"Speedy's " Take on "Palmetto Flight" to KLAL

The Palmetto Wing ("Palmetto Flight" ..ed) had an outstanding trip to Lakeland for the RV fly-in this weekend!

Friday morning we ("Speedy"/Ken Alderman, Ken Harrill/Melinda, James Clark, , Len "Cover Boy" Leggett, Ron "Smokey" Schreck, and Larry Bowen) met up in Hazelhurst, GA for a top off of $2.80/gal 100LL. Smokey led the 6-ship to Cedar Key for lunch, and a short taxi ride into town had us chowing down on grouper sandwiches, shrimp sandwiches, and complimentary swamp cabbage (hearts of palm). To keep from being completely overgross on takeoff (and save the $5/head taxi ride) we walked the mile back to the airport, where James led the flight on a short hop into Brooksville to pick up his friend, Nancy.

I led the flight from Brooksville into Lakeland, and you couldn't have asked for better cooperation from the tower. As soon as I checked the flight in on tower frequency, he asked if we wanted to do any fly-bys and whether we wanted the initial for landing. Affirmative on both counts! We taxied in to the area beside the new Cessna Center and set up camp with 7 or 8 other RVs that had come in on Friday. It was really strange seeing "Sun-n-Fun" without the usual crush of planes, people, vendors, etc. It was very cool having the place to ourselves and being able to camp right beside our planes, with the bathhouse, and flush toilets all within 100 feet!

Saturday was great, with almost 100 RVs coming in to eat, socialize with old and new friends, and attend the forums. Vic Syracuse and his wife showed up in their beautiful RV-10, and Steve Coleman came up from Jax in his -4. It was good to see all of you!

Smokey had to return home, but later in the afternoon, I led a 4-ship (Speedy, James, Ken, and Cover Boy) to Zephyr Hills for fuel, and as an excuse to do a little formation flying. There was a guy there who was very excited to see the "show" and ran over to us to take our picture with his 110 Instamatic camera. Taxiing out, Cover Boy hammed it up by waving and blowing kisses to the imaginary crowd. That cinched his new call sign......

Heading back to LAL, the sun was getting low and the light was golden. Again, the tower anticipated what I wanted, and we made a perfect diamond pass (with smoke) in the butter-smooth air. Man, it doesn't get much better than that!

We all sat around a big fire Saturday night, roasting marshmallows and swapping lies. Sunday morning it was donuts and coffee, then strike the tents, saddle up and RTB. Cover Boy and Larry left first to try and beat the ice to Winston, NC (which they barely did), James took Nancy back to Brooksville, then went on to Columbia, and Ken and I made a 2-ship up the GA coastline. What a spectacular route! We wanted to have lunch in Columbia with everyone, but after a quick look at the radar, decided to beat feet back to Anderson. We landed and got the plane in the hangar just before the serious rain started!

To everyone who went, thanks for a memorable weekend of friends, fun, and flying. To those who didn't go, you really missed an outstanding weekend- put it on your calendar for next year.

Speedy