The weather was perfect for the Rec.Aviation Northeast Mini Fly-in
this morning. Rick and I left KPOU at 10:40am and landed at Skyacres
44N just before 11:00am. Several planes were leaving so we were able
to tie down just outside of the Windsock Cafe. I went inside the
restaurant and immediately recognized Tom (from the Rogues Gallery's
pictures). Tom introduced us to his cousin (?) Joe who was not a pilot
but certainly an aviation enthusiast. Few minutes later, Robert
Chambers found our table after checking out two other groups. Tom was
wondering whether Morris would arrive by plane or car when his Arrow
taxied to the lower parking lot. Probably due the late morning hour,
the service was much quicker than when I visited them last time. Lonni
and Morris just barely had a bite of my homemade cranberry-orange
muffins when their orders arrived.

We enjoyed hearing about Tom's attempted trip to the AOPA's fly-in.
We had thought that filing IFR was the way to go but would think twice
about doing so at fly-in events. Robert thrilled us with his "across
the pond" flying story. Morris and Lonni enticed us with their Angel
Flight missions and especially the coast-to-coast trip. These are the
trips which we would love to do soon now that we have obtained our
instrument ratings. Being aviation newbies, we don't have many
exciting trips to report except telling the group the reason for our
decision to get instrument training. On our last long cross-country
trip from northern Minnesota back to New York, we were forced to
abandon the sunny sky to go beneath the overcast layer. Flying at 1200'
AGL over the beautiful Dells in Wisconsin was interesting but somewhat
nerve-racking having to check the GPS for obstructions. The landscapes
were just dotted with cell towers!

Tom and Joe had to live early. Robert stayed a bit longer. We did not
get a chance to go outside to take pictures of the planes which they
arrived in. I believe Tom flew a Debonair from his flying club and
Robert flew a Grumman Traveller from his.

Morris, Lonni and us were in no hurry so we took our time doing more
hangar flying both inside the Cafe and outside in the brilliant Spring
morning.

Rick drooled over the nice avionics Morris had in his Arrow:
Stormscope, Garmin 430 etc. Morris told us that his bird needs new
glass and paints but he probably changed his mind after seeing a truly
needy case, ours!

We should have a larger Northeast Rec Aviation fly-in next time.
Block Island sounds like a great place to me. We have never been there
but would love to visit it soon.

Here is the link to the snapshots I took this morning

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...r&x=0&y=6f481t

Note to Robert: Please send me an email. My photo invitation to your
email address (without nospam) bounced back.

Tom, Joe, Morris and Robert: I also have some video clips. If you
have broadband and an email address with large storage space (yahoo now
offers free 1gb email account), I can send it to you. The pics which I
uploaded to kodakgallery are reduced web versions. If you want any
original pics for better printing, let me know. It was great fun
meeting you all. We will have to do it again.

Hai Longworth
N30703