POA 2013 Gastons Fly-In

Last weekend Lisa and I flew down to Lakeview, AR for the annual fly-in for a bunch of people from the Pilots of America web board.  Naturally we had a stiff headwind both ways, so the trip was more flying than I had counted on.  We had a good time, met some good people, and I gained some valuable experience and learned a few things.  The trip down was uneventful if a bit slow due to the wind, but the real fun was the Gaston’s arrival.  We made a high pass over the runway just for me to get my bearings and figure out how to deal with the terrain on the base and final approach legs.  In the end it was a nice, soft, full-flap soft field landing, no drama.  The trip back was more of a challenge — we took off in the rain, waited on weather at Mountain Home, had a very stiff crosswind when landing to refuel in Lawrence (but still eased it in nicely, if I do say so myself) and made it into Omaha as the ceiling was dropping.  Another 9.4 hours in the log book!

Some of the highlights…

And some shots of the happy couple…

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