Part of the fun of working with an aircraft mechanic is having to fetch airplanes ...

May has been a very busy month in the plane fetchin' business. Some of the fetchin' involvedPD1.jpg 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 PD2.jpgat 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.