Red River Red Neck Fly-In

[jon s blocker]

Just got home yesterday from the Red River Red Neck Fly-In, put on by Eric Taliaferro and his family in Lone Grove, OK. It was basically a Suiper Cub fly-in, but with several C180s and 4 Maules, along with 2 C170s, total of about 35 aircraft. Just to toot his horn since he won't, thought you all should know that one of our own club members, Bill Rusk, flew in and WON the short landing contest, and was right in there with the highly modified Super Cubs and Maules on the short take off contest! It just shows you what a talented and well practiced pilot can do with a stock C170! Some of the Supercub.org guys were in disbelief on the web, that a C#####170 (quote) could win the contest. Congrats to Bill and it was a fun fly-in. This was a break-in flight for our rebuild on our plane, and it sure is a hoot to be in the air again! Jon

[N1478D]

Just got home yesterday from the Red River Red Neck Fly-In, put on by Eric Taliaferro and his family in Lone Grove, OK. It was basically a Suiper Cub fly-in, but with several C180s and 4 Maules, along with 2 C170s, total of about 35 aircraft. Just to toot his horn since he won't, thought you all should know that one of our own club members, Bill Rusk, flew in and WON the short landing contest, and was right in there with the highly modified Super Cubs and Maules on the short take off contest! It just shows you what a talented and well practiced pilot can do with a stock C170! Some of the Supercub.org guys were in disbelief on the web, that a C#####170 (quote) could win the contest. Congrats to Bill and it was a fun fly-in. This was a break-in flight for our rebuild on our plane, and it sure is a hoot to be in the air again! Jon

Congratulations Bill Rusk! That is GREAT!

A friend said there were two really nice 170's up there, one with a conversion that he did not get to see fly, and one with a pilot who really knows how to fly his airplane, he was very impressed. Bill, it would be fun sometime to have you do an A and a B to see what the actual difference is in landing and takeoff distances - same pilot, two different models. I'll volunteer my A. Remember you posting that you are a strong believer in the B being better for STAL work than the A, it would be fun to know by how much. Was practicing Sunday doing short landings without using flaps ( they are currently not available ), and the plane could land and stop well short of 500 feet without the flaps.

Thanks for posting Jon. Sure wish I could have been up there, it was a sad day at the hangar in Grand Prairie. Was tuning the lawn equipment while an airplane sat there in the hangar with clear blue skies outside. Would have really enjoyed meeting the two of you and watching the competition and/or participating. Hope it turns in to a yearly event. My friend was standing there watching the takeoffs over to Catfish McGehees when a Super Cub guy from Canada ran up and asked him if he would like to go "AHH, YES!" . He had the time of his life.

[Bill Rusk]

I had an oportunity to see John Blockers 170 at the fly-in and i can assure all that it is a FINE 170. Beautiful panel, interior and paint. If he shows up at Dearborn he will probably take home the wood. He did the centerstack panel and it really came out clean and nice. I have seen a few others and never felt I would want that mod. Now that I have seen his, it has totally changed my opinion and I WANT ONE! Unfortunately, with all the folks and hoopla I did not have enough time to talk w/ John til the last evening. Sure wish, now, that I could have visited with he and his partner more. They have as nice a 170 as I have ever seen. Maybe we can get John to tell us more on this forum. John....??