Petit Jean Mountain Fly-In / Camp-in Good Time Nov 4-6

[N520TX]

Just have to add my voice to the chorus singing the praises of Bill and his merry band of local EAA elves. This fly-in was top-notch! When we were all told that everything would be provided, just bring your own steak --- they were not kidding.

I have to put out some extra special thanks tho ... Randall, your replacement tire and tube is MUCH appreciated, we owe you! ... Scott Millhouse, thanks to you for providing a second replacement tube when I butchered the first one ! And thanks to many others who had further replacement tubes at the ready if and when I needed them ;o) I'm going to be on the web today ordering a few as replacements.

The Friday night BBQ spread was awesome - I can't say how much out of the way those lodge folks went to make sure we were taken care of. Sat morning breakfast rocked ... lunch ... just can't say enough. Sorry we had to leave Sat afternoon though ... the weather was just closing in down in south Texas here and we had to be home.

[N8RV]

"Awesome" is a word that is much over-used in our society today, especially by the youngsters. However, there are scant few superlatives that would adequately describe the job that our fellow EAAers did in making everyone feel welcome (and well-fed!) -- even for a Yankee like me.

I don't fly to many fly-ins because I usually don't know anyone there, and find myself eating cold pancakes by myself, then wandering around the planes by myself, and finally leaving by myself. It's not on my must-do list.

Oshkosh, on the extreme end of the spectrum, requires no explanation.

When my spousal unit informed me that she was driving to Chicago for a memorial service for an old family friend, I knew I needed to find another destination for Smokey and me. With her blessing, I popped open my iPad and started scanning ForeFlight for a possible destination.

A cursory glance at the daily topics here reminded me that the Petit Jean fly-in was NOW, so I whipped up my flight plan, loaded Smokey with the essentials for a quick weekend campout in the balmy south (LOL) and headed south.

The first two hours of flight were somewhat boring at 6500' and CAVU. I fiddled with the XM radio stations and was amazed that nobody else seemed to think that it was a good day to fly.

South of St. Louis, however, with an hour to go, an undercast was forming. Not wanting to deviate too far west off course, I elected to slip down through a big hole and face the dark, murky, low-level air. Visibility was at least 10 miles, but it was depressing after being up in the sunshine.

After making my calls on the unicom frequency at 10 and 5 miles out, I grew somewhat concerned when I couldn't see any airport ahead. My GPS indicated that it was just on the other side of the river, which I had in sight, but I could see nothing but a high bluff past the river, with no room for an airport. I climbed a couple hundred feet higher and voile', the airport appeared ON TOP of the bluff. Another concern arose when I was downwind and saw NO airplanes on the ground! Did I have the wrong dates? Am I at the wrong airport? No, the planes were all congregated at the south end of the runway, hidden by tall pines. Whew!



Made some new friends over the weekend from all over the place. Some really nice planes, too. My nose nearly froze on Friday night because it was so stinkin' cold there!

Weather permitting, I will be there again next year WITH my spousal unit in tow. She's not an aviator, but would fit in nicely with some of the other spousal units I had the pleasure to meet, and I'm sure we would all come away with much longer honey-do lists after leaving them around a campfire for a night or two.

Oh, and the best news was that, being a Yankee, the strong winds out of the southwest gave me a tailwind on the way back. Low overcast and some bumps, but the instruments tell it all ...





Sweet ... 206 kts ground speed on less than 8.5 gph!

Thanks again for a great weekend, guys. You're the BEST!

[RVbySDI]

Mary and I want to add additional kudos to the Arkansas guys as well. What everyone else above said goes for us too. We had a great time. The lodge was absolutely fantastic. Hopefully we can do the same next year. What a fantastic place!

We also were ones that left Saturday afternoon. We would have loved to stay for the Saturday night cook out but weather ruled our decision. Hope to do this all again next year.

I have several pics I will attempt to post in the next few days. I also have several videos but not sure how I will get them posted (and no, I won't post a certain video of a particular take-off with a rather obnoxious gyro yahoo reeking havoc overhead).

[DanH]

Originally Posted by N8RV

Sweet ... 206 kts ground speed on less than 8.5 gph!

Sweet indeed. We left right after you, but going west, just across the state line into Oklahoma. Ceiling was about the same as KMPJ and vis was good, but about halfway to Ft Smith it got pretty rough. Patti received an authentic introduction to moderate turbulence in an RV, complete with a canopy whack. Knowing if she got another I'd get one too (the real drawback to tandem seating), I kept it to 145 or so. Same that afternoon for the first hour of the run back to Alabama. Nice skies east of the Mississippi so I turned it up, but we still had a headwind component and seldom saw 175 groundspeed.

So what did the Texas gang have going home?

This trip was my first real use of the 696 terrain display. I like it! Saturday morning required ducking under from Stuttgart, past Little Rock and up the Arkansas River. It was low but clear, and no trouble with all the hills and towers displayed. Sunday into Oklahoma the ceiling was higher but so were the hills. Again, easy to pick a safe course. I know Okie mountains are mere anthills for our Western pilots, but rocks are just as hard at 2000 feet.

Don, Jay, Danny, thanks for sharing your fire.

[Danny King]

I want to add Marthajane's and my thank you for all the southern hospitality the Arkansas EAA/RVers displayed, making this years Petit Jean the best ever!

It was great seeing the usual suspects, and meeting many new people. My first Petit Jean fly-in back in 2004 included just a handful of RV types from 52F and Hicks, but it has grown in to a first class flying. Again, thanks so much for all the hard work.

[bhester]

Finally got my pictures on the net!
https://picasaweb.google.com/1089952...arkRVFlyIn2011

Got back Saturday and had to fly a buddy to Atlanta Sunday! 7.5 hrs flight time for the weekend.

[N520TX]

Originally Posted by DanH

So what did the Texas gang have going home?

Can't speak for all TX bound aircraft, but the two ship we had heading down to Austin was overall a good one. Down low, below about 2,000 agl, it was rough - climbing above that layer that roughness turned into 30 knot headwinds. Making 123 knots over the ground (grrrrr) for 3 hrs at about 6,500 msl. About 50 miles out of KGTU the clouds started to thicken to an overcast layer so we needed to duck under and continue the rest of the flight at about 4,500 in the bumps.

Wheels down right at local sunset.

[Jaypratt]

Yep this was the best ever!! Bill and company did a super job. Thanks a bunch.
I was with Danny Martha Jane, Jim and Debby back in 2004. There were only 5 of us that time. That was 'BC',,, before Carol.
This has grown to a real production. We really appreciated the vans, getting around has been a hassel in the past.
Someone ask me why we flew the Cessna 180 to a RV Fly in? Well,, we could
Thaks for a fun Fly In. See you next year.
And Dan H you got my vote for best RV!! Wow,, the best, in any line up.

[moll780]

cant believe i missed this fly-in.
me and my new 9 would have loved to come!
oh well.. next year.

[Indiana Larry]

I want to thank Bill and all his staff at Petit Jean for a great weekend even if it was a tad on the chilly side. From southern Indiana Steve Eberhart and wife with me and my wife made the little over 2 hour flight in on Friday afternoon. We found out what the obstacle warnings are for when flying under 1,000 ft. ceiling most of the way.

The Little Rock area EAA chapters put on a fine exhibition of how to prepare for and run a great fly in covering three days. Everything was excellent. Thank you for everything ladies and gentlemen flyers. It was a wonderful experience for us and getting to meet more RV'ers. We hope to attend next year if the good Lord is willing.

Thank you all..... Larry Helming with the yellow SunSeeker RV7 and wife Karen.