Polish Party

Now I admit when I first received news of this party it was through the printed word, and I thought it was a Polish Party complete with sausages and folks dancing the Polka.  Ah, no, I was badly mistaken as you can see from the above photo of David Gorrell and Zane Lemon, this was a polish(ing) party, meaning elbow grease. You see, due to a little glitch before leaving Texas, the FSD received a rather thorough coating of oil. A clean up was done, but there was still a thin coating which dulled the shine.
 Most of us, with a few years on us, have polished a car upon occasion, but can you imagine the difference in surface of this airplane and an auto? One of the Flagship's wings probably has more surface area than a couple of cars! First, David found a rubbing compound that removed pesky stains under the wings that have plagued the crew for quite some time. Zane went to work with the rubbing compound and decimated the old stains. For the excellence of his efforts, he has been dubbed, "Captain Clean," great-grandson of Mr. Clean.
Then the entire crew with the addition of the most gracious ground crew at Hulman Field polished the entire plane with denatured alcohol donated by Jordan Brown of Hoosier Aviation there in Terre Haute. They even provided hanger space so the group could work out of the brutal sun.  These folks are top notch and our crew cannot say enough about the wonderful hospitality they have enjoyed here. Terre Haute will stand out as one of the best places the Flagship has stopped in every way.
Many  people came out to tour the plane again on Friday and Saturday, including the fellows on this Air Force C-17.  These guys were part of the Honolulu National Guard on a training mission. Our crew also toured their plane and noticed two large differences: there was a lot of space and it was air conditioned! And there was also this technology thing...

Word on the street says that several of our new members here will accompany the plane to JFK airport in New York and then find their way home. We shall see as the Flagship is en route as this is being posted.