John Spurling's Fly-In

October, 2001

This was going to be a heck of a month for Donna and I. 

I had my Phase II flight training booked for the Monday after John's Fly In so that meant Donna could make the trip to Tulsa with me but not the trip back home. She got a flight booked from Tulsa to Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday so that meant we had to leave her truck in Nashville so she would have a way home from there to Knoxville. She followed me in the motor home with her truck to Nashville and we dropped it off at a friends house.  From there we drove almost all night to get to John's place. It rained so hard we could barely make any time so about 3am in the morning we crashed in a parking lot behind a sort of truck stop McDonald's. About 7 the next morning we took off again for the remainder of the trip to John's still getting hammered by the rain. About the time we got to the Oklahoma line it finally let up and gave us some relief.

We rolled into John's a little later that day and the fun was on lol.

What a time we had here folks. John's Fly In was just great. Lots of helis, great people and one super place to fly. There are lakes, woodlands, farmlands and plenty of wind lol. Sorry there aren't many pictures here because we took alot of them and can't find them anywhere. I think the final count was 15 helicopters and Saturday we lined them all up in front of John's hanger and got a great picture Kathy and Stu used in the PRA magazine publication. Each day there was plenty of flying and always a trip to a local restaurant called Judy Anns, about 8 miles north as the heli flies.

I got to ride there with David Stewart in his ship. David flew at about 500 foot AGL and the rest of the gang did it down on the deck for most of the way.  From our height David and I could see the birds down on the lake parting a path and scattering as all of them buzzed the water line. We arrived at Judy Ann's in a swarm and all the local folks stopped in there tracks and watched in aww as all of us came in and landed. After lunch we were all a bit heavier from the good food lol. The guys made a plan for departure (who's first second third ect.) and it was back into the air headed south toward John's airport, of course with zig here and a zag there lol. David's ship was having trouble maintaining battery voltage so we hotdogged it back and got her down as soon as possible.  It lost about 2 volts on the 8 mile trip back and for a minute there I was getting worried we'd have to sit down short of our destination but after a certain point it held and we were able to go on.

There was a mishap while we were there. A fellow that owned a Safari that John was working on flew in in his Bonanza airplane and just as he got on the runway and the weight got on the landing gear they folded up sending him skidding down the runway a short distance. It was a sad sight to behold. All in all the plane wasn't hurt too bad until they dragged it off the runway with a tractor adding even more damage to it. Luckily only the pilots pride was hurt and in a short time everything was back in action.

That afternoon we had a super supper, a smoked turkey Oklahoma style, and for me that was the end of the fun because I had to leave for RotorWay.  It was tough saying goodbye to everyone just as it always is. Donna got to stay for Saturday night and some of Sunday mornings fun. Saturday night they had a huge dinner in the hangar.  Michelle's brother (the other John lol) deep fried some turkeys and Michelle had about 3 tables full of other foods including ham and about everything else you could think of....what a feast!  After dinner we (this is Donna typing now lol) all watched a guy show of his talents with a radio controlled helicopter.  He could do things with that little heli that you could never do in ours like hovering upside down about 2 inches from the ground and doing loops and too many more things to even remember.  We all just sat there in awe, it was a hell of a show.  Then we all sat around shooting the breeze till about midnite when the party finally sizzled down and we all turned in for the night.  We figured we better get some sleep before we had to get up early since I had to be at the airport about 6am due to the be there 3 hours before your flight requirement, (this was only a month after 9/11). On Sunday morning, John's wife Michelle, took me and dropped me off at the Tulsa airport for my trip back to Nashville.  (Clell typing again now) I've got to admit after the 911 incident just a few short weeks ago I was a little more then nervous about her flying but she wasn't lol. She got back home safe and sound Sunday night after her flight and long drive back from Nashville, that was a long awaited phone call.