Fly-in Friday

October 23, 2009

Weather: Warm 89 degrees, blue skies

This entry is all about airplanes so if you don't have an interest in them you might as well click on the red X now.

This was the weekend of the annual Copperstate Fly-in at Casa Grande just south of Phoenix. I had been watching the activities at the flyin for the last couple of years on their internet site and thought it would be interesting to go to it sometime. This year it happened that we were in Phoenix and coincided with the flyin so I went.

Like a number of other regional flyins Copperstate was originally highly affiliated with EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) but EAA is now making it clear that they have no legal or liability connections with the flyin's. They do provide some support to help with forums to teach building techniques for those building their own airplanes. Copperstate is billed as the fourth largest flyin in the US. Most of the planes of course were from Arizona but there were numerous from the neighboring states of New Mexico, California, and Colorado.

My guess is that there were around 450 planes there and although there were no scheduled show type flying there were always plenty of guys doing fly-bys to show off their planes. There was a large variety of types of aircraft including some beautiful homebuilts, Light Sport, etc.

This was not me shooting pictures but the official photographer for the flyin. Left click on picture for a full size view.

Like Oshkosh you could camp beside your plane if you wanted. There was also a large contingent of drive-in visitors in RV's camped at the airport.

This is a very high performance Lancair single engine turbine. Per the prop tag we're looking at 725 HP and a cruise speed of 310 knots.

A Stearman WWII trainer showing the flags of the US and Arizona.

A very nicely done Ford Model T panel truck.

Now I wonder how long it would take to fly from Akron to Phoenix if Joan and I had one of these. It was pretty on the tarmac and beautiful flying low fly-bys.

A beautiful homebuilt affectionately named by it's owner "Sky Dancer". I would put this plane in a tie with another Lancair below as best of show. Note the beautiful treatment of the engine and also the seatback. Just beautiful!

Below is my other selection as best of show. A Lancair that is turbo charged and pressurized.
The owner said that it could cruise around 22,000 feet (as I remember - maybe it was higher) thanks to turbo charging.

The interior below was impeccable with the uphostery done to match the exterior paint. It would be interesting to fly with the side mounted stick and a full open panel in front of you.

The paint job was fantastic. Look at the below photo full size to best see the shadowing behind the "N" numbers. It looks like the numbers stand out about a half inch from the surface. The pilot's wife said that they picked the N number to be easy to say and understand by ATC - 4 Lima Kilo.

Another homebuilt with a little rougher finish. The interesting part of this plane was the four bladed prop that I would guess was hand carved and built. That might have taken as much time as the rest of the plane.

The RV12 below is the Light Sport kit plane from Van's and was drawing quite a bit of interest.

This panel drew a lot of envy. Bring money if you want one like this!

This was the turbine powered Lancair that was at the beginning. The editor for this blog is not easy to use to move pictures so left it here.

It was a fun day at the fly-in and the right size event to see everything, perfect weather, and everyone having a good time. It was interesting talking with some of the pilots. One had flown over from Quartzite, a small town on I10 just before you get to the CA line. He had a LSA homebuilt that burns about 4 gal/hr and has folding wings. He keeps it in a "hangar" (one of those portable car shelters) beside his house and when he feels like flying pulls it out, opens the wings and takes off down the street. He said that he lands in the bush around there quite often taxiing up to where some of the RV's are parked in the open land and talks with them about their search for gem stones. He would have talked all day about his plane and fun he and his wife has flying. His wife did all the fabric and covering work on the plane because she didn't like the way he was doing it. He was having a lot of fun and enjoying life.

He was every bit as excited about flying as the wife of the pressurized Lancair owner from the southern California coast that talked about flying to Florida at 17,500 feet and making one fuel stop in Texas. To each their own in what ever you do in life I guess.

Life is good.