Britton Shaw has hosted the "Endless Foot Drag" for many years. One look at the field and it is easy to see why people come back over and over again. Miles of Bermuda Sod bordering the Mike Bennett and I had driven through heavy weather to Fort Smith Arkansas for an Instructors Clinic that Chad Bastian was giving. I arrived Tuesday night and rather than pitch a tent on the saturated field I took advantage of Dawn's gernerousity and asked her to book a room for us at the Hilton affiliate. I had been looking forward to camping but a first class room is wonderful too! We spent the day with Chad and 6 other pilots in the Hampden Inn board room. What a group.... I think I was the only one there who wasn't a licensed GA pilot. Bruce and Terry had been flying for decades, Shawn was a CFI and Apache driver. Garrett had thousands of sky dives and was a GA pilot. It was humbling.
We were given the luxurious "Board Room" to have our clinic and spent all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning doing class work. Chad was great keeping us on track and covering the entire syllabus.
Wednesday and Thursday we broke up at 6:00 and went out to the field. Wednesday was great! I got in two flights and way over 2 hours of flight time. I even turned on the strobes and stayed up well into nautical twilight. Thursday was at the event site and equally good. Friday afternoon I picked up Dawn and we returned to the field where the event was starting to ramp up. Vendor booths were being assembled and pilots were arriving. I was tickled to see so many old friends from Fly Ins past.
Just as Dawn and I were getting ready to walk the field and show off Beau, Britton came over and informed us that dogs were not allowed on the field. The landowner was concerned because of a dog bite to a child the previous year. What a drag. We set up the spare tent to keep Beau in but he would have none of it, jumping at the door and biting the fabric. Dawn eventually sat in the tent and stayed with Beau while Chad walked us through some radio training. It was too windy for any but the most skilled pilots so we watched until dark.
The next morning I got up early and was able to get in a short flight in strong and ratty air. Kurt later told me the wind was 9 mph gusting to 17 when I landed. It wouldn't have been fair to leave Dawn to sit in the hotel with the dog for the rest of the weekend so I packed up the rig and said my goodbyes.
So I didn't really get to enjoy the Famous Endless footdrag but I did get my Instructor Certification. Perhaps we could have put Beau in Doggie Day Care but thats water under the bridge now.
Dawn and I pulled out of Fort Smith at 1:00 pm and power drove back to Colorado. We were in bed by 1:15 am
Thanks Britton .... You have a great Fly In ... I look forward to flying with you in the future.
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| Bob Peloquin |
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| Chad Bastian |
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| Flying the single surface glider |
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| Falcon |
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| Andy McAvin |
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| Mike Bennett |
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