May has been a very busy month in the plane fetchin' business. Some of the fetchin' involved
incoming planes and some is outgoing. In May we had both. We started a rather blustery trip to TN via Greenville, MS to deliver
a 1947 Bellance Cruisair Senior - a retractable tailwheel aircraft that was purchased in LaBelle for delivery out to MS.
The trip to MS was frought with winds, low ceilings and hot temperatures. We had to go VFR so ceiling was an issue
and we had to put down at Perry-Foley, FL when the ceiling started to drop below 1000'. All and all the trip was a good
one and we picked up the flip side of those nasty tailwinds when we turned back toward TN
at one point sporting 190 kts ground speed in
Wild Mama.
On the way home, we stopped in Marianna and
picked up Eli's plane so we could get it home before the annual was due. Again, we had great tail winds and hit 193 kts
ground speed at 6,500' - a tailwind of over 40 kts.
The following weekend found us on the "buy" side,
a client having purchased a Piper Colt in Twin Lakes SC. Unfortunately for us, we had killer cross winds all day so nothing
we could do would help us motor along any better. We made a fuel stop in Barnwell, SC to meet a very interesting pilot, Dr.
John Ross. Seems the good doctor had just landed after flying his Pitts Special UPSIDE-DOWN all the way along the coast of
SC to raise awareness for obesity, diabetes and kidney disease in SC,promoting his CATCH program. Look for more information
on the CATCH program as Dr. Ross link comes live.