Taylorcraft West Coast Fly-In Columbia

[VictorBravo]

I was very VERY disappointed to have not seen ANY of the "Regulars" on this discussion group at the Columbia Fly-in this weekend. I went up there just to put some faces to names and screen names. I know there are two or three who live within a couple hour's flight time...

If my computer and the server for this group will agree to permit it, I will post some photos here with this message. If not, I'll have to do it through the Macintosh tomorrow...

OK, it doesn't work again. I'm getting pretty ***damned tired of not being able to put up photos without a struggle. So far, I've upgraded to Windows XP and the included IE upgrade , and it still gives me the same problems as I had with WIN98. Turned OFF the pop-up blocker and still no joy. Screw it.

[flyguy]

Re: Taylorcraft West Coast Fly-In Columbia

Oh crap. I totally missed it. Must have forgotten to put it on the calendar. Guess I thought it was much later in the year. Darn. Been all involved in some other projects. (getting my 74 Z28 Camaro hot rod ready for painting, getting plane annualed, medical, bi-annual review, dealing with an upset sibling after our father passed away, guess I WAS distracted.)
Darryl

[mhorowit]

Re: Taylorcraft West Coast Fly-In Columbia

... disappointed... ... computer... ... doesn't work again... tired of not being able to put up photos without a struggle. So far, I've upgraded to Windows XP and the included IE upgrade , and it still gives me the same problems as I had with WIN98. Turned OFF the pop-up blocker and still no joy. Screw it.

I'm going to do about three hours work on 88M, then the front lawn. let's discuss the problem when I get back. In the mean time what is the Forum showing you when you attempt to post a pic? - MIke

[flyguy]

Re: Taylorcraft West Coast Fly-In Columbia

Speaking of photo problems, I thought I would do a little test. Never did this before on this forum. I call this liftoff duck. Look at that head position and concentration. V2 mallard would be good too, I guess.
DC

[Jim Meeker]

Re: Taylorcraft West Coast Fly-In Columbia

[QUOTE=VictorBravo]I was very VERY disappointed to have not seen ANY of the "Regulars" on this discussion group at the Columbia Fly-in this weekend. I went up there just to put some faces to names and screen names. I know there are two or three who live within a couple hour's flight time...

Bill
Good to see you made it back OK, nice meeting you at Columbia. Look forward to the pictures.
Cheers
Jim

[VictorBravo]

Re: Taylorcraft West Coast Fly-In Columbia

Thanks Jim! Great to meet you too. I hope you made it back in less than 5 hours this time... fortunately from what I saw, on the way back you always had a nice view off to your right

To all interested parties: The fly-in was great, even though we had only 6 or 8 Taylorcrafts show up. Our host Ron Sawyer and his wife Rosemary were very gracious, and even had everyone over to their house for a home made spaghetti feast. Ron has been promoting and arranging this event for 17 years. The Columbia airport is a spectacular place for a type club fly-in, with onsite campground, and one of the few public grass runways in California. The town of Columbia itself is a nice destination on it's own, only a mile walk from the airport through a pretty nature trail. There is a very good reason that tis airport is used by the Ercoupe guys, the Luscombe guys, the Cessna 180 guys, etc... it's nearly a perfect fly-in destination. You guys missed a very nice event.

In attendance were two Taylorcrafts from Medford Oregon, flown in by Randy and Steve and their wives. These two birds were fitted out like bushplanes, complete with monster truck tires, big baggage compartments, and other utility upgrades. Randy is working on a Cleveland wheel/brake STC that sounds really clever, but it is not my place to share the details without his permission.

Also attending was Jim "Doc" Meeker all the way from historic Fla-Bob airport in Los Angeles in his glossy yellow Taylorcraft. Jim had a five hour trip to get around some poor visibility, but climbed high and managed to fight the same headwinds I had to make it in with no problems.

A relatively new T-craft owner named Brett ( and his lovely companion Mandy) brought in a really sharp red one, which was somewhere between a 1939 (on the paperwork) and 1941 (positively ID'd by a knowlegable owner) model.

Two guys (sorry, I didn't write down your names) brought in a white 1938 Taylor-Young, complete with the big tachometer and open cowl. The airplane is straight and in good shape, and when the time comes it looks like a very worthy candidate for a museum piece restoration. The nearly 70 year old girl can still dance up a storm, being light and having 65 Continental horses under the hood (and sticking out the side for that matter). All it needed was the round control wheels to make it complete.

Ted Miller, a veteran Taylorcraft pilot and air-camping expert flew in his F-21A N4417A, which I believe he said was the last one built in Alliance. Ted also owns a BC-12D as well as several other airplanes. He informed me that he can get his BC-12D down to an astonishing 2 gallons an hour using economy cruise of 1650 RPM and lean mixture, loafing along at 70. Ted is a retired United Airlines 747 driver, so he should know a thing or two about getting the most range out of an airplane.

Yours truly rounded out the group with my 1940 BC-65, which also battled headwinds and the resulting 60-80 mph groundspeeds to arrive in style Friday afternoon. Despite a front crankcase seal that is due for retirement, the little silver bird didn't miss a beat on the way, other than being given the "brush off" once or twice by downdrafts while crossing a ridge at the infamous "grapevine" pass at the south end of the California Central Valley. On the third try we found the right line through the pass and cleared the ridge line with at least three feet of altitude.

In addition to the contingent of Taylorcraft airplanes, we were also treated to a visit from a nice fellow named Wally from Winnemucca, NV with a beautifully restored Cessna 180, complete with huge tires almost waist high. This monster looked like it was headed toward a gravel bar in the back country when it was just sitting still. The only way you could tell you weren't up in Alaska's Brooks Range when standing next to this airplane is that it was just too nice to be a real working airplane.

Dale Stanley and his son brought in a highly modified Harmon Rocket homebuilt, with a propeller that looked like it could absorb 500 horsepower. Dale flies the "Stanley Screamer" into the back country fishing and camping just like it was a bushplane... a 240 mile an hour bushplane that is. But the vortex generators and thick 23012 airfoil allows the Screamer to slow down and get into tight strips.

An RV-6/Rocket, a straight-tail 172, a swept-tail 172 with two people and two dogs, a Piper Dakota with three people and one dog, and even a Beech Debonair with no dogs but two tip tanks were also in and out of the tiedowns during the weekend.

On Saturday morning, the Taylorcrafts took off from Columbia en masse and flew to Pine Mounain Lake airport/air-park for breakfast. This airport is on top of a hill that has a 2,000 foot deep river gorge next to it, with a post-card quality whitewater river raging in the bottom. The scenery was breathtaking, the sky dotted with small cumulus clouds... it was a little piece of heaven.

At breakfast, a spry woman in her 60's or better walked right in and announced she was looking for a Taylorcraft driver with a certain N number. It turns out she had a Taylorcraft that was only a couple of numbers away from that one. This feisty lady was the airport manager at nearby Calaveras County airport, and the T-craft she flew in to Pine Mountain Lake was equipped with a modern low profile starter and alternator, allowing a C-85 on the short-mount to have an electrical system. The Medford Oregon Taylorcraft contingent dropped their forks on the spot and ran out of the restaurant to inspect her aircraft. They even made plans to fly over to Calaveras later in the day to look at it some more. Modern "brushless motor" technology is about to change the way we upgrade our Taylorcrafts, in my opinion.

Saturday night Ron Sawyer's wife Rosemary invited everyone over to their beautiful home for dinner. Taylorcraft owner and F-16 driver Rob Ray managed to get a ride in with Wally in the off-road 180 just in time for dinner.

A fantastic time was had by all. It was my first Tayalorcraft themed event and I'm thrilled I took the time to go. I look forward to coming back next year if at all possible. Any Taylorcraft owner within 500 or 600 miles of Columbia, CA should plan to attend next year... it's a low key fly-in with no trophies, no judging, no prizes, and no pressure. Just good friends, conversation, aviation stories, and the chance to pick the brains of other Taylorcraft owners. Ya shoulda been there...

[VictorBravo]

Re: Taylorcraft West Coast Fly-In Columbia

Here are some of the photos from the event:

[dedrekon]

Re: Taylorcraft West Coast Fly-In Columbia

I really wanted to go to this, but couldn't get the exhaust on the TCraft in time AND then the landing gear fairing bracket on the Stinson broke (a common problem)....but I'll be there next year.


Vincent