I am writing this to let everyone who loves everything RV know about a special fly-in that occurred this past Sat. in Urbana, Ohio.
A few weeks ago I was asked my to fly my newly completed -7A down to Urbana(I74) from Tiffin, OH (16G) and show it to several nursing home residents there. My cousin is an administrator at the home. Why? because the home was celebrating "national aviation month." The residents would be transported to the airport via the typical transit style van and watch my arrival, landing and then the plan was to go into the on-field resturant and dine / discuss experimental aircraft with them.
Well, why do something yourself to spread the RV love when you can include so many others that are smitten by the same passion. I posted an email explaining the fly-in on the Ohio Valley RVator web ring and received a great deal of response from others eager to fly-in.... and fly in they did!
After my hangar mate, and I landed in our -6A and -7A respectively... at approximately 1:30 EST the drone of lycomings was heared to the East of the airport and signaled the arrival of a beautifully flown formation of -8's, 7A, -6's, a -4 and a gorgeous Lancair Legacy flying the slot. They flew precisely, elegantly, and with authority.
After several fly-bys, to the delight of the residents who could see perfectly from their heated van parked on the tarmac (the kind with a wall of windows on both sides), the team performed a very nice pitch up to landing maneuver. After which they taxied in at even spacing and then turned simultaneously to park. The team included RVers from the Cincy, Columbus, and New Philadelphia areas of Ohio, as well as, the Legacy driver who flew in from Cleveland.
We gathered in the dining room and fielded questions from the residents about our planes over the usual airport restaurant delicacy of burgers, onion rings, fried bologna sandwiches, french fries, pie and coffee. Three of the residents were WWII veterans and one fought in Korea. It was very cold in central Ohio on Sat. and that limited our resident turn out to 9 folks total.
I put together a brief slide show to illustrate how we build these great machines in garages, shops, barns, and hangars all over the world. I included one of Dan Checkoways in-flight videos as well so they could see what we see from the cockpit as we fly. Many questions were asked and the sense that we all shared something special in that room was most evident.
We said goodbye and helped the residents back onto the van to return to the retirement home. The departure of the group was equally impressive as their arrival with several passes, high performance climb displays from the Legacy and the like. Many thanks to the excellent pilots from the Ohio Valley RVators that flew so superbly Saturday!
One of the WWII vets said that "he had never seen formation flying like that, even from the P-51 boys!" I could see in his eyes that he was remembering when as he and all of the others smiled..... and it made my day!
I'll let this email that I received from the retirement home nurse who brought the residents to the airport explain their excitement over the event. This summer we are planning a LARGE gathering of RV's and BBQ for as many retired folks and their families that we can possibly get to I74, Urbana. I'll keep you posted to the date and times as it becomes a reality.
Quote -
"Jeff,
Let me say first how much it meant to me and the residents what you guys did yesterday. I can not say enough how wonderful it was. Last night I was at Wal*Mart and a lady walked up to me, she was at the airport. She wanted to tell me how fantastic she thought it was that a group of pilots would do something like that for such a small group of people who are in a nursing home. I replied by saying that you guys have some of the biggest hearts I have ever seen! The guys are still talking about all the cool flying they saw, and their family was in today and I had about four of them walk up to me and thank me for taking their husbands because they have never stopped talking about something so much in a long time. Polly said to tell you hi, and all day today she kept saying that she thought you had the prettiest blue eyes, ( watch out there Jeff!) Thank everyone for me once again from the bottom of my heart for what they did......You wonderful guys gave our residents a great day yesterday. Take care.
Jennifer"
PS. I'll get back to you soon about another event! I'll start working on it after the new year!
-UnQuote
Keep pounding those rivets and share it as much as you can!
Jeff - N247DE - 7A flying 22hrs - 16G
A few weeks ago I was asked my to fly my newly completed -7A down to Urbana(I74) from Tiffin, OH (16G) and show it to several nursing home residents there. My cousin is an administrator at the home. Why? because the home was celebrating "national aviation month." The residents would be transported to the airport via the typical transit style van and watch my arrival, landing and then the plan was to go into the on-field resturant and dine / discuss experimental aircraft with them.
Well, why do something yourself to spread the RV love when you can include so many others that are smitten by the same passion. I posted an email explaining the fly-in on the Ohio Valley RVator web ring and received a great deal of response from others eager to fly-in.... and fly in they did!
After my hangar mate, and I landed in our -6A and -7A respectively... at approximately 1:30 EST the drone of lycomings was heared to the East of the airport and signaled the arrival of a beautifully flown formation of -8's, 7A, -6's, a -4 and a gorgeous Lancair Legacy flying the slot. They flew precisely, elegantly, and with authority.
After several fly-bys, to the delight of the residents who could see perfectly from their heated van parked on the tarmac (the kind with a wall of windows on both sides), the team performed a very nice pitch up to landing maneuver. After which they taxied in at even spacing and then turned simultaneously to park. The team included RVers from the Cincy, Columbus, and New Philadelphia areas of Ohio, as well as, the Legacy driver who flew in from Cleveland.
We gathered in the dining room and fielded questions from the residents about our planes over the usual airport restaurant delicacy of burgers, onion rings, fried bologna sandwiches, french fries, pie and coffee. Three of the residents were WWII veterans and one fought in Korea. It was very cold in central Ohio on Sat. and that limited our resident turn out to 9 folks total.
I put together a brief slide show to illustrate how we build these great machines in garages, shops, barns, and hangars all over the world. I included one of Dan Checkoways in-flight videos as well so they could see what we see from the cockpit as we fly. Many questions were asked and the sense that we all shared something special in that room was most evident.
We said goodbye and helped the residents back onto the van to return to the retirement home. The departure of the group was equally impressive as their arrival with several passes, high performance climb displays from the Legacy and the like. Many thanks to the excellent pilots from the Ohio Valley RVators that flew so superbly Saturday!
One of the WWII vets said that "he had never seen formation flying like that, even from the P-51 boys!" I could see in his eyes that he was remembering when as he and all of the others smiled..... and it made my day!
I'll let this email that I received from the retirement home nurse who brought the residents to the airport explain their excitement over the event. This summer we are planning a LARGE gathering of RV's and BBQ for as many retired folks and their families that we can possibly get to I74, Urbana. I'll keep you posted to the date and times as it becomes a reality.
Quote -
"Jeff,
Let me say first how much it meant to me and the residents what you guys did yesterday. I can not say enough how wonderful it was. Last night I was at Wal*Mart and a lady walked up to me, she was at the airport. She wanted to tell me how fantastic she thought it was that a group of pilots would do something like that for such a small group of people who are in a nursing home. I replied by saying that you guys have some of the biggest hearts I have ever seen! The guys are still talking about all the cool flying they saw, and their family was in today and I had about four of them walk up to me and thank me for taking their husbands because they have never stopped talking about something so much in a long time. Polly said to tell you hi, and all day today she kept saying that she thought you had the prettiest blue eyes, ( watch out there Jeff!) Thank everyone for me once again from the bottom of my heart for what they did......You wonderful guys gave our residents a great day yesterday. Take care.
Jennifer"
PS. I'll get back to you soon about another event! I'll start working on it after the new year!
-UnQuote
Keep pounding those rivets and share it as much as you can!
Jeff - N247DE - 7A flying 22hrs - 16G
