Nope. Our first flight was not in our airplane!
Our little Zenith was still in a parallel universe, in a state of disarray, in parts and pieces...
But one of the many things you gotta love about this place - help, esp. aviation help, is always on the way!!! Here is part of Team Reassembly!
Rural sprawl... Pilot in the hangar, piggy in a pen, Bill in his heaven... The ultimate in man caves!
Bill builds another tall sawhorse thing to set the wings on during reattachment (so no one's arms fall off holding a wing for the hour or more of reattaching wires, tubing, etc.!!!).
No, our first times in the air over here were thanks to our new neighbor, Pat. Pat and Karin (and new puppy, Topo!). As you can see, there's been a lot of new going on for these folks! In addition to getting their sweet baby golden retriever, they have been busy getting their house here built! (it's actually almost done now, and they will start moving in within the next few days!! And Topo is much bigger now than in this photo, taken back in mid-Jan.) So they will soon be living only about a block down the runway from us! They were the first couple we really met here, and we're so glad to have them as neighbors!
Pat, with his Stinson.
A huge THANK YOU to our sweet, thoughtful, generous neighbor for taking me up (then Bill) for our virgin flights here!!! And it didn't hurt that Pat is a CFI (certified flight instructor!)! Absolutely no trust or confidence issues here!!
Nice parking, eh? Right in front of your own home!! Folks can get sort of spoiled here...!
A winter overview of where we live... So...this is the "ugly" season...(ha-ha! Not very ugly!!!)! But it only gets better from here!
There will be better photos coming in the future (Bill's not comfortable with me wagging my giant, heavy camera around in our little cockpit yet. When he gets more familiar with the area and operations, I'll be taking better aerial photos!). But for now, here's at least an idea of where we fit into things... We're on the 27 end of the runway. For you pilots planning on visiting us (yes! Donnie and Jaye?!...??), just know that if you're landing that direction, you're coming in right over a bunch of trees... And of course, the runway that looks plenty big on the ground shrinks from the air!!
A visual aid for the non-pilots... It's not necessarily a short field (3100' runway), but you definitely are coming in over an obstacle!
And good little munchkins waiting at home...
So well-behaved! Not really! But they are when they have their "special collars" on!!
(a runway is NOT the place to have unsupervised, out-of-control pooches running about!!)
Now that is a landing! Think I'll stick to keeping the feet on the ground. :)
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