This was the first year that we were able to work the Mid-Eastern Regional Fly-In (MERFI) into our schedule. It’s a shame, since it’s so close to us, but that’s the deal. We took the short flight a bit after lunch time and arrived at just exactly the wrong moment – just as the Sport Air Racers were planning on departing. We were descending to the pattern just as they announced “22 departing”… The airport was essentially shutdown for 20 minutes, so we were circling the airport with about a dozen other aircraft waiting to arrive. As it happens, once the runway was available our troubles were far from over. We worked our way into the pattern only to have a Cherokee 6 taxi onto the runway and start his departure roll without announcing, and while we were on short final. Ouch. Elizabeth is generally a calm and sweet person, but this guy got an earful! Once more around the patch, flying in a sack full airplanes. Onboard traffic is not always a feature.

But, land we did, and enjoyed a nice (but sweltering) afternoon at the fly-in, chatting with old friends and making new ones, and showing some folks the airplane. All too soon it was time to head back for the bumpy evening ride back to Lebanon. We haven’t done a ton of flying this summer, but we have gone the whole season with being pretty much able to hop into the airplane and go somewhere. That’s been nice. Now it’s for our annual Condition Inspection once again, which we’ll do after the Labor Day holiday.

MERFI has published their photo albums, and they had a couple of us!

Posted By: Brett Ferrell
Thursday August 29th, 2013 at 9:58 PM

Categories: Blog Travel Log
Tags: 2013 Fly-In Flying MERFI Travel