News of the Day

We got another two or three inches of snow last night, keeping us just above average on snowfall for the winter. It's a nice change of pace, after the last three winters when we got almost no snow at all, but had multiple ice storms. And that's not all:

The last two winters were not kind to Fur Rendezvous events. “The World Championship Sled dog race became just a small sprint around Mulcahy Football Stadium and back, but this year we’ve been told the back trail is really great,” said Rondy Executive Director John McCleary.  

Taking advantage of the snow will be events like Rondy Snowshoe Softball and the ever popular Running of the Reindeer.

 

So let's see: what else is going on around Alaska?

A Sterling pilot was injured in small plane crash near Sterling Wednesday afternoon. 

According to Alaska State Troopers, 27-year-old Charley Tegerdine was the pilot and sole occupant of the Piper PA-18 that crashed on the banks of the Kenai River near Morgan’s Landing just before 3 p.m.  

“Tegerdine reported experiencing mechanical issues with the flight controls immediately prior to the crash,” troopers wrote in a dispatch posted online.

 

There's this:

Three of Alaska's largest universities have put their boss on notice. 

Multiple votes of “no confidence” in the University of Alaska leadership is exposing a rift among faculty and administration. Faculty officials said the tension stems from what they describe as being left without a meaningful voice in budget cut decisions. 

“It was kind of a last resort,” said UAA Faculty Senate President Dave Fitzgerald. “If we're not going to be listened to in any other way, then let's take a vote.”

 

And, in a visible way of making "Trump" changes:

Just three days before this week's environment conference in Alaska, the top Environmental Protection Agency official in Anchorage called the organizer with some news: The agency had been instructed by the White House to slash the number of EPA staffers who could attend. 

... There had been 34 EPA staffers registered; in the end, only half were allowed to go.

Early Report: Floatplane Crash on Anchorage Hillside

Floatplane crashed over Hillside after completing “low level, high speed” turns

Dave Brooks / KTUU

ANCHORAGE (KTUU) - The floatplane that crashed over Anchorage’s Hillside neighborhood on Saturday completed two “low level, high speed” turns shortly before going down, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Investigators describe the aircraft as an “experimental amateur-built” Polar Cub equipped with floats. The pilot and sole occupant of the floatplane, identified by Anchorage police as 75-year-old James Hefty, was killed in the crash. No other injuries were reported and the aircraft did not impact any homes.

At around 4:30 p.m., several witnesses in the Hillside area saw the Polar Cub make two “low level, high speed, 360-degree right turns.”

“The witnesses said that the accident airplane’s first 360-degree turn was accomplished at an altitude between 150 and 200 feet above ground level,” NTSB wrote in the report. “But the second pass was much lower. One homeowner stated that as the airplane passed over his home, it was about 50 feet above his roofline.”

On the second turn, the plane banked at an extremely steep angle before it pitched down and began a rapid nosedive, the report says. The engine rpm increased significantly and the wings leveled just before the planed impacted a group of small trees near a home.

“During the collision sequence the airplane’s floats were severed, and the airplane subsequently descended onto a neighborhood road, coming to rest inverted,” investigators wrote.

The aircraft was completely destroyed in the crash and the wreckage was incinerated by an ensuing fire.

Friday Wrap-Up

It was 41° F. when I left home this morning. It's a few degrees warmer in Anchorage, but only a few. It's that time of year when the overnight temps move closer to the freezing mark, and the first frost of the year might not be far away.

But the days are still warm, and Anchorage set new high temp records in the past week, peaking in the mid- to upper-70s. Today, AccuHunch opines that the high will be 70 again in the big city, but probably more like mid-60s at home. Heading back to our home in the mountains and woods at the end of the workday is such a joy. :)

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Another plane story, but with a happier ending: K2 plane makes safe landing on Parks Highway with six aboard

A K2 Aviation plane sits on the Parks Highway near Mile 151 on Wednesday evening after the pilot made what K2 representative called a “precautionary landing” on the highway. No one was injured and the plane wasn’t damaged. (Emily Kuske)

A K2 Aviation de Havilland Beaver with six people on board landed safely on the Parks Highway near Byers Lake on Wednesday night, authorities say. 

A K2 representative said the pilot made "a precautionary landing" around Mile 151 of the highway, the state's main artery between Anchorage and Fairbanks. 

"Everybody's fine," Garett Lawrence, K2's assistant station operations manager, said by phone from the company's Talkeetna headquarters on Thursday morning. "Pretty uneventful."

Lawrence declined to say what prompted the pilot's decision to land.

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State Troopers and NTSB investigators are having trouble accessing the crash sites from the two planes which collided earlier this week. The forest is quite dense, and terrain is rough.

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That's all the news of wide interest, so I'm going to end with this viewer-submitted photo:

The photographer called it "a moose with a camera", but we're not sure whether it's that ... or just another wannabe, readying itself for an extreme close-up. Regardless, I'm not sure that's its best side, either.

Two Planes in a Mid-Air Collision - UPDATED

Update: There were no survivors on either plane, according to rescuers at the crash site, Alaska State Troopers say.

Original story:

Two small planes carrying a total of five people collided mid-air just before 11 a.m. today about 60 miles north of Bethel, according to a spokeswoman for the Alaska National Guard.

The condition of the pilots and passengers is unknown.

The aircraft involved are a Hageland Aviation Cessna 208 Caravan with three people on board and a Renfro’s Alaska Adventures Piper PA-18 Super Cub with two people on board, according to the statement from Lt. Col. Candis Olmstead.

An Alaska Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter left Bethel for the crash site and was expected to arrive about 1:30 p.m., Olmstead said.

Anchorage-based pilot dies after airshow crash in Oregon

MADRAS, Oregon (AP) - A longtime pilot and flight instructor who was most recently living in Anchorage has died after a crash during an airshow.

Marcus Bruce Paine, 61, appeared to be attempting a particularly low-altitude loop during the airshow in Central Oregon, according to the Associated Press.

Paine's biplane, a Boeing Stearman aircraft, went down around 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
Jefferson County Sheriff Jim Adkins said officials with the Federal Aviation Administration were attending the Airshow of the Cascades at Madras Airport when the crash occurred.

According the Adkins, the agency is investigating along with the sheriff's office and the Madras Police Department.

The airshow's website says Paine lived in Anchorage, had extensive military experience and was a pilot for more than two decades. Paine's flight school reportedly teaches aerobatic flight, stall and spin awareness, and other topics.

Deadly 2014 plane crash may have occurred during training maneuver

Chris Klint, Alaska Dispatch News
February 24, 2016

Scene of the Hageland Aviation crash near Three Step Mountain in Southwest Alaska on Tuesday, April 8, 2014.  

Alaska State Troopers

A crash that killed two Hageland Aviation pilots during a training flight near Kwethluk in 2014 may have begun as a training maneuver, according to a new report.

Wednesday’s National Transportation Safety Board factual report and docket of documents on the April 8, 2014 crash that killed Derrick Cedars, 42, and Greggory McGee, 46, said they were the Cessna 208 Caravan’s instructor and training pilot respectively. Cedars had more than 14,000 hours of flight time, including nearly 6,000 in Caravans, while McGee had 593 hours of flight time with none in Caravans.

The report was the board’s second on the same day involving a fatal Hageland flight, following the release of a factual report on the Nov. 29, 2013, crash that killed four people near St. Mary’s.

In the 2014 crash, investigators said, Cedars and McGee took off from Bethel at about 3:35 p.m. About 21 minutes later, data being transmitted by the plane’s ADS-B telemetry system tracked it crashing roughly 22 miles southwest of Kwethluk. Alaska State Troopers found both pilots dead at the site that evening.

No communications were received from the plane during the crash.

The Bethel airport, 27 miles northeast of the crash, reported winds from the north at 8 knots and clear skies three minutes before the Cessna's crash.

Johnathan Kapsner, a training pilot checked by Cedars who later became an instructor pilot at Hageland himself, told the NTSB he and Cedars would typically start a training pilot’s stall maneuvers at an altitude of about 3,500 feet, with turns left and right before the plane entered a descent.

“The accident flight followed a typical routine and flight pattern from previous training flights,” investigators wrote. “The accident sequence initiated during the time when a simulated emergency and descent was typically initiated.”

Another Hageland training pilot, Jaime Burns, told investigators that after an emergency descent to 500 feet, Cedars had him descend further to an altitude of 200 feet and follow a waterway -- a maneuver he called “running the river.”

“He said that although he hadn’t done a low-flying maneuver like running the river before, he at no time felt unsafe,” investigators wrote.

A preliminary 2014 report on the Kwethluk crash said the plane had experienced “altitude deviations” leading to a “rapid, steep descent” from an altitude of about 3,400 feet -- a pattern replicated by an NTSB computer simulation based on telemetry data from the crash and a physics model of the plane, which indicated instabilities beginning at 3:56 p.m.

“At this point, the airplane began a steep descent, which continued until impact,” investigators wrote. “The simulation descent rate from (3:56 p.m.) to the time of impact steadily increased to a maximum of about 16,000 feet per minute. The elapsed time from the initial upset to the point of impact was about 22 seconds.”

The NTSB gave heightened scrutiny in the report to the plane’s trim system, which was controlled automatically in normal operations by the plane’s autopilot. Investigators noted a warning in the manual for the Cessna’s trim system that “up to 45 pounds of force on the control wheel may be necessary to hold the aircraft level” in the event of an autopilot failure.

The board’s simulations of two possible scenarios for the crash indicated that moving the plane’s elevators would've required applying up to 130 pounds of pushing force by the time of impact to its central column in a “normal” scenario -- or 800 pounds of pulling force in a “runaway pitch trim” scenario.

When investigators visited the crash site, on land at a bend in the Kwethluk River, they found a 200-foot debris path from the plane as well as initial impact sites, which suggested the plane hit the ground at a roughly 30-degree angle.

“Numerous sections of the severely fragmented airplane were located throughout the wreckage path,” investigators wrote.

None of the plane’s instruments were recoverable, in part due to a fire after the crash that consumed much of the cockpit and fuselage.

“The accident was not survivable,” investigators wrote.

NTSB in Alaska: Not Just Another Reality Show

New cable TV show focuses on Alaska plane crashes and NTSB investigators

NTSB aviation accident investigator Millicent Hoidal speaks to the media while conducting an on-scene investigation at the Iliamna crash site of the de Havilland DHC-3T Turbine Otter that crashed during takeoff from East Wind Lake in the background on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015. The floatplane crashed early Tuesday morning with a load of fishing guides and clients killing three people. Bill Roth/ADN

Alaskans will be able to get an investigator’s-eye view of several prominent recent plane crashes when a TV series chronicling the National Transportation Safety Board’s work in the state premieres next month.

“Alaska Aircrash Investigations” will debut on the Smithsonian Channel on March 13. The show, billed as a “docu-series” in a statement Tuesday outlining its scope, covers half a dozen fatal Alaska plane crashes during the summer of 2015.
 

“'Alaska Aircrash Investigations' follows five NTSB members as they risk their lives in extreme environments to access remote crash sites in the unpredictable Alaskan wilderness,” producers wrote. “From dense forests to raging rivers, there is no place impenetrable for the ‘Go Team.’ Every investigation tests these brave men and women, from the seasoned veterans to the rookies who are just beginning their careers in air safety.”
The six-episode series features the NTSB’s Alaska chief, Clint Johnson, as well as investigators Brice Banning and Shaun Williams. Two more investigators seen in the show, Chris Shaver and Millicent Hoidal, are moving to Outside postings with the board, as Johnson reviews candidates to replace them.

Johnson said Tuesday that the Smithsonian Channel’s series is not a reality show. He emphasized the effort producers and crews took to accurately depict investigators’ work.

Trust me, the NTSB folks have their work cut out for them in Alaska, and if it's true that it won't be yet another overly-dramatic "Alaska will kill you!!" show, then we welcome an accurate depiction of what goes on here.

One Dead After CAP Plane Crashes Into Downtown Building

Civil Air Patrol authorities have identified the person killed when a small plane crashed into a pair of down town Anchorage buildings early Tuesday.

CAP also said the flight was not sanctioned by the agency.

In a statement, the Civil Air Patrol said 1st Lt. Doug Demarest was the person killed in the crash of the Cessna 172S.

“The pilot was not authorized to fly the aircraft,” CAP officials wrote. “He joined CAP in 2010.”

CAP spokeswoman Julie DeBardelaben wouldn’t say whether Demarest was the pilot of the aircraft, or how many people were on board.  “All that's still under investigation now,” DeBardelaben said.

The small plane hit two buildings in downtown Anchorage early Tuesday morning killing one occupant of the plane and sparking a fire.

Though officials say they have no reason to believe the crash is related to terrorism, the FBI is assisting in the investigation.

"Some evidence warrant us bringing them into the investigation," National Transportation Safety Board Alaska Region Chief Clint Johnson said. He declined to elaborate further.

Anchorage police said they first received reports that a small plane crashed into the Brady Building, a office building on West Fourth Avenue, at 6:19 a.m. Tuesday.

Anchorage police spokeswoman Anita Shell said the plane was reported to be fully engulfed in flames within minutes. By 6:53, Anchorage Fire Department officials said the fire was extinguished and firefighters were working to control smoke in buildings.

The scene of the crash is near a very popular local cafe' where many locals and tourists gather for breakfast. We're very blessed to have no other injuries.


p.s. A heartfelt "thank you!" to several who e-mailed privately to make sure we're okay.

NTSB Report: Soldotna Crash Results

The National Transportation Safety Board today released a final report for a commercial plane crash in Soldotna in 2013 that killed 10 people, ruling that the crash occurred because of problems with the cargo weight and center of gravity.

The accident prompted the NTSB to urge the FAA to expand requirements for record-keeping and reporting of weights and center of gravity data on small for-hire flights. Safety regulators say this is the third time they have made such a recommendation to the FAA since the late 1980s and that the crash might have been avoided had the requirements been in place.

The single-engine de Havilland DHC-3 Otter carrying a pilot and nine passengers crashed July 7, 2013.  The accident, shortly after takeoff from Soldotna, killed members of two South Carolina families visiting Alaska on vacation, according to reports at the time.

If you want the short version, the plane was overloaded. Only by 21 pounds, but that weight was centered "outside the envelope", aft of the center of gravity. In other words, it was tail-heavy.

Multi-engined craft are required to weigh their cargo; not so with single-engined planes. Given the number of multi-passenger crashes Alaska has seen in the last few years, perhaps it's time.

"The NTSB's investigation found that the load manifest that was prepared for the accident flight was grossly inaccurate," officials wrote. "The operator did not obtain actual weights for the cargo and passengers by weighing them or, alternately, adding 10 pounds to the estimated passenger weights and did not perform the balance calculations."

NTSB officials say the recommendation to amend the weight and balance requirements for single-engine planes was made after a similar crash in 1988 in Florida that killed four people.

Not Again

3 killed in Southwest Alaska float plane crash

A de Havilland DHC-3T Turbine Otter carrying fishing guides and clients crashed on takeoff from East Wind Lake near Iliamna early Tuesday morning, killing three people. Five of seven survivors were flown to Anchorage for treatment.

Location of the crash, found here.

This is the plane involved in the crash; photo taken in June 2014, from the linked article.

This photo shows the left wing in a vertical position after the crash; from the linked article.

This is the same type of plane in which former Senator Ted Stevens was killed, in a similar accident in 2010. The article points out that while Otters have been involved in a number of deadly accidents in recent years, they remain a workhorse in the Bush fleet due to size and carrying capacity.

Alaska Links

No, not this:

This:

• Motorcyclist dies following Monday crash near Whittier
• Sterling Highway crash injures Colorado man
• UAF rededicates nearly century-old campus
• Witness describes Saturday's emergency plane landing on Seward Highway
• Fire crews continue to look for hotspots near scene of Chester Creek wildfire
• Human jawbone found Sunday in South Anchorage
• (UPDATED) Missing couple found dead in Denali Highway trailer
• Evening closures planned for Seward Highway on Tuesdays and Thursdays
• A new life for Nome's abandoned World War II bomber?
• Bystanders tackle accused shoe robber, hold him at gunpoint
• Willow volunteers help victims rebuild after Sockeye Fire
• Florida hiker found dead near Juneau's Mount Roberts
• PHOTOS: A look back at the record-breaking Mt. Marathon race

About That Talkeetna Two-Plane Collision ...

The air pilot involved in Sunday's mid-air crash at Talkeetna Airport told supervisors he didn't know he'd "merged" with another plane until he landed and opened his door.

Go to the article and read the whole story. The details are still sketchy, but it seems - in this VERY early stage of investigation - that the smaller plane (with student pilot) either took off, or was landing, directly underneath the air taxi as the latter was landing, too. The larger craft could have literally landed on top of the other plane without ever knowing it was there.

Could have. "Appears". I'm awaiting the NTSB results on this one, but have to admit the taxi pilot's version seems suspect. On the other hand, I am NOT an expert, and will gladly defer to anyone with the knowledge of how such things work.

Your thoughts, Old NFO? Brigid? Bueller?

This, That, the Other, and a Want

Thank you, to all who left comments and/or e-mails regarding our 35th anniversary yesterday. 'Twas a good day indeed.

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A brief note to several who were thrown off by the snow in the "old aircraft" photos I re-posted. Those pics were taken about three years ago, on a late winter's day. Sorry; it wasn't my intention to mislead anyone.

* * * * *

Two light planes collided at low altitude at the Talkeetna airport yesterday, one of which was a Cessna 185 (an air taxi). The other was a student pilot in a Cessna 172, who was the only one injured. Details can be found by clicking this paragraph.

from the linked story at www.adn.com

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A local TV viewer submitted this video to the NBC affiliate:




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And lastly, WHY ISN'T THIS REAL???

That's about it for now. Thanks for stopping by, friends.

Missing Pilot Found Dead

Missing pilot found dead in Prince William Sound

Alaska State Troopers found the body of a missing pilot and his plane floating in Prince William Sound Wednesday evening, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, ending a search that lasted more than 24 hours.

The crew of a troopers vessel found the man's body and the Cessna 180 he had been flying in the waters off Culross Island in western Prince William Sound, near Whittier.

Cessna 180 - (en.wikipedia.org)

On Wednesday afternoon, KTUU identified the pilot as Dale Carlson, 53, of Wasilla. Petty Officer 1st Class Shawn Eggert of the Coast Guard's Anchorage public affairs office would not confirm the pilot's identity Wednesday night.

On Tuesday afternoon, the 11th Air Force Rescue Coordination Center had received a mayday call from the pilot in the vicinity of Perry Island.

The pilot reported “he had an engine failure and that he was going to try to set the plane down,” Eggert said.

The plane lost contact after that, Eggert said.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. May God comfort them.

NTSB Investigates Yet Another Mid-Air Crash

From the Alaska Dispatch News:

As federal investigators sort through the wreckage of a midair plane crash in Mat-Su on Saturday that injured a wildlife trooper and another pilot, attention is turning to the role radio communications may have played in the collision.

On Sunday, Alaska State Troopers identified the pilots involved in Saturday’s crash as Levi Duell, 35, of Anchorage and Jeffry Bara, 52, of Eagle River.

Duell and Bara were flying Piper PA-18 Super Cub airplanes when they collided southwest of Wasilla on Saturday afternoon. Both pilots were taken to area hospitals. Medics described Bara’s injuries as critical. AST spokeswoman Megan Peters said both men remained hospitalized as of Sunday.

Federal investigators spent Sunday at the crash site, a patch of woods near a private airstrip near Knik-Goose Bay Road and Vine Road, cataloging wreckage, said Clint Johnson of the National Transportation Safety Board.

The wreckage of a Super Cub rests in the woods near Sunset Rd, off of Knik-Goose Bay Rd in Wasilla on Saturday, January 31, 2015. The pilot, who collided mid-air with an Alaska State Trooper Super Cub, was life-flighted to Providence hospital in Anchorage. The pilot of the other airplane was taken by ambulance to Mat-Su Regional Hospital. | Loren Holmes / ADN

Follow the link to read the rest.

Searchers Rescue Pilot After His Plane Went Down

ANCHORAGE - Alaska National Guard authorities say the pilot of an aircraft overdue for nearly a day has been rescued from a lake west of Cook Inlet, where his plane was found Thursday afternoon.

Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska chief, said he was told by the 11th Air Force's Rescue Coordination Center that the pilot of the missing Cessna 180 was found at the crash site on Chakachamna Lake, on the west side of Cook Inlet.

Cessna 180 (image from es.wikipedia.org)

 

"They found the plane -- it's partially broken through the ice," Johnson said. "He's on the way to Central Peninsula Hospital, but my word is no injuries."

According to Alaska National Guard spokeswoman Kalei Rupp, the aircraft was located shortly before noon Thursday, during a search that included half a dozen Civil Air Patrol aircraft from four CAP squadrons.

Another Chilly Morning

It was -11° when I awoke; these temps will be normal in another month, but that's a little cool for the end of November. Oh well, AccuHunch guesses it'll be warmer in a few days. 

* * * * *
There's been another fatal plane crash, this time in western Alaska near the village of St. Mary's.

Four people died in a plane crash late Friday near the western Alaska village of St. Marys, according to the president of the company operating the flight. Six people aboard the plane were injured, said Jim Hickerson, the president of Hageland Aviation.

Of course it's too soon for any kind of official finding on the cause of the crash, but it was 18° and foggy. Ice/frost build-up is a possible culprit.

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We're heading out after breakfast to do a little shopping. Definitely not the "Black Friday" frenzy type, anyway. 

Thanks for stopping by, friends; I appreciate it.

Ouch (Updated)

Wasilla plane crash

From Channel 2 News in Anchorage:

A plane has crashed on Seward Meridian Parkway, near Wasilla, according to Troopers and the National Transportation Safety Board. It was reported at 8:30 a.m.

NTSB spokesperson Clint Johnson says there were no injuries, but the plane, a PA-18 Supercub, suffered substantial damage. The uninjured pilot is believed to be the only person to have been on board.

Here's more from the Daily News site:

Pilot Jeff Burwell took off from his home about a quarter-mile away, headed for a weeklong hunting trip on the Kenai Peninsula. But his Super Cub never got high enough in the frosty morning air, Burwell's wife said.

Instead, as Carol Burwell watched, saying "No, no, no," the plane's left wing clipped a light post in the parking lot of a nearby Image Audio store and dropped.

It narrowly missed overhead power lines, bounced once or twice, then bumped over a curb and came to a stop in the road, Burwell said as she watched her husband offload fuel to help stem a small leak around 9 a.m. Monday. The plane's fat tundra tires left twin tracks on the frosty grass between the parking lot and the road.

Burwell cut the engine when the wing hit the pole. He glided in for a landing.

The Super Cub's landing gear buckled. The light sheared off the tip of the right wing and left it at a 45-degree angle. The propeller bent when the plane hit the ground.

from the linked story at www.adn.com

And he walked away ... I hope his next stop was to buy a lottery ticket!

Sometimes, Bad News is All There Is

Nearly 11 months after a Palmer man and his plane were reported missing en route from Soldotna to Palmer and never found, the discovery of wreckage on a beach near Kodiak may offer closure in the case.

According to Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters, troopers were informed that beachcombers on Sitkinak Island Sept. 4 had found landing gear parts which may be from 27-year-old Brendan Mattingley’s green, red and white Piper PA-18 Super Cub.

... A preliminary NTSB report says that a radar track identified by investigators as Mattingley’s probable path traces a meandering path north, then ends over Cook Inlet. In statements made to investigators and later released by the NTSB, four witnesses say Mattingley had gotten drunk at a Soldotna bar the night before the crash and was asked to leave, eventually taking a taxi to the airport and being dropped off there on the morning of the crash.

...On Thursday afternoon, [Clint] Johnson [NTSB investigator] was reviewing documentation on the tundra tires fitted to Mattingley’s plane, required by the FAA for any non-standard aircraft components. While Johnson says non-standard landing gear are “very, very common” in Alaska, the paperwork may help confirm whether the parts once belonged to the missing aircraft.

The whole story is here.

My heart goes out to Mattingley's family. It's not the news they wanted, but it may be all the answer they ever get.

Good News for a Change

Happy Monday!

Ingredients:

• two men from Outside
• a Piper J-3
• Lake Clark, and
• Alaskan wilderness

They were overdue at their destination last Friday.  The plane was spotted a day later, with a note saying they decided to "hike to the nearest village". Too many of these stories end with, "and their bodies were found ..." - but not this one.

After 30 hours stranded on sodden tundra near Lake Clark, Patrick Williams and James Minton were ready to get out.

So they decided to walk from the site of their downed airplane to the nearest village, Nondalton, some 11 wild miles away.

Troopers found the men Sunday afternoon just a few miles from the village.

I love happy endings!