Amazingly, I was one of the 100 civilian pilots (out of 2,000 entries! we learned at the event) selected for the Edwards Air Force Base Rosamund Dry Lakebed Fly-In October 1, 2010!!!We quickly got my dear flying buddy Robin Taber (that's us of course, at left) officially signed up as the return home pilot. Perfect symmetry, as she was the landing pilot when we landed at Edwards RUNWAY as part of the 2007 Ninety-Nine's Fly-In!
Thanks to my CFI Rick Sharp for the extra practice prep for landing on the lakebed! Since it had rained lightly in the desert the day before, it was not at all dusty, and it is a very hard "soft field" so the landing went well! Flying on a 80 deg. heading RIGHT into the rising sun was intense, but no midairs, and Joshua Approach TOTALLY ROCKED on the way in!
The event was great, with pilot and Edwards civilian employee Bill Koukourikos (at right) serving as a great emcee.
The Fly-In was the brainchild of Maj. Gen. David J. Eichhorn, Edwards Commander (below, right), who is stepping down next week. He and "Kook," with help from lots of others, organized the event.
The only other person Robin and I knew was Wilbur Owens, an HHR and former A&E Flying Club friend, and owner of several Warbirds. He and his tailwhell CFI Dan Wotring, flew this lovely bird, below, into the event! We were so surprised and pleased to run into them while wandering the Warbirds parking/display area. Sorry we didn't have someone take a pic of us toge
ther.There were many energizing slideshows on very aspects of Edwards during the day's schedule. The women in aviation segment was led off by Colonel Dawn Dunlop, who has done some amazing things herself, but she only talked about the history of women in aviation and the airforce (I would've like to hear more of her exploits!) A woman bomber pilot from Whiteman AFB in Missouri, Gefford (did not get her first name nor rank, sorry!) DID talk about her exploits, using a clever "story wheel" concept.
Wonderfully, we also ran into another USC Trojan in the Warbird Alley, due to his wearing hi
s cardinal and gold cap! Mr. Lyle Schofield, at left, the flight test engineer on the XT-37, and one of the first on the "fly by wire" team! He got his M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from SC. I had him autograph his chapter in the Flight Testing at Edwards book (click on his name for more inf0).Unfortunately the WX "went south" (literally came from there, over the San Gabriels, the taxi pic shows some of it) a bit early, and we all started departing in groups, beginning at 1300. We were in Group 10, which made me nervous, as I waited at the "release" table while Robin preflighted. Here we are, in the taxi line. Also, here's a pic of our right wheel on the fascinating lakebed surface. We flew Justice Aviation's nice 180hp C172 N974TA.
All in all an AMAZING opportunity for which I am immensely grateful. Of course I've always been an Air Force fan cuz of Dad being a fighter pilot in the Army Air Corps in WWII, but I'm now even MORE of a fan, if that is possible! For a more pro story, go on over to Robin's new blog.
The "worst" part of the whole event was that the Joshua guy on the way home was not as stellar on the radio, and also would NOT let us open our IFR flight plan, nor go IFR to HHR, so we had to buzz around VFR for awhile til we got handed over to SoCal, who DID let us file IFR, but to VNY. So landed there, went to SMO VFR and got the miniroute to HHR, where Robin dropped me off to get the car, and she took the plane back to Justice at SMO, and I drove there to get her. Whew!
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