bhassel
Well Known Member
Just back from a quick trip to LOE 2009.
We drove down from Santa Fe yesterday morning (Friday). Passing through Albq we found ourselves in the middle of one wave of a mass acession. The sky and surrounding fields were full of hot air ballons and the sounds of burners going on and off all over the sky - ballon glows at night If you haven't seen this it's really worth going. There are usually 4 or 5 waves of mass liftoffs daily and its really quite the sight. My first balloon ride was in one of those mass acessions years ago.
Three hours later we arrived in Las Cruces and got in 18 holes of golf at Picacho Hills[ Country Club/URL]. A really nice course where we have a little chunk of land on the 18th fairway. Then a short drive away to an [URL="http://www.lascrucespub.com/"]Irish pub where they have Guinness and Smith...something on tap, pretty good food, live jazz in the background and meeting old freinds I havn't seen in a year.
We stayed in Las Cruces Friday night after finding a room. That was tough because of a big soccor tournament in town for the weekend. There was also an old car show and then the wine & jazz festival down at La Vina south of Las Cruces. It was difficult to sleep that night just thinking about heading to LOE just 40 minutes down the road on Saturday morning.
Even though I lived in Las Cruces for 18 years I had never been down to the Santa Teresa Airport (Dona Ana County) before. The sky was hazy (at least for us westerners) but there were already plenty of aircraft on the ramp and more arriving all the time. There was a beautiful Gull-Wing Stinson with chrome spinner taking off, a canard over head and a cessena trying to figure out what was going on as a flight of three RV's politely flew past.
An open cowl would suddenly draw a crowd. Laughter, smiles and greetings were the order of the morning.
Later I had a chance to meet one of the more famous New Mexician RV'ers in Larry Purdue. Now there's someone I've been trying to run into for awhile! I also met Paul & Louise Dye, Moose and many others. Rosie sorry I missed meeting you, maybe next time! I saw Sott and Tanya's beautiful RV9 under wraps and missed meeting them as well.
We went down because I wanted to get some motivation to get started back to building next year. We started on a 9 and didn't quite finish the emp before geting detoured by life. We came away today, blown away by the RV10's we had seen, the comments we heard from the builders about the stability, speed and mule packing capabilities of that beautiful bird. I guess we're converted now...the RV10 it is.
I've read Paul's post on the RV12 but after hearing him and Loraine talking about it live I have to believe that the RV12 will be the second RV I build. Paul used words like 'incredible, land-o-matic, really short take-off,...' and Louise was just as impressed. 60K for a flying LSA? Hmmm...isn't that about two RV12's for the price of a Remos or SkyCatcher????? I think Van has gotten right...again (and again and again).
Speaking of RV10's (I was wasn't I?) one of the 10'ers (sorry about not remembering names - I only have two brain cells left and I'm saving one for retirement) was telling me he was on his way back home from the west coast with 100 bottles of wine in the back! I was really disappointed at how well he guarded that bird...
I met the builder (names again...grrr....bob) of one the original Colorado RV10's. Beautiful bird! He really took the time to tell me and Jan about his experiences and the handling of that beautiful spirit with wings.
I wish I could remember all the names of the great people I had met from the Southern Cal crew in the parking lot, every RV10 driver I could find and everyone else that kindly extended a hand and time to talk!
America's Engines was there showing off the beautiful ECI work and Bob and his wife from Fairings, etc had a table set up.
I also got pictures of the three birds kicked out of the museum for the banquet tonight.
Jan and I walked and talked the line. I couldn't find a nicer, friendlier bunch of people anywhere! Thanks so much to everyone for making those short three hours I spent down there so rewarding (and expensive - how much is that RV10 kit????)
Here's my pics from earlier this morning. Sorry I had a couple of spots on the lens that I need to photoshop, no time yet...I hope you enjoy...
Bob
We drove down from Santa Fe yesterday morning (Friday). Passing through Albq we found ourselves in the middle of one wave of a mass acession. The sky and surrounding fields were full of hot air ballons and the sounds of burners going on and off all over the sky - ballon glows at night If you haven't seen this it's really worth going. There are usually 4 or 5 waves of mass liftoffs daily and its really quite the sight. My first balloon ride was in one of those mass acessions years ago.
Three hours later we arrived in Las Cruces and got in 18 holes of golf at Picacho Hills[ Country Club/URL]. A really nice course where we have a little chunk of land on the 18th fairway. Then a short drive away to an [URL="http://www.lascrucespub.com/"]Irish pub where they have Guinness and Smith...something on tap, pretty good food, live jazz in the background and meeting old freinds I havn't seen in a year.
We stayed in Las Cruces Friday night after finding a room. That was tough because of a big soccor tournament in town for the weekend. There was also an old car show and then the wine & jazz festival down at La Vina south of Las Cruces. It was difficult to sleep that night just thinking about heading to LOE just 40 minutes down the road on Saturday morning.
Even though I lived in Las Cruces for 18 years I had never been down to the Santa Teresa Airport (Dona Ana County) before. The sky was hazy (at least for us westerners) but there were already plenty of aircraft on the ramp and more arriving all the time. There was a beautiful Gull-Wing Stinson with chrome spinner taking off, a canard over head and a cessena trying to figure out what was going on as a flight of three RV's politely flew past.
An open cowl would suddenly draw a crowd. Laughter, smiles and greetings were the order of the morning.
Later I had a chance to meet one of the more famous New Mexician RV'ers in Larry Purdue. Now there's someone I've been trying to run into for awhile! I also met Paul & Louise Dye, Moose and many others. Rosie sorry I missed meeting you, maybe next time! I saw Sott and Tanya's beautiful RV9 under wraps and missed meeting them as well.
We went down because I wanted to get some motivation to get started back to building next year. We started on a 9 and didn't quite finish the emp before geting detoured by life. We came away today, blown away by the RV10's we had seen, the comments we heard from the builders about the stability, speed and mule packing capabilities of that beautiful bird. I guess we're converted now...the RV10 it is.
I've read Paul's post on the RV12 but after hearing him and Loraine talking about it live I have to believe that the RV12 will be the second RV I build. Paul used words like 'incredible, land-o-matic, really short take-off,...' and Louise was just as impressed. 60K for a flying LSA? Hmmm...isn't that about two RV12's for the price of a Remos or SkyCatcher????? I think Van has gotten right...again (and again and again).
Speaking of RV10's (I was wasn't I?) one of the 10'ers (sorry about not remembering names - I only have two brain cells left and I'm saving one for retirement) was telling me he was on his way back home from the west coast with 100 bottles of wine in the back! I was really disappointed at how well he guarded that bird...
I met the builder (names again...grrr....bob) of one the original Colorado RV10's. Beautiful bird! He really took the time to tell me and Jan about his experiences and the handling of that beautiful spirit with wings.
I wish I could remember all the names of the great people I had met from the Southern Cal crew in the parking lot, every RV10 driver I could find and everyone else that kindly extended a hand and time to talk!
America's Engines was there showing off the beautiful ECI work and Bob and his wife from Fairings, etc had a table set up.
I also got pictures of the three birds kicked out of the museum for the banquet tonight.
Jan and I walked and talked the line. I couldn't find a nicer, friendlier bunch of people anywhere! Thanks so much to everyone for making those short three hours I spent down there so rewarding (and expensive - how much is that RV10 kit????)
Here's my pics from earlier this morning. Sorry I had a couple of spots on the lens that I need to photoshop, no time yet...I hope you enjoy...
Bob
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