Author Archives : Chris French

Finally, balancing the propellor


With the paint on and my local mechanic finally harassed enough to squeeze me into his busy schedule, it was propellor balancing day! I took a quick flight to warm everything up and then removed the cowling. After John got his equipment setup we made the first run to see how far off it would be, I was a bit…

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Hahn’s Peak Lake Catching


Whelp I will admit I had zero hopes of catching any fish and when my step-father asked if I had a smaller cooler I rolled my eyes. But nevertheless looking for a nice day outside I was game for some fishing. Once we got setup and threw our lines out I fell into the typical cast, reel, repeat with no…

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What I learned at Oshkosh 2022


Admittedly I did not attend many forums this year. I only attended the show for three days and there is just so much to see… But I did have a few takeaways: Vic Syracuse (Base Leg Aviation) Change auto spark plugs every 100 hours or annually (I have been following P-Mag recommendation of 125 hours) Mouse milk lube exhaust at…

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Oshkosh Airventure 2022 Fly-In Err Camp-In


The excitement, the nerves, the anticipates for Airventure builds as the days get closer. Flying into the busiest airport in the world single-handed is not for the faint of heart and I’ll openly admit there is a big sigh of relief each time I am on the ground at Oshkosh. Then the fun begins talking airplanes, checking out cool airplanes,…

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A cooking class you say?


Early on, after joining Fly Aweigh, there was talk of a cooking class in Loreto. LeAnn and Alison stumbled on a family who offers classes while looking for a bathroom in Loreto. With the rally and my flight home it was looking unlikely. But after the rally it looked like we could make it work and on the hike up…

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Sadly the last sail of the rally for this guy


I was woken to the sound of rain. Knowing that wasn’t possible I headed for the swimstep. The millions of sardines we swam through yesterday were going crazy. A constant boil with occasional excitement where large fish jump out of the water chasing the little guys who jump out trying to avoid being eaten. To top it off hundreds of…

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Winding up the multihull rally


A day of motoring to Isla Coronado. Whelp at least we weren’t banging into waves. Up the outside of Isla Carmin, around the point and what is that? Wind? Yes! We had a gorgeous downwind sail. Again Free Luff took the east course and managed to sail the whole way. Mad props to them! Again faster than the fleet (gawd…

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We have a winner!


Light wind day so there was no rush to pull up the anchor. The rally plan was a 11:30am line up for a sail race. That gave Allison and me time to paddled into shore to bushwack through the cactus and brush, scraping and poking our way. Eventually we made it to the top of a hill with a cool…

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What happened? Did the boat sink?


Whelp, connecting with friends has taken precedent over blogging. Once arriving in Puerto Escondido I helped Gato Loco get fueled up and rinsed off before a farewell lunch, sort of. From there I jumped aboard my old boat Strikhedonia (now Fly Aweigh II) and the new owners Allison and Allan who let me join them for the West Coast Multihull…

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Two guys off and two guys on


With a 9:00am crew change we left the anchorage around 7:30am for the short hop to Loreto. Then it was “until next time”, provisioning and getting the new crew Ed and Eric settled in. By 11:00am we motored our way towards Ballandra on Isla Carmen. Ed is a big fisherman and he managed to hook to fish a few times…

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