LadiesLoveTaildraggers

Christina Chapman’s list of speakers and instructors for the July 16 – 22 Woman Wise Airmanship Adventure is turning into an amazing list of Who’s Who! It’s going to be another great week of flying the Idaho back country this year and an event you should think seriously about participating in.

Christina says “What a line up for the ladies this year!” so let’s introduce them.

Wayne Handley (speaker)

http://www.waynehandley.com

 Rich Stowell (Master instructor & well known for EMT–emergency maneuver training, spin/stall and aerobatics)

http://www.richstowell.com/

Jeanne MacPherson (Master flight instructor specializing in mountain flying, emergency maneuvers and spin training) and a member of LadiesLoveTaildraggers!

www.mountainairdancellc.com

Jeanne MacPherson, Mountain Airdance LLC

Paul Leadabrand (Kitfox specific mountain, tailwheel and sport pilot training), Stick & Rudder Aviation.

http://stick-rudder.com/

Paul Leadabrand will be there early in the event with his Kitfox

Rich Bush (Backcountry flight instructor expert)

Rich Bush

Women Wise Airmanship Adventure 2012

July 16 – 20 (Level 1)

July 18 – 22 (Level 2)

Smiley Creek Lodge & Airstrip, Idaho

Check out the link for details

http://www.ladieslovetaildraggers.com/woman-wise-airmanship-adventure-2012/

Thank you to Jean O’Cuilinn for the great pictures and information about her recent flight to Terlingua Ranch Airport!

Terlingua 1E2

This is where I flew for lunch a few days ago and is somewhere I fly to fairly frequently. The pictures are the approach to Terlingua Ranch, 1E2, Alpine, Texas.

Terlingua Ranch Airport is a dirt/rock, one way strip (because of the gradient and you have a mountain at the south end of it.) Elevation 3800′.

The pictures were taken by friend last year and show the lay of the land.

It’s about 58 NM south from my Alpine airport and is very close to the Big Bend Natl. Park.  They have live music and dancing on Friday nights too and another friend will be part of a trio of musicians offering a concert, Mozart and Dvorak, this coming Sunday evening so we might fly down for that.  It’s pretty remote.  We’d be returning in the dark so I won’t go unless it’s clear out.  :-)

Justin took this pic of me by the 152 that I use for instruction right before we left as the wind was kicking up. The wind was 30 when we got back to Alpine but it was right down the runway.

Jean's one of our Texas 'taildraggin' gals but this was C152 trip!

A big “thank you” to Marie Beaver of Houston, Texas for sharing her latest flying adventure. Another destination to add to the growing “bucket list”!

Big Bend Ranch State Park

Friday, February 10- Sunday, February 12,

extended to Monday, February 13, 2012

Rain and low ceilings delayed our departure from Hooks Airport (KDWH), Houston, Texas until 10:00 a.m. We departed in our Maule, with friends along side in their Cessna 172 and flew to Fredericksburg, Texas (T82). We met friends that would be flying their C180 Skywagon with us. We all had lunch at the Airport Diner on the field before departing on the next leg.

C172, Maule and C180 Skywagon

We left T82 as a flight of 3 and flew to Big Bend Ranch State Park via a fuel stop at Terrell County Airport (6R6). After fueling, we flew along the perimeter of Big Bend National Park, en-route to Big Bend Ranch State Park. We had a fabulous flight up Fresno Canyon arriving at Big Bend Ranch State Park Airstrip (3TE3). The air was calm, the canyon beautiful and the sky was crystal clear blue.

(3TE3) Elevation 4250 Length 5500 Runway 8-26 Friday, February 10, 2012

We stayed at the Sauceda Big House with 3 bedrooms. Link, Big Bend Ranch

We paid for breakfast, lunch and dinner to be provided by the park. We were impressed with the amount received and the quality (dinner-cheese enchiladas, brisket, sandwich (lunch sack), eggs. Mind you, no 5 star dining, but very filling. The house was nice, but could use some tlc.

Saturday, February 11

The next day was the highlight of the trip. We toured a small section of the park with Blaine Hall, Ranger in the parks new suburban. When I say small section, Big Bend Ranch State park is the largest state park in Texas at 300,000 acres in the Chihuahuan Desert. Mr. Hall is not your average park ranger, he has been a geologist and professor most of his life and is well qualified, dare I say, overqualified to conduct this tour. His passion and love for geology shines as he explains about how the Solitario was formed and about all the formations in the park, and how it is such a special geological place.

Marie & Karen

(I’m attaching the link for his article-Page 10) Geology at the Crossroads  We spent the day with Blaine and had a picnic lunch in Fresno Canyon. The most pleasant surprise of the day was fabulous blooming bluebonnets along the creek beds, especially near the Crawford Ranch Ruins. I had no idea this part of Texas had bluebonnets.

Solitario in the background with the flat iron portions seen behind us (Bob, David, Danny, Karen and Marie)

Sunday, February 12

Departure day was met with a massive cold front that had freezing temperatures to the ground and low ceilings across a huge portion of Texas. We tried to depart (the Beaver’s and Snowden’s), however after 5 miles had to turn back due to the ceilings pretty much going to the ground and the plane building ice. The ceilings and temperature never rose for us to get out that day.

Since our reservation had only been through Sunday morning, we relocated to the bunkhouse as they had guests for the Big House. Since they had no other guests, they put us all together in the men’s side of the dorm.

Normally, the bunkhouse is divided with sleeping quarters for women on one side, and men on the other. We were the only ones in the bunkhouse so it was nice and cozy with the main living room, dining area, fireplace and TV (only VCR tapes).

 Things only got more interesting as the night progressed. By 10 p.m. we had an incredible thunderstorm pouring overhead, with lightening, thunder rattling the windows, and then pea size HAIL! Luckily, the hail was momentary and no damage was done to the 3 planes. For a place that rarely receives any rainfall, this trip saw all extremes in the weather.

 We awoke Monday morning to fog so thick you could not see the ranch houses very nearby. It finally lifted around 10 a.m. there and we departed together. The Nicholson’s and we headed back to Terrell (6R6) for a fill-up! The Snowden’s had enough gas so they flew direct to Mason, Texas so we split up. A good portion of Texas had low IFR that day that was lingering so I filed. We made it to Houston with great tail winds at 7000 feet to fly the RNAV (GPS) 35L approach at Hooks (KDWH) to minimums!

LIFR

We had to leave the Nicholson’s behind for them to pick their way here slowly with the low ceilings. He and the plane are VFR only. They finally got to hooks at about 6pm. It was a very long, stressful day for them.

I cannot wait to return for part two of Mr. Hall’s tour of the inside of the Solitario.

Marie Beaver

Join the group fly-out to Orcas Island, Washington!  

Sept. 7, 8, 9 (Friday – Sunday)

The perfect time of year to fly the San Juan Islands so let’s hear from you if you’d like to join the gaggle!

Fly-out attendees will be working out the details for this big adventure. Plan on arriving at the island Friday morning to meet the group. Camping available on the field or stay at one of the island motels!

Send your email to judy.birchler@gmail.com to get your name added to the group contact list. Attendees can make finals plans through email, Facebook or the http://www.ladieslovetaildraggers.com/ FORUM!

Meet Victoria Bond who's plans on making the Orcas Island trip in her beautiful Super Cub.

Posted 12/28/11

Here’s a special invitation to all our lady taildragger pilots from Bea vonTobel, Airport Manager at Orcas Island Airport. I pulled a few pictures together to include with Bea’s note and by the time I finished, I was so excited about Orcas Island I wanted to load up my Rans S7 and head northwest. It looks like a beautiful destination and Bea would be just as excited to see us as we would be to get there! It’s 1,910 statute miles for me so I’m not sure it’s going to fit on my dance card this year. But if any of you would like to do a trip together to Orcas Island, leave your comments.

"Goodbye" photo from the Orcas Island Airport Fly-in

From Bea: One of our 99s chapter members sent me a couple of your videos, and it was wonderful to see all those draggers piloted by women.  I’m afraid the only draggers I’ve flown have been sailplanes—but they were towed aloft by taildraggers, albeit with male pilots at the stick.  But, once in the air, it makes no difference!

Orcas Island, Washington, part of the San Juan Islands chain

At any rate, now that I’m where I am and doing what I’m doing, I feel a great urge to invite you all to come to the Orcas Island Airport off the northwest coast of Washington state, hard by Canada (I see it from my office window, which makes getting indoor work hard to get done).

Orcas Island Airport

We’ve got a great smaller airport here, paved with 2900’ of macadam, commercial service; if you see our upcoming ads in the GANews starting in January, you’ll see that both approaches to our runway put you over water on the narrowest part of the island.

We’d love to have a bunch of ladies in taildraggers come and camp out under their wings (we have a hot shower), with an ocean view guaranteed from your tent.  For $6.00/night, it’s a great place to stay, and there are lots of nearby things to do.

Check out our website,www.portoforcas.com and you’ll see what we can offer—aside from great weather most of summer through October, our dry season.

If we can help you plan an event around some of the island happenings, we’d love to do that.  Let us know how we can be your hosts on a very friendly island!

Bea vonTobel

Airport Manager

360.376.5285

Oh, I love this one Lisa! You and Wendy and Victoria flying out for a  girl’s flying/camping weekend in Colorado — all of you in your own Cubs — you’re the envy of all of us. Beautiful Cubs, wonderful adventures, great fun! Good one girls!!

Lisa, Wendy & Victoria

From Lisa Martin;  Three of us from the Ladies Love Taildraggers group met at a private airstrip near Marble, CO for a fall camping weekend.

Crystal River Canyon about 10 min from Marble

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Marble Air Strip just past the pond

We had people driving, hiking and flying in to say “Hi” to “the Ladies Love Taildraggers”. This group seems to be gaining quite a name for itself!

The Super girls' Cub Club

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It takes an interview, a signed liability form and verbal permission from the owner to land on this private strip

We hiked, helped a poor guy who’s cub was damaged by a ground loop, was invited to supper at a lodge with a group of vacationers that included several pilots, was investigated by a local fireman seeking information about a reported UFO sighting, sat around a campfire and watched space junk falling from a crystal clear mountain sky.

Wendy and Victoria

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Sunrise at Marble

It was awesome. I’m just being silly about the “Super Girls’ Cub Club”…we are Ladies (who) Love Taildraggers!

Touring the Marble Mill Site

Lisa Martin

More from Antique Airfield and the Airpower Museum at Blakesburg, Iowa sent in by Faith D. FYI ladies, she had a great time and wants to see more LLT’s there next year. Let’s make it happen! I’m putting together a list of 2012 fly-ins all across the country that would be great destinations for us gals to meet and Blakesburg will be on the list. If you have an event in your area that we should also consider please contact me at www.ladytaildraggers.com. Judy

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Judy, Blakesburg really was fantastic; this was my first time and it surely was worth the trip. Hope you can make it next year!

Stinson Tri-Motor

I had to work in Nashville the week before Blakesburg, so I was stuck arriving into DSM on Delta and driving down to IA27. However, a friend of mine flew up in his Piper Warrior, so I arranged to ride back home to Florida with him. We both arrived on Friday evening, met up with another gal pilot friend, and spent a fantastic Saturday making new friends and wiping our drool marks off of our favorite antiques.

Gail Schipper & Faith Saturday flying the Bucker

Saturday night saw a cold front passing through Iowa, bringing rain showers to frantically send the evening movie indoors, and cooling things off quite significantly. I sure was glad not to be camping that evening!

Rearwin Speedster

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Nord

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The museum had a Kinner engine on display; it of course made me think of Summer & the Student Prince. Now there's an antique that was very much missed - maybe next year, Summer??

On Sunday we had a hard decision to make: back to Blakesburg for some more fun, or try to beat tropical storm Lee before it stalled and prevented our trip back to Florida. We opted to make a beeline south as the cold front seemed to be keeping Lee at bay, but unfortunately Lee crept northward enough to leave us stuck in Little Rock for 36 hours while we waited for the storm to pass.

First signs of Lee

We entertained ourselves as tourists, visiting the Peabody to watch the ducks march and finding the little rock for which the town was named.

Peabody Hotel Ducks

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THE Little Rock

We headed back to Florida on Tuesday afternoon with the aid of excellent tailwinds, and arrived just in time to appreciate a beautiful sunset and Florida’s first taste of fall weather.

Mississippi River

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Sunset & Rwy Lights of Home

It was a memorable experience to be sure, and I am already hatching plans to be back next year! I’ll admit I got a bit over-excited and took fewer pictures than I would have liked, but I’m attaching a bunch of photos in hopes of enticing some more gals to come!  It would be great to have a big Ladies Love Taildraggers turnout next year!

-Faith

You’ve heard by now we’ve got a very special guest coming to the Lady Taildraggers Fly-in next week and Susan and I are incredibly happy about it! Oh, make that THREE special guests! #1 Summer Martell – the pilot, #2 Chrissy – the co-pilot, ……. and #3 the 1931 Student Prince Bi-Plane they will be flying! OK, now let that soak in. A 1931 aircraft.  Lindbergh flew his historic transatlantic flight in 1927. It’s hard to wrap your mind around it, I know, but you must to totally appreciate what these two women from Washington state are about to do. 

I’ve been following Summer Martell’s new blog and want to make sure you all have a chance to too. Summer is planning on departing her home airport in Washington state Sunday, August 7 and begin her cross country journey to Moraine Airpark in Dayton, Ohio. Here’s a recent post from Summer’s blog.

When I said yes to this adventure, there was never a question of whether or not I’d take someone with me. When the front cockpit of the Student Prince is not occupied, I find it such a waste of an experience for someone as well as for myself. It’s always better when good times are shared!

Because I am flying across the country to attend a fly in hosted by lady pilots for ladies who own and fly vintage, tailwheel airplanes, I also knew immediately that it would be perfectly appropriate to take another woman. A dear friend of mine, one of the most dynamic and fun loving souls I have ever had the pleasure of knowing was my first choice. She and I are both pilots (we’ve actually flown business jets together!), we get along like a house on fire, and we had talked about doing a trip together in the Prince. I pitched the idea to her and she was enthusiastic but alas, carving the time to take the trip was not possible and she had to decline.

Quite honestly, there were very few people who fit my ideal criteria for this trip: Female, adventurous, fun, flexible, capable, and able to take off for an unspecified amount of time. I also wanted to take someone that I share a certain kinship with. The kind of person who will not only wade headlong into some crackpot scheme with me, but when we laugh together and look at one another while tears roll down our cheeks from hilarity, we are really reveling in the experience of feeling alive in the moment and connected. It was a tall order, and fortunately for me there was one such person who fit the bill to a T.

Chrissy and I have had most of our adventures while riding our horses together. We have bonded deeply through many fantastic miles covered on horseback and our common philosophies and ideas around the care and well being of our beloved animals. I enjoy and appreciate her homespun commonsense, her fantastic wit that is all her own, her sharp intelligence, and her keen sense of adventure. When I asked her if she’d like to fly across the country with me, I was tickled when she shouted, “YES!!!” while jumping up and down. If she were a dog she would have been wagging furiously. Her husband Javan kindly agreed to part with his wife for a couple of weeks. Since he has been severely afflicted with the flying bug for quite some time, I think that possibly the hardest part about letting Chrissy go was the fact that he had to stay. Happily, he will begin flying lessons this fall, and his wife will return with stories from the sky to inspire them both.

I am fortunate indeed to have such wonderful souls in my life and I look forward to sharing this experience with my good friend and making memories we will never forget, nor will we want to….

Follow Summer on her blog  Summersky 2011

Follow Summer’s cross-country flight on her Live Spot link Summer’s Spot

I got to zip over to Hagerstown, Indiana in the S7 late this afternoon for the yearly gathering of antique & vintage aircraft. Yep, I know it’s strange having a flyin on a Tuesday, but this is the 4th year they met on the Tuesday before Oshkosh for a gathering loved by the locals and held at the small town, grass strip. Led by Andrew King, the pilot from the movie “Fly Boys,” vintage & antique aircraft descended on Hagerstown in preparation for the big fly-in to Oshkosh. “The Hagerstown Airport is great,” says King, “We loved it the past three years. It’s not often we get to see such a large airport that’s also a grassy airport. Old planes like grass because that’s what they were built for.”

The Wright Flyer flew in from Dayton and I managed to get a close up shot on its departure

I have to say, I got a little concerned when it departed downwind to please the crowd that was gathered on the north end of the strip. Hagerstown has about 4,000 lovely feet of grass so a downwind departure in about 8 kts normally wouldn’t be a big deal in most aircraft but this reproduction with an O-360 Lycoming still struggled to get up and around (not over) the trees! It came back around for a slow speed flyby and then headed back to Dayton before sunset.

Judy (me) & Juliet Lindrooth in front of friend, Paul Fuller's Great Lakes Biplane

So, I’m hanging out, minding my own business at Hagerstown and surprise, up comes this happy lady asking me, “Is your name Judy?!” Holy cow, turns out to be lady taildragger pilot, Juliet Lindrooth, from Pennsylvania who flew in solo for today and the rest of the trek to Oshkosh. Now it was getting very interesting! Juliet owns and flies a very special antique airplane, a 1932 Brunner Winkle Bird BK.

Juliet's Brunner Winkle Bird

Sadly, she wasn’t able to bring it on this trip but I was happy to see her in her Grumman Tiger. But not to despair, she WILL be flying a taildragger for the next 2 weeks courtesy of a friend – and it’s a Champ so she’ll have a wonderful time!

The ground loop!

OK, new and old tailwheel pilots beware, I learned tonight you can mow down some nice looking Indiana corn if you’re not prepared. This Luscombe made his approach and landing a little too close to the corn on the east side of the strip and somehow ended up doing a quick ground loop through the corn. No damage though – just a lot of corn stalks hanging from the tail feathers and down the runway.

There were 3 nice looking Stearmans doing fly-bys tonight!

Juliet and I sure enjoyed finding ourselves at a grass strip in middle of Indiana tonight, surrounded by corn and bean fields!

It was kind of a fluke that I even flew over there tonight but so happy I did. Sure was great meeting you, Juliet, and look forward to catching up with you at OSH! Don’t forget ladies, we’re meeting for lunch on Tuesday, July 26 at the Hilton Terrace Restaurant past the north 40 at 11:30 for lunch – join us lady pilots – tailwheel or nosewheel!

It’s also lady taildraggers day in Vintage on Wednesday, July 27,  so be there to support your taildragger pilots at 11:00!!

Judy

Are you ready to air race?!! Lady taildraggers have been doing it since 1929 when 20 women pilots competed in the 1st Women’s Air Derby, quickly dubbed “The Powder Puff Derby”. From what I’ve read and seen in all the pictures, that very first race was swarming with the media; newspapers, radio reporters and movie cameras were everywhere. Howard Hughes and Will Rogers were there! And I love this part – as Will Rogers stood gazing out at the crowd of ladies preparing for the start of the race he noted, “Their female genes compelled each racer to take one last glance at her compact, along with a dab of powder on her nose” and then he announced, “It looks like a powder puff derby to me!”

The event has changed and morphed over the years since 1929. 2011 is officially the 35th Anniversary Air Race Classic (ARC) and is scheduled for June 21 – 24.  All women pilots who have an FAA medical and a current BFR are eligible to participate. The race begins in Iowa City, Iowa and ends 2,722.01 statute miles later in Mobile, Alabama. Here are all the landing stops;

IOW Iowa City Municipal Airport, Iowa City, IA

BKX Brookings Regional Airport, Brookings, SD

JMS Jamestown Regional Airport, Jamestown, ND

SPF Black Hills-Ice Airport, Spearfish, South Dakota

RWL Rawlins Municipal/Harvey Airport, Rawlins, WY

AIA Alliance Municipal Airport, Alliance, NE

GBD Great Bend Municipal Airport, Great Bend, KS

BGD Hutchinson County Airport, Borger, TX

OUN University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport, Norman,OK

ELD South Arkansas Regional at Goodwin Airport, El Dorado, AR

BFM Mobile Downtown Airport, Mobile, AL

Total Race Distance  2722.01 Statute Miles

2011 Air Route

I did a little checking and found out that although tailwheel aircraft don’t usually compete in big numbers, they do compete. If you’re thinking about entering, here’s what you need to know about which aircraft are eligible to participate.

“Airplanes are limited to STOCK and minimally modified STOCK airplanes, certified in the normal or utility category with normally aspirated engine(s) of not less than 145 horsepower, nor more than 570 horsepower, rated for CONTINUOUS MAXIMUM OPERATION”.

“It is important that your airplane can fly a complete leg without needing to stop for fuel, taking into consideration that racing uses considerably more fuel than ordinary cross-country flights. More than anything, you should be well acquainted with, and comfortable flying, your Race plane. For more information, contact airplane@airraceclassic.org”

I’m happy to report that at least three ladies from this group have participated in the last couple years. In 2009 Marijke Unger flew her 1976 Citabria 7KCAB and was the only taildragger in the race that year. Check out Marijke’s blog about her race experiences, My First Air Race .

In 2010 Bobbi Boucher (who is not only a pilot but an A&P, I/A) flew with Terry Nitz in Terry’s Cessna 172. Bobbi wrote, “I was able to fly with Ms Terry Nitz in her cool 172 with all the mussel & hustle you would want with the 210 hp.  Yes I put the engine in 5858R!  We were 22 out of 51 not bad!!!

No, this RV6 didn’t get to compete but Stephanie Wells did!

Stephanie Wells competed in 2009, the same year as Marijke Unger, flying with Roxie Juul. Stephanie’s busy building an amphibian right now and says, “I won’t be doing the ARC this summer – it’s a pretty expensive proposition!  Maybe in the next few years I’ll get a chance.”

Any other lady taildraggers who have competed or are considering it, please leave a Comment. We’d love to hear more!!

Judy

I just received these pretty incredible pictures from Selina Smith, who I met while I was wondering around the Vintage Stinson rows at Oshkosh. Selina had flown in solo from Powell River, British Columbia in her Stinson 108 and shot some amazing pictures during her adventure. Thanks for sharing with us all, Selina!

Selina Smith at Oshkosh with her Stinson 108-3

“I had a spectacular flight home from Oshkosh through the Canadian Rockies!”

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I hope you are well and looking forward to a good year.

Selina Smith

Powell River, B.C.