May 2011 Flying, flying, flying
With TWO really nice flying days in a row there was no way I wasn’t going to take total advantage of it! Yesterday I did a solo, central Indiana circuit landing at several airports I don’t get to very often and just playing around in the sky for the fun of it. Smooth in the morning but it got pretty bumpy mid-afternoon when the cumulus clouds were building so I headed home.
I admit it, there's not much to see in Indiana this time of year but it's always interesting to look down and see the farmers getting their crops in.
Today there was a fly-in pancake breakfast at Frankfort, IN which just happened to be one of the stops in the poker run I’ve been looking forward to all week.
5 airports later and time to show our hands. No, this wasn't mine - the best I could muster was a pair of 7s. This hand belonged to a guy that landed after me.
There were about a dozen airports on the list to land and pick up playing cards so we narrowed it down to five that were sort of on the way to OKK. Three of ’em had grass so that was an extra bonus! Always fun to get to land on grass when your based at an only hardsurface airport.
The Happy Champ at Frankfort
It was so cool to see the  Happy Champ (formerly my Happy Champ) at the pancake breakfast. It gave me such a kick seeing Jerry and his wife out flying it!
Bill Finney and me and his L19 Bird Dog
For anybody not sure about getting on Facebook, I’m here to tell you, you meet the greatest people and some of them even own Bird Dogs! Last year, Bill Finney promised me a ride in his L19 Bird Dog so when I spotted his Bird Dog today, he made good on that promise. OMG, what a great airplane!
Not a bad seat in the house!
I’m all about tandem taildraggers and this is one I’ve wanted to fly for a long time. What a great airplane! Bill didn’t waste any time passing me the controls so we headed northeast of the airport making turns and checking out how she flies – smooth and very gentle. I’ve always wanted a Super Cub but the Bird Dog could edge it out?!
I love this shot - you can't have too many windows! Approach into OKK
At Glendale Airport….
Here's my navigator, Boyd, who took on the task of holding the brakes at most of our stops while I ran in for the poker cards.
I should have held the brakes and had him pick out the cards, surely he would have picked a better hand than I did!
Of the three grass strips we hit today, this one at Glendale was the lushest, greenest, least soggy of them all. Just beautiful!
Lisa Martin
Posted at 07:27h, 22 MayLooks like fun! Did you get the Mexican Mountain pics I sent a week ago? I think it’s the first time I’ve tried your new email address and I’m starting to wonder if I don’t have it right.
Neroli Henwood
Posted at 16:59h, 21 MayHey Judy
What a fun weekend you had. I find it funny when you say you enjoy a chance to land on grass. I get nervous landing on the sealed runways because we nearly always land on grass. I too love the Poker runs. Got myself some teasing last summer though. I made a little ‘faux pas’ on the radio for all too hear at a big fly in. We call it Strip Poker (because we are landing on grass strips or strip flying) not the take your clothes off type off strip poker! We were late getting back with our cards and without thinking I called up and asked that they didn’t start the strip poker without me! All the planes in the area that weren’t at our flyin wondered what was going on at Raglan! I didn’t realise what I had said until I landed and there was lots of laughter and ribbing 🙂 Great that you are finally getting some flying weather to enjoy your lovely new plane.
Have fun 🙂