DesertFox4
03-29-2010, 09:08 PM
10 years of DFS fly in's have come and gone and one thing remained constant from the first to the latest. The folks that attend make it a blast every year. From now old and dear friends to the newest attendees the enthusiasm for aviation and our little high wing aircraft is always a spirit lifter.
The Southwest was buffeted by gusty winds Friday which took a slight toll on the overall attendance that was expected. It did not diminish the fun. Those that could get in either by air or car had a great time and Saturday turned out much less turbulent and some Kitfoxing and Highlandering and Ransing was accomplished several times throughout the day. We had quite a cross section of airplane makes this year including a beautiful Bearhawk, a stretched Piper Pacer with a Ford V-6 engine which sounded like a race car, a Europa, a Cessna 400, a Tri-Pacer, a couple Rans and a couple Highlanders along with a 180 Cessna and a scratch built aircraft by a very talented young man. The aircraft is called Savor. Chris, congrats on a spectacular job. I have a feeling that if Chris can attend Oshkosh this year he will need to leave some luggage room for an award or two. ;)What an inspiration he is. Hope you all get to meet him some time.
Stan & Cara's hangar was a refuge from the gusting winds on Friday but Saturday the doors opened and the flying took place. While we had planned on a couple of excursions out to very interesting Arizona vistas, the still breezy winds made that something we'll take on next year. Many attendees arrived with tail winds pushing them to very respectable ground speeds. Some escaped snow and bad weather to at least arrive to temps in the 70's. Throughout Saturday the pattern was at times very busy.
I had the fun of taking another Kitfox enthusiast (Jeff from Idaho) for his first Kitfox flight and his very first time on the controls of an aircraft. I think we got a pretty good future pilot and a future Kitfox owner in our midst.
Friends from my hometown in S. Minnesota, Wayne and Char, stopped by to visit and I got a chance to take Wayne for a flight Sat. morning. Got some great raw video on "the river run" which I'll try to get to in the next couple days.
I made a quick slide show on YouTube of a few of the photos I took at the fly in. I'll try to get around to the videos in the next couple days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_FlxHjZgJ0
Thanks Stan for turning me loose with your new Highlander. Stan has a unique Highlander with a one-off wing for even greater lift. Worked pretty good and I think I brought it back with most of the major parts still attached.
Not only was the Savor a big crowd gatherer but Mike B's model 5 on Downwind floats attracted people also. Maybe it's the beauty of the aircraft or the rarity of floats in Arizona that drew them in. Who can say?
I'm sure Dave Cook from Downwind Technologies would tell you it has to be the beautiful Downwind amphib floats and I think he'd be right. Nice job Mike and Dave. Downwind Technologies. (http://www.downwindtechnology.com/)
Bill P. from Chandler arrived with his stunning Model 4 with the impressive Rotec radial. Now just try to get near that thing when the prop. stops spinning. Take a number.
Thanks to Stan and Cara Foster for their over the top hospitality again. :D Thanks to James and Stan for arriving about a week early to help get the place ready for the gathering.
For those that planned to attend and could not due to weather, you were missed. Hopefully next year we'll have our normal perfect weather for you. For those that could not get away , we hope you can attend next year.
Fly safe and " Enjoy every flight".
The Southwest was buffeted by gusty winds Friday which took a slight toll on the overall attendance that was expected. It did not diminish the fun. Those that could get in either by air or car had a great time and Saturday turned out much less turbulent and some Kitfoxing and Highlandering and Ransing was accomplished several times throughout the day. We had quite a cross section of airplane makes this year including a beautiful Bearhawk, a stretched Piper Pacer with a Ford V-6 engine which sounded like a race car, a Europa, a Cessna 400, a Tri-Pacer, a couple Rans and a couple Highlanders along with a 180 Cessna and a scratch built aircraft by a very talented young man. The aircraft is called Savor. Chris, congrats on a spectacular job. I have a feeling that if Chris can attend Oshkosh this year he will need to leave some luggage room for an award or two. ;)What an inspiration he is. Hope you all get to meet him some time.
Stan & Cara's hangar was a refuge from the gusting winds on Friday but Saturday the doors opened and the flying took place. While we had planned on a couple of excursions out to very interesting Arizona vistas, the still breezy winds made that something we'll take on next year. Many attendees arrived with tail winds pushing them to very respectable ground speeds. Some escaped snow and bad weather to at least arrive to temps in the 70's. Throughout Saturday the pattern was at times very busy.
I had the fun of taking another Kitfox enthusiast (Jeff from Idaho) for his first Kitfox flight and his very first time on the controls of an aircraft. I think we got a pretty good future pilot and a future Kitfox owner in our midst.
Friends from my hometown in S. Minnesota, Wayne and Char, stopped by to visit and I got a chance to take Wayne for a flight Sat. morning. Got some great raw video on "the river run" which I'll try to get to in the next couple days.
I made a quick slide show on YouTube of a few of the photos I took at the fly in. I'll try to get around to the videos in the next couple days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_FlxHjZgJ0
Thanks Stan for turning me loose with your new Highlander. Stan has a unique Highlander with a one-off wing for even greater lift. Worked pretty good and I think I brought it back with most of the major parts still attached.
Not only was the Savor a big crowd gatherer but Mike B's model 5 on Downwind floats attracted people also. Maybe it's the beauty of the aircraft or the rarity of floats in Arizona that drew them in. Who can say?
I'm sure Dave Cook from Downwind Technologies would tell you it has to be the beautiful Downwind amphib floats and I think he'd be right. Nice job Mike and Dave. Downwind Technologies. (http://www.downwindtechnology.com/)
Bill P. from Chandler arrived with his stunning Model 4 with the impressive Rotec radial. Now just try to get near that thing when the prop. stops spinning. Take a number.
Thanks to Stan and Cara Foster for their over the top hospitality again. :D Thanks to James and Stan for arriving about a week early to help get the place ready for the gathering.
For those that planned to attend and could not due to weather, you were missed. Hopefully next year we'll have our normal perfect weather for you. For those that could not get away , we hope you can attend next year.
Fly safe and " Enjoy every flight".