The Authoress is in the house!

Mary has just had her book project approved, and has just inked the contract. So now she will officially begin work on writing a book about the history of the Nut Tree airport for Arcadia Books!

This looks like it will be a fun project. There are a lot of interesting personalities among the men and women whose passion is flying and whose home base is Nut Tree. I have seen some of the photographs, and they are stunning!

She first got the idea for the book the day we went out there to watch the attempted airlift of a Gooney-Bird. I know--that sounds silly. The Gooney-Bird is the nickname for the WWII cargo plane designated as the C-47. One had been restored out at the Nut Tree airport and was being donated by her owner to the Travis AFB aeronautical museum, some twelve miles away. Since the plane could not fly under her own power, they decided to give the old girl one last journey "on the wing", so they attempted to airlift her out to the AFB using a Chinook CH-47 helicopter. (I posted a video of the attempt on YouTube here.)

Alas, the first attempt was unsuccessful, but the second time did the trick. It was quite a sight to behold!

While we were out at the airport, we started looking at the collection of vintage planes, and Mary got to talking with the group of pilots who had gathered in one of the hangars, and that's where she became aware of this really cool group of flying enthusiasts. And now she is going to tell their story! I'm really looking forward to reading about this place.