September 19, 2009 - Essex Skypark Wings and Wheels
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I was excited about the Essex Skypark fly-in today. I had spent
about 10 hours washing and polishing the RV so it would look good.
The weather was absolutely fabulous: sunny but not too hot, mild
winds and phenominal visibility. The weather doesn't get any
better than this. Not to mention it seems like half of all fly-ins
get cancelled by bad weather.
We had all the local planes on the flight line by 9AM. For
awhile, hardly anyone flew in. Then suddenly around 11AM planes
began arriving. All told we probably had close to 40
planes. |
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From left to right, Kitfox, Cessna 310 twin, Cessna 172,
Aircoupe with Mooney tail. |
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Bruce's Cub and my RV-7. |
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This AirCam is based at nearby Martin State and comes over to Essex all
the time. Plus the owners are very active so I see it all over the
place at local fly-ins and even as far as Oshkosh.
That's Bruce R.'s RV-8 on the left. |
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| A Quicksilver with both wheels and
floats. Cliff, the owner, might make it a club airplane. If
so, I'm in! With all the water around here, this plane would be a
lot of fun. |
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| FBO building to the left, and big
dining hall fly to the right. |
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This is the busiest I've ever seen Essex
Skypark. |
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| Two of the famed Trunk Monkeys,
Tim and Mark, flew in from New Jersey. Later I gave each of them a
ride in the RV. They loved it! |
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In addition to the Wings, there was the
Wheels. Over 140 cars showed up to be judged, some with
unbelievable paint jobs, and other with souped up engines. I didn't
get a chance to look at the cars too closely but what I saw of them was
impressive. |
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| There was plenty to see for the gear
heads. |
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| Tricked out Corvette. |
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| One of my favorite cars: the 1972
Mustang Fastback. |
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Not sure what this is. |
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| Bright Red muscle car. |
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| What's with the rotating doors? |
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| Chip was in his Stearman's cockpit all
day long, giving rides. |
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| There was even a DJ, underneath the
blue canopies. |
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No pit beef this year, but a cheese burger could be had
for $1.50 -- a lot less expensive than the burgers at
AirVenture. My disgruntled teenage daughter "volunteered" to
help out in the food booth. |
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| The week prior I spent about eight
hours polishing the RV -- the wings and the forward fuselage. I'm
getting better at it. It's not Swift quality yet, but I'm getting
there! |
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Taxiing out with a passenger. |
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| Taking off, keeping it low.
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| Zooming by. I ended up giving six
people rides including Brian, Max and Ron from the Skypark.
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| Bruce trying to overtake me in the
Cub. |
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But the star of Essex Skypark will always be Chip's
beautiful orange and white Stearman: Double Trouble. |
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| This powered parachute really added to
the color of the fly-in. |
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But can it shine like this! |
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| The Lomax-Cloughley-Barrett family was
out in full force. |
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| The 310 twin getting ready to taxi
out. He won the award for best high speed low pass -- hands
down. With the gear retracted, he came roaring down the runway only
3-4 feet off the deck. |
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| Fellow EAA Chapter 571 George getting
read to depart. George was about a year ahead of me in finishing his
RV-8. |
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| George making the obligatory high speed
low pass. |
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| Bruce R. and I did a formation high
speed low pass. |
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Too fast for Amelia to capture it with her Digital
Rebel. |
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| An AOPA rep arrived in this sleek
Europa and ran a flight simulator in the FBO building. |
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Emily -- aka Amelia --goes for a ride in Double
Trouble. |
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Bruce was giving Amelia's friend a ride in the Cub.
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Apparently Amelia has a pretty good zoom lense on her
Rebel. |
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A Stearman ride wasn't enough; here she is showing a
little leg prior to a Cub flight. |
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Not bad, not bad: a flight in a Stearman
AND a Cub. I think this was the first time Bruce flew the Cub
from the front seat. |
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| Her flight was fairly late in the
day. Most of the cars and planes were gone by now. |
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| Great shot of Double Trouble down load
over the Back River. |
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| Amelia took this nice shot of the
RV with Double Trouble in the background. |
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A single place kit helicopter. Wow! |
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| Another neat pic by Amelia.
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It was just a great aviation day. In my opinion, it
was by far the best fly-in ever at Essex Skypark.
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