mathmom's blog

Ella and I (Michael) built an air film bearing hovercraft , at her specific request and sole instigation. This is surprisingly easy. The hard part is to get the right tension on the skirt. It can hold an adult. The whole family tried it (serially, not simultaneously). It's hard to really get the idea from a still image, though; it really takes a movie .

I have previously posted about the advantages to flying a small (6 seater ) airplane to the places you want to go, instead of flying commercial. One serious disadvantage is weather*. We wanted to leave from the Lindon NJ airport early in the morning, so we could fly to Dayton OH and see the Air Force museum. We got up in time, got a taxi to the subway to the train station, even got to the airport in time. But then the storms, which I had hoped would blow over by then, got rolling. There was lightning and thunder. Lots of it, all around the area. We had a 6 hour wait in the Lindon airport, which is not a bad place, but not really interesting for 6 hours. The kids watched more Spongebob than I hope they will see for the next 10 years. When the weather finally started clearing up and we got into the plane, we had to wait on the ground for clearance to take off after other delayed airplanes (since Lindon is about 6 miles away from Newark, and we didn't want to risk losing Michael...