The West Coast Zenith Aircraft fly in is being held this weekend at Cloverdale Airport north of Santa Rosa. http://www.qualitysportplanes.com/coming-events.html I'll be there Friday (for test flights of the CH701 and CH750) and Saturday to meet and greet builders and owners. There will apparently be a few West Coast STOL Club folks around too.

I'm driving.

EB

Cloverdale Airport (O60) was my Sonoma County home for about 16 years. It was the gathering place for all us AIDS (Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome) victims, and our hangars were pretty much home. Some damn good flying adventures got their start there.

There's sacred ground on the south end of Hangar Row. I scattered some of my best friend's ashes there, along with a bit of Hoser the Wonder Dog in a secret ceremony.



Tread lightly and tip a Rolling Rock or two, to two of the best pilots and co-pilots that ever graced the sky. I'm betting their spirits are there grading landings.

Gump

I've been to this one a few times. They will have food and demo flights going all day.

EB,
Please introduce yourself to me Sa am. I'll be the Corvair guy flying the yellow and green Zodiac 601XLB. I lurk here a lot, but have only posted a couple of times, and would like to put a face to a name. I only actually know Joey (avidflyer).

Gump,
Consider coming down with EB. I recognize at least one of fearless aviators in your picture. Ed Dalbec actually does a lot of work for Doug at Quality Sport Planes and is almost always at the open houses. Might be a fun reunion and give the rest of us a chance to get the "real goods" on Ed.

Cheers,
Woody

VCBZenith wrote:EB,
Please introduce yourself to me Sa am. I'll be the Corvair guy flying the yellow and green Zodiac 601XLB. I lurk here a lot, but have only posted a couple of times, and would like to put a face to a name. I only actually know Joey (avidflyer).

Gump,
Consider coming down with EB. I recognize at least one of fearless aviators in your picture. Ed Dalbec actually does a lot of work for Doug at Quality Sport Planes and is almost always at the open houses. Might be a fun reunion and give the rest of us a chance to get the "real goods" on Ed.

Cheers,
Woody

Sounds good Woody. I'll be wearing some sort of BCP paraphernalia with a bushy beard and stash. Gump's welcome to ride along. I'm staying at the Super 8 Thursday and Friday nites.

I'll scatter some dog kibble and dribble some St. Pauli girl down my chin in honor of those gone west.

EB

Woody is Bill flying down? Some guys are camping at Gravelly Valley this weekend too. I'm quickly running out of weekends before my 6 month sandbox tour but I will see what I can do.

Yes, Bill will be flying down Sa AM. If the Graveley group is staying over Sa night, I know several people would like to hook up there on Sunday.

This thing always comes at a bad time for me- Mothers day, birthdays. A lot of good people and a lot of interedsing planes and pretty country this time of year.
Small world. Woody, we both had our intro to aircraft metal work together at QSP when Michael was still there. Ed Dalbec really knows his stuff. Glad you kept at it, but you need a little wheel in back now!
Chance

I won't make it down, though Ed is heading NV way in June for a visit. Say HI for me.

Gump

EB I'll be there on Saturday mornig. I'll look for you. Like Woody said be nice to put a face with a name.

That's great J. I look forward to seeing your Avid and meeting up with you too.

EB

Actually that's what I look like right there--------------------------------------------------->

My Avatar. Thats me. Kinda handsome ain't I?


EB

Naw....that's too young and good looking to be you, must be your girlfriend

Ahhhwww man! How'd you know?

Emory, make a point to go fly with Doug in the 750, or Christopher in his airplane if he's there. I got one ride in a 701 in Boulder City thanks to a friend of 182STOL Driver. It was a funky-ass airplane with a couple of weird flying qualities, but it definitely has the capability to go out and do the nasty as a homebuilt back country sport airplane. I'll bet that they fine tuned the 750 to reduce some of those quirks. Doug and Christopher, are both very knowledgeable and nice guys.

EZFlap wrote:Emory, make a point to go fly with Doug in the 750, or Christopher in his airplane if he's there. I got one ride in a 701 in Boulder City thanks to a friend of 182STOL Driver. It was a funky-ass airplane with a couple of weird flying qualities, but it definitely has the capability to go out and do the nasty as a homebuilt back country sport airplane. I'll bet that they fine tuned the 750 to reduce some of those quirks. Doug and Christopher, are both very knowledgeable and nice guys.

Oh man I'm glad you chimed in here. I flew the 701 yesterday with Doug and Funky-Ass is pretty descriptive. Weird is another good term. Still, a guy could get attached to that kind of short field performance in a hurry. I'll be flying the 750 today. Doug's has the Jabiru 3300 in it so that will be another first for me. My impression so far was that it was indeed an airplane. I flew a Stinson Detroiter many moons ago and it reminded me a little of that thing in it's rawness and control feedback. Harmony? The Stinson on the other hand could glide....... On the whole I liked it though. Really. I was just kinda surprised. I expected some sort of marginal, gross control input, aerodynamic sluggard with remarkable slow flight characteristics. Instead I found a press you back in the seat hot rod with really really nice ailerons, a powerful but not twitchy elevator and a just flat out weird rudder. When you pull the power back on the 701 it makes the Tri-Pacer seem like a sailplane. Seriously. You land this thing with power. It's still on my list but I'm looking forward to the 750 flight today.

EB

Take good notes as I'm sure thinking of trading the Cessna for a CH750.

Gump,
Debbie Little was on patrol at Cloverdale today. She said to say howdy.
375handh

Tell her hi. If I had stayed with SCSO, May 1st would have been my 30th anniversary with the department. I do miss those days.

Gump

Emory, what up man? Neither Joey nor I saw you.