EAA Sport Aviation - November 2009

Stahlbus bleeder valve Easy filling and bleeding of hydraulic brake sytems

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Wings & Wheels
Contact: Tim Mara • Phone: (716) 763-3213
2049 Shadyside Road
LAKEWOOD, N Y 14750
tim@wingsandwheels.com
www.wings&wheels.com
Sole distributor in the US market:

PLANE TALK

like this? It’s welcoming, camaraderie, fellowship, and aviation all rolled into one friendly little ball: a chapter pancake breakfast. Chapter 902 did itself proud right off the bat!

Parked, I was unbuckling from my airplane when a man and woman walked by, and the woman took a picture of the nose art on my airplane. I hollered, “That’s my bride when she was 18 and we were dating. We’ve been married for 41 years.” I don’t know why I said all that, but I did. She said, “That’s so cool.” It was a brief moment of friendship with strangers. I love stuff like that.

I wandered the grounds at little Mulino Airport. Airplanes galore: RVs, Swifts, a Zodiac, a Sport Cub, Steve Johansen’s RV-3B, an Ag Cat, a Stearman, Cessnas, Pipers, a Waco, a Travel Air, Stinsons, Kitfoxes, ’ 55, ’ 56, and ’ 57 Ford Thunderbirds (a nice man explained to me how to tell a ’ 56 taillight from a ’ 55 taillight), and a 1931 Case tractor. I was like a hog in slop. Paul P. started it; EAA Chapter 902, today, was the poster child for his vision.

It’s welcoming, camaraderie, fellowship,
and aviation all rolled into one friendly
little ball: a chapter pancake breakfast.

The pancakes were not slop. They were perfect, as fly-in pancakes always are, and cooked by members of the Oregon Pilots Association’s Mulino Chapter. (United we stand, remember?) Polite, happy, industrious, hard-working people gathering for a meal on a beautiful day, surrounded by airplanes. You feel it too, don’t you?

(As a side note, they served 775 [!] breakfasts that morning. How’s that for a couple small aviation groups banding together for one day at a small airport!)

As I was standing in line, I was talking to Nel. I was telling him that Steve Johansen, a hangar neighbor, won an award at Arlington for his RV-3B.

Nel flew down to my airport a while back, and we flew formation. We brief, start together, taxi in formation, perform two-ship formation takeoffs (those are just so much fun), fly fingertip, and practice cross-unders, close trail, extended trail, re-joins—all that stuff—with brief radio calls, hand signals, and airplane signals (wing rocks, rudder wags, etc.). He leads, and then I lead. We do it because we love it. We built these little RV- 8 quasi-fighters, and we’re both ex-military and enjoy the fun and challenge of it all. It’s like an expression of freedom. It’s the EAA spirit, pure and simple.

Perhaps I’ve waxed a little too poetic. But here’s the deal: these last few weeks of summer have been poetic. Good weather. Good flyin’. Good people. And I’m very thankful for all of that. And I know you know exactly what I’m saying.