Mt Washington 2003
The Mt Washington Regional Airport was an excellent site for a fall gathering of Cardinal Flyers.
When planning this event, early September was chosen because of the expectation of fine weather this time of the year. The bugs are gone and the foliage is usually starting to change. The great weather came but not without a few surprises attached.
The weekend's activities started Friday afternoon when four Cardinals (and 9 folks) arrived early. After getting everyone to our special parking area and tied down, it was off to the Mountain View Grand Hotel, just up the road from the airport. The Pre-Fly-In continued Friday evening with cocktails on the hotel's front veranda with story telling and good Cardinal Fellowship. By the end of the evening, everyone was looking forward to a great day on Saturday and a great turnout of CFO Cardinals.
17 airplanes signed up in advance for this CFO Fly-In. I was not quite sure what to expect come Saturday morning. Although all weather forecasters had called for an excellent weekend, Saturday morning had some of the densest ground fog I've seen in these parts. At 7:00 am the ASOS reported Zero-Zero conditions. By 9:30, it was reporting 1200 overcast, ½ mile in fog, although standing on the airport ramp it looked much better.
It wasn't until about 10:30 that 122.8 came alive with the first Cardinal inbound to Whitefield. After that, it was a steady stream of RGs and FGs arriving. By the time lunch was served at noon, we had 16 CFO Cardinals and one Cherokee 140 (a couple from Conn. who are thinking about buying a 177 and wanted info) on the ground. Later in the afternoon two more Cardinal Flyers stopped by for a welcome hello.
|
After lunch, everyone had an opportunity to walk around and check out all the other airplane. The discussions were kept mainly to the history and background of each plane. Paint jobs, panels, radio stacks, and interiors were the main source of interest for most.
As it turned out at this Fly-In there were more fixed gear Cardinals then retractables. Many FG owners were very interested in Power Flow exhaust systems and with several airplanes with these systems installed; this too fueled the discussion.
By 3 in the afternoon, we had evolved to socializing and making new friends. Good byes were said, best wishes were expressed and one by one the participants headed on their merry ways.
Not too much later the Post-Fly-In at the Mountain View Grand Hotel got underway. The flying story telling picked up from were it left the night before and further Cardinal Fellowship was share by all over dinner.
|
While most all that attended this Fly-In were from the New England and the immediate area, honorable mention has to go to Lowell Dexter who flew from the San Diego area to Northern New Hampshire for this event. 20 hours over three days coming out and 21 ½ hours headed back west. Also to Peter and Carol Van Caulart ( 4½ hours in their FG) who flew down from Ontario and Bob and Marj Stearns who flew up from Columbia South Carolina.
Finally, on behalf of my wife, Betsy, who was a big help co-hosting this event, I would like to thank all who attended the Fly-In.
I hope to make this an annual event and look forward to seeing you all again next year for another North Country CFO Fly-In.
Bruch Hutchings
We also got this reportin from an attendee:
I got some pictures of from the Mt Washington flyin, and just this one report from someone who attended:
We really enjoyed the Mt. Washinton Fly-in. It was nice to meet more CFO`ers, some of whom I feel I know from reading them on the digest.
The weather was perfect. We got to fly up through some fair weather cumulus clouds and do the localizer approach breaking out just past the FAF. It turns out my wife, who doesn`t really enjoy flying, liked this better than clear VFR. She enjoyed being in and out and between the puffy clouds.
The trip home was CAVU so we did 2 laps around the top of Mt Washington. Winds were light so there was no turbulence from the `hills`. Not too many days you can do that up there. Thanks Bruce and Betsy.
Jim Engberg N19821 3B0
The following aircraft were in attendance. Click on any image for a larger version.
|
17 airplanes signed up in advance for this CFO Fly-In. I was not quite sure what to expect come Saturday morning. Although all weather forecasters had called for an excellent weekend, Saturday morning had some of the densest ground fog I've seen in these parts. At 7:00 am the ASOS reported Zero-Zero conditions. By 9:30, it was reporting 1200 overcast, ½ mile in fog, although standing on the airport ramp it looked much better.
After lunch, everyone had an opportunity to walk around and check out all the other airplane. The discussions were kept mainly to the history and background of each plane. Paint jobs, panels, radio stacks, and interiors were the main source of interest for most.
While most all that attended this Fly-In were from the New England and the immediate area, honorable mention has to go to Lowell Dexter who flew from the San Diego area to Northern New Hampshire for this event. 20 hours over three days coming out and 21 ½ hours headed back west. Also to Peter and Carol Van Caulart ( 4½ hours in their FG) who flew down from Ontario and Bob and Marj Stearns who flew up from Columbia South Carolina.
