John was asked to organize a fly-by for a veterans day memorial service in Fort Collins. And because he agreed to do that he was roped into another fly-by over the court house. In for a penny, in for a pound so we were on for both of them.

At one time there were going to be more aircraft. We had more lined up originally. But you know how these things go. Mechanical problems, schedule conflicts, other things, and people and planes kept dropping out. Four is the perfect number for the missing man formation but we were down to three aircraft and that was only if I flew my C140. I mean I couldn't fly my C182 because John was already flying it. Everyone initially hassled me because the C140 appears slow and the other C182 and C206 aircraft are much faster. But I said let's fly a practice and see if it works. The C140 is actually not *that* slow of a plane. We flew Friday and practiced and it worked out well. So were were on for the actual event today on Sunday.

Pictures of today's flight from Cary. He got some awesome photos! I am in the lead with the C140. The slowest aircraft always goes first. John Mitchel retired army pilot is in close military position on my left in our C182. (John and I are two of the co-owners of it.) Jer in his C206 is in the #4 position with #3 missing man gap between. (Jer is a co-owner with me in the C140.) The gap is intentional. The point is to show the #3 is the missing man for memorials. Sue rode with Jer in the C206. The #4 is a little too far out, would be better to be about half way closer, but not bad for the level of training we put into it. I just told people they were our photo chase plane. :-)

All afternoon I have been hearing from a number of different folks from all over town who saw us and sent email and text messages commenting upon it. So far all of the reviews were favorable. One plane flying overhead isn't something to comment upon. But get three together in a missing man formation and everyone knows that something was going on!

Needless to say I had a blast!

To parent directory

created with igal