1st Annual Central PA Spring Tour
All Grass, All Day (May 21, 2005)
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Tom Beamer of the CitabriaPilots Yahoo Group came up with and organized
this idea of flying around Pennsylvania all day landing on nothing but
grass fields. We had been
trying to do this flight for weeks but had been postponed for weather.
But today we finally made it. Two Citabrias and one Super Decathelon
met at Morgantown (O03) around 8AM: Tom flew lead in N169DD (Blue),
Dick Barton flew N191PC (Red), and I flew N9117L (Yellow). Ken
Highley rode with
Tom and took the great air-to-air shots.
There was some wispy ground fog at Morgantown but no big deal.
The four of us talked for a little while, reviewed the flight plan and
went over some formation and comm procedures. |
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And then we were off. I've often thought that Pennsylvania is some
of the most beautiful flying country around and in this picture you can
see why.
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Our first stop: Keller Brothers (08N). |
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Second stop: Blue Mountain (PA92)
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| Next stop, Grimes (8N1), where it
was Barnstomers day. Grimes features the Golden Age Air Museum but
today they had pulled all their aircraft out of the hangars. |
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| Three taildraggers on the line. |
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Farmers Pride (9N7) |
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A great shot of Dick and I with one of the signature Pennsylvania ridges
in the background.
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The three amigos. |
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Next stop was Gusler (PA74) which slopes down to the west. We landed to
the east so it was easy. After talking to the owner for awhile, we
headed 100 yards down the road to a bar-restaurant.
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| It may not look like much but the
food was great! An order of fries will feed three men. We shared
the place with about 20 bikers who were also enjoying the perfect weather. |
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| Back at Gusler, it's time to mount
up. |
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| Dick took the number two spot while
I went off and got some gas. |
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| Rolling into Duncannon
International (5PS5) which sits on top of a little hill. |
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| Gentlemen, start your engines! |
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| Three planes flying overhead in
close formation; not something you see everyday. |
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| Next stop was Lost Acres (8PN0)
which was probably my personal favorite. The end of one hangar was a
little lounge where we talked airplanes for awhile with some other pilots.
We checked out a bunch neat airplanes in the hangars: a Stearman,
Fairchild F-24W, Ercouple, SuperCub, and a 172 the owner had personally
restored. |
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| Another view of Lost Acres. |
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| Tom leading the way north of
Gettysburg. |
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| Prior to landing at Bermudian
Valley (07N), we did touch and goes at Kampel and Shreveport. The
interesting thing is that all three airfields are within a few miles of each
other and are arranged head to toe. We would take off at one airport
and by the time we had climbed to 500 feet we'd be on final for the next
field! |
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| Bermudian Valley is a taildragger's
airport. Lots of people were out enjoying the great aviation day.
We got a lot of compliments from people who had seen us fly over in
formation. |
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| Dick and N191PC. |
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| Yours truly in N9117L. |
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| Back home to Baltimore. Today
was the day of the Preakness horserace. I could see Pimlico racetrack
to the south with the Goodyear blimp overhead. Even from miles away, I
could see the infield was filled with humanity. |
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| All in all, today was on my short
list of greatest flying days ever. Just a fantastic day. Special
thanks to Tom for suggesting, organizing it and letting me fly his wing. We're
going to do this again, and hopefully we'll get even more Citabrias. |
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