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