LadiesLoveTaildraggers

If it seemed like nothing much happened on Ladies Love Taildraggers last week its because I took a quick trip to Paradise! Actually, it was Staniel Cay, Bahamas but just about as close as I’ve ever been to paradise. No taildraggers involved here, just a really fast and efficient 4-place homebuilt called an Express that was built by friends Wayne and Kathy Norris. *

Boyd and I met up with Wayne & Kathy and their Express in South Carolina, tied down our Mooney 231 and loaded up the Express for the next leg to Venice, Florida. The 300 hp Express is a workhorse that will carry 4 big people, 80 gallons of fuel and 200 pounds of luggage and cruise along at 190 mph at 65%.

* Here’s Kathy and Boyd taping on the required 12″ N numbers at the Venice Florida airport before we headed over. Life preservers (check), life raft (check), passports (check),  beer (check), red wine (check) – good to go!

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Next stop, Andros Island Airport to clear Customs. Nice people, quick turnaround… no problems, mon.

Then flew down the chain of islands to Staniel Cay.

Here’s the very small island of Staniel Cay and airport.

The Staniel Cay Yacht Club rents one and two bedroom bungalows right on the water and gives pilots a 20% discount. This is off season so you get a little break right now too. The bungalows aren’t fancy but so cute!! I loved that the entry door was through the bathroom – between the toilet and the sink!

Here’s Kathy walking on a slightly submerged sandbar to get a better look at several stingrays.

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More incredibly beautiful scenery.

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On the flight outbound we spotted this submerged DC3 that’s been there for years.

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And the approaches don’t get much better than on this short, private island strip we saw heading north bound.

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Sure did hate to depart “paradise” but the world was calling us back. I can’t say enough good things about our trip and highly recommend you plan a trip of your own down the chain of islands. If you’re looking for a flying adventure, sunshine, private beaches, snorkeling, boating and great seafood better start planning now!

Thanks to everyone who sent in pictures for our “Happy Taildragger Picture Contest”. As you can tell, I’m all about pictures and all about gals having fun doing what they LOVE!

But before I announce the winner of our “Happy Taildragger Picture Contest” let’s take a look back at a few of the pictures you gals sent me in 2009 that made us smile!

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Some truly awesome pictures from 2009 ladies!! We’re not even through 2010 yet so I won’t show you those highlights right now, but I will announce the winner of the Ladies Love Taildraggers “Happy Taildragger Picture Contest”.

The 1st Place Winner is Gail Schipper of Colorado having a great time in her Bucker Jungmann! You can just tell she’s having a ball! Gail, please send me what size you’d like and I’ll mail you your Ladies Love Taildragger t-shirt to wear when you’re flying the Colorado skies! Congratulations!

And the runner ups were….

and…

And just for the heck of it, I’ll throw in this snapshot I took not long ago…

Bonnie & Sarah, please send me your size and address and I’ll mail you both a LLT t-shirt too! Thanks everybody for visiting the blog and for sending the fun pictures!

Faith Olen-Glick is based at KGVE, Gordonsville Municipal Airport, Gordonsville, Virginia.

Check out Faith’s website at BlueBirdAerodrome.

More on Faith soon!

The “Happy Taildragger” Picture Contest results will be posted soon. If you forgot to email one in, please send it to judy.birchler@gmail.com in the next couple days. I’ll be posting the winner and the pictures soon!

Link:  HAPPY TAILDRAGGERS CONTEST

Update: No new airplane for me today

Back home with no new wings to brag about. I’m disappointed; I sure was hoping this would be IT! From a distance looked great but closer inspection showed some “issues”, mostly with the fabric. It was one of those problems that would bug us till we just fixed it which meant taking the wings off, bringing the fuselage home and peeling all the coatings off down to the fabric. Probably recovering the horizontal, rudder and elevators too. On the fuselage would have to remove all the finish & tapes and reapply the tapes and build all the coatings back up. Totally doable, just not looking for a project right now.

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So did I mention we found her at a grass strip?!

Taxing out I was thinking “we got in here just fine but how’s she going to do getting back out?” The Happy Champ’s not known for blasting out of anywhere – especially with us.. and stuff… and fuel. Maybe should have skipped that lunch stop on the way up!

Guess the bottom line is, I’m still looking for a taildragger.  There’s lots of them out there. Surely I’ll find the one that matches up with my pocketbook and has most of the things on my wish list.

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“I don’t know if these count, but here are some pictures of my little taildragger girl, my daughter Piper in our Supercub, and yes, she loves taildraggers.”

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“I am sure she will be a member of your group someday!”

Liz Smith is a private pilot based at Reid-Hillview Airport, San Jose, California.

I just saw the website and would like to join. I’m a private pilot but only have a couple hours in a Decathlon – but I am HOOKED! I’m saving up to do my official tailwheel transition. I got my license in San Diego, but am now based in Mountain View, California. It looks like I’ll probably be learning out at Reid-Hillview – it would be really great to meet some ladies out here!

Unfortunately, I haven’t flown since May. It’s been really hard to not fly, but I spent 3 months at sea working on a research vessel out in Montenengro, and now that I’m back, I can’t afford it at the moment. I’m applying for several scholarships to help get my tailwheel transition completed. I started in May doing some aerobatic lessons in a Decathlon, and I’m hoping to start up again in the spring by going back to basic and doing the transition first.

I also made it out to the Reno Air races a few weekends ago. It was amazing! I got to meet one of the lady racers who flies in the biplane races. There were only four lady pilots flying at Reno! It made me want to set my eyes on biplane racing, but first I need to get up in the air again at all.

And… here’s the little aerobatic video I made. It’s kind of fun!

I’m a member of the 99s and learned of your new site from Heather Gamble. It’s great!

Thx,
Liz Smith

clear skies,
Liz

Tina Thomas sent me this great video with a note, “more insanity Steve produced at C77 this summer”. Tina, all I can say is, if this is insanity…bring it on!! I really love the passion you two have for everything ‘tailwheel’ and….. the cloud shots in your video, the grasssssss strip, the Beech, the Bird, the Waco….!

Poplar Grove Airport, Summer 2010

Linda Fore is based at Stark’s Twin Oaks Airpark (7S3), Hillsboro, Oregon, and flies a Super Cub and Cessna 185.