WDYDWYRTW? 2 / 22-23 / 2025

[DeltaRomeo]

....getting it started. Sunday's dance card is full, so flew on Sat morning. BEAUTIFUL day in N.TX.

No real plan. Just go fly. Lucked into one of the better roll-on wheel landings in a loooooong time. 0.0% chance of a TnG.....cuz I ain't topping that one.

Airport 'Lakeview' on the left. Looking up Lake Lewisville's middle finger (nautical chart). A few decades ago, the great Red Maron picked me up at this airport in his RV-6 to go to a lunch with the butt crack squadron. I was still building. When we were flying back, he asked me, "Do you know how to fly?" Yes, I do. And he promptly fell asleep... Woke him up joining downwind. What an amazing character! I do miss him.


All bridled up for the next ride.


Today's track - checking in on some friends.


Hope you're having a nice weekend.
v/r,dr

 

[- Poindexter -]

Flying over the Green River (Utah), I’m sure I saw Vlad scoping out sand bars to land.

 

[Vlad]

Today was a perfect flying weather but the dirt road (my taxiway) leading from the house to the runway was muddy and too soft to taxi

 

[Vlad]

Flying over the Green River (Colorado), I’m sure I saw Vlad scoping out sand bars to land.
View attachment 81432

That looks like Desolation Canyon on Utah side. You flew over one of the rafting camps with tons of petroglyphs.

 

[planenutz]

Sunday dawned a stunning day. We're at the back end of a nice hot summer and the sun is popping up over the mountains around 7 am, instead of 5 am like it was 4 weeks ago. There's a freshness in the air and a need for a light jacket as we arrive at our hangar to the sweet sound of multiple aircraft joining overhead, each one having been rewarded by one of those great flights you get when the day is breaking and the air is perfectly calm. I've not seen our quiet little airfield so busy. By 08:30 about 40 aircraft are parked very orderly (as pilots tend to do even without directions) along the 09/27 vector. Double that number of people stand around having a good old chin-wag before the briefing is provided. Today, as part of an AOPA-organised event we are flying out of Cromwell Racecourse (NZCS) to Highlands Park - a motor racing park located about 600 metres south of the airfield. The longest straight available for us to land on is 450 metres long (1,475 ft) and the major attraction for everyone is not only the privilage of landing on the raceway but also a cooked breakfast waiting for us at the cafe afterwards.

The flight time was a whopping 2 minutes. It hardly counted as a flight. Take-off heading north, climb to 500 feet, turn south and keep it tight behind the aircraft ahead. Speed never exceeded 85 knots so flaps out, landing checks, over the cemetery (speed check, don't want to end up there!) keep the tower on your left, lone tree on the right, touchdown, roll forward to the hairpin corner and exit to the parking. It took longer to write this paragraph than it did to fly to the venue. Vans were provided to take us up to the cafe and along with an opportunity to visit the car museum, it was great to have a couple of hours to cartch up with people.

Departure was just as orderly and I was surprised how fast the gathered aircraft vacated the racecourse. Rather than head back to our home base the wife and I decided to fly south to Mandeville along with a bunch of others, to visit their Wings and Wheels Day. Mandeville is known for it's vintage aircraft restoration and their small museum. We were treated to traction steam engines, mid-1970's vehicles and a handful of other attractions before flying home mid-afternoon, content with a day well-spent catching up with friends.

 

[johnbright]

Prospective RV-14A builders Craig and Regina Cox, craigacox on VAF, found me on VAF and drove down to KJGG Williamsburg VA from the BWI area to check out my new-to-me RV-14A. They like the extra width versus RV-6/7/9, availability of extended-range fuel tanks from Sky Designs (which my N94MS does not have), and ease of build. Craig and I flew down to KEDE Edenton NC for LPV approach practice. The RV-14A is ~25 knots faster with only slightly higher fuel burn at 22/2400/8.6, 145 knots IAS at 4000 feet, which I think of as semi-economy cruise and the G3X reports as 58% power, compared to their PA-28R-201 Arrow III. They drove because the Arrow is down for service.

Seems like I made.sale for Van’s.