Today was the 2013 Smoketown Airport Fly In. This is my old airport where I built both planes and I try to make it every year. These are great people.
Unfortunately, the last two years I went out to my new airport, Chester County to find that low ceilings and fog kept me from making the 10 minute flight to the show.
This year, the weather was just right. My son, Sean, and I went out to our airport at 6:45, preflighted the Velocity and were at Smoketown just after 7:30. I wanted to beat the crazy traffic and to get a good parking space.
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One of the first parked on the ramp.
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Right after we got there, a former champion from Oshkosh taxiied up and parked beside us. The weather was perfect.
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It's not a fly in without breakfast. Smoketown features the "Lycoming Breakfast" which includes ham, eggs, pancakes and orange juice. We really chowed down.
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It was a good thing we got there early. For the next two hours, there were at least 3 aircraft in the pattern at all times. In no time at all, there were well over 100 aircraft on the field.
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Here are some shots from around the field.
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This is the honeybee. It was painted by Dave Wild at Lancaster Aero, the same painter who did my plane. It was an award winner at Oshkosh a couple years ago and was parked only a few rows ahead of me at Oshkosh this year. The owner is a great guy. He calls it "Sticky Stuff" because all of his money stuck to it.
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These are the Rotorway guys from the hangar next to my old hangar. They built Rotorway Exec 90's and were always around to help lift, attach, lend hardware, etc. Great guys.
They are true airport bums who can be found at the airport every weekend. The local guys tease them by calling their hangar the "No Fly Zone", since they enjoy hanging out in their heated, carpeted, easy chair equipped hangar so much.
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Smoketown Airport is in Lancaster County, where they filmed Witness. It is Amish country.
Look in the background at the Amish boy and girl who have parked their scooters and perched on the airport fence to watch the fly in.
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Sean and I decide to head home for lunch. We fire up the plane and join the line of planes on the taxiway.
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As we climb out and turn east for home, Sean takes a picture of the fly in.
It was a great time. We had a lot of interest in the plane, got to catch up with old friends, look at airplanes and have a great breakfast. I'm glad the fly in was such a success. We look forward to coming back next year.
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