Cincinnati Flyin 2010

Velocity squadron on alert

For all of the folks who could not make it to our first (annual?) Velocity Midwest Cincinnati Fly-in. This was a pretty informal little canard gathering based around Terry Miles passing through town for his cross-county trip to California. In honor of his stop we invited all of our local canard builders and fliers to Warren County Airport (our home field) for free breakfast and camaraderie. We had a pretty good turnout, with 4 Velocitys and Ray's Varieze. Here are some pictures. Linda and our staff photographer Al Wolfson will be sending high resolution pictures shortly.

Jerry, Bob and I had been working all week getting Victor Fox as close to flight status as possible, and at a minimum picture worthy. By Friday she was ready for her close-up, but thunderstorms were threatening, so Terry launched early to beat them in. We watched Flight Aware to follow his progress.

Terry touched down well ahead of the storms, happily, and we buttoned up Rocinate in Bob and Jerry's hangar and he gave us the tour of his airplane complete with Hangar 18 modifications.

Jousting at windmills comes to mind when you're staring headlong into a sweet Aerocomposites prop. Here Bob is checking out the panel.

Terry has a wonderful airplane and we spent over an hour just learning about all of the neat touches that he's included on her, from the custom side-extending-control-handle for transitioning pilots, to the screwless doghouse cover, and the wing-root oil cooler.

I have to say, though, that one of my favorite shots is twin Velocity storage. There's something magically about having several of these airplanes together, and having a deuce in our hangar was awesome.

After seeing his plane, we showed Terry the Fox. He looked her over like an eager schoolboy, hopping into the back to check out the systems and wanted to understand what each installed component was. It's flattering to have someone take an interest in your baby, and especially so someone who understands what they're looking at.

Then we took Terry to lunch, and prevailed upon him to try our Cincinnati-style Skyline Chili. I'm not certain he came away a fan, but we enjoyed sitting down and talking airplanes. Next we went to the Brainards shop so we could show off Linda and Jerry's XL/RG which is about 50% complete, and Bob Buls XL/RG with a Vesta V-8, PSRU, and prop.

After talking airplanes in the shop for another couple of hours, it was time to pick up Elizabeth and settle down for dinner. Linda and Jerry hosted us for a wonderful dinner of Velocity talk as well as many other topics, and we stayed so late we barely got Terry in bed before midnight. Certainly a long day as he was up before 6 watching the weather.

Saturday dawned brilliant and clear, but cool (nearly cold, to tell the truth), and before we were able to set up breakfast the Velocitys started arriving. Bill Stockman's Thunderbird was the first to break the silence, and I enjoyed watching him deal with a Cessna on a 4 mile final, seemingly hovering in midday, not moving an inch. Luckily Bill gets a lot of this at his home airport and extended his downwind a half a county!

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  Ferrell N44VF and Stockman N12WS

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  Ferrell N44VF and Stockman N12WS

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  Velocity Squadron on alert status?

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  Ray talks to the Brainards, in the back Vaughn and Bill chat

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  Jerry watching Terry's progress

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  Full resolution Flight Aware page

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