Every fall our airport sponsors an event for the nearby retirement community. It’s a really nice deal where they bus between 100 and 150 senior citizens over, and they grill out and serve them in the big hangar while airport residents take anybody who wants to for rides. The airport picks up the fuel bill, and the local R/C model club provides the food (I belong to the R/C club too, along with my buddy Kent – and they participate because the community leases them land nearby for their R/C airport, paved runway and all). Anyway, it’s an event that we’ve wanted to participate in for years, but hadn’t for various reasons.
Well this year we did, and it was fun. Apparently as soon as our airplane rolled up a special “fast plane” line formed. We briefed the flight, we’d all be doing 110 kias, fly over the retirement community, direct to King’s Island Amusement Park, over the city of Lebanon, and back to the ramp for another load… about 10 minutes each trip, with position reports at each waypoint, no passing. Seems simple enough, right?
Not so fast. These folks are not very flexible, as you might imagine, and so loading and unloading takes quite a bit of time. We were the only ones allowed to not shut down and do endless hot starts, because our prop is well behind, and surrounded by the wings, so we just got a spotter to make sure no one walked behind. After 3 or 4 trips, the engine was really, really hot. Unhappy, fuel vaporizing hot, so Beth cut the flying short. On one trip she let the speed build to 130 and she cooled right down, but that wasn’t going to cut it with the other airplanes. But, even as a ramp queen, she engendered a large crowd and lots of questions, so it was still a fun day.
Getting ready |
Seniors arrive |
Loading up |
Kent loads riders |
A steady stream |
Lots of planes and riders |
Lunch is served |
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Posted By: Brett FerrellSaturday September 20th, 2014 at 6:14 PM