Getting back in the groove

 This weekend the weather was a pilot's dream .. not too hot, not too cool, calm-ish winds and nary a cloud in the sky. The bumps weren't even bumpy and that made for a great ride in the CallAir Cadet from my home base at the Western North Carolina Air Museum in Hendersonville NC to Morristown TN, just across the mountains.

My friend Bill, in his Light-Sport CTLS, gave me a 15 mile head start and passed me abeam Snowbird VOR, despite my best efforts. The CallAir has the terminal velocity of a barn door .. once at cruise speed, there you are. (My Stratus ADSB-IN displays on an iPad - he eyeballed me but I never did see him 2,000 feet above, no doubt laughing).

Once past the "escarpement" (Bill likes to use words like that) I tried an old trick to get an extra couple of klicks worth of gofast, putting the CallAir into a shallow descent while maintaing thrust, but no dice. He was pulling off the runway at KMOR ahead of a Swift on final as I entered the pattern.

Looking just one way toward the antiques/classics there were a lot of interested people on the ramp. I'm guessing 35-40 airplanes in all, 7 of them from our EAA chapter 1016 at Asheville. The experimentals were behind me and I completely missed the opportunity to get a picture of them. Well, almost.

This F1 Rocket was perfection itself .. what a magnificent airplane. The workmanship is just incredible. 

All in all a great day. The ride home was the reverse of the outbound course and it was still fairly smooth despite being 1,000' feet lower and closer to the ridge tops. I don't think I've been low-level in this part of the woods for a very long time, if ever. After a year of very little activity it's really nice to get out and see new faces, forget new names and share in the one thing we all love - Flying!

First EAA Meeting of 2021

 My local EAA chapter scheduled the first meeting of 2021 (actually, the first meeting in a year and a half) for May 11. The weather was forecast to be fair and warm, the enthusiasm was running pretty high and food was bought for 50 with hopes we'd have to make a run for more. Volunteers, usually hard to come by, were eager to set up.

Then, 3 days before the meeting, hackers disrupted the fuel supply for most of the east coast by worming their way into the software of the Colonial Pipeline Co. People rushed to buy fuel and pretty soon it was 1974 all over again. (For those still relatively wet behind the ears, there was a fuel crisis for real back then that lasted for months). Our members had second thoughts but we pressed on with the meeting and counted 14 meal tickets in the jar when all was said and done. A week later and the crisis is averted - at least for now.

The program had to be truncated a bit owing to a distant presenter using his better judgement to stay home, but we got in most of our agenda and we can say it was a start. 

Until June 8: Build light and strong, fly safe, keep well.