Father's Day Fly/Drive-In at Gen Air Park
Article by
Gordy Gillen,
with Contributions by Brad Wolf, Kevin Bertorelli and Brian Gilomen
Pictures by Mick Pahnke and Kevin
Bertorelli
From Gordy:
For the eighth consecutive year, we have had the opportunity to participate in
the Father’s Day Fly/Drive-In at Gen Air Park, Geneseo, IL. Each year we have
had just beautiful weather, and this year was no exception.
We all had just enjoyed the wonderful picnic at Cushing Field on Saturday. Larry
Johnson (Hog Man) and his friend Doug flew in from Erie for the event and to fly
with us to Geneseo on Sunday. Larry, Doug, and I enjoyed the great accommodation
of the Fox Valley Club House for the night. We enjoyed the great camp fire with
all those camping at the Field for the night.
Joe Simosky and Bruce VanDeventer flew in Sunday morning and after fueling up,
there was wheels up about 7 A.M. We had a great flight, enjoying the crisp early
morning air and beautiful scenery. Mick and Jude left about the same time from
Clow, and it wasn’t long before they had caught up and passed us.
The hospitality of Kent Johnson and the group from Gen Air Park was again
appreciated. We enjoyed a great pancake breakfast, looking at beautiful custom
cars and maybe most of all, the joy of each others presence at a great event.
A number of our pilots desired to make it a full day of flying, so we decided to
leave Gen Air Park after our group picture about 10:30 A.M. We flew some
thirteen miles North to Erie Flight Park. There we refueled our planes as well
as our bodies. Jim and Sue Robinson had made great preparations for our arrival.
There was 200 gal. of straight gas and fifty gal. of pre-mixed gas, hot dogs,
chips, pop, and a grill. Hildred and a number of the Erie faithful, really made
us feel at home.
A while later, a number of our pilots took to the air and Brad Wolf filed this
report:
From Brad:
“We flew to Clinton, IA. and made a quick landing and headed out to Savanna
airport (Tri-State?), some of us purchased fuel there. It is a nice little
airport with a right hand pattern, close to the Mississippi River. After that,
we flew to Foster Field in the Apple Canyon Creek area. A very narrow little
strip in some beautiful country. After fueling again, we left for Monroe,
Wisconsin. The FBO provided us with more fuel and some ice cream sandwiches.
(This became lunch.) We purchased a few gallons of fuel at Monroe and took off
for Brodhead. Rich Wild departed for home from Monroe. Bill Mills, Phil
Bolenbaugh and Pete made touch and go landings at Brodhead. I had to land and
zip up a zipper that I did not secure on my stop at Monroe. Oops....
Next we landed at Poplar Grove for our last fuel stop of the day. Bill Mills
departed for Clow. Phil, Pete and I flew back to Cushing. We arrived at about 6
P.M. after flying about 340 miles in about 6 hours.”
Back to Gordy:
Of course you know my itinerary, I ate, relaxed and enjoyed the hospitality of
Erie and great conversations with Ned Rolston and the folks at Erie. At 6:15
P.M., just as I was completing a flight check of my plane, in preparation for my
flight home, I received a call from Doug, who along with Larry Johnson had flown
with us. On his flight home from Erie, a trip of about fifteen miles, he
experienced engine problems and just made his runway. All was fine except for
His Rotax 582 which had only a hundred hours on it. Instrument indications had
been normal. He removed the plugs to find tiny metal balls. He had used the
premixed fuel at Erie and wondered if anyone else had experienced a problem. To
my knowledge then and now, no one else had experienced a problem.
I talked with Larry Johnson a week later. He said the engine was being taken
apart and all indications point to a crank shaft bearing failing. Larry said
that the serial number of Doug’s engine was among those reported to have
experienced problems.
My flight home was Great! The evening was just beautiful and scenery
breathtaking. I had a slight head wind of 5 mph. for a while, and then it was
calm. I took my time and arrived at Cushing around 8:15 P.M.
I am so proud of the cooperative effort of my Club in supporting this flight. We
had an unprecedented nineteen planes fly to Gen Air Park, Geneseo. You are a
great group to fly with. I wish physical and time limitations would permit me to
fly with you more.
Again, my sincere appreciation for an outstanding effort. Your being there
really made it special and a wonderful success.
From Brian:
Some us, based at Clow, are weenies. While Mick and Jude (who of course
live very close to Clow, in Plainfield) made an early morning departure, me,
Vance, Kevin and Rickey decided that an 8:30 wheels-up from Clow -- timed to get
to Gen Air comfortably before the chow line closed -- was vastly more civilized.
So, with the sun well on its way up, we were airborn at that reasonable hour:
Our timing would have been PERFECT, but for the
fact that Rickey (and to some extent Kevin) consumed fuel on the way like
screaming NASCAR racers. Rickey explained reasonably enough over the
radio that he really didn't want to experience a fuel outage while on final
into Gen Air, so Brian saved the day by cleverly reading his Sectional,
using his GPS, and finding a cool, undiscovered private strip about 22 miles
East Northeast from Gen Air. (For future reference the strip is
"Woodley," clearly shown on the Sectional [was I the ONLY guy
carrying one of those?] and easily found using the "graphically show all
airports within an XX mile radius of current position" function on my $87
GPS with its CURRENT AND UP-TO-DATE DATASBASE [was I the
ONLY guy with a current GPS database, one that includes private
airstrips?]) Hopping over a wicked earth berm right at the threshold, the
four of us put down. The place was home to several Ag Cat crop
sprayers, and one guy getting ready to fly his R/C plane. No fuel was
available at the field, but Rickey managed to get a gallon -- mere drops at
a time -- out of Vance's gas drain and into his handy folding gas tank, and
from there into his Phantom. A good thing, too, because Rickey had
barely a gallon when he landed at Gen Air. THAT could
have been a close call! (Unfortunately, Club Media Chief Bertorelli
neglected to document any of these shenanigans).
The four of us arrived at Gen Air just as the rest of the FVFC group was
leaving. Oh well; we can make our own fun. And we did!
Because the breakfast line was just about to close, the chefs piled it on
our plates. I think each of us must have had the equivalent of 2
meals:
There was much to see. Check out THESE studs:
As Gen Air came to a close, the FVFC fliers
split up once again. Vance and I had other obligations, so we turned
tail back to our home fields and enjoyed
a nice non-stop flight back. We went
via Cushing but did not land. The return to Cushing took 1 hr. 11 minutes,
and the leg to Clow took another 28 minutes. So, our trip back took us 1
hr. 38 minutes, and we covered 110.6 miles, for an average groundspeed
of 67.7 mph.
Rickey and Kevin, however, headed to Erie to join up with the rest of the gang. From there they flew to Jack’s place. Who’s Jack? Jack is building a 1/3 scale B17. As Kevin puts it: "I think you’ll agree, Jack is nuts!" See what you think:
Rickey and Kevin then left Jack's and stopped at Dixon/Walgreen's airport for gas. From there they headed home avoiding most of the congested areas along the way. They hooked up with Rich and later with Bill over the radio. Their path took them within 2 miles of Rich's house although they didn't stop in. It turned out that Bill landed at Clow only about 30 minutes after Rickey and Kevin made it in.
Where To Now?