Clem Douglass is living a fairly unencumbered life in Bloomington, MN. Recently, he has discovered a workout facility for folks of all ages. The place is called "F-45 Training," an Aussi outfit with some 1300 franchises, that he highly recommends. It is very similar to "Curves" 10-15 exercises stages that take about 45 minutes in all to complete. The part Clem likes the best is that that there are no sex or age restrictions, unlike Curves, which is females only.

Following up on a previous post, Gordie Flygare tells us that, having been adopted from China, his friend, Lily McDonough, was motivated to accept an appointment to USMA because of its Chinese Language Program. She has now graduated and is Branched to the Corps of Engineers and will attend 20 weeks of Engineer School at Ft Leonard Wood before final posting to the 1st Armored Division at Ft Bliss. "Good for her," he said, "since blowing things up is one of the things I missed during my time in the Air Force."

Bob Fischer reports: "Following the end of WW II, there were aircraft from various nations that ended up on the doorstep of Willow Grove Naval Air Station located in Horsham, PA, 30 miles north of Philadelphia, PA. Having grown up in and around Doylestown, PA, I remember there being a lineup of aircraft along Route 611 on the perimeter of the Naval Air Station, just outside the fence. There were aircraft of all origins and countries sadly left behind when the war ended which had somehow found their way to Willow Grove. It was a popular sight for motorists who were traveling by, many of whom would stop to look and even feel these aircraft.

Willow Grove was a huge airfield and facility, hosting many services including the Navy, the Army, the Marine Corps, the Air Force and even the Coast Guard. Besides active duty personnel, there were many Reservists and National Guardsmen in units assigned to the base. It served truly as a composite base for the military and remained very active with an 8,000’ runway handling all sorts of aircraft. During these post war years, there sprung up a foundling collection of aircraft that became the beginning of our museum.

Although the base itself is now closed, we as the Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum are very much open. We, those of us who volunteer to serve in the restoration, maintenance and display of some 30 aircraft, are open five days a week to the public. But in fact, there is lots of work that goes on behind the scene, most especially in the restoration area. A very large part of the museum displays a wealth of material and information inside in display cases recounting the history of aviation. Some of the aircraft themselves are located inside the museum but the majority of aircraft are outside surrounding the building.

Perhaps the most interesting part of serving as a museum guide, known as a Docent, is working with others who come from many different backgrounds in aviation. While most of the Docents come from an operational background, the restoration team has many experienced craftsmen who worked on the flight line servicing and "hands on" maintaining the aircraft. Likewise, there are many aviation fans among the guests that contribute very interesting stories and we all love to tell, and hear, stories.

Overall, working as a volunteer Docent in this museum enables me to share and learn about aviation from different perspectives. I have been working here for about 15 years and the rewards are many. Swapping stories and opinions with each other has always been a learning experience. Aviation just does that."

Jim Alexander provides this update: "I spend time in some of the local medical facilities in our area of South Carolina but also get out several times a week to kill ‘golfs.’ I still enjoy volunteering in the Central Railway Museum (near Clemson) several days a week. My wife Martha continues to amaze the locals by riding her bike 2-3 miles almost every day and that is followed by a 45-minute brisk walk. And if any of the 60’s crew gets in the Greenville SC area, I hope they will stop by for a visit (864-886-1045)."

Les Hobgood is one happy Zoomie: "My daughter, Rani, and I finally got a trophy in the 2019 Big Bend Open Road Race. We placed third in the 135 MPH class arriving after 118 miles just 0.18 seconds off perfect time. We drove my 2016 Corvette Convertible after upgrading it with a roll bar so it could compete in the higher class. We also replaced our one-piece race suits with new two-piece race suits which are much more comfortable and don’t require wearing fireproof underwear. The real advantage is ease of potty visits. On race day, just as we pulled up to the start line for the southbound leg, our GPS broke lock and we lost our primary speed and mileage inputs for calculating our position on the course. This was backed up by a stopwatch and course notes so we had to employ a secondary procedure. While Rani (she gets to drive the first leg) was cruising at 150+ MPH to establish our 135 MPH average speed, we had some additional distractions when our oil and water temperatures started to overheat. First the computer turned off the air conditioner and then Rani shifted to 6th gear to reduce the engine RPMs. This seemed to mitigate the problem, so we used 5th gear in the tight curves with acceleration requirements and then 6th to reduce the RPMs in the straight-aways. We used this procedure for the return leg which I drove. Again, the GPS did not hook up, so we were back to stopwatch and known check points to navigate. There were ten solid check points in the last ten miles, so Rani was able to feed me adjusting speeds that showed us coming in at 0.20 seconds off perfect speed. Pandemonium erupted in the cockpit as Rani read the results! We found out about the 0.02 second official timing difference at the awards banquet when we were given the trophy. Pandemonium broke out again! Post-race discussions and analysis concluded the overheating was due bad fuel and the engine computer was trying to adjust the timing to compensate for the situation. Next year, we are going to use higher octane rated race fuel, which is available at the event but not in the local gas stations. It costs lots more, like $11/gal.