Happy Mother's Day:   It was a mother's day to remember. Not a cloud in the sky for all of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon, even then just a few decorative puffies showed their faces. But it was hot - 96 degrees in the heat of the day. You could see the heat waves eminating from the tarmac at the airport. Ooooo, did I say airport? Ahh, yes. A gift for Mother's Day was my little Wild Child coming out of yet another extended annual - she seems to these major repair events. Well, in addition to the annual, we had to install the aerobatic harnesses so the next phase of training can finally begin.

Wild Child emerged around the 2:00 hour and Vern took her on the post annual maiden voyage. He put her through the paces with a loop, roll and spin and triumphantly returned no worse for the wear. My turn to play. I had not flown Wild Child  for at least 4 months so I was not going to be too brave. I figured that getting in my obligatory 3 landings and regaining currency was going to be enough for the day.

The mid-day heat was sweltering and I was dripping wet before I made my first take-off roll. I typically do not like piles of air blowing on me but today was an exception. The heat was not our customary wet heat: it was that dry stuff that sucks the breath right out of your chest when you step out the door. The winds were variable - extremely variable. I approached 14 for take off and the wind had already shifted to favor 32. Too bad. I am here now and I am going. With a bit longer than normal runway roll, we were off - just Wild Child and Mama (no, not Wild Mama - that's the plane!). With the winds continuing to swirl, I decided to stay in the pattern, get my 3 landings and call it a day as it did not take too long before I figured that this was not the time of day to fly; but I did not care, I wanted to fly the plane again.

Each landing was a bit of a ride: by the time I was on final, I managed to land with a tail wind - something I had not done before in the tail wheel plane. Ground speed was just over 80 kts. - a bit fast so I was expecting a floater. Bounce, bounce, bouce. Well, I got my 3 on the first try. Too bad I could not stop in between bounces. I finally stopped fairly far down the runway and decided to taxi back as I was no so sure that I had sufficient room to depart between the heat and the tail wind. Off again for the second and third landings. All and all not my best but it felt good to be back in the little airplane.

Tomorrow morning should be cool and calm. We will go out again - just my baby and me.

EVERGLADES SEAFOOD FESTIVAL - FEBRUARY 2009:  On a  beautiful winter morning in Florda after a seemingly long  and particularly brutal cold snap, we decided it was time to turn off the hangar heater and take  Wild Child  out to play before she goes in for annual at the end of the month. We have been having quite a bit of fun with her with my nephews and others; but I have not been able to start on the aerobatic training as I had hoped. Being so close to annual now we just left the matter of seat harnesses to be done along with everything else.

But today was a day to fly and the Everglade City Seafood Festival was in its final day. I had not been before but I knew it was quite popular and many pilots braved he 2400' runway and crosswinds to go get some really good eats. Twenty-four hundred feet is a cake walk for  Wild Child. 

The air was cool this morning and Wild Child was quite peppy. We flew "I.F.R." down highway 27 (that's "I follow roads"), meandering over Immokalee, the Everglades and on in toward Everglade City itself. For those who have not been there, Everglade City is a small town on the Gulf Coast - quite remote and removed form the rest of the Gulf Coast towns like Naples and Fort Myers Beach. It is a very quaint little fishing vilage type of place but the population swells greatly for the annual Seafood Festival.

We arrived in short order and plunked Wild Child down on runway 15 with plenty of room to spare. The approach is over water with both eand of the runway dead ending in the water. Annually, about half dozen planes end up in the drink as the runway is narrown and short. It is best taken with a low, slow approach, hitting the numbers to give you lots of time to roll out. It was early enough that we were one of the first planes in for the day and there was very little plane action at that point so we hoofed it in to town for the Festival.

 There were vendors of all sorts - food, crafts, stuff, boats and the like. We were interested in the food primarily but we did catch a few cool looking craft booths. We spied this huge vat of paella  and immediately made out decision. This  paella was chock full of seafood and veggies. I make this dish and this one was far superior to anything thatI have ever made. We ate way too much then had to walk off some of our discomfort. We ended back at the airport watching the multitude flying in now with a stiffer crosswind. What fun! There was a "landing committee" sitting up on the second story porch overlooking the runway and the activity. You could hear the crowd "get 'er down ... slower .... slower ..... brake, brake, brake!" While no one made the drink, several were close and a couple of go arounds were in order,some much prettier than others. One fellow just took off and never looked back - nothing but tail!

We were done entertaining ourself and it was time to fly back home. Now the air way bumpy and that Florida haze was back,making the ride home lots less spectacular than the ride over. We arrived back at LaBelle with a little plunk on the grass strip, tired, still full, but happy for a great day.