arizona

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Bubba's Adventure in
Arizona
With
JohnBuckner
February 12, 2002

(2-11-02) Mr. Bubba arrived late this afternoon in grand style and he has been well cared for by everyone. He spent the evening meeting the local fence hangers and then of course studying the aircraft flight manuals, referring to performance charts, checking weight/balence records and the minimum equipment list of the aircraft that he wants to fly.
If all goes well he will check out in three widely varied aircraft tomorrow with one requiring a new class rating on his pilot certificate.
Checking out the hanger on arrival to pick his aircraft he zoomed straight to the little Ukie and he insisted. He picked four airplanes and I thought him a little greedy but just humored him.
   The lineup was: Sig Ryan STA K&B .65, Kerswap old timer OS .20, Jim Allen Quick 'V' Q-500 TT.40 and a Sig Skyray Fox .35.
   Early this morning (2-12-02) it was beautiful and no wind. First up was the old timer with Bubba standing (with flight suit of course) just behind the wing pylon. After getting air born he discovered that he might block the rudder a bit but what the heck he just increased the power to go left and reduced it to go right and was a very nice flight only to discover after landing that there had been a complete camera failure. The only thing to do was an emergency run to Wal-Mart for a new one.
Back at the field the wind was up a bit so lets fly the Ryan then ran into severe glitching and that ship was out so tried the old timer again to get photos this time prone on top wind was up to about twenty but the flight went great with photos.
Now it was time to try his hand at pylon with him being a bit nervous he wisely decided to stick with the slow quickee instead of the Nelson engine screamer. He also was a bit concerned riding on top at the CG about blocking those itty bitty ruddervators back there but said what the heck. With the wind up to 25 now it was a little bumpy but fun although he complained a little about the high 'G's at number one.
Last but not least the trusty Skyray control line on sixty footers. With the wind he decided to limit this flight to just round-the-pole and no acro but he did a great job of heeding my advice and keeping his control lines tight. As luck would have it the landing ended up being downwind and just before the end of the roll out he flopped over but not to worry you see
his Skyray has a wheel and skids on top Too!
By now thinking four flights on three airplanes was enough, here came the local constable following up on a report of an escaped circus bear. Following hurried descriptions of what was going on the constable immediately offer Bubba a ride on his trainer. Sooo off went the greedy little bear! Nice flight too considering the conditions but Bubba broke his first prop on landing. But brushed it off and said hey I am a more well rounded pilot now!
   On the way home the greedy tike insisted we stop at the big hanger so he could check out that big old Fournier motor glider but since the feds have an issue with my medical condition he would just have to settle for a look see.
   One last thing I would like to say I enjoy this forum very much and our friends here. Thank you for allowing me to participate in this little adventure even though I am a computer illiterate.

John(pooped)