Jay Honeck
Touchdown! Greaser!
We spent the day at Blakesburg, Iowa yesterday -- what a gorgeous day. 75 degrees, light winds, sunny. Perfect, except for the pollen, which almost killed me. I doubled my dosage of Claritan, and eventually stopped sneezing, but it was awful for a few hours. (There's nothing like being in the middle of 6 million square miles of farmland, chock-full of plants I'm deathly allergic to!)
If you've never been to this fly-in, I highly recommend it. Although I love Oshkosh, this fly-in is the "anti-Airventure" in many ways. No commercial sponsorships, no displays that aren't directly related to aviation. No public admission (you must be a member, and you can't become a member without being "invited" by another member), and it's held in a very isolated area (a farm in the absolutely middle of no where) to minimize intrusions from the outside world... Yet the place was chock-full of folks who flew 70-year-old biplanes in from as far away as California!
Althought we have attended for the last several years, this was our first time flying into this fantastic event. Mary decided it was safer landing Sweetie (our '48 Ercoupe) on a short grass strip than it was to take off, so she took 'er in. The runway is 2300' long, with a slight dog-leg, trees on three sides, and -- best of all -- a pretty steep UP hill when landing to the South, which was today's runway du jour. You can't land at the top of the up hill -- everyone made that VERY clear to me, as there isn't enough turf left before the fence -- so you MUST land on the up slope. Boy, that makes for a funny sight-picture, and the landing flare must be very aggressive.
Mary did fine, although it was a firm 3-pointer onto (into?) the up-hill slope. She practiced (and nailed) a short-field landing in Washington before we headed to Blakesburg, so everything worked out for the best. It felt great to taxi in past the peanut gallery for the first time; as usual, flying in to a "fly-in" is a completely different experience than driving (or, as we've done before, riding) in.
We spent the day mostly sitting in chairs, talking with old-timers (and, later, friends from Iowa City) and watching the most amazing aircraft come in. Lockheed Electras, Cessna "Bamboo Bombers", Travel Airs, Luscombes, Stinsons, Howards -- just a friggin' amazing collection of antique aircraft. Sweetie was the red-headed step child in this group, but -- at 61 years old -- she was right at home.
We had to go to our daughter's "Parents Back to School Night" tonight, so we couldn't stay much past 5 PM -- thus, we missed cocktail hour. My departure from Antique Airfield was "interesting", since Sweetie's 85 horses just aren't enough to launch us smartly, even off of a smooth, level concrete runway. Off a short, UP-hill grass strip, well, let's just say I was glad there was nothing but corn off the end of the runway...
We're thinking about flying back today. The weather is supposed to be perfect through the weekend...
If you've never been to this fly-in, I highly recommend it. Although I love Oshkosh, this fly-in is the "anti-Airventure" in many ways. No commercial sponsorships, no displays that aren't directly related to aviation. No public admission (you must be a member, and you can't become a member without being "invited" by another member), and it's held in a very isolated area (a farm in the absolutely middle of no where) to minimize intrusions from the outside world... Yet the place was chock-full of folks who flew 70-year-old biplanes in from as far away as California!
Althought we have attended for the last several years, this was our first time flying into this fantastic event. Mary decided it was safer landing Sweetie (our '48 Ercoupe) on a short grass strip than it was to take off, so she took 'er in. The runway is 2300' long, with a slight dog-leg, trees on three sides, and -- best of all -- a pretty steep UP hill when landing to the South, which was today's runway du jour. You can't land at the top of the up hill -- everyone made that VERY clear to me, as there isn't enough turf left before the fence -- so you MUST land on the up slope. Boy, that makes for a funny sight-picture, and the landing flare must be very aggressive.
Mary did fine, although it was a firm 3-pointer onto (into?) the up-hill slope. She practiced (and nailed) a short-field landing in Washington before we headed to Blakesburg, so everything worked out for the best. It felt great to taxi in past the peanut gallery for the first time; as usual, flying in to a "fly-in" is a completely different experience than driving (or, as we've done before, riding) in.
We spent the day mostly sitting in chairs, talking with old-timers (and, later, friends from Iowa City) and watching the most amazing aircraft come in. Lockheed Electras, Cessna "Bamboo Bombers", Travel Airs, Luscombes, Stinsons, Howards -- just a friggin' amazing collection of antique aircraft. Sweetie was the red-headed step child in this group, but -- at 61 years old -- she was right at home.
We had to go to our daughter's "Parents Back to School Night" tonight, so we couldn't stay much past 5 PM -- thus, we missed cocktail hour. My departure from Antique Airfield was "interesting", since Sweetie's 85 horses just aren't enough to launch us smartly, even off of a smooth, level concrete runway. Off a short, UP-hill grass strip, well, let's just say I was glad there was nothing but corn off the end of the runway...
We're thinking about flying back today. The weather is supposed to be perfect through the weekend...
