Back to Basics
Kristy and I were flying back to New York from a visit to Michigan with my family and high school friends when I received a text from WFC member and recently certificated pilot, Joe F. He was looking for a ride to a fly-in pancake breakfast being hosted the next morning by the National Warplane Museum on the grass-only airport in Geneseo, NY. He had neither attended a fly-in nor landed on grass before and hoped to ride along with me. It was a perfect back to basics kind of flight.
Surprise!
| Date | Aircraft | Route of Flight | Time (hrs) | Total (hrs) |
| 04 Sep 2023 | N21481 | SDC (Sodus, NY) - D52 (Geneseo, NY) - SDC | 1.4 | 2720.0 |
In addition to Joe and I in Warrior 481, Dan P and Jamie O were flying in Jamie's Searey. While running up the engine, we stopped next to Mike A and CFI Mike B in the club's Bold Warrior, Eight One Six.
"Where are you guys headed?" Mike B asked over the radio.
"Pancake breakfast. You?"
"We're headed over to Geneseo to give Mike a grass checkout," Mike B answered.
Do they know? I wondered. "Enjoy the pancakes," I broadcast back at them. This was how they found out that a fly-in breakfast was happening at their planned grass check-out destination.
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| Joe F and I in Warrior 481 en route to breakfast. |
The pattern was busy when we arrived. The Mikes in Eight One Six arrived first with a WACO biplane behind them that was followed by me and Joe. We had traffic behind us as well. The landing became a little dicey when the WACO stopped in the middle of the turf runway as I was turning final. The pilot had been communicating on the radio in the traffic pattern, so it seemed that he should have been aware of us. Eventually, the WACO started to move again. It had not cleared the runway when we touched down, but we easily had 2,000 feet of spacing between us and the turf rapidly slowed the Warrior to a brisk walk. There was no collision hazard or else I would have aborted the landing. We taxied to parking behind the WACO, our aircraft making the ungainly wobble of aircraft taxiing on an uneven surface.
Back in Time
The National Warplane Museum had partially cleaned out their main hangar to accommodate the breakfast, so several of their treasures were outside under the brilliant sun.
The Williamson Flying Club was well-represented that morning by me, Dan P, Jamie O, Mike A, Mike B, and Joe F. Also present were Sam and Zoe, a pair of NetJets pilots who base their Skyhawk at Sodus.
Twinsies. Kind of. Warrior 816 and Warrior 481. Eight One Six has a bigger engine (a Bold Warrior STC for 180 horsepower), but I still outrun her with my cruise prop and installed wheel pants.
A snazzy experimental parked next to Eight One Six.
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| A Vultee BT-13 Valiant, Douglas C-47, and Fairchild PT-26 Cornell. |
We ate breakfast as a group. The National Warplane Museum team did a great job cooking that morning and everything was delicious. When done, we spent some time exploring the museum. At some point, Mike and Mike disappeared and we saw them practicing grass landings in Eight One Six.
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| A close-up look at the cockpit of the Vultee BT-13 Valiant. |
As its designation suggests, the Fairchild PT-26 was a primary military trainer during the World War II era.
This WACO UPF-7 was the biplane that mysteriously stopped on the runway while we were preparing to land. It is a beautiful airplane. I am still not sure what its pilot was thinking.
Whiskey 7 is the local airplane celebrity. This C-47 is a veteran of D-Day and flew as a lead ship in the liberation of Sainte-Mère-Église in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944. In 2014, the National Warplane Museum flew Whiskey 7 back to Normandy on the 70th anniversary of D-Day. It was surely the adventure of a lifetime for her crew.
The museum recently acquired this Beech Staggerwing. I know little about its origins, I just know that I love Beech Staggerwings. I would prefer mine in a different color, but otherwise, it's a magnificent specimen.
Oh, and they had a Spam Can on display. Wait...that was our ride home.
Because departure from Geneseo requires a back taxi on the runway, we waited for a break in landings, then taxied back to the departure end with a Grumman Tiger and Jamie's Searey. On take-off, when I pulled the nosewheel off the ground, Warrior 481 palpably accelerated with the reduction in drag. I was surprised at how similar the sensation was to getting the Super Cruiser seaplane up on the step, another rapid acceleration resulting from drag minimization.
After the simplicity of pancakes, good company, a grass runway, and warbirds, I was ready for the next adventure!
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