Hey Guys,
Just got back from a day trip to Barber field in Alliance Oh.
Fro me it was the first real flight since the nose gear failure 3 weeks
ago. I have my original Sterba prop on and in the summer heat it is not a
stellar performer. Just to much pitch. Any way I didn't even decide if I
was going until after I had climbed a couple thousand feet this morning
and nothing went wrong. It was a nice flight out in post frontal air with
a head wind of about 15 mph. The 300 miles was done in about 2h 30 min. I
had to try 3 time to get her on the turf at Barber The 1st pass the plane
landing ahead of me took awhile to roll out and taxi to the exit. The 2nd
an ultralight that had been sitting on the side pulled out and started to
taxi down the runway just as I was flaring for touch down. I fire walled
it and made the pass on the right of him about 10 ft. above and less than
10 ft to his right just so he knew I was there.. Barber is the shortest
field I have tried and also grass. I was stopped and turned around with
abut 500 ft left.
Pete, Ron and the chapter there had a nice breakfast set up and
plenty of enthusiasm to go around. It was a beautiful day after a round
of storms that went though last night. A guy in a Peit was giving some
rides and there was some static displays. But the KR contingent ruled the
day. I got there abut 9:30 with Ken Jones and the pig arriving shortly
after. Larry Fleshner arrived around 10:30 with Mark Langford arriving
in his style with a nice fast low pass.. Joseph Snow arrived early
afternoon with his Q2 on a trailer and the covair mounted up front. just
to show and tell. He's a better man than me. That was a lot of work to
get a nearly completed airplane mounted to a trailed and hauled to a fly
inn for the day.
I left Barber field right behind Ken, but I just had to sneak up
from behind the guys and give them one little fly by and off for home.
The trip home was exactly 2 hours flight time burning just 4 gal/hr at
9500 ft. no tailwind but no head wind either. Unfortunately grass is not
where my plane should be. When I landed at home I heard a noise from the
front. Something had tore a chunk out of the bottom of the nose fairing.
But had a great time anyway and got to see some dear friends
I figure the 4 of us flew nearly a combined 2000 miles today to
be there for Pete's gang.
The flying and the friends really is better than the building of the
plane.
Joe Horton
Coopersburg, Pa.
joe.kr2s.buil...@juno.com
