Bernie Kerr - Las Cruces 2001

The Land of Enchantment Las Cruces RV Fly-In was a great time!! My kind of a fly-in. Forget the aerobatic boredom with an announcer blasting your eardrums. Was good to see old friends and make new ones. Missed Laird Owens somehow and he looks like a big guy in the pictures. Would like to have some technical forums on Sat pm, next year maybe.( I guess the engineer in me comes out) An update by the factory reps. Maybe a Lycoming rep. etc, etc.

Gabe Ferrer ( a 6 QBer in progress) and I left in scattered rain showers and a very soggy turf strip here at FL37 (Florida)about 8am on Friday. First stop was Jackson Muni, Alabama. $2 fuel, good runway, and restroom, but nothing else available. Would not recommend if you need anything else. Next stop was at Athens Muni , TX at Dyson aviation. Fuel was $1.75 and it is my favorite stop in the lower 48. Arrived at LRU just with a spectacular sunset. 9+ hours flying!!

Had dinner with Vans guys and Doug Friday evening. Really enjoyed getting to know Ken Krueger. We had breakfast together (my warm up breakfast) on Sunday at the motel. Had another great breakfast and my first sit down with Larry Pardue at the airport. He has had heartburn with the iPaq Anywhere Map package whereas mine has been a great experience. Said our goodbyes and followed Warren and MK Bishop up toward Truth or Consequences.

Arrived Denver Sunday pm after nice 3 hour leg. Took my first cousin his first ever single engine airplane ride Monday morning. 3 hour leg to Allen County Muni. Good fuel stop with courtesy car and $1.79 fuel. Recommended stop. Miscalculated early sunset in Memphis Monday evening and landed 30 minutes after dark. Probably not real smart, haven't done a night landing as PIC in many years, but had done a night IFR landing in right seat at the destination airport. We pulled it off with no glitches. There was a full moon and lots of ground lights for reference. Flew home Tuesday from Memphis. The only significant weather was leaving Fla and getting back into Fla. About 22 hours total time. Have learned how to get the engine trimmed properly at altitude. If you get it in the sweet spot, you get 190 mph TAS on 7 gph. I burned 23 gal LRU to FTG and Gary Zilik left 5-10 minutes in front of me and I was tying down at FTG when he taxied in. He has a 180hp constant speed low drag taildragger and used 28gal for the trip. He did look at the corn field which I did not and he went east and then north. I followed Warren Bishop to Alb., then east and north.

Love the R/M micro recorder that I borrowed from Dr James Freeman, 8 builder in Memphis. Will remove the AS , VSI, and ALT gages this pm and install the R/M on the panel. Ordered my Appollo head G/S head for the SL30 this am which will fill one of the empty holes. Have volunteered to be a Beta tester for the Dynon unit which will go in the other hole later.

Bernie won the 'Furthest Distance Traveled' award at Las Cruces. Here he is being presented the trophy by 'Red' Marron.