Great weekend at Shady
Bend Rotary Round up. Had 4 rotary powered RVs - well, 5 if you count
the remnants of Finn's RV-3 hanging in the tree. Fin was there and gave
his take on what happened, his mind set and why he was so determined to
land. Still awesome to see the crash site and see Finn standing there
taking about it. Laura conducted a guided tour of the site and added the
ground perspective of the incident.
Monty demonstrated his
muffler experiment on Tracy's test stand engine - I think he is on to
something - but will take some more experimenting to sort it all
out.
Richard Shon showed
casting patterns and castings for his one lunger motor very impressive
his design for the side housing.
Kelly presented the
result of his interaction with Creavy? and the TES "O"
rings.
Tracy gave a great
presentation on the Ec2 setup - I even learned something
{:>)
Bill Eslick MCed a panel
discussion - question/answer session.
Some of the old regulars
and some new folks there, including a couple of current Air Force flying
types - flying F4's, but can't wait to get their Rvs
flying.
Richard Nagle? flew
Rusty's RV-3 there - Great looking aircraft Rusty, can't imagine you
letting it go.
Bill Eslick and his
lovely wife Linda flew in from Texas and won longest Rotary flight to
SB.
Bill Schertz came from
Illinois and had photos of his meticulous workmanship of his KIS
project.
The gang from OK, AR, MS
drove in, great to see Kelly, Monty, Ken and Charlie
-
Buly and his wife Doris
was there, Buly reported on the devastation that Wilma did at his
airport - but, fortunately Buly's project was undamaged. Bernie Kerr did
not make it - we believe because power had not yet been restored to his
area.
Many others were there
and all helped make it a great event.
And of course the Crooks
were great hosts as always, food, drink, lodging, transportation, you
name it and they provided it. Laura was organizational director (always
a good thing).
assisted by Tracy's
Daughter Sandy (who flew her Cessna 150 in - must make a Dad Proud!). A
sign was posted on the cowl of the Cessna 150 " all I want for Christmas
is a Rotary engine ". Tracy's mother handled registration and Laura's
father cooked Hamburgers and dogs - a real family affair.
Many other things, but
will let others fill in the blanks.
Had a headwind, going
and coming so fly was uneventful, brakes worked fine and arrived back
here in NC around 1215 today. Absolutely a beautiful week end for
flying.
Best
Regards