8th Annual Fly-In at Lloyd's

The fly in was August 6th. I tried to get ready. We were in a major heat wave. So I didn't really need to mow. I patched fallen plaster. I had three tires from three different vehicles repaired or replaced. I cleaned up my stack of engineered lumber, and in the process Eric and I built eight benches. I hired Eric to work with me for about 30 hours over three weeks. We moved and painted 4 picnic tables. We decluttered the hangar and the hangar's loft. I knocked down some brush and woods to try to create what I called an "Infinity View" in the back yard. My wife and I took 4 pickup truck loads full of junk and clutter from the house to the dump over a 7 day period. The attic is still chock full. We scraped, primed and painted the northwest wall of the house. I added a bed to the man cave. My wife got us ready for eight overnight houseguests. I took my wife to dinner at CGE on Friday, a week before the fly-in in the Piper. Then the next night took Eric to dinner at GED in the Piper. We spent a whole day clearing brush. I primed and painted the hay wagon. On Thursday before the fly in my buddy Brian 3 came over and stayed a week. We extended the stage in the hangar by two and a half feet. We cleared all the storage off the stage and set up the bandstand to get it ready for Jon the drummer and light man. I had a port a potty delivered. My buddies flew in from Asheville Friday night and we started working even harder. We mowed and built a few tie downs and drank some beer. My wife's mom and her husband came in also Friday night.. I visited and kept working. I slept about three hours and got up at dawn and it was fly-in day. I mowed a parking area in the field in front. At about 11AM the planes came in. We had Trey and Janice. The quintessential fly-in attendees. They had the Luscombe. But some day they will bring in thier other plane. A classic 310. Then came an Arrow and a beautiful Saratoga. Another 172. A Decatholon. An Alon A-2 from SBY. A beautiful RV-8, and a Classic Stearman. We had wheels with the wings. We had a bike group led by my buddy Brad. There were nine BMW's from the western shore One of the BMW's was a Triumph. Two of the BMW's were Harleys. These guys are so nice and so colorful. They make any get together a phenomonon. I had two secret celebrities too. Of course, by definition, I can't tell you who they were. We wound up with eleven planes, nine motorcycles, one Quad named "night rider", a bright red Saturn Sky Turbo with the top down, which was a big hit on the flight line. Over eighty people. Most of the kids went swimming and the pool seemed perfect, thanks to my wife who overhauled the robot vacuum and tweaked up the chemicals. Rain threatened all day but never came. Folks from far away like Hancock and Philly started heading out and the bikes rolled down the driveway. The airplanes said goodbye with a flair and a fly-by. The Stearman and the Asheville airplane stayed tucked in for the night. As the sun went down I finally got some takers on my hay wagon ride. With my mentor Steve driving the old International we had a nice cool ride with the moon coming up big and deer at the treeline. We had about twenty people on that wagon. When we got back, we turned on the stage. And Jon's Disco Billy neon train wreck lights. There were three real musicians there: Jon, Gary, and Mikey. And some open mike hogs like yours truly. They played some great blues. I got to sing some ballads. I guess about twelve folks stayed over and we were in the pool to the wee hours. They got me up on Sunday morning and I was a zombie. Another three hour night's sleep. We took two planes and two cars over to CGE and we all ate at Kay's. The Stearman and the Cessna fueled up and we watched them head west in the 9AM, humid already, 80 degree air. Wife and Brian 3 and I drove home. "What are you going to do now Lloyd?" "Sleep and then swim." GAI :::::+:::::

Smoketown

We got a late start yesterday on going up to Smoketown. We arrived at 1PM or so. It was winding down. The weather wasn't pretty. There had been 180 airplanes in attendance. That's a lot despite the weather. We didn't see much. We had our $200 hamburger and went home. I saw a beaver. Not a De Havilland. A little critter that scooted along the ramp when we were refueling. We got delayed about an hour waiting out a thunderstorm. Then there was this lovely flight home with the atmosphere washed clean and everything green. We landed at home and for the first time ever I was in the back seat of my CherOHkee for a landing. I was not to see the 180 airplanes. I was not to get my free T shirt I had registered for. I was not to get much in the way of food. I was not to see many of my friends. But after my two buddies and I landed here at home we went into the hangar and had a drink and sat around and talked, I was very happy indeed. We had parked our two little sports cars right next to eachother in the hangar and had ample room when we rolled in the CherOHkee. It never fit like that before. But I had cleaned house in the hangar and made it bigger somehow. Smoketown wasn't a bust at all. Being with my two good pilot friends made it a very good day indeed. I think you make your own good days. A fancy fly in can't make you happy. You make you happy. I still havn't gotten back to normal since our fly-in here. That was eight days ago. That fly-in got me motivated to de clutter a bit around here. And work toward a goal. That enabled me to make myself happy. Be happy my friends. LloydLou.com GA Informal :::::+:::::