We're here at the Fredonia KS airport, home of the Endless Foot Drag Fly-in. The fly-in has been postponed until the fall due to COVID-19, but we've landed here for a few days to get Michael Holliday certified as a trike instructor, take delivery of some Amazon packages and get the house closing done (well, hopefully get the closing done. It keeps getting delayed!) I've been able get three flights in and I've missed flying. But Check and I have had some long talks while we've been here about what our reality is. Here are the highlights.
1. Our flying opportunities have become really limited. Check saw this right away and sold his machine last year. He knew that he could always borrow or rent a PPG to fly if we were at a fly-in or an instructor's field, but since I'm not that comfortable on a machine I'm not familiar with, I kept mine. And sure enough, it's been 15 months since I last flew. So my machine spent the past year getting bumped around in the trailer while not getting any exercise. Some new gas and it started up and ran fine for my first two flights, but started to bog down on my third. It's not surprising - any engine needs to be run more than once a year. Some of my netting had dry-rotted as well and needs to be replaced. So it's just not realistic to tote around a machine and expect it to run properly when it spends most of its life being neglected and abused.
2. Is it really as fun as it used to be? I think I'll always love flying, but for both Check and I, these little half-hour flights around a field just aren't as exciting as they once were. We've talked over the past several months that maybe a tandem trike setup that we could take up together might be a nice change. We could fly one alone as well, but I know that sharing a flight would be a lot more fun. I've always loved flying tandem with him.
3. Oy, my back! After three months, my back had finally returned to normal after I hurt it in February. All the pain was gone, even when doing my most extreme stretches during Yoga. But, after my three flights here, it hurts again. It's not bad - just a little tweak so far - but I really don't want to take the chance of re-injuring it. Nothing is worth that. So that reason alone is enough to say that I might be done with foot-launching.
So....am I done flying? Well, I sure hope not, but it looks like I might be giving up foot-launching - at least on a regular basis. Michael has a beautiful tandem trike here and we are thinking about learning to fly it. We're not ready right now to buy something, but we know we can fit one in the trailer when the time comes. And it sounds like something we both will enjoy.
Michael's trike sure looks like fun!
Got to take a ride in a Gyrocopter. Very cool! Thanks, Bob!