October 22, 2011 - Golden Age
Air Museum Fly-In |
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Since the last Golden Age Air Museum fly-in was rained out, they scheduled
a Great Pumpkin Fly-In for this Saturday. The weather looked
promising so I recruited a bunch of RV drivers for a flight up to Bethel,
Pennsylvania. It was sunny and warm at Essex Skypark Saturday
morning on a beautiful fall day. The RV looked good in the
sunlight. |
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Max taxiied by in his brand-spanking
newly restored Champ. This was the plane I learned how to fly
tailwheel in. It was good to see the Champ flying again. |
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I met Blue Flight -- Bruce R. and Fred S. in their
RV-8s -- over the Sassafras River on the Eastern Shore and we proceeded north to the
Golden Age Air Museum (GAAM). We could hear Dragon Flight -- Mike R.
and Fernando -- on the radio, also winging their way north to
the west of us.
It was sunny all the way until overhead Grimes
Field. There it was overcast there and would remain so the rest of
the day. Not only that, it was cold! What happened to the sun and
warm? Mike is talking to Scott on the left with the GAAM Cessna
195 in the background. |
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Fred and Bruce checking out that Le
Rhone rotary engine on the Fokker DR-I Triplane. |
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| There was a pretty
good turnout for this cold, overcast day. The grass ramp was mostly
filled. My RV is parked tail to tail with Tom B.'s Citabria, the
famous Delta Delta. |
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| This was the Great
Pumpkin Fly-In so there was a pumpkin drop contest. You could even
buy a pumpkin to drop from your plane -- all proceeds went to help
fund the GAAM. |
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| The Breezy is the
ideal platform for the
contest. The RV does many things well, but dropping things from it
is not one of them! Photo by Carl H. |
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| Pumpkins
away! Photo by Carl
H. |
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A little off the mark. Photo by Carl H. |
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| But still makes a
nice explosion ... Photo
by Carl H. |
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| Bruce R.'s
"Mugsy". |
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| Fred's silver
RV-8. |
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I met Scott -- RV-8 driver -- for the
first time. He's interested in flying some formation with us. |
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| Mike R.
(Chef) getting some ACM pointers Scott (Gremlin) in front of Mike's
RV-4. Photo by Carl
H. |
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| I also met
Fernando -- RV-4 driver -- for the first time. |
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Jolly arrived in his RV-7 with his
young daughter who has started flying with him. |
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Jolly brought his little girl and she
thought the Aeronca C-3 was just right for her. Photo by
Bill R. |
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| Although the
Pietenpol wasn't bad either. Photo by Bill R. |
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| It's funny, from
the rear the Triplane appears primarily yellow. But from the front,
it's red. From below, it's light blue. |
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| The GAAM Sopwith
Pup project is making progress. The fuselage is now nicely
epoxy-coated with lots of varnished wood pieces, cables and pulleys
attached. |
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| The Pup's wings in
the process of being covered. |
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| I have to include
a shot of the GAAM Jenny. |
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There were even radio-controlled
planes flying about. |
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| From top to
bottom: DR-VII, Cub and Stearman. All very nice planes. |
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As always, the Trunkmonkeys were well
represented including Al who flew all the way from Bay Bridge. |
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| This is an
immaculately restored 1946 Fairchild 24.
The owner has a nice little blog about the restoration. Link. |
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Checking out the Fairchild
24. |
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| This is a 1951 Dehavilland
DHC-1 Chipmunk. It was the standard primary trainer for the
Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force after World War II, replacing
the famous Tiger Moth biplane. |
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A nice Stampe SV.4 which was
originally built as a Belgian trainer. This is the
type plane in which Indiana Jones and his dad Sean Connery escaped
from the Nazi Zeppelin in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. |
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| Tom B. taxiis by
in the 1929 Waco GXE. |
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Everyone present was very interested in the Triplane so
when they decided to fly it the crowd gathered round. The LeRhone engine
must not have liked the cold weather because it didn't want to start.
After 15 minutes or so of trying, the ground crew took a
break.
During the break, the GAAM President and Triplane owner/pilot Paul D. talked
to the crowd about building and flying the Triplane. Photo by Carl
H. |
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On the second try, they squirted hot shot or something onto each
cylinder and it started in short order.
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Taxiing to the runway. Taxiing in this airplane is not
easy. You can't see ahead, there are no brakes, and the engine is all or nothing --
no throttle. You control it with a "blip" switch which actually
stops the engine momentarily. |
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Photo by Bill R. |
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| The crowd finally
gets to see what they have been waiting for: the Triplane takes to
the air! |
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| It's
magnificent. |
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| The Triplane
preparing to make a Pumpkin drop -- admittedly, a very small
pumpkin. Photo by Carl
H. |
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| I just can't get
enough of seeing this airplane fly! Photo by Carl H. |
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Awesome! Photo by Carl H. |
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The Triplane closes in for a
kill. |
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Taxiing back. It's funny how you rarely see the pilot when watching this
airplane. |
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Everybody started bugging out after
the Triplane landed. We decided to do a five-ship flyover before
departing ourselves. Mike was the lead, then Fred, Bruce, myself and
Jolly. Here, Fred and Bruce are doing their pre-takeoff
runups. |
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| Jolly ready to
go. |
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| Overhead
Grimes. Not too many planes left to see our flyover. |
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| Approaching Grimes
field. |
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From the ground. |
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| We came around
again, this time in a right echelon formation followed by a overhead break
and individual low passes. |
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Then I followed Fred and Bruce home
via the Eastern Shore. |
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| Bruce's wife Jane
was in his backseat. |
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She took this nice picture of me.
Despite the less than ideal weather, the fly-in was fun and not a bad
way to spend the day. |
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