Selling Our Fly Baby

 You may have wondered what happened to me.  I had decided to take the plane out of service to recover the fuselage and tail surfaces with Ceconite, which I bought but have not installed.  They were last covered with Grade-A Cotton in 1996.  I also had decided to abandon the Taylorcraft nose bowl and go back to the one that worked so well for so many years.  That was a good plan but I've developed Parkinson's Disease, which has taken the wind out of my sales.  I'm unstable enough standing that I'm not comfortable standing in front of it and Hand Propping the engine.  As a result I've decided to sell the Plane $8,000 and the Trailer $2000, or some rational offer.  The plane is still assembled in  the hangar.  It now has 677 hours, and the engine, a Continental C-85-8, has 159 hours since a major overhaul.

My father and I joined EAA in 1963, and started building the Fly Baby in January,1964. This was a family project even though Dad and I were the only ones who remained airplane nuts all our lives. We finished it the summer after I graduated from High School in 1966. We couldn't arrange for the FAA to inspect the plane until later that year so we towed it to the EAA fly-in at Rockford, Illinois and parked it next to Pete Bower's plane (the designer). Pete Liked it so much he talked Paul Poberezny into letting him test fly it if the FAA would inspect and approve the plane.  The approved it and Friday after the evening Air Show he taxied out and test flew it, right in the big EAA fly-in. He wrote an article about it for the April 1967 Sport Aviation magazine.

My father talked with Pete and bought a set of preliminary biplane plans and in 1976 it became a Bi Baby.  It's actually licensed to switch between wings with a logbook entry.  The monoplane wings were lost in a hangar fire in Michigan. They would be pretty easy to rebuild.

The Fly Baby was moved to central Virginia in 1989 and has been hangared since then.  

If you're interested contact me at:   wacoav8r@aol.com

Thanks,  Dennis

Beautiful, Warm, Calm, Evening Flight

We finally had a beautiful evening for flying.  I got to enjoy it for an hour, almost no wind or turbulence and you could see forever.

I flew over our lake to look at the work they are doing on the Dam.

The dam is below the flying wires in front of the middle of the wing.  They are repaving the spillway which is at the right and of the dam.  They had to take the water level down about 6 feet to do the work so you can only use a canoe or kayak for a few more months.  For what it's worth there is a lot of extra beach all the way around the lake.

 Time for the annual condition inspection of the plane.

Another Chance To Fly

 Finally a beautiful sunny, warm 74 deg. day with the wind down runway 23 at 5 knots. I checked the winds at 3,000 feet, Light and Variable.  It sounded perfect to me.  I took off just before 5pm today, and headed east. The pictures were taken while east bound, looking North, West and South.

I got to our house at Lake Louisa in about 10 minutes but it was so bumpy I gave up and wandered back to the airport.  The sun was still high enough on such a clear day that we had plenty of thermal activity.

I flew for a half hour and made a nice landing so I'm glad I went.  I'll try again tomorrow.

Finally A Nice Day For Flying

 We finally had a nice day.  It got into the low 60's with a gentle breeze from the southwest.  It was 5 pm when I finally took off so I just stayed in the traffic pattern, going around the airport for 30 minutes.  The wind at 3,000 feet was 16 knots from 290° so I expected a little turbulence do to the wind coming over Merry Mountain.  It wasn't much until I got to the south end of the airport.  About 5:30 I was still going to fly a little more but it had gotten turbulent enough there that I gave up and landed.  The overcast looks lower than it was.  The AWOS was reporting clear below 12,000 feet.

There was an end to the overcast about 30 miles to the north.

Looking southwest the airport is in front of the wires.

Looking at Southwest Mountain from the upwind for runway 23.

Beside the airport heading southwest, upwind for 23.

Looking over Merry Mountain (1,100 feet) we had very good visibility to the Blue Ridge Mountains, 30+ miles.

A nice evening flight.

1/2 Hour Flying - Beautiful Cool Afternoon

 

Went flying about 4pm this afternoon.  It was cool, 60 degrees, crystal clear, with a 5 mph breeze straight down runway 23. Cruising at 77mph, and 2100 RPM, the CHT was about 345 degrees F.

Heading ESE that's Lake Anna straight ahead and Lake Louisa, where I live, to the right.

When I turned at Lake Louisa I headed SW so I would be south of Gordonsville Airport  to enter the downwind for 23.  Bad plan, I was flying  straight into the setting sun.  Visibility forward was awful.

I also should have flown another 20 minutes so the sun would be better hidden while landing, couldn't see the trees below me turning final.  They weren't close but it was not comfortable.  Then bounced the landing a little, but had fun overall.

Nice Warn Afternoon Flight

 I had to get something from the hangar, for my son, so I went early and had a nice late afternoon flight, for almost 1 hour.  It was about 70 degrees with a gentle breeze down the runway.  I left the traffic pattern for a while and flew around south of the airport.

Coming back I noticed this pipeline running north, east of the airport.  They keep a wide path clear so they're easy to find and follow.  They're also shown on the sectional charts.  Them, high power line clearings and expressways are great navigation aids when traveling in these tree covered states down south.

The airport is between me and Merry Mountain.

Here's a closeup of the white book warehouse north of the airport. If you zoom in and look in front of the strut, and above the spreader bar, you can see Orange County Airport.  It's not the white buildings just above the bar but the tiny ones above then.  OK, I know what I'm looking for.  It's about 6 miles north.

I mentioned the mountains on the west side of the traffic pattern the other day.  Here's what Merry Mountain looks like at traffic pattern altitude on the crosswind for runway 5.

This is it after turning downwind for runway 5.

Looking south was hazy from smoke that came from somewhere way  south of us.

Looking north over the runway, with the sun behind me, you don't even see the haze.

Cool Evening Flight

 Yesterday I went for a nice evening flight. It was a cool 55 deg. I wore my fleece vest under my leather jacket, which kept my shoulders warm.  I should have also worn a sweater, my left arm got very cold, but it was fun anyway.  The wind was 8 knots from a little left of runway 23.  Once in the air it was very smooth.  I didn't leave the traffic pattern, I only had 40 minutes until sunset, so I just went around the airport.

Looking NE from the left downwind for 23.

Looking East, we're well past peak fall colors, very brown.  We mostly have yellow and brown at best.

Looking North, the white building is a book warehouse.  It's an easily spotted reference, except when it snows, which isn't often.

Looking West, the airport is in the lower left corner. Fred's hangar/house/terminal is the white building just by the left edge of the picture.  Merry Mountain is behind the spreader bar.  Scott Mountain is just to the left of the cabane strut, behind Scott is Chicken Mountain.  Gibson Mountain is hiding behind the strut.  Way in the back are the Blue Ridge Mountains. The airport is at 454 feet and the top of Merry Mountain is just over 1,100 feet right next to the downwind for Runway 5.  It looks really close  when you take off on 5 and turn left toward it.  The Downwind for 5 is halfway between it and the runway so it actually is close.  At the point you make your turn from the runway you're still not above it.