Well,

I put another flyin under my belt this weekend. I got up at 7:30 and looked at the temp 31degrees  :X so much for me going to breakfast in agusta! Oh well, I could still make the flyin at valley center when it warmed up in the afternoon. I finally got out to the hanger around 9:30 and discovered ace already gone. Dang it I thought, now I would have to fly around ICT MidContinent airport instead of through their airspace as Paul had forgoten to give me the number for ICT TRACON. The day was saved when Brian (a local quicksilver pilot) showed up and informed me that he was planing to fly to Valley center as well. Better yet he had the Tracon number!
We took off and headed for VC around 10:00 and enjoyed a 10mph tailwind all the way cutting the flight time back to around 15-20 minutes! Shortly after ariving in VC the wind came (19-26mph) up forcing me and Brian (the only true ultralights on the field) to tie down, Ace also moved his plane behind the hanger to keep it from blowing away!
The flyin lasted all day and we enjoyed good food and live entertainment. Around 5:00 the wind started to lay down and people began to head home with me and Brian departing around 5:30. After taking off and performing a smoke pass I discovered that I was having to keep the stick pinned against my right leg to maintain level flight! I initiated a left turn and re-entered the pattern for landing. I discovered that the trim tab on my aileron which is normally bent up at about a 45degree angle was bent down to less than 10deg! I cant help but wonder if one of the kids that was running around is responsable for it
:( not having the tools to adjust it with me, I took of and headed for home, fixing it uppon arival.
The flight home was uneventfull and paul who had taken off from valley center 30mins after us caught up with our slow moving ULs and landed first. He must have been outgunned and running from an army of angry Huns as he made it home in record time and set about repairing newly aquired bulett holes! :D

Chris

some pics of the days fun.

Getting ready


Tied down


Hiding from the wind


Minimax


WichHawk


Dave Blanton's own desing the "sport racer"


Hotdog Roast


Doug making a smoke pass


Heading Home



Farewell smoke pass


Brian practicing formation flying with MD80


Brian at sunset


Sunset

Well ya'know Eagle 1, if you're gonna fly with the big dogs ya gotta git offa the porch.  Open cockpit flyin ain't for wusses.  When I left they were still scraping the frost off of the pumpkins.

Thanks for documenting the Saturday fly-in Chris, it was a fun event.  Below are some pictures of that fly-in, hopefully later I will have photos of Doug Moler's (Ace of the Base) and my smoking formation fly-bys, someone certainly should have captured us on film.

We fly the Big Ditch (floodway) because it is a shorter route than circumventing Wichita and merely a phone call to the tower to request permission to fly through ICT's Class C airspace without a radio or transponder is successful.  The ditch also allows us a place to land if an emergency arises such as getting shot down by a Hun.  

AirBike Ace
Man this flying stuff is fun!!!!!

Hey now, I like that sport racer. Looks like y'all had some serious fun! I love the photos and stories, you all make a good crew guys! Keep it up.........





M3

Looks like good times Chris. I am trying to get on with Flight Safety there in ICT. If i do i will have to do some visiting around there and find out where all the little airports are and where everyone hangs out.
Tom Mathes

Great photos Chris! You and Airbike Ace are my heroes......lol.
Looks like a great time.....flying away from the vicinity of my airport is only a dream for me......but so was flying a few days ago.....

As promised earlier in this thread, below is posted a photo of my AirBike flying partner, Doug Moler (Ace of the base) and I as we made a formation smoke pass down the runway.  Photo was taken by Tom Boremann, an AirBike ultralight owner.

AirBike Ace

Looks like great fun...some of the best photos I've seen for a long time...wish I was there to throw a shrimp on the barbie...!!

Fantastic

regards Arthur

That sure is a nice Yellow Max. never seen that one before. I have a folder with maybe a hundred different maxs in it. I guess we will never know just how many are out there. Nice. Charlie