Another great Rough River is in the can. We stayed in a cabin again with Dave and Ali Nelson, which is always great. They are fun and easy going, and they’ve been going to RR forever, so they know everybody! The weather this year was awesome, with great fall temps – cool at night and just on the edge of hot during the day. We’d meant to head out on Thursday afternoon, but found yet another nick on our MT prop that I decided was best to fill before heading out… I have some of the fast set JB Weld on order for such occasions in the future.

So, I got Beth up early Friday and we loaded up. This was some of the best flying weather I’ve ever seen… there was nearly no wind and we were under a huge high pressure zone, with an altimeter setting way over 30 inHg, and literally no clouds anywhere and unlimited visibility. I think we saw Louisville from over 50nm away, and we climbed to 5,500′ and leaned out at just under 13 gph about 165ktas and watched the world go by. If they could all be this easy.

When we arrived, I was a bit surprised the ramp was more full. That feeling would continue all weekend. There was so much good weather, I just really couldn’t believe we didn’t get more than about 50 canards into the park. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t get some very notable arrivals. Scott Carter and Chris Esselstyn were both there with their 540 Cozys, we had 4 Defiants, including local Dr. Wolfgang Huhn, the Redmond’s Race 13, the Cozy Girls of course, and several Velocitys (ours, the Nelson’s of course, Jimmie Dallas’, Tim Walsh, Randy Wharton, Ron Needham, and Dr. Rene Dugas’-the most interesting man in the wold). And the weekend wouldn’t be complete without Terry Schubert and Gary Hertzler holding court, Bob Tilley making lunch with our very own Doug and Elaine Hurd, and Dave Adams (the nicest guy in aviation) giving ride after ride.

I’ll be honest in saying I didn’t get around the ramp as much as I usually do, but rather spent most of my weekend sitting in the shade of the airplane during the day and in the cottage at night, but it was a great, relaxing vacation. Elizabeth got to fly down, figuring since it’s a little tricky down there, but I got the flight home. On the way back we got a smattering of clouds so we stayed at 4,500′, but still got flight following the whole way and had a great flight, and were home in just over an hour. This is a great event, and I hope to see more Velocitys show up every year.

I’ll post more video later from the ground, but here’s a quick clip Elizabeth took on the way home. She was bored because she didn’t get to fly.  😛   Check out the Picture Album

Crossing the river

Abandoned airfield

Jimmie Dallas N38VL

Dave Nelson N22DN

Our “Fox” Ferrell N44VF

Rene Dugas

 

Posted By: Brett Ferrell
Sunday September 28th, 2014 at 9:31 PM

Categories: Blog Travel Log
Tags: Fly-In Flying Rough River Travel

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