Macduff's Cave ~ Earlsferry

My brother Noel and Kola

  Heather ~ leader, innovative teacher and webmaster maestro.

Tektronix

"Tektronix--Committed to excellence"  Our slogan was our way of life.

Tektronix Building 19. One of the many engineering and manufacturing buildings on the Beaverton, Oregon, Tektronix campus where super dedicated individuals collectively created the world's finest, state of the art, ultra high speed, cathode ray, precision oscilloscopes which made possible the Electronic, the  Information and the Space Ages, to name but a few. Tektronix was a once in a lifetime great experience and for 24 years I was privileged to be a player on the team. (Plus one more year at corporate offshoot, Spacelabs Inc.)  

Tektronix oscilloscopes played a vital part in the United States Space Program that enabled the moon landing and the return to earth. The great thing about Tektronix (Tek) was that it was a company where each individual felt and knew that he/she was Tektronix and that he/she was on the cutting edge of technology and was so enthused by what he/she was doing that by choice all of us who could arrived early and stayed late. Tektronix had no employees per se, we were all venture participants, Very Important People who each knew his/her part in the game play as we contributed to our utmost in the pursuit of knowledge, perfection, design and the efficient  manufacture of precision, ultra high value, cathode ray oscilloscopes and electronic products that would benefit the entire world. It was awesome to work with and be in the company of such energetic, innovative, dedicated and brilliant individuals.

1966. Bellerophon and Pegasus. Me and my homebuilt 65 H.P. Continental Baby Ace; single place, open cockpit, no battery, no electrical starter, no radio gear, flick the prop to start, winged horse. Shown on Charlie Bernard's Beaverton Oregon grass strip airport which was adjacent to the Tektronix engineering and manufacturing campus. What Peg did have were the bare essentials; a joystick, rudder pedals, heel brakes, a mags hot switch, a throttle, a tachometer, an altimeter, an oil pressure gauge, a cork float fuel level stick and a simple magnetic compass.

Charlie Bernard's Beaverton airport was the oldest operating airport in the State of Oregon but due to ever increasing land value taxes, Charlie's airport was finally forced to close. (Now The Beaverton Mall) On a day in February 1969 it was snowing as Walt Rupert, Charlie's fixed base operator, topped off the fuel tank of my winged horse Peg to have the honor of being the last airplane on the field, excepting Walt's helicopter, to fly up and away, never to return. With the closing of the Beaverton field and the removal of the pot bellied wood stove pilot shack a flyboy camaraderie and a way of life passed. At the south end of the field was a drainage ditch and a power line. To make an extremely short landing over an obstruction like a power line, Walt Rupert taught the Beaverton flyboys how to come in high, pull up the nose and put the airplane into a full forward, one wing down, sideways slide by backing off on the throttle, crossing the controls, the ailerons and the rudder, to do a steep descent, then straighten up at the last second and land on to the short taxi way south extension of the runway, If you could land an airplane on this short surface you could land an airplane most anywhere. (One day at a fly-in get together at Creswell Oregon, Pete Bowers, United States aircraft engineer and Boeing historian, who that day I had met for the first time, flattered me no end when he said," Here, jump in (to his single place open cockpit Experimental  Fly Baby N500F) and take it for a spin."---- which I did.)

With the closing of the Beaverton airport I reluctantly put Peg up for sale. After running in to high adverse winds, snow in the mountain passes and being thrown all over the sky, rain, gales on the coast and after many stops, layovers and changes of route, my trusty little Baby Ace, Peg, was finally handed over to its new owner, a 747 pilot no less, at Los Angeles, California, a distance, as the crow flies, of 1000 miles. Because of the turbulent and variable winter weather this delivery flight actually became 5 legs that could only be flown at week-ends with each leg being about 250 miles. (The entire inland Pacific coastal region from Canada to Mexico is blessed with numerous, land at your own risk, airstrips.)

Great times of fun that I had during my flying years were when in the times of winter, the hills and the fields were covered with snow and I removed Peg's wheels and exchanged them for a pair of Federal 1500 snow skis which made it possible to land on any field or snow covered surface. The skis were a gift from Walt Rupert and I also used them on a Piper PA-11 Super Cub. Small plane open cockpit, flying free like a bird, in the cold crystal clear air is like no other.

Other great times that I looked forward to were when extreme low, morning, ebb tides occurred on the coast of the State of Washington where many of the pure sand beaches are home to great beds of razor clams. On such mornings I was always ready to take off at first light. My cross country route took me from North Plains where was my hangar attached home, 70 miles north west to Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River on the Oregon coast then 65 miles north along the Washington shoreline to land on the hard sand at Copalis Beach. As Peg and I flew above the sand along the miles of deserted beaches I was beachcombing, checking out the driftwood and the flotsam as now and then we skipped a wheel on the sand. At times I would slow to minimum airspeed and would wave and call to the seabirds like I was Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Just like as a small boy I would lay in the long grass atop Earlsferry's Croupie Rock where the gulls would hover on the thermals almost within my reach. Old Earlsferry habits die hard!  By 9 o'clockish in the morning I was back home, shucked the clams to be ready for 6 o'clock evening dinner, changed out of my flying/clam digging togs, flew another 15 miles to Charlie's Beaverton airstrip, then walked the few yards to Tektronix to begin the next phase of another memorable day. 

 Beaverton Airport. The roadway on the right is Cedar Hills Boulevard. 

The Tektronix campus begins at the left of this photo.

 My favorite Navion airplane.

This is my 5 color paint design. When I bought this airplane from its original owner it was all over dark green which I did not like as when looking down from above the dark green completely blended with the Oregon forests.

(For anyone so interested in my repainting. After the stripping of the old green paint, which was a real chore; the zinc chromate primer, the undercoating and the finish paints were all Sherwin Williams products.

The 5 finish color paints are Sherwin Williams acrylic enamels with a urethane additive which have more than stood up to the test of time, the weather and unimproved gravel and grass runways. Beaverton airplane guru and mentor Walt Rupert taught me how to spray paint dead straight, clean sharp dividing lines, without thick edges, on to compound angular surfaces. Prior to repainting, every part, fairing and moveable surface that could be removed was removed and was spray painted in a paint booth as a separate item, later to be reattached with all new aircraft hardware. Also at this time, to the exterior, were added the prop spinner, hub caps and the strobe beacon on top of the vertical stabilizer.)

This Navion first flew in 1948. With TLC and normal maintenance there is every reason to be confidant that in the year 2048 this aircraft will still be flying, as good or as better than when new.

Jolly Green Giant.

Of the many types of aircraft that I have flown, while there are others that can fly faster, the five place Navion designed by North American Aviation in 1946, in my estimation, is the best designed, the most stable, the easiest to fly and the safest civilian, single engine aircraft of all time. It was designed and initially built by the same people who designed and built the P51 Mustang of WWII fame. Length, Wing Span and height are the same as the RAF Supermarine Spitfire. To the best of my knowledge the no bad habits, beautiful, graceful, fly like a dream, solid, stable, Navion is the only aircraft of its type that is Type Certificated by the FAA (Federal Aircraft Authority) that does not require the installation of a stall warning alarm.

On this day Marlow had his son-in-law Richard Miller along with him as co-pilot. I'm left wingman flying my red N4305Kilo Navion off Marlow's, N36Delta's, wingtip. 

On Saturdays at 11 O' clock our meet-up place was over the Newburg, Oregon, VOR/Omni. From there the "lunch bunch" would then fly in loose formation to the place-of-the-day which might be south to the "Nut Tree" airport and outdoor restaurant at Vacaville near San Francisco, California, or west to the rustic Flying M Ranch located in the foothills of the Oregon coast Mountain Range or east to Sunriver on the east side of the Cascade Mountain Range, or west to the airstrip alongside the Nestucca River at Pacific City on the coast or north to one or more of the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound in the State of Washington. 

June 12th 1966

September 29, 2007 ~ Heather & me ~ Middle Sister in the background

September 29, 2007 ~ Macduff ~ Heather & Mike's Golden Retriever

September 29, 2007 ~ Me and Mike with the North Sister in the background

November 5, 2007 ~  On the summit of Black Butte. Mt. Jefferson in the far background

November 22, 2007 ~ A view of the North and Middle Sister from above the clouds

November 25, 2007 ~ South Sister (left) and Broken Top (in front)

taken from atop Tumalo Mountain

2007 Between Elie and St. Monans

All that's left of Ardross Castle. 

June 8th 2008  With Heather and Mike on the summit of Black Butte

July 30th. 2008 Faith, Hope and Charity from the top of Iron Mountain

 August 8th. 2008 Top of the Middle Sister

Son-in-law Mike took this photo. From the hiking trail it's 5,000 feet up to the top

 September 7th 2008. Yeah, did it again.

  On the summit of Black Crater. Elevation 7257 feet. 

Mt. Washington in the background.

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