June 6, 2015 - AOPA Regional Fly-In
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June 6th. 71st anniversary of D-Day, Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II.
But also 2nd annual AOPA regional fly-in at Frederick, Maryland.
Bruce and I hopped into the RV and about 20 minutes later we were approaching Frederick Airport. Which is a towered airport. (It was not always thus). A number of planes arrived about the same time we did. Frankly, the Tower did not have control of the situation. At one point, when we were on a long final with about three planes ahead of us, the Tower said "Unless you are on final, don't talk." I've experienced this at other towered airports. Towers do fine when one or two planes arrive but five or more and its a different story. I think uncontrolled airports are actually safer, since everyone knows and follows the standard procedure, and the thing is self-regulating. But at a controlled field, it is too easy to assume the Tower has the picture and is separating traffic, when it really doesn't and isn't.
Here we are parked on the grass at Frederick airport. I think they had a bigger turnout this year than last year. Not too many RVs though.
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Bruce and I were sitting in the big food tent when Kirk Lippold began speaking. Kirk was the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Cole when it was attacked by Muslim terrorists October 2000. Kirk talked about his experiences that day and tied it in with the similarities to flying (he is a private pilot). After a few minutes, the audience was riveted. At the end, Kirk received a minutes-long standing ovation. I don't know I've ever seen such a heartfelt response to a speaker before. Kirk's book Front Burner is on my reading list. |
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| We walked around after breakfast to see the sights, including this band jamming infront of an RV. |
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| I have always liked the King Air. |
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Chesapeake Sport Pilot was on hand with their popular SeaRey.
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| Chip Lock - Van's east coast rep -- was on hand with his RV-12. |
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Bill Finnegin -- who I saw fly a couple of weeks ago fly at Cambridge -- was on hand with his Pitts.
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| Bruce checking out an RV-3. |
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| Attractive paint scheme on this 2013 Waco 2T-1A. |
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The Zenith CH-750 that was built in a single week at AirVenture was on hand.
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| The Breitling Jet Team made numerous passes down the runway. |
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| Looking good! |
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| Then they came in and parked behind this immaculate T-6. |
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| The crowd gathers to watch Mike Goulian perform. |
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And there he goes. He did something I've never seen before. He was going straight up and at the very top went right into a cumulous cloud. A second or two later, he came tumbling out. Cool move!
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Bill F. watches fellow aerobatic pilot Mike Goulian do his thing.
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| Mike G. waves to the crowd. |
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| We left as soon Mike Goulian finished and they opened the airport. Here we are taxiing by the Breitling Jet Team. |
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| Matt T. waves to us from his RV-7A. |
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