The Orcas Island Fly-In is this weekend (Aug 5-7) at Eastsound's airport on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands in northwest WA state. This is a fun small town airport Fly-In with pretty good turnout when the weather is good, and it looks like it is going to be pretty good this weekend. This of course is not back country flying, but IS some of the most scenic flying you can do. There are strips on all the major islands if you want to explore. On Orcas it is a short walk to the village of Eastsound.http://www.visitsanjuans.com/events/eas ... e-car-show

Is there still camping on the field?

Mountain Doctor wrote:Is there still camping on the field?

Camped there two weeks ago myself, enroute to AK. There were 5 other tents when I arrived...

Remember the Blue Angels TFR over Lake Washington Thur. thru Sunday

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_6_4250.html

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_6_4247.html

The local firemen put on a pancake breakfast at the firehouse just SE of the airport.
A pancake feed at a fly-in is like hotdogs at the ball game--
I'm not even a big pancake fan but (just like at Concrete) this is one of my favorite parts of the fly-in.
There's also a little car show in the adjacent park.

Sad to miss this, i went last year and really enjoyed it. highly recomended.

Orcas is a beautiful place and, yes, there is camping at the field. Town is a short hike away. People visiting in this weekend so I won't be able to join you.

Puget Sound area skies look OK this morning, for now anyways.
I'll be heading up to Orcas in about an hour-- see some of you guys up there maybe?

I had other family plans this weekend, but was able to get to Orcas on Friday. It is a pretty sweet spot, but the ride home was BUMPY. Lots of wind out of the west and that generated an E-ticket ride. I ran into a guy that mentioned a friend that bought the same model Maule I have - an MX7-180C. He called his friend after we talked and it turns out I gave that friend a ride to Oshkosh in my Grumman in 1985! It is a small world.

Here's the final into Eastsound on Orcas.


This is the array of inlets and coves on the south side of Lopez Island


The wee airstrip on Blakely Island on the way


A Travel Aire taxiing out


The camping lineup on Friday
[img][img]http://i.imgur.com/9rVNqVUl.jpg[/img][/img]

The hangar potluck


A Broussard for sale on the ramp


A Stinson L-5 Sentinel


Evening flight home across the Straights of Juan De Fuca

Really wish I could have made it. My dad had an L-5 in India after the war and I have never seen one for real.

I think that L-5 is Paul Cullman's... he lives on Meadowmist airpark, in Ferndale, WA. (my old neighbor) Great guy and LOVES to talk about airplanes!!
John

Flyhound wrote:A Travel Aire taxiing out

Weather was a bit low this morning, but I managed to get up to the Orcas fly-in in time for the pancake feed at the adjacent firehouse. What a crowd! Helluva line but it moved along pretty good, plenty of seating once you got your food so no problems.

This blue Travelair and pilot ("Cap'n Mac") have apparently displaced Rod Magner who has been doing biplane rides at Orcas in his red & yellow Travelair "Magic One" for at least 20 years. Unless he's on vacation or something, looks like he musta sold out lock stock and barrel, as all of his memorabilia is still hanging on the walls of his hangar.

Eric: I saw the red/yellow Travelair in Centralia earlier this year. The new owner was flying it to Chino California if I remember correctly.

The Orcas Fly-In was a complete success! The weather Friday and Saturday turned out just fine. Myself and a couple of others went out and set up a day early on Thursday and just had a blast.

The Friday evening hangar party at Craig Nelsons hangar was a hit as usual. On Saturday Craig teamed up with two other T-6's and put on a nice show with some formation flying and of course a couple of high speed and (very low) passes down the runway.

I met the guy that came in with the L-5 Sentinel and we talked for a bit. What a character. He's 91 years young, and flew in with his girl friend.

Rod Magner did indeed sell his bi-plane and is retired from the Bi-plane ride business. He tried to sell the whole business Bi-plane included but ended up selling the plane alone to someone. From what I heard, the guy doing rides now is just temporary and the business with the hangar and stuff is still for sale. I was told the Rod did very well giving Bi-plane rides. Tourism is growing all the time on Orcas. So.....if anyone out there is looking for a very cool way to make a living on a truly jewell of an island, you might want to check it out. Orcas is an awesome place with a unique aviation community.

A photo of my dad's Sentinel, and one of my mum, sister and dad.

Cool old pics! VT tail number is what country?

hotrod180 wrote:Cool old pics! VT tail number is what country?

Here you go....

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+country+has+V ... tration%3F


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

That link just sent me to google, thanks a million.
VT looks like India.
I was kinda hoping there'd be a story behind why the L5 was in whatever foreign land it was in.

He bought it after the war for sixty pounds and a case of brandy. I have the data plate on my desk. He told me that you could buy a DC3 for 2 shillings and 6 pence at the time - the cost of the title transfer as the British wanted to encourage the start up of regional airlines in India. He had some great stories.