Jim has only owned Indian Hills since 2003, but each year for the last several years he has hosted events out of his hangar there. The runway is about as long as
Glenndale, but there is a very tall group of trees right dead flat off the end of the runway, effectively making it much shorter if you're taking off or landing over the top of them. It's a neat grass strip, nice and smooth, with character. I like places with character. :)John Dale and Jim grilled out and provided big juicy burgers, brats and hot dogs, and several ladies came out with side dishes and desserts, and as always, one of the things we do best is eat. :)
There were Champs, Chiefs, a Luscombe, a Stinson, and a Citabria there today, 7 airplanes in total, all little taildraggers. The bomb drop started off, and the
passes began, folks taking the planes down over the trees and aiming at the target line. The next round, Kaylee went up with Ty in his Chief and did her drop. Then Steve and I went up in the Citabria and took our turn. They said there was no altitude restriction. :) Steve and I came in second place, but we were like 10 feet away from the guy who came in first place, Sam.Kaylee wanted to go fly a bit, so I took her up in the Citabria too. She flew around herself for awhile, and kept wanting to go lower. I told her we couldn't go
low over the city, so she pointed it out to the country and said "NOW can I get lower?" I said sure, to see where she'd go. She brought it down to about 500-600' above the ground and said "That's perfect. I like it right here." She's doing a good job with the turn coordination and holding altitude and everything, even in turns, from the back seat of a Citabria, so that was kind of neat. :)Steve needed run over to Kokomo to help Nathan with one of our airplanes, so I took him over in the Citabria next. Well, actually he took me over. :) As we got closer I started staring at this obvious area of weather off to the west. It was fairly
large, and a big white sheet going to the ground, so you knew it was pretty hefty rain. I kept gauging our speed and its speed, and we'd get to the airport before it would, so we agreed Steve would just hop out and I'd turn around and take right back off and beat it out of there. As we came in, a big ole jagged lightning streak went off ahead, telling us that was a bit more than rain. Steve landed, I taxied us up to the hangar, he jumped out, I taxied back to the runway, and as I was rolling it started raining on me. A nice boom of thunder and I was out of there, pointed away from it, and on my way back to Indian Hills where it was perfectly good. The plane got a little bit of a wash, which was great for the bugs and windshield.Coming back in to land at Indian Hills, the winds were a little gusty up over the trees, and landing over them kind of makes for a long landing float when there's not really much headwind. So I kept the plane at 60, slipped it down over the trees, went to kick it out and land, had no "smash" as some formation guys would say, and...thud. I arrived firmly, causing Kaylee to exaggerate, Chuck to close his eyes, a few people to gloat, and Walt to go pick out a clod of dirt and tell me it was the divet I made in the runway. One of the hardest landings I've ever made, thankfully it was on grass, marvelously it was in front of a group of pilots. ;) If I'd have had someone in the plane with me I would have been more conservative, but alone, light, fluctuating winds and faster than the other planes out there, I didn't want to float all the way down the runway, so I was trying to come in good and short, at the spot landing contest line. I landed short, all right. ;) When I got out of the plane, I stepped to the side and gave the peanut gallery in the hangar a big bow and curtsey. At least nobody was video taping...
We stayed until the sun went down, sitting around and talking while the kids ran and
played in the grass for a few hours. It was a...really nice day. :)Two pages of photos are up, of course!
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