First Fly

Dennis Hall from up at Brodhead called Tom Houghton a while back and said that he was planning on an end-of-the-year hanger party on Saturday, October 1st. He invited any and all members of the FVFC to fly or drive on up. Tom passed the word on to the rest of us.

Mick, ever the timely one, didn't start agitating about going on this trip until 9/28, just a couple of days before we were supposed to leave. That's when the excuses started. "I have to put a new roof on my hangar" whined Vance. "I have to be on call at work" pouted Kevin. "I have to stay home for my digital cable installation" lamely said Jim. Brother! Hell, Evan "Crash" Wright was more than willing to make the trip, and he had the excuse of having been doing some serious -- um -- "partying" the night before. Yes!

When all was said and done, me, Mick & Jude, Evan and a Brit friend named Mike, Phil B., Jim, Joe and Vance were all willing to do some flying. But only a select few of us were willing to go that "extra mile."

Naturally for this crowd, once we all got together the first matter up for discussion was how to get food. Never mind that it was 8:30 am when we were talking about this -- only 2.5 hours before we were supposed to arrive at Brodhead to be fed by Dennis. And never mind that there appeared to be NO food anywhere near the course to our destination. When the stomach talks, the stick listens! So, all the above except Phil B. flew to Prairie Lakes for some fine vittles.

Now a bit behind schedule, and quite a bit further South than where we had started from, a squadron consisting of me, Mick & Jude, and Evan and his Brit friend took off for Brodhead. Jim and Vance wimped out and headed back to Clow. Joe went wherever it is that Joe goes.

In the air we caught Phil B. and Ned Rolston, both who were a good 40 miles ahead of us, on the FVFC air-to-air frequency. Making reasonably good time even given the headwind, our group made it to our destination just before Noon.

The real fun began after eating, when Dennis started showing us around. Dennis has build another Pietenpol, a single seater, that he recently completed and it is flying. Both were on display. But then we got to see the replica Lincoln Sport bi-plane that Dennis has been working on for several years. Here is one of the wings, under construction:

For comparison, there was a real Lincoln Sport Plane in the hanger adjacent to Dennis; the only factory-built one ever made:

Here's a full picture of it (a shot I took of a poster on the wall), and a photo of the placard:

The trip back was a bit rough, but we've all had it worse. Mick and Jude and I arrived at Clow just in time to be of little use to Vance, who -- along with Bob Deb's and Kevin's and Rickey's help -- was putting the finishing touches on his new hangar roof.

Another view of the day's events was provided by Mike, Evan's friend. Evan wrote me this email:

Hi Brian,

Fun flying with you this weekend. My friend Mike really got a kick out of seeing what we do for fun. He kept saying things like 'It's so cool that we're just bumming around...", "I can't believe you can just land on a golf course..". Being from the UK, where everything is hyper-regulated, he couldn't believe how much freedom we enjoy in the US. He thought our "party-line" on 122.87, was really cool, too. It sure made me glad I don't live in England.

Talk to you later,

Evan