December 1, 2024 - Massey Fly-In
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Sunday, December 1st. It's The day of the Massey Aerodrome Open Hangar Party & Fly-In. Who has a fly-in in December?! But surprisingly, it usually works. And it would today. Although it was a little cool this morning -- mid-30s -- the rest of the weather was fine: light winds, high layer, decent visibility.
Griffin and I jumped in the RV-7 and headed for Massey. It's only a 20 minute or so flight. The engine and wings like the cold, dense air. The RV-7 cabin was quite comfortable with the heat vent open.
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The fly-in started at 10AM. We arrived overhead around 10:30.
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| I was shocked by how few planes were on the ground, given the decent flying weather. |
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That blue RV-12 landed just ahead of me. It was Dan from my old EAA Chapter. Bob, also from my old EAA Chapter flew in after us in that bright green gyrocopter.
Overhead, my friend Karl does a show pass in his new (used) Culver.
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Griffin standing in front of a Micco SP26, a highly modified version of the Meyers MAC-145.
The Micco Aircraft Company, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, acquired the type certificate for the original two-place Meyers 145 in 1994. The company invested in a substantial effort to redesign and improve the aircraft, and eventually won an amended type certificate for the SP20 in early 2000. The 200-hp, all-metal low wing sports plane had retractable gear and was fully aerobatic. Looking to push the envelope even further, Micco put a 260-hp SP26 into production in 2002. The more advanced designed allowed for +6 Gs and --3 Gs at its maximum gross weight. I knew a guy once that owned the Micco Aircraft Company and Lake Aircraft for a short time.
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| Griffin and I head for the grassy knoll. |
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The windsock looks a lot bigger on the ground than it does in the air. What's with those monoliths out in the field?
Normally there would be ten planes or more in this picture at a normal Massey fly-in. Instead there was only one. I guess it was too cold, or maybe everyone used all their avgas dollars in the recent five-week stretch of great flying weather we enjoyed.
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| By this time, the sun was out and things warmed up into the 40s. |
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We watched this Helio Courier short takeoff and landing (STOL) plane fly-in. I have to say, watching it fly the downwind, I thought it was the slowest plane I've ever seen. But it landed short and made the first turnoff, then 4 people got out, so there's that.
Around 500 of these aircraft were manufactured in Pittsburg, Kansas, from 1954 until 1974 by the Helio Aircraft Company. The design featured four leading edge slats that deployed automatically, and large trailing edge flaps. The engine was the 295 hp Lycoming GO-480, which had a gearbox that lowered the output RPM and allowed for the use of a large three-bladed propeller to further improve takeoff performance. Couriers were famous for their takeoffs, which often took only a few plane lengths and then climbed at very high angles. During airshow demonstrations, it was common for the aircraft to actually take off across a 100 - 200 foot wide runway.
This plane was built in 1974.
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| Looking at the rest of the airplanes that flew in. |
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Griffin in front of the Culver. It's a 1941 Culver LFA. The Golden Age Air Museum owned it for a long time until Karl bought it recently. It has a 80 hp Franklin engine. |
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| Everyone was supposed to bring a covered dish or a dessert, so Lynnette made a crockpot of her delicious white bean chicken chili to bring, pictured here. |
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But it was the dessert table that interested Griffin the most!
There were quite a few people inside the hangar and museum. All the tables were filled. The Massey fly-in also gets a lot of drive-in traffic.
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| One of my favorite cars from the muscle car era: the Mercury Cougar. Three friends of mine had them back in the late 70s. I once drove one from LA to Mountain View. |
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| Griffin in front of a Pietenpol project. |
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| Griffin checking out an Ercoupe's cockpit. |
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That panel is about as simple as it gets for an airplane.
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Griffin is ready to fly!
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| Griffin posed in front of Paul's Stealth SuperCub. Paul is based at Essex Skypark, and was yet another EAA Chapter member. We spent many an EAA meeting in his garage watching him build this airplane. He has now started a RV-14 project. |
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A big, blue Navion. The single-engine, unpressurized, retractable gear, four-seat aircraft was originally designed and built by North American Aviation in the 1940s. It was later built by Ryan Aeronautical Company and the Tubular Steel Corporation (TUSCO).
The Navion was envisioned as an aircraft that would perfectly match the expected postwar boom in civilian aviation. It was designed along the general lines of, and by the same company which produced the North American P-51 Mustang, and North American T-28 Trojan. 2,634 were built.
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| This nice-looking RV-7 showed up toward the end of the fly-in. I talked with its owner Merrill briefly. He is based in Wilmington and built this plane. |
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Dan and Kathy, pictured at right talking with Paul, flew this RV-12 in.
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My old Trunkmonkey friend Tom showed up late in his Citabria Delta Delta. Unfortunately I missed him and did not get a chance to talk.
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Heading back home with Griffin at the controls most of the way.
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| I did make the landing, however. We rolled out to the north end of the runway and saw this fox curled up comfortably next to one of the lights. |
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He looked at us but did not move. Good-looking Fox!
39 airplanes ended up flying into Massey today. Not bad for a cold December fly-in, I suppose. I've seen years where 150 planes would show up at Massey's spring fly-in.
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