Finally, a great combination of winds less than 15 mph, sunny skies, and temperatures in the low 70's made for a good day to attend fly-ins and visit pilot friends.

My plan to fly with Chris in his Legal Eagle to the Benton Breakfast Saturday morning was thwarted by my flooding my engine while trying to start it (I hate it when I do that!).  I told Chris to go on ahead and I would join up with him later which I did.  However my delay allowed me to fly to the same destination with Keith who flew his Volksplane.  His speed was faster than mine so he S-turned several times allowing us to fly together.

A smoke pass down Benton's runway let everyone know that AirBike Ace was due to arrive.  Fly-in breakfasts are always a great place to meet with pilots and non-pilots alike.  Also the Boy Scouts served pancakes and sausage accompanied with coffee and orange juice.  

Chris and I then planned to fly together enroute to Halstead but that plan went awry as soon as we took off as we lost sight of each other.  After circling the airport several times then doing 360's and not finding him I headed for Halstead alone.  Following a couple of smoke passes over the parked planes at Halstead where our EAA chapter 88 was to have our annual pot luck lunch I got in the patten to land and spotted Chris about 1/4 mile away.  He was still putt-putting along about 40 mph IAS.  

Our final leg of this 100+ mile trip took us past Valley Center where we refueled (auto gas now at $2.33/gallon) and continued south following the Big Ditch (flood control waterway) which took us though ICT's airspace (I called ahead requesting permission).  This route saves us about 20 minutes by not having to circumvent Wichita.  My doing 360's along the route allowed us to fly closer together and not get separated.  

This trip achieved its purpose of providing Chris with "area familiarization" and an opportunity for him to navigate foreign territory via pilotage alone.  We also just like to fly places.  Fortunately the Western Front was quiet today as none of the Huns molested us on this training flight (they were probably still repairing their planes as a result of our last aerial battle).

AirBike Ace and sidekick Chris Duncan (we have to come up with a name for him---any ideas?)

Great pics and story ace, I'll add a few more.

My arival at Benton


Ace finally managed to get that cranky wannabe WWI engine on his wannabe WWI combat plane running and arived in Benton about 15-20 minutes after me.


Keith and his Volksplane


Long EZ


Chris

Following are some pics from the EAA chapter lunch at Halstead.

Northwing Trike


Taxiing down the half mile taxiway!


After leaving Halstead we flew down to Valley Center for fuel and to let the Mid-Continent airport guys know we were comming through in order to keep the commercial guys out of our dangerous wingtip vorticies :o

Departing Valley center




Home again


Happy Flying
Chris

Wow, it looks like fun fun fun guys!  Keep up the good work and awesome photos! I would love to join y'all on your missions, but my aircraft has a big noisy 503 on it and it is bright red, not a good thing while on stealth missions ;D  Plus, it has a cruise of about 80 mph, and so it would be very challenging to stay with you guys. lol.





M3

Paul,  I think Chris should be tagged as "Eagle1" .  He is the only Legal Eagle I've seen around here.  I was glad to see him over at Benton yesterday.  Great Smile, you could tell he was beaming from just completing that first leg of the day and he seemed to enjoy telling everyone about his plane.  I believe his aunt and uncle were pretty proud of his accomplishment also.

Yep, sounds good.  "This is Chris Duncan, Eagle 1"  over

Happy Flying
Terry

Hey Paul and Chris;
Keep it up, we all love it.
Bob