Carthage

[okjoek]

I went to Carthage on Saturday for the fly in. This was the first event I've been to and just wanted to see what it was all about. I met many very nice people, including Bruce from this site, most of whom are much better off financially than am I, but again very nice. I also don't hold that against them, I hold it against me, I am working on that. Many very nice planes and motor homes and motorcycles and so on and so on.

We, my wife and I, got there about 10:30 and left about 3:30. It seemed quite calm to me but there was a red flag up and no one was allowed to fly which was disappointing. I really wanted for my wife to get a short flight or at least see some flying. Several people offered to take her up when the wind died, being from Oklahoma I thought it was dead, but it never got calm enough before we had to go, (we were babysitting our grandchild that night).

As I said there was there were many very nice planes there which were fun to look at. I really wanted to see an AFU but there was none there. That was the most disappointing thing about the whole affair to me. I saw lots of planes that again looked nice and I saw the Powerachute dealer that I met before, very nice fellow. I met some flyers from my area, all had Powerachutes. There were two homebuilts which I was interested in, they had character. I got to talk to one of the builders, a side by side that I thought at first might be an AFU, but was one that was influenced by AFU.

Bruce was very nice and spent some time talking with me and my wife. His Paraski is a very good looking plane. I think I like planes that are a little different than the cookie cutter planes, which is why I want to see the AFU so badly. We went on Saturday and I guess on Friday they had the jet plane and the Harley plane there. I was just too early and too late for everything.

All in all it was very interesting and I'm glad I went. It was nice to meet Bruce from here. The fact that I didn't get to see any of the planes in the air is my fault, they had flown early, I just wasen't there yet, as I said before I took my wife, nuff said. We didn't get to stay long enough to see them fly late as we did have a prior commitment with the grandbaby. It was about an hour and half drive and I'm glad I went.
Joe

[Bruce Brown]

Yes, the winds on Saturday morning weren't very good. The ground winds were relatively calm, but once you got up, it was very bouncy.

During the competition on Saturday morning, they even changed the direction of the competitors because the wind had shifted.

The fun flying PPC's were supposed to be landing long on the south runway, but no one really was. I made a few passes to come down thinking some would get out of the way, but there were several PPC's all over the runway. Because of the blowing around, I decided to put down in the weeds next to the runway because I didn't want to chance getting blown into someone or coming too close to someone when landing. I landed about 10 feet off the runway, and those weeds were a lot higher than they looked from the sky. I took off from the competition field, so I didn't know what I was dealing with.

Jim Baker helped me pack my chute and Walt and a couple of other guys helped me push it out so I didn't have to trash my prop. Those weeds sure make a mess, it took me over an hour clean it up.

Saturday night was a different story. I lauched around 6:00, and it was beautiful, perfect flying weather. I flew for 1 1/2 hours and then landed because I was getting low on fuel. This time, everyone heeded the instructions from the earlier briefings to land long, and I set down just at the end of the south runway, packed up, and got out of everyone else's way.

I really enjoyed this fly-in. There were 80 planes registered, and 83 pilots I think. I saw a lot of people I knew, and met several others whose names I know, or I have corresponded with, but never met.

The Baugh flight park is beautiful, very well laid out, and they are wonderfully nice people. This is one fly-in that shouldn't be missed. I'll definitely be back.

I know Walt is going to post some pictures, so keep your eyes open for a new thread.

The jet powered PPC was back Saturday night and they ran it up again. All I can say is WOW! That think is seriously loud, and really cool.

It was nice to meet you and your wife Joe. You'll have another great opportunity to see AFU's or a lot of other PPC's in the next few weeks at Greenville or Columbus.

[okjoek]

I just reread my post and I regret saying "cookie cutter planes". I don't mean that, they were all very nice and looked to be well built and professional. I don't know why I wrote that as I did.
There were many beautiful planes there, Bruce the plane you own does definitely stand out.
When I read my post it sounded as if I was whining to me, I didn't mean to, I had a great time there and as Bruce said, I would go again.

Joe