We Made It to Tommy's This Year!
Article by
Brad Wolf
Pictures by Brian Gilomen
FVFC’s mission to Tommy George
Aug. 27 – 28, 2005
As Airboss, I was coordinating 6 to 7 flyers for the adventure. In the week
preceding the fly-in, some people firmly committed while others were in a
wait-and-see mode. The flying team that made the trip as some point or another
was:
Brian Gilomen
Mike Bennivelli
Phil Duff
Neal McCann
Jack Weiss
Larry Gehrig
Bill Mills
Brad Wolf
John O’Neil
Matt Masterson and Bob Riddle did a great job as ground support. They hauled a lot of “stuff.”
Flight Op’s forecast for the Tommy George fly-in was all over the place. It would be a great weekend or it would rain here and there. Regardless of our source of information, it all said that the weather would get better as the day passed. Unlike last year, there was nothing forecast to keep us from making the trip.
Plans called for an 8am departure from Cushing. The overall requirement was for the team to depart the first refueling point, Pontiac, by 10am. Mike Bennivelli and John O’Neil had plans to take off very early spend most of the day at Tommy Georges. Brad and Bill made phone contact about 7:30am to discuss the heavy fog and low ceiling that was everywhere from Cushing to Clow. Although Mike had been at Cushing since about 5am, he was unable to get in the air due to fog. We decided to delay the scheduled Cushing departure for one hour. The new departure time was set for 9am. This decision worked out pretty well. Several of us went to breakfast @ Newark. Others of our contingent had seen the fog and made their own wise decision that there was no rush to get to Cushing.
During breakfast, Tom Houghton pointed out the blue sky out the restaurant window. Sure enough, mother nature came through for us and the fog was lifting. As I was lifting off right at 9am, Brian was topping off his fuel and soon he, Phil, Mike and I were enroute to Al Kamerer’s place. We were flying there to rendezvous with John O’Neil, and I needed to borrow Al’s radio and headset because my own unit died on the trip back from Oshkosh. (Naturally, my “repaired” parts arrived 3 days later)
Bill Mills had planned to fly from Clow to Kankakee. From there, his wife Michelle, would pick him up and they would spend the morning moving his daughter into her college dormitory. Michelle’s schedule did not provide for a fog delay and Bill hastily departed for Kankakee via ground transportation.
After a brief stop at Al’s place, the Cushing team set course for Pontiac. Brian and I chose to get above the scattered clouds and ascended to 3,000 MSL. It was beautiful. Brian has some great pictures of this leg of the trip. Check this one out, for example:
We were cruising with a good tailwind and I was registering 80 mph ground speed. (60 mph airspeed) A few miles south of the Illinois River, the scattered clouds started to close up the visual holes to the ground. Brian and I decided that it looked even worse toward Pontiac and we descended to join Mike, John and Phil at 1,000 ft. The wind was still helpful. My ground speed was down to 65-70 mph. The AWOS for Pontiac reported 5 miles visibility and 1,000 ft ceiling. They were a little optimistic in my opinion, but we all landed without any problems at 10am. During our refueling operations, Matt and Bob greeted us. Neil arrived a few moments later. Just as we were about to depart, Larry and Jack arrived in Bud Cushing’s yellow Thorpe. (Somewhat reluctantly, we allowed the GA guys to join us in our flight to Lincoln.)
The second leg of the trip benefited from the clear skies and beautiful views. We detoured around Normal / Bloomington by flying to a check-point located NW of town. The check-point was pre-arranged and was located over the dam of a significant lake SW of I-39. The team rejoined in the air at this point and we all set course for Lincoln. We arrive at Lincoln-Logan airfield about noon.
Lincoln-Logan was the site of hot air balloon festival. Unfortunately, the winds where too high by this time and the balloons had all been secured. A nice little festival was in progress with food, rides and other activities in full swing. We took an hour delay on the ground to enjoy the food and sights.
The team departed Lincoln-Logan a little after 1pm and set our sights on Tommy George. We were 7 aircraft strong and having a great time traveling over the countryside. To the West we could see the monster radio towers and the Springfield skyline. To the Southeast we could see thunderstorms that were clearly out of our range. We announced our arrival and received permission to land. If you fly into Tommy’s in the future, it is a very good idea to check on the status of the airport. They have a lot of activities on the runway and it is possible the airstrip is not ready for your arrival.
We parked our plans as the airport staff directed us. I displayed the FVFC banner...
... and set out to register as a fly-in pilot. After registration, we found refreshments and shade.
We spent about an hour relaxing and enjoying the activities. There were model RC planes and helicopters as well as a candy drop for the kids. Frank Beagle was his normal informative self as MC for the things happening at Tommy's. As it cooled down and the activities slowed down, many of us began to pitch our tents and arrange campsites. Bill Mills arrived solo about 5pm.
About 6pm the spaghetti dinner began. It was very good and there was more than enough to go around. The highlight of the dinner was the combination of a story about Phil Duff’s epiphany during a recent boating rescue operation on the Illinois River and a timely phone call from Bill’s wife Michelle. I only mention this as entry in the mission log and I will NOT attempt to repeat it in writing. In-other-words, you had to be there to appreciate it.
After dinner, there were a few more tents to pitch arranging for the evening activities. People tended to gather in various places for their evening conversations. Many of us joined Tommy George in his workshop to debrief the events of the last two years since FVFC last made the trip to TG. Several times, Tommy expressed his appreciation for our attendance at his fly-in. FVFC does seem to have a presence when we arrive at an event. Several hours, a few beers and many stories passed all too quickly.
About 10:30pm Matt decided that he would host a party at his truck and served brats and snacks. A subgroup of FVFC finished out the evening at a tailgate party while eating and discussing the mysteries of the cosmos. We solved most worldly problems and decided to stop before we tackled problems outside of the known universe. Most of us hit the sack around mid-night.
Sunday morning was gorgeous. Blue skies and light winds from the southwest. Throughout the morning there was a combination of packing, eating and BS’ing.
Brian had an early afternoon commitment in Chicago, so he departed solo about 8am. I decided to do my imitation of Shawn Tucker and did a few solo fly-bys for the benefit of the small crowd at the airport. There was no one else up and I just couldn’t resist not getting the GT400 into the air. I did one high speed pass. I help my maximum speed safely under the sound barrier so as not to cause damage. Next, I extended full flaps and did a slow pass. Reportedly, the crowd went wild from my display of mastered flying skills. Unfortunately, I had on my headset and I couldn't hear them.
By 10am we were almost ready to leave. John decided that he would stay behind and work on his troubled front landing gear. Larry and Jack delayed their take-off to take advantage of a little more time at Tommy's. Besides, they could easily beat us back to Cushing via his speed and range. Five us, Neil, Phil, Mike, Bill and myself, took off and executed a group fly by. We paired in sets of two and did a low pass of the field. Larry said it looked good. Bill left the formation and flew to Indianapolis. The remaining four of us set course for home.
The trip home was good with no problems. We made a fueling stop at Lincoln-Logan and then on to Pontiac. At Pontiac we took advantage of soft drinks and candy bars before splitting up further. Neal flew home from Pontiac. Phil and Mike flew directly to Cushing. I flew by Al’s place to return the headset and radio. I did make one detour due to a lone bikini clad lady sunning herself in a remote rural location. But hey, that’s another story………………
As I arrived at Cushing, I noted that the yellow Thorpe was in the hangar. Mike and Phil had already put their planes in the hangar. While I was pushing my plane into the hangar, John O’Neil entered the pattern and checked in with flight ops. I later confirmed that Bill had safely landed in Indianapolis. All in all, a great weekend of flying. Everyone home safe again.
Where To Now?
Not Your Typical Ultralight Cross-Country:
Evan Goes IFR All the Way to Connecticut!
We Made It to Tommy George's This Year!