Sometimes Things Are Out Of Our Hands

 It's the end of 2024 and what a year it has been.

The flying was sort of spotty - not much going on for me - but I did manage to enjoy some local flights and a few breakfasts at Morristown TN, Triple Tree events and so on. No real travel involved.

Our resident Senior Partner, Sid, turned 92 in May while he wasn't looking and we celebrated with a cake at the monthly EAA chapter meeting. Sid retired as a Navy doctor and built an airplane that he flew across the North Atlantic before such things as GPS came into use. Captain Sid cut his cake with my Navy officer's sword, the first time it has been out of its scabbard in 50 years or more. What a sport.

We started June with a flight to Morristown for breakfast with a couple hundred of our like minded friends. The EAA chapter there puts on a feed on the first Saturday of every month, year round.

Tim made good progress on his RV-12is project, finally moving it from his workshop at home to his hangar at Shelby. 

Leo came up with this sign to announce to the world that our hangar is serving its purpose as a place for relaxation and for hiding when there are honey-do projects awaiting.

The EAA chapter renovated the airfield rest room to bring it up to snuff for the convenience of all. That began in July and ran over into August. 

September started out a beautiful month of flying weather. The EAA pilots flew a dozen or more Young Eagles and the Glastar performed beautifully, as always, to give 4 of those rides. The last flight was for a young man who is older than Young Eagle cutoff age but he's motivated and may have a great future as a pilot or mechanic - he's interested in both.

Then things changed. A hurricane followed the west coast of Florida and ran along a straight line all the way to Western North Carolina. The wind did damage enough; the rain came in torrents and resulted in devastation along both the slopes and low lying areas of the mountains. 

In terms of airplanes, the destruction at the airfield was pretty much total. My Glastar and my hangar partner's RV-8 were under 5'10" of water, measured at the high water mark. All the accumulated stuff in the hangar that could float, floated and ended up in a pile when the water receded.

Every airplane on the airfield was flooded. Insurance covered some, others weren't covered. Some owners elected to take the insurance money, some sold for salvage, some are trying to restore their machines. It was a tough decision but I decided the restoration was more than I could handle.

The good news is a fellow I know who was interested in the airplane bought it out of salvage and will put it into flying order.

When you see sights like this its very hard. This Bonanza was just delivered to its owner and was not yet insured. It was sent off for a complete rebuild.

All of these airplanes were total losses.

Our troubles at the airfield were of little note when compared to the damage in the region to people and property. Comparisons to the Great Flood of 1916 quickly fell away - this was a singular event in our lifetimes and, I hope, longer than that.

But we are rebuilding. 

Mark and I hitched a ride with a fellow on his way to Louisiana to visit his family and looked over this Kolb Mk3 Xtra in South Alabama. It looked good so we bought it and trucked it up to our hangar in late October.

The hangar is coming along fine, too - we've installed a new set of cabinets and a proper counter for laying out food for the huddled masses of pilots who come to the Old Pilots Day Care Center. Our Fairweather Flyers will gather for breakfast and lunch again when the temperatures permit and there will be peace once more.

So that's the way it is at the end of 2024 and I hope 2025 will be good to us all.

Fly often, Fix strong and Fly Safe.