Flight to SkyDive Chicago

        Article by Evan Wright
        Photos by Don Leonard and Brian Gilomen


Several of us FVFC'ers had a group excursion on Sunday July, 26th. The trip started off with breakfast at Charlie's featuring me, Brian, Barry & Christine, and Don Leonard and his son. Despite winds forecast to pick up, it was too nice of a day not to fly, so we all packed in our respective aircraft to head over to Cushing to see what was going on at Trike-Fest.

Upon reaching Cushing, we learned that we had all missed the boat, and that all the trikes head out for OSH early on Sunday. Still, we availed ourselves of the opportunity to hang around and chit-chat (something I don't get to do nearly enough of these days).

Hanging around Cushing

After about an hour at Cushing, the obvious task at hand was to find somewhere else to go. Since Don was hungry (again), Brian called Sky Dive Chicago to see if they could squeak us in. Sky Dive Chicago said it'd be fine if we got there ASAP, so we piled in and headed down the Fox River for a straight in landing on runway 21.
 

Barry shot from Don's Icarus
 

Don over the quarry NE of Sky Dive Chicago

When we landed we realized something big was going on because there were hundreds of people, lots of campers, and jump planes taking off and landing almost continuously.

Four Jump Planes at Once!
 

He just missed me...

 

Group shot at Sky Dive Chicago, Don is behind the Camera
 

After feeling like we'd seen all there was to see, we coordinated our departure with the ground personnel. Christine and I flew back to straight to Clow, Don, headed to Aurora, and Brian and Barry decided to return home via the "scenic route." All in all, a morning well spent.