Cherokee Pilots Association Fly-In Just Gets Better and Better

[Jay Honeck]

We just returned from the 3rd Annual Cherokee Pilots Association Fly-In,
held at Tan-Tar-A resort at Osage Beach, Missouri (in the Lake of the Ozarks
area), and, wow -- this group just keeps getting better and better. What a
great weekend!

As the arrivals continued on Friday morning, a large group of pilots
migrated out to the runway, where someone produced a large dry-erase board
for "landing judging." Mary garnered an "8" from this very tough crowd,
with the highest rating being a "9" (for an absolutely perfect squeaker),
and the lowest being a "4" (for arriving in the pattern on a right downwind,
directly into the teeth of two other planes on a LEFT downwind!). We
eventually joined them, and spent a great afternoon watching planes arrive
from all over the country.

Friday night kicked off the festivities with a fantastic cookout, put on by
the Missouri Pilots Association at the Grand Glaize Airport (K15), home
airport for the fly-in. It was extremely well attended, and Av-Tek kicked
in a bunch of free beer -- and not much makes a bunch of pilots happier than
free beer!

Then, starting at 8 AM Saturday, a full day of forums were conducted by many
different presenters. Everything from airspace incursions and intercept
procedures (presented by a very funny Air Force F-15 driver), to propeller
overhaul procedures -- and everything in between -- was presented, and I
attended as many as I could while Mary took the kids to Tan-Tar-A's water
park.

Before, between, and after the forums, many, many hours of enjoyable and
informative hangar flying took place. What a great bunch of guys and gals
to hang out with -- and you shoulda seen some of the planes! We're talking
better-than-new here, with glass panels, and enough dead cow to keep a lion
pride fed for a month... The judges for the competition had a helluva time
selecting winners in each category (I.E.: Early 140s; late 140s; Early
180s; 235s; Saratogas; etc.) -- it was very close.

That night we all dined in one of Tan-Tar-A's big banquet halls, and --
after the judging awards were presented to the dozen-or so winners of their
"Best Cherokee" categories -- we were able to listen to (and question) Chuck
Suma, president of New Piper, who appeared as the keynote speaker.

Mr. Suma is a very open, honest, and accessible guy (we shot the breeze with
him for 30 minutes after his speech, and we talked about everything from his
years bucking rivets at "Old" Piper, to possibly bringing out a new 4-place
based on a shortened Malibu fuselage), and it was really great for him to
make an appearance at our fly-in.

This was followed by hours of dancing, and many more hours of hangar flying,
well into the wee hours.

Then, today, the vendors were open again for a few hours, and the freebie
drawings were held. We once again won (this time a plastic piece from Plane
Plastics -- one that I had JUST broken a few weeks ago, conveniently
enough!), and we were soon being shuttled back to the airport, where the
biggest bunch of Cherokees you'll ever see were starting up and getting
ready to depart.

You Cherokee drivers who are NOT a part of this great organization are
really missing a great educational and social opportunity. Not only is the
CPA's on-line chat ("Cherokee Chat") website the best source of information
for your Cherokee, but your annual dues get you a decent monthly magazine,
and the right to attend what is rapidly becoming one the best annual fly-ins
around! I urge you to join, and attend next year's event, which is being
planned for June 2006. (Less interference with OSH.)

See their website at http://www.piperowner.com/

See more info about the fly-in at http://www.cherokeeflyin.com/
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[W P Dixon]

Hi Jay,
Did the new Piper fellow happen to mention anything about a possibility
of making a new generation of Cub,...bet alot of sport pilots and non-sport
pilots would like to see that.

Patrick
student SPL
aircraft structural mech

[George Patterson]

W P Dixon wrote:
>
> Did the new Piper fellow happen to mention anything about a
> possibility of making a new generation of Cub,...bet alot of sport
> pilots and non-sport pilots would like to see that.

Piper abandoned all thought of making any of the Cub series after losing the
lawsuit in which some idiot ran into a truck while carrying a commercial video
camera on a pedestal mounted where the front seat should be, a cameraman with
his pack to the panel, towing a glider. The plaintif's argument was that they
were negligent in manufacturing an aircraft with such poor forward visibility.

They also canceled negotiations to license or sell the Super Cub certification
to Huskey. IMO, that actually worked out really well, since the Huskey that
resulted from independent certification is a much better aircraft than the Super
Cub.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

[Jim Burns]

> Then, today, the vendors were open again for a few hours, and the freebie
> drawings were held. We once again won (this time a plastic piece from
Plane
> Plastics -- one that I had JUST broken a few weeks ago, conveniently
> enough!)

So... you mean rather than spending my weekend sanding, prepping,
fiberglassing, patching, reinforcing, re-sanding, re-prepping and painting
our 40 year old interior window plastic, I could have just flown down to the
Cherokee Fly-In, send the wife and kids off swimming, hung around gawking at
some great planes and maybe I'd have just WON a piece or two??

I must be insane, but now it's confirmed... Jay you suck. :)

Next year.... next year.

Jim Burns

[Jay Honeck]

> So... you mean rather than spending my weekend sanding, prepping,
> fiberglassing, patching, reinforcing, re-sanding, re-prepping and painting
> our 40 year old interior window plastic, I could have just flown down to
> the
> Cherokee Fly-In, send the wife and kids off swimming, hung around gawking
> at
> some great planes and maybe I'd have just WON a piece or two??

Well, Jim, I'm not sure what category your twin would have been judged in.
Maybe you could have registered it as TWO Cherokees?

:-)

> I must be insane, but now it's confirmed... Jay you suck. :)

Hey. I resemble that remark!

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jay Honeck]

> Did the new Piper fellow happen to mention anything about a possibility
> of making a new generation of Cub,...bet alot of sport pilots and
> non-sport pilots would like to see that.

No, he pretty much dismissed the sport plane market. He did talk about
"partnering" with someone as an option -- so may they'll join hands with Cub
Crafters, or something?

I'm a bit worried about the way he dismissed composite aircraft, too. He
may be a bit too much in the past...

On the other hand, it's hard to argue with his success. Question is, will
he be able to sustain Piper's recovery?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jim Burns]

> Well, Jim, I'm not sure what category your twin would have been judged in.
> Maybe you could have registered it as TWO Cherokees?

While it's actually a derivative of the tube and fabric twin tailed Twin
Stinson and not a Cherokee, it's got an Indian name and that big ole fat
wing that Piper made famous. I think they'd find somewhere to put us.

I told Tami about your trip and the nearby waterpark and she said to put it
on our list for next year.

Jim

[john smith]

Jay Honeck wrote:
> I'm a bit worried about the way he dismissed composite aircraft, too. He
> may be a bit too much in the past...

He's not that offbase, Jay.
Until the FAA gets realistic and allows that composite structures don't
really need to be as beefy and overbuilt as they now require, the excess
weight is not going to go away and the advantage of composites will not
be realize.

Even if the manufacturer spends millions of dollars for waterjet
cutters, autoclaves, vaccuum bagging and winding machines, composite
structures are still labor intensive and are easily contaminated.
Getting the material properly wetted to an even consistancy is difficult
and wasteful.

Beech is the only company to fully embrace composites, largely because
of the Starship program. That was an expensive learning lesson for them,
but they are probably the leading manufactures in the field as a result.

Aluminum is easy to fabricate, you know how much it really weights, and
you can train most anyone to work with it. The only thing you really
cannot control is the metal market and related costs.