[DeltaRomeo]

Starting this one on Friday . The cosmic tumblers aligned, and being that it was a few hours after several thunderstorms passed through, things looked nice for a morning flight. I took the chance and drove out. Actually was a little bumpier than I thought it would be, but visually it was exceptionally good for springtime.

The simulator called while I was putting the airplane away, so I'm back at the house putting on business casual - going in to support a struggling client. At least that's what they told me

I got to start the morning flying the RV. Mental gyros re-aligned

How's this for a morning status meeting w/yourself?

 

[BruceW]

Save at local fly-in story . . . . .

I took a buddy on a short flight up to the Oroville AIrport Open House (KOVE) and had the standard pancake breakfast on Saturday.
We walked around and enjoyed the small town style fly-in with planes and cars and vendors.
A couple hours later, go back to the plane to leave and found a flat tire on the right side!
First time after 14 years and 670 hours. Nuts!

Found a ramp guy and informed him that I needed assistance. WIthin minutes there were several locals offering to help.
One guy, I will call him Helicopter Paul since I didnt catch his full name, found a car jack, blocks and other tools while I removed the slightly crunched wheel fairing. Got the wheel off, bounced around on the ramp to break the tire bead, got the tube out, all is short order.
Found a small nick in the side of the tube. (No puncture or rough spot on the tire).
A fellow flyer from KSAC was passing thru and picked up my passenger.
Helicopter Paul took me into town and dropped me at the Les Schwab tire store.
Two hours later they patched the nick (for free I might add), and Helicopter Paul shows up to run be back to the airport.
Into his hanger to reassemble the tube/tire/wheel. Back out to the ramp which was almost empty by mid afternoon.
Quickly mounted the wheel, fairing back on, and good to go.

What a wonderful flying community we have to help out a flyer in need. (also helped that lots of local flyers were there for the open house)
I dont have breakdowns often with my RV (two so far).
But the Oroville Airport folks helped remind me there are good people out there willing to spend better part of their day helping someone else.

 

[rv8ch]

Sylvie took this from the back seat of my RV-8 on short final into Venice Lido airport (LIPV). Really a magical experience!

Later we went to a cool fly-in near Parma, and met up with 25 other RVs and their pilots. Here's a sampling of some of the troublemakers that attended:

The food and organization were excellent, with aircraft from IT, CH, DE, OE, PL, NL, and FR!

 

[Ironflight]

OK, so this is cheating just a little, but this was from the “other” single-seater while flying up the Owens Valley on Saturday morning - never get tired of this view!

 

[AirShowFan]

Due to some exceptionally nice weather, this past weekend lots of people too me up on my offers to go flying, so I had to cheat on the RV and rent four-seaters... twice! (Oh, how I sacrifice for my friends). Did one flight around Mt Hood and one around Mt St Helens.

At least the four-seaters were not just cookie-cutter Cessnas. One has a STOL STC - with vortex generators and a pointier and droopier leading edge - which allows it to be slowed down to 35 KIAS without stalling. The other used to be owned by the police department and has an interesting STC where the back seat is a single swiveling seat (so it can face forwards or 90 degrees to the side) and the rear window is super tall, almost the same size as the door. So the back-seater has a really terrific view.

I had forgotten how long it takes for a 172 to climb to 11,500 feet...

 

[PilotjohnS]

Cruising at 12.5k

Oh I wanted so badly to pretend to be a sailplane andt run this cloud street

 

[Vlad]

On the way to someplace I planned to visit Miracle Mile airstrip deep in Wyoming backcountry. The Mile strip looked pretty from an altitude.

Not very much so when you get closer.

But the road next to it is very nice. Packed gravel, friendly campers. However you have to relay your intentions clearly before you land. Park where people can easily go around you.

They will gladly help you with the takeoff. After they hear your story where you came from of course. Since there is no phone signal, a friend of a friend will help with correction what road to block