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2004 Western Trip - Day 13

What I Planned:

Date: On or about July 24, 2004

A VERY short day.  This will end up being one of a number of things - either a weather make up day, since the odds of getting 12 days good flying weather in a row is pretty slim, or else just a group flight up to Kremmling, CO (20V) with Lee, Al, Eric, etc., possibly picking up Rick Maddy (from Denver, CO) along the way.  This is only a 45 minute flight or so, and we'll be heading up there for a barbeque with Evan Genaud (building a COZY MKIV), who has a place up in the mountains.  After that, we'll head back down to Greeley for the overnight.

If the oil changes didn't get done the day before, they'll be done today, along with any other maintenance.

As an aside, if the weather is a problem, I'll be able to combine a couple of the short days with some of the longer one's to make up a day here or there.  I'll just have to play it by ear, especially if I haven't gotten my IFR rating before I leave.



What Actually Happened:

Date: July 24th, 2004

Due to high density altitude take-off concerns, the BBQ was moved from Kremmling (20V) to Greeley (KGXY), with it's 10K ft. runway and 4700 ft altitude, rather than Kremmling's 5400 ft. runway and 7400 ft. altitude.

The weather sucked again in the morning - 200 ft ceilings with light drizzle. As Rick Maddy said, I seem to be a crappy weather magnet. I watched the weather from 7 AM till 10 AM, and there was no guarantee that it would get better, so I borrowed Burrall's car and drove up to Greeley, picking up Rick along the way in Denver.  While this map is for flying, it shows the approxomate route up Interstate 25.  Very exciting.

We arrived at the Greeley/Weld airport around 1 PM (I took a look at Rick's COZY MKIV project in his garage while at his house - he's doing very nice work), and there were a bunch of folks already there for the moved BBQ (which we could never have held at Kremmling due to the weather anyway).

Evan Genaud had made 4 different kind of ribs (they were DELICIOUS), and many others had brought various types of pasta and potato salad, fruit, drinks, chips, etc. The folks that were there were: Evan Genaud and his girlfriend Tiffany, Justin Highfill, Michael Roe and his wife Jeanie, Reginald Cowperthwaite and his two children, Lee Devlin, Don Douglas (L.E. builder/flyer), Rick Maddy, Jim Howerzyl, and me. If I forgot anyone, let me know. Everyone had driven in, as the weather didn't allow any VFR flying.

We ate, yakked about airplanes and other stuff, and then went to examine Lee and Don's respective L.E.  Don has an exquisite L.E. that he finished 15 years ago, and it looks as good today as it did when he finished it.  For those of you that have read about the high AOA testing that RAF did with a L.E. to examine deep stall characteristics, it was Don's plane that they rigged up and mounted on a truck to experiment on. Don is now helping Lee finish his COZY MKIV.

Given the crappy weather, the turnout was great, and everyone had a good time - I know I certainly did.  Evan puts on a good BBQ - especially the dry ribs!

Rick stayed at Lee's house for the night (which I was supposed to do, but the plane was still in Meadowlake, and I had Burrall's car up in Greeley), so I drove back down to Meadowlake, hoping to be able to fly the plane up either that evening or in the morning to head out to Waterloo, IA for Norm Muzzy's gathering.  The weather was decent from Greeley down to 20 miles past Denver, but was garbage by the time I got down to Colorado Springs - I wasn't going anywhere that evening. We'll see about the morning.


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