Ollie

Active Member
What a great weekend it was at the Lakeland Sun & Fun RV fly-in. There were 94 counted RVs and probably a couple that missed the count. The weather was perfect in Florida although some of the ones from further up in the North country had some fun getting home. Even some ice. There was only one 10 in attendance, he flew down from Atlanta area. Sixteen aircraft camped Friday night and about twentyfour Sat.
Some of the ones that came and left on Sat. had problems with the tower as they could not seem to handle the traffic and several were given quite long holds.
Here is link to a few pictures I took at the fly-in. The night campfire was a hoot.

http://picasaweb.google.com/OllieS7S/SFRVs107

Ollie 6A
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RV Fly-In

Great RV-Fly-In. Organizers and Ground Crew should be complimented for their efforts. Tower crew was very busy when I taxied to Five, had to hold about five minutes before I rec'd clearance to depart. (I really think they forgot me) I enjoyed myself, but by 1:30 I was walked and talked out and ready fly home.
Gerry Chancey
RV-9, N92GC
 
Traffic was pretty busy, but ATC did a great job (especially tampa approach). The ground crew came right up to my aircraft and directed me to parking quickly.

Does anyone know why they had to close the airport on Saturday morning? I was en-route when I heard it re-opened (from miami center I believe) and felt pretty stupid as I didn't even know it had closed.
 
Paul Thomas said:
Does anyone know why they had to close the airport on Saturday morning? I was en-route when I heard it re-opened (from miami center I believe) and felt pretty stupid as I didn't even know it had closed.

I flew in around 9:45. It was pretty busy at that time but I wasn't aware of any closures. I was inserted into the pattern without any issues.

Departure at 2:30 was about a 10 min delay prior to my clearing. The tower could not hear me transmit while in #1 position, although the planes behind me could hear me fine. I could receive tower communications. The RVs behind me aided the tower with my communications. Curious that the ground crew heard me transmit prior to taxi. I had 2-way comm with ctaf on inbound approach.
 
Busy busy busy. My father-in-law (to be) and I flew over from KPCM, which is only 8 miles away. We departed PCM at approximately 10:15 Saturday morning, and didn't land at LAL till approx. 10:50. The G1000 (he flies a Diamond D40) was peppered with little traffic icons on the screen. I think the controllers handled the traffic well. The only problem was that everyone seemed to arrive at once and the frequency was simply overloaded with people calling in. Anyhow, it was a great turnout and after walking around for a while he told me, "I can see why you want to build one of these. They are really neat airplanes."
 
Great incentive

Wow! Looks like everyone had a lot of fun. Seeing this kind of event gets me pumped up and want to grab my rivet gun and bucking bar. I look forward to finishing my 9A and joining in on the fun.
 
Dan, I was the RV-10 that was behind you and helping with the ATC communications. Your radio was very, very weak. The ground crew probably heard you because you were close to them. I noticed that you only have 43 hours on your plane, and it is't unheard of for things like this to show up in the first 100 hours. My guess would be that one of your coax connectors between the radio and the antenna might have a bad connection, or even a bad crimp on the center conductor. It shouldn't be to hard to find.
God Luck.

Vic
 
vic syracuse said:
Dan, I was the RV-10 that was behind you and helping with the ATC communications. Your radio was very, very weak. The ground crew probably heard you because you were close to them. I noticed that you only have 43 hours on your plane, and it is't unheard of for things like this to show up in the first 100 hours. My guess would be that one of your coax connectors between the radio and the antenna might have a bad connection, or even a bad crimp on the center conductor. It shouldn't be to hard to find.
God Luck.

Vic

Thank you Vic for your assistance while holding. I was hoping you'd be on the list.

I tested the transmit Sunday while inbound to BKV. A pilot on the ground responded as well as local traffic. I believe I'm having problems with mic sensitivity and squelch. It has been intermittant. I'll recheck all my connections. The airports I used in phase 1 where all non-towered. Usually I have a handheld as my backup but didn't have it with me on Saturday.

Thanks again.