We did it! “Circle Indy Grass Strips Fly-out”

Aug 2013 We did it! “Circle Indy Grass Strips Fly-out”

I’m enjoying a cup of “I’m-not-working-today!” coffee, thinking about yesterday’s fly-out and can’t stop smiling. We had a beautiful flying day for our “Circle Indy Grass Strips Fly-out”; lots of pilots, passengers, hosts on the ground and incredible aircraft in our gaggle. I didn’t have enough hands when flying or enough time on the ground to take my usual “way too many pictures”. I did manage to snap enough to give you a glimpse into one beautiful day of flying around Indianapolis. This view is one repeated over and over throughout the day at 13 different strips with any assortment of 16 different airplanes. Here we are at Alan & Ryan Harter’s airfield, 79II, which is a little slice of heaven snuggled between acres and acres of corn fields. The grass was smooth & manicured and we were greeted with lots of donuts, coffee and happy faces as we all came circling and taxiing in. Boyd took care of the pilot briefing for the first leg of our adventure, an especially important part of the day since traveling in an initial group of 16 planes took a little organizing.

Work in progress

Alan Harter showed us the D-1K Davis project he and others are restoring for the grandson of the original owner. They have pieces and Kinner engines from others they are incorporating into 2 additional aircraft. This next photo is the same aircraft photographed back in the day. We decided to all land at our first stop, I80, and see how everybody liked their position in the line-up and make a few tweaks. Jon was #1 in his fast RV10 and transmitted on 122.9 “Flight of 20 inbound for Noblesville Airport”. The immediate response was “Flight of HOW many?!” 🙂 Guess Jon didn’t realize we were a mere “flight of 16”! Cruzan Airfield was a beauty; east/west runway and a long displaced threshold over the grain bins. The owners were there to greet us all!

9II4 Cruzan

So bet you’re wondering about the 16 aircraft in the gaggle; 2 Zenith 601, Piper J3 Cub, CT, Kitfox, Tiger Moth, Waco RNF, Great Lakes, Rans S7, RV10, Citabria, Carbon Cub, Aero Trek, Experimental Cub (and  RV6 & Piper Apache at MQJ only for evening pizza). TWO in our group were OSH Grand Champions in the last couple years.

Taking a break to hangout at 78I, Pam’s Place Airport

Lots of our stops looked like this one at II93, Bronson Airport, our lunch stop.

Tommie from a local EAA chapter set this stop up for us and even gave up flying along with us so he could get our lunch cookout organized. Talk about a wonderful surprise. We landed on 09 with tall trees on the east end, make a hard right turn near the end of the grass strip and immediately see this ‘oh so cool’ tree-house snuggled in the woods.

With tall corn on our right and a lake and woods on our left we taxied way back near a hangar for our burger & hotdog cookout. Thank you Mr. Bronson & EAA Chapter 1354 for welcoming us so warmly!!

I confess, we veered off our route late in the afternoon for a short hop to I34, Greensburg, a local favorite for reasonably priced 100LL and even better, the ice cream shop right around the corner! Everybody claimed not to be hungry but not many passed the chance for a quick treat.

Here’s Jon’s RV10 keeping pace with the Rans S7. How can he do that without falling out of the sky? FLAPS! It took off like a bat outta hell when the flaps went up.

Thanks to everybody who started the day with us at the 1st grass strip and especially those who hung with us till the very last. It was one fun day ending with a hangar pizza party – and the last aircraft headed for home just before sunset, as it should be!

Alan Reber and his Tiger Moth

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