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Aero Fliers Cross-Country Outing8 August 2015

Venango Regional Airport (KFKL)

On Saturday, August 8th, Aero Fliers had a club outing that took us to Venango Regional Airport (KFKL) at Franklin, Pennsylvania. The main draw at Franklin was the 7th Annual Wings and Wheels Fly-In sponsored by EAA Chapter 988.

The Wings and Wheels Fly-In was a car show, an aircraft show, an antique farm tractor show, an antique stationary engine show and an eighteen-

A view of a portion of the car show from the observation tower.

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The Fly-in attracted some heavy iron like this Aero Vodochody L-39C Albatros! Note the distortion (at far right) caused by the hot exhaust from its Ivchenko AI-25TL medium bypass turbofan. The AI-25TL produces 3,800 lbs of thrust.

Left to right, Shelly, Ginger and Diane on the ramp at KFKL.

Left to right, George, Don and Terry “hangar flying” outside.

wheeler tractor show all rolled into one. It also had an excellent food concession that was operated by Chapter 988. There was something for everyone!

The plan was for the departures to take place at roughly 10:00 AM. By midmorning on Saturday, all three hangars were alive with activity as members preformed preflight inspections to prepare for the 75.3 NM (86.6 statute miles) flight to Franklin.

One member commented that it was a beautiful sight to see our members working to simultaneously give all three airplanes a thorough preflight inspection.

The first airplane to depart Akron Fulton was the Debonair and it carried Karen Reed, Cory DiBona and Cory’s friend Shayna Maclean.

Next, Shelly and Don Tharp and Terry Smith departed in Don’s newly purchased 1988 F33A Bonanza, N166TS.

The third airplane to depart Akron Fulton was the Skylane carrying Diane Venditti, Ginger Samara, George Samara and Paul Venditti.

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The Debonair on the ramp at KFKL.

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Don and his airplane, a 300 hp 1988 F33A Beechcraft Bonanza.

Aircraft

A 1947 Stinson Voyager owned by Earl Muenze of Steubenville, Ohio.

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A 1966 Cessna 150F owned by Mike Hamelly of Jackson Center, Pennsylvania. This 150 had less than 500 hours total time when Mike purchased it!

Diane, at 4 feet 10 inches, towers (well, I use the term somewhat loosely) over this 1972 Teenie 1.5 also owned by Mike Hamelly of Jackson Center, Pennsylvania. It’s powered by a 53 hp Volkswagen engine.

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A Pietenpol Air Camper, N9092S, powered by a Chevrolet Corvair engine. This airplane was built by James Aaron of Franklin, Pennsylvania.

This 1968 Bell 47G-2A-1 helicopter was among the rotorcraft that attended. It’s powered by a Lycoming VO-435 series engine and owned by Harlan Simons of Valencia, Pennsylvania.

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A 1999 Super Baby Lakes owned and by Gary Natale of Farmington, Pennsylvania. It’s powered by a Lycoming O-235 series engine. It’s another not-too-tall airplane!

A squadron of pedal airplanes was available for children to ride. Who wouldn’t want to take a ride in a North American P-51 Mustang (front) or a Chance-Vought F4U Corsair (right rear)? (Of course, I like to think that is a Goodyear built FG-1 that would have taken its maiden flight at our own Akron Fulton airport!)

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A Small Sampling of Cars

A 1941 Willys. These were built in Toledo, Ohio by Willys-Overland Motors. The original engine was only 66½ hp! It’s no wonder that so many have been re-engined with a V8.

This 1932 Chevrolet is powered by a Cadillac V8. Its owners are Jim and Carolyn Kelly of Apollo, Pennsylvania.

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Tractors and Stationary EnginesA Montgomery-Wards GardenMark Super 12 lawn and garden tractor with a sickle-bar mower.

This is a 6 hp Webster stationary engine being started. The Webster engines were an inverted design. That is, the crankshaft is at the top of the engine and the combustion chamber is at the bottom of the engine.

In its working life, this engine sat in a small enclosure at an oil well and ran a pumpjack to pump oil from the well. It was powered by the natural gas that also came from the oil well (at that time, natural gas was considered an unwanted byproduct of oil production).

Today, this engine is powered by propane gas. An old forge blower provides a load for working dis-plays at antique power shows (and occasional fly-ins).

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Eighteen-Wheeler Tractors

A beautifully restored black and red 1963 Mack B75 Thermodyne.

Departing for Home

Karen, Ginger and George visiting at the Debonair shortly before the Debonair’s departure.

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The Debonair sits idling as the pilot prepares to taxi.

Once airborne, the Debonair quickly climbed into a beautiful, cloud filled sky.

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While it looks like the Deb is going to climb into IMC, it did not. The clouds were comfortably in the distance with bases around 4,500 feet MSL.

Don’s F33A idles as Don runs his pre-taxi checklist.

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In the distance, Don lifts off of runway 3 for the trip back to Akron, . . .

. . . retracts the gear and quickly climbs away.

George and Ginger wait with Diane while Paul gets one last photo before they board the Skylane for the flight home.

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The forth and last airplane to depart was the Skyhawk carrying Andrew Roland, Jim Carlton and Jim’s fiancée, Polly.

Aircraft came and went during the day but there were over 30 available for review. They included biplanes, a gyrocopter, many homebuilt aircraft, warbirds and more. The warbirds included a jet trainer and a Pratt & Whitney radial engine powered AT-6.

For the most part the cars stayed in place. There were over 50 present including a tricked out Roush Mustang and a replica ‘65 Shelby Cobra. A unique, 1960’s vintage 4-wheel drive farm truck brought back some fond memories for Terry.

The Aero Fliers contingent gathered in the large food-concession hanger to take in some fly-in food and enjoy some high-quality, live country music. Paul Venditti served as the very official looking photographer complete with high-end camera and tripod. Paul took a great photo of the group in front of the Debonair. (A framed, 8x10 print of the group photo is now displayed on the desk in the office at our hanger.)

Continued from page 2 Backing up a bit in time, well before the event, Len Dyko started organizing and coordinating to make sure everyone had a seat. Later, on the day of the event, he stayed behind at Akron Fulton to serve in a Flight Operations role for the outing. That role included working to keep the paperwork up to date for the pilot-in-command changes that took place at Franklin.

In an excellent display of very good aeronautical decision making (ADM), the Skyhawk (well, it’s pilot) chose not to land at Venango. It had the unfortunate circumstance of arriving at a very busy time that was made worse by another pilot whose apparent rush created a very uncomfortable situation.

In all, ten members and guests made it to the fly-in. Everyone that participated had a very

good time. We hope to get at least twice as many people to join in on the fun for next year’s outing.

Clearly some great planning by the trustees as well as ample assistance by many members came together to make this Cross-Country outing a complete success. Writing on behalf of everyone, we all say “thank you” to everyone who helped make the day a complete success. ✈

Written by Don Tharp and Paul Venditti. Photos by Paul Venditti.

With the Skylane back in its hangar, Ginger and Diane clean it up while a Summit Airport Services employee tops off the fuel.

The Skylane on the ramp at KFKL.