Weekend

Last weekend was great, Saturday Ray and I flew to Smoketown for the 2010 fly-in. It was scheduled to be an all day affair with breakfast, some seminars, lunch and after lunch activities. We left New Garden at about 8:30 hoping to arrive before the crowd. I was a little nervous about flying in a busy pattern with no tower. There was steady traffic on the Smoketown frequency from almost the moment we took off, it wasn't going to be just us in the pattern. I set up for a long approach downwind to runway 28. The radio traffic had identified two other planes in the pattern. I had been hearing chatter from a third identifing himself as “yellow biplane” but had not seen him. I prepared to announce my position third in line behind the other two. “Smoketown traffic, Tripacer 38 Charlie is, ahh, fourth in line downwind runway 28.” “Forth”, said Ray, “your third”. I pointed just outside his window at the yellow biplane passing us on the outside and taking up position just in front. It was obvious that he had not seen us and we had not seen him. The traffic was now a Cessna on final approach and the three of us on the down wind leg as the biplane turned base. The biplane was now on a perpendicular course to intersect the landing Cessna coming in from above and to his left. The yellow biplane would have an obstructed view of the Cessna since his wing was up in the turn and the Cessna could not see the biplane since he has a high wing. I pointed it out to Ray and was just about to raise an alarm as the biplane lowered his wing, spotted the Cessna and powered into a climb. Somewhat sarcastically I announced now being third in the pattern no longer behind a yellow biplane. The rest of the landing was uneventful and we got parked in the grass as the planes continued to land. Many were going around and we were proud with ourselves for getting it right the first time. In hindsight we may have cut off the biplane on our entry into the pattern but I didn't think about that until much later.
We had a nice breakfast, hit both seminars, talked to some friends, looked at a lot of planes shinier than ours, had lunch and left just as they closed the airport for some sky divers. They were announcing “Jumpers away” as we departed the pattern and as I looked back I could see the chutes over the field. Yep, Saturday was a good day.


Sunday Roger and I went back to Blue Diamond Mx Park. It had been looking like rain all morning but we decided to take the chance and pack up the bikes. The rain held off till about 3:00 and we both got in some good riding. I have been doing most of my riding on what they call the “Back Track”. This is mostly for beginners and quads. It is a lot like the places I road as a kid, hard pack, rocky with a few good jumps.
Sunday I put in a few laps on the back track but decided it was time to concentrate on the Mx track. The Mx track is a fully sanctioned AMA track, it offers a much better surface to ride on and is vastly more challenging. It is a big track and currently takes me a little over three minutes per lap.
This year they started dividing the track up into classes with the better riders, class A/B, being allowed on the track and then class C riders which means me, not as good, on the track. This is perfect, unlike last year I don't have 450's tripling over my head as I struggle with a single. Nothing quite compares with the sound of a 450 four stroke going over your head.
We stayed until the rain drove us out, there were still a couple hard core riders out on the track but there is a limit to how much mud I wanted to bring home.
Sunday was another great day, oh yea, I didn't fall, close, around, off the track, but not down.