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Homers Fly-in

July 2003

Well Chalk up another great fly in at the Bell Ranch.

Special thanks once again
to the Bell family for hosting another super event.

Like all the others over the years this one was super. This year there wasn't as many ships but it was packed full of fun. Donna and I arrived Wednesday night and to our surprise there was already bunches of folks there. This year was also a pretty good year for the turbine HeliCycle which looks like its off and running. BJ Schram was there demoing his ship and giving folks a shot at flying it.

We didn't get many pics this year at all but alot of our friends did. As soon as we receive them well get them on here.

Our ship had a slight vibration in it this year. Thanks to John Spurling and one of his nifty electronic balancers we borrowed we had it smooth as silk in about 15 minutes with nothing but a small lead lag adjustment. We sticked the blades first to check the blade tracking and that looked great so I installed the brackets and sensors on the ship and John took her for a spin to obtain the readings. Once we had that data we made a slight adjustment and wella!

We burned up 80 gallons of fuel and put right at 10 hours on our ship here this year. I'm not sure if our ship is loosing power or the temps and humidity was the problem but we sure had a time keeping it off the ground this year. It was bad enough that first chance we get were going to do a compression test.

Since I haven't gotten my ticket yet and had no sign off from my previous instructor I had to have someone fly with me the whole time.

A Very Special Thanks to Scott Newhart for flying with me this year.

Donna and John Spurling flew the poker run in our ship and while they didn't win any prizes Donna sure had a ball. (Donna typing now) Flying the poker run was the great. I had only been up and around the block before and had never been far from the farm. Going somewhere on a mission is so much more fun than just going up and flying around for the hell of it. Finding the stops and landing and getting the cards and taking off for the next stop is cool. Then at the end the last stop was at the Dairy Queen where most stayed and had some refreshment. That was the most time I had spent flying in our ship since we got it flying, Thanks! John

Another fabulous time I (Donna) had was with Charmienne "Mother Goose" Pohlman. Charmienne took a few of us out in the Robinson and gave some of us our first time behind the controls on a heli. We first flew around a little checking out all the helis at the Fireside who had went there for breakfast. Then we went back to the ranch and that's when the real fun started lol. She started me out on the pedals while she did the collective and cyclic. Explained it to me then told me to try a left hand turn. I slowly applied the left pedal until it started turning left and went all the way around. Then she said to try the right but forewarned me that it will go alot faster so go slow. I went about the same rate maybe a little faster since I had to let up on it a little to slow it down. Then she took the pedals and told me to keep the ship at the same level. That was a little more difficult but I managed it fairly well. Then she had me take the collective and the pedals and do turns both ways again. Everything was going pretty good and I was feeling pretty confident until.......

Well she took all the controls and then explained about the cyclic. When I took the cyclic every bit of that confidence left the building lol. She said I did well although I really didn't feel so but I think I have the bug now and will definitely have to learn to master this lol. I only had a taste but enjoyed it alot!

Thanks alot Charmienne and John!

This is a chart of a couple of cross country trips we made.

One was to the Hillsboro airport to pick up a couple folks that flew in via fixed wing and needed a ride to Homer's. The other trip was just for chits n giggles just to do something besides ride around the farm. It give me a little stick time to work on my airspeeds, altitudes and pilotage. If I do say so myself I did a great job at lol. I got us all back from both the airport and to and from the Ohio river. On the Ohio river trip I flew with Scott Newhart in my ship and Mike and Josh in their ship. Scott and I flew at 700 foot while Mike and Josh flew on the deck trailing behind us. I've got to admit flying over the mighty Ohio River was sure cool but at the same time very nerve racking lol.

After the flying was done each night the night party got going.

Joe Martin, Mark Wolf and Randy provided us with some great singing and guitar playing. Great Flying, Good Food and super great people to play with, life doesn't get any better than this let me tell ya!

Award Time