The International Cessna 170 Association

The batch of snow we got the first week of March finally finished melting this week, and the wind finally died down to where I felt confident enough to knock some of the winter rust off my flying. I managed to keep her on the pavement on our 24-foot wide runway (sometimes referred to as a sod strip with a paved centerline ) not once but three times! I live about 2/3 the way down the 3100-foot runway, so instead of taking the paved taxiway around the far end after my last landing, I (slowly) tested the grass runway on the west side of the pavement. It felt a little boggy, enough that I wouldn't want to take off or land on it yet, but I wasn't leaving tracks. Not so in my yard! I guess for about the next month or so, I'll be backing her into her "driveway" via the Armstrong method...

I live about 200 miles north of you near Cadillac (my house is southeast of there, about 60 miles southeast of Traverse City for those of you not from Michigan). We have been using the grass runway for a few weeks but as of this evening have 4 inches of new snow. Winter may not be over yet.

Tim

Glad you got out, Miles. I put some time on 59Charlie Friday. Beautiful if a little rough. Of course, OZW has a nice wide runway - but, I still try to stay on the centerline.

bat443 wrote:I live about 200 miles north of you near Cadillac (my house is southeast of there, about 60 miles southeast of Traverse City for those of you not from Michigan). We have been using the grass runway for a few weeks but as of this evening have 4 inches of new snow. Winter may not be over yet.

Tim

We still had snow and ice on our grass runway until it rained last week.

Tim, if here are some good places up your way to meet for lunch, let me know. As area rep, I need to get something planned. There is a big flyin at D11 near Clare that is having an all-you-can-eat breakfast on June 2 that I plan to go to. I’ll try to get a notice out soon.

bsdunek wrote:Glad you got out, Miles. I put some time on 59Charlie Friday. Beautiful if a little rough. Of course, OZW has a nice wide runway - but, I still try to stay on the centerline.

Flying out of Brighton certainly has honed the habit of staying on the centerline to a fine point! I did do one landing and taxi back at OZW (that’s Livingston County Airport at Howell in case blueldr is listening in), just to see how the other half lives.

Hello Miles, I have been to the Ojibwa Airpark (D11) several times, they have a good turn out. There are a couple of others that are also good but are usually slow posting their date. Home Acres (Y91) in Lake City is very good, always on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Clare (48D) has a good flyin breakfast also on the Sunday either before or after the 4 th of July. The flyin at Woodruff Lake (53W) is good, sometime in August usually. Chesaning (G50) is very good, lots of airplanes, July 15 th. Lots of other good flyins around during the summer. As for an airport with a good restaurant I am the wrong guy to ask, after a career of eating in restaurants on layover I tend to eat at home, but would be glad to meet you just not sure where to suggest, let me work on it.

Ojibwa Airpark is cut out of the trees, you won't see it approaching from the NW or SE until you are almost on top of it.

Tim

You guys just need to come on down here to middle Tennessee where there is at least one, and many times two or more fly in breakfasts, every Saturday year round. However, they don't help the waistline any

Tim, thanks for the ideas. One of my friends here at Brighton spent summers at Ojibwa when he was growing up. Back in the winter we did a couple of low approaches into there in his Mooney, but with snow on the runway we didn’t land. I definitely see what you mean about it being hard to spot. Last year, someone put together a list of fly in events in Michigan, and there were several events just about every week during the warmer seasons. This link at MDOT Aeronautics isn’t that list, but it is a start: http://www.michigan.gov/aero/0,4533,7-3 ... --,00.html

Frank, even back in the ‘80s when I was based in Tullahoma, there was a fly in breakfast just about every weeekend somewhere within about 50 miles. I was a regular at Winchester; I even flew down there for breakfast on my wedding day!

Yea Miles, Winchester is the first Sat of each month, rain, shine, snow, et al. Sometimes I can even get Byrd to go over. Guntersville, AL & Clifton, TN second Sat; Moontown, AL on 3rd Sat, Shelbyville, TN on the 4th Sat and Athens, TN & Lebanon, TN on the 5th Sat plus there are others if we want to fly a little more distance. Fun to see the different planes as well as the pilots. As you know, most of these attract quite a number of drive in's as well. Wish Michigan was a little closer or Ole Pokey was faster and I could come attend some in your area.

See ya in Cody.

That roaring noise is the grass growing! A few days of mid 60s is all it took.

Hi Miles,
I stopped by the Brighton airport today (was passing through the area for work), it looks like a fun place to live and fly!

Hineywheel Bill wrote:Hi Miles,
I stopped by the Brighton airport today (was passing through the area for work), it looks like a fun place to live and fly!

Welll.... there went the neighborhood!

Exactly George!
For some reason they make me show a passport when I cross the Ohio State line.

Geez, when i was in texas last year they had road blocks along the high way and we had to show our passports . Vehicle searched .I havent experienced any thing like that anywhere else in the “free” world. Even in the Bristish Isles going from england to scotland , no road block only a stone painted on each side of what country you are in .

Sorry, that was a vain attempt at humor. Being from the Deep Southern U.S., I am occasionally looked upon as being from a foreign country when visiting the northern and western parts of our country. (I don't actually have to show my passport.) Some of my euphemisms, and my accent, result in the same look you get from a cow when it's looking at a new gate.