Quick Trip to Belvidere
By Brian Gilomen
Sometimes the best trips are spontaneous. That was the case on Saturday, August 19, when a bunch of us discovered a new Ultralight field.
I got to Clow a little before 8 AM, and was ready to go by 8:15. It was just about that time that I was greeted by the sight of a B-17 buzzing the field enroute to Aurora! Kevin and I decided to chase it for a while, but -- understandably -- we quickly lost it.
7 of us (me, Mick, Vance, Rickey, Kevin, Jim, and Ken Swasas) then made it to Prairie Lakes for breakfast at 9:00. There were already 4 trikes and 2 challengers there when we got there. We all shot the shit and smoked ceegars for quite a spell, and then -- based on some info that the two Challenger guys were telling us -- we decided to try some pilotage to find a brand new ultralight field and club that was being organized a little South of Belvidere.
Jim decided to head back to Clow, and the rest of us all flew North. After we had already gone well past (and buzzed) Rich Wild's place, Kevin decided that he needed gas, so we all turned around and headed BACK to Rich's strip. Several of us gassed up, and then most of us took off to continue our original adventure. Not so for Rickey and Mick. Rickey couldn't start his motor (he later admitted that he had flooded it), and while "helping" him start it, Mick broke the starter rope. Fortunately, Rickey had a spare. But by then me, Kevin, Vance and Ken had been circling for 10 minutes, so we decided to press on.
We headed towards the landmark that we had been given: a location about 2 miles SSW of that big Chrysler plant S of Belvidere and E of Rockford. We found the new field reasonably easy: they had just put in a new, longish (1200 feet) N/S strip. We buzzed it for a while, saw no action, and decided to land. After we got in and taxied to the main area we could see it was certainly an ultralight operation: they had a big barn full of quicksilvers and a few other makes, like a T-bird. The guy who owned the land, and his kids, came out to greet us and show us around. True to the name of their club (the "twilight fliers" or something like that), he said that their guys seldom came out before late afternoon. He said that they would be sorry they missed us.
We then headed back to Rich's place to bother him for a while more. Because my new landing gear made my existing drag wires loose, Rich and I started fixing them. The rest of the guys took off. After an hour or so of fabrication, I was sporting new, shorter drag wires, and I left. I found Kevin and Ken still on the air, chatting on 122.875. They had gone back to Cushing, sat around for a while on the ground, and then they started flying around Route 47 taking pictures. Ken went his way and Kevin (from his location) and me (from near Rich's) both headed back to Clow. Kevin beat me there by about 10 minutes.
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Where to now?