Waltm
09-19-2005, 11:41 PM
Wow! Morris Yoder, with the help of Jeff Williams, the new Powrachute crew and a host of volunteers pulled it off. The 2005 Powrachute Extravaganza was a success and I predict that, although off from its usual record number of attendees, it will quickly return to its full former glory.
This year's Extraganza - held in Hutchison, KS - wasn't anywhere near as "extravagant" as in prior years. There were almost no vendors, no exhibitions by jugglers, church choirs, cheerleader squads, big name country singer entertainers or other appearances by miscellaneous community organizations. This year it was all about the flying.
I left a little late for Kansas this year. I wasn't able to head out until mid-Thursday morning and didn't arrive until 6:30pm that day. The afternoon crowd was already out flying and I didn't have a chance to do much more than set up my RV and unload my equipment. It looked like they were having fun, though.
Jay Gill was helping with the parking. He saw me and sent me waaay out to the end of the RV parking area - out in the nosebleed section (thanks, Jay!). That was ok, though. It gave me a chance to walk by the whole RV line and chat with everyone along the way. I started walking around meeting old friends and started introducing myself to new friends.
I have always been looking forward to flying from the BIG field in Columbus and had been a little worried about the size of this flying field. I shouldn't have worried - Morris has a field that is every bit as big and as well maintained as the old field in Columbus. It would have easily contained twice as many pilots as there were in attendance. It had better access from any direction than the old flyin field. There were no trees to contend with and plenty of wide open spaces. About the only negative was that it was very close to the Hutchison Class D airspace and was almost dead in line with the ILS flight corridor for one runway. A NOTAM was issued, however, and we just kept our altitude under 1000 ft. AGL while in the immediate area.
A big tent was set up for the meeting and preflight briefing area. The Powrachute exhibition/registration tent was at one end and another tent providing nightly cover for aircraft was at the other. The flying field limits and taxi and parking areas were well marked. RV's and onfield camping areas were nicely arranged and there was a separate area for parking PPC trailers. Attendees who were staying in town had their own designated area to drop their trailers.
Attendence was down from previous years. This was understandable. Many people didn't know if it was even going to happen and didn't schedule their vacation time. Others either didn't think that it would be a very big affair or avoided it for other reasons. There were enough pilots there to ensure that it was one of the biggest of the year though. I know that there were over 135 registered pilots and there was a long line of RV's, campers and tents in the camping area. I know that because I had to WALK the whole length of it to get from my sad little last-place-in-the-end-of-the-line parking spot to the main tent.
One thing to keep in mind if you come next year - bring LOTS of mosquito spray. The mosquitos were quite bad and they tended to gang up on you. While you were swatting at one on your arm three more were latching onto your neck and getting a quick shot of go-juice while your attention was diverted. I declared war on them every night and they fought back like Al-Queida terrorists on a jihad. I was barely able to negotiate a truce through the use of prodigious amounts of OFF and citronella candles. Interestingly enough, Reggie "Nail' Toler didn't seem to be 'bugged' by them that much. He said it was because 'he was so sweet'. Personally, I think it was because the mosquitos knew that he was already full of poop and didn't want to leave with a bad taste in their mouths. :-)
It was a nice quiet night on Thursday. My thanks to Jim Baker and his gang from Mountain Home, Arkansas for making extra hamburgers that night. They were delicious!
Friday morning's 6:00am flight briefing was quite cool - COLD in fact. I had already been bitten at a previous Extravaganza and had come prepared for both extremes of temperatures. Don't come to the Extravaganza without bringing both winter and summer clothing. You'll probably need both of them within a 3 hour span or so.
I had met Kent Jones from www.eaglesnestproductions.com the previous night. Kent was there not only to provide the cooking for Mike Love, Rodney and the rest of the guys from Mountain Home, AR, but was ther to get some video footage of the event for a series that he was producing. I agreed to take him along with me on my morning flight so we headed out on an almost calm Friday morning at about 7:30am.
When I first climbed up to altitude and looked around, I was initially disappointed. There seemed to be NOTHING out there. Kansas is completely flat (in case you didn't know). I could see for miles. I could see for HUNDREDS of miles. There was almost absolutely no chance of getting lost. From 10 miles away I could see the Extravaganza tent. From 200 ft. up I could see the curvature of the earth. It's FLAT!!!
A little flying around, however, and I decided that it was a pretty cool place to be. Kent and I skimmed right over the tops of the fields along with other flyers. We made a game of hopscotching close to the ground where it was plowed and then barely rising enough to skim just over the tops of the wheatfields surprising the pheasant and dove that hid within their stalks. There's a lot of open spaces out there. Don't worry if your engine goes out. The biggest problem that you'll have is deciding which of the 1/2 mile wide fields looks the smoothest.
There are more deer in that part of Kansas than I've ever seen at a flyin anywhere. There were so many that I almost didn't dare skim close to the ground for fear that one of them would jump in front of my machine. You couldn't fly near a wooded area without scaring up 5 or 6. We flew over one wooded area and saw one whitetail that had a rack that was truly impressive and would have probably pointed out (if you don't know that term, you're probably not a deer hunter) really well towards a record. Kent's got the video. Wish I'd had the forethought to bring my camera to bear and get a picture of that deer.
We flew for a little over an hour while Kent shot his video before we headed back to the Extravaganza airfield and landed. I put away my machine, hopped on my bike, rode around and visited with friends for a while. Around 10:30am or so Roy Biesswenger gave a Sport Pilot seminar. I took away a lot of good information from his talk. It looks like quite a few pilots are finally getting used to the idea that, sooner than later, they're going to have to register. Most of the pilots seemed at least mildly receptive to the idea and the questions came quickly.
After Roy finished, Tim McCord from Performance Designs gave us an informative chute safety seminar. Dave Schrag talked about engines for a while after that.
After the evening briefing I took off again and headed back cross country with Bob Hawkins son, Cody. Again, we saw a lot of deer feeding and flew until the sun set over the horizon. It took us 20 minutes to get back to the Extravaganza field and we figured that we'd be the last aircraft out by a loooong time. We were wrong. There were at least 9 or 10 other planes flying around the area in the gathering dusk. We were the last to land but not by much more than 30 seconds or so.
Unfortunately, the mass launch on Saturday ended up being a massive letdown. The winds were blowing 10-12 mph at 6:00am when I walked into the main tent for the preflight briefing. We were about to call the thing off when they dropped to 8 mph or so. The plan was to depart the area and fly to the town of Yoder - an Amish community that was about 8 miles to the southeast. The Amish were having a pancake breakfast and we were going to be some of the main expected guests.
The forecasts were for surface winds to stay 8-10 until about 9:00am when they'd pick up to 17 mph. The concensus of many felt that we could make it there and back safely before the wind picked up. Everyone who wanted to brave the winds headed out and set up on the field.
Last year at the Extravaganza I was the lead pilot who took off first and led the mass launch around the pattern. This year I was going to be the LAST plane to leave. Kent Jones was going to ride with me again and videotape the whole thing. Since I had the fastest chute there we'd still arrive before most of the other pilots and he'd be able to get good shots of the departure, flight over and everyone's landing at our destination.
Morris led things off and 7 or 8 other planes headed out right after him. He got about 200 ft. in altitude and ran into a wall of wind. He was only making 4 or 5 mph against the wind - in his 912 powered Pegasus and carrying a passenger! The other pilots were making even less forward progress. Anyone who got above 100 ft. AGL was flying backwards. One pilot with a slow chute and light machine took off and climbed into the wind. He was flying backwards at one point and never even made it the length of the field. He had a whole flight without ever making a turn. He finally just put it down at the end of the field after a straight-line 3-4 minute flight of going nowhere. Morris wisely turned downwind, flew a traffic pattern and headed back to the field. His downwind leg must have been done well over 60 mph.
I was watching the group make a pattern and turn to final. The winds had already started to pick up and would make landing unsafe. I called to the ground crew and we all jumped on the 4-wheelers and raced to each landing pilot to help him contain his chute before he got blown backwards. If you need someone to help you in a high wind, call Jay Gill. He came flying out of the corner of my one good eye and dove onto the chute of a pilot that I was trying to help. It was a definite all-pro save! Good job, Jay.
All pilots who departed for the launch made it back safely. No one was hurt and no machines were damaged.
The mass launch being a bust didn't deter us from a good Amish breakfast however. Most of us hopped into vehicles and drove over to the field where some tents had been set up over a few rows of handmade tables. There were Amish folk all over the place.
This was my very first experience actually meeting the Amish. There were 5 or 6 horse and buggy teams tied up to a rail. There were a couple of tractors with trailers pulled up also. Apparently many of them drive tractors with trailers while most of the others still get places in their horse and buggy. I saw many horse and buggies go trotting by, as well as tractor pulled trailers, as they made their way down the road toward other destinations that morning.
They were a very friendly people. I enjoyed talking with the local harness maker and his wife. They have a great love of life and it showed in how they laughed. I think that I really like the Amish folk.
The food was outstanding. Just pancakes and sausage but it was just GOOD! I'm not a big pork person but, when the young Amish man came by with a platter and asked if I wanted more, I couldn't say 'No'. It was just darn good!
Did I mention that it was good?
After we returned to the flyin field I went and took a short nap before heading back to the main tent to hear Larry Clymer from the FAA. Larry is, I believe, the #2 man in Oklahoma City for Sport Pilot - Marty Weaver being #1. I later learned (from Morris) that Larry came up on his own time to talk to us about Sport Pilot and answer questions. He was very personable and did an outstanding job. When he asked for questions they poured in. He took questions for a solid hour before adjourning the seminar. He stood there another 30 minutes while others came forward and continued to question him. He was patient and didn't leave until he made sure that everyone got their answers.
The winds stayed brisk the whole day and there would be no flying until Saturday afternoon. I hopped on my motorcycle, rode into town and did a little exploring.
The afternoon dinner and entertainment was reminiscent of past Extravaganzas. The food was plentiful and good and a band kept us entertained until it was time to give away the Pegasus. I can't remember his name but the fellow who won was a new pilot with only 14 total hours. He had come to the flyin with an old Six-Chuter SR1. He left with a new Powrachute Pegasus.
The southerly winds had warmed things up by Sunday morning. The previous mornings had required a coat or flight coveralls. When I got up on Sunday I headed out in just a shirt and jeans.
The wind was about 8 mph and was not bad. Sunday would be open flying and the field was green-flagged at 6:45am. I was going to take Pat Yonkin from Ultraflight Magazine up for a ride but he was a bit late getting up and I wanted to be the first to depart (I also didn't know if he was going to show). It was still pre-dawn and about 20 minutes before sunrise when I vaulted into the sky all lit up with chute, strobes and position lights blazing.
Rusty McClanahan from Quinlin, TX and I flew around the area for an hour before I turned my machine to the east and headed for Yoder. I had promised the Amish family with whom I'd chatted that I'd make a trip over their area if I could. I kept my promise. The inhabitants of just about every house came outside to wave at us as we flew over the little community. I could see them watching and waving at us for quite a while as we made our turn west and headed back towards the flyin field.
Rusty and I had stayed low to the ground during our flight around the area and over to Yoder. I climbed to 500 ft. AGL and saw that I was really moving over the ground. I turned on my GPS and was amazed to see that I was moving at over 62 mph. While we were playing down low the wind had really started to blow up high.
It took us 30 minutes to make our way over to Yoder. It took us less than 10 to get back. I arrived at the field and was surprised to see that there were at least 8-10 other ppc's in the pattern or in the process of laying out and taking off. Although the wind was blowing up high it was still easily flyable at ground level and safe to depart. If I climbed to 500 ft. AGL, I was flying backwards however. As long as I stayed below 300 ft. we made good forward progress.
Scott Hughes was playing in the pattern in his new Predator Powered Parachute. He and I did a few formation flybys over Kent, who was snapping pictures and taking video from the center of the field.
After 2 solid hours of flying I had to make one final landing, say goodbye to the 2005 Extravaganza field and pack up for the long trip home.
My thanks to Morris Yoder and his wife, Gloria, for hosting the 2005 Powrachute Extravaganza. It wasn't as big an event as in the past, but it was certainly as grand and as much fun as any. If you missed this year's flyin because you thought that it "wouldn't amount to much" you were wrong. While it was certainly smaller and there weren't any vendors to speak of (only the guy who won last year's Extravaganza PPC who was selling little light-up pins and travel cups), it was just as much fun and just as informative. It was worth it just to hear Roy B. and Larry Clymer come up and tell us what we're going to have to do to become Sport Pilots.
Don't miss next year's event! I predict that it will quickly return to the same grand status as it was in 2004.
Walt...
(PS to Pat Yonkin - Don't worry, my friend. We'll take that ride one day soon. Just make sure to bring a sick sack) :-)
This year's Extraganza - held in Hutchison, KS - wasn't anywhere near as "extravagant" as in prior years. There were almost no vendors, no exhibitions by jugglers, church choirs, cheerleader squads, big name country singer entertainers or other appearances by miscellaneous community organizations. This year it was all about the flying.
I left a little late for Kansas this year. I wasn't able to head out until mid-Thursday morning and didn't arrive until 6:30pm that day. The afternoon crowd was already out flying and I didn't have a chance to do much more than set up my RV and unload my equipment. It looked like they were having fun, though.
Jay Gill was helping with the parking. He saw me and sent me waaay out to the end of the RV parking area - out in the nosebleed section (thanks, Jay!). That was ok, though. It gave me a chance to walk by the whole RV line and chat with everyone along the way. I started walking around meeting old friends and started introducing myself to new friends.
I have always been looking forward to flying from the BIG field in Columbus and had been a little worried about the size of this flying field. I shouldn't have worried - Morris has a field that is every bit as big and as well maintained as the old field in Columbus. It would have easily contained twice as many pilots as there were in attendance. It had better access from any direction than the old flyin field. There were no trees to contend with and plenty of wide open spaces. About the only negative was that it was very close to the Hutchison Class D airspace and was almost dead in line with the ILS flight corridor for one runway. A NOTAM was issued, however, and we just kept our altitude under 1000 ft. AGL while in the immediate area.
A big tent was set up for the meeting and preflight briefing area. The Powrachute exhibition/registration tent was at one end and another tent providing nightly cover for aircraft was at the other. The flying field limits and taxi and parking areas were well marked. RV's and onfield camping areas were nicely arranged and there was a separate area for parking PPC trailers. Attendees who were staying in town had their own designated area to drop their trailers.
Attendence was down from previous years. This was understandable. Many people didn't know if it was even going to happen and didn't schedule their vacation time. Others either didn't think that it would be a very big affair or avoided it for other reasons. There were enough pilots there to ensure that it was one of the biggest of the year though. I know that there were over 135 registered pilots and there was a long line of RV's, campers and tents in the camping area. I know that because I had to WALK the whole length of it to get from my sad little last-place-in-the-end-of-the-line parking spot to the main tent.
One thing to keep in mind if you come next year - bring LOTS of mosquito spray. The mosquitos were quite bad and they tended to gang up on you. While you were swatting at one on your arm three more were latching onto your neck and getting a quick shot of go-juice while your attention was diverted. I declared war on them every night and they fought back like Al-Queida terrorists on a jihad. I was barely able to negotiate a truce through the use of prodigious amounts of OFF and citronella candles. Interestingly enough, Reggie "Nail' Toler didn't seem to be 'bugged' by them that much. He said it was because 'he was so sweet'. Personally, I think it was because the mosquitos knew that he was already full of poop and didn't want to leave with a bad taste in their mouths. :-)
It was a nice quiet night on Thursday. My thanks to Jim Baker and his gang from Mountain Home, Arkansas for making extra hamburgers that night. They were delicious!
Friday morning's 6:00am flight briefing was quite cool - COLD in fact. I had already been bitten at a previous Extravaganza and had come prepared for both extremes of temperatures. Don't come to the Extravaganza without bringing both winter and summer clothing. You'll probably need both of them within a 3 hour span or so.
I had met Kent Jones from www.eaglesnestproductions.com the previous night. Kent was there not only to provide the cooking for Mike Love, Rodney and the rest of the guys from Mountain Home, AR, but was ther to get some video footage of the event for a series that he was producing. I agreed to take him along with me on my morning flight so we headed out on an almost calm Friday morning at about 7:30am.
When I first climbed up to altitude and looked around, I was initially disappointed. There seemed to be NOTHING out there. Kansas is completely flat (in case you didn't know). I could see for miles. I could see for HUNDREDS of miles. There was almost absolutely no chance of getting lost. From 10 miles away I could see the Extravaganza tent. From 200 ft. up I could see the curvature of the earth. It's FLAT!!!
A little flying around, however, and I decided that it was a pretty cool place to be. Kent and I skimmed right over the tops of the fields along with other flyers. We made a game of hopscotching close to the ground where it was plowed and then barely rising enough to skim just over the tops of the wheatfields surprising the pheasant and dove that hid within their stalks. There's a lot of open spaces out there. Don't worry if your engine goes out. The biggest problem that you'll have is deciding which of the 1/2 mile wide fields looks the smoothest.
There are more deer in that part of Kansas than I've ever seen at a flyin anywhere. There were so many that I almost didn't dare skim close to the ground for fear that one of them would jump in front of my machine. You couldn't fly near a wooded area without scaring up 5 or 6. We flew over one wooded area and saw one whitetail that had a rack that was truly impressive and would have probably pointed out (if you don't know that term, you're probably not a deer hunter) really well towards a record. Kent's got the video. Wish I'd had the forethought to bring my camera to bear and get a picture of that deer.
We flew for a little over an hour while Kent shot his video before we headed back to the Extravaganza airfield and landed. I put away my machine, hopped on my bike, rode around and visited with friends for a while. Around 10:30am or so Roy Biesswenger gave a Sport Pilot seminar. I took away a lot of good information from his talk. It looks like quite a few pilots are finally getting used to the idea that, sooner than later, they're going to have to register. Most of the pilots seemed at least mildly receptive to the idea and the questions came quickly.
After Roy finished, Tim McCord from Performance Designs gave us an informative chute safety seminar. Dave Schrag talked about engines for a while after that.
After the evening briefing I took off again and headed back cross country with Bob Hawkins son, Cody. Again, we saw a lot of deer feeding and flew until the sun set over the horizon. It took us 20 minutes to get back to the Extravaganza field and we figured that we'd be the last aircraft out by a loooong time. We were wrong. There were at least 9 or 10 other planes flying around the area in the gathering dusk. We were the last to land but not by much more than 30 seconds or so.
Unfortunately, the mass launch on Saturday ended up being a massive letdown. The winds were blowing 10-12 mph at 6:00am when I walked into the main tent for the preflight briefing. We were about to call the thing off when they dropped to 8 mph or so. The plan was to depart the area and fly to the town of Yoder - an Amish community that was about 8 miles to the southeast. The Amish were having a pancake breakfast and we were going to be some of the main expected guests.
The forecasts were for surface winds to stay 8-10 until about 9:00am when they'd pick up to 17 mph. The concensus of many felt that we could make it there and back safely before the wind picked up. Everyone who wanted to brave the winds headed out and set up on the field.
Last year at the Extravaganza I was the lead pilot who took off first and led the mass launch around the pattern. This year I was going to be the LAST plane to leave. Kent Jones was going to ride with me again and videotape the whole thing. Since I had the fastest chute there we'd still arrive before most of the other pilots and he'd be able to get good shots of the departure, flight over and everyone's landing at our destination.
Morris led things off and 7 or 8 other planes headed out right after him. He got about 200 ft. in altitude and ran into a wall of wind. He was only making 4 or 5 mph against the wind - in his 912 powered Pegasus and carrying a passenger! The other pilots were making even less forward progress. Anyone who got above 100 ft. AGL was flying backwards. One pilot with a slow chute and light machine took off and climbed into the wind. He was flying backwards at one point and never even made it the length of the field. He had a whole flight without ever making a turn. He finally just put it down at the end of the field after a straight-line 3-4 minute flight of going nowhere. Morris wisely turned downwind, flew a traffic pattern and headed back to the field. His downwind leg must have been done well over 60 mph.
I was watching the group make a pattern and turn to final. The winds had already started to pick up and would make landing unsafe. I called to the ground crew and we all jumped on the 4-wheelers and raced to each landing pilot to help him contain his chute before he got blown backwards. If you need someone to help you in a high wind, call Jay Gill. He came flying out of the corner of my one good eye and dove onto the chute of a pilot that I was trying to help. It was a definite all-pro save! Good job, Jay.
All pilots who departed for the launch made it back safely. No one was hurt and no machines were damaged.
The mass launch being a bust didn't deter us from a good Amish breakfast however. Most of us hopped into vehicles and drove over to the field where some tents had been set up over a few rows of handmade tables. There were Amish folk all over the place.
This was my very first experience actually meeting the Amish. There were 5 or 6 horse and buggy teams tied up to a rail. There were a couple of tractors with trailers pulled up also. Apparently many of them drive tractors with trailers while most of the others still get places in their horse and buggy. I saw many horse and buggies go trotting by, as well as tractor pulled trailers, as they made their way down the road toward other destinations that morning.
They were a very friendly people. I enjoyed talking with the local harness maker and his wife. They have a great love of life and it showed in how they laughed. I think that I really like the Amish folk.
The food was outstanding. Just pancakes and sausage but it was just GOOD! I'm not a big pork person but, when the young Amish man came by with a platter and asked if I wanted more, I couldn't say 'No'. It was just darn good!
Did I mention that it was good?
After we returned to the flyin field I went and took a short nap before heading back to the main tent to hear Larry Clymer from the FAA. Larry is, I believe, the #2 man in Oklahoma City for Sport Pilot - Marty Weaver being #1. I later learned (from Morris) that Larry came up on his own time to talk to us about Sport Pilot and answer questions. He was very personable and did an outstanding job. When he asked for questions they poured in. He took questions for a solid hour before adjourning the seminar. He stood there another 30 minutes while others came forward and continued to question him. He was patient and didn't leave until he made sure that everyone got their answers.
The winds stayed brisk the whole day and there would be no flying until Saturday afternoon. I hopped on my motorcycle, rode into town and did a little exploring.
The afternoon dinner and entertainment was reminiscent of past Extravaganzas. The food was plentiful and good and a band kept us entertained until it was time to give away the Pegasus. I can't remember his name but the fellow who won was a new pilot with only 14 total hours. He had come to the flyin with an old Six-Chuter SR1. He left with a new Powrachute Pegasus.
The southerly winds had warmed things up by Sunday morning. The previous mornings had required a coat or flight coveralls. When I got up on Sunday I headed out in just a shirt and jeans.
The wind was about 8 mph and was not bad. Sunday would be open flying and the field was green-flagged at 6:45am. I was going to take Pat Yonkin from Ultraflight Magazine up for a ride but he was a bit late getting up and I wanted to be the first to depart (I also didn't know if he was going to show). It was still pre-dawn and about 20 minutes before sunrise when I vaulted into the sky all lit up with chute, strobes and position lights blazing.
Rusty McClanahan from Quinlin, TX and I flew around the area for an hour before I turned my machine to the east and headed for Yoder. I had promised the Amish family with whom I'd chatted that I'd make a trip over their area if I could. I kept my promise. The inhabitants of just about every house came outside to wave at us as we flew over the little community. I could see them watching and waving at us for quite a while as we made our turn west and headed back towards the flyin field.
Rusty and I had stayed low to the ground during our flight around the area and over to Yoder. I climbed to 500 ft. AGL and saw that I was really moving over the ground. I turned on my GPS and was amazed to see that I was moving at over 62 mph. While we were playing down low the wind had really started to blow up high.
It took us 30 minutes to make our way over to Yoder. It took us less than 10 to get back. I arrived at the field and was surprised to see that there were at least 8-10 other ppc's in the pattern or in the process of laying out and taking off. Although the wind was blowing up high it was still easily flyable at ground level and safe to depart. If I climbed to 500 ft. AGL, I was flying backwards however. As long as I stayed below 300 ft. we made good forward progress.
Scott Hughes was playing in the pattern in his new Predator Powered Parachute. He and I did a few formation flybys over Kent, who was snapping pictures and taking video from the center of the field.
After 2 solid hours of flying I had to make one final landing, say goodbye to the 2005 Extravaganza field and pack up for the long trip home.
My thanks to Morris Yoder and his wife, Gloria, for hosting the 2005 Powrachute Extravaganza. It wasn't as big an event as in the past, but it was certainly as grand and as much fun as any. If you missed this year's flyin because you thought that it "wouldn't amount to much" you were wrong. While it was certainly smaller and there weren't any vendors to speak of (only the guy who won last year's Extravaganza PPC who was selling little light-up pins and travel cups), it was just as much fun and just as informative. It was worth it just to hear Roy B. and Larry Clymer come up and tell us what we're going to have to do to become Sport Pilots.
Don't miss next year's event! I predict that it will quickly return to the same grand status as it was in 2004.
Walt...
(PS to Pat Yonkin - Don't worry, my friend. We'll take that ride one day soon. Just make sure to bring a sick sack) :-)