Airplanes and Airstreams

I went to another fly-in this last Saturday. It was called "Airplanes and Airstreams". This is like a wings and wheels, but you've got old and new travel trailers and they're all the "Airstream" brand. There was about 7 of those and maybe 12 or so airplanes on the ground at one time with some coming and going. It was way too hot for me and I stayed in the shade as much as I could. I saw some Horn Point guys. Some Light Sport guys. It was a kind of hazy day, and some said we would get T-storms but they never came. I went over to ESN afterwards because there was a Yak/Formation training event going on. And I had heard they had cars there too. But it was all over when I got there. And the restaurant was closed. And the hanger that has the rich guy and all his toys was closed up tight. I was hoping he might still be having an open house and maybe free food! The guys got a Spitfire. He's got a P-40. An L-39 Chek Jet, and the list goes on. Corvettes too. I don't know him, or his name, but I've been in that hangar and it's pretty cool. Before I sign off. I want to tell you about my flight over to the Airstreams event. I was so hot preflighting my plane and had the door and window open, but it would not cool off inside. How could it. It was in the nineties. I taxi out and the prop blast helps, but it's warm air. After takeoff I climbed to 8 thousand feet and got above the clouds. For a 40 mile flight. It felt good though. It was 49 degrees. I circled around and let the skin of 009 cold soak a little and I put myself over the vor radial and distance from SBY. Then I circled down and the clouds gave me a big hole and at 5 thousand I was below the clouds and back in the haze. I didn't have GPS coordinates, but the radial/dme had me right over it. It was easy to spot once I saw those travel trailers. I made a low pass and hot dogged around to land. Taxied up the XW runway to the end of the line and swung the plane around to park, shut down and push back. Pushed back into the bean field. The beans were about 8 in. tall. I climbed down into those beans, which looked good, considering the sere weather. And I walked through them around the wing and onto the turf taxiway. That's my kind of fly-in. GAI ::::+::::

Changes and Mixed Blessings

I'm really thinking about letting my medical expire next month. And then carrying on flying light sport and gliders. So I'd wind up getting rid of the CherOH kee. Which would be too bad. But I have a buyer for the CherOH kee. My nephew George. He'd rather buy it 2 years down the road, but I may be ready to sell sooner than that. So what kind of LSA should I get? I'm thinking of an aeronca 7AC. A Champ. Or maybe a 7FC Tri Champ. Remember those? The Tri may not be light sport. Some had 3 seats, and were too heavy.I can let my medical lapse and fly light sport without it. As long as I havn't been denied a medical. With my two special issuances involved, the FAA might need more info about something. A glitch. The AME, who is giving me the medical is not supposed to let me walk away from a medical I have begun by turning in the application. This light sport don't-need-medical is a tricky little slope if you are like me and are getting older and already have some challanges. The bottom line seems to be that eventually I will lose my medical. If I am denied the medical, then I can't fly under light sport rules because of the denial. And if I pass the medical which requires lots of work on my part gathering paperwork and tests from from different sources over six weeks, and then I still have to take the medical every year (due to the special issuances.) If I am denied, I can try to jump through even more hoops and get the medical back. Then I might not want to risk another medical for fear of being denied. I guess since I know that sooner or later I'll be denied, I'm thinking, let it expire, then I know I safely have Light Sport. I could still do a new log book for a new pilot now and then in the "Champ" or whatever I will own. I could still instruct a bit if I wanted to. I really hesitate to instruct because I feel that the students should go to the young guys coming up, and the career CFI's who need the work for a living. I had my chance to do that instructing and it was a great experience and an entry level into a career that served me well. It's someone else's turn now. I was talking about this dilema of Airman Medical vs Light Sport Rules with a bud of mine. He said that one of my regular trips is up to Dover to have the plane worked on, or fly gliders. He asked if that would work just as well in a "Champ". I know what he's saying, and he's right. It would be just as good--even better. I hate to give up the 140 and all that kind of flying. I thought it would be for another ten years maybe. But this is life...... We watch our parents die..... Then we die. In the face of that, I may have to go Light Sport. Most of my "aviation" world is riding a mower anyway. GAI ::::+::::

the longest day

This last Saturday we went to a fly-in at Crisfield. The blue crab capital of the country. I'm not a huge crab fan. Every time I eat crabs, I wind up getting new lessons all over again on how to "pick" the crab meat. But I love crab cakes. So am I still a Marylander? My buddy "Click" has the use of the professor's airplane, a 152. So he and his wife drove over here and took that plane and wife and I took the CherOH kee. Off we went. A beautiful day. About 40 miles south. Nice airport. Laid back. Not a beehive of planes. Maybe a dozen. A pretty M 21. A light sport Rans 6. Three ercoupes!..... actually one was an Alon. My little M 10 would have fit in nice! Sigh. A basic Arrow which I liked a lot. A 140 Cherokee older than mine. Homebuilts that I don't know the names of. Crabs and Corn on the Cob and "Smith Island Cake" was the menu. My wife doesn't eat crabs and I don't eat corn, so we split an order nicely. I try hard not to eat sweets and I didn't, but the Smith Island Cake looked like the best dessert I have ever seen. Wife said it was very good. Some nice conversations and a new friend or two I invited to my two upcoming parties... and it was time to head north. I wanted fuel and a coffee stop in Cambridge, so both planes stopped in there. Now it was Coconut Cake! Now we were in air conditioning. My son called from home asking where we were because he wanted to go out on Saturday night and was tired of watching the kittens and dogs. We would be home soon. That last little 12 mile leg to our place was the nicest of all. It was getting just a bit cooler. 80 instead of 90. Perfect. We landed and tied down the 152. Click and his wife let me tour them around in the golf cart a bit and show them some of my projects, and wife's garden. It cooled off a little more. Then they headed off to Annapolis. My son said he was going to see his buddy's band play at a place in Cambridge called "Jimmie and sooks". So he took off. My wife took care of the barn, the kittens, the dogs. She said she was tired and I said I was too. After a pause I said, " hey I need to get some stuff at WalMart why don't we spy on son at this bar in Cambridge, if we can find it?" I was really surprised when she said, "OK". What a cap off to a really great day. It was a fun kind of grill, raw bar, seafood, tavern, kind of place. I had two nice drafts. And wings too. Poor son. You're twenty one, out with your buds, and your parents show up. My wife considered the cake, to make it three, but only for a moment. It was one of the nicest days ever. Tonight I'm off to the western shore to a solstice fire. Summer is here and it's off to a flying start. Happy first day of summer my friends. GAI ::::+::::