Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
- Messages
- 30,006
- Display Name
Display name:
iFlyNothing
Today marks 9 years since I founded Cloud Nine Rescue Flights.
A lot has happened in that time period, but much has stayed the same. Cloud Nine started off as "just a guy with a plane" - the clapped out old Aztec that I bought while living in Pennsylvania. I started out flying dogs mostly out of the Carolinas going to the northeast. Things quickly expanded and I found myself getting requests that included going as far as California, and spent some time working with IFAW going to Cozumel and northern Quebec.
In the summer of 2010 the 310 was donated and for a time we operated both the Aztec and the 310, but then focused on just the 310. In that time period, transports shifted from mostly coming out of the Carolinas to more coming out of Texas, although the 310 also saw Cozumel more than once as well as going back to northern Quebec. If I go back, I think in 2010 I flew over 500 hours while maintaining a day job, almost all of it for Cloud Nine.
In the summer of 2011, we started using Navajos on occasion for some of the trips in Canada, and also helped in recovery efforts after the Joplin Tornado with the ASPCA.
In 2012, we moved to Ohio for my day job, at which point the Canada trips and the Carolina trips came to a stop. Since 2012, our "milk runs" have been coming out of Houston. In this period I started working on optimizing the 310 and we overhauled the engines (which had made it 400 hours past TBO). With kids entering the picture personally, the Cloud Nine flying decreased for a while, but we continued flying to the northeast from Houston for most of our trips.
In 2015 we moved to Kansas, at which point we started getting more requests for the western half of the country, and it became obvious that we needed to upgrade aircraft. This started preparations for upgrading to the 414, which we were able to do around March of 2016. It was a project plane but a plane with good bones and a lot of room for the "Ted Touch" of getting rid of unnecessary equipment, upgrading some old systems, and making it an efficient plane.
2016 and 2017 were the years of the 414. In total we put 250 hours on that plane, including 2 trips out of St. Croix following Hurricane Maria (35 hours in 3.5 days), one of the most memorable transports I've ever done. Transports shifted to the western half of the country in this time period, going mostly from Houston to California instead of Houston to the northeast. We still go to the northeast, just not as regularly. The shift in transports had also resulted in trips mostly taking the entire weekend or having extremely long flying days. Of course, as you all also know, the 414 had a number of maintenance issues in the time we had it.
In January 2018, one of the biggest changes in our history occurred - the acquisition of our '72 MU-2. This is the jump into an airplane with the speed and dispatchability to match our needs. At this point, I have a bit over 30 hours, and we're waiting to pick it up from the engine shop from the hot section. There are already a number of trips in work, and I'm developing my plans for optimizing the plane. There's a possibility that we might be able to get it to do non-stop flights from Houston to California with dogs assuming winds are favorable, and consistent non-stop flights from California back to KC. Being ability to eliminate stops saves huge amounts of time.
The real story in all of this is the over 2,000 homeless pets we've saved, plus the veterinary clinics that we supported by transporting veterinarians and vet techs to remote areas, resulting in hundreds of spays and neuters. It's a bit odd to think about the fact that some of the dogs that I transported in the early days as puppies have probably died of old age by now. But ultimately, that was the goal - that they die of old age and have the opportunity of a life instead of being put down because they were born in an area that was overpopulated.
Throughout, PoA is been a big support. Lots of PoAers are donors - thank you for that. AdamZ helped me get Cloud Nine founded and has been of continued support throughout the years. The biggest constant - Cloud Nine has always been an all-volunteer non-profit, where 100% of donations go towards operations.
Two things that are showing their age, though, are our website and logo. The website, now I think 7 years old, is in rotten shape with a lot of items that don't work. Our logo, which is 9 years old, looks dated and represents an aircraft that we haven't used for transports in close to 7 years.
I'm not good at web development or at graphic design, but I suspect many on PoA are, so I thought I'd see if anyone was interested in a project to help us. If anyone's interested in volunteering their time to help us build a new website or make a new logo, let me know - we'd be most appreciative and always publicly thank our sponsors/supporters to help them get some advertising out of the deal.
A lot has happened in that time period, but much has stayed the same. Cloud Nine started off as "just a guy with a plane" - the clapped out old Aztec that I bought while living in Pennsylvania. I started out flying dogs mostly out of the Carolinas going to the northeast. Things quickly expanded and I found myself getting requests that included going as far as California, and spent some time working with IFAW going to Cozumel and northern Quebec.
In the summer of 2010 the 310 was donated and for a time we operated both the Aztec and the 310, but then focused on just the 310. In that time period, transports shifted from mostly coming out of the Carolinas to more coming out of Texas, although the 310 also saw Cozumel more than once as well as going back to northern Quebec. If I go back, I think in 2010 I flew over 500 hours while maintaining a day job, almost all of it for Cloud Nine.
In the summer of 2011, we started using Navajos on occasion for some of the trips in Canada, and also helped in recovery efforts after the Joplin Tornado with the ASPCA.
In 2012, we moved to Ohio for my day job, at which point the Canada trips and the Carolina trips came to a stop. Since 2012, our "milk runs" have been coming out of Houston. In this period I started working on optimizing the 310 and we overhauled the engines (which had made it 400 hours past TBO). With kids entering the picture personally, the Cloud Nine flying decreased for a while, but we continued flying to the northeast from Houston for most of our trips.
In 2015 we moved to Kansas, at which point we started getting more requests for the western half of the country, and it became obvious that we needed to upgrade aircraft. This started preparations for upgrading to the 414, which we were able to do around March of 2016. It was a project plane but a plane with good bones and a lot of room for the "Ted Touch" of getting rid of unnecessary equipment, upgrading some old systems, and making it an efficient plane.
2016 and 2017 were the years of the 414. In total we put 250 hours on that plane, including 2 trips out of St. Croix following Hurricane Maria (35 hours in 3.5 days), one of the most memorable transports I've ever done. Transports shifted to the western half of the country in this time period, going mostly from Houston to California instead of Houston to the northeast. We still go to the northeast, just not as regularly. The shift in transports had also resulted in trips mostly taking the entire weekend or having extremely long flying days. Of course, as you all also know, the 414 had a number of maintenance issues in the time we had it.
In January 2018, one of the biggest changes in our history occurred - the acquisition of our '72 MU-2. This is the jump into an airplane with the speed and dispatchability to match our needs. At this point, I have a bit over 30 hours, and we're waiting to pick it up from the engine shop from the hot section. There are already a number of trips in work, and I'm developing my plans for optimizing the plane. There's a possibility that we might be able to get it to do non-stop flights from Houston to California with dogs assuming winds are favorable, and consistent non-stop flights from California back to KC. Being ability to eliminate stops saves huge amounts of time.
The real story in all of this is the over 2,000 homeless pets we've saved, plus the veterinary clinics that we supported by transporting veterinarians and vet techs to remote areas, resulting in hundreds of spays and neuters. It's a bit odd to think about the fact that some of the dogs that I transported in the early days as puppies have probably died of old age by now. But ultimately, that was the goal - that they die of old age and have the opportunity of a life instead of being put down because they were born in an area that was overpopulated.
Throughout, PoA is been a big support. Lots of PoAers are donors - thank you for that. AdamZ helped me get Cloud Nine founded and has been of continued support throughout the years. The biggest constant - Cloud Nine has always been an all-volunteer non-profit, where 100% of donations go towards operations.
Two things that are showing their age, though, are our website and logo. The website, now I think 7 years old, is in rotten shape with a lot of items that don't work. Our logo, which is 9 years old, looks dated and represents an aircraft that we haven't used for transports in close to 7 years.
I'm not good at web development or at graphic design, but I suspect many on PoA are, so I thought I'd see if anyone was interested in a project to help us. If anyone's interested in volunteering their time to help us build a new website or make a new logo, let me know - we'd be most appreciative and always publicly thank our sponsors/supporters to help them get some advertising out of the deal.
