Saturday EAA Meeting...

Well it's Saturday and the third one of the month, means only one thing...
EAA (Experemental Aircraft Association) chapter 330's monthly meeting.
Years ago I joined "The Flying Georgia Crackers" http://astro.armstrong.edu/~mcculeri/eaa.html and let my membership lapse because the distance to drive was a fair bit. That and I didn't have an airplane or anything, I was just a serious wanna-be (guess not serious enough...lol). I wanted to be a gyro pilot.
You know, those egg beater looking things that are almost a helicopter but aren't as the big rotor on top isn't attached to a motor. James Bond flew one in the 60's.
Well it didn't happen and I sort of lost interest. Well being a pilot now of another aviation branch (more like a leaf) I rejoined this fine group about 2 months ago.

I flew at that meeting and those that saw it liked it. I have the distinction of having the tiniest plane there. Bear in mind though the paraglider & motor are only a plane in the loosest of definitions. I like to just call it my flying machine.

Well Rebecca (my 12 year old) and I took the trike and trailer and the wing only for this meeting. I was expecting the winds to be too strong for flying and figured that I'd kite if they weren't. Boy did I misjudge that one. The tempature was in the upper seventies. There was a light breeze of about 2 mph right down the runway.
Everyone wanted to know where my motor was... It would have been good flying.
Kiting went well though and Becca was there with me, helping lay the wing out and reset it after it returned to the ground a few times. Good way to start breaking her in to kiting. When we were done, I was winded and everyone back at the hanger had positive comments on how well I run and that "you need to be a young guy to do that". I told them with a nice breeze there's a lot less running and a few members restated that they looked forward to seeing me fly again. For them, their aircraft are more like flying cars, seeing a pilot use his feet as landing gear is a bit of a novelty. Speaking of flying cars... Take a look at "The Flying Car" a Kevin Smith short film I watch from time to time and figure I need to share... http://www.viewaskew.com/tv/leno/flyingcar.html

We had a short meeting, a wonderful lunch, and hangar flying (talking airplanes) was as good as ever. I got a few questions about aviation radio protocol answered and took Beck into one of the larger hangars to look at the autogyros. In a corner I found an antique home built PPG motor, I asked about it and one of the guys replied that another member wants to use it to make an airboat (though they aren't legal here) . Good, I thought, I'd be scared to think someone was going to try and fly it. It was unique, but not really state of the art anymore.
We walked the flightline once more before leaving and said our goodbyes to everyone.
This is what the flightline looks like, I took this pic when I joined and added my motor.

The little engine that could...

So now they have everything from real airplanes to backpack one, and the nice thing is, they like them all... No one in particular seems to have a fixation on any plane being so much better than any other. They seem to love 'em all...
It's nice to be somewhere that you fit in and are welcome. It was a great time, Becca said it was fun and enjoyed that we took the bike too, making a twice over winner. I don't think she's ever been as close as we were to actual flying and landing airplanes, though she's been around PPG enough to be pretty comfortable near rotating props. I think she did great and can't wait till I get to take her up in the countryside to a meeting again.
-Robert