True Confession #2 - I’m either (a) Lazy or (b) Out Flying: A Quarterly Report

How does it go? Like sands through the hourglass, so too, the Days of Our Lives. Disclaimer: I didn’t write all of that all by myself - I ripped, stole, unashamed from a stupidly addictive TV show. Please don’t sue me.

Winter was not so awful, but the wet and the cold did put a damper on my flying. Plus, Mark and I have been pretty busy putting a new face on the airfield after its purchase by the Western North Carolina Air Museum.

Our identifier is 8NC9; the Hendersonville Airport is 0A7. The runways are more or less parallel but ours is shorter by some 400 feet according to the FAA data. There’s a lot to be done to bring the turf back up to snuff, but it’s happening - little by little.

Along those lines, one thing we did not have, among other things, was a restroom to serve the hangar tenants (of whom we are two). It was a minor inconvenience for us but for any female pilots or passengers it was pretty damned inconvenient. Fortunately, the former owner had one in his hangar (of course) so we made some changes to the entry to that building and - voila! - a restroom! Not fancy, but it’s a start. 

Shifty winds are always a problem at both airfields but more so at 8NC9 (which, by the way, is called Johnson Field in remembrance of the family that owned the airfield). A bit of applied brainpower, a little work by two of our EAA/Museum members (who happen to be retired engineers and active airplane builders and pilots) and we now have a reliable wind indicator - a tetrahedron that is nice and visible from the air and the ground.

 Life just gets, as my children used to say, funner and funner.

We’ve added a paramotor club to the mix here. They usually set out in the early morning or late afternoon when conditions are most agreeable. Careful planning and orientation for both the paramotor operators and pilots has, thus far, led to a peaceful and mutually supportive coexistence. Check out Mark Huneycutt on his YouTube channel for a peek at a whole new (to most of us) aviation adventure.

Now to dry out after a spring rain - more like a deluge - and the flying will recommence!

True Confession #1

The Marquart Charger came to town from its resting place at Marion NC’s Shiflet Field. My intent was to put it back into flying condition and enjoy Red Hunnicutt’s airplane in the skies of Western North Carolina.

Once in place, friend Steve and I divvied up our purchase - he bought the engine for his RV-4 and I had the airframe.

Then, as luck would have it, just as I was ready to dig into the project (after much perusal and many trips to the Marquart Charger website, as well as parts suppliers) a fellow wrote to me out of the blue and wanted to talk about maybe buying it. It was a tough decision.

Long story short, I sold the airframe and it was on its way to West Virginia in the hands of a fellow who will do a much better job of restoring it - an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic with Inspection Authorization - pretty much the top of the trade.

I hope Red is looking down with approval for what I’ve done. He started our local EAA chapter and the Charger was a magnet for new members like me in the early 1990s.