fiebichpvNovember 4, 2010, 2:09am
Turning Leaf Fly-In
Doug Moler's third annual ultralight fly-in, (first annual "Turning Leaf") held at Highpoint (3K55) October 30th, brought those birds out of the woodwork plus some of the "heavy iron". It was even cause for a temporary truce between the Huns, and the Brits, French and Americans. Note in the photos that a Hun and two Hun hunters are parked side by side. Actually it was part of the truce, that way our guns would not be aimed at each other and neither would take a sneaky shot!
Small planes swarmed in from Cook Field (Hart's Coyote II, Mike's Coyote II), and Hilderbrand's Sonnex), from Cherokee Strip (Girard's Kolb, Geide's Geide Hawk), Selby Aerodrome (Fiebich's AirBike, FitzGerald's Quicksilver), Miles Field (Curtis' Fokker DR-I) plus an assortment of Pipers, Rans, an Interstate, a Cessna's, a Champ, two Bonanzas, several from the host airfield and a few more that escape my mind. About 18 airplanes were on the field at once although many others came and went. All joined the afternoon of food, friendship, constant flying and ride-giving.
Doug and wife Sabrina supplied the majority of food for Bar-B-Quing and liquid refreshments with everyone bringing their speciality dishes such as home made chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie, cranberry cobbler, potato salads, etc. Bowls of Halloween candy were placed in several locations.
Knowing I was near enemy territory I wanted to follow up on a hunch about a new Hun plane about to join the fray. With the engine shut off and gliding silently, I landing softly on Neil Wretberg's sod strip and coasted to a stop where I hid my plane behind some pine trees. Sneaking into a hangar I spotted a brand new scale replica of a Fokker D VII. Attempting to frighten people away, Neil had positioned several cardboard cutout "scarecrows" of himself in the hangar next to the plane. I took several espionage photos then scrambled away. We may soon see more of this weapon in our gunsights!
As the saying goes, "all had a good (actually GRAND) time" at the fly-in. The pilots had as much fun flying, giving rides and smoking up the place as did those ground-pounders who watched. These are the events we look forward to, enjoy while they are taking place, and exaggerate when reliving the memories via photos and subsequent hangar talk.
To participate in this fly-in, I left Selby Aerodrome about 1:00 in the early afternoon and with clearance from the Mid-Continent tower, flew through the airport's Class C airspace while following the Big Ditch at an altitude of 400' AGL. Over the tower frequency I heard the announcement: "Watch for wake turbulence from an AirBike flying the Big Ditch." I think I detected a slight bit of sarcasm in that voice!
With a smoking flyby at Highpoint, I announced my arrival and signaled more temporary IFR conditions to follow during the day's activities. It wasn't long before a later smoking solo performance by me was met with a challenge by Doug Moler's in his AirBike. Upon his landing and walking away from the plane, I noticed that Doug seemed to be a bit light on his feet. Or, better make that light on one foot. The heel of his left shoe had a very neat concave shape to it, which matched exactly the shape of the muffler. Seems as though his muffler is a mite too close to the rudder stirrup, the interference between muffler and shoe heel was dissolved by heat! Later we teamed up for multiple formation smoking fly-bys.
At 6:15 PM I peeled out of our formation, circled the runway and made a mad dash for Selby Airdrome 30 miles away and 15 minutes prior to official sunset. Even at 65 MPH I didn't make it but the sky was clear which provided an extra 15 minutes of civil twilight. Five minutes after landing, the lights went out, it was dark as the inside of a cow!
Refuled, wiped down, parked and covered, my AirBike was soon resting in its bunker as the hot engine parts popped and creaked while it continued to cool down. Hangar door shut, ceiling lights out, I walked the hangar's length in darkness towards the entry door knowing by heart where the obstacles were. What a great day, I love this flying stuff!
Paul D. Fiebich
a.k.a. AirBike Ace
More photos on my website: http://www.airbikeace.org/
also on Brian's website: http://fitzvideo.com/sky_surfi.....r-%e2%80%a2-30oct10/
Photo Captions
Fokker DR-1, AirBike and Sonnex aft views
Dick Geide climbing into his Geide Hawk
Gerry Sibley's BT-13 fly-by
This Fokker is real, the "scarecrow" isn't
A militarized Sonnex built by Mike Hilderbrand
Doug Moler's AirBike on a smoking takeoff
Doug Moler's third annual ultralight fly-in, (first annual "Turning Leaf") held at Highpoint (3K55) October 30th, brought those birds out of the woodwork plus some of the "heavy iron". It was even cause for a temporary truce between the Huns, and the Brits, French and Americans. Note in the photos that a Hun and two Hun hunters are parked side by side. Actually it was part of the truce, that way our guns would not be aimed at each other and neither would take a sneaky shot!
Small planes swarmed in from Cook Field (Hart's Coyote II, Mike's Coyote II), and Hilderbrand's Sonnex), from Cherokee Strip (Girard's Kolb, Geide's Geide Hawk), Selby Aerodrome (Fiebich's AirBike, FitzGerald's Quicksilver), Miles Field (Curtis' Fokker DR-I) plus an assortment of Pipers, Rans, an Interstate, a Cessna's, a Champ, two Bonanzas, several from the host airfield and a few more that escape my mind. About 18 airplanes were on the field at once although many others came and went. All joined the afternoon of food, friendship, constant flying and ride-giving.
Doug and wife Sabrina supplied the majority of food for Bar-B-Quing and liquid refreshments with everyone bringing their speciality dishes such as home made chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie, cranberry cobbler, potato salads, etc. Bowls of Halloween candy were placed in several locations.
Knowing I was near enemy territory I wanted to follow up on a hunch about a new Hun plane about to join the fray. With the engine shut off and gliding silently, I landing softly on Neil Wretberg's sod strip and coasted to a stop where I hid my plane behind some pine trees. Sneaking into a hangar I spotted a brand new scale replica of a Fokker D VII. Attempting to frighten people away, Neil had positioned several cardboard cutout "scarecrows" of himself in the hangar next to the plane. I took several espionage photos then scrambled away. We may soon see more of this weapon in our gunsights!
As the saying goes, "all had a good (actually GRAND) time" at the fly-in. The pilots had as much fun flying, giving rides and smoking up the place as did those ground-pounders who watched. These are the events we look forward to, enjoy while they are taking place, and exaggerate when reliving the memories via photos and subsequent hangar talk.
To participate in this fly-in, I left Selby Aerodrome about 1:00 in the early afternoon and with clearance from the Mid-Continent tower, flew through the airport's Class C airspace while following the Big Ditch at an altitude of 400' AGL. Over the tower frequency I heard the announcement: "Watch for wake turbulence from an AirBike flying the Big Ditch." I think I detected a slight bit of sarcasm in that voice!
With a smoking flyby at Highpoint, I announced my arrival and signaled more temporary IFR conditions to follow during the day's activities. It wasn't long before a later smoking solo performance by me was met with a challenge by Doug Moler's in his AirBike. Upon his landing and walking away from the plane, I noticed that Doug seemed to be a bit light on his feet. Or, better make that light on one foot. The heel of his left shoe had a very neat concave shape to it, which matched exactly the shape of the muffler. Seems as though his muffler is a mite too close to the rudder stirrup, the interference between muffler and shoe heel was dissolved by heat! Later we teamed up for multiple formation smoking fly-bys.
At 6:15 PM I peeled out of our formation, circled the runway and made a mad dash for Selby Airdrome 30 miles away and 15 minutes prior to official sunset. Even at 65 MPH I didn't make it but the sky was clear which provided an extra 15 minutes of civil twilight. Five minutes after landing, the lights went out, it was dark as the inside of a cow!
Refuled, wiped down, parked and covered, my AirBike was soon resting in its bunker as the hot engine parts popped and creaked while it continued to cool down. Hangar door shut, ceiling lights out, I walked the hangar's length in darkness towards the entry door knowing by heart where the obstacles were. What a great day, I love this flying stuff!
Paul D. Fiebich
a.k.a. AirBike Ace
More photos on my website: http://www.airbikeace.org/
also on Brian's website: http://fitzvideo.com/sky_surfi.....r-%e2%80%a2-30oct10/
Photo Captions
Fokker DR-1, AirBike and Sonnex aft views
Dick Geide climbing into his Geide Hawk
Gerry Sibley's BT-13 fly-by
This Fokker is real, the "scarecrow" isn't
A militarized Sonnex built by Mike Hilderbrand
Doug Moler's AirBike on a smoking takeoff
