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With the promise of good weather in Texas in October, 43 Cardinal Flyers in 19 airplanes ventured forth to Mineral Wells to flock together.
Attracting us was the promise of deep insights into the workings of Genesys Aerosystems, the makers of STEC Autopilots, a sample of Texas culture, the likely plan for good Mexican food and Texas Barbeque and of course the camaraderie of the Cardinal Flyers family.
Most flyers had a smooth and easy flight down, although some already long flights were made longer by stiff headwinds. We could only hope for those winds to remain for our return several days later.
Along the way may of us experienced nice sunsets such as the one to the right, as well as the hospitality of various small airports along the way.
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| The hotel was pleasant, clean and pretty much all ours for the event. As usual folks gathered in the lobby to chat. |
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Our day trip to experience Texas culture started with a visit to the Vintage Flying Museum at Meacham Field in Fort Worth. We had guided tours through two hangars filled with interesting, historic and award winning aircraft.
We had two docents who knew all the stories and details.
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| This is the home of the B29 Fifi, which had just come home a day or two before. The maintenance teams were busily servicing her as we were visiting. |
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| Then it was on to the historic Fort Worth stockyards, where we had a great Barbeque lunch at Riscky's, then had a guided tour of the stockyards. Here we were watching the longhorn steers wander in their pen. |
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| Our guide was a font of local lore and kept it interesting throughout the tour. |
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| We were at the appointed location to watch the cattle be driven down the main street. It was amazing how well they were able to handle their huge horns without damaging themselves or each other. |
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After a visit to Billy Bob's Honkytonk, we moved to Joe T. Garcia's mexican restaurant, a must-visit location for visitors to Fort Worth.
Below are a few Cardinal Flyers enjoying their dinner.
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Marc Weise and Linda Shelton enjoyed their dinner, extra well deserved as they helped us greatly with several elements of this event.
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| Come Friday morning there was plenty going on at the airport and folks came out to watch. I think this was when Chad took off in the Rolls Royce powered Cessna™ P210, an interesting airplane to watch! |
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| Our friends at STEC had things set up for a comfortable discussion in their hangar. |
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| Our tour included a peek inside the assembly area where STEC employees were busily building 3100 autopilots. |
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| Here Andrew talks about the process, people and products which make it all work. |
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| Back in the hangar after lunch, Simpson shared some stories about how autopilots work along with how and why the 3100 was developed. |
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| Chad and Andrew took us through the technical details of how our autopilots connect and work with the various avionics options in our panels. |
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Chad shared stores of how he got into being a test pilot and some of the adventures he has had while doing this job.
The overriding message seemed to that he greatly enjoys helping customers and really likes to fly, so he is grateful that his role lets him combine these things. The more he helps, the more he flies!
Along the line he picked up a knack for tuning autopilots which has been a great help to a number of their customers.
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| Lisa from STEC took on the task of making us an anniversary cake for the Cardinal's 50th year. |
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Here is Lisa (cutting the cake) along with Tina. These ladies made our stay very enjoyable and went the extra mile to make us feel welcome.
Also the cake was very impressively done!
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Our CFO walk-around gave us plenty of time to look at the assortment of very nice Cardinals who had joined us on the ramp.
The weather could not have been better! October was the right time to visit Texas, and we were lucky enough to align with the driest week of the month in this unusually rainy year.
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| We had a good crowd of observers and some very nice Cardinals to look at. |
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| There was a lot of interest in some of the upgrades we observed. We even found at least one heat box full of insulation to remove. |
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| A few folks found the shade inviting and observed from afar. |
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| A pretty good lineup of Cardinals. |
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| Ted and Dale Burgdorf shared the story of their '68 Cardinal, purchased new by Ted. They continue to fly and enjoy this airplane. |
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| A view of the flight line looking the other way.. |
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| A couple of the airplanes were inside, which led us nicely back toward lunch. Here Keith showed his new Beech yoke, not yet wired but expected to be installed in the near future. |
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| Here's the group during the flightline tour. |
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Our afternoon technical session gave us chance to review an RG and FG Cardinal.
With a cool breeze blowing through the hangar the group had plenty of questions.
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| And as usual there were things to learn. So far we have not found a single Cardinal which didn't have something worth discussing... usually several dozen things. |
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| Thomas Perkins kindly pulled his cowl and let us tell stories about his RG and took notes, while another member pondered a comment. |
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| We had a chance to to get down and dirty as we reviewed some of the most important details to look at under a Cardinal. |
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This year we had a hospitality room at the hotel which turned out to be a popular place to relax at the end of the day.
Many thanks to Marc Wiese and Linda Shelton for bringing the beverages and snacks for this room, as well as making sure it was secure when folks were done using it.
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| The first award at the banquet was for the most recently purchased STEC autopilot, won by Paul Millner who recently ordered a 3100. |
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For this 50th birthday of the Cardinal we presented an award for the Earliest Built '68 Cardinal, which was won by Ted Burgdorf.
In the process we sang Happy Birthday to his airplane. :-)
Al Jung was in the running for this one but missed by 400 serial numbers.
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| The Latest Built Cardinal in attendance award was given to Jim Uselton for this 1978 Cardinal RG, serial 1306 (of 1365) |
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| We were back to Ted Burgdorf again for the 'Owned their Cardinal the longest' award. He purchased his Cardinal on January 3rd, 1968. Hard to beat that record! |
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The person who purchased their Cardinal most recently was Ralph Birch.
Perhaps interestingly, Ralph was the only guy for whom I had to cancel a pre-purchase inspection because I suddenly got a kidney transplant. Things worked out for Ralph and he was glad to finally meet me.
Theirry Saint Loup was THIS CLOSE to winning this but hadn't signed a check yet.. he offered to do so at the banquet but he was voted down. :-)
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| Marci Haas received an award for Newest Pilot, having also won this award at our last Winter Haven event. |
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Thomas Perkins received the Hard Luck award for battling weather and headwinds between Salt Lake City and Phoenix.
He edged out Rogers Faden who reported 40 knot headwinds and Dale Bakke who's groudspeed was 82 knots for 6 1/2 hours without a bathroom stop and said he 'almost made it.'
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Michael Guillory received a special Pitching In award for several actions he took after being one of the early arrivals for this event. Although this was his first CFO event he welcomed several arrivals to Mineral Wells and stepped in to provide transportation to folks who arrived while we were on our day trip and the FBO was all tied up.
Thanks for Michael for being so helpful!
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| Bill and Leanna Povilaitis edged out Thomas Perkins by 9 nautical miles for the Flew Furthest award. Bill said he now understood way he spent $800 in gas to get there from New Jersey! |
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| Finally, the Best Cardinal of Show (People's Choice) award went to Ted and Dale Burgdorf. They certainly got a lot of recognition for their very special aircraft at this event. |
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| Here are Ted and Dale in front of their '68 Cardinal. |
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| A quick look inside Ted and Dale's airplane. |
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| They also have the original bill of sale and other paperwork from their purchase in 1968. |
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| The group rose to appreciate Debbie and thank her for all her work in putting together this outstanding event. |
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| Debbie also received a presentation from the CFO ladies along with some very kind words of appreciation. |
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We don't often share photos of the people who are up front at these events... since Russ McDonald was taking the pictures (as he often does) we have a few to share from this event.
Keith Peterson.
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| Paul Miller |
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Debbie Peterson
We are all glad that you came and appreciate the opportunity to share our passion with the Cardinal with you.
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| Many of us had weather like this on the way home, in some cases causing a slight delay. |
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But in the end blue skies often await with puffy fair weather clouds to enjoy along the way.
We hope you all had a pleasant journey home.
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