Annual Fish Fry and Thorp Fly-In

Yesterday was our annual fall fish fry at the airport. The Thorp club was having a flyin at Kentucky Dam Resort and several of those guys flew down to eat at the invitation of our airport manager. We had about 20 T-18s, an RV-6A and an RV-7A show up. Bet you can guess which ones I spent the most time looking at... Also, a 1947 Piper PA-11 "Cub" showed up from Pirates Cove, a private airstrip at a campground nearby. I have inspected this airplane before and it's just beautiful! It's a '47 model and is *pristine*. No electrics, hand propped C-85 that purrs like a sewing machine. Just a really neat plane. Two two-ship formations of the T-18s came in and did overhead breaks right above me, which I enjoyed because I've never seen it before. Here's some pictures from the day.

As an aside, I did get to fly early Saturday morning and got my 90 day checkout with my CFI so I'm good to go again. Felt great to fly again and I plan on knocking out my long cross country soon.

This airplane I was told was an Oshkosh Grand Champion for plans-built aircraft. I can believe that because it was the best looking Thorp there.






This unique looking T-18 was very, very loud! That's because it has a very unusual engine in it. A 3.8L Ford v6! Pretty cool.

Scratching the flying bug

I haven't been able to fly in some time, (about 6 months) due to work and other obligations so my flight training has come to a complete stand still. Luckily for me, I was invited by a local pilot to go for a ride this past Saturday in his 182. I'd never ridden in a 182 before so I was happy to have the opportunity. Six months is WAY too long for a pilot to go without leaving the ground. It was a short hop and I enjoyed it. The haze was terrible and even though it was a cool morning, the thermal turbulence bounced us around a bit. Flying has given me an appreciation for winter, the promise of clear, smooth skies makes the cold temps worth it. It also served to get me re-motivated to finish my training. Hopefully I'll be able to get a lesson in this Saturday.

Picture Test

This is an RV-8. Photo taken by Doug Reeves. www.vansairforce.net

Test.

Trying this out to see how everything works.