.  The whole aviation community will miss you greatly.

Photo stolen from Lauren's FB post.  Thanks Lauren.

Catching up on the last few weeks

Yeah, so I said I was going to update the blog more often - that's not been going so well.  I'll try to do better.

So here's what's happened in the last few weeks - mostly explained in photos.

The middle of June had me in Michigan for a NASCAR race.  The track is located about an hour and a half from Detroit in the small town of Brooklyn, MI.  This track - like many - are in the middle of nowhere and so there are few hotels near the track.  For that reason, we stay in Ann Arbor, MI.  Ann Arbor is a nice college town with lots of good eateries.  The drawback is that it's a 45 minute drive (each way) to the track.  That really adds to your work day.  The 3 photos below are from the Michigan track.

From Michigan, I flew directly to San Francisco for the Sonoma Race.   Rather than fly all the way back to Florida on monday - just to get on a plane again early on tuesday, I spent a layover day in the Bay Area.

My long time buddy - Tim is going through a tough time in his life right now and it was important to me to spend some time with him.  Tim and I met in Los Gatos and had dinner and then walked to the park and had an excellent reminiscing session.   Tim is an inspiration to me and he'll always have a special place in my heart.

The next day found me in the crew hotel in Napa, California. for a week of NASCAR work.  The following photos are from that week.

This is the courtyard at the hotel we stay at in Napa.  I have breakfast out by this pond with the ducks swimming around.  It's peaceful.

Barry - from the TV show Storage Wars was in the TV compound in Sonoma.  I had to have a chat with him and take a photo.  He's the best character on that show!

Almost every day had us stopping at a winery on the way back to the hotel to sample the wine.  This photo is from the rack in one of the wineries.

A  year ago, I helped my niece Nicole get a job at Sportvision and so I am VERY lucky to get to work with her. She's like a daughter to me.  This is Nicole and I at Laird Winery.

This is Nicole and I at Silver Oak winery. I liked the wine so much there that I bought a $117 bottle of wine.  Sheesh!

This is the back of the main grandstand at the Sonoma track.  Notice the jets putting on an airshow.

After Sonoma, I headed home for a week off.   Starting on July 3rd, I began a week of work at the Daytona Track.  This race is especially good for me because I can work it from home.

After our first 'set' day, 2 of the crew (Jack and Drew) and myself took my sailboat SERENITY for a trip down the river to have dinner at a local restaurant.  It was good to get her out of the slip again.

Jack is good photographer and took this photo of me while we were underway.

While I was working the Americas Cup last year, I met an awesome Scottish lad whom I worked closely with.  He's a big fan of the movie Talladega Nights and so I convinced him to come down to Daytona and experience the race with me after the Rhode Island Americas Cup series the week prior.

Al and I on the roof at the Daytona Speedway

Sunset at the Speedway

One of my favorite bands - Train - played a concert before the race.  Of course my favorite song of their (Drops of Jupiter) was very last.

So after the Daytona Race, I got on a plane and headed to New Hampshire.  The race there is in Loudon - about 35 minutes north of Manchester where we stayed.

The day before I left to go to NH there was a big thunderstorm and it started a fire near our neighborhood.  This photo is taken from the street in front of our house.

This is the view out my hotel window in NH.  The hotel is planted right in centerfield of the local minor league baseball team.

Manchester NH is just 1 hour north of Boston and so Sam Adams is big in the area.  The local distributor had a 'tasting' night while we were there.

Taken from the airplane leaving Daytona.  This is the marina where my boat is.

The view of Daytona beach from the plane.

And that catches us.  

Bonus Pic:

Jan sent me this picture of my boy while I was in NH.  

My Own Personal New Year

No, you never see it coming
Always wind up wondering where it went
Only time will tell if it was time well spent
It's another revelation
Celebrating what I should have done
With these souvenirs of my trip around the sun


I'm just hanging on while this old world keeps spinning
And it's good to know it's out of my control
If there's one thing that I've learned from all this living
Is that it wouldn't change a thing if I let go


....trip around the sun - Jimmy Buffet

My number one birthday tradition is to get to the water - no matter where I am.  This morning I was at home and got to sit by the water that's right in my own back yard.

We all celebrate our birthdays differently I suppose.  I use mine to combine a couple of 'holidays' into one day.  New Years and Thanksgiving.   


The actual holiday/time of year that is "New Year" seems on the surface to be quite arbitrary (and I"m sure theres some good reason for exactly why it's when it is - but I don't feel like doing a google search to find out), but for me the new year resets on my birthday.  It's a personal 'new year' for sure where you can take stock of what you've done for the last 365 and plan on what you'll do for the next.  Reflection is a big part of my personal new year.


Then there's Thanksgiving.  No doubt that on the official holiday that is Thanksgiving - I do a mental checklist of all the things that I'm thankful for, but not as much as I do on my birthday.


I'm a very fortunate fellow.  I'm aware of where I am in life and how it is juxtaposed to many others who haven't the same fortune as I.   


I've decided - for myself - to list some of the many things of which I'm thankful for:


I'm very thankful to have been lucky enough to find incredible love in my life.  It's impossible to explain the importance of that.  


At the top of that list would be my wife who loves me like a dog.  I mean that - it's an unconditional love - the same a dog has for their human.  I just don't know how someone can be so accepting of who I am and what I do.  Some people know me as a successful person, but I fail a lot!  I fail much more than I succeed with some pretty hair brained ideas - some which get nowhere and some which only get somewhere but end up nowhere.   My wife accepts every part of who I am and I could not possibly be happier about where I've ended up on that front.


I have a long, long list of others who I love very much as well.  People who are so important to me - even though with some - I rarely get to see them.  Connections I've had for many years, but they live in other places than where I do.  


An interesting thing about this subject is that because of the lifestyle I've chosen, I have so many friends that are scattered all over the country and in other countries, but I have almost none where I currently live.  It's an strange situation and one we hope to remedy within the next 18 months by moving back to the Outer Banks of NC where our core group of community friends are.


My 20 years of traveling and living all over the U.S. in support of my hang gliding jobs and businesses gave me dear dear friends who I rarely get to see anymore, but do make a connection with every now and then because of the invention of Facebook.  What a two-edged sword Facebook is.  It can be a privacy invading time sink AND it can be the wonderful way to re-find your old friends and reconnect.   It's a tool I suppose and like any tool - you can build beautiful things with it, or you can smash your thumb.  I'm trying my best to not smash my thumb - but I'm certainly building beautiful things.   I am very very thankful for my friends.


I am thankful for the opportunities that have been (and continue to be) placed in front of me.   I don't think I deserve them - however I will gladly act upon them when appropriate.  There are people out there who see more in me than I ever will.  If they can believe in me then I certainly can believe in me an I thank them greatly for opportunities.  My current job is an example of that.  I'm in it because of an opportunity placed in front of me by 2 friends.   I love the job and I thank them.


So as I spend my day being thankful, it's likely I'm thinking about you the reader.  Not many people read this blog and so if you're here - you're likely to be a friend or family member.  Thanks for everything you've done for me - even if it was a smile of appreciation.  It matters.  I learn as much as I can from each of you.

A Work Week at the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte

I've gotten some feedback about resuming the blog and it seems at least a couple of people are reading it, so I think I'll try to continue it's revival.

This week, I've been working in Charlotte NC for the Coca-Cola 600 which is the longest slog of a race in NASCAR.   I've worked it many times in the past and it seems it will never end while it's going on.  I've not quite figured out who really wants to endure a 600 mile race - other than the broadcaster (the people who pay my salary) - so that they can run more commercials (and keep me employed).

Like usual, I flew in on Tuesday and checked into the Hilton in the UNC-C area.

Outside the Charlotte Airport is this statue of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Charlotte is known at the Queen City.

This was the view on Friday morning from my hotel room window.
The Charlotte Motor Speedway is on the horizon just to the left of the sun.

Because of the All-Star Race which took place last week here at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, most of our equipment was already in place, we just had to make some minor adjustments to our field equipment and hook up to the newly arriving ESPN production trucks - since they didn't have to be onsite last week - the All Star Race being a Fox product.

So we put in a bit of work on Wednesday and I headed to Winston-Salem for the evening to have dinner with my mom and dad (and Jan who had flown in for 2 days to visit her dad in Rural Hall).

Thursday had us working a long day of practices and Qualifying, but Friday was a 'dark day' on the track, so we ended up having the majority of the day off.

To keep from being bored, I located a place to rent a motor boat on Lake Norman and a few of us went out for an afternoon of cruising the lake.  It was a really fun time and we've decided to try to make it an annual outing.

Rusty, Jason and Myself onboard during our boating on Lake Norman.  Joe took the photo

So now, I'm sitting at my work station waiting for the race to start.  We'll get back to the hotel probably around 2 am and I'll fly home tomorrow morning for 2 weeks off.  

Jan and I plan to take SERENITY out for a few days during my time home, then it's off to Michigan and Sonoma for 2 weeks in a row of NASCAR fun.

Registering Camera 3 on Sunday morning

Waiting on the race start from my point-of-view.