|
Kimbrell Coast to Coast, 1-1-99 Images
from H. Rob Overly III
|
Sunrise at Palm Coast take-off point. |
Scott and Wink during pre-flight of their Golden Eagles |
Big John gets airborne while Dennis Evans completes preflight. |
The flight to River Ranch. |
Wink landing at River Ranch; Rob on approach. |
Big John on take-off from River Ranch; Pat and Rob turning west and
heading to Manatee. |
The Chase. |
Mike Marron of Ultraflight Magazine. |
Tampa Bay and the final destination. |
George Hawkins at Manatee Airport getting some well deserved rest while
the rest of us pack up? |
The pilots (from left to right): Dennis, Wink, John, Scott, Pat, Mike
Marron, and Windsock. |
Comments from participants:
| From John,
The event started out by checking into the Ramada Inn in Melbourne,
Fla.
Once every one arrived we went out to eat at Applebees. This
turned out to be
a complete disaster. My wife finally got her food as we were
leaving. but we
were determined not to let anything get us down. The weather
looked good and
we wanted to fly.
On New Year's Day we were off to the field at 5:45 am.
We had planned to
stop and get a biscuit, but the restaurant was closed, so on to the
field.
The field was in the middle of what would have been a huge subdivision.
All
the streets were paved but no houses. Every street looked the
same in the
dark. Oh, yes we couldn't find the field that had been mowed.
Finally just
before sunrise Dennis found the field. ( a special thanks to Dennis
and his
wife on all the last minute preparation) Every one unloaded and started
to
warm up. Pat and I were the first to head down the field to lay
out. Sunup
was already upon us and we knew we needed to get airborne. Pat
(in a single
seat Buckeye), Rob (in a Six Chuter) and me (in a two place Buckeye)
were the
first ones up. I set my GPS on the first stop and we headed out
in hopes that
the other would soon follow. The others: Wink (in a Golden Eagle),
Dennis (in
a ParaPlane) and Scott with a passenger (in a Golden Eagle) were about
a 1/2
mile behind.
The first 3 or 4 miles were over nothing but
wet lands, no roads at all,
the only trails were made by airboats. If you had went down it
would have
been a job to get the plane out. Soon there were pastures to
be seen, I
personally breathed a little easier.
The rest of the trip was beautiful, lakes, farms, swamps, pastures
it was
great. According to my GPS I was flying at 43 to 45 miles per
hour, so we had
a 15 mph wind going with us. The wind was constant so the ride
was very
smooth. When we reached River Ranch the guys had caught up to
us. As we
turned into the wind for final approach you really noticed the change
in
speed. Several of us low passed the field and everyone landed
safely. Due to
our flight speed we had to wait on the chase crews to arrive for about
30 min.
Gave us all time to talk and shed a few jackets as it was getting warm
fast.
Once the chase crews arrived we refueled and again the Buckeye's (Pat
and I)
had our engines running and ready to go, but had to wait for a couple
of the
chase vehicle to move before we could take off. The wind seemed
to be picking
up so we wanted to get going. Pat's chute opened as soon as it
came up and he
was off the ground in 50 ft. Me in my Quantum took about 100
ft. The wind
was quite rough until you got up to about 500 ft. Everyone had
a good take
off and we were off again. Once up, I set My GPS and headed to
the next stop
which would be fuel stop #3, since we had decided to skip stop #2.
I was
trying to get a head start on those Golden Eagles and the ParaPlane.
This was
going to be a 53 mile run and I knew they pass me a I would be way
behind in
that distance. However after about 20 miles it looked as though
no one was
gaining on me so I made a big 360. Within 10 or 15 more miles
here comes Wink
in that GE and Dennis in his Paraplane. Got several good pictures
of them as
they flew by. I was flying at about 2000 ft and taking in the
scenery. Boy
Fla. is flat, lots of lakes and boats, people fishing everywhere.
Airboats
looked like they were flying down narrow channels in the grass.
For those of
you that didn't come, you really missed it.
About 5 or 6 miles from our next fuel stop we all discussed
if we had
enough fuel to skip it and go on to Manatee on the West coast (another
30
miles past the next fuel stop). The Golden Eagles had no problem
there gas
tanks hold 13 gallons, the ParaPlane had two extra tanks on and with
the flip
of a valve could have 5 or 6 gallons more, the Six Chuter also had
an extra 5
gallons. That left Pat and I with only our 8 gallon standard
tanks. We
decided we could also make it, with about 1 to 1-1/2 gallons to spare.
So I
reset the GPS and it showed 38 miles to go and I had about 4 gallons
of fuel.
No problem at 40 to 45 mph. The air was still very smooth and
the scenery was
great. As we approached Tampa the sky was clear and it was about
noon time.
The view of the bay and surrounding area was great, I could see several
big
ships in the bay, and the Sunshine Parkway bridge. As we began
to loose
altitude the ride began to get rough. At about 500 ft the wind
didn't want to
let you descend. Once through that on final approach the wind
was everywhere
(by that I mean up, down, side to side and in front and behind) .
However
everyone made a good safe landing. There was lots of excitement
once everyone
was down, We had made it in what I think will surely be a record time.
Everyone was congratulating each other on the landings and that we
had made
the first flight across Florida.
Even though I had never met Richard Kimbrell I had come
to know him on the
list. We all agreed that he would have surely been here and enjoyed
the
flight. It was at this time that we all agreed to name this coast
to coast
for Richard.
The chase crews finally arrived about an hour later, after
making a wrong
turn or two. I would like to thank all the wives and other members
of the
chase crews. All of us pilots appreciate your work. To
anyone planning a
cross country, remember the chase crew works while we get to play(fly),
they
are diffidently the most important part of the venture.
We ended our day at Outback reatraunt and unlike
Applebee's the service
was flawless. The food was excellent and waitress never missed
a beat.
Thanks again Wink.
I think it was George who said this list helped
him to meet new people.
It has helped me to meet 5 more guys and some of there familles.
Pat I
already knew and to Scott, Dennis, George, Wink and Rob, I really enjoyed
meeting and flying with you. Now that I know you, your responses
will mean a
lot more on the list.
I had a fantastic time and am looking
forward to next year.
BIGJOHN.................JOHN MASSEY
|
| From Pat,
Well ,well, well , back home from the flight across Florida and what
a great
time it was. The flight itself was a blast and the people were the
greatest,
many thanks to Scott and Dennis for the planning and prior preparation
to
make this a safe and enjoyable adventure and the great ladies (wives)
that
served with valor as the all important chase crew.
The weather was great and the wind gods smiled on us by giving
us that
little extra push in the right direction, I kinda wanna say that Richard
may
have put in a good word for us, and was looking down on us through
the
entire flight, I know he was there on the final landing and gave me
that
little extra gust of wind to deal with just prior to touch down,(
I'd swear
I heard him laugh when I had to deal with that gust), but he let me
down
softly at the last second, I think that was his way of saying
Hi & Thanks !
I've flown with Big John and Rob (Wind Sock) before
but this is my first
time to ever fly with Scott , Wink & Dennis they all are a great
bunch of
guys and impressive ppc pilots and I will fly a cross country with
them any
time.
We were expecting a bigger turn out than we had , but the last
minute
tally is always much less than the original "Yea I'm in" when it
gets down
to the wire for some reason it separates the flyers from the posters.
ha ha
ha, just kidding.
I guess Bob and Larry are just too busy selling planes and training
students, there were more Golden Eagles there than Six Chuters,
Bob you and
Larry should be penalized by Six Chuter for not showing up and selling
some
spring rods on such an occasion as this. Maybe next year huh! Should
we put
you down as pilots or no shows for next year, there is only 364 days
left to
make plans to be there.
Just kidding guys , We had planned to rag ya'll out , but we
really wished
ya'll could have made this maiden flight with us and been a part of
the
first coast to coast . Scott will be posting the weather prior to next
years
flight so ya'll stay tuned. I think I know 6 people that wouldn't miss
the
next flight for anything.
I know I plan on being there and the other 5 are all ready to do the
Flight
Across Georgia .
Pat
|
| From Rob,
First of all let me say that it is appropriate that I post last on this
since I was the last one to land in Manatee this past weekend.:-).
I can't believe it, after waiting a year after last year's attempt was
aborted due to high winds, the trip was finally on. Last year, I was
going
to bring my dad along to drive chase since, as a retired corporate
pilot,
he got a real kick watching these lunatics fly something so bazarre
as a
powered parachute. Well what initially started as a weekend with the
old
man quickly grew to an RV full of the parents, my daughter, Kate and
her
kids.... a real army. And now the big question would be where do we
start:
on the gulf coast to fly east or on the east coast to fly west? The
final
word was that there would be a wind blowing out of the east on Friday,
so
our take off point would be from Palm Coast. The flight was on!!!
I gathered Kate and the kids, drove down to central Florida to pick
up the
folks and the RV and we all headed south toTitusville. Thanks to the
cool-headed directions of Dennis and Naomi Evans our caravan was brought
in
for a landing at the Ramada Inn at Palm Coast, and true to precedent
I was
last to arrive. Dennis, Pat, Scott, Wink,and John were there with planes
and chase crew. BUT WAIT.... there was no Bob Ogg anywhere to be seen.
I
couldn't believe it. Were all the stories that Richard Kimbrell told
me
about Bob's lack of a spine really true? It was a sad day when I finally
learned that there truly was no Santa Ogg. Well all I can say is that
if it
is any consolation, those that did show up proved to be a collection
of
true adventurers. I have flown with Pat and knew that he was definitely
one
you could count on for a good time, and there was George Hawkins who
was
asked to come along as ballast for Scott's flying RV (Golden Eagle),
but
the rest of the guys were relatively new to me (except Scott who I
met
while he was pampering his plane at Sun-N-Fun). The final count included
one Buckeye Falcon (Pat Thaxton), a Buckeye Dream Machine (Big John),
a
ParaPlane Osprey (Dennis Evans), two Golden Eagle luxery liners (Scott
and
Wink), and my ancient Six-Chuter. With the stage set and the cast in
place
and briefed about the the morning's trek, we all went to Applebees
to have
dinner at budget prices due to Scott's intimate relations with the
management.
Now, there was a part of the flight that I did not fully expect. Dennis
had
planned an initial twist in the morning activity involving a variation
of
an easter egg hunt. Only this time we were not looking for eggs but
the
field that we were to fly out of. I learned that it is awfully hard
to find
a field, that is freshly mowed in an abandoned residential development
full
of deteriorating roads and scrub growth, in the dark of night. However,
after what seemed to be a half hour of searching, the field was found,
the
planes unloaded and warmed up, and we were ready to get under way.
Pat got off the ground first and I followed his lead. We both loitered
around the field waiting for the rest of the group to get up into the
air
and it was at that point that we determined to go forego flying to
the
beach. Scott took off wih Kate aboard plane during the first leg to
River
Ranch. Later, she told me that the in-flight movie was exceptional
although
the food service was a bit lacking. With all of us up, the squadron
headed
west with GPSs' indicating that our ground speed was over 40
mph. This was
going to be a fast flight.
We got to River Ranch way ahead of the ground crew. Kate informed me
that
John told her that we were going to eat breakfast there since we did
not
get much to eat at Palm Coast. Being that I am the gullable guy that
I am,
I go in, reserve a table for twenty people, and proceed to the buffet
line
for what I was told was some great food. Kate and I just sat down when
the
chase crew arrived, so I tell Sharon (Pat's wife) that we had a table
reserved and I went back in to enjoy my meal. Within a minute Sharon
informed me that the group is preparing to take off. I hate leaving
a good
meal!
Well everyone posted about the flight and how we went straight on to
Manatee. I can only say that it was a great time with some real good
people. Thanks again to Scott and Dennis for setting the flight up;
to Wink
for a great meal at Outback; it's great to have seen Pat again and
I look
forward to heading back to Thompson for some more of his hospitality:
and
it was awfully nice meeting you and your wife John, even though I had
to
eat my River Ranch breakfast the following day. George.... I need some
more
duct tape. I am scanning photos to give to Q to post. And, yes, Scott
you
will get a copy.
Now that we have done it, I do have a few suggestions. Pat mentioned
that
Richard would have loved the flight, and he is right. But the Richard
that
I knew would have flown low into the farm fields that were below us
and
played a little. In addition, as George knows, there are some really
great
places that we can fly over as we go from point A to point B such as
Cypress Gardens, Bok Tower, and of course Chalet Suzanne (great photo
ops.). After all, like the rest of you, I landed at Manatee with alot
of
fuel left (half a tank) and regretted not using every last drop while
flying. Also it would be great if the Polo Fields were our final
destination. I think it would be great to have a tailgate party there
after
the flight, that is if we were flying from east to west.
Scott, I think I forgot to tell you that Kate is a naval doctor whose
military platform is with a forward unit of Marines. Messing with her
is
like spitting into the wind, you will lose every time. I really am
impressed with the Polo Fields and am looking forward to coming down
for
your fly-ins there.
I talked to Michelle today to tell her of the flight. One idea that
I
thought of (yes George I can engage the brain every once and a while)
was
to get the silk screen template of Richard's old logo and print up
T-Shirts
to be given to all the participants each year
Wishing all of you Severe Clear Skies,
Windsock
|
| From George,
Harald et al --
It's the answer to the same question in a different sense, but yes,
the list
is working.
Before the sun rose on New Year's morning, I was with a group of twenty-one
other people, getting ready to launch six powered parachutes in an
attempt to
fly across Florida. I met all but eight or nine of these people
only hours
earlier. Nine months ago, I knew none of them. I met them
all as a result of
subscribing to this mailing list.
I think the list is working pretty well.
You've already seen Scott's flight report on a prior post. Everyone
made it
fine. Tailwinds were 20+, so flying time was between 2:50
and 3:05,
approximately, for the 114.3 mile trip, depending on the unit.
The group used
the first fuel stop, decided to skip the second before taking off,
and decided
to skip the third while in the air. The second leg of the trip
was 82 miles
plus a couple more to go to Tampa Bay and back to the Manatee airport,
for
those who made that final loop. I was a passenger in Scott's
Golden Eagle for
the 82-mile leg, and the air was almost perfectly smooth from about
five
minutes after takeoff until about fifteen minutes before landing.
The last
fifteen minutes were some of the roughest I have ever been in.
The approach
had all kinds of gusts and thermal activity, resulting in some difficult
landing conditions. Everyone landed smoothly and gently, which
means that all
of these guys knew what they were doing.
Here are some other observations:
Pat Thaxton had a gorgeous two-color APCO chute that went up beautifully
over
his single seat Buckeye. It wasn't the fastest flyer, but worked
very nicely.
Pat also had a neat radio setup where he could hear or broadcast
on either
aircraft band or CB. Trouble is, Pat speaks a different version
of the
English language from the rest of us. He has a real enthusiasm
for flying,
and was pretty hilarious when some of his words were close enough to
real
English for us to understand. I believe that if you had a contest
to go from
enclosed trailer to airborne in the least amount of time, Pat would
have no
peers. 'Give me ten minutes and a couple hundred feet, and I'm
gone.' A
great guy who has given me a lot of help with my engine problems (See
'Hat
Trick' post).
Big John Massey was another Buckeye pilot who, like Pat, came down from
Georgia with a nice enclosed trailer. John helped look at my
broken engine
parts and shake his head with the rest of us. John's
chute was purple and
blue, and the kids on the chase crew nicknamed it the 'Barney chute.'
I don't
know what kind of chute it was, but for whatever reason, it was a faster
flyer
than Pat's APCO, although with a couple of exceptions, there wasn't
much
difference among the speeds.
One of the speed exceptions was Wink Winkler. Wink is a nice guy
with a
Golden Eagle, and he was the fastest flyer in the bunch. On the
long leg of
the trip, he was the fifth of six to take off, but arrived first, by
about
five minutes or so, on a trip of just under two hours. Since
I was in the
back seat of Scott's identical Golden Eagle, providing more total weight,
we
wondered why Wink flew faster. There was some explanation about
how his
center of gravity was farther forward than ours, and that overcame
the weight
loading difference. Since Wink's not on this list, I can tell
the truth. It
was all those Goo-Goo Clusters he ate the night before. No telling
how much
faster he would have been if I hadn't helped him eat some of them.
While I'm on it, I guess I'll mention the other Golden Eagle pilot,
Scott
Cunnyngham. As Harald, Scott has trouble spelling his name.
Most of you on
the list know Scott, so I can't fool you with any stories about what
a great
guy he is. You know the truth. But, Scott was the major
organizer of the
event, and deserves the credit for getting the idea and following through.
I
had the pleasure of sitting in the back seat of that prize-winning
craft for
the last 82 miles, and felt firsthand Scott's piloting skill as he
brought us
down gently in the midst of some really rough air. Scott has
also shown
sympathy and helped in my recent engine problems. He's also the
only other
person who has been there all three times my engine seized. Could
there be a
coincidence? I've never seen him and Superman together at the
same time,
either. Coincidence?
Those of you who know Dennis Evans know what a great, positive guy he
is. He
deserves the credit for organizing the eastern end of the trip and
for helping
Scott map out the route. Also, he was pressed into harder service
the last
couple of days when the prevailing winds dictated a reversal of the
route for
the trip. Hats off to Dennis for that and for the fact that he
was flying
probably the oldest craft on the trip, a ParaPlane. I think it's
an Osprey
model. It was also one of the faster craft in the air.
Last of the ragwing pilots is Rob (Windsock) Overly. I'm
listing him last to
show the appropriate lack of respect. His old 6C Aerochute was
the slowest
flyer, but he made a feather-light touchdown at the Manatee Airport
in spite
of getting bounced around on approach like I've never seen before.
Besides
being a really nice guy, he is also lucky, and provided some great-looking
backseat ballast for Scott on the first leg of the trip. It was
after meeting
Kate in September that I put out the post that touted the 6C as a babe
magnet,
having met Tonto a few weeks prior. Way to go Rob ! Great
to see you all.
Now that you know the lay of the land, maybe we can get you down here
to fly
some.
I need to mention Mike Marron (relying on Scott's spelling here), of
Ultraflight magazine, too. He flew along for most of the trip
in his trike.
As we left the field at the start of the trip, Mike took off and buzzed
the
chase crew on his way out. That's a cool machine. He flew
around us for most
of the second leg, climbing up, spiraling down, and looking like he
was having
a really great time. Because it is a fixed wing, I guess you
have to be more
like a 'real' pilot to fly one, but it sure did look like fun.
We were glad
to have Mike along and I guess he'll make our pilots famous by writing
an
article on them.
And I should also mention some pilots who were not there, but I won't,
because
they weren't. Except for that chickens**t Ogg, who was afraid
I would get my
engine working and outfly him. Bob, you will be welcome for the
1/1/2001
flight, but not next year's. Those who said they were coming
but backed out,
have to sit out a year. And Scott says by not showing up, you
added five
years to the already infinite number of years it would be before he
lets you
fly the Golden Eagle.
Finally, anyone who has participated in one of these things knows that
the
chase crew works hard. No exception here. Because I was
part of the chase
crew for a part of the trip, I won't brag on the chase crew very much,
but for
others who might plan such an outing, give the chase crew a lot of
planning
consideration and respect.
As Scott mentioned yesterday, this flight, and others that will follow,
will
bear Richard's name.
So Harald, in answer to your question, and to paraphrase that famous
saying
that comes around about this time of year -- 'Yes Harald, the
list is
working.'
-- George
|
| From Scott,
Yes it did. There were only 6 of us (excluding Oggy, your loss
pal) but
what a blast we had. We got in the air at 07:30 am. Our
first fuel
stop was River Ranch which we made in about 1 hour. We had to
wait 45
minutes on the chase crews to arrive for refueling. We had 2
more fuel
stops planned but because we had a 15-20 mph tailwind we decided to
skip
the 2nd fuel stop and go directly to the 3rd. We were making
such good
time averaging about 46 mph ground speed we also skipped the 3rd fuel
stop and flew nonstop to the Gulf Coast. At least 2 of us that
were
flying Golden Eagles would have been able to fly coast to coast non
stop. On my only fuel stop I added 3 gallons of fuel and had
over 4
gallons left when arriving at the final stop. The weather was
beautiful, about 75 degrees with a perfect tailwind for the flight.
The flyers were myself, Pat Thaxton, Dennis Evans, Rob (Windsock)
Overly, Wink Winkler and Big John Massey. All flew solo except
I
offered cross country instruction to Rob's lady friend Kate and George
Hawkins. George kinda got the best deal because his training
began at
River Ranch and of course lasted the balance of the trip. Our
total
flight time to cover Florida was right at 3 hours.
We were also joined by Mike Marron of Ultraflight Magazine in his trike.
He followed along and took multiple aerial photographs for a story
he
will be writing for the magazine.
We also renamed the flight "Kimbrell Coast to Coast Memorial" and will
be doing this each New Years day from here on.
Those of you that have been complaining about flight withdrawel eat
your
hearts out and plan on attending next year.
--
Regards,
Scott Cunnyngham
ParaVenture, Inc.
http://www.paraventure.com
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