EAA's Chapter 88 Fly-out Lunch

Today our local EAA chapter 88 had a fly-out lunch and meeting. This took place at High Point in Valley Center, KS. This is a residential airpark with a nice grass strip. The only problem was that a cold front had plowed through the night before with strong winds and rain. The temperature went from 84 degrees and muggy the night before, to the 50's and windy the next morning - the morning of the fly-in. Regardless, I was determined to go, and since the wife was working I loaded up my mom, dad, and my two kids for a trip to the airpark. Our first stop was for breakfast at Stearman Field in Benton, KS. The Boy Scouts cooked up some delicious pancakes and sausage. We ate our food and headed out to High Point. Only a couple airplanes were at Stearman Field and they took off as soon as we got there.

Once at High Point I quicky ran into Yens - A Sonex pilot who is based off this field. He had just finished his annual so his plane was still in the hangar with the cowling off. Perfect for me because I am working on the firewall forward components right now my plane! This allowed me to see how someone else did it - and ask questions that I had still floating around in my head. Our airplane chatter was quicky interupted with a call from my dad. Isaac was out of control crying! It is tuff taking a one year old to these events!

We were making our way back to the hangar where the food was, and this mooney came zooming by!

People in line waiting to get their grub!

At this time Grace, dad, and myself had ate and was heading back out to the van. Isaac and my mom did not eat. Isaac was sleepy so he would not stop crying - mom took him out to the van before they could eat. Here is Grace... good times!

Lazy day at Selby's

Boy, I don't know what happened to April! Time is flying by - no pun intended! Well, on May 7 after my wife went to work, the kids and I went over to Selby's horse farm/flying field to see if any aviating was taking place. Lucky for us there were two people getting ready to take-off.



Looks like a Mini-Max and a quick silver ultralight.

I like Mini-Max's. If I ever decide to build another ultralight it might just be a one of these!

Everything was going great... Isaac was being good, Grace was watching as the Quick Silver did some pattern work. Then the Quick Silver started to come right toward us! At the last second he would pull up and turn 180 degrees to perform another assult maneuver on us. I am sure he was just trying to have fun, but me, being an old scrouge, did not feel right about this. If for any reason things would have went wrong he would have wiped out me and my two kids! Needless to say... we left.

Pic is not zoomed in... crazy people!

Blizzard in March?

Yep...that's right, blizzard-like conditions swept across the mid-west bringing record snow fall. For us around the Wichita area it started with around 2" of freezing rain and sleet, then turned to snow.

Here was the beginning of the ice, then came the snow...

Saturday morning is when the snow really began to accumulate.

This snow storm brought with it 35+ MPH winds that were just brutal! Dad decided not to come over during this time and work on the plane. Besides, with such strong winds my little heater would need to work overtime to keep up (my garage can be drafty with strong north winds). I opted to stay inside and work on some of the logistics of the build. Probably will be next month before working on the rudder cable connections.

The Sonex

I just wanted to let everyone see what paint/polish/decal scheme I am planning on using. Here is a picture from the Lawerence, KS - Sonex Squadron (pics are from Bob M. from this Flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/24014066@N06/ ). I bought the star & bars from this website yesterday: http://www.callie-graphics.com/ . This lady specializes in making decals for radio controlled airplanes, but was willing to make a larger scaled version for the Sonex. I will post pics when I receive them in the mail. I need to give a shout out and thanks to Charlie R. in the Sonex community for telling me about her! Until next time, fly safe!

My first post!

Hi there, and welcome to my blog! My plan for keeping a blog is to let everyone in on some of the cool flying events I attend throughout the year, along with brief updates about my Sonex airplane project. Currently, we just rigged the wings a couple weeks ago, and last night we just finished the brakes. I am thinking about a paint and polish scheme right now - thinking about going with the P-51 Mustang look! A guy on the internet gave me a lead on a place to buy decals for the star & bars insignia; the black & white stripes I will probably just paint, which means choosing a paint system to use. Enough about the Sonex project on my first post. Now a little about me and my family: I am 35 years old and in school (again) and will start some Master classes this coming August. I have been an RN at a local ICU for 10 years, and recently feel it is now time to further my education. I will begin to study for the GRE in hopes of scoring high enough to be a contender for acceptance into the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) program at a local university. I have a wife and two wonderful children Grace (2 years old) and Isaac (10 months as of this date). I will talk with ya'll soon!