Caption Contest #84 Winner - Dope On A Rope!

 This has definitely been the most unusual Caption Contest ever here on AirPigz, and for many reasons... first I'll say that I usually have the winner posted fairly early on Saturday morning, but I left the house before 7am this morning to go do hot air balloon crew work. My son-in-law has a balloon (actually two envelopes, one at 77,000 cubic feet and another at 90,000 cubic feet) and even tho he flew last evening, he had another flight scheduled for this morning, and I try to crew for him any time he needs the help. We were kinda short on crew this morning (it was just me and him, plus the pax) which meant it took longer to get everything wrapped up than usual, so I wasn't able to get this post all pulled together until afternoon.

 Below is a phone pic I grabbed while the balloon was approaching for landing. Bright morning sun and only about 2 mph winds on the surface. I love doing balloon crew/chase vehicle work, but today I can officially report that starting tomorrow morning (weather permitting) I'm gonna begin training to get my balloon rating! As a rated balloon pilot, my son-in-law can act as the instructor, and this will give me the chance to trade being crew/chase for the 10 hours of flight time I need. Propane cost is low these days so it won't even cost very much for the fuel! Sure sounds like fun : )

 
Early morning balloon flight over Indiana farmland that I did crew/chase for today

 Anyway, back to the caption contest. There were quite a few more submissions than usual, plus there were a lot more really great ones than we tupically see as well. I don't know if it was the unique bizarre nature of the pic or what, but this time around really stirred up lots of creative and entertaining captions. And then the total number of votes was about 4 times higher than normal too. I haven't figured out yet if the voting was 'gamed' this time around or if captioner 'Jason D' just got everyone he knows to vote for him, but as it stands right now, his caption snagged almost 60% of the 281 votes. For now I'll say congrats Jason, and let you know that you've won the book seen below, Concorde by Philip Birtles... it'll be on the way soon once I make email contact.

 Thanx to all the people who submitted this time around, I really appreciate everyone's participation. Hopefully the next time we play we see this kind of turnout again!

The prize for winning this caption contest: a used copy of Concorde by Philip Birtles

Caption Contest #83 Winner - NOT The Wright Brothers!

 Yuk Yuk Yuk! Congrats go out once again to seasoned captioner and bacon sandwich collector 'Tim' for winning once again! I hope he's gonna make it to OSH13 to collect his winnings, especially since the sequestration HAS NOT affected AirPigz bacon funding : )

 Also, for anyone interested in being able to snag some free bacon at Oshkosh this year, I'll be posting the details on the two AirPigz Bacon Parties that'll take place at my campsite (aka CampBacon) sometime next week. Don't miss your chance for fun avgeek chat while enjoying a stick or two of crunch pig.

 And watch for at least one more caption contest to be posted before the world's greatest aviation event gets here... and did ya know? - OSH13 will be the best Oshkosh ever (details soon : )

Caption Contest #82 Winner - Safety First! (With Videos)

 As is often the case, a short and sweet caption wins the bacon! Congrats to 'JD' for coming up with the most popular caption as voted by fellow avgeeks. I hope JD has OSH13 plans so I can cook 'em up a tasty bacon sandwich : )

 And if you didn't know, this pic came from a video shoot for a "Don't Mess With Texas' anti-littering campaign back in the 90's. The videos below show the actual ad first and then you can watch a behind-the-scenes video of multiple passes over the film crew with the B-17 and a few with a P-51 and F4F. Great ad concept and looks like it was fun for everyone... sure wish I had been there for it!

Caption Contest #81 - Encouraging A Winner!

 WooHoo! Long time AirPigz follower and all around good-guy 'seerjfly' has finished out front (hehe) in caption contest #81. His short and sweet Forrest Gump throwback was well done and very popular. I smell bacon in his future!

 In case you're wondering what was going on in this pic, the skydiver worked his way to the nose of the pink Skyvan and then jumped off with his feet at about the top lip of the mouth. I assume he actually ran down the windshield and nose. This pic is just right tho to give the appearance that he was actually flying in front of the Skyvan. See the pic sequence on this Lienbacher facebook page post. Those skydivers, they're crazy, crazy people : )

 Thanx to all who played this time around... more avgeek caption fun before long!

Caption Contest #80 Has A Sequestered Winner!

 While I feel the sequestration is being used as a dirty trick against the American people, I'm at least happy to see we can still have some avgeek fun with it. Congrats go out to 'Tim' (again!) for coming up with the winning caption. Short, sweet and right on target, that's how you win at captioning. Here's hoping Tim will be able to make it to OSH13 to fetch up his bacon sandwich winnings.

 I also wanna send a big Thank You to everyone who played this time around, it was a fabulous batch of captions. I've been going thru a major time and energy cramp with my day job, and I posted this contest as a way to get something up quickly. It's very encouraging to me to see how much response the contest got. I'll plan to post another one before long to keep y'all in top captioner form. I've still got a nice treasure chest of images suitable for avgeek humor, so keep your eyes peeled for another to show up some Monday morning before long : )

Wright On! Caption Contest #79 Has A Winner

 The number of captions and people voting were down a bit this time around... do you think the last minute Christmas shopping rush had anything to do with that? Ha! I was way ahead of the curve this year and got all my shopping done well over a week ago! (what the heck?)

 Anyway, there were indeed captioners and voters to make this fun little avgeek game come to life, and 'Steve' came out on top with the caption above. Congrats on the winning effort and I hope you've got plans to be at Oshkosh 2013 to fetch up your tasty bacon sandwich prize!

 This is the last caption contest of 2012, but there'll be another before long as we steam our way into the new year. Thanx again to everyone for playing along - it just wouldn't be any fun without you : )

The Caption Contest #78 Winner Slides To A Stop!

 My friend 'seerjfly' offered up the most popular caption as voted by y'all in the poll... and I have to agree, it's the one I voted for too! Congrats for the coming up with the winner and I sure hope you're gonna be able to make it to Oshkosh 2013 to collect you're tasty bacon reward : )

 There sure were a lot of great captions submitted this time around. Here's a big thank you to everyone who got in on that. I appreciate you playing along in this harmless avgeekery exercise! Keep and eye out for another Caption Contest to slide in again before long.

Winding Up A Winner In Caption Contest #77!

 Congrats to Chris Muncy for 'winding' up a winner in Caption Contest #77 - I hope Oshkosh 2013 is in your plans for next summer so you can claim your bacon sandwich prize! And a big thank you to everyone who submitted some avgeek humor this time around, that was a big collection of really good captions from everyone.

 So, is this pic for real? It appears to be real to me... but the heck was it all about? Well, I found the pic in this post over at Modern Mechanix where they had an article from 1930 claiming that an inventor had a solution to the problem of not being able to make repairs to an aircraft (especially at the tail) while in flight. Hmm, I'm not sure I'd call this a solution! The obvious risk of falling, the difficulty of carrying tools, and the affect on the CG having a man all the way back at the tail (along with the potential aerodynamic disruption complications) make me question the reality of this being serious.

 I'm thinking I'm gonna call this one a crazy stunt... what do you think?

Caption Contest #76 Winner - Born To Be Wild!

 Congrats to Tim C. for winning the moon minibike caption contest - I hope he'll be able to make it to OSH12 to enjoy his bacon sandwich prize! And as always, thanx to everyone who submitted captions and voted. This will probably be the last contest until after Oshkosh, but we'll pick it up again sometime in August.

 And I'm thinking you'd have to be pretty wild to be riding a NASA minibike in low-g (and zero-g?) conditions in a vomit comet. Especially with that spacesuit on restricting your ability to control the thing. But NASA really did consider the possibility of a minbike on the moon - you can read a little about it in this AmericaSpace.com post: How NASA Didn't Drive on the Moon.

 I love motorcycles, but I think the 4-wheel Lunar Roving Vehicle was the better idea for moon cruisin' : )

Caption Contest #75 Spins Up A Winner For Father's Day!

 Honestly I thought this odd pic would have stirred up a lot more wacky caption response, especially with tomorrow being Father's Day... but the captions were good and the race was tight. In the end it was Dave Haas who spun his way to victory and a bacon sandwich at OSH12. I sure hope Oshkosh is in your summer plans Dave, because experiencing the world's greatest aviation event AND having a sizzling bacon sandwich is possibly the world's greatest combo : )

 Thanx everyone for playing along again, and I hope y'all have a great Father's Day!