Air Fair 100

I guess it's time for me to write a debrief/review of the College Park Air Fair 100. I've said it before- this blog always comes back to my old neighborhood. College Park Airport. I've been putting this off, because there is so much to say, and yet there is nothing I can say. Air Fair 100 was about a month ago. It celebrated the 100 yr. anniversary of the Wright brothers teaching the US Army to fly airplanes at College Park in 1909. I thought it would be really nice to take the M10 Cadet to College Park for this event. The Cadet ties into the ERCO story which is one of the major historical items on the long list of the College Park heritage. I contacted the people at CGS airport and inquired about flying the Cadet in. I was concerned about flying into the FRZ which is a no-fly zone in the middle of the DC SFRA. I had heard that there would be "waivers" available to get planes in and out for the event. But I never heard from the folks at CGS, and one day I just decided to forget about flying the m10 in there. I was very relieved when I made that decision. I didn't want the day to be anything about me. I wanted to just soak up some final closure emotions about the place where I learned to fly. So when that Saturday came, I drove my car to College Park. I paid $4. admission. I spent about 6 hrs. there. I spent another 3 hrs. in the town of College Park around the U of Maryland campus. Then another 3 hrs. at a friend's place in the old neighborhood debriefing. I have very mixed emotions about the whole day. In general, it was fun. An airshow. I think my biggest impression was that it was an airshow. With aerobatics and everything. At an airport that normally you can't even fly into without an act of Congress. It's not a real airport. It's owned by the government. There are curfews. There are restrictions. there are rules upon rules. there are limitations. There are violations waiting to be passed out. There are locks on all the propellers. No one is flying. No one is allowed to fly. The hangars and buildings that used to serve the airport now are for police and bureaucrats. So to see that airport having an airshow was quite a surprise. Whoever had the political clout to get that show approved by the TSA, has got some real political connections. Perhaps that person should use their power to get the rules lightened up the other 364 days of the year. If it's safe to have an airshow there on one day, why not just let general aviation have the airspace back and get rid of the stupid ADIZ. The ADIZ only stops good guys. The terrorists don't care about it. They have their own agenda and it's unlikely they will fool around with little airplanes. Another thing about the airshow that surprised me was that it was kind of "big time". The acts that were there were the national kind, not the local. It was great and I loved it, but it wasn't about College Park like I thought it would be. That kind of show could've been anywhere. This leads me into another thing that surprised me. Even though the day was supposed to celebrate the history of College Park as the nations oldest airport, there was really no mention of any of the history during the live announcements that went on all day. The museum was there and open. It was free too, with your Air Fair admission. Yet it was never mentioned on the PA. And the entrance to the museum was hidden way down at the east end and you had to walk down and find it by yourself. Early in the day, they rolled out the Wright Flyer, built by a company called "the Wright Experience". This was built for the College Park Airport museum. That roll out event was great, and the airplane is perfect. But that was the end of any mention of College Park's history. It seemed odd to me that the largest building there, the hangar, was not only off limits, but not even mentioned, noted or commemorated with a sign. That hangar building was one of the original four airmail hangars from the twenties. To the folks watching the big commercial airshow that was just a police hangar. There was no mention or commemoration or sign marker of the railroad tracks running along the west end of the runway. Where the Metro trains can now be seen. The railbed was there when the Wrights were there. The very first telegraph message went along that railbed. To the folks watching the generic airshow, it was just the Metrorail going by. There are many more examples. No mention of the first woman to be carried aloft heavier than air. First bomb drop, first radio comm from an aircraft. First guy to get killed in military airplane. Post war production of 5000 civilian nose wheel non spinable general aviation airplanes. The only attention to Airmail was a small tent where the post office would postmark for you a commemorative envelope or card. That was great. But nobody had been invited to bring in any mail planes or dress from the period. No barnstormer era planes or dress No mention of any history. I would say the Air Fair 100 event was a huge success as an airshow. You saw the show, bought a t shirt, had a burger, went home in time to watch sports on TV. The event was a dismal failure as an historical celebration. It was a great opportunity lost. Never again will it be 100 yrs. since the Wrights flew at College Park. I had fun watching the airshow. I like airshows. But when I think of the College Park Aerodrome, and the Wrights, the pioneers, the airmail pilots, the barnstormers, ERCO, Berliner, Brinkerhoff, I'm sad. It could have been about them. Their ghosts could have walked around with us. But it was instead about NCPPC showing that they know how to put on a real world class airshow. And the TSA relaxing their insane rules one day a year at their whim. GAI ::::+::::

Essex Skypark

Essex Skypark is an airport just 3 or 4 miles from Baltimore. Last year I took the M10 Cadet there to the "Wings and Wheels". I was impressed with how small it was. And how laid back. And how nice it was in general. So of course I wanted to go this year. So today, Saturday, was Essex. I had stayed up too late last night. I got a late start. I wandered out to the hangar at ten AM with my coffee. I opened the hangar doors, and sipped more coffee. I had a trickle charger on the M-10's failing battery. I took that off, and sipped more coffee. I checked the oil. More coffee. God, the little airplane was filthy. Hanger dust, bird droppings. I had no time to wash it. I cleaned the plexiglass, cause you gotta see. I loaded up some stuff: a little cooler, a tool caddy full of cleaning stuff, paper towels, and the new sectional and the new area chart. The GPS, fresh batteries for the GPS, an extra shirt, chocks, and other stuff. I rolled it out and sumped it. I was all set and climbed in, good to go. I hit the starter which is this pull knob you really have to yank. There was this pitiful, weak, movement of the prop. It went about 4 inches and couldn't overcome compression. So now I have a choice of scrubbing the event, using jumper cables, or propping it. I could go and find my wife and have her help me. This was all gonna take time. You should never prop a plane by yourself. You should never let yourself be hurried. I had no real reason to hurry. But I turned on the mags, cracked the throttle and threw a chock under the nose wheel. I swung the prop, no fire. Once again, and she fired up and ran like a dream. I couldn't pull the chock because it was stuck. The M10 has no parking brake. So I jumped back in and warmed her up and got the radios and stuff on. It took full throttle to jump that chock. Soon I was climbing northwest toward Baltimore. God, it was beautiful. The weather was perfect. From over Preston, 3 miles from my house, at eleven hundred feet I could see the Bay Bridge and downtown Baltimore. And that's a good thing too because to navigate into Essex, without talking to controllers (which I didn't want to do) you have to do it just right. There's at least 4 different airspace things going on to get into this cute little woodsy pretty airpark that is 2000 feet long. Shorter than my backyard strip. There is the dreaded DC ADIZ/SFRA. There is the BWI class B you gotta stay under. There is restricted Area 4001B which is always hot. And last but not least, Essex is in the Martin State tower's traffic area. Is that class D? So 42V and I did this little dance and had fun and talked to no one. Once at the fly in, I wandered around and looked at every car and every airplane . It was small and friendly and wonderful. Everyone was doing fly-bys. I ate a cheeseburger. I stared at a Detomaso Pantera for a long time. I chatted with these folks who had a 1957 310 which was gorgeous. They were from my home town. I had a hot dog. I chatted with the guy giving rides in the Stearman. I thought he might have a battery I could buy. I chatted with the car people and some nice locals. There were some nice folks who were kind of a blue collar crowd and some cute looking girls. Airshow babes are usually rare. I went back to my M10 on the flightline and started cleaning it up. Folks came and looked at me and 42V. And I watched every single fly-by. There was a nice fly- by done by two RV's in formation. Every takeoff and landing done by the local Stearman was a fly- by and a show in itself. The very best "fly-by" was when the Cessna 310 left. I knew he was gonna come back around. When he turned onto final his rollout was a precision snap locked to the extended centerline of the runway. His final was an energy managed descent to the deck. He went down that whole runway like he was on rails, with the prop tips close enough to the asphalt to give us all a real thrill. And fast? Oh yea. It was one of the best fly-ins I'd ever been to. When the sun started to go down, they passed out trophies and I started to look for somebody to prop me. I found a J-3 guy who was very nice. Soon I was back over the bay and leaving the mean airspace behind. I was a little low on fuel and I wanted to keep the outing going, so I stopped into Bay Bridge Airport. They have a self serve fuel set-up. I ran into a friend or two. I bought coffee at the gourmet gas station. (Yes, there is a gourmet gas station there.) Then my friend propped me and I was off for home. Couldn't be prettier. I turned off the radio and the GPS and just went from cow pasture to toolshed. Then I beat up Eric's place and my place. It was such a good day, I had to tell you about it. Even though the M10's airspeed didn't work and the cig lighter CB was popped and of course no battery, she performed like a charm. Whoever gets her for the 24K I am asking is gonna have one heck of a nice little classic. Oh, and the sunset I watched with wife was spectacular. Maybe I'll go to Campell Soup tomorrow! Or wait till I get a new battery............. GA Informal.