When Mick Pahnke suggested that we take a trip to Poplar Grove on Saturday, 5/3, I was all for it. For years a friend of mine had been regaling me with stories about just how nice a place that airport was, and how – if I played my cards right – he might give me a ride in his Starduster aerobatic biplane. After much preliminary email debate over the appropriate wheels-up time, Jim Wolak, Mick and I settled on a time to depart. The Friday night before our planned trip I saw the guy with the Starduster at a dinner function. I told him that I would call him the following morning with my ETA, in case he could meet us out at the field.
Saturday morning didn’t start very smoothly. Jim was experiencing difficulty with his GPS. Then, during his run-up, Mick noticed a problem with his charging system. After much poking and prodding it appeared to be a grounding issue, so a new, heavy-duty grounding strap was pressed into service. Those efforts consumed perhaps an hour, and all during this time I had been on the horn with Bill Mills, trying to figure out if we could meet up with him after his weekly Cushing Breakfast Club appearance. Given our delay at Clow, and the speed differences of our various planes, we decided that Bill should head direct from Cushing to Poplar and that we would meet him there.
As Mick and I taxied into position we noticed that Jim wasn’t budging. Knowing how much faster he is than we are, we weren’t concerned; he could catch up to us later. But it took him forever to get airborne, and it turned out that the problems with his big GPS persisted. Jim had just been bragging about the second, smaller, hand-held GPS that he had won cheap at a silent auction, so Mick and I told him to use that one. Of course, the battery on the second GPS was low and the unit kept shutting off. Calling him a whiney baby, Mick and I told Jim to just use the $@%&*! Sectional, or even a road map (like we always used to do before we started spending so much money on LORANs and GPS units). But Murphy’s Law had struck hard: Jim had left his Sectional and his maps back at the hangar. And, he had taken off so far behind us that he was never able to locate our position. Jim finally said he was just going to stay local.
Mick and I pressed on, and the
flight to Poplar Grove was pleasant enough; nearly hands-off at times.
Calling out on our usual air-to-air frequency of 122.875, we got a reply from
Rich Wild, and we talked him into joining us.
The landing at Poplar Grove was
“interesting.” The wind was
strong and a line of trees created some nice buffeting on approach.
Bill Mills was the last one in, and he wished that he didn’t have the
audience that he had.
The airport was busy, with lots
of gawkers and groupies enjoying the breezy but otherwise nice day.
Too late, I realized that – what with our confused and delayed
departure – I had never called my friend with the Starduster.
I dialed him up and apologized. He
said that it wasn’t a problem, and offered to call the FBO and tell them to
let us into his hangar to check out his plane.
We took him up on his offer, and
the FBO folks didn’t have the
slightest problem with giving us the keys to my friends hangar. We all
then discussed how this could perhaps be an angle to getting new wings in the future.
Naaaaah…
After nearly getting lost amidst row upon row of hangars, here’s what we discovered:
Then, as Mick, Rich, Bill and I got ready to depart, we saw another excellent flying machine:
After we departed Poplar Grove, Bill went his own way. Mick, Rich and I decided to fly over to Rich's place for a spot 'O lunch. On the way we heard from Jim, on 122.875. Jim was still up, flying in circles, trying to remember everything that he had forgotten about dead-reckoning.
Always an interesting landing at Rich's place!
Rich drove us in his truck – getting too friendly with Mick, who was stuck in the middle of the bench seat – to the local greasy spoon for a bite to eat. Dont'cha love it when they call you "honey?" After returning to Rich's place we chatted with his neighboring farmers, who had shown up to borrow Rich's tractor PTO-driven post hole digger. Rich, of course, always has the best of everything.
During the preflight of my plane before taking off I noticed that the heat collector shroud for my cabin heater had cracked in several places. Not a problem; that was going to be the last that time I used it for the season. Off it came. Rich then volunteered some excellent aircraft-grade sheet aluminum for my eventual rebuild project.
Mick and I finally got out of there, but the day had turned very rough. We were both very glad to finally get back to Clow!
Where To Now?
Bill's Excellent AirVenture, Part 2
Hartenbower: "Can't Get There from Here"