Planes, Planes, and More Planes!

Looking from our back porch
This weekend was the annual fly-in at our country home. With more than 60 planes, the fly-in was a big success.

Our house is on a hill above a small private airport. We chose the house for its location just as we chose this community for its amenities, one of which is that airport.

Dozens of Planes

Lanes of planes. All total: about 60.
Every year, pilots from all over the country fly here to display their planes and enjoy a catered barbeque lunch--brisket and all the trimmings.

Everyone can stroll through the lanes of parked aircraft and ooh and ah to heart's content. You can look inside the cockpit and check out avionics. Most have upgraded to computer avionics, GPS, etc. No longer is the old IFR joke applicable.

IFR actually means Instrument Flight Rated, meaning you have the equipment to fly at night and land among other things. To novice pilots several years ago IFR jokingly meant "I follow roads" for those who had difficulty reading air maps. With GPS, navigation is easy.

Great Designs & Interiors

Largest plane that flew in, a Cessna 8 seater
The colorful planes, many with outstanding graphics, beautifully appointed interiors, and top of the line avionics are amazing, and talking "shop" with the pilots never gets old. We also have a chance to schmooze with our neighbors since we don't get to see them very often.

Darling Hubby and I once owned and flew our own plane, a Piper Cherokee, 4 place--that's 4 seats to you non-flyers. Every year during fly-in, we talk about buying another plane. Or maybe buying an RV and building it ourselves. Home-builds, as they are called, are always labeled Experimental Aircraft, but there's nothing experimental about them. They all have to be approved by the FAA as airworthy.

Steerman

RV, a Home-build
Takeaway Truth

I guess it's a good thing we aren't millionaires because we'd probably spend more than is sensible on hot cars and airplanes. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

6 comments:

  1. I loved the pictures and am fascinated by planes. By flying? Not so much. :-)

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    1. Hi, Liz. Flying is SO much fun. I'll never forget the first time I took a plane off, flying the mail route at night in New Mexico with my instructor. Wow. It was totally amazing.

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  2. Hi Joan, thank you for sharing these great photo's. Please double check the legalities and liabilities of home built, experimental, amateur-experimental, etc. aircraft. Thank you for your blog/website. It is always informative and enjoyable.

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    1. Thanks for the reminder. I'm sure that anyone interested in a home built aircraft kit would acquaint himself with all legal and liability issues. (Gosh, in today's world, you have to know that in regards to just about anything! I'm surprised they're not slapping a warning label on automobiles that driving one may be hazardous to your health and may result in legal liability.)

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  3. A friend of mine was the widow of an experimental aviator. He bought high-strength bolts, and they shipped weaker bolts, so she and their kids got to see his wing fall off.... Didn't John Denver die in a home-built as well?

    Still, dying while flying high has to be better than being run over by a tailgating steel semi....

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    1. How tragic! Sounds like the story of the steel purchased to build bridges here in Houston across 59. Inferior product that they've had to go in and rebuild the same bridges over the years.

      According to the official NTSB report, John Denver's crash was due to pilot error. http://www.ntsb.gov/news/1999/990126.htm

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