Fox Valley Flying Club

Thoughts from the Editor

The past few months have certainly produced some excellent flying!  Since I last graced y'all with a newsletter I think some folks flew to Dixon in April (but no pictures or info were shared with me); there were a bunch of fly-ins and open houses in May (Mt. Morris; Morris; KLOT, etc. -- but no pictures or info were shared with me, other than the included email from Rickey); we had a really nice picnic at Cushing, we manned a booth at Clow's Cavalcade of Planes, I think some folks flew to the Janesville airshow, and a few went to a fly-in in Lansing in June (but no pictures or write-ups were sent to me); and some of us flew to Jim Leon's annual pig-roast in July (but no pictures or write-up were forwarded).  You get the picture?  Good; because I didn't.    :-)    Not directed to you, Gabe:  I got your pictures.  All 40 Megabytes of them.  Several times.   :-)

So, I'll report on and publish what I got.  The ever-reliable Evan Wright sent me two articles:  one regarding flying a twin-engine Piper Seminole to rescue his annualized C-152, and the other regarding trying, but failing -- for the second time -- to fly to a particular destination out West.  At least he got the opportunity to make an unplanned visit to the Herbert Hoover Museum. 

(Late breaking news as I go to press:  Evan coughed-up yet ANOTHER article [about a recent jaunt that several of us took to Skydive Chicago], and Barry Ward just handed me a monster piece about Oshkosh.  What was originally intended as a short email turned into a 7 page article.  That's the way it's done, guys!)

In other news, I'm sad to report that the semi-famous "Barfing Dogs" ultralight club of Michigan disbanded in April.  Some of you may know of this club; others may not.  Back in the late 1980’s, Bill Wolverton started the club, and it remained centered over the years at his house and grass strip relatively close to the border Indiana:  Wolverton Field.  I've flown in there twice, making the trip one time to attend the popular "Oktoberfest" fly-in that they hosted annually.  As a club newsletter guy, I've kept a very loose email connection with my counterpart at the Barfing Dogs, a guy named John Chapman, and he's kept me informed of their activities.  Bill passed away several years ago, but his wife, Susan, kept the airstrip running, continued to support the club's fly-ins, and opened her home to to the monthly meetings.  Alas, all good things come to an end.  Mrs. Wolverton eventually decided to sell the house and land, and the club and the member's airplanes had to find new homes.  Reminding me a little of our exodus from Wheatland, the Barfing Dogs scurried around trying to find a new home, but it just wasn't meant to be.  So, they voted to disband and donated their treasury and all of their club assets to the nearby Niles, MI EAA chapter.  Another one bites the dust.

As always, if you do some flying, or learn about something worth offering up for the "common good" of our Club, consider sending me an email about it (to gilomen@ais.net), preferably with some pictures.  I'll gladly take any and all original stories (cribbing and reprints are discouraged) about flying that you have done, flying that you wanted to do and flying that made you wish you had stayed on the ground, as well as any amusing anecdotes, grumpy gripes, scary stories and wanted/for sale/for trade ads.  Let's get to it, people!
 

In this Issue:

Double your Engines, Double your Fun

     An Almost Trip Out West

          They Jump Out of Perfectly Good Airplanes...

               Rickey Flies All the Way to Lewis

                    Another Year, Another AirVenture...